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Life & Health

CW for Health Issues

So I and my family caught covid for the first time this Christmas. We've managed to avoid it until now by being extra cautious. The symptoms are mild to moderate, but I'm worried about how this'll interact with Mom's and my MCAS in the long run. Worse, my grandparents caught it from us over the holidays, and they're not in the best of health even without this virus on top. It's made for a pretty subdued Christmas overall. At least we had the positive rapid test before we went to visit my newborn niece over the holidays? Though my aunt made questionable decisions in that regard just because she was symptom-free (Without testing. Ugh. I love my family but sometimes you just gotta disagree with their choices.)

My parents, my brother and I have taken turns taking care of each other, so it's not the worst way to spend Christmas. But I don't like being sick, I've caught enough flus and viruses in 2023. Here's hoping 2024 will be better.

Exchanges
Due to above mentioned health issues, I haven't made it far through the Yuletide collection, and I doubt I'll have time to make a rec post before the new year. There's a couple tabs I've got open with interesting looking fics, though, like the Time Engraver one or the Detective L one!

My gift was pretty awesome, someone took me up on the Jet Rocks Lives Instead Of Ruby AU prompt for Dimension 20: A Crown of Candy. It makes for a good character study by seeing how the interactions between Saccharina and Jet differ from Saccharina and Ruby's canon drama! I'm curious who my creator is, this is the second awesome D20 fic I got in exchanges recently :D

crumbs enough for everyone, D20: A Crown of Candy, Saccharina & Jet sibling bonding, rated T, 7k

I've also signed up for

rarefemslashex and I'm pretty happy with my assignment! I got some ideas where to go with it, I'm going to sleep on them and see which one crystallizes.

Watching
Being sick always lends itself to binge-watching random stuff I hadn't considered before! Most of it was spend on catching up on Ninja Warrior Germany 2023, ngl, and I did the traditional family group watch of godawful reality tv dating shows. But I also spend some time catching up on Netflix.

One Piece (Live Action)

I've got mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it's another nostalgia show and that wins it a lot of bonus points. On the other, both the manga and anime did it a lot better and with more emotional impact.

The streamlining in this one just didn't work for me, the pacing was way off. I get that they were trying to stuff as much crew-get-together into this with as many backstories as possible, and I don't fault it for that, but it hobbled the pacing something awful. The animanga starts slow and ramps up over time, whereas the Netflix show is much more constrained. And even then they spent a ludicruous amount of time on the stupid Marines subplot and ngl that just left me exasperated. They kept mixing up the message of what the Marines were supposed to stand for to the point I got whiplash inside the scenes. While I agree that Luffy's relationship to his grandpa is interesting, it just felt weirdly hamfisted and incongruous with the Shanks backstory. That's not even mentioning Ace and how he fits in! By giving Garp so much weight in the story, it felt like it muddled the actual message of the animanga and what Luffy stands for, especially since it needed to keep Garp vaguely sympathetic. If Garp is the authority Luffy is rebelling against, making him a sympathetic antagonist with wildly inconsistent messaging is... not the best choice. I appreciate the idea of Garp's character, but it just doesn't work, and imo it ruins Kobe's arc, too. Because Kobe is the good marine within a corrupted system - Luffy's counterpart in many ways, because Luffy is a Good Pirate amongst many Bad Pirates. And all of those great themes and comparisons were usurped because Luffy's grandpa was throwing a tantrum.

While I'm glad they cut Don Krieg's appearance short (he's such a borigng villain), I feel like the show didn't pull off the Baratie arc nor the Arlong Park arc. The cooks got too little screentime, especially for their relationship building with Sanji, and that undercut the emotional tension of Sanji leaving the Baratie behind to pursue his dreams. His fighting with Zeff also felt like it pulled the punches compared to the animanga. The whole "You should go." "Fine!" "Fine!" barely scratched the surface of their complicated relationship and made Sanji the weakest of the crew characters introduced, imo. And Arlong being suddenly interested in Luffy just because Buggy mentioned him bugged me. I don't recall it going that way in the anime/manga. Luffy should be beneath Arlong's notice until he shows up to punch his face in, but in an attempt to raise the stakes, Netflix had him attack the Baratie and it just doesn't work for me. Maybe if they'd cut out the Marines subplot, they would've had time for Nami's betrayal and fleshing out the tension and fights. The way it happened, Arlong didn't feel particularly dangerous, just another in a long row of minor villains.

Though I have to say, the show did a good job of highlighting the kindness of each crew member and how Luffy notices and values that trait. It's the most important theme of the Straw Hat Pirates, and that's one message the show managed to nail. They did surprisingly good with the outfits and crew banter, too - I wish we'd gotten more of those quiet crew moments, those were A+ - and the CGI and creature customes worked really well. They sold me on those fishmen being weird half-fish creatures rather than cosplay, e.g.

Yu Yu Hakusho (Live Action)

It's been ages since I read the manga, but watching this felt like it absolutely nailed everything: the characters, the plot, the vibe. I guessed that it had been streamlined from the common shonen animanga meandering in early episodes, and I thought they did a great job of tying the first season together into one singular plot. The one change I could tell immediately was the whole escaped demon insect thingie, to give us stakes quicker, but I thought it was all really well done.

And then I went to watch (rewatch? I cannot for the life of me remember if I ever watched the anime. I know I prefered reading the manga back then, but fuck if I can recall) some of the relevant anime episodes and I was blown away by how much unnecessary detritus they cut out. The Netflix series did a great job setting Yusuke up as a reasonably misunderstood but well-intentioned protagonist, and I'm *relieved* that they skipped over the typical shonen anime comedy of up-skirt shots and female violent responses. Making Keiko and Yusuke childhood friends and centering that relationship worked much better than having Keiko be the class president in charge of Yusuke.

And despite all the changes, they stuck surprisingly close to the original canon, as far as I can tell. The major shift was a fantastic bait-and-switch in having the bad guys pretend to be Hiei when kidnapping Keiko, rather than have Hiei actually kidnap Keiko. It set up Hiei with a different start to his character, but I am honestly glad they skipped the villain-demon characterisation for the more emotional stakes and motivations of a kidnapped Yukina. Imo, that did a lot to smooth the early team-up, and changing the dark sword into a way for Hiei to gain his abilities rather than turn humans into demons was a clever choice. It makes sense to streamline the story like this and it worked really well for me! The Hiei we see here resembles his later incarnation in the manga more than his earlier, what with being more of an anti-hero.

The one thing about the Three Thieves mini arc that could've used another draft was the explanations (or lack thereof) of those three teaming up to steal the artefacts from escaped yokai (???) that were supposed to be Yusuke's next enemies. Nice way to raise the stakes, I guess, but it just falls apart the moment you take a closer look and doesn't do shit all to explain what the items are and why they're so dangerous to be lose in the human world (aside from Goki's orb, they do a good job showing that). Unlike the rest of the plot, that all just felt to be very out of nowhere.

My major complaint is that they did done dirty to poor Kurama with those wigs, both of them lack the proper flair Kurama deserves. Mostly it's in the bangs, imo, the straight fringe just does *nothing* for him. At least make it an uneven or fluffed up fringe!

And a minor complaint, I honestly would've preferred if they'd dropped the pacifier. Koenma's actor is hot af and I get the comedy value and wanting to stick close to the source material, but c'mon. Just let him be a hot teen, it's not like Enma-sama was even mentioned as plot pressure and thus irrelevant.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with this reimagining of a favourite old fandom. Maybe it's nostalgia goggles, but it was fun to watch old, beloved characters go on adventures again. The CGI was decent, too, and the plot and stakes surprisingly emotional for what I mostly fondly remember as a fight-centric manga with interesting characters.

Grimm (re)Watch with

trobadora

It's still fun! We're getting into the Hexenbiest!Juliette arc now and I'm very excited to see how that goes (and how things go wrong for Nick/Juliette). I love Theresa, she's a fun apprentice character. Sean's mother was a nice surprise, too, I love how Renard is such a momma's boy :D I'm sad she had to go again, though I understand the plot reasons, she was fun in how she interacted with everyone. The Wesenrein subplot is scary but fascinating for worldbuilding, poor Monroe and Rosalee deserve better. I wish they'd handled Adalind better, and I can't believe the show runners chose to ship her with Nick later, like wtf. After all these lies they told her about who took her baby and all the gaslighting that's happening and honestly they all handle that baby subplot horribly, no wonder Adalind blows up at them. (Not that Adalind is a cinnamon roll herself, I get why they distrust her, but jeez. The show runners clearly present our protagonists being in the right and so clever for doing it this way, I'm flabberghasted.)

ficinabox just revealed who the creators are, so I can finally share which works are mine! I wrote 3 fics, two of them epistolary, and created a Logic Grid Puzzle for the first time :D!

Title: Gossip Mango for

BookKeep
Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan & Shen Wei's students
Words: 1.9k (though about half of that is coding)
Tags: Social Media, Episode Related, Canon Compliant, Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 8, mentions of canon suicidal ideation, mentions of canon murders
Summary: Not only does Dragon City university have a great and sophisticated study program for many different majors, it also has a flourishing social media site for students to discuss ~~their studies~~ ~~social activities~~ recent events.

Title: Return To Sender for

BookKeep
Fandom: Assassin's Creed
Ship: Desmond Miles/Claudia Auditore, Claudia Auditore & Ezio Auditore
Words: 3.5k
Tags: Epistolary, Time Travel, Marriage, POV Outsider, as in Outsider on the Time Traveller PoV, In-Universe Documents
Summary: Over the years, Ezio and Claudia exchanged many letters. These are the ones concerning Claudia's husband, then-stranger, Desmond.

Title: Adventitious for

Bee_4
Fandom: Naruto
Ship: Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto & Uchiha Sasuke & Haruno Sakura
Words: 5k
Tags: Team 7 Dynamics, Developing Friendships, set after the Wave mission but before the Chuunin Exams, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, in which Team 7 grows closer and Sasuke doesn't defect, Team 7 Have Issues, (don't worry they're working on it), Mission Fic (sort of), no literal geese were involved in the making of this fic, in which Team 7 accidentally topples several villains' plans
Summary: To keep Team 7 busy, Kakashi-sensei sends his students on a wild goose chase. Much to his dismay, they actually find a golden goose.

And my first attempt at a logic puzzle! Big shout-out to my little brother for helping me tighten up my clues and creating a whole-ass logic map of paths it could be solved. It was an amazing sibling bonding exercise <3

Title: Where In Mentopolis Are The Prefrontal P.I.s? for

Brachylagus_fandom
Fandom: Dimension 20 - Mentopolis
Ship: Worldbuilding, gen
Summary: It’s the Grand Opening of Daniel Fucks’ new Emporium of Exquisite Pleasures, but none of the other Prefrontal P.I.s have shown up! However, through his criminal network, Daniel hears some rumours about what they’re each up to. Can you help him find them and drag them away from whatever they’re doing for this most important of all events?

Current Location: home

I made myself a new icon! That's Siyeon from Dreamcatcher, from the BEcause photoshoot. I think it looks appropriately dramatic :D

Fandom

Exchanges

I signed up to

rarefemslashexchange! I kept mulling it over, but now that I finished my Yuletide assignment, I think I can do it? It kinda depends on what requests are out there - there's two with minimal details in there rn I could imagine filling, and it is just 500 words minimum, so I might be able to push myself for fandoms I write/read less often in 🤔

It's looking like Chocolate Box might not run again this year, and the

candyheartsex mod seems to be back to sub in one more year. Not sure yet if I'll sign up! It's a big exchange, meaning I'm more likely to find someone to write one of my more niche fandoms/ships, and it is also just 300 words minimum, but that'd be two assignments to get done at the same time while also dealing with work and having to finish my FFFX assignment... Idk yet. It was definitely fun last year! But I also wanna do less exchanges this year and focus on my WIPs again. BUT! Exchanges are fun! Much dilemma, such angst.

Speaking off, I really do need to sit down and work on my

fffx assignment 😅 I have a decent idea, but the deadline is January 20th! 😬 I have to work without much time off from the 27th of December onward until then, and am starting to sweat about it a little. (Might even secretly be hoping for a one week delay ahahah ^^"). I'm going to try and finish the key scenes during my tiny Christmas break, tho considering how much of it I'll spend with family, I doubt I'll get all that much done OTL

Writing

Working on my RFSEx letter got me back into Disney's Descendants headspace xD but instead of picking up the nearly finished Juma future fic I've got languishing in my WIPs, I went and started a new one inspired by one of the prompts I put up :')

His gaze landed two blond teens around his age and a familiar brunette. Gil relaxed. It was just Jane, talking to two of her… classmates? Friends?

She was smiling as always, and Gil stuffed a croissant in his mouth before picking up the tray and making his way over to Jane. One of her friends—the guy, looming over Jane but smaller than Gil by maybe half a head and definitely less built, Gil could take him in a fight if he had to—leaned in, his lips twisting up into a smirk. Jane's smile slipped, wobbled, and recovered. Gil paused mid-step, his brow furrowing.

Something was off.

Without a second thought, Gil lengthened his stride, long legs eating up the distance between them. He swerved to set his tray down on a table and approach the teens from behind, in case he needed to take them by surprise. Jane wasn't looking his way, her gaze dropped to the floor, her shoulders hunched, and Gil didn't like it one bit.

