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extrapenguinI took a shower and now there is soap in my eye. I demand a refund! *g*
Trying to plug along at spaceship rental. I only have a few scenes left, but I decided to go back and add an extra one I'd planned to add anyway. (It's one where I have the evidence and the conclusion already, but I needed to bolster the argument a bit more.) I want to write the final scene before I forget, too, but that feels a bit too much like a capstone to the project. This one and then that one? And then populate my not-actually-full draft with the necessary scenes, starting from the front. It's currently 60k. I don't think I'm escaping from this at under 70k. I have no idea what I've posted where, but have a snippet:
Bingo is progressing nicely. I'll complete the Awl column tomorrow! I chose to complete the Awl square by commenting on the first fic for Guardian in the tag, which is fitting in a way?
Yuletide sign-ups open in 10 days. I need to write a letter next week.
My spellcheck would like to inform you that Haole Yunnan is trying to prevent tensions between Sardinians and Carthagineans. Indeed, we all know the famous battle cry of Ye Zn, abetted by Thu Jim and Ya Sing: Carthago delenda est.
Half-baked thought: I like monsters because I am (seen as) one. I am the bogeyman, I am the weirdo no-one wants (their kids) to be. Over the years, I have become quite good at pretending to be a human, but especially in person, the cracks show and people notice.
Since that was depressing, let us have some plotbunnies:
- Groping the Hallows gives you tentacles.
- It is a nice day in Haixing, and Ye Zun is a terrible goose.
- Honk honk.
Trying to plug along at spaceship rental. I only have a few scenes left, but I decided to go back and add an extra one I'd planned to add anyway. (It's one where I have the evidence and the conclusion already, but I needed to bolster the argument a bit more.) I want to write the final scene before I forget, too, but that feels a bit too much like a capstone to the project. This one and then that one? And then populate my not-actually-full draft with the necessary scenes, starting from the front. It's currently 60k. I don't think I'm escaping from this at under 70k. I have no idea what I've posted where, but have a snippet:
He returned to the SID to find Shen Wei sulking on the couch. "What's up?"
"It has been explained to me," Shen Wei said, "that the reputation of the Black-Cloaked Envoy is such that no-one dares bring up complaints while he's present."
"So you've been sitting here and dying of boredom," Zhao Yunlan filled in.
Shen Wei did not sigh, but it was close. He lifted his glasses and rubbed at the bridge of his nose.
Bingo is progressing nicely. I'll complete the Awl column tomorrow! I chose to complete the Awl square by commenting on the first fic for Guardian in the tag, which is fitting in a way?
Yuletide sign-ups open in 10 days. I need to write a letter next week.
My spellcheck would like to inform you that Haole Yunnan is trying to prevent tensions between Sardinians and Carthagineans. Indeed, we all know the famous battle cry of Ye Zn, abetted by Thu Jim and Ya Sing: Carthago delenda est.
Half-baked thought: I like monsters because I am (seen as) one. I am the bogeyman, I am the weirdo no-one wants (their kids) to be. Over the years, I have become quite good at pretending to be a human, but especially in person, the cracks show and people notice.
Since that was depressing, let us have some plotbunnies:
- Groping the Hallows gives you tentacles.
- It is a nice day in Haixing, and Ye Zun is a terrible goose.
- Honk honk.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-17 18:32 (UTC)People are very cruel to those who don't fit in. If you can pass as 'normal', then you're accepted as long as you maintain social norms and shun those who don't, and if you ever can't pass then you're branded a monster and outcast. Disability has been a huge wake-up call for me about all the ways I used to be able to pass - and didn't notice myself passing - and can't any more. But, from how often that theme shows up in fiction, it's a pretty common experience. (It's also one of the themes constant in the fiction I enjoy because it's so relatable, and to some degree or other always has been. Just, more obvious as I get older.) So it's no wonder it's one of the themes I really latched onto in Guardian.
I will be happy to write you more geese and/or tentacles any time. β₯οΈπ¦πβ₯οΈ
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Date: 2019-10-17 18:40 (UTC)Me too! It's the longest project I've taken on. I will not be defeated!
Yeah. I was subjected to some particularly vicious shunning at a young age, and ... it shows in whom I find relatable. I'm pretty certain my love of Dixing and Ye Zun taps onto that root and the desire to watch the world burn. As does my wish fulfillment fantasy of Shen Wei being publicly different and an appreciated professor who is accepted in the community.
