donutsweeper

A little more than two days left for h/c exchange signups! I finally got mine in yesterday; of course, me being me, they range from stupidly rare to small (in English fandom circles) fandoms. I need to remember to peruse the requests and alter my offers later, I don't think I'm matching any at the moment.

Last week mother nature decided to dump about a foot of snow here, which made for a lot of very unfun shoveling. Weather being weather though, it's already 90% melted. Fingers crossed the weathercritters are lying and the projected snow on Saturday winds up being incorrect.

I've watched/finished watching a bunch of things since my last post!

Xiao Zhan's 2019 movie Jade Dynasty was pretty terrible, but probably not helped by bad and hard to read subs. This felt like it was a movie version of a long, complicated plot I was supposed to already know the basics of. It was by no means the worst thing I've watched for Xiao Zhan and it did have a brief scene of a monkey riding a dog, but it's not something I would recommend.

The Love You Give Me, a 28 episode, second chance romance story had its ups and down and I can see why people would like it if they liked certain tropes but despite Wang Ziqi looking very fine in wonderful suits and having some wonderful whumpy moments, I didn't really like it. All three 'romances' involved the woman first chasing after their guy to the point of being creepy and stalkery and then, just when the guy started being interested, changing their mind until the man begged and pleaded and threw himself at her until they finally gave in. Add in several misunderstandings and purposeful misinterpretations by the FL (and lying to their kid about it) and eh... not my thing.

I *finally* finished Strange Tales of Jiang Cheng. It was fine I guess? Xia Zhiguang (from Spirealm) was gorgeous and had insane chemistry with both his male and female costar. It's 52 short (15min) episodes so not a huge time commitment at least.

I did end up really liking The First Shot, which also starred Wang Ziqi (yes, making it the third thing starring him I watched in about a month since he was also the star of The Embers but I was happily surprised at how different all his characters were). It's about the formation of a makeshift team of police detectives trying to combat a new drug syndicate that popped up in Northern China in 1997. Interesting setting (the modern, but not quite aspect of it) with great, well rounded characters. Some of the subject material is pretty harsh, so while I do recommend it, it's with caveats. (It's even on legally available on youtube)

I liked it so much, it even inspired me to write something outside of an exchange for it (how *weird* right?): The Visible Marking of Memory. Summary: It was only a scar, but was also so much more. (515 words)

There's been lots of due South on my tumblr dash thanks to the Eleventh of March and I came across one little factoid I never knew before: "Leslie Nielsen, who played Sgt. Buck Frobisher, was the son of a Mountie in real life. During his first appearance on the show, he took Paul Gross aside and told him that he was lacing his boots incorrectly and then proceeded to teach him the proper way for a Mountie to tie his shoes." There was even a picture!



How cute is that?

Here's this week's recthething recs (an MDZS fic and a The First Shot ficlet):

what was once your pain (will be your home) by Jenrose (51k)
Summary: What if Wei Wuxian dragged some of his enemies into Luanzang Gang with him when he was thrown there? What if he and Wen Zhuliu had to work together to survive? (absolutely fascinating canon-divergent AU)

Cuddles in the Cold by psghayleaux (329 words, locked to archive)
Summary: Zheng Bei woke up slowly. The light coming in through the windows gave him no indication of the time, only that there was snow falling. (no canon knowledge is necessary for this soft, sweet ficlet)

Candyhearts exchange (the chocolatebox replacement) opened a few days ago, lots of good things in the collection- go check them out!

Also, there's still a few days left for nominations for the hurt/comfort exchange! The post with links to both the tagset and nomination guidelines is here.

It's been stupidly cold here. With windchill yesterday's low was -29f and high -4f (-18 and -2f without) and while today is "warmer" the high is still only supposed to be 2 before windchill and I don't consider that much better. It's February, we're not supposed to be getting January weather in February and I do not like it.

I screwed up my most recent craft project somehow. I was making another oven mitt and realized when it was more than 3/4 of the way done that somehow it was *way* too small (width-wise. It fit me, I'd been checking that, but while I have long fingers so match the others in the house's handsize that way, their palms are much wider and somehow even following the exact same pattern it was a good half inch to full inch less wide and wouldn't fit them comfortably. I had to frog the whole thing. :( Two weeks' work down the tube.

My attempts to complete more on my MDL to-watch list are failing. I got through a bunch more of Strange Tales of Jiang Cheng (it's 52 shortish (15 min or so) episodes but then kept pausing and wandering away. I'm about 80/85% of the way through but have hit that 'everything looks awful/is going terribly for our heroes' portion of the story that's so common with dramas these days and I normally am not a fan of it but when I was struggling to get through the already contrived roadblocks... sigh. The three main characters are gorgeous and good actors (especially The Spirealm's Xia Zhiguang) but I'm giving up on it again for now.