I just love love love friends (or maybe-friends, not-yet-friends) being protective of each other *squishes characters* And writing up why I love the Jane/Uma ship gave me so many Jane & Uma & Gil & Harry friendship feels - I want them to adopt the mousy lil wallflower! Like I said to my friend Kays, she'd work as a great addition to the group, in an almost similar function as Gil does (he's such a golden retriever puppy, ready to play attack dog when necessary, but generally good-natured and so, so loyal) and Jane would add a moral center to the group :D

promo picture from Disney's Descendants 2 with (left to right) Harry Hook, Uma, and Gil

promo picture from Disney's Descendants 2 with (left to right) Harry Hook, Uma, and Gil

I mean, look at his big happy smile! (Gil's the guy on the right, the dark-haired boy is Harry)

Honestly, I was so tempted to go off about how I imagine all their dynamics playing out in the letter, but it's not really too relevant since if anyone matches me, it'll be on Jane/Uma, and not their whole collection of friends? x'D Ahhhh, but! I have SO MANY feels about these characters!

Like, look at Harry's little smirk up there! He's such a smug lil bastard boy, and he loves playing up the unhinged angle to keep his enemies and allies alike on the back foot. He's someone who pushes and pushes and doesn't take no for an answer. He takes, and takes, and that's such a terrible combination with Jane! Because Jane is a people-pleaser and a giver and so easily taken advantage of? There's no way Harry would respect her at first, not with that first impression. She's a push-over, and if Harry's interested in anything about her, it's to see just how far she'll let him push (which, imo, would be pretty far and until she reaches her breaking point, probably). The thing is, Harry doesn't care about a lot of people - his family to some degree, but which of these kids doesn't have parent issues?, Uma, Gil, and what Uma wants. In that sense, Harry is the hardest for Jane to win over: if Jane is what Uma wants, Harry will fold her into their little group, but that doesn't mean he has to like her. I do think though that with time these two could grow to understand each other, if they get to a point where Harry stops distrusting Jane (the last of these three VKs to do so, imo) and starts opening up. Probably after Jane opened up about a lot of things. In the meantime, however, he's going to be snide and mock her and prod at her boundaries to see if he can make her lash out (and be delighted if he actually manages to push her over that line!)

Gil is the easiest to win over, since he's a very easy-going sunshine boy. He's like a puppy who is happy to play with anyone who wants to play, and I think he would take to Jane immediately. He's not dumb or oblivious exactly (you can't be, growing up on the Isle) but he's happy to live in the moment? He doesn't have to worry about Jane attacking him since she's physically weaker and her magical status is unknown, but she doesn't use it regardless, so he knows he can fight her off if he has to. That allows him to relax, and he's probably the first to trust in her kindness and general sincerity. Besides, he has Uma and Harry to worry about others faking niceness, so he can have fun befriending Jane in the meantime. And I think Jane would find him good company to be around, once she realizes he's not like the other jocks she knows? He's no Chad Charming, and despite his impressive and intimidating physique, he's the least dangerous of this VKs trio. He's the least likely to hurt her emotionally, too.

And Uma... well. She needs to assert herself as the leader, and Jane wouldn't challenge that, which is a plus point in Uma's book. But Uma would probably be a bit manipulative and push at Jane's boundary to see what makes her tick (very similar to Harry in that way, but with a slightly different vibe?) Like all the VKs, she carries her own trauma from the Isle and its way of survival, and for Uma this is expressed in a need to be on top of everyone else and in control, to ensure her own freedom. She doesn't like being dependant on others, and I don't think she would trust Jane's kindness to be genuine (too used to seeing it as a trap or a trade). There's a lot of parallels between Uma and Mal, they're narrative mirrors, and I think some of Uma's early interactions with Jane would go similar to how Mal's went in DD1. But I also think Jane could challenge Uma in a way that is non-threatening and still forces Uma to face the consequences of her own behaviour. Possibly Uma would be so focussed on figuring out what Jane's hidden motive is that she doesn't realize they've gotten close and things have gotten real between them (and then Uma panics and backpedals and hurts Jane in the process, which is even worse because now Uma feels guilty and that's something she *shouldn't* feel, she's a villain ffs, she doesn't do guilt. But now she went and tricked herself into caring for this baffling girl, and well. Once Uma gets over herself, there's no one that can stop her from taking what she wants.

...aaaaaand I'm rambling again, RIP :') I just love these characters so much? I have a lot of thoughts about Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos and Ben, too, but I'm gonna save that for another time.

K-Pop Dance Class

I haven't talked about it much, but I've been learning kpop choreos since... mid-late 2020s? I needed some type of music-focussed workout to replace my ballroom dance classes during the pandemic, and ended up finding MV's with dance choreography to copy. I honestly wasn't much into kpop at that point, but an acquaintance kept recommending the band LOONA to me so I checked them out and fell for the interwoven and complex narrative their songs told. And then I eventually discovered Dreamcatcher, and started doing their choreos too, and well, now I'm here. In this household we stan Dreamcatcher #Insomnia

But with my new job, I don't find the time and motivation to do my practice regularly enough. So instead I found a class in a nearby dance studio! It was a stroke of luck that they offer kpop classes. We usually practice a new chorus across 1-2 courses before moving on to the next, which is incredibly fast-paced and I don't usually have the technicalities or precision down by the end (nor do all of them stick well in my head), but on the upside we don't linger on songs I dislike for long either and it's a great way to turn off my mind after work and just follow the flow (and mirror what the teacher is doing in the front).

List of Choreos

...that we've done since I joined. I'm probably missing one or two, and I've missed class for health reasons for two choreos (again, fast pace) at least, but these are the ones I remember, in no particular order:

Killin' Me Good by Jihyo (0:48 to 1:15)
Fast Forward by Jeon Somi (0:41 to 1:11)
Aya by Mamamoo (0:09 to 1:23) - tbf this one I already knew beforehand (and in its entirety :D)
More by K/DA (0:44 to 1:24)
Home Run by Seventeen (0:47 to 1:15)
Sacrifice (Eat Me Up) by Enhypen (0:52 to 1:23)
Go Hard by Twice (0:43 to 1:04) (link to song for better sound quality)
Agassy by Soojin (0:46 to 1:09)
Guilty by Taemin (0:55 to 1:32)
Chill Kill by Red Velvet (1:04 to 1:17)

Listing them all out make me want to re-practice them and learn more of some of these, ngl 👀

Hello dear RFSEx Creator! First of all, thank you for creating for me <3 I'm very excited!

My prompts are the same on here as in my sign-up, I've just added thoughts on characters, character guides, etc. in my letter :)

Also! I am open to treats, fic or art both :3

General Likes:

what ifs/canon divergences, alternate identity reveal, time travel (fix-it), canon aus where the canon setting remains,
fluff, domesticity, banter, found family, family dynamics, friendship, developing & established relationships, intimacy,
UST, misunderstandings, miscommunication, character conflict, conflict-rich dialogue, (emotional) hurt/comfort, secret identity, secrets and the slow reveals thereof,
fealty & loyalty, devotion, protectiveness, protective possessiveness, mutual possessiveness, (public) claiming of some sort (jewelry, bitemarks, verbal, etc.)
characters being competent at their jobs, Battle Couple, teamwork, nonverbal strategy communication,
casefic, canon-style plots, mystery, action/adventure,
outsider PoV, first/second PoV, epistolary, multimedia and experimental formats (fictional socmed, letters, snippets from history books, text books, mission reports, etc.) that fit the canon setting
The intimacy of your lover being able to kill you but choosing not to: knife to the throat (for shaving or during a fight enemies-to-lovers style), human!partner being vulnerable in monster!partner's grasp, strong person who trusts no one being vulnerable with their partner, etc.

General DNWs: breaking up requested ships, genderswap, anything related to cannibalism, body horror, graphic gore, zombies/undead, hanahaki, sickfic, permanent character death for canon characters (Deja Vu excepted), mundane AUs, smut with no mentions of plot/relationship or character complexity

Descendants (Disney Movies)

Fandom-specific DNWs: focus on anything that happens in the 3rd movie (mentions are fine, pretending it never happened is also great)

Character Guide

Left: Uma, daughter of Ursula (The Little Mermaid) - Right: Jane, daughter of the Fairy Godmother (Cinderella, in the Descendants-verse she's the headmistress of Auradon High)

And here is one of the only times these two share screentime (THE only? I'd have to rewatch the movies to make sure, but I don't think they're on screen together in the same cut of DD2) Probably the only one they are seemingly next to each other, though!

final dance sequence from Disney's Descendants 3

Prompts:

any of the other characters finding out that bad girl!Uma is dating goodie-two-shoes!wallflower!Jane
Uma asking Jane out and Jane assuming it's on a dare/a pity date/a prank, but still saying yes
Jane drunkenly confessing her crush to Carlos and swearing him to secrecy the next morning
Uma assuming Jane keeps staring at her because she's gawking at the Sea Witch's daughter/scared of her/trying to keep an eye on her because surely she'll do something awful soon and confronting her about it, only to be taken aback by a flustered Jane blushing and asking her out
Jane and Uma going to prom together with their very contrasting fashion styles (Jane all in high-neck, long-sleeved pastel blue dress barely showing skin? Uma with a more punk-rock pleather aesthetic? But feel free to ignore me and go wild!)
Jane being assigned as the Auradon guide/mentor for Uma (possibly also Harry and Gil) and having to deal with their boundary pushing, trying to see what it takes for her to retaliate (with Jane learning to set boundaries and the VKs being impressed when she finally does draw the line)

Jane/Uma

For me, this started as a crackship - which characters are so different from each other that no one would suspect they're dating? And then have their future selves show up and have the canon kids react to that reveal.

Somewhere along that journey, my brain really latched onto this ship. It makes so much sense. They complement each other so well, being near entirely opposites. Uma is brash, in your face, unapologetic about being a villain. She knows what she wants and won't hesitate to get it. Meanwhile, Jane is shy, a push-over and people-pleaser, barely knows what she wants for herself, and if she does, she doesn't dare speak up about it, in case it burdens the people around her. She's everyone's friend but no one is her friend (before Carlos. Ben tries, but he's busy and believes her when she says "It's fine.")

They could be so good for each other. For Uma, Jane gives her someone entirely lacking in deceit. Jane is earnest and genuinely kind without ulterior motive, which Uma (and the other VKs) are not used to (nor would they trust it at first, I don't think). Jane could teach her to open up, to make herself vulnerable and come out of the other end whole - give her a person she can *trust*. Because the only people Uma trusts is herself (and to some degree Harry, but even there she knows it's because she's top bitch; Harry is devoted to her and her trusted second in command but on the Isle showing weakness leads to betrayal. I think they too could learn to relax and allow their friendship to grow into something more outside of the Isle, but I'm degressing.) The last time Uma trusted someone to any degree she got betrayed (by Mal in the books), which is the way of the Isle and growing up in that environment shaped her.

On the other hand, Uma could teach Jane to stand up for herself. Once Jane earns her respect, she would be protective of her, as part of her crew. Uma pushes boundaries and takes advantage of anyone she perceives as weak, and likely would do so to a push-over like Jane in the beginning. But Jane can learn to set boundaries in this relationship, and it's important for her to grow a backbone - and when she does, Uma respects her all the more for it, which works in a feedback loop to make Jane more certain of standing her ground and holding her own opinions. She can learn saying "no" from and to Uma, and with Uma's backing to others (especially Mal lol).

Also, Uma is pretty powerful magically, having inherited Ursula's sea witchery (in DD2 she turns into the same giant half-kraken Ursula does in The Little Mermaid). Meanwhile, we don't really see Jane use magic, but Fairy Godmother's wand is a powerful tool everyone is fighting for in DD1 and it does make Jane at least half-fairy. I feel like she could be a good match for Uma with the right training or incentive :)

TL;DR they both have fascinating insecurities and trust issues, and their relationship could go either fantastic or fantastically wrong, depending on how willing they both are to work on it :D

Background ships: I personally ship Jay/Carlos and Ben/Mal/Evie, with Uma & Harry & Gil being an inseparable trio and Jane & Carlos being gay besties (who tried dating but figured out they weren't right together).

Granting You A Dreamlike Life

Prompts:

post-canon friends-with-benefits or get-together where they keep meeting on the anniversary of Luo Fusheng's death to get drunk and grieve him together, remniscing on past interactions with him, missing him, laughing about the one-sided rivalry caused by Hong Lan's jealousy
enemies-to-lovers in either a canon divergence or a canon au with less death, in which Tianying confronts Hong Lan about the earlier bullying (maybe at a movie premiere party they're both invited to? In the bathroom at some event?
the media picking up on the animosity between these two and both of them being depicted as bitter rivals, even as in their personal lives they both grow up and find more of an understanding between them
movie directors constantly wanting to cast them as love rivals for various love triangles, only for a heated jealousy scene to turn into a kiss between them that opens both of their eyes
Tianying coming to Hong Lan in Hong Lan's capacity as the Hong family's new head to request an illegal favour to help her deal with something the police refuse to handle because of corruption
Hong Lan and Tianying uniting to deal with the threat Xu Xingcheng (Hong Lan's reluctant husband and Tianying's ex-boyfriend) poses to both their lives as the new corrupt police captain (possibly in an AU where (they think) Luo Fusheng is dead)

Tianying/Hong Lan

I really enjoy the one-sided rivalry these two have in canon, with Hong Lan's jealousy pushing her to pick on Tianying and try to prove herself better by underhanded methods. Hong Lan doesn't hesitate to use her powerful connections to bully Tianying, and yet Tianying gets everything Hong Lan's ever wanted handed to her on a silver platter - Hong Lan's fiancé and later husband (even if she hates him) picks Tianying as his girlfriend and remains obsessed with her even after the wedding, Hong Lan's crush chooses Tianying over and over again, the movie producers and her co-star lift newbie Tianying up until she becomes a movie star to outshine Hong Lan herself. And then the one person who loves Hong Lan and always picks her side turns out to be Tianying's older brother when they learn Tianying's birth identity. Those are hard pills to swallow over and over and Hong Lan is a spoilt brat and sore loser. It's only when everything goes wrong for her (being forced to marry Xu Xingcheng, her father's death, etc.) that she starts growing up and confronting reality.

