Donutastic Delights

Whoops, look, a post!

donutsweeper — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 18:10:48 GMT

I have completely forgotten to C&P my Dreamwidth entries here for a while, I remembered to do it for a bit after the crossposting broke but then got busy and fell out of the habit. I still check LJ almost daily, I just haven't been posting. I don't think many here are interested in my Cdrama recs that I made at recthething over on DW and I suspect anyone interested in my fic (not that I've written much) is subscribed to my AO3 so I won't post links for either here like I usually do on my dreamwidth but have a crafting spam:
Some hanukkah presents (a hot pad, a soap keeper, a cat toy, a 4 leaf clover bookmark and a small star of David to go on a ribbon to finish wrapping stuff):

and
and

EAD's Birthday Bash's creations:

Another rug, this one made out of bags and thus made for boots and shoes:

20"x12" (30cm x 20) made from 10 hamburger/hotdog bun bags for the runner strip; 7 bread bags and 18 supermarket bagel bags for the working strip.

And my huge project, the blanket I just finished from a pattern I came up with:

It's a little over 84" (or just over 7' or 214cm) by 48"ish (or 4' or 122cm) and dual sided which you can see when it's somewhat decoratively draped on chair:

and a close look at the two patterns and border for a better look:

I'm still working on writing up the pattern, it's a complicated one. ETA- The pattern is up along with more pictures of the blanket over on dreamwidth, please go check it out!

Meme, Recs and Babble

donutsweeper — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 19:58:59 GMT

Bit the bullet and signed up for the love meme thing again...

✨ holiday love meme 2022 ✨
my thread here

Also have (sigh) three weeks of @recthething recs (lots of Untamed/MDZS fic and assorted @ficinabox things (only one of which is a fic)

MDZS/Untamed Fics:
Due Process by Kytrin, Mslead (280k)
Summary: The huli-jing of the Yiling Wei sect have always stood out as neither being on the side of the law or against it. However everything changed with the murder of their leader. Now, with a usurper sitting upon the Spider Lily throne, Wei Wuxian fights to reclaim his birthright and set his clan back on the right course. No one will stop him. Not even Lan Wangji, the finest dragon on the force and the only man to ever come close to catching him. (Okay, so this a long one, but it's great! There's tons of world building for how cultivation still exists in the modern world and how those who are fully humans and those who aren't work together. The Mystery is well plotted and despite the length the fic never seemed to drag. If you have the time, it's well work a read.)

Of nothingness of everything of nevermind by Spodumene (2.5k)
Summary: Lan Zhan wants to get married. Wei Ying wants to know why. (cute fluff)

The Donkey Books of How to Be Good and Punish Mean People by Admiranda (series, 4 works, 6k total)
Summary for first in series: Little Apple is a good donkey. She knows this in her heart. And to be a good donkey, you have to eat apples, run fast, and kick people. (adorable and hilarious Little Apple POV fics)

Turn away at the western gate by Mhalachai (13k)
Summary: Cast out of the Cloud Recesses in secrecy following Qingheng-Jun’s death, the woman who was once Madam Lan makes her way across the lands as she mourns the loss of her sons. In Yiling she finds a small child, himself missing his parents. Can Liu Meihui help little Wei Ying when she can’t even help herself? (a take on non-jiang!WWX I haven't seen before)

lotus blossoms out of season by Kieron_ODuibhir (5k)
Summary: “How could you let him?” she asked abruptly. It came out—menacing. Her own voice hadn’t been capable of conveying anger like that. If she’d tried very hard to rage, it would have been shrill and unimpressive, and if she’d spoken the way she’d tried to just now, it might have chilled the right room but it would still have sounded gentle. A-Cheng’s voice had no softness in it, and both boys went very still. (brief glimpse of a fascinating things-post!WWX's-death-go-very-different AU)

It's not a fairytale by underwaves (16k)
Summary Snippet: After the Sunshot Campaign, rumors of a monster living in the forest of Yiling spread. Hanguang-jun is known to be wherever the chaos is. Alternative title: Little White Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wen Wolf (great AU and written for the 2020 MXTX Big bang, so it also has incredible art)

The @ficinabox recs (all works currently anon):
Art:
MCU- Thor- In His Glory (really neat stained glass art of Loki)
Star Wars original trilogy:
-Bond (utterly gorgeous Leia and Luke)
-Lando (wonderfully detailed, particularly the clothing)
Star Wars all media types and Discworld crossover - [ART] Interdimensional Parallels (Cat Edition), Death has made some new friends. ...hopefully they're friends. (An adorably cute Death)
Original Work - Meadow Friends, Summary: A bear and a friend. (so cute)

Choose Your Own Adventure:
The Losers: Hit with Your Fists - Summary: Roque knew whatever he decided, he was going to have to act fast. To punch Clay, click here. To kiss Clay, click here. (really neat format and a great story)

Cross stitch:
We Are Lady Parts (TV) - [Cross Stitch] You're Good Simple cross stitch pattern of Saira and Amina. (I really like the detail work on the guitar in particular)

Fic:
The Untamed - Answer With Your Heart (2k), Summary: Following the Sunshot Campaign and a rash declaration at the victory banquet, Wei Wuxian is highly sought after as a son-in-law. Fortunately, he has a plan to put a stop to that. (very cute)

I think am FINALLY almost done with my Yuletide assignment, the latest ever in the however many years I've been doing YT other than that time assignments went out on Nov 21st. Sigh. I'd blame this awful flu that I just can't seem to shake but it's really more due to a horrible case of writer's block. SIGH. At least I won't have to default and maybe I'll manage a treat or two even.

Anyway, I love the video of the scientists who discovered the black-naped pheasant pigeon (a critically endangered bird that hadn't been seen for 140 years) in Papua New Guinea earlier this year (link to article about the discovery, some photos and also the video on this tumblr post), hopefully you all will as well. :)

Rug and Recs

donutsweeper — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 18:12:48 GMT

Finished the other 2 longsleeve T-shirt plus regular t-shirt rug:

it came out ever so slightly smaller than the last 29x19 ish (as opposed to the 30x20 of the other)

Although tempted, I haven't started a new rug yet. I've been canon reviewing for Yuletide and taking notes and the combo isn't great for crafting. Soon though. Although not only do I not need a new rug, I'm starting to not even have places to put them.

*sigh* Three weeks of @recthething recs, a few MDZS/Untamed fic recs, art from tumblr and lots of art from the still anon, recently opened Trick or Treat collection:

I Hate the Way You Look at Me by venagrey (37k)
Summary: Wei Ying, a disgraced herbalist expelled from the Jiang School for cultivating chaos magic, has worked hard to rebuild his life. And that hard work has paid off: Yiling Laozu’s Maladies and Misfortunes is the continent’s pre-eminent dealer of inconvenient hexes. The only dealer of inconvenient hexes, really, at least who wasn’t an illegal sorcerer. But when an enforcer starts tailing him in the marketplace one day, all his hard work goes out the window in an instant. And when the sudden appearance of a mythical curse threatens to derail his entire life again, the only cure may be to forget it ever happened at all. (fascinating Modern with Magic AU with incredible worldbuilding)

work song by
lianhua_lianzi (4.5k)
Summary Snippet: Five odd jobs Wei Wuxian took during his post-canon wandering, the people he met, and how he returned in the end. (lovely post-canon WWX wandering and finding himself fic)

Written, never said by sandorara (6.6k)
Summary: ”I have a letter to deliver to young lady Luo Qingyang. It has arrived from Gusu today, with the quickest delivery.” Thirteen years of correspondence, understanding and friendship. (Sweet but melancholic mostly epistolary LWJ and Mianmian friendship fic)

Tumblr Art:
Addams Family:
Halloween inspired by my love for the Addams Family films from the early 90’s (technically labeled a WIP, but so atmospheric and beautiful)
Babylon 5:
Lennier and Delenn (just darling)
Lost Tomb Reboot/Grave Robbers' Chronicles:
This is a robbery (four part hilarious comic, links includes all parts)
MDZS/The Untamed:
- Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are happy and in love!! (love the emotion in this)
- cottagecore au where nobody dies (so ridiculously adorable)
Merlin:
- Smooch (sweet and tender Merthur kiss)
- Arthur’s really the worst patient sometimes (cute comic)
- Merthur as Sheet Ghosts!!! (what it says on the tin, idk, it made me laugh)
Sherlock Holmes:
they’re probably bickering (Watson and Holmes, arm in arm. Wonderful)

Trick or Treat Exchange 2022 (all works still anonymous):
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga - Season’s Greetings from Second Lieutenant Black Hayate
Summary: Autumnal Black Hayate (absolutely adorable, no canon knowledge needed, dog and pumpkin drawing)
The Sandman (TV)- The Story of a Cat and the Raven Who Taught Her to Jump
Summary: Matthew adopts a kitten ... Accidentally. (Oh dear, poor Matthew)
British Mythology & Folklore:
- Murderhorse
Summary: A friendly kelpie! Who just wants to be friends! What could go wrong?? (love the ominous use of color in this one)
- A Dog of Ill Omen
Summary: Inspired by the Black Dog of Bouley. I'm sure it would love to play fetch! (playful but ominous)
Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy Tales) - N°23 - LRRH: Revenge
Summary: After losing her grandma to the Big Bad Wolf, Red run and hid in the woods. Rescued and trained by a hunter, she is ready to face her nightmares. She won't stop until she gets the vengeance she deserves. (incredible mock cover for a comic book)
Original Work:
- Caught In A Bat Romance Summary:♫ You know that I want you / And you know that I need you / I want it bad, your bat romance ♫ (utterly and completely adorable)
- Star of the Ballet
Summary: A young gorilla girl achieves her dream! (absolutely adorable)
- Scary Masks
Summary: For the prompt: Cute Little Monster Who Wants to be Scary and Keeps Failing (far too adorable and cute)
- Waning Moon
Summary: The Moon, taking care of moonly duties (So ethereal and lovely)
Untitled Goose Game - Somebody left the gate open on Halloween again
Summary: Ya darn goose, whatcha gonna do with all that loot? (hilarious havoc ala goose)

Duolingo is forcing its updated path learning system on everyone now, I'd gotten it on my iphone a while back but still was able to use the old one on my ancient ipad but without me updating the app it switched over this morning. For the moment the desktop version is still the same but people have been reporting that there's a rolling update happening there too. I hated the new path so much I went from probably 30 min of language study a day to doing one lesson to keep my streak before realizing the old version was available elsewhere, I don't know what I'll do once it's new-version-or-nothing. I'll definitely completely give up on learning Yiddish and Welsh, which I only do via duo, but I suspect Spanish will join it. I'll probably continue Chinese via other apps, but I don't know. SIGH. Why duo. Blargh.

2022 Yuletide Letter

donutsweeper — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 22:48:40 GMT

Thank you for writing for me!

I am also donutsweeper over on ao3. I have gifts enabled and welcome treats.

In general I like stories that focus on character development and interactions, hurt/comfort, competence (it's always great to read stories where people do their jobs and do it well even under extreme circumstances), missing scenes, and plotty adventures. Humor, snappy dialog and/or snark are all wonderful and canon type violence is fine. When it comes to worldbuilding, I love it when tiny asides or minor details are fleshed out or anytime a "wait, but how does that work/what did they mean when they said 'X'?" kind of thing or situation is explained.

Graphic violence and rape can be a trigger of mine, so I'd appreciate if you did not include either in a story written for me. Other DNWs include A/B/O, character death, genderswap, mpreg, covid/pandemic references or situations, or xeno.

All Souls (TV) Any (characters in tagset: Mitchell Grace, Glory St. Clair, Worldbuilding)

Haunted hospitals and unethical experimentation are perfect stepping stones for good storytelling and there was such potential in the ones we saw in "All Souls." There was so many things hinted at in this show that I'd loved to see explored further. What other sorts of ghosts wander the halls of All Souls? What other experiments had been done there? How does Mitch tie in to it all and what role does Glory play?

