elenothar

Says a lot that I managed to do one monthly review post at an appropriate time before crashing and burning. Figured it'd make more sense to just shove the two months together, particularly since March was... not a great month (read: busy at work, health issues, and a death in the family), so I didn't do a lot.

First off, thanks to the kind soul who paid for an account upgrade! <3 I'm having a lot of fun with the increased icon count and am eyeing that Guardian mood theme...

TV and movies

Three movies this time (I think? The problem with doing these review posts too late is that my memory is already going again): the new Dune film (pretty and some good acting from mostly side-characters, but otherwise un-engaging), Embrace Again (surprisingly good, and to no one's surprise I liked Zhu Yilong in it), and Drum Youth, which is Zhu Yilong's first movie (? possibly? He's very baby-faced anyway) and pretty decent, though I don't much care for high school settings.

On the TV front, I'm still bouncing off of things, but I did watch Wheel of Time, which was largely enjoyable, kept up with all my watchalongs and re-watched Our Song, the Chinese music competition show of Qingshenshen fame (a comfort watch, basically).

Books

Most of Seven Years in Tibet until I got distracted, a good chunk of the Chinese classic Journey to the West (translated by Anthony C. Yu, the unabridged version), Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness, which was a very interesting read, and Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies, which was very vivid and well-written, but generally reminded me of why I don't often read 'literary' novels, i.e. why do they always have to be so grim. I also re-read one of my favourites, Tanya Huff's Sing the Four Quarters

Fandom activities

I signed up for the Guardian 520 exchange, which I'm very excited for. Assignments will go out next week, so hopefully I'll jive with mine and get writing on that. Guardian Bingo is proceeding apace - I have strong doubts I'll be able to fill all the squares, even in a year, but I'm giving it a good go.

I posted four fics in February and March, two in each month (which seems a fairly standard rate for me these days - Guardian continues to be very good to my writing muse).

Variable (Guardian, 7.5k, my take on tiny dragon Shen Wei)

Gilded (Lost Tomb Reboot, 5.5k, part of a series of us stabbing poor Wu Xie)

Delusions of Universality (Guardian, 1.5k, Dixingren & gender & Shen Wei)

what the weave tells you (Guardian, 4k, intimate Weilan featuring non-sexual dark energy bondage (no, I don't know what I was doing there either...))

Here's to hoping April is a better month overall. Hope everyone is keeping well!

I fell off the posting on Dreamwidth waggon (in my defense, I've been busy moving to a different continent and trying to get used to All Of The New Things All At Once), but I thought I'd make an attempt at a 'this is what I've been doing fannishly in the last few months' post.

Since my last fic update post, I've posted eight fics to AO3 - mostly Guardian or Lost Tomb Reboot - though that number is partly so high because of the Guardian Wishlist Event. From newest to oldest:


After the Rains (5k, Cloudy Mountain)

Coda for the film because some characters desperately needed a hug.

Unbearable (1k, Guardian)

A sequel to the previous mildly cracky bear fic, in which Shen Wei can talk to bears (but no other animals). I'm pretty sure bear fic is just my Guardian aesthetic now.

Down is Easy (21k, Lost Tomb Reboot)

An unusual one for me, as it deals with rape recovery (though it's a rather softer fic than that makes it sound). Very much not everyone's cup of tea, but it wanted to be written and ended up somewhat cathartic so I screwed up my courage and posted it.

Is or Isn't (1.5k, Guardian)

Mostly light-hearted identity shenanigans that grew some Shen Wei feelings because of course they did.

One for the conspiracy theorists (5k, Guardian)

Guardian Wishlist fill for marycrawford, for the prompt 'Shen Wei's students find out'

Flowers Blooming in the Night (2.5k, Guardian)

Guardian Wishlist fill for yaaurens, for the prompt 'Shen Wei and Ying Chun friendship'

The Perils of Accounting (1k, Lost Tomb Reboot)

Guardian Wishlist fill for achray, for the prompt 'anything Xiao Bai'

Settled (2k, Lost Tomb Reboot)

Pingxie Exchange fill, for daydreamorama, who wanted asexual Pingxie (right up my street)


... In conclusion, I'm still very much in the Z1L fandom space XD

The list of WIPs I'm working on at the moment is stupidly long, but the ones that are closer to completion than some of the others include a Yuletide Lost Tomb Reboot treat, a Guardian early canon divergence AU in which HPS and ZYL end up kidnapped together and bonding ensues, my entry for the Hallows Zine, and a sprawling canon AU featuring Shen Wei pursuing musical interests in a Haixing much more peacefully integrated with Dixing.