Meanwhile, Tianying holds no illwill towards Hong Lan. She doesn't exactly let Hong Lan roll over her, but she's at her core an empath who prefers kindness in a world full of violence and corruption. She's the bending grass in the wind, enduring but not breaking. I find the potential of their friendship (and more) fascinating, either after XXC's and LFS's deaths or in a canon divergence where things go differently. I can see Tianying being the listening ear Hong Lan needs to endure her unwanted marriage to a corrupt police chief, or in a world where they both get to continue living their lives without too much interference becoming known movie star rivals - who bond behind the scenes over time and become close.

Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher (MV)

Fandom-specific DNWs: using the Real People's full names, please stick to either stage names (Yoohyeon and Jiu respectively) for the characters or a title (e.g. The Betrayer and The Princess)

link to canon - 3:46 minutes MV

Character Guide

Yoohyeon
Jiu
Sua - Siyeon - Dami
- Handong - Gahyeon

The two timelines: the one in which Jiu kills Yoohyeon

the one in which Yoohyeon kills Jiu

While my own interpretation shines through here, I'm interested in other people's interpretations, too! What stood out to you in the MV? What vibe did the characters give you? What sense of the world they inhabit?

Prompts:

What if Yoohyeon and/or Jiu are stuck in a time loop, forced to kill the other or be killed until they find a way to break the cycle?
What if it's Jiu having the Deja Vu experience of having killed Yoohyeon and that's why she drops the sword during the second timeline?
What if the first timeline is all in Yoohyeon's head, nightmares and paranoia of secret hints of a conspiracy... What if Jiu's secretly planning to propose to Yoohyeon, and Yoohyeon only learns of it with Jiu's blood cooling on her hands?
What if these are two separate timelines with a role reversal? What happens if Jiu and Yoohyeon meet their alternate selves?
Something based on the lyrics: As long as I can breathe/I can’t let go of you again/We'll be together for every moment and/or Even if I bet all of me for you/And the painful wounds deepen/As though every moment is a dream/I won't move away from you — to me, these lines read as if one timeline happened, and the person remembering (Jiu? Is this why she drops the sword?) cannot go through the same again, clinging to the other no matter how much the other hurts the one who remembers
anything that emphasizes the unequal power dynamics would be great! Especially if the imagery involves the throne and/or kneeling, fealty feels, loyalty/betrayal, etc.
Jiu or Yoohyeon holding the other close as they die, despite being the one who killed them

Jiu/Yoohyeon

This ship is full of fealty and betrayal, of intimate trust that is broken. I love that we see both Jiu and Yoohyeon in the respective roles, and see them being swapped constantly throughout the MV; it's just a trick of fate who ends up in which role. It is Jiu who raises the sword to Yoohyeon first, both when Yoohyeon is a princess fallen at Jiu's feet and when Yoohyeon is the servant kneeling before her princess. And yet in the memories, it's always Jiu who turns to Yoohyeon first with a smile on her face. And it is always Yoohyeon who remains behind, alone, closing her eyes and opening them to see everyone/no one around her. Yoohyeon who misses Jiu, despite being the one who decided to go through with killing her.

I love how they clearly loved and trusted each other, yet both started doubting at some point. They grow colder over time, confronting each other, both distrusting what the other was doing, both struggling with the need to strike first before they are betrayed (and in the end, Jiu drops the sword and Yoohyeon picks it up and goes through with it). There are so many possible nuances in their relationship, and I'd be happy with anything at any point during it (or after!)

love4eva by Loona (MV)

Fandom-specific DNWs: using the Real People's names, please stick to the stage names for the characters (especially in Olivia Hye's case, please use that era's stage name rather than her current one)

link to canon - 4:03 minutes MV

Character backstory solo MVs: Yves (new), Chuu (Heart Attack), Go Won (One&Only), Olivia Hye (Egoist), plus their reunion in High Hi (short preview at 1:15 and then starting from 1:25 - the three girls surrounding/transporting Olivia are Jinsoul, Kim Lip and Choerry)

Character Guide

Yves: red skirt, dark-brown hair, the leader of the group, fruit: red apple, animal: swan

Chuu: yellow skirt, auburn hair, big smile, has a (platonic, canonically) crush on Yves, fruit: strawberry (despite the green apple in Heart Attack), animal: penguin

Go Won: blue skirt, blonde hair, friends with Yves and Chuu, fruit: pineapple, animal: emperor butterfly

Olivia Hye: green skirt, black hair, teacher's pet, fruit: blood plum, animal: wolf

Prompts:

anything that focuses on Chuu following/imitating Yves and her crush on Yves (like Chuu carrying a green apple because Yves eats a red apple)
contrasting Yves and Olivia side-by-side as equals/enemies, possibly with high-contrast opposite colours
Olivia as the outsider to the clique of Yves-Chuu-Go Won
Yves catching Olivia as she jumps in Hi High
What happened between Yves and Olivia? Why is Olivia the outsider, the lone wolf? Does Olivia reject Yves… or did Yves see something in Olivia that scared her? (feel free to involve the fan theory that Olivia caused Vivi (Yves' best friend/then girlfriend) to fall/die if you wish)
life at Eden’s boarding school and how the girls cope with the harsh rules—and how Yves is seduced by the life on the other side and seduces the other girls in turn to follow her
Chuu and/or Olivia pining after Yves, especially if she's dating the other girl and how they cope with that (I imagine Olivia would be darkly jealous and more of a cold-shoulder type while Chuu would try to cover the hurt with a smile?)

Yves/Chuu

I adore Chuu's cute little crush on Yves. It's very baby lesbian, where she can't tell if she wants to be her or wants to date her. Yves is cool and confident and knows what she wants, and all of that appeals to a starry-eyed Chuu. In Heart Attack, Chuu does her best to imitate Yves, practicing the dance moves from Yves' new choreography and carries a green apple around, an unripe version of Yves' fruit. It's also interesting imo that both their animals are birds, although with a penguin Chuu's is a flightless one.

For this ship, I would love any kind of level of shippiness. One-sided pining where Chuu simply continues to follow like a duckling in Yves' footsteps, or even confessing to her crush and getting gently let down would be cool - but so would be a getting together or an established relationship. I'm also down for Chuu watching from the sightlines as Olivia and Yves get together and being a supportive friend while it hurts inside!

Yves/Olivia Hye

For these two, I am in love with their antagonistic vibe. Olivia is clearly the outsider of the group, the literal lone wolf. She's the one who stays behind when the others leave (gets left behind as she watches them full of yearning). The last scene, with the headmistress clapping for Olivia always hit me as Olivia being a good lil teacher's pet and possibly tattle-tale who told on the others, in contrast to Yves' dreaming and sneaking out. Yves is the little rebel, the temptation, the one being seduced by the life out there and seducing the others to take a bite of the fruit that will change their lives.

They both have strong personalities and are natural leaders. Imo, Olivia wishes she could be a part of the group but something holds her back. This could be many things! Bad experiences or doubts or, if we're taking the fan theory into account that Olivia caused Vivi's fall from Eden - if she did do such a horrible thing to someone Yves loved, well, Yves' caution around Olivia would be quite justified, wouldn't it? (What if Olivia was jealous of the attention Vivi got from Yves, going on rollerskating dates and everything?)

Most interestingly, Olivia Hye's solo debut Egoist is all about Olivia letting a past love go and learning to love herself, with Yves put artistically into the MV as her antagonist/possible past love. It's an almost dark take of Yves' new, in which Yves discovers her own new self. Yves and Olivia are mirror images of one another in so many ways and narrative foils, and that dynamic /fascinates/ me.

Your facial expressions towards me turned cold at some moment
I wanted to despise you
But my heart wouldn’t let you go
(...)
From now on, I’ll love myself
Instead of you, I’ll live on

Current Music: Kill This Love by BlackPink

Drama Watch

There's a lot of traitor style shows on TV recently, and I watched quite a few of them with my parents. The German version, Die Verräter, was pretty good! The Mole was also fun. I forget the name of the other one, but that one had less pizzaz... (also, watched stupid reality tv dating shows like Bachelor in Paradise while sick. Entertaining, in a horrifying way.)

Love Between Fairy And Devil

I started watching this while it aired last year, and then I had to move and start at my new job and didn't have time to keep up. So this summer I pushed myself to catch back up, but I kept dying of second hand embarassment during the episode 12 escapades ^^"

However, since I was chattering about this story so much, my parents got interested - and we watched the entire series together! It took me a bit to realize that Viki has German subs, at which point the watch was much easier for them (the plot is complicated enough, and while my brother and I are used watching subtitled media, our parents aren't.

It was great! I absolutely love all of the characters! The romance was amazing and oh my god the way it slowly grew stronger over the show, how they changed - especially the dilemma of "I love you, and I love that you want to do right by your people, but that means hurting my people, and I cannot condone that". That battlefield scene when Moontribe go to war against Fairy Immortals? Best climatic scene of the entire show (especially Xiao Lanhua's sacrifice! I cried! (and not just me, but pssst, you didn't hear that from me). The actual final climatic battle didn't land nearly as well, which was a shame. It just fell flat in comparison.

Honestly, I was a bit meh about those last episodes - they felt like they dragged too much (especially all that time spent on rehashing the early show moments during the "amnesia" arc) and then too rushed in others (DFQC's return felt kinda unearned, idk? Maybe I was just all emotionally burned out, we did binge the last 7 or so episodes in one evening.)

If anyone's got fic recs, I'm all ears! I'm in love with all the characters and would love explorations of any their dynamics, though shipwise, I would prefer XLH/DFQC end up/stay together (though, adding Changheng to the mix... well. I requested that for fandomtrees for a reason xD I LOVE their threeway dynamic!)

Dimension 20: A Burrow's End

I know, not technically a tv show, BUT. I didn't want to add an additional category xD

I'm caught up to episode 7 (I think) - the one with the battle against the first stoats? It's quite the rollercoaster and very tense! I love the family dynamics the most (and could really do with less horror/gore or a bit more of a warning; episode 2's bear caught me off-guard in a bad way I had to listen-but-not-watch for quite a bit there and would've prefered Aabria's content warning had been extended to viewers as well as cast members.

REALLY curious how Tula's secret came about! Gonna have to find some time to watch more episodes soon 👀

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

I've only managed to watch episode 3 with the group, I should catch up on it soon. I loved what I've seen so far! Fang Duobing is such a clever puppy, so earnest and determined! And Li Lianhua is a sly fox with the BEST expressions :D I'm really looking forward to meeting the third of the trio, too.

Music

Really, this section should just be titled "Dreamcatcher" because I'm still obsessed with their latest album. Brain empty, only "shut up, no more questions", "shall we start this game?"

warning, gifs ahead!

gif from tumblr user dreamcatcher-daily

I want to learn the OOTD choreo so bad! I can already do the part from "Shall we start this game?" to "cruising my rollie" (the "cash in the backseat" part refuses to stick lmao I freestyle it usually when the song comes on. And I really need to doublecheck my footwork, since I learned while sick so mostly upper body movements). Nevermind the Shatter choreo! Speaking of gorgeous, flawless:

But seriously, all of the songs have grown on me more and more, especially "Shatter" (which I was a little more meh about than the others - which really doesn't mean much since the other songs are BANGER). The fourth song is the one I listen the least to, "We Are Young", even though it's a decent bop too.

Podcasts

I've been listening to more and more podcasts this year, it's been fun! And makes chores easier to finish, too. I was already listening to Maintenance Phase with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, so when Michael started his new podcast If Books Could Kill, I gave that a shot immediately too! I quite like it, the banter is nice and the topics are interesting (especially for books that I've vaguely heard of but never knew what they were). And because his co-host Peter Shamshiri seemed like a decent guy (and that other legal podcast, I'm blanking on the name, took a nosedive earlier this year) I started listening to his law podcast 5-4 as well. That one is more of a downer, all about stupid supreme court decisions and the bigotry/politics that motivated the justices to make them, but it's interesting all the same.

And then someone recced me Kill James Bond! by Alice Caldwell-Kelly, Abigail Thorn (AKA PhilosophyTube) and Devon, and I binged the entire first season of all the James Bond movies and why they're bad xD I learned so much about the Bondverse's continuity! Definitely a fun romp, would recommend.