On the less supernatural side of things, I loved the interactions between Mitch and Grace and their implied, only briefly touched upon, history together. A story between Grace and a young Mitch from back then or something where they reminisce about his father would be wonderful as would just an everyday kind of slice of life snippet now that they've reconnected.

DNW A/B/O, character death, genderswap, graphic violence, mpreg, covid/pandemic references or situations, rape or xeno.

Only six episodes of this show were ever made, which is such a shame because the world it build in that short amount of time was fascinating but so much was left unexplained and unanswered. Just how prevalent were the hospital's hauntings? How is All Souls a "special place" and what did Glory mean when she said "the dead have power here"? Was Glory even real and if so (or if not) who/what was she? Why do we never see her talking with someone other than Mitch? How is she tied to All Souls? What was the story behind the black veiled lady with the pram? How often does Lazarus make appearances? Was Mitch really somehow the reincarnated doctor who had been there during the Civil War? Has Doctor Ambrosius really been there the whole time and if so what are his powers? What exactly was that creature he was commanding in "The Deal" and are there similar creatures elsewhere in the hospital? Do the staff and patients notice all the hospital's oddities or is it just people like Mitch and Glory who do? I have so many questions and I'd love to read a story that went into... well, any of that.

All six All Souls episodes have been put up on youtube. The order they aired was: the pilot, "Spineless", "The Deal", "Bad Blood", "Running Scared", and "One Step Closer to Roger".

Měl jsem psa a kočku | From the Point of View of a Cat - Karel Čapek Any (characters in tagset: Cat, Man, Worldbuilding)

For such a short work there's so much to this - on the most basics of levels, it's just a brief glimpse of the life of cat and its Man and the cat's thoughts and opinions on the things the Man does, but when looked at a little deeper there's the "mysterious and magic voices" and the "dark voices" the cat hears and the possibility it's not just a cat being weird or sensing normal things differently. Is the cat even a cat and its Man a man?

Is this a ghost story? Is the cat a spirit of some kind? A muse? A protector? Is its Man a simply a writer or perhaps some kind of witch or alchemist or something else? Does this story take place on Earth, in the 1930s when it was written and is the "sharp black claw" a fountain pen or is the setting different, centuries ago, and it is a quill, or perhaps years from now and it is something else entirely?

DNW A/B/O, character death, graphic violence, mpreg, covid/pandemic references or situations, rape or xeno.

For such an incredibly short story, I think there's a lot of completely different ways to explore and expand on it, ranging from a fairy tale type plucky hero cat to typical cat staring-at-nothing behavior, to a darker, horroresque tale of it seeing looming monsters in the shadows and everywhere in between.

From the Point of View of a Cat can be read here or here and is available to listen to on AO3 here.

What Ever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo - Gerald Kerch Any (characters in tagset: Corporal Cuckoo, Kerch, Worldbuilding)

What Ever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo is a fascinatingly different tale of immortality than how it's usually portrayed. He was just an ordinary guy, not overly smart or ambitious, who suddenly had immortality thrust upon him but unable to improve and therefore kind of just stuck, forever, as he was.

What other adventures has Cuckoo had? Does he keep trying to create the Digestive through the centuries, over the millennia? In some far future is Cuckoo still scraping by, talking about the idea of raising space chickens on some distant planet? What about Kerch? Does anyone believe his story? Does he ever question if he misremembered the whole incident or invented it whole cloth? Does he become a scifi writer as a result?

DNW A/B/O, character death, genderswap, graphic violence, mpreg, covid/pandemic references or situations, rape or xeno.
Fandom specific DNW: Cuckoo's immortality being discovered in a way that results in his being captured or experimented on.

I really don't know what to ask for besides what was in my optional details other than to say I'm just fascinated by Cuckoo and how his immortality is presented and the worldbuilding of it all so if you have any ideas other than what I've suggested, please run with them.

Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo can be read here

吸血鬼鬼盲盒 | The Vampires (TV) Any (characters in tagset: Fuca, Su Tanya, Xiaoling and Worldbuilding)

A canon that combines Vampires and Cultivators has so much potential for storytelling but we only get the vaguest glimpse into the world 'The Vampires' exists in and I would love to see more set in it. We meet Xiaoling, 148th generation disciple of the Mount Wuling Sect but only gets hints to her training and skills. Vampires are presented as being able survive without having to kill because they can get lemon ginger blood tea and blood layer cake delivered, just how common is the need for such foods in this world, and why? There are guardian spirits, soulfire candles, powerful wards and ghosts, how do they fit into the world and does the typical person aware of them? I'd love to know more about any of these things.

What other sorts of adventures did Fuca and Su Tanya have, with or without A-Mo and Xingming? Has Xiaoling battled other vampires or creatures? And then there's that final scene with Xiaoling and Jiang Tianyue standing outside the ship, what exactly did that imply? Did the night spent with Fuca, Su Tanya and Xingming happen? Is it going to happen again? Can they change its events?

DNW A/B/O, D/s, E rated fic, explicitly described torture, genderswap, graphic violence, covid/pandemic references or situations, PWP, rape or xeno.
Fandom specific DNW: Anything more than a passing mention of the deaths of Fuca, Su Tanya or Xingming that resulted their turning.

This 8 episode webdrama packs such an interesting story into its short, 41 minute total runtime. It seems to take place in what is mostly the modern day with food delivery and smart phones and whatnot, yet since a major ingredient of some of the food delivered is blood and the fact at least one cultivation sect still exists there are definitely some differences.

For character driven prompts rather than worldbuilding, I'd love to read more about Fuca and Su Tanya and their time together or more about Xioling's being a cultivator in the modern world and what all that entails.

Links to watch The Vampires can be found on this carrd

Yuletide, Recs and Whatnot

donutsweeper — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 16:58:10 GMT

There are only five days or so left to signup for yuletide!! New this year is the reminder to check to make sure you have gifts giving enabled (all accounts set up before this February should have it already the preference "Allow anyone to gift me works." checkmarked but it's a good idea to go to your AO3 and make sure and then mention it in your letter and also in your sign up. I added "I have gifts enabled and welcome treats." to each of my requests after seeing the yuletide admin post.)

As I have for the past several years, I compiled a list of short stories in the yuletide tagset; there's quite a lot, check them out if you want a few quick reads. I also put together a huge list of every Chinese Entertainment related thing I could find (which eventually expanded to include books, dramas, movies, commercials, RPF, and more) and links about or where to find most of the things and posted it over at @c-ent here, it's locked to the comm (since some of the links are, shall we say, less than legal either because they're fansubs or ~ahem~ sites) but the comm is open for joining.

I debated long and hard about my yuletide requests but eventually decided to double down on the 'Yuletide is for really rare fandoms' line of thinking and not only left all of the DMBJ franchise and Detective L off, but Under the Skin as well and instead went with 4 fandoms with no fic whatsoever (although two do have works, one has a vid and one an audiobook version of the short story)

Have 3 weeks of @recthething recs (Mostly MDZS/Untamed fics but one NIF fic)

all the problems we could solve by Stratisphyre (20k)
Summary: The most important thing Lan Wangji ever stole was roughly the equivalent to twenty dollars USD. The second most important thing Lan Wangji ever stole was Wei Ying’s heart. (An absolutely wonderful Modern, vaguely Leverage fusion, AU)

The blame game by apathyinreverie (13k)
Summary: Wei Ying doesn’t know what to make of it when, after he so publicly confronts the Jins, his staunchest supporter turns out to be… Zewu-jun? (Or, Lan Xichen time travels, immediately goes about fixing things, and promptly confuses the fuck out of everyone along the way.) (Great non-time traveler POV time travel fix it)

Where You Say My Name by trippednfell (15k)
Summary: Lan Wangji just wants to read the Journal of Modern Cultivation in peace. (brilliant Modern Cultivation with a modern version of a post-Sunshot-in-modern-era world)

Dead Things by Reavv (21k)
Summary Snippet: It is a year after his death that Wei Ying reforms. It is not a sudden thing, nor is it slow. He doesn’t wake so much as stretch, as if from a nightmare, caught in the last grasp of it like a fish on a hook, struggling but made docile by the pain. (Fascinating canon era, possibly but not necessarily AU fic set during the time WWX was dead with a fairy tale, ghost story feel.)

you've heard that melody before by Stratisphyre (66k)
Summary Snippet: In face of the abuse he has suffered at the hands of his family, Mo Xuanyu sacrifices his soul to summon a demonic cultivator to take revenge in his name. ...no, no that one. (Recently completed, well written and intriguing canon au that I haven't seen before.)

ghosts of the living by themeatbunismine (greetingsfrommaars) (5k)
Summary: Lan Zhan's apartment has a ghost problem. His mugs are on the floor, his lamps have been knocked over, and he hasn't had a full night's sleep in weeks. Something must be done about this. Or: Wei Ying keeps astral-projecting by accident when he sleeps. (short but cute modern cultivation/modern-with-magic fic)

The song that heals the soul by Meeana (6k)
Summary: Lots of AU, very self-indulgent. Basically, Yiling Laozu wins a war, destroys Jin Guangshan's hopes to be the most powerful cultivator in the whole world, and vanishes in the Burial Mounds. Lan Wangji then came there to heal his grief and broken heart, and to play That Song for Wei Wuxian's soul. And he finds something that was lost. (Interesting canon divergent AU after WWX disappears and is presumed dead shortly Lotus Pier falls and Sunshot going somewhat differently as a result)

...And they were Cultivators by pearliegloom (4k)
Summary: See, the worst part about being immortal was seeing your own history getting rewritten right before your very eyes without any reasonable way to stop it. ...The second worst part was all those pesky archaeologists taking your things without even asking first! (a cute take on the 'immortal sees their old things in a museum' trope)

Coping Techniques for the Clueless and Socially Disadvantaged by meyari (2k)
Summary: The worst part of the Sunshot Campaign was Wei Wuxian. Without a doubt. Which was why Jin Zixuan reluctantly found himself trying out various people’s coping methods in an effort to, you know, figure out something to fix it. Him. Yeah. Zixuan didn’t know, either, but someone obviously had to do something. (short but sweet canon compliant Jin Zixuan and Wei Wuxian friendship(ish) fic)

Nirvana in Fire:
7 Days by protos_metazu_ison (22k)
Summary Snippet: While investigating bandit activity, Jingyan is rescued by the Jiangzuo Alliance. Their famous chief, Mei Changsu, insists on a meeting but refuses to show his face. ((A fascinating AU where Nie Feng had survived the ambush and returned to the capital to tell them what happened which changed many events, although not Lin Shu's 'death', and eventually Prince Qi takes the throne.)

Newest rug, this one made from two different long sleeve Ts and one regular t-shirt. Do I need another rug? No. Have I already started another now that this one is finished? Yes. (I don't know what I'm going to do with myself once I actually use up my stash of undonateable crappy tshirts and old sheets but that is a problem for later me.)

It's 30"x20" ish or 76.2 cm x 50.8cm

crafting, recs and nomnomnominations

donutsweeper — Sun, 25 Sep 2022 04:09:09 GMT

It's Yuletide nomination time! And I... have no idea what to nom. I think I'm going to give up on at least one of my regulars (two not on AO3 and no fandom presence at all lasted-less-than-a-season US tv shows that I've been nomming and requesting for probably about 5 years now) but I don't know which, if any, Cdramas I should nom or if I should pick some tiny, weird short story or something. Decisions, decisions.

My scraps bag of random rug making bits and bobs was overflowing so I pulled out all the useable stuff and sorted it by similarness (the sheet strips which are wider and flat vs the tshirt strips which curl into almost tube-like 'yarn') and spent the last few weeks making two rugs:

36” by 22" (91.5cm by 56cm) The red and almost white were from various parts of the somewhat failed rug experiment I posted about in April, not sure what all the pink was from.