I decided to move the Kdrama "When the Phone Rings" to the dropped list after failing to even remotely care about the characters on a third watch attempt and moved the cdrama "Lies Never Lie" (which starred Conjuring Curse's Pangzi, Wang Bowen) to on-hold (it wasn't terrible but it was boring with meh characters and I don't know what the people claiming it's a f/f version of Under the Skin are smoking).

A bunch of people in one of my discords were screaming about The Embers so I gave it a try and flew through all the episodes currently available in 3 days (20 out of the eventual 28). It has some familiar faces (supporting cast includes 2 NIF actors - Consort Jing and General Lie (Xiao Jingyuan's second in command) and so far, obviously, I am loving it. No clue how it will end though, it hasn't really followed any expected tropes so not going to rec it quite yet since more than one thing I've love has totally fumbled the finale. Also, as a note, some of the cases are *brutal* so that's something to keep in mind. (I've been watching it here).

And, because I am terrible at remember to post them here, have several weeks of recthething recs (MDZS/Untamed fic and tumblr art recs for due south, guardian, leverage, mdzs, merlin, and spn):

warming up by ShippersList (2.5k, locked to archive)
Summary: It takes a cold winter for Lan Qiren to finally thaw to Wei Wuxian. (Pun intended.) (sweet LQR and WWX moments)

By Any Other Name by muchlessvermillion (2k)
Summary Snippet: “Why do you call him that?” Nie Huiasang asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
“Who?” Jiang Cheng asked. “And also what?”
“Wei-xiong,” Nie Huiasang clarified, like this made perfect sense. “You call him Wei Wuxian.” (interesting Cloud Recessess Study era fic about names and their power and implications)

due South
- Ray gets distracted by the brown uniform. (to be fair, the brown uniform is *very* distracting :D)

Guardian
- Sunny afternoons at the SID (Aka Da Qing really likes having Shen Wei around) (chin scratches! so cute)

Leverage
- the rundown job aka the episode that just kept on giving (absolutely incredible ot3)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Fairy transportation (a hilarious way to transport a dog via sword)

Merlin
- Quick sketch of Merlin in Disney's Sword in The Stone style! (Hilarious!!)

Supernatural
- the one thing i want | it's something i know i can't have (so simple, so gorgeous)

Well, whoops, there went most of the month.

EAD Birthday Bash came and went and I crocheted a *lot* for it (enough that I now make up more than 12% of AO3's crochet tag between my two accounts). The theme was pizza and one of my favorites of what I did was a kitty stealing pizza toppings

but I crocheted a large number of things, including a shark, the gavlegoat, a rose, one of the mutant lizard babies from Star Trek: Voyager's Threshold episode (which I freehanded and now and trying to figure out what I did and how to write up the pattern since people asked for it) all of which can be found in this picture

but I also did my first foray into NSFW crochet (yes, seriously, do not click unless you really want to see nsfw crochet)

The fandom was "cock fandom" and the character requested "blue balled cock" yes, I am hilarious.

This month I decided to try to tackle my 'currently watching' list on mydramalist, where all the asian shows I'd started but have not finished (nor decided to move to the dropped or 'on hold' lists) end up since it was getting quite long. (I watched these three either on youtube or *cough cough here cough*.)

Unfortunately, Fangs of Fortune definitely isn't for me. It's by Guo Jingming (director of Wulang and The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity etc) and stars Huo Minghao (from Psych-Hunter, I am Nobody and TLT2) but while the sets and costumes were gorgeous it was ploddingly slow and far more flash than substance and really not for me so I dropped it down to the on-hold list. I know lots of people loved it and maybe someday I'll give it another chance, but I doubt it.

I did finish S.C.I. a Hong Kong set cop/special investigations show from 2018 wherein a fancypants amazing detective has to team up with his old childhood psychologist friend to solve cases. I went into knowing the budget mostly went into the flashy car the detective drove and that a chunk of the plot was ridiculous. Those were both true but despite that (and one of the most annoying female characters I've endured in a long time) it was pretty enjoyable a watch. Ji Xiaobing (who was delightful in DMBJ's Mystery of the Abyss) and his fine suits and undercut were great as the psychologist and he had amazing chemistry with the detective and he managed to sell the batshit plots quite well. It also had one of the creepiest, well acted no-effects needed unnerving scene I've seen in ages: Highlight for spoilers! *Zhan Yao (Ji Xiaobing) was walking in an outdoor marketplace, talking on the phone when suddenly two people stop directly in front of him and turn to face him but don't say anything and he's confused for a second but then *everybody* in the marketplace suddenly stops and faces him and then they all start walking in circles around him in this slow, steady pace. The scene lasts a few minutes and evil mastermind badguy dude shows up during it and whatnot but just the whole thing was so unsettling and wonderfully done.* Very creepy and unsettling while not being over the top, kudos for how well done it was. Here's the best gif I could find of it:

I also finished a Taiwanese BL See Your Love which was utterly delightful. I really liked it! I'm hoping to get my act together to write up a full promo for it but briefly it's the story of Yang Zixiang who was sent to Taiwan for important family business negotiation thing only to be attacked upon arriving. He's saved by deaf mute Jiang Shaoping who happens to also be a nurse/caregiver and gets roped into working for him. Quite a lot of the business/attack plot is contrived/background/barely explored, but Jiang Shaoping's character is so well done with surprisingly good disability representation in that it didn't shy away from either the issues disabled people face (like how difficult it can be trying to find a job when disabled) or the issues/feelings/worry his parents have over it either (they were also great characters, and felt like real people). It's only 13 episodes (25-30 min ea) so not a huge time commitment. And if you like height differences, this show is for you, Yang Zixiang so much shorter than Jiang Shaoping. Here's the best non-spoilery gif I could find:

(And if you're curious, yes, Jiang Shaoping picks up Yang Zixiang numerous times in the drama. Numerous times!)

(There is also a second BL couple who also have interesting dynamic and work well together)

Happy to report I managed to rec every week for the year again (over 3.5 years of weekly recs now!) but I am honestly not sure how long I'll be able to continue. I went from always being able to find 3-5 fics to rec to aiming for three, then two and now the last few weeks it's only been one. I could just switch to more well known things to rec (I usually only rec either newly completed or 'lesser' known fic, which I judge by the number of bookmarks already on the work) but I'd rather not do that. Sigh. Maybe I'll manage to find a new fandom to play in and be able to rec from something other than mdzs/untamed regularly. Or maybe not. I guess I'll see how things go. Anyway, here's 3 mdzs/untamed fic recs and a bunch of art recs from that, doctor who, dracula, nirvana in fire and sherlock holmes.

MDZS/Untamed fic:
The Only Living Boy by deliciousblizzardshark (17k)
Summary: When the lost souls of the Burial Mounds find a homeless child who can manipulate resentful energy, they take him in, raise him as their own, and teach him everything they know. Wei Ying is living contentedly with his ghost family in the Burial Mounds, selling talismans in Yiling, but when the Wen sect invades Yiling he realizes he is going to have to do something to protect everything he loves. (really interesting take of a sentient burial mounds canon divergent AU)

Ghosts of the Burial Mounds by westiec (1.3k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian returned to them soaked in blood and resentment once more, the steel still sharp in his spine as he took his place with them. Safety. Sanctuary. Survival. The Burial Mounds were not made for these things, but Wei Wuxian tugged on the ties between them and made his claim with a strength of will that could not be denied. (absolutely excellent Burial Mounds POV fic)

DMBJ/The Lost Tomb/The Grave Robbers' Chronicles art:
The Little Tomb Robber's Alphabet joint art work by cayra, fox_of_nine_tales, hisapyon, mekare, MountainRose, psghayleaux, SirAuraelius, and Thimblerig
Summary: Wu Xie is bored in Yucun and has got it into his head to write a children's book about tomb robbing. Naturally, Xiaoge and Pangzi help out. How much baiju has been involved in the production is anyone's guess. (An adorable alphabetic art take on DMBJ)

tumblr art:
Doctor Who
- just admiring the view (absolutely adorable Five)

Dracula
- Undead wanderer Quincey P Morris, Bram Stoker can come fight me (eerie yet incredible)

MDZS/The Untamed
- Me, every time WWX and LSZ are in a scene together: THAT’S YOUR BABY. THAT’S! YOUR! BABY! (gorgeous ghost!wwx and young lan sizhui)
- One of my favorite things about The Untamed is how it begins with Wei Wuxian saying ‘Lan Zhan’ and finishes with Lan Wangji saying ‘Wei Ying’ (amazing comic)
- here's to drawing more wangxian in 2025! happy new year!! (lovely art set up like pages of a children's book)

Nirvana in Fire
- Frosted flames (gorgeous art of the majority of the core cast), also on AO3 here

Sherlock Holmes
- Happy birthday sherlock holmes! (such a wonderful Brett!Holmes portrait!)

Hope everyone's doing well and those in the Northern Hemisphere are staying warm, Monday's high is supposed be -7F/-22C here. Brrrrr.

In a fit of cleaning I went through even more t-shirts and decided anything not in donateable condition that I couldn't remember the last time I wore I was going to turn into tshirt yarn. I can't watch anything with subtitles while doing that but Battleship was in noms and then signups then so I decided to try to watch stuff from its fandom promo channel in discord rather than just turning to youtube typical stuff.

So! Things I watched were:
Scavengers Reign an adult animated series on netflix in the US about a few crew members of a damaged interstellar cargo ship trying to navigate an alien world so they can save the ship and all the people still on it in stasis. Sort of. That's the bullet points of it, I guess. Lots of interesting characters and worldbuilding with a somewhat satisfying but open ended conclusion. I liked it and can see why people would request it, but I didn't walk away fannish about it and don't think it's anything I'd ever be able to write either.