FIAB revealed this Sunday and I am squee about my gifts! I got an entire treasure trove of beautiful fics and puzzles, all of which are fantastically in character and well thought out and a PLEASURE to read/solve. I kept gushing in DMs to my bff about how lucky I am and figured I'd share the wealth:

My Gifts:

In order of how they appear on my gifts page

Title: Where the Heart Finds Nourishment
Fandom: Dimension 20 - A Crown Of Candy
Ship: Saccharina & Caramelinda
Medium: Fanfic
Words: 2.9k
Tags: Deliberate Child Acquisition, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Family Issues
Summary: Saccharina is discovered by Candian agents and brought to Castle Candy as a child. Caramelinda deals with the child that's both the main threat to her own children, and the last connection to the love of her life.

My thoughts:

This was everything I could have hoped for! I love love love the political considerations and implications of Saccharina being recognized as Amethar's legitimate daughter. Caramelinda being a stiff royal and protective of her own children and worried about the line of succesion was so in character, and I love how this creator explored her relationship to Saccharina. I didn't even think about the connection between them re: Lazuli! It makes so much sense and gives Caramelinda a good reason to soften towards Saccharina where otherwise she's mostly a threat.

And I'm extra happy that I got to share this with my bff Kays because she shares my love for this series and Saccharina <3

Title: Feedback to NFG Conference 2023
Fandom: Guardian (drama)
Ship: Professor Zhou & Shen Wei & Li Qian & Science
Medium: In-Universe E-Mail
Words: 1.2k
Tags: Outsider PoV, E-Mail, Academia, Conferences, Humour
Summary: Dear Professor Zhou,
[...]
I was hoping you’d do me an additional favour and pass on this email to Shen Wei – he asked the attendees to send in any feedback at the last breakfast session, but understandably forgot to hand out or collect the feedback forms before the end of the conference. I tried contacting him directly, but I kept getting error messages informing me that my email had bounced. It’s nice to see that IT issues transcend individual universities!
[...]
Do PhD graduates at Dragon City university get swords??? That’s unfair; is it too late to switch universities? I want a sword as well!

My thoughts:

Absolutely hilarious! Outsider PoV is some of my favourite things, especially the misunderstanding types (the ice on the wall comment still makes me giggle!). Whoever my lovely creator is definitely has experience with academia because there were so many spot-on details, it was just luscious to read <3 Science shenanigans + epistolary style works so well for these sort of fun fics, and were some of the first I sniffed out when I joined the fandom, and now this lovely person created one specifically for me <333 so happy!

I hope everyone in fandom gives it much love! I will absolutely rec it on the comm next round-up post, and I already threw the link into the Dixing discord!

Title: Good Neighbours
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Ship: Bud Wurstner & Juliette Silverton, Nick Burkhardt/Sean Reanard/Juliette Silverton
Medium: Fanfic
Words: 1k
Tags: Friendship, Neighbors, Established Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary: Just a simple morning for Juliette while her men are at work gets interrupted with a cute visit from the neighbors.

Title: Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Ship: Nick Burkhardt/Sean Reanard/Juliette Silverton
Medium: Fanfic
Words: 1.1k
Tags: Responsibility, With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, Established Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary: Nick and Sean discuss responsibilities over a cup of coffee late one evening.

Title: In the Woods
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Ship: Nick Burkhardt & Hank Griffin & Monroe
Medium: Fanfic
Words: 1.2k
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Diplomacy, Interspecies Relationship(s)
Summary: Nick is on the job and in the forest with Hank and Monroe. Just an average day with the local Grimm.

Title: Being Home
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Ship: Nick Burkhardt/Sean Reanard/Juliette Silverton
Medium: Fanfic
Words: 1k
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, Domestic
Summary: Sean reflects a little on the unexpected life he finds himself in.

My thoughts:

I love that these stories are standalone, yet interconnected that they easily paint the same 'verse into a fuller picture. Especially "Being Home" is great for connected the individual stories and picking up the same details again. The headcanon of Juliette and Rosalee making it a project to scan all the bestiaries and grimmoires is fantastic and works well with how research oriented they both are in their own ways in the show. The characterisations are great, too, and I definitely felt the character voices and actions reflected from my recent rewatch of the earlier seasons <3

I'm very curious to learn who the creator is! I don't know many people in this fandom, or who amongst them is in the exchange scene, but I want to read more of their stuff :D!

Title: Of Truths & Falsehoods
Fandom: Deja Vu - Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
Ship: Yoohyeon/Jiu
Medium: Logic Grid Puzzle
Summary: In a temple outside of space and time, four options present themselves before Yoohyeon. Only one of them leads to a happy ending. Solve this logic puzzle to help Yoohyeon choose the right timeline for her and Jiu.

My thoughts:

What a wonderful idea to use the idea of various timelines for this puzzle! The different deaths being one category really suits the MV's narrative and I love that the creator involved the other members (and at first I was sad that Dami was missing, but bringing her back in for the additional hint in case one gets stuck was a great idea!)

The puzzle was fun to solve, it wasn't too easy or obvious, and I had to think around some corners to figure it out without using the extra hint (and I'm smugly proud that I managed it :3). Using the "3 Truths and 1 Lie" device was really clever - but also makes me guess they're the same creator as the Hunter x Hunter one (and maybe, the INTO1 one, but not as sure. They do use the same interactive grid and hint in that one, but not the 3L1T format, though the last clue is an either/or 🤔)

Other Recs:

this Guardian Logic Grid Puzzle of the SID's Secret Santa was delightful and not easy to solve! I took a leap to assume that "handmade" had to match "inkwash painting" at some point by excluding the other remaining options :')
this Guardian fic in which Shen Wei makes sure ZYL eats well before they officially meet xD
Foresight, a Kakashi & Obito & Rin & Minato-centric time travel fic that is exactly the right slighty crack-y, doesn't take itself too seriously vibe I love in Naruot fic!
this post-canon YGO! Ryou/Yugi fic of how they get together in the aftermath of the anime/manga. Absolutely adorable!
this A Softer World remix for NiF's Lin Shu/Mu Nihuang is an emotional gut punch
this genderbent mdzs: f!Jin Zixuan/Mianmian/m!Jiang Yanli does a great job of keeping everyone in character while playing around with how gender would affect the characters
cute art of a witch's cat napping on the witch's broom
a steamy Good Omens A/Z fancomic, nsfw and very beautiful art!

Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Location: parents' home

Hi! Haven't gotten around to updating this blog in a while :') time passes quickly when you're busy!

Life Update

I celebrated my birthday at the end of October, the first time I invited the entire (maternal side of the) family to my place since I moved in last November. It was fun, but quite a busy time, between baking cakes and cleaning everything up. I was glad I took a couple days off work before and after, or I would've been *really* stressed.

Among other things, I got the translated Guardian novel Vol. 1, a crotcheted lil dragon and new kitchen towels with a cute black kitten & pumpkin design :D!

(I invited some coworkers and friends for a second party, that's why the buttercream cake shows up twice!)

Work's been busy, too, with two co-workers calling in long-term sick. Hopefully one of them will make it back in December to ease the workload again, especially at this particularly busy time of year. Flu's going around as well - I caught the cold early on but managed to push on for a couple weeks, but finally caught the ear infection the kids are all trading between each other (that's what I get for helping out in the daycare section of the job RIP) so now I'm on sick leave. Fingers crossed I can go back to work on Wednesday, but right now it's not looking too great just yet.

The cases at least are interesting? One of mine is getting to the final stage, in a positive way, which is great to watch. Another of the new cases is a difficult nut to crack, but I'm hopeful to establish a good working relationship with them.

Dreamcatcher

They just put out a new short album! I'm very happy with all the songs on it, even if the fandom seems divided on the title track OOTD (it *is* a departure from their usual style, but in a very imo predictable way. They've been leaning into this style as far back as Odd Eye, with BEcause being the major exception. It's still very clearly uniquely Dreamcatcher in vibe and sound, with experimental mixing of genres into what otherwise might be Just Another Mainstream song. And the BSides have at least two very cool songs with more of a rock/metal vibe for any disappointed fans to make up for it imo.

I'm very interested in the whole... "fakeness" of the MV and concept. Like, they took a typical girl crush concept with a very retro vibe rather than high-glam-fashion and then the main dance outfits being those leather-jacket white top combos? It makes for an interesting visual, especially with all the car driving and motorcycle straddling. The "bts"/"editing" style of the MV also gives it a vibe of robotic/in progress - which really leads well into the surprise ending of the members going dead-eyed and killing the camerawoman. I'm excited to find out what the narrative idea of this Villains arc will be! But taken on its own, the message to me seems to read how fake the industry is, how robotic the girl groups, and Dreamcatcher ones more breaking out of expectations (as they have done since they rebranded Minx into Dreamcatcher).

Rising is absolutely my favourite of the songs tho, it's so catchy, and the whole "Ri-ri-ri-ri-ri-rising" is GREAT :D Shatter took me a bit to get used to - I immediately liked the melodic soft parts, but wasn't quite sure of the contrast to the "Bang It On Me" chorus. It's a very metal song in the same vibe of other woman-lead metal bands I love, while still uniquely Dreamcatcher. Definitely looking forward to learning the dance choreo to it and OOTD! (Though I'm still behind, I haven't even touched Bon Voyage and Demian yet *sobs* I need more time in the day!)

Exchanges

I signed up for

fandomtrees - here's my tree! I requested three Kpop MV canons (Dreamcatcher's Deja Vu & Vision, and Loona's love4eva), three cdramas (Guardian, GYADL, and Love Between Fairy And Devil), the short (not quite indie) game "Song of Nunu" (a League of Legends story) and the DnD tableplay "A Crown of Candy" from Dimension 20.

I finished my gifts (and now, edits) for the

ficinabox exchange, though I have some ideas of how to polish up one of them a bit more. I'm torn between picking up pinch hits, finishing any of the treats I started, or working on my other assignments.

Because I'm also signed up to

fffx and

yuletide_admin. For the first, I'm 2k into the story and have a strong idea of what I want to do with it; for the latter I just did a canon review to refresh my memories of the canon and am still brainstorming ideas. There's so many options, and I want to do all of them! :( why does the day only have 24hrs (and why do I have to spend so many of them at work, grumbles)

I've also been writing some more on my posted WIP In This, As In All Things, which I hadn't meant to put on pause for so long, but, well. Life happened *shrugs*. I'm gonna get the next three chapters done before posting (chapter 5 is close to done and I got a decent chunk of 6 going already), and then I need to figure out what I need to happen so I can wrap it up. It's always been one of the more vibes-focussed fics I've written, and the things I wanted out of it (confrontations of older!Weilan with Zhao Xinci) don't seem as plausible anymore now that I'm writing it. Or at least, the two different things I have in mind are vastly different in tone so I'll have to pick one over the other, le sigh.

Gonna try and post more again (and share my thoughts on Song of Nunu and Love Between Fairy And Devil, since I finished those two now) and soon!

Open to Treats, including different mediums <3

General DNWs: breaking up requested ships, genderswap, anything related to cannibalism, body horror, graphic gore, zombies/undead, hanahaki, sickfic, permanent character death for requested characters (Deja Vu excepted), mundane AUs, de-aging, incest;
nsfw DNWs: underage-under 16, watersports, scat, vore, sounding, enemas, fisting, ageplay, crossdressing, injured sex

General Likes:

what ifs/canon divergences, alternate identity reveal, time travel (fix-it), canon aus where the canon setting remains,
fluff, domesticity, banter, found family, family dynamics, friendship, developing & established relationships, intimacy,
UST, misunderstandings, miscommunication, character conflict, conflict-rich dialogue, (emotional) hurt/comfort, secret identity, secrets and the slow reveals thereof,
fealty & loyalty, devotion, protectiveness, protective possessiveness, mutual possessiveness, (public) claiming of some sort (jewelry, bitemarks, verbal, etc.)
characters being competent at their jobs, Battle Couple, teamwork, nonverbal strategy communication,
casefic, canon-style plots, mystery, action/adventure,
outsider PoV, first/second PoV, epistolary, multimedia and experimental formats (fictional socmed, letters, snippets from history books, text books, mission reports, etc.) that fit the canon setting
The intimacy of your lover being able to kill you but choosing not to: knife to the throat (for shaving or during a fight enemies-to-lovers style), human!partner being vulnerable in monster!partner's grasp, strong person who trusts no one being vulnerable with their partner, etc.

NSFW Likes: D/s, bondage, begging, enthusiastic consent, undernegotiated kink, kink negotiations, dirty talk, praise kink, happy sex/banter during sex, clothed sex, foreplay, aftercare, plot-relevant sex

Granting You A Dreamlike Life

Fandom-specific DNWs: The spy plot towards the end of the series, please pretend none if it happened. Also, the (imo unearned) canon redemption of Xu Xingcheng, Hong dad, Lin dad, Duan Tianci, and Hong Family's 3iC (tho I'm open to fic exploring potential redemptions where they actually make up for their wrongs)

Character Subsets: feel free to write about just two of these characters or all three together, I'm interested in each dynamic between the three of them.

Ships: I enjoy Luo Fusheng and Duan Tianying's relationship both platonically, romantically, or in an in-between state (one-sided unrequited pining and awkwardness included). For Luo Fusheng and Hong Lan, I generally prefer for Hong Lan's crush to remain unrequited and her to grow out of that level of selfish egocentrism - but I'm open to being convinced what a more matured, experienced Hong Lan might bring into a relationship and how that dynamic might evolve :) For Hong Lan and Tianying, I enjoy them as both enemies-to-rivals or enemies-to-friends. Open to femslash vibes, as long as Hong Lan's terrible actions against Tianying within canon are dealt with somehow (an aside of her having grown up and apologized or otherwise made up for it would suffice, tho <3). All three of them together as a triad could be fun, too!