This one was smaller, 23.5" x 14.5", most of the dark gray/black, including the entire runner, was stuff leftover from the big rug I finished in July but what's neat is the runner was nearly entirely this weirdly thick border the sheet had that wouldn't really have worked for the knots so I was going to toss but it worked just fine as the runner. The tie-dye bit was from a shirt I dyed in *college* probably about 30 years ago that didn't fit anymore so I turned into 'tshirt yarn' and then never used.

And *ooof* three weeks of @recthething recs (MDZS/Untamed fic, a WoH tumblr vid and Captain America, Merlin and Guardian tumblr art):

Howling by MimiSpearmint (40k)
Summary Snippet: Lan Wangji is sent by the Institute to do two things: become the Yiling Patriarch's familiar, and report back his every movement. It does not go how any of them planned. (absolutely fascinating modern cultivation/modern-with-magic AU with great worldbuilding and interesting, Irish, setting. Note- this claims to be a Mortal Instruments fusion, which I know nothing about but still thoroughly enjoyed)

Hear a song this deeply by so_shhy (87k)
Summary Snippet: Lan Zhan’s new liaison at the Caiyi Municipal Cultivation Department is an enigma – ridiculously talented, yet somehow content with mopping up spiritual pests for barely above minimum wage. Wei Ying is slapdash and irresponsible, and Lan Zhan doesn’t like him at all… but then he meets A-Yuan, who loves music and longs for a piano his father can’t afford. Forced into cautious friendship by a four-year-old's music lessons, Lan Zhan soon realises Wei Ying is more than he seems. The single father is a man of many secrets – including, perhaps, the key to Lan Zhan's life's work. And in the meantime, the background resentment in Caiyi Town is rising to dangerous levels… (this recently completed modern cultivation AU fic brilliantly weaves a story of LWJ, who is trying to recreate the Lan's lost musical cultivation techniques via carefully monitored research trials, and WWX, a Caiyi Municipal Cultivation Department worker who seems to have more skills than he should.)

the spaces between by tellthemstories (series, 2 works, 12k total)
After's Summary: Lan Yuan does not smile for his first three years at Cloud Recesses.
Then's Summary: Hanguang-Jun is infinitely, utterly and heart-breakingly sad. (a look at LWJ after WWX's death- After through LWJ's POV and Then's through LSZ's. Raw and sad but real.)

won't take the easy road by twigofwillow (48k)
Summary: Two planets and what seems like six lifetimes later, Wei Ying thinks he’s still floating. It’s not that he does nothing! He works part-time at a private cultivation school on the outskirts of Caiyi, and tutors students regularly, and picks up substitute jobs at the public schools whenever he can. He has a slightly haunted apartment. He messages Wen Qing and Wen Ning on Yiling all the time and his sister calls him once a month if the intersystem voicecomms are working. He stays busy. Only sometimes, in his dreams, he sees Yunmeng as if from a shuttle window; the cloudy blue sphere receding into the dark expanse of space as they pull away. (an intriguing story and the world building in this space!AU is absolutely incredible)

Work in Tandem by MimiSpearmint (23k)
Summary: Lan Sizhui is going for his Sword Flight Licence. Lan Wangji is panicked. (interesting Modern Cultivation AU with great world building where LSZ needs extra help flying and WWX is a sword flight instructor)

the soft animal of your body by sysrae (15k)
Summary: “This is slightly embarrassing,” Lan Xichen says, “but I urgently need a pet-sitter." (Modern Cultivation AU with not only an interesting take on the Golden Core transfer but also some other interesting things added in)

tumblr things (art and one vid)
Captain America - 1943-2023: Old Habits Die Hard - (2022) Bucky Barnes and Cigarettes (wonderful style to these)
Merlin - Merlin with a horse (sweet and gentle)
- Here’s a little Merthur doodle I did. (Merlin and Arthur from s5e1, so much more than just a little "doodle")
- A Merlin and Arthur Hug (so much emotion in this one)
- Two loves I have, of comfort and despair/ Which like two spirits do suggest me still (gorgeous and wistful Merlin)
- I love AU with an alternative first meeting and I love even more when Merlin is a powerful sorcerer/druid/God/whatever and Arthur fall in love at first sight. (perfect and delightful comic for this AU)
- Merlin, Redesigned (a gorgeous, redesigned take on Merlin and his powers)
Guardian - A kiss, Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan (so tender)

Word of Honor (vid) - Where Is My Love? – WenZhou Reincarnation AU (incredibly well done combining of clips from WoH, The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion and Begin Again)

Another Afghan, Some Recs, and a Resource Post Question

donutsweeper — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 22:16:52 GMT

Two weeks of @recthething recs (all Untamed/MDZS fics)

grief; the stages of by synonemous (40k)
Summary: Wei WuXian opened his eyes to the sound of buzzing. (fascinating reimagining of (highlights of) the novel's events with a modern 2019 setting, i.e. modern cultivation plus cars and cellphones, etc)

I would rise free, and journey far away by psychomachia (9k)
Summary: Lan Xichen gets a correspondent in his seclusion. Nie Huaisang is just surprised he didn't set the first letter on fire. (a very interesting LXC-centric story told mostly through letters)

operation prison break (gone wrong) by bosbie (6k)
Summary: In the blighted depths of the Nightless City prison, the second prince of Gusu unlocks a cell door and opens it. It’s empty. The prisoner across the aisle is more than happy to tell him why—but not before being a shameless bastard about it. (Fascinating peek of a short royalty/spy AU)

Yúyīn 餘音 by riotintheheartt (18k)
Summary Snippet: It was winter, and Wei Wuxian felt it more in his soul than on his skin as he looked at the frozen surface of the lake. (interesting book!verse AU from 2018 with god!LWJ, ghost!A-Yuan and a despondent, hermit!WWX who lives in LWJ's temple)

Here With Me 'verse by iamwish (currently 3 works, 67k total, main story is 58k and side POV stories 2k and 7k)
Summary Snippet for main story: Wei Wuxian finds himself in the past, a few months before the Gusu Lan lectures, and decides that his best shot at hiding his trauma fixing the future is faking his own kidnapping and asking Wen Qing who all he needs to kill before she or someone she trusts is in charge of QishanWen. Clearly, he thought this through.

Or: Wei Wuxian creates a No War!AU, and then he has to live in it. (really well thought out time travel fix-it AU that does not shy away from showing how WWX's previous lives affected him. CW for period-typical homophobia and Yu Furen bashing)

The Chinese Garden Court by deliciousblizzardshark (5k)
Summary: Wei Ying has felt like he's been missing something his whole life. He finds what he'd lost at a museum. (Reincarnation + immortality AU)

I finished my newest afghan (made from yarn repurposed from an *incredibly* ugly sweater) but for three days have failed to take a non-cat occupied picture of it so have a sleeping Santini as well:

(it's about 48"x32" or 122cm x 81cm)
as an aside, this is the yarn from the afghan I had to pull out last month where I'd tried a tight pattern and 3/4 of the yarn made this, 42" long but only 14 wide (the color difference is due to sunshine vs lamps lighting)

And then onto the background for my question - when I first compiled my useful links posts I had a grand total of 300 some odd links and I came up with vague themes to sort them into posts. Now there's easily over 1600 links and while some of those posts have barely had anything added to them, others have doubled or even tripled in length. The "Random" and "History" posts in particular are now very big and I'm wondering if they've become unwieldly and hard to use. There's also other links and subjects I have complied to add, but I can't really decide where to put them.

I was thinking of starting a new post for the artist's resources, writers/artists 'guides to things' links that now are listed in the random post and adding some yet-to-be-posted NSFW writing links there. But I don't think adding in all the 'how to write X' links I have would work since I think people will look for the ones specifically about medical things and injuries in the 'injuries and treating them' post and the writing fight scenes/police/forensic links in the 'fighting, military, police etc' post and it'd be most helpful to keep all resources about those specific themes in their own posts. I'm really not sure if the 'Action/Sex scene descriptive words' links should move or stay in the 'Words' post, I guess it could go either way. If I do make a new post without those descriptive word links, it'd mean there'd be less than 50 links compiled for it, which seems kind of small though? (Even with them, it'll be only 60ish, which won't be the smallest post but is still fairly short.)

If you use those posts, how do you go about it? Just load up the entire useful links tag and ctrl-f? Go to a specific post you have bookmarked? Start on the masterpost and click from there? Do you have any suggestions on how to make them more navigable? (Just a reminder, the LJ versions of the posts are no longer updated, too many outgrew LJ's posts limits a while ago)

Battleship 2022 reveal and recthething recs

donutsweeper — Thu, 18 Aug 2022 19:47:23 GMT

Battleship reveals! I wrote 17 things (Captain America, DMBJ, Doctor Who, due South, FMA:B, Mag7, MDZS, Sherlock Holmes Downey films, Under the Skin) and did one art (Guardian):

Firstly, the art! For Guardian (tv):
Da Qing Demands Fish Summary: If you do not provide dried fish, he will just steal your snacks. (I.. did not manage to draw his bells, I tried many, many times to get a decent rendering of Da Qing in cat form wearing his bells but it was impossible so just a grumpy, bell-less fat cat it is)

And then all the fic:

Captain America:
Attention All Hands Summary: Three postings, two rooms, one awkward conversation. 333 words. (Space AU epistolary threesome fun!)

DMBJ/Grave Robber's Chronicles/Lost Tomb series:
To Spread One's Wings Summary: Sometimes it took a village to learn to fly. 372 words (Wu Xie and wings)

Doctor Who:
Not Quite Shipshape, But Getting There Summary: The Doctor realized he needed to step in and step up. 1044 words (post-Boomtown Jack whump and Doctor caretaking.)
Penalties to be Paid Summary: The Doctor will have to make amends. 588 words (a combo of silly and kinky adventures)
To Toss and Turn All Night Summary: It was rare for the Doctor to find himself in such a state. 362 words (just some more Jack/Nine)

due South:
Donuts, Is There Anything They Can’t Do? Summary:There was a surefire way to Diefenbaker's heart. 344 words (Dief is a little like me in this regard)

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood:
A Nightmare, Transformed Summary: Roy had nightmares most nights. 538 words (I wouldn't be surprised if this was a true fear of Roy's)

Magnificent Seven tv show:
The Soft Slow Morn Summary: Mornings like this were rare. 300 words (a little tender Chris/Ezra triple drabble)

MDZS or Untamed or mixed verse:
A Different Yarn Summary: Tradition was very clear in that proper talisman, spell, and array work required very specifically made supplies. Only certain yarn and needles were to be used. Wei Wuxian, however, was always one to buck tradition. 1414 words (I had so much fun with the worldbuilding of this modern cultivation w/needle notions + yarn store AU even if every little wound up being explained in the fic)
Feathers Fallen, Crushed Underfoot Summary: Wei Wuxian had been willing to accept that agreeing to the Golden Core transfer meant he'd never fly again. He just hadn't expected what happened after that. 627 words (dark Burial Mounds and Wings AU with weird formatting)
Flowers Opening Towards the Sun Summary: The morning had started badly, but it ended wonderfully. 1328 words (basically an excuse to write bathing, hair washing/combing)
Ice Makes Warmth Summary: A storm leads to a revelation. 1170 words (the old 'using hypothermia as an excuse for huddling together' trope, gotta love it)

Sherlock Holmes (Downey Films):
Fights Fought and Wagers Won Summary: When a wager is lost but something else is won. 733 words (competence kink and battle couple my beloved)
An Impossible Welcoming Summary: Watson cannot find it within him to be overly concerned about his illness. 300 words (borrowed some book canon details for this slightly sad sickfic)

Under the Skin: (so thankful so many people requested Creator's Choice of Fandom for this so I could write three things for this tiny fandom no one knows)
A Different Kind of Paper Trail Summary: Shen Yi had been taken and Du Cheng was going to get him back. 884 words (Shen Yi mostly rescues himself but Du Cheng still gets to make the arrest)
Paid in Kind Summary: Some prices must be paid in kind. 402 words (dark Du Cheng getting revenge)
The Sketches Stockpile Summary: Before too long Du Cheng had quite the collection of drawings, doodles and sketches. 430 words (post-its and paperwork were both needed tags, how could I not write something about that cute Du Cheng-as-a-police-dog post-it note that Shen Yi drew?)