Honk! β₯οΈ
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Date: 2019-10-17 18:58 (UTC)My spellcheck would like to inform you that Haole Yunnan is trying to prevent tensions between Sardinians and Carthagineans.
I'm choking. Thu Jim = Zhu Jiu?? THU JIM. Might start calling him that in my head.
The monster thing hit me hard in the unfortunately-relatables. The sense that I'm just pretending to be a human goes real deep in me. I hate faking, but I'm not sure how to stop, so I prefer to just be on my own. I'm sorry you've been made to feel unacceptable. Monsters are actually awesome. And I get really uncomfortable when people are too hard on Ye Zun. ...anyway HONK HONK
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Date: 2019-10-17 19:17 (UTC)So far, it's relatively little space and lots and lots of logistics and bureaucracy and Shen Wei realizing that he can't pull 30 allnighters in a row. *g* And family feels.
Zhu is one letter off from Thu and Jiu one letter off from Jim, but ... yeah. It looks hilarious. (You may also be amused by Sen Wei, DA Sing, Chi Shush, Geo Changchun, Thu Hong, Lin Jung, Wang Zhengzhou, and Sang Zn.)
I have since grown up and out of those spaces (and into the land of the STEMlords, where the norm is closer to my abilities), but it has left a long shadow. I am Other, and I suppose I will always sympathize with the othered and outcasts over those in power.
Yup! Especially when people start going into the whole "obviously he must've been born evil" thing. He was raised from a young age by an abusive racist and then stuck in sensory deprivation/solitary confinement for 10 000 years! Of course he's screwed up! If the places were switched, Shen Wei would be just as bad, albeit with a different flavor of batshit.
But yes, honk honk.
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Date: 2019-10-17 19:52 (UTC)Thank you for the list, I am delighted. Chi Shush! Excellent! "Zn" is totally a word! Oh wait, chemical symbol for zinc. Lin Jung, so now Jungian analysis is pointing a steampunk gun thingy at someone to check if they have dark energy? I'll stop, I'll stop.
Especially when people start going into the whole "obviously he must've been born evil" thing.
Agh, a headache is coming on just thinking about it. Even without the pillar imprisonment, which is so intensely fucked up I can't fully wrap my head around it, I'd like to see anyone survive Ye Zun's upbringing and come out of it not filled with hate and terror, much less functional. The guy never had a chance. Of course he lashed out as soon as he got any power at all. And he got a lot of it, which wasn't his fault either. ye zuuuun :(
If the places were switched, Shen Wei would be just as bad, albeit with a different flavor of batshit.
Oh. Yes. Ouch. I would read the heck out of that fic.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-17 20:19 (UTC)Ye Zn is the most unhinged of alloys! :P I'd also read a very cracky fic based on spellchecker's impressions of the characters.
Their treatment of Ye Zun is the #1 argument on why the Hallows are dirtbags, imo. They neither dealt with the problem nor treated Ye Zun humanely. Empillarment for the life of the planet, really?! Just depower him if it's that serious. Or force him to communicate with his brother who is conveniently also present.
I just want fics where Ye Zun goes to therapy and deals with his shit and gets a happy ending with cuddles and not having to be alone in the dark. Let him retire from evildoing. Let him discover that the world doesn't need to be destroyed!
(In the realm of painful things, I was inspired by Above all shadows rides the sun to contemplate a scenario in which some Ye Zun cultists do manage to resurrect Ye Zun in Shen Wei's body post-canon ... only for him to go "WTF, no, I was wrong; and what the hell did you do to gege????")
Role switching would be a very cool fic, though then one would have to figure out how the present plotline would be affected, and how the equivalent of the confrontation where Yunlan gets sucked into the present would go, and all the other details. (Hmm, I suppose it'd fit my "Create a fanwork: Angsty" square on the Guardian bingo... But really, someone else should write it! :P)
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Date: 2019-10-17 22:34 (UTC)I did write the role reversal fic? And am in the late stages of the sequel, mostly delayed by writing you goose porn? :P
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Date: 2019-10-18 07:15 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 11:26 (UTC)... now I've gotta put it on the spreadsheet: Wrong Character Kidnapped And Raised By Bandits. Maybe we'll get to it eventually.
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Date: 2019-10-18 11:53 (UTC)I have a plotbunny already! (Neighborhood penguin procrastinates on fic by plotting more fic...)