Duan Tianying/&Luo Fusheng

I enjoy Luo Fusheng and Duan Tianying’s developing relationship, how they grow from the early misunderstandings and mistakes into each other’s greatest support. Having to work through the early mistakes and assumptions they made leads to a sturdier basis for their subsequent romantic relationship, imo. Tianying starts with understandable misgivings about Luo Fusheng and his job as a mafia enforcer, she takes him at the mask he presents to the world and has to learn how to peel those layers back. Luo Fusheng, meanwhile, is someone who will put everyone he cares about before himself, he will give everything he has and more to make the people in his life happy, but hides this behind a cavalier mask. Tianying is good for him, imo, because she sees beyond his pretense and can take care of the injured soul behind the mask, and Luo Fusheng can support her loyally and unequivocally without ever worrying about her letting him fall (unlike everyone else in his life :/) I love that her voice can bring him enough peace to fall asleep without nightmares, and that he's always willing to protect her.

And let's not kid ourselves, Luo Fusheng is a service sub and Duan Tianying would rise perfectly to the occasion of being his kind mistress.

Duan Tianying & Hong Lan

I like the rivalry between Hong Lan and Tianying. I would love for them to develop a friendship from there, or at least an appreciation and understanding. I like how condescending Hong Lan is, how much she abuses her power over Tianying, especially when she’s later forced to acknowledge Tianying after the Lin Ruomeng reveal as an equal. I would love something that focusses on Hong Lan’s character growth in this area, growing out of her selfish love for LFS and recognizing that LFS deserves happiness, even if it isn’t with her.
Similarly, I would love any fic that focusses on Hong Lan growing into and taking responsibility as the head of the Hong family after her father’s death, and how that affects her relationship to Tianying/Luo Fusheng. E.g. taking LFS back in as second-in-command and giving her blessing for him to marry Lin Ruomeng – what would lead her to something like that?

Luo Fusheng & Hong Lan

I like the complicated relationship between these two. Having grown up as childhood friends, but with the inherent power imbalance of Luo Fusheng being slightly older, yet subserviant to the Hong family, while Hong Lan is the precious daughter of the family head... nevermind Hong Lan's crush on Luo Fusheng and her selfish desire to own him, disregarding his feelings on the matter entirely, even as she is engaged to his then-best friend. Luo Fusheng never considers her as more than a sister he loves to spoil during canon, and this clearly frustrates her when she wants to be seen as a grown-up woman in her own right. All the more frustrating when she figures out that Luo Fusheng is crushing on Duan Tianying, a nobody (or so everybody thinks at first) who also has her fiancé wrapped around her little finger (not that Hong Lan minds about that, she has zero interest in marrying Xu Xingcheng).

I would love for the relationship between LFS und Hong Lan, whether platonic or romantic, to develop further from where the show left off. Hong Lan growing up, taking responsibility for her family after her father's death and learning to lead, learning to consider other people's needs - and Luo Fusheng, loyal Luo Fusheng, respecting her as the family head and helping her keep the family afloat and through these new dynamic realizing she's grown up from the little girl she once was (probably helped by the fact that she's no longer focussed day-in day-out in convincing him to date her).

Prompts:

I love how Luo Fusheng/Tianying's relationship is one of mutual care and respect and protectiveness, especially in contrast to their relationship with other characters (especially for LFS, who is always there for everyone else in his life, but none of them are there for him, especially Lin Qikai and Xu Xingcheng)

How do Luo Fusheng and Tianying square their respective morals with LFS's job as top enforcer of the Hong family? Tianying scolds him several times in canon, but I would love to see how she can keep her morality and yet learn to accept why LFS is loyal to his mob family, how he does his best to keep his people safe and protect the weak. Possibly with Tianying realizing that the world is more than black and white along the way.

Hong Lan & Tianying's hate-rivalvry slowly turning into a friendship
Hong Lan growing into her Head of the Hong family responsibilities

Tianying kicking martial ass/Battle Couple with Luo Fusheng. Maybe some rival mafia decided Luo Fusheng's girlfriend would be an easy hostage to force his hand, but she ends up rescuing herself/LFS only shows up as she's already kicking ass.
Hong Lan growing out of her crush for LFS or at least learning to take his needs into account (the latter ideally in a LFS/DTY/HL OT3 way)

Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher (MV)

link to canon - 3:46 minutes MV

Fandom-specific DNWs: using the Real People's full names, please stick to either stage names (Yoohyeon and Jiu respectively) for the characters or a title (e.g. The Betrayer and The Princess)

Character Subsets: While I want to have both characters featured, I'm fine with one of them being already dead at the hand of the other character.

Character Guide

Yoohyeon
Jiu
Sua - Siyeon - Dami - Handong - Gahyeon
The two timelines: the one in which Jiu kills Yoohyeon
the one in which Yoohyeon kills Jiu

What if Yoohyeon and/or Jiu are stuck in a time loop, forced to kill the other or be killed until they find a way to break the cycle?

What if it's Jiu having the Deja Vu experience of having killed Yoohyeon and that's why she drops the sword during the second timeline?

What if the first timeline is all in Yoohyeon's head, nightmares and paranoia of secret hints of a conspiracy... What if Jiu's secretly planning to propose to Yoohyeon, and Yoohyeon only learns of it with Jiu's blood cooling on her hands?

What if these are two separate timelines with a role reversal? What happens if Jiu and Yoohyeon meet their alternate selves?
Something based on the lyrics: As long as I can breathe/I can’t let go of you again/We'll be together for every moment and/or Even if I bet all of me for you/And the painful wounds deepen/As though every moment is a dream/I won't move away from you — to me, these lines read as if one timeline happened, and the person remembering (Jiu? Is this why she drops the sword?) cannot go through the same again, clinging to the other no matter how much the other hurts the one who remembers

Vision by Dreamcatcher (MV)

link to canon - 3:10 minutes MV, link to prequel - 3:09 minutes MV, link to sequel - 3:33 minutes MV

Fandom-specific DNWs: detailed descriptions of body modifications (mentions & plot relevance is okay, just don't get graphic about the biology or how it's integrated), using the Real People's full names, please stick to stage names for the characters!

Character Subsets: Any combinations or solo

Character Guide

Jiu leader, pink lightning
Sua associated with black crown and clouds/sky, red-orange-green lightning
Siyeon associated with victory pose/statue, pink lightning
Handong associated with red flowers and flag-bearing
Gahyeon associated with flag-bearing and seeing double, pink lightning
Yoohyeon associated with thunder (members only gain lightning abilities after she calls it down), blue lightning
Dami associated with technology and surveillance

Is Dami an antagonist? Or is she on the side of the group? She launches that energy shield to cover the Earth, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? In the Maison behind the scenes, Dami speculated about her character being a double agent - which side does she fall on, in the end? Is she betraying the group or the evil corporations?
Yoohyeon and Sua seem to be distant from the other members in some way - they seem to me as if they represent supernatural forces/are goddesses of some kind. We see Sua in the pink clouds to start with, and then she "comes down to earth" in her next scene. Yoohyeon is visually distinct from the rest of the group, the only one in blue and with very different style of clothing, and she's the one to call down thunder, possibly giving everyone else their lightning powers.
On that note, the ones fighting (in what to me looks like some sort of reator core?) are Yoohyeon, Jiu, Siyeon, Gahyeon, and Sua; but not Handong nor Dami. Possibly because they are fighting Dami, if she's the villain.
In light of the sequel Bon Voyage in which Sua escapes from a Facility TM (with notably Siyeon's help) I can't stop thinking of them going into the reactor in Vision to purify the contaminated goddesses. Especially since Sua is presented with a black crown on red clouds, and there's a lot of green poisonous fog all around, she always struck me as an avatar of Pestilence or Pollution. An exploration of their fight to get inside the facilities and/or the process of purification would be A++

Dimension 20: A Crown Of Candy

Fandom-specific DNW: shipfic, focus on Cumulous Rocks and his whole order

Character Subsets: Saccharina & Amethar, Solo Saccharina, Saccharina with other Rock family members, or Amethar with other Rock family members and/or Cruller

Saccharina

Saccharina's backstory is a tragedy, and her introduction to the Rocks Family even more tragic: she shows up in time to be their solution, to replace their heir - and with their grief over Jet's recent death, it's the worst possible time. Saccharina of course has no agency over this fact, and in rubbing her blood family wrong, she loses the last hope she has to build proper bonds with them. I find the final decision she and Ruby had to make, whether or not to kill each other, incredibly satisfying in how close a shave it was. Things went nearly catastrophically wrong, but in the end, Saccharina has a chance to prove herself and build those bonds over time after all.

Jet & Ruby (& Saccharina)

The twins are a fascinating character study of irresponsibility, growing up in comfort and freedom. They enter the political sphere of Calorum naive and unprepared and have to grow up fast when their dad is nearly killed. It's interesting how there's never any jealousy between them about Jet being the heir, but once Jet dies, Ruby has trouble accepting Saccharina in her place. Ruby's feelings on Saccharina are imo guided by how Saccharina is a mirror of both twins: the heir, the responsible one, the leader - but also the sorceress, with a skillset very similar to Ruby's.

I'd like to think that Jet would've reacted differently, if still feeling an initial thrust of rejection because of how similar Saccharina is to Ruby on the surface. But Jet doesn't want to be the heir, necessarily, she just has no choice. So when Saccharina comes along, there's suddenly another option. It would be fascinating to work out how Jet handles this - does competition for the crown suddenly make her want it? Or does relief that this might save their people overwhelm her? Jet also has a slightly different relationship to Amethar, so how does she feel about there being a love child? She wouldn't doubt his love for her, I don't think, but Jet puts a lot of weight on Amethar's feelings.

Amethar & Caramelinda

I love the twisted web that is the relationships within this royal family. Amethar, the spare who was never meant to rule, ends up king in the aftermath of the tragedy of his sisters' death and is very uncomfortable in that role, only coming to life when it's back on the battlefield for him. Amethar, who married the love of his life and then never managed to find her again, forced into a political marriage with his sister's wife. Like, speaking of awkward.

Caramelinda was in love with Lazuli, but forced to marry Amethar after the war, and then forced to take on the reins of the kingdom by herself in the face of his incompetence. But at the same time, there are hints that while Lazuli loved her just as deeply, she was constantly distracted by the time stream she had access to, juggling multiple hot potatoes at once, regardless if past, present, or future. What is it like, to be in a relationship with someone like that, whose projects take priority?

Prompts:

Canon AU in which Amethar's Sister(s) lived. How does it change the war? How does it change Amethar's happiness? Does he get his happy ending with the Dairy Maid and raises Saccharina in the castle? What if Lazuli doesn't survive, who has to marry Caramelinda?
Saccharina gets found in the nunnery/orphanage and brought to Castle Candy as a child. How does everyone react to her? How does Amethar deal with a secret love child but his lover still gone and probably dead? How do the political problems shake out (and how does Cruller take advantage of this twist)?
What if Ruby dies instead of Jet and Jet gets to meet her crazy talented witch half-sister that reminds her of her lost twin so much? How does she handle a new claimant to the throne when she only recently decided to take being heir seriously?
Post-Canon fic in which Amethar reaches out to Saccharina and tries to bridge the gap between them. Saccharina using political excuses to avoid or force meetings with her dad, still yearning for acceptance and love but burned by the family's initial reaction?

After several delays,

fandomgiftbasket finally revealed yesterday!

I got three lovely gifts, two fics and a fanvid! :D All of them were amazing and made waiting for reveals worth it <3

Title: Fanvid: Paranoia (or Deja Vu?)
Fandom: Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher (MV)
Ship: Yoohyeon/Jiu
Tags: Paranoia, Dreams and Nightmares, Trust Issues, Resurrection, Betrayal
Summary: Yoohyeon's premonition of betrayal leads to paranoia...
But could Jiu really do that? If so, should Yoohyeon beat her to it?

Title: A little peace
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Ship: Nick Burkhardt & Monroe
Words: 543
Tags: Friendship, Comfort Food, Hanging Out
Summary: Nick and Monroe recover after a long night on a case.

Title: Next Time
Fandom: Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher (MV)
Ship: Yoohyeon/Jiu
Words: 100

I also made two fills:

Title: Sting of Love
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Ship: Nick Burkhardt/Monroe
Words: 1k
Tags: Kissing, Slice of Life, Action/Adventure, Wesen of the Week, Episode Style
Summary: Monroe accompanies Nick on Grimm business.

Title: Our Love's A Curse
Fandom: Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher (MV)
Ship: Yoohyeon/Jiu
Words: 833
Tags: Backstory, Happy with A Bad Ending, Off-screen Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Yoohyeon's descent into madness, Assassin Yoohyeon
Summary: Yoohyeon worked hard to create a perfect world for Jiu and herself.
But perfection isn't forever.

I wrote 5 short stories for

guardian_wishlist! I didn't have as much time as the last two years, sadly, but I'm still happy with the fics I managed and it seems like the recips liked them, too <3

Title: An Intimate Touch for

velithya
Fandom: Guardian (drama)
Ship/Characters: Weilan (Kunlun/Shen Wei)
Words: 2.2k
Tags: Ye Olde Haixing Era, Shaving, Hair Brushing, Hair Braiding, Almost Kiss, Domestic Fluff
Summary: Shen Wei helps Kunlun shave his beard.