Delicious in Dungeon|Dungeon Meshi an anime that's also on netflix. It's based off a manga and a second season has been announced and if I remember I will watch it when it comes out. It's about an adventuring party exploring/raiding a dungeon as they try to save a former member of their party and fight a lot of monsters (and eat them) along the way. It also had a lot of interesting characters and worldbuilding but again, didn't it didn't leave me fannish or anything.

The VelociPastor which is a comedy horror film on youtube and tubi and lots of (legal, free) places. It's... well, about a pastor who goes to "China" (which looks like a suburban backyard) where he gets scratched by a magical doodad and ends up occasionally turning into a velociraptor as a result and, of course, decides to use his powers to fight sin/evil people. With the help of prostitute law student. Because of course. According to wiki it was filmed on a budget of $36,000 and it shows but it's a fun enough watch if you go into it with the right mindset.

Star Trek: Lower Decks which I sailed the high seas for (thank you, r/piracy for your megathread and its list safe places to do so). It's about the lower decks crew (aka low ranking ones) on a (not very flashy) support ship. It's 4 seasons (of 10 episodes each) so far with a final season supposedly airing later this year. I didn't really know what to expect since Star Trek's last animated series was the one from the early 70s but it was pretty decent. Interesting and engaging characters and mostly fun storylines. It's another I'm going to try to remember to watch when more comes out later, but it's also another that I didn't end up fannish about.

I also started The Spirealm since I can actually do subtitles when making the rug itself but finished the rug before finishing the show and now Battleship is going so no idea when I'll make it to the end of it.

Overall, the goal of finding interesting enough stuff to watch while crafting was definitely met, although the secondary one of hoping to find something new to request/write/dive into wasn't. Oh well.

Crafting was accomplished though! Not only did I yarn up about a dozen tshirts, but I also made a largish rug

It's approximately 31x23 inches and some of those shirts were from the late 80s/early 90s

and I also did some crochet, making a Battleship Forest Dragon

Battleship is... going. Signups exploded (2x as many signups and last year's had already been the highest by a lot) so there's 4 teams instead of 2 and it's not quite working for me as well as it has in the past. RL random shit going down might be affecting how I feel about it, I dunno. Still plenty of time left for Battleship to turn around though, so I guess we'll see.

and last but not least, some recthething tumblr art recs (bab5, MDZS, Scooby Doo, Scooby doo/Sherlock Holmes crossover, Sherlock Holmes, ST:TOS, SPN and X-Files):

Babylon 5
- Londo Mollari (gorgeous)
MDZS/The Untamed
- National Geographic Magazine - Hauntingly Beautiful Remains of Yiling Laozu (Utterly gorgeous fanart for The Shade Of Old Trees by Kryal which I recced a few weeks ago)
- Lessons in night hunt - The mentor sits aside and watches with curiosity how the fruits of his labour unfold (love the look on WWX's face as the juniors work their way through figuring things out)
- Everyone had their own path to take (gorgeous WWX-centric comic)
Scooby Doo
- Who had late Victorian Scooby Doo on their 2024 bingo card? Hmm? (delightful re-imagining of the Scooby gang)
Scooby Doo/Sherlock Holmes crossover
- Mystery Inc. meet Holmes and Watson! (more of the Victorian Scooby gang, this time meeting Holmes and Watson!)
Sherlock Holmes- ACD
- Holmes and Watson dancing (very sweet)
Star Trek:TOS
- i havent seen wrath of khan (hilarious comic)
Supernatural
- “Saving People, Hunting things” My tribute to Supernatural Season 1. I can’t believe the show will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year. (amazing art)
The X-Files
- Mulder and Scully "x files studies but this time I tired to achieve that VHS feeling. I very vaguely remember watching some episodes as a kid, and I think this is as close as I’ve ever got to recreating that memory of a small, grainy tv in a dark room" (gorgeously done)

Recently finished the Cdrama I am Nobody. I have never come across a canon that seemed to try to portray the main character as someone we were supposed to be cheering for yet also presented them as a complete insufferable asshole that everything they did made me hate them more and more. Hou Minghao (tlt2's Wu Xie)'s character was great though (he grew his hair out for his role and looked amazing, check out this short nonspoilery clip of him) but ultimately not worth sitting through it for.

I tried a few episodes of Mysterious Lotus Casebook, I don't think people are wrong when comparing various aspects of it to Nirvana in Fire or Blood of Youth (which I both loved) but it's not working for me. I guess because I find myself drawn to young, hopeful Fang Duobing (Zeng Shunxi/Joseph Zeng)'s character rather than the sick plotting one so a lot of the same plot notes feel different. I suspect there's also a little of the inundating flood I keep seeing of people talking about it. Sometimes, that pushes me to finish a show (like Word of Honor, which I was also kind of meh about when watching) but other times it doesn't and I just wander away and I think it's falling towards the latter this time. Time will tell. I suspect it'll wind up living in the 'currently watching' list on mdl. It takes a lot for me to shift something to 'on-hold', let alone 'dropped' and just Not Feeling It isn't really a reason to shift it down.

