I should go to sleep but I don't want to make it be tomorrow yet

[extrapenguin]

Guardian rewatchalong, episode 6 is here! (I am unsure about my schedule tomorrow evening, so I went and posted it now.)

Otherwise, I've caught up with Thousand Autumns, and it's perhaps my favorite danmei webnovel ever. (We're 30% of the way through the 128 chapters!) (I also realized that it's very much what I wanted Modao Zushi to be based on the misleading advertising of the latter. Oops?) Shen Qiao is a protagonist whom I appreciate very much, for all his refusal to compromise his morals, and the way he will let unimportant things go easily. Yan Wushi as well is an excellent character, erratic and ambitious, and he might be a demonic cultivator, but he isn't full-on Chaotic Evil: he has reasons for doing things, and he really wants to go down in history, both by unifying the demonic sects and by having Zhou conquer the Five Plains. The trope of reverse corruption of evil into good is also one I absolutely adore, and I love the fact that the political plot is very much set in the Northern and Southern dynasties, instead of "sometime within this 2000-year stretch".

I also have a Guardian plotbunny, courtesy of rheasilvia:

The woman sitting on the SID couch was young, wore white tai chi clothes, and there was something very much off about her. Upon seeing Zhao Yunlan arrive, she rose. "Greetings. I come from the Rigel Spaceship Rental Corporation. You appear to have crashed one of our spaceships into your planet."

Whatever his flaws, Zhao Yunlan was pretty sure that he'd remember crashing a spaceship, no matter how drunk he might have been at the time. "I think you have the wrong person."

There is also another plotbunny that is a crossover with Yoko Tsuno! Yoko Tsuno and Khâny's adventures lead them to Dixing, and then Zhao Yunlan learns that there are, in fact, two species of humanoid aliens that came to Earth and settled deep underground. Then Yoko Tsuno and Zhao Yunlan team up to talk down Ye Zun, Khâny shares some tips on how to run an underground settlement, and everyone lives happily ever after. Yoko and Khâny soon head off to their next destination of Something That Is Not Zhao Yunlan's Problem while the SID crew get a few days off and Zhao Yunlan cuddles his alien.

Comments

[firestar]

*cackles* I love that plotbunny. Took 'em long enough to come looking for the ship, though. XD

[extrapenguin]

Oh, the next line would be some variant of asking Zhao Yunlan where he was when the spaceship crashed – aliens simply experience time differently. And the spaceship's path would have been twisty and turny...

[firestar]

Hee. Does ZYL even have any clue wtf she's on about with the spaceship? Like, how much of 'Dixingren and Yashou were originally aliens' survived to his current time. Hmmm.

[extrapenguin]

I would assume that the stuff in the episode 1 infodump is common knowledge to the SID chiefs and some related important people! (After all, Ma Gui has a portrait on Minister Gao's wall.) So he'd realize she might be after the Dixing spaceship pretty soon.

[firestar]

That's true. For some reason I always forget about that portrait and what it represents in terms of stuff lasting. :/

[trobadora]

Hee! He's only pretty sure he'd remember! :D

(I love that plot bunny. :D)

[extrapenguin]

Well, in a world of Dixing powers, who's to say that he didn't get hit with one to erase his memories? :P

[china_shop]

That Guardian plotbunny sounds great. Hee!

[extrapenguin]

Alas, I still have 10k+ of another fic to write, woe! When will I get a machine that automagically sets thoughts to fic???

[china_shop]

Btw, trobadora and I were speculating a while ago that Ma Gui could have lied about fashioning the Hallows and maybe they're really tech from the spacecraft (which would explain at least some of their super-advanced powers!). Maybe the woman traced them to the SID?

[extrapenguin]

That wouldn't work with my plotbunny, but yes, the Hallows being some advanced technology that already existed (whether from the Dixing spaceship or somewhere else) would make sense and would be an interesting thing to deal with.

[rheasilvia]

[*please insert a mixture of excited high-pitched squeeing and evil booming laughter here*]

I love how they are blaming the person on the planet the ship crashed into, rather than the person crashing the ship. Recklessly parking your planet in the traffic lane again, huh??

Though maybe they're just trying to pin it on the entity with whatever currency they're looking for in recompense. ;-)

[extrapenguin]

Zhao Yunlan is in charge of the Dealing With Aliens Department, of course he's a very likely suspect! Next the agent will ask him for potential eyewitness accounts of the crash, and Zhao Yunlan will develop infinite gladness that at least his Shen Wei had a better grasp of how to human than this person does.

I do have some amorphous plot that means Zhao Yunlan won't have to pay, but: spoilers. And it might change a lot between concept and execution.

[qikiqtarjuaq]

I recently caught up with Thousand Autumns too! Thank you so much for the rec, by the way. This book is fantastic, and the translation is top-notch! Shen Qiao is the best.

[extrapenguin]

♥ It's especially good as a break from a bunch of other danmei webnovels, as it's AFAICT less tropey and the characters more mature. There's only so much of the standard tropes one can take before wanting something different for a change!

[maggie33]

I guess I’ll start reading another Chinese webnovel, because Thousand Autumns sounds great.

And that plotbunny is fantastic.

Whatever his flaws, Zhao Yunlan was pretty sure that he'd remember crashing a spaceship, no matter how drunk he might have been at the time.

LMAO

[extrapenguin]

I recommend it 100% - it's great!

The plotbunny ... is a bit inconvenient, as I already have a large WIP I'm more than halfway done with, albeit in another fandom. I just have to finish that and then I can make spaceships happen!

[mekare]

OOOOOH that plotbunny is excellent!

[extrapenguin]

Thank you! I even have a resolution of sorts for it, so it's a plotbunny instead of just a conceptbunny.

[jo_lasalle]

Sounds like a nicely plotty plotbunny! *__*

[extrapenguin]

Indeed! I should probably write it, next... (After 520 Exchange. Or during it.)

[tinny]

I Do Not need another webnovel. ;)) (I totally do. The five I am reading aren't updating nearly fast enough. I can squeeze in a few more.)

I haven't even read Modao Zushi yet, but I'll probably put Thousand Autumns on my list, as well. :)

I love the guardian plotbunnies! Hop on, little bunnies!

[extrapenguin]

Don't worry, I'll tell DW about any other webnovels I might find interesting! :D

The plotbunnies are nice, but I'd like it better if I could get peace enough to finish this WIP... *shakes fist at sky*