This week's @recthething recs (tumblr art for B5, Guardian, Merlin, MDZS/Untamed, and The Mummy):

Babylon 5 - some of my b5 faves (absolutely love the styling of these)
Guardian - Shen Wei and the Guardian Lantern and its pair, Zhao Yunlan and the Awl (both so melancholic and touching)
Merlin - Merlin (gorgeous portrait)
- Gwen on the throne (absolutely incredible)
- The day of return (the styling of this is wonderful)
- Merlin and Arthur- "they’re taking a break. they’ll be back shortly :}" (cute little doodle)
MDZS/Untamed - Life or death kiss (LWJ and WWX, with so much emotion in this sketch, amazing)
The Mummy - My crush from Mummy…(Ardeth Bay and his falcon!!)

Crafts, Babble and Recs

donutsweeper — Sun, 14 Aug 2022 21:07:08 GMT

Crafting-wise since I finished the big rug, I finally got around to adding the dyed floral sheet strips from my failed mixed sheet dye experiment to the previously dyed floral sheet rug. I hadn't realized the color wound up so much darker (possibly due to how I dyed it or possibly due to the year that's passed since it was originally made) so I didn't wind up using quite all of it and instead only enough for a border (I definitely didn't have enough for a full second row of the darker stuff and a half row would have looked weird.) I think it turned out okay:

I'm currently rewatching Ancient Detective on youtube using the Language Learning with Netflix & Youtube extension which lets you see both English and Chinese subtitles at the same time, it's interesting. I'm also watching Psych-Hunter (which stars TLT2's Wu Xie) but I'm kind of meh on it so far.

Two weeks of @recthething recs (NIF and MDZS/Untamed fic and also some art, mostly OW, from Battleship)

Nirvana in Fire: just a wall away by ConvenientAlias (1.4k)
Summary: In which Yujin and Jingrui accidentally trespass on Prince Jing's property, and it's all Fei Liu's fault. (short but cute fic)

Untamed/MDZS: Of our own by apathyinreverie (3k)
Summary: Devastatingly, by the time Wei Ying finally remembers his own past, it’s far too late to change anything, his home already lost, the Yiling Patriarch long-since pronounced dead, and little A-Yuan having no one to rely on but him. (short but interesting glimpse into a canon divergent AU)

DID YILING LAOZU REALLY EXIST???: a Thread [1/?] by el_em_en_oh_pee (6k)
Summary Snippet: lan jingyi needs a fucking break @jingY33T 6/8/22
LISTEN UP YOU HISTORY-LOVING FUCKS HAVE I GOT A WILD FUCKING THEORY FOR YOU: THE YILING LAOZU PROBABLY ACTUALLY EXISTED AND MAY HAVE BEEN A HUUUUUUGE SAPPY ROMANTIC: a 🧵 [1/?] (delightfully humorous twitter style fic about the possibly mythical, possibly not, yiling laozu)

Battleship art
Guardian - Da Qing & Zhao Yunlan (this was my gift, it's a wonderfully detailed drawing of the two of them looking up at the stars)
ratatouille - ratatouille rats (Absolutely adorable)

Original Work (Battleship's theme this year was frost vs forest and there were dragons, thus why so many original works are about that):
- Witch Kitty - Sometimes you have to lick the magic out in musical notes.(adorably sweet)
- On a scale (heh) of 1-10 how is the view? Someone captured himself a mermaid... (wonderfully detailed captured space mermaid)
- Forest Dragon (so cute)
- Forest DragonThe Forest dragon waits and protects the gem, how dare the people stole them! (wonderfully detailed)
- khione, the frost dragon (adorable)
- Frost Dragon (another amazingly detailed dragon)
- A Firebird (love the detail on the fire)

(Battleship will have reveals next week but is currently still anon. There's still numerous pages of things without comments, there's a lot of good stuff in it, check it out!)

Fic! And Battleship!

donutsweeper — Sun, 07 Aug 2022 00:05:04 GMT

I posted a fic outside of an exchange! Which is ridiculously rare for me, but possibly that's changing? After not doing so for 5 or 6 years I managed three last year (the second being a sequel to the first though) and now a NEARLY 9K FIC for a new fandom! (The wonderful Cdrama Under the Skin, which I promo-ed here) It was supposed to be a quick missing scene bit about the drowning/rescue since the former lifeguard in me got my brain stuck on that but.. yeah, it morphed into a WHOLE THING.

Gently Toward a New Bright Morn- After subduing Cao Dong, Du Cheng still has to save Shen Yi. (terrible summary, but I'd put off final edits, and thus posting it, for ages trying to come up with a better one so it is what it is)

I forgot to post that @battleshipex's game has ended so the works went live a day and a half ago or so. This one lasted the longest yet I think, at about two and a half weeks. It had a very different set up then previous years, instead of just the main board where you try to create X number of works for specific tags with a delaying tactic where the board got obscured at one point there was a shield of tags over the main board that needed to be created for and sometimes went away and came back and there was also a delaying tactic near the end as well. I enjoyed aspects of it but overall it found it kind of stressful. I did create a lot for it, fic and art, so that's something at least. Anyone, there's 966 works in 294 fandoms. Go check it out.

I had to pull out the afghan I was working on, I realized I'd didn't have anywhere near enough yarn for it and it wouldn't even be enough for a wrap, let alone a small afghan. An unfortunate peril of relying on random stash yarn. Oh well, off to poke Ravelry to try to find an easy 'can watch or read while crocheting' pattern.

A month of recs and a rug!

donutsweeper — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 20:22:24 GMT

I've totally slacked on crosposting my @recthething recs, oops! Have a bunch of recs from multifandomdoodle (Doctor Who, due South, The Good Place, ST:TOS, Tremors and original works):

Doctor Who (TV Movie 1996) - Watching. Summary: From his hiding place, the Doctor watches (absolutely excellent Paul McGann peek)
due South - I'll Walk with You (to the Edge of the World). Summary: Fraser, Ray and Diefenbaker under the northern sky (love the colors)
The Good Place - Elemental. Summary: In any form, Michael can always rock a good bowtie. (hilarious yet accurate)
Star Trek: TOS - Alien Encounter. Summary: "My apologies, Captain, but they appear to have bonded with me." (love all the details)
Tremors - Tongue Twister. Summary: Tremors (1990) is about worms. (what a great graboid!)
Original Works:
- A wheeking cup of love (adorable guinea pigs!)
- This building isnt big enough...! (poor little kaiju)
- chickvalry. Summary: A knight in shining armor and his magnificent steed, all decked out to joust. (there were all just amazing and hilarious)
- une colombe endormie. Summary: A Parisian pigeon takes a nap in an elevated spot. (sweet little bird and great gargoyle)
- Wild Princess. Summary: A warrior princess from a culture that worships wolves! Or maybe she's a werewolf. Bring your own lore. :D (a great fierce princess!)

Some tumblr and twitter art (Doctor Who, Merlin, MCU, Guardian and MDZS/Untamed) recs:

tumblr art:
Doctor Who - Madame Vastra (this truly captures the character's attitude and spirit)
Merlin - incorrect merlin quotes comic (far too funny and adorable)
Merlin - Arthur (gorgeous)
What We Do in the Shadows - Just like Twilight (made for the zine 'What We Create in the Shadows' Vol.2 this has a lot of different vampire canon easter eggs)
MCU - Dr Strange (Study) - 2022
Sharpe's Rifles - Tired scruffy Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe
Guardian - Zhao Yunlan vs passwords (Hilarious comic)
The Untamed/MDZS - He got there in the end (remember that carving WWX made in his headboard at Lotus Pier? It's come true)

Twitter art:
The Untamed/MDZS - first siege of the burial mounds (absolutely amazing and the evocativeness of this is incredible)

and a ton of MDZS/Untamed fic recs:

The Sculptor by Eleanor_Fenyx (27k, embedded art is also here)
Summary Snippet: Wei Wuxian's ad appeared in the Sunday paper just two days ago: Wanted: Subject to pose as reference for neoclassical academic commission. Tall-ish height and muscular physique helpful, but not necessary. 3 months’ pay at min. Enquire at Yiling Fine Arts Collective if interested. And now, here in his studio on an otherwise normal Tuesday morning, stands the most stunning man Wei Wuxian has ever seen here to do as instructed - enquire. (This lavender marriage 70s art AU just finished, it, and its art, is great!)

A Secret Never Shared by Vrishchika (29k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang: 2022)
Summary Snippet: Lan Wangji finds a glimmer of hope in a small village. (Absolutely fascinating canon-divergent AU where several years after WWX's death temples start springing up to worship Wèimíng, God of the Unnamed Dead, and after offering prayers, LWJ realizes who this new god truly is.)

Elder, an Aesthetic by MarbleGlove (8k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian always enjoyed picking an aesthetic and really leaning into it. As an adolescent, he was joyous, entitled and high-born; during the war, he was dangerous and threatening. After the war, he was lost. But then he found his new aesthetic: Elder of the Jiang Sect. (absolutely delightful canon-divergent fixit AU)

The Best I Can by Zephyr (ZephyrAndTheSilverfish) (26k)
Summary: ‘Have you heard? Hanguang-jun cut ties with the Lan Sect. Stole a child and ran off into the night.’ In which Wei Wuxian is horribly confused by the world he comes back to and can’t help but be drawn to Lan Wangji once more. Lan Jingyi, for his part, is deeply disappointed by the world he grew up in and just wants to see his best friend again. (well done and plausible canon divergent AU where in order to keep A-Yuan safe LWJ leaves the Lan and canon events play out a little different as a result)

starlight shining brighter Sienne (20k)
Summary: It was no secret that to Lan Jingyi there was no one better than Hanguang-jun (and Wei-qianbei). A glimpse into his life shows how Lan Wangji shaped his life, morals, and interpretation of Lan Sect's rules...and just how high Wangxian set Jingyi's relationship standards (very, very high). (an absolutely delightful Jingyi POV of different times in his life (during his childhood and through post-canon) and his feelings towards LWJ and then WWX, as well as the two of them together)

Linger by apathyinreverie (4k)
Summary: Nie Mingjue’s spirit lingers after his death. He sees everything, all the while unable to interfere or make his presence known in any way, less than a specter of a soul that had once been. It is its own kind torture. Right until Guanyin Temple, where everything comes to light, and Wei Wuxian finally puts his spirit to rest, finally leaving him to sleep forevermore. ...or so Mingjue had assumed. (A mix of a really great NMJ POV post-his death for the first half of the fic and then look at how he changes things)

To lurk, to lie in wait by trippednfell (124.5k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian thought he had his life figured out. Work as an emergency room doctor on shift 2-3 times per week. Help Jiang Cheng take care of Jin Ling. Swallow down any other ambition or desire because it just didn't matter. But then, Lan Sizhui entered his life, along with his infuriating, enigmatic father. And everything Wei Wuxian had planned out for his life had to change. (wonderfully detailed modern-with-magic hung jing WWX (and more) fic)

I also FINALLY finished the big rug I was working on!

It's huge, not that you can really tell by the picture but it's 43” x 27” (109.22cm x 68.58cm)

stuff and recs

donutsweeper — Sun, 03 Jul 2022 16:23:39 GMT

My favorite bookstore(s*) is finally opening up again after being burned down in the riots (and wow, that's a sentence I never thought I'd have to type) and asked for donations so we boxed up seven boxes of mystery and scifi books and brought them over last weekend. There's probably at least three times that which we could get off our bookshelves if we really dedicated ourselves to the job but those were just the easy 'yeah, haven't even cracked the cover in a decade or two'/'this book didn't live up to the hype/'oh look, this is our third copy of this' weedable books. I think the official opening isn't going to be for a bit yet, but they have a store! And a plan! Huzzah!

