Magister of Misery

Personal Life
I've been really busy with work! I meant to update this blog a lot over the last two weeks, but something always came up. But things finally are starting to slow down, so hopefully, I'll be around more <3

Also, on a personal note, I visited my baby niece and she is the cutest baby eVAH. I may have caught baby fever. Looking into potentially signing up for dating apps or similar to get my love life started up again - I work in a women-dominated field and the town I live in is unlikely to provide me with someone of the right age range/same goals for life.

I showed my parents 开端 | Reset, which I'd watched with my brother before - they loved it! Gonna finally write up that review I promised over a year ago soon.

Exchange Scene

FFFX
I'm hard at work editing and rewriting bits of my fffx assignment, and it's starting to come together as a better version than what I originally submitted at deadline. Fingers crossed I'll get the rewrites done before Saturday! My beta's been very helpful in clarifying some things I needed to rethink and is very generous with the tight schedule we now have. If I sign up again, I'm going to do less other exchanges surrounding this one so I can actually get a decent chunk of fic done in November.

Candy Hearts
candyheartsex revealed both fics and authors while I was busy! I got a lovely fic about Shen Wei teasing Zhu Hong about her dating life, which was utterly adorable and a great take on their post-canon dynamic <3

Title: like family by teaotter
Fandom: Guardian (TV)
Ship(s) Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan & Zhu Hong
Words: 487
Summary: Zhu Hong had long since grown accustomed to hiding her dates from her family.

I also had way too much fun diving back into my original fandom :D I started my fandom life in YGO! (the original run) and Bakura Ryou was something of a blorbo for me back then. So it was really awesome to dip my fingers back into that canon and see what I could come up with. Time travel is always a favourite trope of mine, but I went with the version canon gives us. A lot of dramatic irony which had me giggling while writing! And my recip seems to appreciate all the canon parallels and left an amazing comment, so score :D!

Title: Welcome To My World for seerofrage / TereziMakara
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters
Ship(s) Yami Bakura/Bakura Ryou, Thief King Bakura/Bakura Ryou (note: Thief King Bakura is the ancient Egyptian version of Yami Bakura)
Words: 8.5k
Tags: Memory World (time travel), getting together, possessive Bakura Ryou, BAMF!Ryou, (mutual) protectiveness, Shadow Games
Summary: AKA Memory World Reprise: Tendershipping edition

Bakura Ryou wants his other half back and he's willing to risk everything to do it.

Thief King Bakura has no idea what to do with this pale stranger, whose secrets seem to be the key to his plans' success.

Rare Femslash Exchange
Just 4ish hours ago, rarefemslashexchange revealed! I'm very excited to dive into my gift (possibly tonight, depending on how work allows - I'm on night shift today). Someone tackled a rare canon for me! Excited to see what they did with it :D (I was already flattered by how fast I got snapped up from the pinch hits list, which seems like a good omen imo). Ngggh, I wish I didn't have obligations and could dive right in!

Title: from now on I’ll see nothing but you (from now on I'll love myself instead of you)
Fandom: love4eva by LOONA (Music Video)
Ship(s) Yves/Olivia Hye
Words: 4k
Tags: Abandonment, Angst with a Happy Ending, Friendship/Love, Pining, Reconciliation, Reunions
Summary: From the stone balcony, Olivia watched three figures run from Eden and into the maze that was part of the only place she had ever known.

(A story of how Olivia Hye escaped Eden and reunited with Yves and her friends.)

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!)

I've been meaning to do a close-watch of Guardian forever. Since my initial watch/binge of Guardian back in March/April 2021, I haven't come back to rewatch the whole thing. I've seen the first 3 episodes multiple times, attempting to lure friends in, but none of those attempts stuck. Otherwise, I only watched bits and pieces for fic research purposes, until I fell sick in December and needed something to watch. (I only made it to episode 12 though, so I'm starting over now to follow along with the sid_guardian group rewatch xD)

Goals

My focus in this rewatch is on two categories: worldbuilding and villains.

For worldbuilding, I'm looking at Haixing-Dixing politics, the peace treaty, Dixing-Yashou biology, history of YOHE and its inconsistencies, the SID and its tasks, and similar things.

On the topic of villains I want to track what they do and why, and how effective they are in reaching their goals. As well as other miscallaneous facts about their lives. I'm particularly interested in Zhao Xinci | Zhang Shi, Professor Ouyang, the Regent, and Zhu Jiu here. Probably Ya Qing and Wang Xiangyang once they show up, too, though to a lesser degree admittedly.

trobadora started us off with a great post for the Guardian Rewatch!

( Notes on Episode 1 )

General observations:
I adore Zhu Hong pranking Lin Jing with the dried fish, it shows off their almost sibling-esque relationship and the humour at SID perfectly. Also, Shen Wei's Innocent Wide Eyes TM when Zhao Yunlan confronts him with the topic of Dixingren. ROOF SCENE MY BELOVED. Guo Changcheng playing with geometry tools in the office while Zhao Yunlan interrogates Li Qian. Makes me wonder if they stole an office of the architecture department at DCU xD also the way Li Qian quickly puts Shen Wei between her and Chief Zhao 🥺 and the way he protects her when the shadow man shows up! Ready to reveal his secret on the roof, too, if the SID had been just a moment later *hearts*

Also also, just the way Li Qian's outfits match Shen Wei's? *squees* I'm having so many feelings for them and their mentor-mentee relationship rn... and Shen Wei interferes with Zhao Yunlan's investigation of her not just once, but twice, going to grab her from the office and then again at the bench scene <3 <3 <3 (I'm very tempted to do a scene discussion of the bench scene now...)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, y'all <3

guardian_wishlist reveals happened today! I got so many lovely gifts, I've truly been blessed :D

• tinny made me several lovely Luo Fusheng icons to use (like the one on this post!)
• nemainofthewater and thebanSacredBand banded together to create a bunch of hilarious Guardian Memes!
• tinypinkmouse created an incredible podfic of my Weilan fic Noodles
• amedia wrote Breadth of Heart, a Shen Wei PoV set before my Chu Shuzhi loyalty fic A Blade of Grass
• china_shop wrote me the incredible fic The Martial Serpent, exploring Zhu Hong's training as a field agent and relationships within the SID
• and hybridphoenix wrote an amazing sequel to their identity shenanigans from last year, now with the identity reveal happening in Miscalculation!

I also had the luck of inspiration and time matching up to fill 4 of the wishes this year :D all of the giftees liked them, too, which makes me super happy <3

1. Welcome To Dixing for justacoyote, a WTNV-inspired Dixing Community radio show
2. Malum Purificatum for tinypinkmouse, a Guardian/Assassin's Creed crossover in which post-canon Weilan end up in Renaissance Italy
3. Cooking Lessons for yaaurens, a GYADL Tianying/Luo Fusheng domestic fluff, slice of life piece
4. So Red The Streets (As I Slowly Bleed) for mjsakurea, which is Shen Wei whump with a seasoning of Zhao Yunlan's emotional angst :3c

All of them were incredibly fun to write, and I had a lot of fun participating in the Wishlist for the second time <3 this fandom is incredible, and I'm so happy to have joined y'all!

(Now I just need to reply to everyone in my inbox and actually read all of the delicious gifts others received 🍽)

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

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

Twenty-Four Hours in New Dixing by china_shop

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

Keep On Going by missingnowrites

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

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