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china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

Poll #34373 Clothes

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

View Respondents

How emphatic are your opinions on Shen Wei’s Haixing clothes?

View Answers

Not (clothes are clothes)
0 (0.0%)

Not with a few exceptions (accessories)
0 (0.0%)

Not with a few exceptions (outfits)
1 (25.0%)

Somewhat
1 (25.0%)

Very
1 (25.0%)

Extremely
1 (25.0%)

I will fight you!
0 (0.0%)

I didn't use to, but fandom has made me care
1 (25.0%)

How emphatic are your opinions on Zhao Yunlan's clothes?

View Answers

Not (clothes are clothes)
0 (0.0%)

Not with a few exceptions
1 (25.0%)

Somewhat
2 (50.0%)

Very
1 (25.0%)

Extremely
0 (0.0%)

I've papered my bedroom with screencaps of him in that grey sweater and distressed jeans
1 (25.0%)

What does Zhao Yunlan find sexiest about the Envoy? (check all that apply)

View Answers

mystery
4 (100.0%)

super-strength
2 (50.0%)

other powers
1 (25.0%)

authority
2 (50.0%)

mercy
4 (100.0%)

mouth
2 (50.0%)

eyelashes
3 (75.0%)

those slight, faint-hint-of-amusement smiles
3 (75.0%)

weapon
1 (25.0%)

the fact that Zhao Yunlan's father would strongly disapprove
2 (50.0%)

other (please specify in comments)
0 (0.0%)

Which of these best describes you?

View Answers

I speak/read Mandarin well / It's my first language
0 (0.0%)

I'm learning Mandarin
1 (25.0%)

I'm learning Mandarin because of Guardian
0 (0.0%)

I've picked up a few words
2 (50.0%)

I don't know any Mandarin but I'd like to learn
0 (0.0%)

Don’t know anything, languages are haaard
1 (25.0%)

No Mandarin, but I know (an)other Asian language(s)
1 (25.0%)

Other
0 (0.0%)

tinny

Finally! Here's my progression post for 2025! (click here for: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016)

# of icons: 1230
# of icon posts: 65

Graph instead of words for distribution this time:

Icon Progression 2025 icons by month

Last, year the busiest months where May, October, June, and March - well there is some overlap - and the quietest ones February and December - nope, not even close. :D

Biggest achievements/progress made/observations: I don't think I made any huge leaps. My work was so busy and exhausting that I resorted to mostly minimalist icons without text. The most complex icons were around March, and after June the text use dropped significantly. I'm not bothered by this, because apparently it meant I made more icons, and I can't say I had less fun making them than I would have had making more complex ones. It's all good, then!

New this year: I made a gallery for 2025, just one huge pile without any text/descriptions/explanations, which you can see here: https://tinpix.de/2025/gallery_page_1.html. They go from new (page 1) to old (page 24).

Now for the monthly details:

Every icon post is linked separately, through the example icons for each month. But you can also click on the month names for that month's calendar with links to all my posts. Or you can simply look at my art-icons tag. Every month states the number of icons posted that month, plus the number later posted in drop posts, to get a better idea when I made what.

16 HPI and My Lady Jane icons for the iconcolors amnesty round

16 HPI and My Lady Jane icons for the iconcolors amnesty round

20 HPI icons for the Monopoly round at icons10in20

15 icons of shows I watched over the Summer for monthlyinspo

21 multifandom icons for the iconcolors amnesty round

( My progression over the last 12 months )

Closing Thoughts and Resolutions

Wow, I got way over 1000 icons this year - probably due to the fact that

monthlyinspo died and I had to deliver lots of 20-icon sets for all the 20in20s in which I participated instead, plus the landcomms. And I was under a lot of stress at work so that carried over into my need to relieve the stress by making a lot of icons. Those were less complex, but didn't end up ugly, just minimalistic and more focused on coloring and lighting. Overall, I'm not complaining. Iconmaking is stress relief for me, and I really needed it.