Our bookshelves, of course, are still overloaded and there is still a few piles of books that won't fit on them but at least they're less overloaded now? (There's also all the non-mystery/scifi books I need to box up and take to Half Price or dump off at a little free library or something at some point. *sigh*)

re the * - Uncle Hugo's is the US's oldest independent scifi bookstore and it merged with Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore about a decade after it was founded. The old setup was two attached-yet-separate stores that you could walk between but I'm not sure how it'll work in the new place. Collectively, they're usually just called "The Uncles" thus the 'bookstore(s)'.

This week's @recthething Untamed/MDZS fic recs:

Friends, Sabers, and Other Essentials for Solving a Conspiracy by MeridianGrimm (50k)
Summary: In which Nie Huaisang is more suspicious about the events at Nightless City, Wei Wuxian is sharp and resourceful even as a spirit, and Lan Wangji isn’t going to let his injuries or his clan keep him from clearing Wei Wuxian’s name. Plotting revenge for the death of a friend is less lonely when your friend is around to solve the mystery with you. (absolutely delightful canon divergent AU)

Torch Song at Nightless City by ArcadianMaggie (11k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang 2022)
Summary: When a body turns up in Chinatown's Ross Alley, detective Lan Wangji has no idea how his life will be turned upside down. While working on the case he visits Nightless City, the popular nightclub run by Jin Guangyao. There, he meets the charismatic singer Mo Xuaynu and is immediately captivated. As the mystery unfolds, Lan Wangji discovers Mo Xuanyu is not all that he appears. Falling hard and fast, he starts to wonder if he's sleeping with the enemy. (a great 1940s Noir, modern cultivation murder mystery AU)

I came into this world/bringing only paper, rope, a shadow by cthulu_sun (8k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang 2022)
Summary Snippet: Lan Wangji, whilst researching early musical cultivation, discovers a mysterious qinpu that feels strangely familiar. Through investigating its origins he meets Wei Wuxian, and together the two of them unravel the mystery surrounding the music and its connection to the infamous Yiling Patriarch. (Almost lyrically done Modern Cultivation University and more AU)

The rules for @battleshipex have been posted for this year and I have to admit, my brain is always a bit too tired to parse them, but it shouldn't matter. With luck there will be prompts I can write and people in the discord to help direct which tags to focus on and when.

Quick Post - Freebies Plus Recs

donutsweeper — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 18:18:03 GMT

Because I keep forgetting to post about it, quickly dropping the fact that the author of Widdershins (the first Whyborne & Griffin novel), Jordan L. Hawk, is offering an e-copy of it for free to celebrate its 10th anniversary and also for Pride month until the end of June(this series pops up in the Yuletide tagset often, but I haven't read it.) Anyway, here's the blog post with DL link at the bottom.

Also, there's a few more days in the Hacking Chinese Chinese vocabulary challenge which has a promo code for a free month of skritter, a website/app that focuses on learning to write the characters and pinyin for Mandarin- the free month is from when you redeem it so you'll still get a full month even if you use the code now. I'm finding it interesting how often I know a word by hearing it or seeing the pinyin or character but completely blank when it comes to writing the character or pinyin. I doubt I'll pay to continue with it, but I am learning a lot for the moment.

Two weeks of @recthething recs (all MDZS/The Untamed fics):

Caught Between Sun and Shadows by (72k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang 2022)
Summary: The Sunshot Campaign was losing. It was only a matter of time before Wen Ruohan beat them into submission. There were rumours surrounding a force in Yiling that could potentially turn the tide. The place was taken from the Wen early in the war but no one knows by whom, known only as the 'Yiling Patriarch'. All forces that the Wen have sent to try and retake Yiling have been destroyed entirely. If he allied with the campaign then it could potentially turn the tide of the war. A messenger was sent to him asking what he wants in exchange for an alliance. The response came back: the heir of one of the Great Sects in marriage. For the war to be won, someone must be sacrificed. (canon divergent, alternate Sunshot Campaign fic with LWJ slowly developing feelings for the husband he barely knows and the issues he and having to deal with that and how the others fear/deal with WWX's powers)

Found: Extremely Friendly Fox by wanderingflame (22k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang 2022)
Summary: Lan Sizhui has never rescued a fox as friendly, intelligent and mischievous as this. How did it get separated from its owner? ---- Wei Wuxian has woken up in a lot of strange places over the years, but he never would have expected to wake up in the house of a Lan. (absolutely delightfully sweet modern shifter fic)

a flaw in my heart's design by citystoryscapes (25k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang 2022)
Summary Snippet: A few years into their marriage, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji encounter a highly puzzling case; a curse that kills with no trace or inclination, a town where the dead are no longer remembered, and memories that haunt them at every step. A question that remains: what does it mean to remember, in the face of death? (Excellent post canon bookverse casefic)

Sonata no. 159 in C Major by nirejseki (5k)
Summary: Maybe Wei Wuxian should have thought twice before trying out that array, but in his defense he had no idea it would turn him back into a five-year-old...or that Lan Qiren of all people would have had the misfortune to get swept up in the effects of the array along with him. At least there are cookies. (Sweet, and slightly melancholic, WWX and LQR get de-aged fic)

Paper Trail by Wolfling (21k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang 2022)
Summary Snippet: Rebuilding a relationship one letter at a time. (Post-Canon tender and sweet epistolary fic)

梅花/plum blossoms by bunnxianluvsu (MooseFeels), MooseFeels (20k)
Summary: Lan Wangji has been chief cultivator for many years when he is given a gift. (Wonderful AU where WWX didn't return after 13 years and the truth came out due to different reasons and LWJ has been the chief cultivator for 40 years when the Emperor presents him with a courtesan, Mo Xuanyu)

Amid the Frost by LtLJ (5k)
Summary: The Yiling Patriarch's demonic cultivation sect is invited to help fight a massive waterborne abyss. Exhausted and half-drowned from battling ghouls, Wei Wuxian meets Hanguang-jun. (A really interesting Non-Jiang WWX, no sunshot campaign canon-divergent AU where WWX and LWJ meet and are instantly drawn to one another.)

@battleshipex is starting for 2022! So exciting, I'm off to get in my noms!

fic and recipe and recs

donutsweeper — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 00:58:48 GMT

The h/c exchange just revealed! I got a delightful Detective L story by geckoholic and I wrote for TLTR (DMBJ Reboot/Sound of the Providence):

Foundations to Lean On - Summary: Pangzi and Xiaoge know just how to deal with an exhausted and storm-battered Wu Xie. (1.6k, I'll admit it took me far too long to realize what movie they should be watching but once I realized what it should be it was SO fun to write)

Have two weeks of @recthething MDZS/The Untamed fic recs:

Judge Softly by Chrononautical (32k)
Summary Snippet: Accidentally cursed, Lan Qiren is forced to live within Wei Wuxian's mind for days, experiencing his every thought and sensation. Much as he disapproves of demonic cultivation, resistant as he is to every excuse, he can't help growing to understand the young cultivator. (An interesting, hilarious and at times hot E rated post-canon fic)

do not envy the roots that hold you down eccentrick (12k)
Summary Snippet: Reincarnated as a Lan, Wen Qing lives as best she can with the knowledge—and pain—of her past life. The balance she finds is disrupted when an unfamiliar face hides a not-so-unfamiliar heart. (Really wonderful canon divergent reincarnation AU)

An Evening Well Spent by Admiranda (2.5k)
Summary: Jin Ling had hoped for a quiet evening in getting to visit with his uncles that he didn't get to see very often. Things went a bit awry. (short but sweet fic with Jin Ling discovering what LWJ is like when he has a little alcohol)

It Has You In It by rymyanna (10k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Ying considers the possibility that he had actually walked into traffic and died. That this person, with his long black hair and arresting light eyes, is some kind of a spirit or a god, here to guide him into the afterlife. Then he considers that maybe he isn’t dead, and that his first words to the prettiest person on Earth had been, “Uuuh, okay, wow.” (Cute reincarnation + more AU)

Timing is Everything by Talayse (18k)
Summary: The Lan juniors and Lan Wangji find a young man unconscious in an array in a locked cottage in Mo Manor, Lan Wangji takes the young man into his care. When Wei Wuxian wakes up later in an inn, clean and cared for, the story takes a different turn. (very interesting AU where canon diverges due to WWX being incapacitated by the summoning ritual for longer than he originally had been)

Son of Heaven and Frost General by Aki_no_hikari (series, 2 works, 7k total - locked to archive)
Summary to first fic: Though fate and circumstance, Wei Wuxian, the son of a servant, was aclaimed Son of Heaven and Emperor of China. After months fighting an invading army, his beloved general Lan Wangji returns victorious. They meet that night to catch up and celebrate his return. (Short but wonderful royalty AU)

And a terrible picture of some banana bars from a recipe I've been tinkering with:

I've been playing around trying to find a healthy dessert recipe and these have no sugar or egg and almost no added fat and I think I finally figured it out: Mash together 2 very ripe bananas. Mix in 1 tbsp oil and beat well. Mix in 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1/4C quick oats, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp baking soda. Stir in 1/4 C chocolate chips. Pour into a greased 9x9 and bake at 350 for about 18 min (next time I'll try checking it a little earlier maybe though).

Radio Play and Recs

donutsweeper — Sun, 29 May 2022 02:30:36 GMT

A bit back I was discussing Babylon 5 with someone and they mentioned a slashy radio play the actors who play Londo and G'kar did years ago but didn't remember it much other than the fact it was weird so of course I tracked it down.

It's called "George And The Red Giant" and it stars Peter Jurasik (B5's Londo) and Andreas Katsulas (B5's G’Kar) as (and I'll quote the official summary here) "two New Yorkers from the 1990s who are trying to escape an alien world millions of years in the future. Further adding to their troubles, the two men have somehow been transformed into flying lemurs."

And yes, it is as weird as that sounds. It's oddly sweet and delightful too. It's free to stream (in 2 30ish minute parts) here: https://www.sffaudio.com/seeing-ear-theatre/ (scroll halfway down the page).

Have 2 weeks of @recthething recs (Guardian and MDZS/The Untamed):

Guardian: cracking open a cold one (it's a boy!!) by presumenothing (justjoy) (2k, 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange 2022)
Summary Snippet: Zhao Yunlan puts his ~~detective skills elite squad~~ delegation skills to good(?) use. (absolutely adorable)

Untamed/MDZS:
Imprints by Lisa_Telramor (47k)
Summary: While travelling alone, Wei Wuxian finds a baby animal in need of rescue. If he'd realized in the moment what kind of animal it was, he probably wouldn't have picked it up... Or Wei Wuxian accidentally adopts a puppy and life instantly becomes a lot more complicated from there. (Canon compliant fic where poor WWX is trying to get over his fear of dogs while having a dog. Utterly delightful)

Professor Lan, Babysitter Extraordinaire by Eleanor_Fenyx (4k)
Summary Snippet: “Right! Okay! God this is so weird. A-Yuan this is Lan-laoshi, be good for him please, he’s very nice. I’ll come pick you up as soon as I’m done, okay?”