Title: Happy Hour for

yilian
Fandom: Guardian (drama)
Ship/Characters: Shen Wei & his students, background Weilan, background SID
Words: 975
Tags: Background Case, Shen Wei's terrible lies, undercover at a bar
Summary: A criminal, a professor, and a cat walk into a bar.
The professor's students did not expect to be part of the joke.

Title: The Hero Returns for

tehfanglyfish
Fandom: Granting You A Dreamlike Life
Ship/Characters: Luo Fusheng, Hong Lan, Duan Tianying
Words: 826
Tags: Late Canon Fix-It, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, PoV Tianying, implied Duan Tianying/Luo Fusheng
Summary: The first thing Hong Lan does as head of the Hong family is to order Luo Fusheng back home.

Title: Days of Splendour for

lacommunarde
Fandom: Guardian (novel)
Ship/Characters: Weilan & Zhao Yunlan's parents
Words: 1.9k
Tags: Wedding Planning, Weddings, Wedding Fluff, Post-Canon
Summary: Zhao Yunlan knows what he wants: Shen Wei, at his side, forever.

Title: Freezing for

amedia
Fandom: Guardian (drama)
Ship/Characters: Chu Shuzhi/Guo Changcheng/Ye Huo
Words: 507
Tags: Character Study, Missing Scene, Episode 19
Summary: Stuck in the experimental lab, Chu Shuzhi has time to contemplate his newest companion.

Happy Reunion Festival, everyone <3

guardian_wishlist revealed this morning, and I'm super excited for all of my gifts, and my giftee's reactions to what I wrote for them! :3

Sadly, I won't have much time to check everything out until Sunday OTL I'm on night shift today, and have errands to run before then. But on Sunday I'll be stuck on the train for 3-4 hours, and I'm downloading everything to read/listen to for that time!

(tho maybe... if the babies are quiet tonight... maybe I can sneak a listen in to the podfics...? 👀)

I've got 4 wonderful looking gifts I'm excited to get to first of all (and then an incredible collection to check out afterwards!):

Title: Settling Fur by amedia, a remix of my story Ruffling Feathers!
Ships/Characters: Zhu Hong, Da Qing, Ya Qing, original kid character
Words: 500
Tags: Remix, Yashou High Chief Zhu Hong, Da Qing just wants his bells back, Magpies love shiny things, POV Outsider
Summary: The grownups wanted Xiao Que to give back the bells she found. But they were shiny.
(I managed to take a look at this one already and I'm in love! Absolutely nailed Little Magpie's vibe, she's adorable :D)

Title: [Podfic] Larger Than Life by sef1029
Ships/Characters: Da Qing & Fu You
Words:
Tags: Modern Era, Ye Olde Haixing Era, Da Qing's memory problems, Animal Transformation, Cat Tribe Best Tribe, Podfic, Audio Format: Streaming, Audio Format: MP3, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes
Summary: Da Qing still remembers Fu You fondly. [podfic version]
(Really excited to listen to this tonight! I didn't think anyone would pick this little fic of mine to work with, I'm very happy <3)

Title: Building trust by yilian
Ships/Characters: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Chu Shuzhi/Guo Changcheng, Shen Wei & SID Ensemble
Words: 6.5k
Tags: Fluff, Team as Family, Team Bonding, Team Dynamics, 5+1 Things, Identity Reveal, Canon Divergence, Alternative Identity Reveal, Weilan and Chuguo, Getting Together, Somewhere in between, Not focus on shipping, Brief mention of YOHE, Brief mention of Kunlun
Summary: Five times Shen Wei helped and cared for the members in the team and one time they were worried about him
(The tags and summary look delicious! A different identity reveal! Getting together! Team fic, my beloved!!)

Title: Balance of Energies by nnozomi
Ships/Characters: Lin Jing, Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, Li Qian, Zhao Xinci, SID Ensemble
Words: 4.5k
Tags: Mid-Canon, temporary canon divergence, Blindness Arc
Summary:Lin Jing's boundaries are tested.
(!So many implications in these tags! Spy!Lin Jing's loyalty put to the test, Zhao Xinci getting involved with the SID again, all while ZYL is blind? HYPE!)

Now that

rarepairexchange revealed the authors, I can finally share the treat I wrote for

trobadora! (I was trying to pick up her pinch hit, but funnily enough,

china_shop napped it like an hour or two before I was gonna xD)

Title: Back In A Spell
Fandom: Grimm (TV)
Ships: Sean Renard/Juliette Silverton, Nick Burkhardt/Juliette Silverton, pre-Nick Burkhardt/Sean Renard/Juliette Silverton
Words: 7k
Tags: Time Travel Fix-It, POV Juliette Silverton, former Hexenbiest Juliette, Nick is not a Grimm yet, Identity Reveal, Magic Revealed, Dinner Date with Ulterior Motives, Secrets
Summary:

Renard hummed noncommittally. "You're not Wesen," he switched tracks, letting the question of her knowledge hang between them. She'd dropped too many names and hints about his past not to be involved somehow.

"I'm not," she stated, even as the truth felt like ashes in her mouth. But I should be.

Going back in time has a price. Juliette will make damn sure it was worth it.

Thoughts on the Fic

I had such a good time writing this one! Juliette is my blorbo, and Renard is Trobadora's, so the first scene was practically me going "how can I smush these two together" :D Renard is such a deeply distrustful character, he would be hard to convince - and I honestly don't think he's quite convinced by the end of the scene, but willing to let it play out and see where it gets him. Juliette has made some good points and if he can get Nick on his side before he awakens his Grimm heritage, well. It'll be easier to build an alliance on that sturdy basis, and I feel like that's an advantage Renard wouldn't let pass him by. Writing the early seasons Nick who is all bushy-tailed and bright-eyed innocence was fun, too. Juliette was a bit of a guess work, based on what I've seen of her in the first two seasons and extrapolating on her characterisation there - the reason I went looking for the Hexenbiest!Juliette clips on youtube, since I know Dora likes Hexenbiest!Juliette best ;) I left the whole Eve plot vague because I have no idea what's happening there aside from Juliette's death and resurrection, so I figured if anything I say contradicts it, the future is just another canon AU :P

Also! The title. I wanted something that felt true to the show, which always involves puns and references to fairytales. "Back In A Spell" was too good to pass up, what with the implications of time travel and magic, but it also being a saying for "be right back"? Idk, it tickled me :D

Title: All Our Memories, They're Haunted
Fandom: Deja Vu - Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
Ships: Yoohyeon-centric, Jiu/Yoohyeon (background)
Words: 1.1k
Tags: Memories, Regret, Grief/Mourning, the Queen is dead; long live the Queen, Dark Yoohyeon, Murder
Summary: There are no witnesses to her ascent. There is no one she trusts not to stab her in the back.

This is the story I wrote when I discovered the fan theory that Yoohyeon kills all her friends and what we see in the MV are their ghosts! I don't usually write creepy horror stuff, but I love writing characters going insane or evil, so writing what amounts to Mad Queen Yoohyeon was *really* fun. Even if the fandom is super small and only my bff ends up reading it, it's a win in my book :)

Current Music: Illela by Mamamoo

Dancing

I've tried out a kpop dance course in July and officially joined after summer hols this month! We've been practicing Aya from Mamamoo, last week we learned the chorus part of Jihyo's Killing Me Good (though my timing is... so off. I need a better spot to keep an eye on the trainer), and now we started on the chorus of Fast Forward by Jeon Somi, which we'll continue next week. It's pretty fun, overall, and a great breather from the stress at work.

Writing

I've switched between writing a couple different fandoms for various exchanges recently (a rarepairex treat, three fandomgiftbasket fills, two of which are done, my fffx assignment). It's been fun delving back into nostalgic anime fandoms like Naruto and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters. Ygo! was my first fandom-fandom, actually. My first ever fanfic was a Mary Sue self-insert who got saved by Seto Kaiba lol. I think her name was Laila? Leia? And there's gonna be two Deja Vu fics. I had to rewrite my original fill because it accidentally got too close to a DNW, but I love both and they're different enough that I feel good publishing both.

I put in my swap wishes for fiab, too, so hopefully this multifandom trend will continue!

Grimm is super fun to write and I'm close to finishing a couple fics to post. There's a lot of second hand knowledge from my job going into the pregnancy fic. The last smutty bits in the canon divergence OT3 rewrite are fighting me, but once I can stitch it all together, I'm hitting post. So excited to share!

However, Guardian wishlists are hella distracting. I've already seen three prompts I /need/ to write, and there's still people signing up! What do!?

Watching

I've been watching Dimension 20's Mentopolis, and omg it's so good! I hate having to wait a whole week for a new episode, but so far, definitely worth it! The main characters are the personalisations of Hyperfixation (played by Hank Green), Impulse, Attention, Pleasure, Curiosity and Conscience, and they're all super fun! It's set in a detective noir mystery setting inside the brain, which is super fun :D!

Grimm Rewatch is going well. I'm excited to start season 3 tonight, I have very little memories of what happened in it. Juliette continues to be my blorbo, and the fic ideas keep multiplying.

Really need to pick Cang Lan Jue (Love Between Fairy And Devil) back up, I made it to episode 11/12 last October before my new workplace ate up my time. The body switch trope is giving me a lot of second hand embarrassment, so it's been hard to start again, no matter how much I originally loved it!

Dear Creator,
thank you so much for creating for me <3 please note that even if I don't have specific prompts for the medium you're interested in creating for me in, as long as I picked the opt-in I'm excited to get it! I hope this letter helps you get an idea of what I like :)

Treats very much welcome <3

镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
许你浮生若梦 | Granting You a Dreamlike Life (TV)
Grimm (TV)
데자부 | Deja Vu - Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
Vision - Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
Dimension 20 - Calorum

General DNWs: breaking up requested ships, genderswap, anything related to cannibalism, body horror, graphic gore, zombies/undead, hanahaki, sickfic, permanent character death for canon characters (Deja Vu excepted), mundane AUs;
nsfw DNWs: underage-under 16, watersports, scat, vore, sounding, enemas, ageplay, crossdressing, injured sex

General Likes:

what ifs/canon divergences, alternate identity reveal, time travel (fix-it), canon aus where the canon setting remains,
fluff, domesticity, banter, found family, family dynamics, friendship, developing & established relationships, intimacy,
UST, misunderstandings, miscommunication, character conflict, conflict-rich dialogue, (emotional) hurt/comfort, secret identity, secrets and the slow reveals thereof,
fealty & loyalty, devotion, protectiveness, protective possessiveness, mutual possessiveness, (public) claiming of some sort (jewelry, bitemarks, verbal, etc.)
characters being competent at their jobs, Battle Couple, teamwork, nonverbal strategy communication,
casefic, canon-style plots, mystery, action/adventure,
outsider PoV, first/second PoV, epistolary, multimedia and experimental formats (fictional socmed, letters, snippets from history books, text books, mission reports, etc.)

monochrome, b&w with pop of colour, high contrast with few colours, (but really, any art style is welcome!)
jewelry & flowers, swords! (and other character-appropriate weapons), fancy clothes,
character poses that tell a story/embody the dynamic between characters, small intimacies (hand to cheek! fingers brushing! eyes meeting! back-to-back!), height difference where appropriate (or otherwise through environment)
And I'm really, really into the Opt-Ins of stained glass (so pretty! I love the mosaic colours and religious symbology of it), tarot cards (the levels of choosing a card meaning to fit the character, the pose, the details!), and tapestry (just, the historical vibes? Usually some sort of major event or conflict, depicting a story between characters? *_*)

Music Likes: My taste in songs runs towards rock/metal as well as certain kpop songs - bands like Evenescence, Within Temptation, Krypteria, Beyond the Black; but also Sunrise Avenue, Anastacia, Adele, and Rihanna have great songs. Kpop wise, my faves are Dreamcatcher, Loona, Mamamoo, and LeSserafim's Unforgiven and Eve, Psyche & The Bluebeard's Wife. But honestly, anything with lyrics that fit the situation/mood I will love for a fanvid :D

( 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) )

( 许你浮生若梦 | Granting You a Dreamlike Life (TV) )

( Grimm (TV) )

( 데자부 | Deja Vu - Dreamcatcher (Music Video) )

( Vision - Dreamcatcher (Music Video) )

( Dimension 20 - Calorum )

Exchanges
I've signed up to

guardian_wishlist! I'm very excited for another round of my favourite fandom event of the year :D

I'm also signed up to

fffx, in which the wordcount minimum is 10k. My assignment is awesome, and I already got 1k of snippets written up and a decent outline. There's more than enough time to write this fic, but I hope I don't lose track of or motivation for writing it midway through. Actually gonna try to finish it by November, just to get done first!

ficinabox is happening soon, too. I nominated a bunch of my favourite fandoms, now I just need to find some requests I can write for. It's also a 10k assignment, but one that can be broken into 1k-10k pieces plus has a lot of interesting variant mediums. The swapping systems sounds confusing but fun. We'll see if I can actually sign up!

Writing
I've fiddled with a gift or two for

fandomgiftbasket, but mostly I'm writing Grimm TV fic x'D mostly about my main ship, the OT3 of Nick/Renard/Juliette.