My resolutions for 2025 were:

- Be a little more adventurous with obscuring the subject, either through crop or using text
- Do experiments with coloring

I feel like I did the second one. I love recoloring icons, and that's why I love iconcolors so much, too. I did a retro_icontest round where a new coloring method was the focus of the challenge, and I found a coloring tutorial that I've been experimenting with. So I guess those both count, and this worked out.

The first one... eh. I kind of did it. At least I remembered that I had it this year, lol, unlike the previous years. :D I made an icontalking challenge with the goal of practicing it (it worked a little, could have been more). So I am keeping that one.

I didn't have a third one in 2025, but since I'm firmly back into cdrama and have made way too many textless icons last year, I'll add the old resolution back. Then I realized how great it was to shake up my process, I'm adding a resolution to that effect, giving me these three:

- Be a little more adventurous with obscuring the subject, either through crop or using text
- Do experiments with changing my process, either by starting from textures or by following guides/tutorials
- Add text also to cdrama icons

Looking back at the year, I'm happy as always that the iconmaker community still exists. Some new (and old!) makers joined us again, and my comms are all a source of joy. I'm also happy to have found seasons_of_fandom, a landcomm that works really well at integrating iconmakers, which no other landcomm I've seen has done as successfully, and I enjoy participating there. It's in fact the first landcomm that I've managed to stay in for more than one round. (Well, okay, I managed a few rounds at fandom_empire, too.)

Many thanks to everyone who mods, participates, or even just comments. You all make my life better. <3

Last but not least: the graph!

Icons made in 2025 Graph - 1230 total, 323 HPI, 33 Zhu Yilong, 132 Wu Lei, 242 Wu Lei Dramas, 104 Other CDrama, 51 Asian BL, 34 Bridgerton, 312 Other

Icons made in 2025 Graph - 1230 total, 323 HPI, 33 Zhu Yilong, 132 Wu Lei, 242 Wu Lei Dramas, 104 Other CDrama, 51 Asian BL, 34 Bridgerton, 312 Other

comparison with last year

Icons made in 2024 Graph - 790 total, 175 Zhu Yilong, 24 Other Chinese Actors (12 Tan Jianci, 7 Chen Minghao, 5 Jia Ling), 91 Lost You Forever, 124 Other CDrama (49 Guardian, 34 Dreamlike), 41 Asian BL, 204 Bridgerton, 71 My Lady Jane, 240 Other

Compared to last year, the number of Zhu Yilong icons dropped considerably *again*, from 175 to a measly 33. I feel like my Zhu Yilong addiction has well and truly run its course. My new obsession is Wu Lei, who leads the count with 374 icons, then HPI with 323, neither of which were at all a thing in 2024. All in all, adding cdrama (104) + BL (51) to the Zhu Yilong and Wu Lei numbers, Asian fandoms still come to almost half my total number (560).

Last year, I thought that I would icon more western fandoms, but apart from HPI, that prediction has not come true. It's all Wu Lei's fault of course. :D

So far, 2026 has started out well where iconmaking is concerned, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

mekare

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mekare

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trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

Guardian Reverse Exchange 2026. Image shows Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan facing each other, gripping the Sundial between them.

What is the 520 Day Reverse Exchange?

General info/rules/schedule post - please go there to ask questions if anything isn't clear.

If you're on Discord, Twitter, Bluesky, Tumblr or elsewhere for fandom, please help get the word out by promoting the exchange there. We have a tumblr post you can reblog, a promo graphic and text on the General info post, or you can make your own.

How do I sign up?

You will find the sign-up form below. Fill in something for each point, giving as much info as you like. All comments are screened so only mods (

china_shop and

trobadora) can see them.

Please read this post, including the 2026 sign-up form, fully before you sign up. You will need to check back at this community between Saturday 28 March and Friday 3 April to make your requests. This sign-up form is the first of two steps.

Sign-ups are open until 11:59pm UTC on Friday 27 March 2026. (What time is that for me?)

What happens next?

On Saturday 28 March, mods post the info from the sign-up forms as anonymous participant ads on this comm.