“Okay Baba,” A-Yuan says and then - so quickly it’s a surprise that his passing doesn’t make an audible swishing noise like a cartoon - Wei Wuxian darts into the lecture hall, leaving Lan Wangji alone with the scruffy bag and the not-nearly-as-scruffy toddler. (adorable Professor LWJ helping out WWX by watching A-Yuan modern AU fic)

Falling Til Four in the Morning by phnelt (5k)
Summary: The first time he finds the Mando station is an accident. He almost loses it, jerking his thumb on the dial he was slowly spinning to find viable frequencies. It takes some wiggling and some horrendous static but he gets back there, a clear AM signal coming through and some Lena Lim gently crooning while flutes warble in the background. It feels strange, almost, after months of only English, almost like he’s getting away with something. He stands there for a moment, thumb poised to scroll past, but the voice of the DJ comes on to introduce the song and Wei Ying is transfixed. Radio was invented for this man, he thinks. (short and sweet modern AU)

Meeting from a thousand miles away by Spodumene (25k)
Summary: Wherever you go, there you are. It's all about who goes with you. (A wonderfully sweet modern AU meet-cute where LWJ is a hotel reviewer and WWX a flight attendant and they fall in love)

The River Brought You Here by ChilianXianzi (12k)
Summary: When she found the boy by the side of the river, Zhou Jia knew that anyone who'd come for him is not to be trusted. Not with the dark purple fingerprints around his throat, the veritable map of lashes old and new upon his back. It's almost a blessing, she thinks, that the boy remembers none of the life that had treated him so cruelly. That he's free to just be A-Ying, in this small harbour town that he embraces so readily as his home. The day someone does come for him, she had not expected it to be the war hero Hanguang-Jun - Saying A-Ying name with such fervent hope before it turns into anguish as A-Ying fails to recognize him. (Canon divergent AU post fall of Lotus Pier where WWX's life is saved from dying after the choking incident by a rogue cultivator but his memories are gone. Amnesiac WWX feels very true and IC and still is active during Sunshot, but not by fighting but rather helping the common people. - note- not JC friendly)

The rug I was working on reached that 'big enough to be unwieldly' size so I haven't touched it in weeks. *Sigh* I really need to get back to it. But. Ugh. Annoying.

music, recs and babble

donutsweeper — Sun, 15 May 2022 16:04:21 GMT

Mother Nature is still out to get us, since my last post we've had both snow here and highs in the 90s with high humidity. Yuck.

Have two weeks of @recthething recs (NIF, MDZS, DMBJ. Fics, art and a vid):

NIF: Accidental Immortal by DC_Derringer (34k)
Summary: Lin Shu took the bingxu pill and rode off to glorious battle for the empire he had fought so hard to protect. He fought, he fell, but then he woke up again. For the next 1500 years he wandered the world, seeing the faces of his friends over and over again as they reincarnated around him never recognizing him again. But one face was missing in all his centuries of living - Xiao Jingyan. (really fascinating non-AU(technically?) modern set post-canon fic.)

NIF: Conversations with Myself (2.5k, Unsent Letters 2022 fics, still anon)
Summary: Letters that Mei Changsu and Su Zhe have exchanged. (Or, Mei Changsu has never been one to not invest wholeheartedly into his schemes. Even ones that involve a paper-thin false identity) (a really interesting take on how Mei Changsu might have established his Su Zhe persona)

MDZS/Doctor Who fusion: Rule 3001: Do Not Blink by EHyde (4k)
Summary: “There’s a carving by the entrance, but I can’t read it. It looks—old.” Jingyi stepped closer, reached out a hand to touch the rock. “Do not...blink? Don’t blink,” he repeated. “What does that mean?” Lan Sizhui would never have guessed that investigating a statue would lead to an encounter with a mysterious stranger, an adventure across time and space, and startling revelations about both Hanguang-jun's past and his own. (short but utterly delightful)

MDZS/CQL: All the ways that you remain by Spodumene (23k)
Summary: When Lan Zhan must return to Shanghai for a month, he leaves his beloved home in the care of Wei Ying, a timely new acquaintance. But what happens when Lan Zhan returns to find that Wei Ying has nowhere else to go? (gentle and sweet modern AU)

MDZS/CQL: stay by my side by ravenditefairylights (28k, MDZS Reverse Big Bang: 2022)
Summary Snippet: a boy, a god and a rebellion against the empire (wonderful AU with numerous canon elements where Lan Zhan ascended to godhood and after answering a small boy's prayer finds himself drawn into his life again and again)

Untamed Vid: Whistle by hexenmeister. Summary: can you 吹 my 簫 baby, 簫 baby, let me know (AO3 link)

DMBJ art: Who Wants To Live Forever? Summary: Hei Xiazi through the years... (a wonderful juxtaposition of two sketches with Hei Xiazi, a quasi-immortal, having a bite to eat at the same corner, years apart - DMBJ Gen Exchange 2022 work, still anon)

Crafting-wise I made a bunch of octopuses for daughter's cat but forgot to take pictures and have been spending quite some time working on the rug I mentioned about a month ago. Original plan for it once finished has fallen through, but I'm going to finish it anyway because, well, rug.

I also spent some time backing up all the (unlocked) fics I've recced to the wayback machine. I was kind of happy to see that out of a year and a half of recs, well over 200 fics, and only one was deleted from AO3. I also wound up rereading a lot of them. How unsurprising.

Oh, and thanks for the birthday wishes everyone! After a rocky start it turned out to be a nice day and although I did not get my birthday donuts, son has promised to pick some up for me soonish so I'll get them eventually. 50 is unsurprisingly not much different than 49, although it can make an age difference feel a lot wider, especially when I notice some actors/people in fandom are younger than my kids. Oh well, nothing I can do about that.

Under the Skin inspired me to look into Tan Jianci's other things, including some of his music performances and videos and despite not being much into music generally, I have to admit, this video is... well, I'll let it speak for itself ("LadyBro 闺蜜" official MV, English subtitles, featuring M.I.C.'s Steelo and Tan Jianci):

(How this got past censors, I have no idea)

The hurtcomfort exchange is suppose to reveal next week but there's still a bunch of pinch hits that need to be claimed, hopefully they'll get picked up soon.

Recs of various sorts plus cake

donutsweeper — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 17:33:40 GMT

Earlier this week I wrote up a recpost for the Cdrama 'Under the Skin' (which I'm actually rewatching already, it's just really good and there's all these things you pick up with a second viewing.) I also recently watched 长公主在上, aka Her Royal Highness, aka Eldest Princess Above, which has a great write up here but, to give a quick teaser, is web drama (27 very short episodes = about an hour runtime) about an imperial princess (the current emperor's older sister) who is the one with power and the political intrigue that results from that. There's princess/bodyguard development within backstabbing and spy shenanigans and kneeling for penance in the rain. @trobadora did a nice promo for it here that goes into more depth than the tumblr post if you want more info. I was happily surprised by it and it's well work the hour spent watching. If you check it out make sure you go to the youtube playlist for the two extras.

Have two weeks of @recthething posts (MDZS/Untamed fic and tumblr art for that, Guardian and Merlin)

the turning year by bleuett
Summary Snippet: Lan Wangji grows vegetables and flowers for his small town. Wei Ying is the new kind-of delivery boy. They fall in love. (interesting sci-fic/space AU meet-cute)

oh you fill my lungs with sweetness by Anonymous (2k)
Summary: Wei Ying is sick. Lan Zhan cares for him. (wonderfully sweet modern cultivation h/c sickfic)

No Compasses, No Signs by brooklinegirl (36k)
Summary Snippet: The old woman looks at Lan Zhan. "What's his name?"

Lan Zhan looks down at the man's pale, slack face, and presses his own hand against the cut, trying to staunch the blood flow with his glove. "Wei Ying," he says without thinking about it.

The man stirs slightly in his arms, his eyes blinking open for a moment. "Oh," he says faintly. "It's you." (Great modern-with-more (that I won't spoil) AU fic)

tumblr art:
MDZS/The Untamed:
- Someone said scar kissing and, yes. (SFW and utterly hot LWJ and WWX)
- 5 gifts WWX gave to LWJ + 1 LWJ gave to WWX (beautiful and heartfelt comic)
Guardian -Guardian Fanart 镇魂同人 (adorable comic, translation in the tags)
Merlin:
- Merlin’s Magic Reveal being like…. (a comic showing perfect, and hilarious, examples of how contrastive stress changes a sentence's meaning)
- that damned lake (beautiful and evocative)

bdylanhollis posted a video making waky cake recently and it got me to drag out my recipes for it since I'd kind of forgotten about it. I've made it twice now. His recipe is here (straight into a 9x9" cake pan add 1 1/2 C flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 c sugar and 1/3 C cocoa. Mix with fork. Make three wells and pour 2 tbsp vinegar in one, 1/3 C oil another and some vanilla the last. Pour 1 C water over and stir to combine. Then bake at 350 for a half hour. When cool, top with icing made of 1 C pdr sugar + 2tbsp cocoa and enough water.) which I mostly followed, but tweaked according to old recipes I had by adding a pinch of salt and I also tried replacing the water with cold leftover coffee one of the times (excellent and doesn't add any actual coffee flavor, just a depth to the chocolate) and with the icing if you like a richer one add some creamy peanut butter to thicken it and add a bit of flavor or also use coffee instead of the water here. Overall, easy, not a ton of work and tasty. Do recommend.

I would very much like for the weather to make up its mind. It went from the 70s to 20s in two days. Ugh.

猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin

donutsweeper — Sun, 24 Apr 2022 02:21:51 GMT

After not watching much of anything for ages I tried (and then binged since I couldn't stop watching) the Cdrama 'Under the Skin' (available free here) aka 猎罪图鉴, which technically translates as crime hunting sketchbook I think, but interestingly, both titles work due to the main character (a sketch artist) and his unique abilities.

The premise of the show is that seven years ago Shen Yi was an up-and-coming young artist, known for being able to look at a person or photo and draw how they'd appear if younger or older. When shown a photo of a young boy and asked to paint them as a 35 year old man he does so and accidentally identifies a police detective, Lei Yifei, who is then murdered as a result. Brought in for questioning, Shen Yi is asked to draw that woman but he finds, to his surprise and Captain (and former partner of Lei YiFei) Du Chen's frustration, he can't. Then, in the first episode Shen Yi, who has been teaching crime scene investigation via art history at the police academy and working as needed as a sketch artist, gets his transfer to the Beijing criminal investigative police branch approved. That is where Captain Du Chen works and he is not remotely happy to find out he'll have to work with Shen Yi.

(General, vague spoilers for the show below, but nothing plot specific.)

Of course, Du Cheng is very adversarial at first but Shen Yi showcases his skills on the first case and it's a success; it is his artistic eye that picks up on some clues others missed and his sketch work that identifies suspects. And that's where the show surprised me because I assumed it'd go one of the two typical ways - either Du Cheng would continue to hate/be dismissive of/belittle Shen Yi or that Du Cheng would do a 180 and would instantly accept Shen Yi and they'd be buddy-buddy from then on. And that didn't happen? Du Cheng begrudgingly admits Shen Yi was helpful to the case but their relationship is a slow slide from coworkers to partners to friends (and possibly more, depending how you want to read it) as time goes on. But, at the same time, it doesn't shy away from showing the affect that Lei Yifei's murder has had on their lives both personally and professionally.

Also, unlike the vast majority of 'cop and consultant' type shows they aren't joined at the hip. Too often the consultant (in this case Shen Yi is actually considered a police officer but doesn't seem to have had the same kind of training as the other cops so I think it counts) goes absolutely everywhere with the cop no matter the danger or how little input they could make, but in this show when it makes sense for Shen Yi to accompany Du Cheng he does (to crime scenes, to look at homes of victims/suspects, etc) but overall, for generic cop stuff (asking stores for CCTV footage and other grunt things like that), he doesn't and goes off and does his own thing.

Cast-wise, the show nicely isn't a sausage-fest. Chief Zhang, the one in charge of their police branch, is a woman, as is the ME and also one of Du Cheng's two subordinates. Also, when there's a case where one of the team has to distract a kid so they can question the mom and search her apartment it's Shen Yi that's asked to do it, not the female cop. Case-wise, some are gut wrenching (and as an FYI for avoiding possible triggers some cases include things like: highlight to see- rape, sometimes aided by drugging the victim first; bullying, including over gender non-conformity; spousal/partner abuse; and teachers being inappropriate with students. Also, because of the fact cops are always being presented in a good light, one or two cases have a tinge of what could be considered victim blaming to them in a 'there could have been less victims if only you'd trusted us and reported it earlier' kind of way)

Under the Skin is 20 episodes (40-45 min long) and the cases organically run from one to the next with a few overarching bits (mostly Lei Yifei's murder and the changing relationship between Du Cheng and Shen Yi) throughout. It's tightly plotted, wonderfully written and the characters, even the once-off case specific ones, feel mostly like real people. Although I've seen a few people say the show's ending is a cliffhanger, I'd consider it more like one of those 'here's a bit of something that could be used as the jumping off point for S2 if we get it' type ends instead. It definitely did leave me wanting more, but I would have had the same reaction without that bit. (I have seen comments that a writer is working on S2, whether it winds up happening or not, who knows.)