Craft-wise I took that plastic cordage rope I made months ago and kept adding to it and eventually started making it into a rug while adding more and more and eventually (after using SO much scrap plastic from mailer bags and clothing bags and ziplocks with rips and the protective plastic that paper product rolls are wrapped in etc) made a rug for boots:

It's 20"x15" or so, fits two/three pairs quite easily. If I'd planned for this use in the first place I would have made the starter rope much neater but oh well. Daughter has already claimed it for her apartment so at least it'll get used. I've got enough bread bags to start a new rug from them, although no idea where it'd go if I finish it. We're basically out of room but I have absolutely no desire to sell my craft stuff. Trying to monetize a hobby would only lead to stress and doubt and hate for me so that's not an option.

I have started the next cake for the dragon scale blanket. Not sure what I'll do when I finish with it (which will be ages, but still). We already have more afghans than I know what to do with. I also started a new oven mitt using the same pattern but this time making it a bit larger all the way around so hopefully it'll be a better fit.

Have two weeks of recthething recs, two mdzs/untamed fic recs and a bunch of random art from this year's trick-or-treat collection:

Mark My Place by BenevolentErrancy (28k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian had already made his mark on the cultivation world and he knew it. He had been a nuisance and a war hero and a threat and the stain of true evil and then he had died. Whatever place he had once carved for himself was shed at some point in those thirteen years. Now, having been revived, a man displaced from time, he could accept that he didn't really belong anywhere except perhaps at Lan Wangji's side. And that should be enough, because Lan Wangji's side was the best place in the world to belong. It didn't matter if none of the other sects wanted anything to do with him, or the fear and scorn that other cultivators met him with. Really, it didn't. The juniors disagree. (a new 'all the sects come to love wwx' fic)

The tea to my heart by blackmorphos (84k)
Summary Snippet: A sleep deprived Wei Ying stumbles into a tea shop, meets an impossibly beautiful man, and is served a cup of tea that changes his life in more ways than he could have possibly expected.

A modern day meet cute with heaps of Wangxian fluff, mutual pining, and A-Yuan adorableness galore! (exactly what it says on the tin - cute modern AU)

trickortreatex art recs (all works still anon):

Doctor Who (1963):
- [Art] Do Not Pass Go. Summary: The Doctor and Romana play a traditional 20th century Earth game. (love this and the details, like the monopoly pieces, are very cute)

Mysterious Doctor Plague:
- Doctor Plague Makes a House Call. Summary: ...somewhere he's never been before! His new patient is foreign to him, but oddly familiar-looking. (I don't know this fandom, but it's absolutely adorable plague doctor art!)

Neopets:
- Halloween Sticker Sheet. Summary: A mock up/Faux sticker sheet including Halloween Neopets, Petpets, and spooky items (very cute!)

Nightmare Before Christmas:
- Zero's Discovery. Summary: The moon has a surprise on Halloween. (Zero is so adorable here)

Object and Concept Anthropomorphism (Cursed Book and Dark Druid)
- The backyard's full of bones Summary: Everyone in the coven knew about the Cursed Book that was chained in the depths of the sacred cave. It was this grimoire that gave them deep knowledge of nature, potions and spells. Despite the common knowledge of the book's existence, since reading the book came with accepting its curse, the coven gave the position of book holder and Reader to only one chosen witch. Said witch would be the only one to even come close to the book during their lifetime.

The coven has had many Readers over time, their lives not lasting very long due to the Book's curse. But this time the book feels what they will call curiosity (for now) for their human holder. The only human they will see for a while, but how long will that be? (fascinating and well done)

Original Work:
- In the Deep (delightfully spooky anglerfish mermaid)
- Still Here (a beautifully done ghost dog at a cemetery, poor thing)

Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse
- Sad Drummer Summary snippet: Gwen is sad about not being able to visit Miles Morales and Hobie cheers her up! (this really captures the look and feel of the movies)

No store I went to for post-Halloween sale candy had any on sale. :( Cheap candy day is the best holiday and I failed at it this year.

(Completely non-spoilery summary) This drama starts with Lei Wujie, who has just begun wandering the jianghu/martial arts world in search of adventure, stumbling into an inn (Snowfall Villa) run by Xiao Se and proceeding to wreck it while 'saving' it from bandits. Xiao Se demands compensation and Lei Wujie explains that while he doesn't have any money currently, he'll be able to pay Xiao Se back when he gets to Xueyue City because he's bound to find a master there so Xiao Se accompanies him in order to get paid back (in theory). On their way they they have a number of adventures and meet and befriend other members of the jianghu. Their travels and adventures continue for a while even after leaving Xueyue City before events from Xiao Se's past require him to return to the capital, Tianqi City, where he is helped and joined by many of the people he's befriended and aided along the way.