You choose 3 ads from the list and make a request for each. (We'll remove each ad from the list when we've received 3 requests for that offer.)

Mods assign one of your requests to the relevant writer/artist/creator.

You receive one request made for your offer. This is your assignment.

The sign-up form

( under the cut! )

All comments here are screened (i.e. only visible to mods). If there is a problem with your sign-up, for example if you've missed any important info, we will reply to your comment or email you to sort it out.

Go forth and sign up!

Current Mood: excited

shadaras

1.
I'd love for the weather to settle down; over the last week I think I've had... two days of feeling Actually Definitely Human, two days of feeling terrible (weather-linked migraines yay), and the rest in muted tiredness where I'm like "well this is tolerable but still not good." Tomorrow evening is when the next storm is supposed to hit here, which means probably both tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be very "haha you wanted to have a brain? and function?" days, which is frustrating but... so it goes, shall manage.

2.

seasonalremix's due date for works came by yesterday and everyone got things in on time! It's delightful! I'm excited for the remixes to be revealed next week so everyone can see them!

If you're interested in participating in the next round, sign-ups will open next week and we're currently inviting people to suggest tropes to add to our trope list.

3.
Yesterday afternoon a friend organized a party that was six people (inclusive of them) who had all gone to college together (not all in the same year, but I think we all overlapped by at least one year) and one person who (a) knows me and the organizing friend well and (b) has a house that's good for hosting groups. Fascinating set of people. Mostly we played board/card games! And learned that we could understand the rules for Four Doors (co-op game about gathering relics and lighting a beacon), a game none of us had played before (and which was very fun; would play again. the last round was especially delightful as we worked out how to min-max our way to finishing the game in one turn rather than three. and by "we" I mean "one other friend and I, as the people who understood the rules and Cared A Lot"), more easily than Zounds (Shakespearean Go Fish with a few extra rules, more or less), a game which... also none of us had played before but you'd think that "it's basically Go Fish" would be more comprehensible. xD (Unsurprisingly, the Shakespeare nerd who owned that game won it even before the extra points for completing the quotes on the cards were tallied up.)

It's also a bit... mm, I hadn't seen two of those friends since graduating, pretty much? So it's been like a decade? (Might've seen them once or twice in passing since then, but not for an extended time?) But yeah, nah, fundamentally we're still the same kind of people/friends as back then, despite that time. Just one of those things where you have a bunch of introverts and only sometimes can manage the whole "keep in touch when an external force isn't maintaining that connection for you" thing.

(Also I think that the Zounds thing of "the person who goes first is the person who most recently acted in a play" should've been expanded to "person who most recently played a ttrpg/larped" for that group, since that would've gotten it to something that happened in the last month rather than something from uh over a decade ago. xD Whatever, we can Play By The Rules I Guess since people did have an answer for that. But I think that roleplaying games are Close Enough when you've got a group of nerds who are mostly not theater nerds but who have, at some point, played a ttrpg...)

4.

hafnia wrote me a 15k story as a celebration of two years of friendship. <3 Unsurprisingly, I adore it (it was written for me! by someone who knows me very well! with like zero input from me other than "idk, you could write me wingfic?", a thing that she was like "well YEAH OBVIOUSLY" about, so it's like no input at all xD) (she's going to be like YOU HAD INPUT and yeah I guess but it was all "yeah that sounds good <3" and "yesssss :3" and the like) and I would like more people to read it.

The fuzzy line between intimate friendship and romance! Knowing where you fit in each other's lives! Finding balance between two lifestyles which might seem incompatible at first glance! Wings! Art and language and community!
The Winged City (Original Work, 15k, F/NB, rated E for "oh yeah there's a short sex scene in there" but mostly it's T-rated FEELINGS)

5.
Have some more Mouse <3 I think it's funny that this chapter is one I'm calling "The Voyage" and it has been 2.6k and the ship has not yet departed on said voyage. This is fine. The vibe/focus is still accurate, and I'm almost to the ship taking its leave...