One of them is a kidfic series - I have no idea why, but those always appeal to me, seeing the characters I love navigate parenthood and how the worldbuilding impacts raising children within it. So far I've started on the 1st instalment dealing with Juliette's pregnancy, and one where the kid is in kindergarden :3 I do want Kelly Burkhardt (Nick's mom) to show up and be confused by her son's triad relationship and whose kid is this anyway, that's gonna be another fun instalment.

Another is a fix-it rewrite where I diverge somewhere mid-to-late season 1 with having the OT3 start a triad relationship and revealing several secrets much sooner than in canon, and then go through said canon situations with these changed factors to see how that impacts canon's timeline. It's gonna be a series, too, and I doubt I'll address all plots, but :D

Work
Work's busy but fine, I'm really acclimating well and getting a better handle of my job's duties. We have a new coworker I'm helping getting up to speed, which is really a nice mirror of how far I've grown in the last 8 months. We're having a team-bonding event on Friday, so I'll miss Guardian Rewatch, but I'm looking forward to it!

I've been meaning to write up a list of all my WIPs ages ago, but hey! I recently got tagged in a tumblr game of posting all WIP titles, so I figured it's a sign to get my ass moving.

List under cut because it's long. We're currently up to [53] WIPs. Additional Info is in progress.

( Read more... )

Feel free to ask about any of these! I get motivated whenever someone shows interest in one of my ideas :3

Current Mood: mellow

Editing note: this letter is now finished!

Dear FFFX Creator! Thank you for creating for me :) I hope this letter can provide you with plenty inspiration! I wish you a lot of fun creating, see you on the flipside <3

Treats: I'm always open to treats of any length and medium (including art treats for fandoms I didn't request art for <3)

镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
许你浮生若梦 | Granting You a Dreamlike Life (TV)
猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin (TV 2022)
琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV)
Grimm (TV)
데자부 | Deja Vu - Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
Vision - Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
Dimension 20: A Crown Of Candy
Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City

General DNWs: breaking up requested ships, genderswap, anything related to cannibalism, body horror, graphic gore, zombies/undead, hanahaki, sickfic, permanent character death for canon characters (Deja Vu excepted), mundane AUs;
nsfw DNWs: underage-under 16, watersports, scat, vore, sounding, enemas, ageplay, crossdressing, injured sex

General Likes:

what ifs/canon divergences, alternate identity reveal, time travel (fix-it), canon aus where the canon setting remains,
fluff, domesticity, banter, found family, family dynamics, friendship, developing & established relationships, intimacy,
UST, misunderstandings, miscommunication, character conflict, conflict-rich dialogue, (emotional) hurt/comfort, secret identity, secrets and the slow reveals thereof,
fealty & loyalty, devotion, protectiveness, protective possessiveness, mutual possessiveness, (public) claiming of some sort (jewelry, bitemarks, verbal, etc.)
characters being competent at their jobs, Battle Couple, teamwork, nonverbal strategy communication,
casefic, canon-style plots, mystery, action/adventure,
outsider PoV, first/second PoV, epistolary, multimedia and experimental formats (fictional socmed, letters, snippets from history books, text books, mission reports, etc.)

monochrome, b&w with pop of colour, high contrast with few colours, (but really, any art style is welcome!)
jewelry & flowers, swords! (and other character-appropriate weapons), fancy clothes,
character poses that tell a story/embody the dynamic between characters, small intimacies (hand to cheek! fingers brushing! eyes meeting! back-to-back!), height difference where appropriate (or otherwise through environment)

( 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018) )

( 许你浮生若梦 | Granting You a Dreamlike Life (TV) )

( 猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin (TV 2022) )

( 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV) )

( Grimm (TV) )

( 데자부 | Deja Vu - Dreamcatcher (Music Video) )

( Vision - Dreamcatcher (Music Video) )

( Dimension 20: A Crown Of Candy )

( Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City )

Now that author reveals happened, I can finally share the fic I wrote for the lovely

trobadora :D!

Title: Two Of A Kind
Fandom: Guardian (drama)
Ship: Ya Qing/Zhu Hong
Words: 12.9k
Tags: time travel fix-it, Ya Qing PoV, Yashou politics & worldbuilding, Antagonist!Ye Zun, BAMF!Ya Qing
Summary: Zhu Hong approaches Ya Qing with a warning from the future. Ya Qing is... intrigued despite herself.

"And what would you have me do instead? Nothing, like your uncle, like the Flower tribe? Just wait while the humans take more and more, wait until there's nothing left for us?"

Zhu Hong stared back calmly. Surprisingly confident. "I would speak to Heipaoshi-daren on our behalf."

Ya Qing's feathers flared in shock before she could catch herself.

I managed to treat Trobadora with a short lil epilogue/coda just before reveals, too! It's in chapter 2 :D

I actually guessed correctly that my gift was by the amazing ThebanSecretBand (one of the two people gifting me Guardian memes last Wishlist!)

Title: Honey, you're familiar
Fandom: Nirvana in Fire
Ship: Mei Changsu/Mu Nihuang/Xiao Jingyan
Words: 5.1k
Tags: canon divergence, fix-it, minor h/c, arranged marriage
Summary:

And in they walk: Jingrui with his city manner and his Jianghu style, Yujin with his refined clothes and his broad-faced grin. And behind them walks Lin Shu-gege.

Nihuang blinks. The man is at once unrecognisable and evident. There is nothing about Lin Shu-gege in his face, in his gait, in his height, and yet Nihuang knows him. Deep in her soul, she knows him. The boy she played with, the teenager she flirted with, the man she loved. He could not be Lin Shu-gege, because he was nothing like him and Lin Shu-gege was dead. He could not be anyone else.

*

“Who are you?” he demands.

And then xiao-Shu stands up and looks him in the eyes.

It is nothing. A trick of the light. Jingyan has run into xiao-Shu in the face of strangers hundreds of times. He’s been a ghost turning a corner, just out of reach.

And yet… And yet. Those ghosts who had not been xiao-Shu had had a familiar angle to their jawline. A familiar curve to their nose. A familiar joy in their smile.

This man has none of these. He simply is.

Sadly, I didn't have much time to read through the collection - I still have several fics open in tabs I didn't get to - but I can certainly recommend this handful of fics:

Blackmail Is An Ugly Word, a Naruto, Team 7 time travel fic that is hilarious. It definitely doesn't take itself to serious in the best ways!

The Friend Trap, an Untamed fic which was incidently written for ThebanSecretBand, by nirejseki. It's an Unpowered, Historical AU in which Nie Huaisang tricks Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue into working together to mend the rift between them after Events (TM). Incredible worldbuilding and good characterisation!

Both The Witcher fics were pretty decent, both dealing with the aftermath of the Mountain Break-Up.
but if I'm moving a mountain has Yennefer and Jaskier hooking up to make Geralt jealous, only to somehow end up in an OT3 with him

and One Blessing by nununununu has some-being overhear Geralt and dropping Jaskier into a new little adventure (and Geralt jumping in immediately to rescue him)

Current Music: Psyche, Eve and the Bluebeard's Wife by LeSserafim

Work

Work's been interesting! And kinda exhausting, too. My favourite co-worker is leaving us, which sucks. Here's hoping we can stay in contact *fingers crossed* I'm taking over her case, which... is definitely part of the reason she's leaving (even if she says it's not, it's obviously a stress factor), it's a hard case. And the case is also getting kicked out for lack of cooperation and inappropriate behaviour. So that's been a lot of fun meetings! Which will continue into next week, OTL. But it's interesting to see how I can rise to the challenge? Like, it's sapping me of energy, sure, but I'm also handling it really well (my boss even said so!) Not that I thought I couldn't exactly, but it's one think to imagine vs actually experiencing.

It's also fascinating to see—we got a new kid to reunite with their parents, and most of the other kids here are in the same age range. I'm going to get a very skewed impression of child development working here, they're all pretty behind. So the new kid being at a normal stage for her age was a bit of a shock and wake-up call ^^

Watching

Really having fun with

trobadora rewatching the series Grimm (TV)! Juliette is definitely my blorbo, although I love all the characters. I've already started on my first fic for this show :'D We're in early season 2 and I remember a surprising lot. I'm raising my estimate that I originally watched at least some of early season 3, too ^^

The Guardian rewatch continues to be fun, too! I've managed to join the discord rewatch group a couple times now and will join again tomorrow. I'm behind on notes taking, though, I had to focus on exchange writing and other life stuff. Looking forward to picking it back up when work hopefully calms down.

Exchanges

Speaking of exchanges... I've signed up for

fandomgiftbasket here! I'm requesting Art/Graphics/Meta/Fic/Fanvids for two kpop music videos (Dreamcatcher's Deja Vu, and Loona's love4eva). The first is high fantasy with lesbians & betrayal, the second is four girls in a boarding school setting (and possibly also betrayal lol. Drama! *jazz hands*). I'm also asking for the fandoms Dimension 20 - A Crown of Candy, specifically stuff that centers the Rocks Family, the above mentioned Grimm (TV), and Granting You A Dreamlike Life, my beloved trash cdrama :3 who doesn't want some badass and bloody Luo Fusheng in their life?

Since Wishlist is happening soon, I opted out of adding Guardian to my basket.

I'm also nominating like crazy for the Five Figure Fanworks exchange (

fffx) in the hopes of participating. One 10k fic or two 5k fics seems doable, as long as someone signs up with a fandom/prompts I can write <3

Also! I got an incredible gift for

fandom5k, I'm really looking forward to finding out who wrote for me :D

Title: Honey, you're familiar
Fandom: Nirvana in Fire
Ship: Mei Changsu | Lin Shu/Mu Nihuang/Xiao Jingyan
Tags: canon divergence, fix-it, minor h/c, arranged marriage
Summary: And in they walk: Jingrui with his city manner and his Jianghu style, Yujin with his refined clothes and his broad-faced grin. And behind them walks Lin Shu-gege.

Nihuang blinks. The man is at once unrecognisable and evident. There is nothing about Lin Shu-gege in his face, in his gait, in his height, and yet Nihuang knows him. Deep in her soul, she knows him. The boy she played with, the teenager she flirted with, the man she loved. He could not be Lin Shu-gege, because he was nothing like him and Lin Shu-gege was dead. He could not be anyone else.

*

“Who are you?” he demands.

And then xiao-Shu stands up and looks him in the eyes.

It is nothing. A trick of the light. Jingyan has run into xiao-Shu in the face of strangers hundreds of times. He’s been a ghost turning a corner, just out of reach.

And yet… And yet. Those ghosts who had not been xiao-Shu had had a familiar angle to their jawline. A familiar curve to their nose. A familiar joy in their smile.

This man has none of these. He simply is.

It's an absolutely amazing mix of my prompts an I love it!💖 It has Mu Nihuang and Xiao Jingyan recognising Mei Changsu as Lin Shu, yet playing along with his secret identity shenanigans and working to keep him safe. It's a nice reversal of the canon, and the author *nailed* the character voices, especially Mu Nihuang. Go check it out! It's so worth it 💖

Hi! Yes, I live. Life’s still busy, and this post took me forever to write up, whoops.

Writing

Working on my F5K assignment! I got a minor extension and have since posted my bus pass, but there’s a lot of editing I still have to do, and I want to add 1-2 more scenes if I’m able before reveals… fingers crossed RL doesn’t keep me too busy for it!

I'm already eyeing

fandomgiftbasket,

fffx, and

juletide, even though I just decided to focus on my personal projects after F5K until Guardian Wishlist x'D we'll see what I can do! I do need to get back to In This As In All Things, though.

Watching

Dimension 20: A Court of Fey and Flowers

I absolutely adored this game! The characters were amazing and the conceit of a fairy court meets Pride and Prejudice type of story drew me in immediately. I thought the reputation and epistolary mechanics were great and the players did a great job making use of them. Aabria was fun to watch when she switched between all those NPCs, and her make-up really made them seem much more otherworldly. A+

I just wish they had gotten a full season, the ending did feel rushed. Although, kudos to the team for being able to resolve the season quickly. I have no idea how they did it, if they filmed the last episode(s?) after they had to go into isolation for covid? I feel like there were a lot of plot threads left hanging in their hurry to wrap everything up in the last two episodes. Especially the confrontation between Hobbs and Rue felt like it could’ve used another encounter or two before they resolved it. There were too many reveals happening and not enough time for the characters to process them before agreeing to forgive each other.

That said, I enjoyed the romance between those two, as well as Dark Fuck Prince and tailor!Cinderella :3

Dimension 20: The Ravening War

I haven’t finished watching the last of the 6 episodes, but I have a lot of thoughts.

As much as I love Matt as a DM and the characters are great, I’m not a fan of their timeskip-experiment. It feels like they lost the focus of the story they wanted to tell? The stakes keep getting lost in every timeskip, the rapid changes leave me without much of an anchor to get invested in, which is a shame. Also, personally I wanted another court intrigue game similar to A Crown of Candy, which this isn’t :/ it’s much too adventure/encounter-focussed for that, it feels like, because all the roleplaying episodes are timeskips.

Spoilers

Imo, there seems to be a mismatch of genre expectations. The characters are built for intrigue, assassination and backhanded deals, lying and convincing. And yet the challenges are set up not to work with their skills, but in spite of them. The whole Bloominati/FDA deal was an interesting pun and hook, and it kiiiinda works into the worldbuilding Brennan did in ACOC? But it also feels like such a strong departure off into left field tonally.