The main theme is Xiao Se and Lei Wujie (and the others they befriend during their adventures, Sikong Qianluo, Ye Ruoyi, Tang Lian and Wu Xin) are the new generation, trying to find their place in the world that the older generation created/molded and hopefully trying to make it a better place along the way and it does a great job of subtly (and not so subtly) continually tying that theme into the various plot arc as they come along.

A little more (and some very minor spoilers):

Very early on we learn Xiao Se is actually Xiao Chuhe, the Sixth Prince, who was exiled from the capital and stripped of his royal status after refusing to stop trying to clear the name of his favorite uncle (the very popular military commander and younger brother of the current emperor who had been executed for treason four years ago) and some of the people he comes across know who he is while others don't. There is also the fact that with his dying wish said uncle asked the four Guardians of Tianqi City (who have the titles Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, and Azure Dragon and are all impressive martial artists) to protect his nephew, a promise they pass on to the next generation and there's some interesting aspects to that regarding loyalty that is earned by what one does and who one is vs given due to oaths and promises.

As seems to be the case with many Cdramas, there are quite a number more male characters than female, but there are several wonderful female character with numerous skills (fighting, intrigue/advising, healing) and none are stereotypes or caricatures.

Romance-wise, there are several m/m shipping opportunities and a few canon m/f ships.

Although there's only a handful of main characters there are quite a number of minor supporting characters and youku put out this chart to help identify who is who (although, as it does list everyone, it might be spoilery depending when you look at it). Unfortunately, it only lists one name per person and many have several as not only is there alliances, clans, sect and city affiliations to consider but some people are Sword Masters or Sword Deities and some of them are also City Lords or Clan/Sect Leaders as well. (It can be a bit confusing but after a while I realized it's actually not completely necessary to understand all the ins-and-outs of the world with who everyone is or how the martial arts in it works, mostly the show does a good job of reminding you of the important things you're supposed to realize from each encounter and doesn't penalize you for not remembering or understanding more.)

The fight scenes in this wuxia drama are incredible with higher quality special affects than I've only rarely seen (other than when they try to show someone while riding a horse, the green screen there is bad) and while I don't necessarily understand its martial arts system, it does seem to be consistent throughout in how it works, which is all I ask from a show.

There's a bunch of different official promos/trailers; this one focuses on the fights and special effects but doesn't give much info on anything else so you can watch it without getting spoiled:


Length: 40 episodes, 40-45 minutes each with a five minute extra that was released separately.
Where to watch: legally on viki (all episodes released to subscribers, still in the process of being released for free with 26 currently available) or youku's free youtube channel (29 available, more coming slowly), and in its entirety elsewhere like on asianvote, viewasian, etc. An English subbed version of the extra can be watched here (and definitely do watch it for some nice post-canon interactions.)

Watching this was one of those 'click next episode, whoops how did it get to be 1 am' experiences for me and I heartily recommend giving it a try!

(promo/review crossposted to c_ent)

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 Cheng'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 Beijiang criminal investigative police branch approved. That is where Captain Du Cheng 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 (each 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).

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....

On corvidology's suggestion I watched Ancient Detective (streaming on viki here and youtube 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 mostly 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:

45" wide x 37" long

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.

Also, after almost 13 years, I decided to change my default icon. Not sure about the change. We'll see.

So many things I'm behind posting about here.

I wrote two things for Writing Rainbow Pink:
Smug Smiles and Fading Pink Marks, MCU, Steve/Nat/Sam, rated R. Summary: It wasn't hard to reassess what you knew about a man after a few nights in bed with him. (400 words)
Shallow Breaths From Pale Pink Lips, Guardian, SW/ZYL, rated PG, Summary: Shen Wei had promised not to act, but there was so much blood. If it came down to it, he'd do what he needed to do in order to help Zhao Yunlan. (300 words)

And I forgot to post my h/c exchange fics:
Best Laid Plans and the Paths Away From Them, Untamed, rated G. Summary: Ouyang Zizhen, Jin Ling, Lan Jingyi and Lan Sizhui had planned everything out carefully. Things did not go according to plan. (3242 words)
Memories of a Life Never Lived, Untamed, LWJ/WWX, rated PG. Summary: They'd ensured that none of the horrors would come to pass. It hadn't happened, it wouldn't, but it also had. And that took a heavy toll on a person. (1627 words)

Have *sigh* three weeks of recthething recs (fic for MDZS/Untamed, tumblr art for that plus The Mummy, Babylon 5 and Lost Tomb Reboot)

i really want to know (who are you) by tratisphyre (19k)
Summary: The problem with CT Wei was, lamentably, not incompetence. Incompetence was a failing no one at the Gusu Bureau of Cultivation could forgive. Had he been incompetent, he would have already been dismissed from his position. No, the problem with CT Wei was far worse: he was friendly. (absolutely fabulous modern cultivation AU that's also hilariously snarky and delightful)