Mouse orbits the atrium. The priest watches from their vestibule, but Mouse knows when their attention turns away, the priest satisfied that Mouse knows the rites and is comfortable performing them alone. There is ease in them, a kind of dance as they make their bows and sign their wishes—words being too easily overheard—to the symbols of the moon’s many phases. The entryway is the closed eye; opposite it is the open one. The walls between are lined with other doors framed with idols, most of which would open into full shrines to the god’s aspects.

They halt at the moon’s open eye, which here—in a city of contracts and arguments of truth—is considered the primary aspect of the Lord of the Moon. Mouse doesn’t know if they believe that. The closed eye is the one they turn too most often, but right now…

“Your eye is upon me,” they murmur, and hear it ripple through the open chamber and up the tower to the god’s ears. “May it continue to bring me good fortune.”

To say anything else here, where the priest listens as well as the god, would be too much. Mouse bows again, then continues their unhurried honoring of every phase of Jiraci Mooneye. They are all one, in the end, and Mouse cannot say for certain which showed him House Ilizana’s sigil and thus the path to a new life.

When they return to the entryway, the closed eye of the god inset in onyx above it, the priest says, “Walk in the moon’s light, sibling mine.”

“I’d rather walk in the moon’s shadow,” Mouse says, and for a moment they think the priest will scold them.

Instead, the priest laughs. “Perhaps one day I will see you wearing his eyelid as a cloak,” they say. “May he watch over you until you find your path.”

Mouse turns to face the priest, unsettled, but their eyes are closed and a smile peaceful on their face as if they’ve been dozing the whole time.

There is nothing to be done but to make their final prayers—May your shadow be warm and welcoming, may those who wish ill upon me overlook my presence, may my footsteps be quiet and my eyes open to the night’s mysteries—before they exit to rejoin Rhei in the city’s streets.

tinny

The latest round at

icontalking is all about making your icons look like comics. While I was at it, I made a few actual comic icons, from Dr Seuss, Calvin and Hobbes, and Asterix. I don't think these are much more than bases - two are actually just crops with no editing whatsoever - so I'm posting these only here to my journal and not to the actual round. Enjoy!

Teasers:

( 10 Asterix, 8 Wu Lei, 3 Calvin, 3 Dr Seuss, 1 CDrama )

I love comments, and if you have concrit for me, I'm open for that, too. All my icons are free to take and use, credit is appreciated. The list of makers whose textures and brushes I like to use is here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

trobadora posting in

sid_guardian

520 Day Reverse Exchange General Concept

As the name says, this is a reverse exchange, also known as a Choose Your Writer/Artist/Fanwork Creator exchange. Instead of making your request and that request being assigned to a writer/artist/fanwork creator, here:

You sign up with the kinds of things you enjoy creating - media, ships, tropes, etc.

You choose three writers/artists/fanwork creators based on anonymised ads, and you make a request of each of them based on what they enjoy creating and what you want to receive.

You are assigned one request to create for, based on your offers.

You receive a gift from one of the creators you chose.

The 520 Day Reverse Exchange covers the Guardian drama, the novel, and real person fanworks about the actors. You can offer and/or request fanfic, fanart, icons, vids, podfic, meta, a remix of an existing fanwork, or fanart for an existing fanwork. Or any combination of the above! If there are other media you'd like to offer, please discuss with the mods by commenting on this post.
(Note that meta will need to be sufficiently transformative to meet AO3's rules, i.e. not simply a collection of canon facts.)

Hopefully this means you get an assignment that fits you like a glove, and just the gift fanwork you're looking for!

Participants who are under 18 must request and offer works rated General or Teen And Up only.

( How it all works )

( Schedule )

( Promotion )

Any questions? We're here to answer them. Ask in the comments to this post!

umadoshi

I have worked. Uh. A lot. Over the past three weeks. o_o But now it's the weekend, and I don't currently have a rewrite to work on, and March Break lies ahead; the spring crunch isn't finished, but it's on hiatus for the week, and a normal workweek is a breath of fresh air at this point. (Also I'm taking a couple of days off during it.)