Curious? Here's a link to an ever so vaguely spoilery 1 minute vidlet for Du Cheng and Shen Yi's relationship arc through the show (music only, no other audio)

https://huntress1013.tumblr.com/post/682063020830113792/this-fandom-is-truly-tiny-the-number-of-fanfics

and a wonderful, but somewhat more spoilery, full vid (dialogue plus music)

and this delightful gif (which is in the official, but very spoilery promo) that I'll drop here for, ahem, reasons....

Whatnot and Recs

donutsweeper — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 01:39:21 GMT

I haven't been up to anything interesting recently. I haven't watched anything in about a month and haven't read much other than some fanfic either. my poor to-read and to-watch piles have grown so very, very big. I expanded my Historical Chinese Clothing (and more) Resource Post though and now there's over 250 links (on the dreamwidth version, it's too big for LJ now). I also have some links I need to add to some of the other resource posts. Organization, what?

Anyway, here's two weeks of @recthething recs (art for Merlin, MCU, MDZS and ST:TNG {some nsfw} and MDZS/Untamed fic):

tumblr art:
Merlin - the inherent romance of unfastening armor (I love the style of this one)
- s4e6 in my mind. rent free (this is the best hug in canon and great drawing of it)
- Merlin and Arthur - A tender and sweet hug
MCU- Nude studies on Bucky Barnes (and with one Steve) - not full frontal nudity but some are definitely NSFW - the first is here, follow the links for the others.
MDZS - a quick paint study cropped safe-for-tumblr (LWJ/WWX, amazing for a 'quick study')
ST:TNG- we were robbed of this (Guinan and Lwaxana and a moment we never had)

MDZS/Untamed fic:
Gentian Seeds by yuyu_finale. (10k)
Summary Snippet: Lan Wangji accidentally ends up in his mother’s hometown. (I love all of fandom's take on LWJ meeting his mother's kin and this is a lovely one)

The Echoes of that News Ring Loud by Scarlet_Gryphon (111k)
Summary Snippet: Or, the Nie brothers save the cultivation world [and themselves] through time travel, unlikely allies, and adopting far too many martial siblings. (NHS and Wen Ning tie travel fix-it)

River Eyes by AgentFreeWill (5k)
Summary: “Are you a dragon?” Wei Yuan asks, and then sits down. Oh no, he thinks, Baba will be really sad if I’m eaten by a dragon. This thought proves too much for the day of A Lot and tears start again… (utterly adorable and sweet modern {and more} AU)

I've started a new rug but for some reason the weave of the sheets is acting like t-shirts do rather than sheets and curling into something like tshirt yarn instead of staying flat. It works in a rug just fine but takes a different amount of space than I'd planned so the result will be different. Oh well. It'll still be a rug and that's what matters.

Rug Experiments, Recs and Recipe

donutsweeper — Fri, 01 Apr 2022 22:22:48 GMT

So rug experiment was mostly a failure, although third time was a charm in getting an actual rug out of the deal... (babble and pictures under cut)

Basically, I have a ton of old, undonateable sheets (stained or ripped) and have been making rugs out of them and decided to try combining a white and red one and doing a rectangle row rug instead of my typical oval, thinking the stains of the white wouldn't be as obvious if it was sandwiched between rows of red with a border of black I had left over so it wouldn't show dirt as much. Take one switched white/red/white/red one row per and the result was the red got swallowed by the white and wasn't noticeable so after only a few rows I pulled it out and switched to a 2-2 pattern instead... except it didn't come out even at all and even though the stitch count was the same it kept getting wider and wider and was really, really annoying as a result. I assume the issue was that even though I'd purposely tried to account for the slightly difference thickness in the white vs red sheet by cutting the red strips longer it wasn't enough.

So I pulled it all out and tried again with just the white but after a few rows it was obvious the staining was going to be an issue but I figured- no problem! I still have some blue dye leftover from my earlier experiment with dying a sheet before turning it into a rug (last August) so I thought I'd try dying after it was a rug to see how that worked. It also occurred to me that without the red the rug was going to be a lot smaller than originally planned so if I was dying it anyway I could supplement it by using the white-with-some-flowers sheet as the runner (which only slightly peeks through the knots and would mostly white anyway). The plan seemed sound! When finished you could only vaguely see that the runner was a different material (and you had to look really closely to notice).

But then I dyed it.

Ooof. Not good. Not only did the sheets take the dye differently (something I probably should have thought of) the edges were all lose and weird because I was trying to keep the runner from bunching up when there was a new row, something that isn't an issue the way I usually do row rugs where you switch the runner and knotter each row.

So... take three. I undid the 3/4ths of the rug with the floral runner and redid the whole thing with just the solid color. (I put aside the dyed floral strips, I'll see about adding them to the finished dyed floral rug in a few days.)

And it worked! Mostly. It's a slightly mottled color result due to the dye not being quite as evenly distributed since the knots don't match exactly to where they were the first time but oh well.

So I've learned that different fabric not only affects the size a lot more than I thought but also take dye differently and that I'm not the hugest fan of row rugs but they will keep their shape better when the runner is switched each row. And now I have yet another rug. Not sure where I'll wind up putting it, it's fairly small (19x22, more of a square than the runner rug I had envisioned but oh well.) The fact combining sheets might not always work well is actually kind of annoying since I mostly have a lot of single, random sheets. *sigh* Maybe they'll combine better in the oval pattern?

Have two week's of MDZS/Untamed recs from @recthething:

Be Gay, Do Crime by merelydovely (10k)
Summary: Lan Wangji is pretty sure he's in love with a wanted criminal. (He's only half right.) (really fun mistaken identity modern AU)

Story-Shaped by lingering_song (14k)
Summary Snippet: Nie Huaisang knows that things in this world are rarely story-shaped. That they're more akin to ink spilled on parchment - Messy and unpredictable and rather tragic. But out of all the threads he's woven throughout damn near a decade, he had not expected the most straightforward of his ploys to go this awry. (excellent post-canon NHS and how he takes in WWX and helps opinions about him change)

At Your Side, Clear Space For Me by ChloeBYoung (20k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian's main duties at the Lan complex were as follows: 1. Minor repairs and maintenance. 2. Clean common spaces. (He'd done the floor in 56 seconds last time, and didn't miss any of it.) (Except maybe a couple corners.) 3. Deliver mail. (And food, because even Lans couldn't resist the siren song of Dominos.) 4. Ignore any weirdness. Like, cat stuff. (great modern shifter fic AU)

"It's Heating Up in the Cold Springs of Gusu Lan! You Won't Believe This Artwork Really Exists!" by Admiranda (5k)
Summary: There are many side effects of immortality. One of them is about the things you thought were lost to the past till they're dug up again. As resident most known immortal and good child, Lan Sizhui resigns himself to scouting out the exhibit of erotic art recently donated from the Lan sect to see if it's actually what they think it is. (Hilarious! Poor Sizhui)

Sect Leader Wen Qionglin by maya_brainstormed (mayachain) (2k)
Summary: Wen Ning has lived as a sentient fierce corpse for about four hundred years. Going back in time could have been an accident, but isn't. (Unusual and interesting time travel fix-it from Wen Ning's POV)

Love Song In Reverse by Author: timetoboldlygo (237k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian gasps back into life without a single memory left. His friends, his siblings, his home — all lost to the fog in his head, nothing more than a mystery slipping through his fingers. What else was there to do but carry himself around in bits and parts, trying to become whole, a letter waiting to be written? He is – he is Mo Xuanyu, isn’t he? In this body, with these people. This family. He has to be Mo Xuanyu, he didn’t know anything else, even if the name sounded wrong. That was all he had. Well, that and Hanguang-jun. Lan Wangji, for his part, has had his taste of love and lost it. In all his grieving and searching, he didn’t expect to find another.

Wei Wuxian gets resurrected, loses his memories, and falls in love. (I've been following this amazing amnesia AU fic for close to 2 years and it's finally complete so I can finally rec it! Yes, it's ridiculously long, but it's so very very good. It's canon divergent due to the summoning ritual resulting in WWX not remembering anything prior to that evening and since the Lans assume it's a result of the chaos of that night they bring him back to Cloud Recesses. "Mo Xuanyu" and LWJ find themselves attracted to one another but there's LWJ's previous lost love (WWX) looming over them and the whole mystery of the cursed dismembered body pieces and the fact MXY seems to have been a demonic cultivator... Anyway, a long, but absolutely excellent read.)

hot for teacher by attackofthezee (noxlunate) (8k)
Summary Snippet: In which Wei Ying is a young single father whose son is possibly scheming to set him up with his history teacher. (very cute modern AU)

Like a River Flows by brooklinegirl (55k)
Summary: Wei Ying has been Lan Zhan's partner for two months, three days, and seven hours. Plus or minus a handful of minutes, if you're counting. Which Wei Ying is. (Great modern cultivation casefic AU that I was actually going to rec next week but someone posted it this week so I'll just put it here to keep track of)

Made some shortbread today using this recipe. Worked well, I'll definitely make it again.

stuff and things

donutsweeper — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 02:08:12 GMT

I just finished watching the DMBJ donghua "The Buried Tree Devil" which is set in between TLT2.5 and Ultimate Note (ish) and is... a good but typical DMBJ story. It's available to watch for free here. (It's 12 episodes of 20ish minutes and its official English subs are slightly clunky due to some, typical, translation choices, but they work just fine.)

I did not get the h/c assignment I thought I would, I'll make it work.

I made banana pumpkin chocolate chip muffins today and experimented with making jumbo ones

It's a recipe I found online that I replace nearly all the oil (and some of the sugar) with the banana so, despite the chocolate chips, it's somewhat healthy. Sometimes I replace the eggs with flaxseed but didn't this time since I had some I wanted to use up.

Here are this week's @recthething recs (4 MDZS/Untamed of varying lengths)

Seen and not heard by eatmyass (51K)
Summary Snippet: A storm thunders violently, the forest howls in pain, and children are disappearing into the night. Amongst it all, Lan Wangji encounters a strange, beautiful man. And his five children. (really interesting canon-era, non-Jiang sect WWX AU casefic)
coca cola & red wine by bunnxianluvsu (MooseFeels) (4k)
Summary: Lan Xichen goes to the kitchen each morning to get his own breakfast. There's a new servant one morning. He didn't realize they would become so close. (short but lovely mistaken identity LXC/JYL fic)
We Were Never Strangers by NeverEnoughWangxian (36k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Ying is an art major by day, cultivator by night. After a seemingly routine night-hunt, he starts getting these strange, vivid dreams of a man in white he’s never met before yet somehow feels like he’s known his whole life… (I've been following this one for a while and was happy to see its last chapter posted earlier this week. It's a well done canon complaint reincarnation plus immortal fic with great world building)
Come Around and Stay by trippednfell (160k)
Summary: Lan Wangji is a trauma surgeon single father with way too many things on his plate. Wei Wuxian is a computer genius who moonlights as a music teacher and loves musicals. They meet when Lan Wangji is late picking up his son from school. (Ok, this one is a LONG modern AU but has a great plot arc and absolutely wonderful characterization for everyone, not just WWX and LWJ but LXC and the Nies in particular)

blah blah babble

donutsweeper — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 00:27:50 GMT

H/C exchange signups have closed so it's stressful waiting for assignments/did I offer freeforms that will match something or not while panic time. (It will/should be fine, it's always fine, but STILL. Anxiety brain will anxiety brain.)