The timeskips don’t feel real is the problem. We meet the FDA as a cliffhanger, then jump two years ahead… it feels like meeting the FDA should have had an *impact*, and yet it took forever to actually happen, but also due to the summary nature of the timeskips not a lot of time actually passed? And what happened wasn’t really… interesting, ngl. The second timeskip was better in the latter regard since we had character interactions and the PCs taking _action_ rather than trying to figuring things out in a roll or two. Things were visibly happening, even if we abandoned all investment and stakes from the previous episode again *le sigh*

What I wanted from this game was high intrigue, the PCs making mistakes that echoed into history and maybe worsened the war. But the guardrails actually make it feel like the PCs are inconsequential, no matter what titles and positions they supposedly carry. And part of that is clearly on purpose! Matt seems to want the PCs to experience the helplessness of war, how it rolls over you and out of your control. And he succeeds in that! But the side-effect is that it feels very… along for the ride but not part of the story, imo?

I mean, he did his best to tie in every character’s story! Like bringing in Colin’s dad during the 5th episode encounter. It just felt jarring to me rather than smooth and a natural consequence of the story leading them there. I guess what I’m saying is the rails were too obvious?

In my ideal Ravening War, we would’ve had more episodes like episode 1, where they go to balls and do court intrigue and try to win allies, backstab each other, maybe even PvP as Karna betrays Amangeaux and Deli grows power-hungry, etc. etc. Having Amangeaux hitch her horse to Tomate only for him to die could have been a very poignant storyline that similarly expressed the themes of the unpredictability of war!

I agree with those critisizing the Bulb Pope (I forget the canon title… pointefax??) being the leader of the FDA. It would’ve been much more fun if it had been a coalition of servants or working class people trying to shake up the hierarchy and only being able to do so by unionizing in secret. It’s weird that the Pope doesn’t have the power to achieve such underhanded dealings in her position of ultimate power. If she had used the church for similar aims, that would’ve been more fun to me, I think.

I do think I ship Karna/Amangeaux and Karna/Deli and Deli/Colin. They all have very fun dynamics with each other, and the Deli/Colin break-up was deliciously hurtful, as is the way Karna enables the worst in Deli. And the way Amangeaux broke Karna’s heart by taking and taking and taking her for granted? The way she trusts Karna, meanwhile Karna went and told her biggest secret to Tomate? Mhmm :3

Raphaniel was a creepy joy, too. Brennan really leaned into that.

TL;DR the political premise feels at odds with the mystery-adventure genre of the plot, not helped by the mechanics of the timeskips nor the time it's set in (the titular Ravening War). The mushroom plot would’ve been better as a subplot or sidequest outside the garnishings of political intrigue and the war happening, imo, with a different set of adventurers. The only one who somewhat fit was Provolone, and that’s because he’s the merc for hire misfit of the group.

Plus this felt much lower lethality than A Crown of Candy, which was a major draw/emotional stake in that show.

Bridgerton: Queen Charlotte

I enjoyed watching this quick 6-episode season with my parents. It was good, fast-paced entertainment, and we love a historical romance with misunderstandings and court intrigue, though there wasn’t as much of the latter as I might’ve expected. In general it was very light, focussed thematically on women in marriage and female friendship.

More Thoughts

In hindsight I don’t think they exactly captured the character of Queen Charlotte as presented in Bridgerton, nor did I feel like the young Lady Danburry quite matched what we saw of the older in the previous seasons. They did their best to match them within *this* season, of course, and it was a plausible portrayal of their youth – especially the young Queen Charlotte did a great job matching her older version’s mannerism and growing into them and that confidence. Her characteristic stubborness was A+ conveyed during all the character development, too.

I liked the romance between Charlotte and George while he was lucid, and I thought she handled him pretty well during his hallucination/attack. I’m not quite sure what mental illness they were going for (nor am I aware of the historical sources tbf) but it felt a bit all over the place. There were dissociative elements (speaking with the stars, the portraits’ voices in his head, etc.) while other elements felt closer to an anxiety disorder (especially in how the hallucinations/dissociative phases were triggered).

And then there were hints of trauma being the root issue (the physical abuse from his grandfather, on top of the high expectations – which if he did not live up to, lead to more of said abuse), especially in that scene where they hid under the bed so the sky couldn’t see them. And this might be a Me issue because I watched the German dub, but in German we don’t differentiate between sky and heaven, so it felt very obvious association of his grandfather in heaven being the one watching as the omnipotent sky George is hiding from.

I wasn’t a fan of George being super lucid in present day when they hide under the bed again either, though I understand the parallels they’re drawing – it felt like the illness was less severe than we’ve been led to believe up to that point, less hopeless if there’s an easy “switch”. Nevermind that from Bridgerton, I’d gotten more a dementia/alzheimer vibe, but that might again be due to my lack of historical knowledge.

I liked the side romance of Brimsley and Reynolds. I wonder what happened to Reynolds, how they’re romance went – did he die? Leave? Brimsley was clearly still fond and nostalgic for their time together.

While I understand why Lady Danburry had an affair with Violet’s father and it fit the theme of figuring out what to do with yourself as a woman in and after marriage, it felt a bit weird, especially with her budding friendship with Violet. To come back to the characterization, I thought Danburry revealing anything about her inner life to Violet in friendship was a bit weird, as she’d always been super discrete during Bridgerton. I’m glad Violet found out about the affair behind her back rather than her telling Violet, though, that felt more in character. If she’d told her, it’d have broken my suspense of disbelief for sure.

Overall, it was entertaining on its own, but maybe not best considered within the canon of the Bridgerton continuity.

Belgravia
I watched the last two episodes of this 6 episode drama with my parents, and it was very fast-paced interesting intrigue. I need to go back and actually watch the first four episodes, but I get the feeling the ending was a bit rushed to make it only 6 episodes, it probably would have done better if it had more room to breathe as an 8 or 10 episodes drama.

Video Games

Technically, I watched other people play these, because I’m mostly interested in the plot and characters and terrible at these sort of fighting games :’)

The Mageseeker

“The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story” by RiotForge, meaning the department at RiotGames that makes the spin-off games. Mageseeker is supposed to be main canon, which is interesting since it depicts Sylas in particular in a very different light than the Marvel tie-in comic that was previously canon, without openly contradicting the plot beats therein.

I did enjoy Sylas more in Mageseeker than the comics, ngl. The comics depicted him as much more a Hannibal Lecter type character (some of those visuals made that parallel not just subtext) who seduced innocent little Lux into trusting him, only to bring Great Destruction For No Reason, because he’s a sociopath.

Which is in line with his history in League of Legends. Sylas was introduced as a sympathetic villain to the main game, as a charismatic demagogue whose silvery tongue convinces the common folk that our Demacian heroes are the bad guys, actually, and thus creating an unnecessary revolution… and ignoring the fact that Demacia is literally bringing about a mage genocide in a kinda fascist regime. The problem of its lingering “good guy” image from the early days of lore they are slow to change out of.

Mageseeker on the other hand explores Sylas’ story much more… I don’t want to say realistic, exactly, but they’ve certainly thought his circumstances through a lot more. He’s discovered as a kid, imprisoned and abused and forced into helping his oppressors find more people like him. (While in his LoL lore this was a unique position, Mageseeker made it much more common. I’m not sure if I like that decision yet.)

I liked most of the new characters they introduced, they worked really well in their functions! Making Lux and Garen’s uncle the Main Bad Guy to avoid Implications ™ for Lux, Garen, and Jarvin was, hm. A bit of a coward move, but also pretty clever? They likely couldn’t have gotten away with implicating the main champions of LoL, and a figure like Eldred Crownguard makes sense within a regime like Demacia’s. I liked the power struggle aspect to the Mageseekers political faction and how they influenced the newly crowned king into making rash, emotional decisions.

Also I’m really glad Shyvana finally broke things off with Jarvin towards the end of the game. She stayed by his side while he committed atrocities against people like her for far too long. Jarvin’s rationalization of “not these people because I care about them” exceptions to his rules was very on point for a spoiled king, and I’m glad Lux didn’t take him up on it and Shyvana left him over it. Though sadly the lesson didn’t seem to sink in RIP.

Lux’s naivety re: a peaceful sanctuary for the mages vs Sylas’ bloody revenge were a great contrast, and I think the game did well to show how both of their ideologies fall short — Lux’s mages *do* get attacked, while Sylas learns the hard way through Leilane’s sacrifice that his way won’t work if he doesn’t protect the people he cares about, the mages under his wing. Generally the game did good to provide several views on the various beliefs, from more extreme views like Sylas’ and Kara’s to softer views like Lux’s.

Wisteria was also a great villain/foil to Sylas, the dark version of Sylas who remained under the Mageseekers’ control and broke apart under them. Someone so filled with self-hatred they lash out against others like them. Their friends-to-enemies dynamic made the story very enjoyable.

I am a bit miffed at the attempts of Both Sides-ing, especially towards the end. Mageseeker’s writers definitely threaded the needle well in several places, and they were constricted in what they could do (e.g. Jarvin IV has to remain king and a Good Guy in the lore, despite all the atrocities committed in his name and under his command). But that’s ultimately a problem Riot’s management will have to decide how to handle eventually. Overall the story went a lot further in painting Demacia as the bad guys for this game already than I honestly expected going in!

For me, they also went a bit too far in softening Sylas to make him ~sympathetic. Especially with making him a dad to his dead friend’s (whom he killed!) protegee at the end. Sylas is a traumatized adult who still has to learn how to live in the real world rather than a dungeon! He is NOT dad material! OMG. (Just let him make mistakes and have flaws in line with his trauma please. It’s not an excuse for his actions, but let him do those actions anyway!) Generally I liked his character development and growth during the game, but the end result was a bit too… happy sappy for my taste. Let him be messed up in peace!

Also, I’m not sure I like the Kayle-Morgana conflict being connected to Demacia. I probably missed the relevant lore, if Riot ever put any out (they’re bad at that), but… idk. Morgana didn’t feel like the right fit for the role? She’s a hedonist, a lover, at least the way I remember her most recent retcon. Sure, peace fits into that image, but retribution? Revolution? Sanctuary? Eh. Kayle’s fanaticism with Righteous Justice fits Demacia as the oppressors much better, although her Judgment would smite them one and all for their crimes. Kayle doesn’t care about the why, just the actions, so she’d kill… probably all the main characters actually lol. Anyway I’m not sure they’re the best metaphor for the on-going conflict, but *shrugs* I guess they wanted to add more champions.

Convergence

Another League of Legends spin-off game, this one centering the character Echo. He’s quite different from the Echo we see in Arcane, since that media is considered AU to the LoL main canon (except when they try to bring the vibes back to the main canon because of Arcane’s financial success, but I digress).

Unlike Mageseeker, I felt like the narrative fell a bit short on this one.

The main premise of a teenaged Echo meeting his older self who has Gone Wrong was great. The game explores how Echo’s unique circumstance, being able to rewind a moment until he gets the ideal outcome, could affect his perspective on the world and other people - namely forgetting that they’re people with their own wishes and internal lives, because he can video game save-restart to try and get the best dialogue option for the outcome he wants. This is very clearly older!Echo’s fault and the lesson younger!Echo has to learn, which works out great.

The problem is the rest of the story.

I liked Camille’s introduction and early role within the story, especially in how older!Echo making a deal with her makes younger!Echo uncomfortable. Where that narrative goes wrong imo is the part where younger!Echo befriends Camille and she acts as a mother figure to younger!Echo - like, no! That’s so out of character for Camille! She literally had her heart replaced by a ~~clockwork~~ hextech heart. She’s literally the unfeeling assassin/enforcer of the rich. It’s literally in her tragic backstory of how she became a villain—a great villain that I enjoy in that incarnation! Her becoming a mother figure to Echo, the rebel of Zaun who fights against the capitalism of Piltover, whose invention and genius are exactly what Camille is supposed to eliminate – no. Just no.

Short-time, reluctant allies with a shared goal? Sure, I can buy that. But then there needs to be backstabbing and that was severely lacking from the game.

I really liked TBSkyen’s suggestion of replacing her with Caitlin, at least in the second half of that role. Caitlin is another cop from Piltover, another rich girl and all the cultural misunderstandings that brings, but unlike Camille she’s open to learning. Especially since her partner (both as a cop and a lesbian) Vi is from Zaun. She’d be a better fit for the whole detective work of hunting older!Echo down, too.

Also it would’ve been a fun boss-fight of Camille & older!Echo vs Caitlin & younger!Echo, with the themes of separating Piltover and Zaun vs learning to work together, which is clearly a message Riot wants to push.

I’m not even gonna touch the whole “symbiosis” thing. Piltover fucks Zaun over again and again, and Zaun is the result of capitalist hell. There’s nothing symbiotic in the abuse Zaun suffers to make Piltover the golden jewel of upper crust rich elite. And the game had some nice moments where that became really clear, but the whole “both are equally good and bad” spiel got on my nerves. Riot’s upper management are cowards for not actually going there when they set up the tension to have clear political messaging.

On another note, the sideplot with Jinx was weird af, out of left field, and utterly ruined the pacing of the rising tension. I agree with TBSkyen that it felt more like a DLC tagged on rather than part of the main game. She was hard to integrate as is, and Riot’s management probably wanted her in there because she’s popular and would sell the game. But the trailer gives a completely different impression of her importance to the story for her to only show up to be a random cool boss fight… She just didn’t fit the themes the game is exploring at all.

Current Mood: sleepy

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where Feels come home to roost

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