Yesterday work wrapped up early enough that I had an actual evening, so I was finally able to start Butterfly Effects, the fifteenth (!) InCryptid book. ("Finally" is a bit of a stretch, I guess, since it's still the release week, but this is a Sarah-narrated book. Mostly. SARAH.)

So my hopes for the weekend are pretty much: avoid napping (I don't find naps restorative and feel groggier after than before I started); finish reading Butterfly Effects; watch this week's The Pitt and hopefully the temporarily-streaming production of The Importance of Being Earnest with

scruloose; get

scruloose to redo my undercut; and (also with

scruloose) do a second round of advance-prepping ten or so bags of the dry ingredients for my breakfast banana bread while also baking up a new batch of loaves. I think that last will also require decanting cinnamons from bags into jars, so maybe we'll manage a bit of other spice decanting/sorting while we're at it.

Current Mood: groggy

tinny

The current round at

retro_icontest was a list of 5 themes, and I picked two: the No Eyes theme, and the Inspo Icons theme, and made three icons for each:

1-3

4-6
Wu Lei x3 | Chen Minghao | Wu Lei | Nothing But You

the inspo icons for comparison

lazuli_reikou |

milkfed |

ieatstickers

I'm happy to receive all kind of comments, including concrit! All icons shareable. Credit for brushes and textures I use can be found here in my resource post.

Previous icon posts:

mekare

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china_shop

Previous poll review
In the Being an audience poll, 41.3% of respondents have been to the cinema in the last six months, 28.3% to the theatre, and 17.4% to a live music gig. I'm curious about the 10.9% who chose "other".

In ticky-boxes, bakery treats came second to hugs, 60.9% to 73.9%, which is an excellent showing. Snow puppies came third with 47.8%. Thank you for your votes! ♥

Reading
Andrew and I finished Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold, so now I know what

minoanmiss meant by SHOPPING TRIP. *takes a moment* Anyway, it was great. I love Bujold's character work and her humour. Looking forward to the next one and getting to know Miles.

Kdramas
Still re-watching One Spring Night, lol. I made a flaily post about it a few days ago, but then realised that my "realisations" were actually explained in the next few scenes, so I don't know if I'm seeing the show differently or just remembering info I learned from the first time around. I've since privated the post, but if you've seen OSN and want to talk to me about it, please do!! I am mildly obsessed.

I also started Undercover Miss Hong on

adore's rec. I'm in the middle of episode 2, and it's great so far. It reminds me of Good Manager (AKA Chief Kim) to the point where I checked if it was the same writer (it isn't), and otoh, the lead is played by Park Shin-hye, who was the nun in the "nun undercover as her twin brother in a boyband" drama, You're Beautiful, which was my gateway drug into the world of Kdramas, so in a way it feels like coming full circle. (Here, she's undercover as a 20yo.)

Other TV
We finished the Return of the King extras (omg, so stressful!). Still watching The Pitt, of course, though I really think it works better all in a bunch, rather than one episode a week. (I won't say "binged", because the most we ever manage is three episodes a night -- that's a lot for us.)

Happened to notice that Cheers is on Neon (NZ streaming service, incl. some HBO), and randomly started watching it -- it's aged surprisingly well! Very white, and the sexism vs feminism tension is front and centre, but Sam is fine, and everyone seems to be having a good time. We'll stick with that for a while and see.

The pilot of R.J. Decker, a new PI show loosely based on a Carl Hiaasen novel. It's very network TV, case-of-the-week and easy-going. Good supporting cast. Seems fine. A few episodes of Ponies, about two CIA widows trying to be spies in cold war Russia. They don't have much trade craft yet, so it's equal parts comedic and tense. Half an episode of SurrealEstate.

My sister and I are still on Fringe season 4, in which the entire multiverse revolves around Peter; I prefer Lincoln. And we watched some Bluey, naturally. Just finished season 1 and started season 2. 🧡💙🧡

Audio entertainment
All the usual suspects. More Movie Briefs, more local politics. And the episode of A Bit Fruity recced by

sabotabby (who gives excellent podcast recs, btw). A Tech Won't Save Us episode about The Luddite Club. A bit of Ad Astra about pacing. I think I'm spending too much time listening to podcasts.