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Date: 2019-10-18 12:15 (UTC)ππππππ πππππ
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Date: 2019-10-18 16:30 (UTC)Shen Wei finally gets a cell phone, learns the power of autocorrect but still doesn't quite get how it works, accidentally spellchecks the SID. argh, no, STOP ME
Just depower him if it's that serious. Or force him to communicate with his brother who is conveniently also present.
This. Hallows! Listen to this penguin! Oh my god. I'm not actually sure Ye Zun even did anything that terrible prior to the empillarment, anyway? He just had the potential/plans to do really bad stuff, which...punishing people for being *potentially* bad is...uhhh.
I just want fics where Ye Zun goes to therapy and deals with his shit and gets a happy ending with cuddles and not having to be alone in the dark. Let him retire from evildoing. Let him discover that the world doesn't need to be destroyed!
*pounds fists on table* Yes! I demand therapy, happiness, cuddles for Ye Zun! Ye Zun doesn't LIKE doing evil, he just dislikes everything else he's had more. Give him good things! YES.
some Ye Zun cultists do manage to resurrect Ye Zun in Shen Wei's body post-canon ... only for him to go "WTF, no, I was wrong; and what the hell did you do to gege????"
I'd like to see the looks on their faces, but OH NO. Unless Shen Wei wasn't dead and it led to the twins sharing a body? That could be fun.
The role-switching fic sounds veryyyy complicated and I can't even brain at it right now. I'd be thrilled if you did write it!
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 19:03 (UTC)YES! Forget not, I am not the angel on your shoulder, but the demon goose on the other one, egging you on. Be your worst self!
He ate his abuser and gave Da Qing some amnesia, but that's it for stuff we saw onscreen. Unless marching around with the Hallows counts? But yeah.
My plot idea was that Shen Wei is dead, but Zhao Yunlan turns up and interrogates some cultists and then Ye Zun goes to the Dark Energy Cave to summon Shen Wei back. Result might be body-sharing or Ye Zun getting a separate body. Body-sharing would be fun, though, if only for Zhao Yunlan going "Great, why do all of my family members have a second person living inside them?"
Let's see how long this rewatchalong post takes to write; I have a plot idea and a way to keep it not that long...
ETA: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and this fic is the path less taken.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-19 00:47 (UTC)the demon goose on the other one, egging you on
egging
...I want to say something indignant, but I know I deserve this. Not actually sure I can interrupt the flow of the current thing to write the dumbest crackfic, but "be your worst self" is a compelling argument.
Zhao Yunlan going "Great, why do all of my family members have a second person living inside them?"
I would say "sorry about your sex life, bud!" but I can see where this is going. But seriously this, um, fic-divergence AU idea is v. cool, I do love a temporarily-dead Shen Wei.
I wrote the bloody fic
Off to read this now, yaaaay. You're so FAST.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-19 18:16 (UTC)Remember, you can always write small crackfics in the interstices of your big projects!
LOL at the term fic-divergence! But yes, I imagine Zhao Yunlan would get over the little brother in there pretty soon and return to boinking Shen Wei. (Ye Zun would be fascinated on the sidelines.) All the threesome!
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Date: 2019-10-17 21:23 (UTC)AHahaha, that's awesome!
Sorry to hear about your shower. :-(
*cheers on your writing, yay*
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Date: 2019-10-18 07:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 10:29 (UTC)Yuletide sign-ups open in 10 days.
Waaaah! It feels so early!
Congratulations on the writing progress and getting close to the finish line!
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Date: 2019-10-18 11:58 (UTC)I know Yuletide sign-ups opened earlier last year, but yeah, it feels so early! At least I can copypaste one letter section and then write some Guardian prompts pending the available character selection. (A horrible goose will be involved.)
Neighborhood penguin is currently procrastinating on writing by plotting out further fics. And moving house over the next few weekends. Oops.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 12:10 (UTC)A house move! Exciting! (But also, oof, SO MUCH WORK.) Best of luck!
Edit: okay, I just checked your letter from last year because I'm a #nosebear and wow, MDZS qualified for Yuletide last year?? It's so huge now!
no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 12:47 (UTC)It was a ghost town before last summer and only really started exploding during Yulenoms. It went over the limit pretty soon into the writing period, but it was eligible!
House move will be work (can Ye Zun eat and then puke up all of my gunk? or maybe Zhu Jiu teleport over with each box?) and it's my second this year, but I've done it often enough I'm a quasi-pro. If I can't get a job after this one's over, I can always start a moving firm!