I tried and noped out of several C-ent things (among others, Maiden Holmes and Legend of Fei- which was highly rated but I'm going to assume a lot of that is due to the Wang Yibo affect because I was just SO very bored by it). Currently, I'm watching the Kdrama Ghost Doctor, I'm finding it very interesting just how much English keeps popping up- not only a lot of medical terms but also just random words and phrases. There was a little English here and there in the modern Cdramas I watched, but so much less.

I spent several weeks on a rug that just wasn't working so I pulled it out and began again with a slightly different pattern. We'll see if it works. The plan is to dye it when it's done since it's being made from a stained sheet, I wanted to see how dying the finished rug works vs dying the sheet and then turning it into a rug (which I've done before). Do I need another rug? No. But, whatever.

Sigh, 2 weeks of @recthething recs (tumblr art for ST:VOY, Merlin, Star Wars, MDZS and WoH as well as MDZS/Untamed fic)

Tumblr art:
ST:VOY - Happy Threshold Day (in honor of the anniversary of the airing of "Threshold" aka the lizard baby episode)
Star Wars - han solo? best damn braider in the galaxy. he once braided an entire wookie in twelve [improper units of measurement] (an older comic but utterly hilarious)
Merlin - The last Dragonlord (fantastic painting quality to this with incredible lighting)
MDZS - what about those years in between (stunning and powerful LXC&LWJ art)
Word of Honor - ZZS/WKX warmup doodle that developed a life of it’s own (far too amazing to be considered a warmup doodle, NSWF)

component parts by perfectlyrose (<2k)
Summary Snippet: Wei Wuxian tells Jin Ling about the people his parents were. (short, sweet and melancholic moment between WWX and Jin Ling)
Clothe Yourself in Beauty Untold by GhostySword (5.5k)
Summary Snippet: As a watchtower keeper, Lan Wangji has spent years alone with his memories and his view across the sea. When the long-missing Wei Wuxian stumbles up from the ocean, injured and hand in hand with a small child, Lan Wangji tries to understand their past and find a future. (short but tender selkie+modern cultivation AU)
some life yet unspent by Fahye (28k)
Summary: Lan Wangji wasn't privy to the conversations that took place among Yiling staff, but there was always an apologetic, tense edge to the tech's voice when someone else took over his missions. As if Wei Ying had put the fear of God into them if they let anything happen to Lan Wangji when Wei Ying was not personally available to oversee him. (absolutely excellent spies and secret agents AU)

crafting, babble, and recs

donutsweeper — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 21:38:11 GMT

I finished my most recent afghan

It wasn't a lot of yarn (only 600 yards or so) so it's not very big, 38"x21.5" give or take, but daughter was over when I ran out of yarn and asked for it so it went home with her immediately after I snapped the photo. For my next craft project I decided to try a rectangular rug (mostly because I suspect my yarn stash doesn't have enough of any one thing to make another decent-sized project). We'll see if it works or not.

Hurtcomfort exchange's noms close soon, I need to remember to do one last pass and see if there's anything else I can think to nom tonight.

There's been a few popular authors in one of my fandoms that recently deleted their works from AO3 so here's a reminder that works can be shifted to an anon collection easily (which still gives you control of your works) or you can orphan your work instead of deleting thing you don't want associated with your username anymore. Also, if there are fics you've reread numerous times and love and don't want to lose, other than downloading a copy for yourself, you can always add the work to the wayback machine. (You can also sometimes find deleted works there, if you have links for them or at least the author's name. Also, as an FYI, sometimes the work is there but might come up only when "?view_adult=true&view_full_work=true" is added to the url, no idea why, adding that also sometimes is needed when it errors regarding trying to check/save in the first place).

The wayback machine is great, I've been trying to remember to backup all the links I post to my resource posts there and now I'm going to try to check to see if the fics I rec are there too.

This week's @recthething recs (all MDZS/The Untamed)

Make Me a List of What You Lost by Eevee (EvaM), kazzashepard (49k)
Summary: Demonic cultivator (and bisexual legend) Wei Wuxian offers to marry his definitely-a-lesbian best friend so she can receive her inheritance and take over for her sexist uncle as the head of Qishan Labs, the medical facility turned experimental cultivation incubator where Wei Wuxian has worked ever since his life, love, and future all went up in flames.

There's just one problem - he's already married to the college sweetheart he hasn't seen in thirteen years. Now he'll have to return to Gusu to face up to old love, hard truths, and long-kept secrets, all the while trying to remember that he's there to get a divorce. (Modern cultivation AU with great world building and tropes)

I called your name 'til the fever broke by darkredloveknot (enheduane) (10k)
Summary: In the forest, in a house drenched in memories, there lives a witch. One night he gets a visitor who has forgotten who he is. (Modern with magic, light horror AU. Wonderfully lyrical)

Students of Song and Seeds by DizziDreams (20k)
Summary Snippet: Lan Wangji had two goals when he arrived at Gusu University, where he would be studying Illusion Magic in the university's acclaimed Music program: 1- Graduate with honors. 2- Do not acquire a soulmate. (Great modern-with magic university soulmate AU with a lot of interesting world building)

Fic and recs and whatnot

donutsweeper — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 22:55:29 GMT

Chocolatebox had reveals and just like last year I wrote one thing for it. (Although, unlike last year I'm remembering to post it here.) I wrote:

Dawn Becoming Day, MDZS/Untamed fandom, LWJ/WWX. Summary: Wei Wuxian used to hate mornings. 300 words

Yes I am still deep in my Cdrama phase. Someday I will emerge from it. Maybe.

But on that note- two weeks of @recthething recs: vids for Guardian, Untamed and NIF and a very old MDZS fansong and also 4 Untamed/MDZS fic recs:

Vids:
A Guardian one - Shen Wei + Zhao Yunlan - I Choose (FMV) Summary: I turned my little WeiLan vidlet into a full fledged video. Mostly Shen Wei wearing his heart on his sleeve. Also mostly fluff, no death and no I don't acknowledge or accept the show ending. Book ending is the only right one. (excellent Guardian vid, ao3 link)
A one quite old MDZS fan song with translations (made pre-CQL so book-centric) - Inquiry (问灵) (gorgeous and sad, youtube link)
A super short 20 second Untamed one - thinking of wen yuan and despairing for 10 minutes (oh my heart, tumblr link)
And a Nirvana in Fire one - The Mountain [Fanvid] by Rhea Summary: Tunnel vision for a cause, a Mei Changsu focused fanvid. (absolutely excellent)
Fics:
The Jade Chamber by raitala (18.5k)
Summary: Set in modern day London. As a member of the Gusu Institute, Lan Zhan plays his part on keeping the spiritual peace in the metropolis. Wei Ying left the Institute a long time ago, but from time to time they still work together and Lan Zhan mourns the closeness they once had. Lan Zhan calls Wei Ying in on a strange case at the British Museum. Events conspire to shatter the careful barriers they have erected. So much pining. Some case fic. Emotional rollercoaster with a happy ending. Some critique of the museum as an imperialist institution. (interesting world building in the modern-with-magic/cultivation AU and a plausible not quite something-made-them-do it but rather something-made-them-realize-they-wanted-to-do-it set up)

Ties by WithBroomBefore (series, 2 works, 16k total)
Summary of first work: Wei Wuxian collapses beautifully, like a player, because of course he fucking does. If Wen Qing did not know better, she would suspect him of faking it. (really interesting canon divergence-post Lotus Pier's fall but before the golden core transfer-fic with what happens if the transfer doesn't happen)

we all know they're both clowns: a college AU by colonelcatastrophe (4k)
Summary: Prompt: "Fluff, college AU, chaotic WWX, LWJ who doesn't want to mess up their friendship." (as it says on the tin this is fluff, utterly adorable fluff)

The Turtle in the Lanshi by Brierilee (1.6k)
Summary Snippet: Hanguang-Jun was an excellent teacher, really. Easily Jingyi’s favourite. And normally he really, really would be paying attention. It’s just… today, he just could not focus. He kept getting distracted by the turtle sitting on the desk behind Hanguang-Jun. (delightful story and hilarious Jingyi POV- vaguely based on a short bit from the novel but can be read without knowing about it)

hurtcomfortex is in nominations for a few more days. Instructions for how to nom are here and the tagset here. There's some lovely things in the tagset already, I'm hoping there's a lot of requests I can treat this year.

I am active in a bunch of discords but just joined a new fandom-specific one and it's really made me realize how out of step I can be with fandoms sometimes. In this case it's not actually my age (I'm still quite a bit older than most, if not everyone there, but at least there's not a lot of talk of being in school and taking tests like in some servers I'm in) but there was a character introduced in a way that immediately made me dislike them and while I grew to not hate them, they're one of those 'there in a meh kind of way' characters for me while apparently fandom is gaga over the character and actor. *sigh* Oh well.

Joining the wordle craze, most days I don't just do wordle but also quordle (guessing 4 at the same time), squardle (a grid one) and the slightly different but also word focused guess my word. I may have a problem. Between them and all the language apps I do regularly (mostly Chinese focused with 3 that are solely Chinese along with Duolingo where I also do Spanish regularly and sometimes Welsh and Yiddish) it takes up a lot of my time so I'm not sure how long I'll do everything, but for the moment, it's fun.

Livejournal is also being stupid when I try to update my research links posts so unfortunately I'm probably going to stop doing that here, so please click the link to the dreamwidth version for updated posts.

Ancient Detective babble, crochet and bread

donutsweeper — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 00:40:53 GMT

On corvidology's suggestion I watched Ancient Detective (streaming on viki here) and is was just.. so good. Easily one of the best things I've watched in a while. It's set in 'ancient' China (mostly 'real world' China, as in, people have amazing martial arts but it's not the flying swords and mystical beasts and whatnot) and the premise is that eight years ago there had been a huge battle that left main character Jian Buzhi wounded with amnesia and a lot of people, including his father, dead. The show has him following in his father's footsteps as a detective, solving cases and trying to find out the truth behind what happened that fateful day. Along the way he meets and instantly befriends Zhao Wohuan, who's just started trying to make a name for himself in the martial world. They go from friends to 'I will protect you with my life' to sworn brothers to this (see gif of Zhao Wohuan talking to Jian Buzhi under cut) in no time flat.

It's 24 episodes of 35-40ish minutes each and very tightly plotted. Characters from one mystery pop up and play roles in other mysteries. Vague comments and asides wind up being important. The acting is good, the effects work, even the fight scenes don't wind up overly long. Characters grow and learn things and interact in ways that make sense with logical reasons for doing the things they do. There's strong female characters. There's a fluidity of gender roles. The idiot ball is basically nonexistent.

Most importantly (for me) it was a complete story. The last episode ends with one of those 'here's a bit of something that could be used as the jumping off point for S2 if we get it' (one of the leads did mention on social media that it has been renewed although that doesn't guarantee anything) but it's not remotely a cliffhanger or anything; episode 24 works as both a series and season finale.

Anyway, highly recommend it. If anyone wants to babble about it with me or wants more specifics on plot or possible triggers just ask (as a result there might be spoilers in the comments).

I finished my most recent 'use up yarn stash' afghan:

I kind of wish I'd paid a little more attention to the number of rows of each color because it's uneven and irregular but oh well. Afghan! ... And now I need a new project. *sigh*

Also, I don't know if any of you are familiar with bdylanhollis who rose to fame last year for his tiktok viral videos of him baking vintage foods (said videos are often loaded up on tumblr, which is were I found him, and he also has a youtube channel now with several of those as well as a few longer baking vids) but he posted about a peanut butter bread (my tumblr reblog of it with the recipe written out) that looked great and I made it.

It came out quite good - not exactly like a quick bread or yeast/soda bread but somewhere in between and stayed fresh for the few days it took for us to finish it off.