Online life
The 520 Day Guardian Reverse Exchange is coming soon!! We've been doing some behind-the-scenes prep for that. And wheeeee, I won a Fandom Trumps Hate auction (my first time bidding) -- so exciting!!

Writing/making things
Still bashing my head against the two things I started for Yuletide. It would be fantastic to get these off my plate before I get my 520 Day assignment and have to redecorate my brain in Guardian. *plugs away* (I feel like my intuition is offline, and I'm having to figure everything out with my inept thinking brain, why?)

In drawing, I did a practice pic of Zhao Yunlan, and wow, expressions are hard; the difference between worried and scared is, like, a millimetre here, a millimetre there...

Life/health/mental state things
The tsunami of ambient stress is making itself felt in my body. When I bought my new phone, I somehow got six months' free premium Fitbit membership again, so I tried wearing my Fitbit to sleep, to build up a data profile. And yep, an "objective" poor rating makes a subjective bad night's sleep feel so much worse. That's why I stopped doing this last time! So I've stopped again. Also, my resting pulse rate was going up and up for a while there. /o\

Had my free breast-squish day.

Goals
I did not do my goal things from last week. Ah well.

Good things
Sunshine. New (second-hand) red bag arrived this week; I don't think it's as waterproof as advertised, but it's a step up from my sponge of a handbag. Showers and kitties and going out to lunch. Biking and bike lanes. The Bingo fanart I received in

fandomtrees continues to be cheering/soothing. GUARDIAN!!

Poll #34352 Fitness trackers

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

Do you use a fitness tracker to monitor your activity?

View Answers

yes, regularly
9 (18.0%)

yes, sometimes
2 (4.0%)

...and an app
5 (10.0%)

I use the pedometer on my phone
8 (16.0%)

no, but I used to
6 (12.0%)

no, but I'm thinking about starting
1 (2.0%)

other no
24 (48.0%)

other
1 (2.0%)

ticky-box full of "I genuflect to the sanctity of the ticky-box"
20 (40.0%)

ticky-box full of otters building obstacle courses
24 (48.0%)

ticky-box of FANDOM SPARKLES
28 (56.0%)

ticky-box full of bears baking blueberry and salmon muffins
21 (42.0%)

ticky-box full of hugs hugs hugs
34 (68.0%)

mekare

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china_shop posting in

sid_guardian

Poll #34345 Sang Zan's cave, naming the Hallows, and Zhu Jiu's revenue stream

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

View Respondents

Who else has found their way into Sang Zan's pillar cave in the last hundred years (assuming another entrance)?

View Answers

Da Qing (he doesn't remember)
8 (53.3%)

a family of hibernating bears (they had very strange dreams)
12 (80.0%)

Wu Xie, Zhang Qiling, and Pang Zi
8 (53.3%)

Jill Pole, Eustace Scrubb, and Puddleglum
3 (20.0%)

Gollum
5 (33.3%)

other
2 (13.3%)

When Ma Gui and Fu You created the Hallows, why did they call them "sacred"/"the Hallows"?

View Answers

hubris
4 (26.7%)

psyops
2 (13.3%)

the inventions turned out a whole lot more powerful than expected, and they named them as a warning
10 (66.7%)

the Hallows announced how they wanted to be addressed, singularly and collectively
4 (26.7%)

other
1 (6.7%)

How does Zhu Jiu pay off the fight club manager/afford his visits to the hair stylist?