The Second Siege of Cloud Recesses by Cerusee (4k)
Summary: Did anyone ask for the Untamed AU where Wei Wuxian came back to life sixteen years later only to hear the tragic story, from Lan disciples at Mo’s Manor, how Lan Wangji had been whipped to death for defending the Yiling Patriarch? No. Did that stop me? No. (Believable what-if AU that's so, so painful but also very, very good)

my rivers tilt towards you by perfectlyrose (MDZS Reverse Big Bang, 27k)
Summary: The Cloud Recesses can only be found by those in need. Lan Wangji sets out from his ancestral home to see the world and collect knowledge for his sect. Wei Wuxian leaves Lotus Pier to try and ease the tension for his siblings, assuming it will be better if he's gone for a while. Their paths cross and merge for a time. When they part, neither of them expect Wei Wuxian's path to lead him to the gates of the legendary Cloud Recesses, in need of help. (This fairy tail-esque AU has wonderful worldbuilding and a truly engaging story)

Thirty-three Lashes by Winglesss (MDZS Reverse Big Bang, 56k)
Summary: Yiling Laozu is dead. He's been dead for over a thousand years. For over a thousand years Lan Wangji has been wandering the world alone, helping where he's needed. It's when he meets a mysterious cultivator and a strange curse starts to torment his body that the past and the present start to mingle, igniting emotions Lan Wangji almost forgot he was able to feel. (Fascinating modern cultivation yet mostly canon compliant AU)

Home Before Dark by la_muerta, lordvoldemortsnipple (MDZS Reverse Big Bang, 7k)
Summary: There are more than three thousand rules on the Gusu-Lan Wall of Discipline, but ever since Lan Wangji can remember, he has been told that only two rules must never be broken — do not associate with evil, and never venture into the Burial Mounds after dark. (absolutely amazing AU with twists and turns I didn't expect at all)

a garden in your ribcage by puddingcatbeans (MDZS Reverse Big Bang, 13.5k)
Summary snippet: Strange magic-induced rings of decay have started appearing all over the old, weary city of Yiling. As the resident witch, Wei Ying is prepared to deal with it on his own with his unorthodox way of witchcraft, but recently a new witch has moved into town. (absolutely amazing "soft witches" AU, modern set with amazing world building.)

the soft animal of your body by howodd5ever (MDZS Reverse Big Bang, 21.5k)
Summary snipper: The problem was that he didn’t remember anymore why he’d left. Sure, something about finding himself or discovering his place in the world, or whatever other bullshit he’d talked himself into to end up in the middle of nowhere. Alone. He missed Lan Zhan. (wonderful post-canon fic with WWX finding trouble but also his way back to LWJ)

The World We Made by updatebug (80k)
Summary: Lan Zhan and his family have been alive for a very long time. Perhaps, once, immortality would not have seemed like a curse. But that changed a long time ago. When a new group of immortals are born, Lan Zhan finds himself oddly drawn to new immortal Wen Yuan, who somehow reminds him of his lost love. But Wen Yuan has no intention of being immortal. All he wants is to get back to his very concerned Father. A father that against all odds and reason, Lan Zhan finds himself recognising. (Great fic that's a fusion with/inspired by The Old Guard)

Assorted Tumblr art:
MDZS/Untamed: Peekaboo Papercraft Jiujiu and Jin Ling (utterly adorable)
The Lost Tomb Reboot: Wu Xie in the rain (Amazing drawing that perfectly captures the moment after he'd coughed blood right before he passed out)
The Lost Tomb Reboot: The Iron Triangle (wonderful adventure moments, so good these could be panels from a professional comic)
Babylon 5: Delenn (utterly ethereal and gorgeous)
The Mummy: Ardeth Bay drawings for fun (love the expressions on these)

Craft-wise I finished two projects while watching another Lost Tomb show (Ultimate Note, which came out after reboot/reunion sound of providence, but is set 10 or so years before it because this franchise is confusing.)

A 22"x15" rug made out of about 3 or 4 dozen plastic bread bags and also the wide strip bubble wrap stuff that is used in packages:

This is actually a shawl pattern (that I had used previously to make a shawl but hated the result and pulled it out) but my daughter wanted something to have along the back of her couch to pretty it up and the shape worked well for that (I'll replace this with a pic of it on her couch rather than mine if/when she sends me one), the color is 'library book' which I find hilarious.