View Answers

Dixing currency/gold
5 (33.3%)

busking
1 (6.7%)

part-time job in the service industry (he’s always late, but no one dares dock his pay)
2 (13.3%)

he mugs ordinary people
7 (46.7%)

he mugs muggers (not on principle; it just cuts out the middle man)
10 (66.7%)

he has a Givealittle and/or Patreon
2 (13.3%)

other (please specify in comments)
1 (6.7%)

Guardian the drama is

View Answers

glorious, oh my heart!
10 (66.7%)

the gift that keeps on giving
11 (73.3%)

shut up, it’s perfect!
8 (53.3%)

the fandom is also made of sparkles *blows kisses to everyone*
10 (66.7%)

LOLLIPOPS FOR ALL!!
10 (66.7%)

sakana17

First thing: new vid!
[vid] 巡游 | Xúnyóu (2 words) by sakana17
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 大梦归离 | Fangs of Fortune (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Zhao Yuanzhou | Zhu Yan/Zhuo Yichen
Characters: Zhao Yuanzhou | Zhu Yan, Zhuo Yichen
Additional Tags: Fanvids, Spoilers, Embedded Video
Summary:
"巡游" (鹭卓), vid created 2025-2026. Language of song: Chinese (Mandarin).

Fate entwines Bingyi and Yinglong, Zhao Yuanzhou and Zhuo Yichen.

Or available via Vimeo link: 巡游 | Xúnyóu
password: BingYiChen26
lyrics: 巡游

Or available via download (251 MB) from Mediafire

Note: I put it on Vimeo because I could embed it on AO3 that way, but I understand there's unpleasantness with Vimeo. I'm welcome to suggestions for another site where I could put up my vids and be able to embed them (but not YouTube -- been there, did that, got burned, dnw).

Second thing: ( Finished watching Heated Rivalry )

shadaras

mm, in service of Remembering To Post, a bit from the thing I'm working on right now:

Quail and Olive’s does serve both quail and olives, but turns out to be named for the proprietors, a married Orcish couple who tease them about being on a date until Rhei waves their hands and says “We’re friends” in an exasperated tone that, wonder of wonders, convinces them it’s true.

Later, most of what Mouse remembers is that Rhei keeps pushing more onto Mouse’s plate and hands them the wrapped bag of leftovers—“to share with your father”—because they had ordered far more than it was possible for two people to eat. Mouse doesn’t remember the taste, just the warm light and the way Rhei banters with Olive and smiles at Mouse, including them even though Mouse barely speaks aloud, too overwhelmed by the richness of the food and the way they’re assumed to be a person and not a slave.

Rhei leads them back through Adrium’s streets, calling a glowing orb to their hand to light their path. At Mouse’s start—Adrium is not a city of mages but a city of merchants—Rhei says, “Elf blood,” rather apologetically. “El sighs over the odd array of spells I’ve learned to cast, but light is useful and not too hard.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Mouse says, because Rhei seems to expect some response.

“If you want to learn, you can. Not from me,” Rhei adds a moment later, laughing. “I’d be shit at teaching magic. But Tsarra—she’s the magic-user on retainer at the House—or El probably could teach you the basics. Don’t worry about it right now, there’s no rush, but— It’s an option, should you desire it.”

Desire is something too big for Mouse to consider right now. They’ve desired little things in the past—clean new clothes, a full night’s rest, a piece of cake—but the only big thing they could think of is the freedom they have just begun to attain. They nod, say nothing, and let the strange feeling of possibility bubble through their chest. It feels like anxiety and anticipation, and Mouse can’t look too closely at anything but the longing to see their father again.

(otherwise: work is work, school takes too much time and is sometimes very visibly "we need to say you've been in this building for X number of hours" more than "we have specific things to teach you", and Daylight Savings Time stealing an hour throws off my bodyclock so much.)

umadoshi

Last week was once again mostly swallowed by work and I'm very tired, plus I have to final-read a rewrite this afternoon.

Between Friday night and yesterday, I managed to read a couple manga volumes and

scruloose and I saw the new ep. of The Pitt.

That's all I've got right now.

Current Mood: exhausted

nnozomi

I lost most of this week to an atmospheric-pressure headache, the usual “not bad enough to put off things I have to do (like meet deadlines) but bad enough that I can’t enjoy doing things I want to do,” ugh. Still, if it’s the worst health problem I have in middle age I should be relieved, knock wood. (I went to the doctor for an MRI a few years back and they said “oh, your brain is fine, your neck is just fucked up, sorry about that.”) Catching up now, and grateful for everyday things.

Instead of a Jiang Dunhao song this time around, here’s one by one of his brothers: Li Hao’s I should be with you is absolutely haunting for me, in all senses, the chorus just gets me where I live. Also, listen to this song without checking the singer names and tell me whether you think you’re hearing two women, two men, a man and a woman, or what?

Still reading The People at No. 1 Siwei St.; there are definitely lesbians, along with non-Taipei regionalisms (the characters come from Taichung and Tainan and Chiayi and Taitung) and delicious-sounding food and a grad student who writes BL novels in her spare time, and it’s a lot of fun. Maybe I will just go ahead and translate it (from the Japanese version, until I can get my hands on the original) for my own amusement? It’s a quick read, except for figuring out all the Taiwanese food names.

Elen and I have been watching season 2 of Under the Skin--about halfway through, or maybe two thirds?—and it’s very enjoyable, although maybe that’s not the word I want; it’s quite brutal, a chronicle of all the ways society finds to victimize women (and sometimes other vulnerable people, but especially women). But not completely bleak, at least not so far (we’ve counted at least two stealth-lesbian couples up to this point, both with tentatively happy endings, the scene with the wedding cake was one of the best things I’ve watched in ages). It is often stunning to look at, not that I know anything about cinematography whatsoever, and thoroughly, thoughtfully characterized down to (or especially) the one-off roles, a gold-mine of gifted middle-aged character actors of both sexes. I like Shen Yi and Du Cheng, but am not as gripped by them as I was in s1; Shen Yi as the all-knowing psychologist doesn’t really work for me, and the rest of the time he needs the services of one himself, the man has no common sense/self-preservation to the point where it’s just frustrating. (Having also encountered Shen Wei and Wu Xie along the line, I would now really like to watch a drama where the main character does have common sense and acts accordingly, i.e. throwing yourself into stupid danger is not required to move along the plot! Any recs?) My favorite regular characters remain Zhang-ju (competent older woman in a position of authority who has retained her sense of humor and looks very good in a uniform—and now we know her first name!) and Jiang Feng (straightforward loyal floppy-eared puppy). Also I was delighted that Lu Haizhou, my very favorite character from s1, showed up again briefly in s2 and was still very very Lu Haizhou—fair, stern, unemotional, and not unwilling to make enemies in the course of his duty, but also prepared to flirt outrageously with more than one of his male colleagues likewise. (Somebody please give Zhang Tao bigger roles? He still reminds me of a younger Wang Yang, and should be able to follow in his footsteps.)

Reading A Winter’s Tale with yaaurens and company; among other roles I was assigned the unspectacular-sounding Second Gentleman, who has this wonderful line: “Nothing but bonfires: the oracle is fulfilled; the king's daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it.”

In cooking news, I recently invented a new and sinful form of TKG. Tamago kake gohan is a Japanese diner standard of raw egg served over hot rice with soy sauce; unfortunately I won’t eat raw eggs (they’re safe to eat here, I just can’t stand the texture), so instead I started by chopping up some garlic and sautéing it in sesame oil until browned and sweet. Then I broke a couple of eggs into the saucepan and let the egg whites fold in the garlic, until the eggs were sunny-side-up with hard whites, soft yolks, and very crispy, garlic-studded bottoms and edges. Eaten over rice with a dash of soy sauce, delicious.

Sometimes I wonder why Brahms’ contemporaries/fellow composers didn’t just go “okay, forget it, I’m going off to sell insurance or run a sheep farm” or something. Listen to the quintet here, my God, it’s doing so much. (Okay, among Brahms’ contemporaries was Wagner, who wouldn’t have run out of musical confidence if God Himself came down and said “Richard, you’re not getting it,” but still.)

Photos: Lots of plum blossoms, some citrus, and some winter daphne (I have to look up the English name every time), which is boring to look at but has a lovely fragrance you’ll just have to imagine.