I'm 3/4ths of the way through Ultimate Note, it's much more cohesive of a story than reboot (not surprising since reboot was 62 eps vs its 36 and probably half of reboot's eps were pointless dystopian warehouse of doom ones) but I've realized I like the older, more settled versions of the characters as they appear in reboot (supposedly Wu Xie is in his late 30s in that) vs the mid 20s ish version in UN. I've also heard it kind of ends randomly/cliffhangery which is something I hate but that seems to be the case for lots of Lost Tomb (random dangling plot threads and cliffhangers and huge plot holes). Sigh. Not sure what I'll watch when it's done. I have a huge C (and K) Drama list as well as just tons of other stuff to watch. I also need to catch up on a lot of my podcasts. *sigh*

I'm still ever so slowly plugging away on Duolingo in Spanish, Yiddish and Chinese. As much as people complain about Duolingo, I have to give it credit for being completely free- you can pay and skip ads and get a few other benefits, but there's no content locked behind a paywall. I've DLed a bunch of other language apps (some Chinese specific, some not) and that is not remotely the norm. Some offer more lessons or content then others, but nearly all require you fork over money after a little while. That said, Duolingo's Yiddish class could do with some help. Thankfully, due to some exposure to Hebrew a billion years ago I knew it read right to left rather than left to right because it doesn't have hints and doesn't actually tell you that. Oh well. And while I can now understand 'Hello', 'Goodbye' and 'I'm pleased to meet you' in Chinese so far I've learned the slightly less helpful 'A dolphin is in a pyramid in London' and 'A fish in a balloon?' phrases in Yiddish. (I understand why, it's teaching letter recognition, but still.)

Anyway, off to figure out what craft to start next and try not to melt. I hate summer.

I finished watching Word of Honor. It's free on viki.com, youtube and (for those in the US and possibly elsewhere) Amazon Prime and is coming to Netflix May 28th. It's an wuxia Chinese costume drama that kind of took various pockets of fandom by storm. Generally, I liked it just fine and think it dealt with the censorship issue (not being allowed to show m/m despite it being the source material) very well. The two leads had amazing chemistry and their characters had it too. Unlike The Untamed, it isn't anything I see myself becoming overly fannish about though.

I am nearly finished watching The Lost Tomb Reboot (also called Reunion: Sound of Providence for some reason). I'd been told going into it I didn't need to know anything about the books or other shows/movies in the series and that's true but wow that show is a trip and a half. I had assumed it'd be Indiana Jones-esque tomb exploration hijinks and it was for the first 10 ish episodes but then there was 10 episodes of action-adventure movie explosions and then 20ish episodes of dystopian chaos killer warehouse of doom before it goes back to the tomb stuff for a while (and then back to the warehouse after that, unfortunately). It's... *sigh* I can't say good, but mostly enjoyable? And has absolutely amazing Zhu Yilong (one of the leads from Guardian) whump. And some of the ways it gets around censorship issues are *hilarious* (the heroes can't be menaced by zombies so instead they are chased by human looking paper effigies that are animated by murder crustaceans).

Have two weeks of recthething recs! A massive assorted fics and (tumblr) art from 10 different fandoms (MDZS/Untamed, Killjoys, Captain America, Leverage, PoI, WoH, Batman, Detective L, Guardian and the Lost Tomb Reboot) this time:

Untamed/MDZS art: Yiling Patriarch WWX in the Lotus pond (simple, but beautiful)
Untamed/MDZS art: The young pretty legend of Gusu, Hanguang jun (Utterly gorgeous digital painting)
Untamed/MDZS art: Wangxian love is the best way to start the year! (beautiful drawing of WWX admiring LWJ- who has bunnies!)
Killjoys art: The warrant is all (beautiful and powerful sketch of Dutch)
Captain America: WWII-era Steve examining his shield and its reflection (gorgeous and ominous)
Leverage art: Eliot fighting on a scaffold (the details in this are amazing)
Person of Interest art: POI 10 yr anniversary sketch (the whole team, even Bear!)
Word of Honor art: 爱你 [love you] (beautiful but devastating. FYI- spoilers for finale)

Batman (comics) fic:
The Rule Stands by Engineerd (11k)
Summary snippet: Damian meets a 10-year-old Dick Grayson, and they become best friends. (seriously adorable, sweet yet poignant time travel fic)

Detective L fic:
No other plans for the evening by frith_in_thorns (1.5k)
Summary: Luo Fei's getting looked after by his friends whether he wants it or not. (Wonderfully written fic that perfectly captures the disjointedness and confusion of a head injury and adds in some gentle and lovely h/c)

Guardian (TV) fic:
always now, always slow by emlof (3.5k)
Summary snippet: “Zhao Yunlan,” he says, looking at him with such intensity that Zhao Yunlan wants to flinch away. “When was the last time you slept?” (great exhausted and overtired Zhao Yulan POV)

The Lost Tomb Reboot fic:
The Road Ahead by Hils (2k)
Summary: Missing scene from 1x03. Wu Xie gets sick after being out in the rain. Pangzi and Xiaoge take care of him. (gentle and sweet h/c sick!fic)

The Untamed/MDZS fic:
pitfalls of greed by glitteringmoonlight (3k)
Summary: Wei Wuxian gets kidnapped. Things don't go well from there.... for the kidnappers, that is. (Delightful outsider POV)

I made a shawl/wrap thing while watching Cdramas but decided I didn't like it (ratio of width vs length wrong but it was scrap yarn so couldn't make it longer) so I ripped it out and am remaking it. We'll see if I like it any better once it's done (again).

Multifandomdrabble assignments should come out soon! Can't wait!