donutsweeper

I created 20 things, 19 fics and one art. Highlights of my participation in battleship this year are writing the first fic in the archive for Big River and the first english fic for The Embers on AO3, and my first time writing for those as well as for Barnum, the 'His wife has filled his house with chintz...' tumblr meme and See Your Love.

Something new this year was breaking down the 'creator's choice of fandom' into a bunch of subsections which helped me really feel like I was writing for specific request and I had a lot of fun with 'creator's choice of musical' (Barnum and Big River) and there were some people who tailored their various CCOF requests specifically for things like disabled character prompts (which I jumped on to write Covert Affairs and See Your Love). Another nice change for this year was the archive warnings (Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con and Underage Sex) were part of the prompt form so it was easy to see who'd opted into what so I'd know how to tailor things to people's requests better.

Big River - Miller/Hauptman
- Winding Your Way Summary: The river winds its way, unabated. (300 words, rated G, river pov ficlet for my favorite musical)

Barnum - Coleman/Stewart/Bramble
- Pulling the Wool Over the Prince of Humbug. Summary: There might be a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute, but Charity was definitely born the minute in between. (444 words, rated G, I always loved how Charity canonically hoodwinked Barnum.) There's an amazing version of Barnum on youtube here, originally broadcast by the BBC in '86 starring Michael Crawford and has some delightful live recording flubs.

Charmed:
- The Same Stars, the Same Window, a Different World. Summary: Chris dies. And then he lives. (1,971 words, rated T- how many times has Chris' "death" in s6 and what happened next been written? Well, here's one more!)
- watching from the sidelines while being in the game Summary: Sometimes the contradictions were just too hard to bear. (662 words, rated G - Chris (pre his identity being revealed angst)

Covert Affairs:
- Coffee and Camaraderie. Summary: A bit of coffee and a lot of camaraderie makes the day a bit better. (400 words, rated G, just some nice Auggie and Annie banter)

DMBJ:
- A Flower, Not in the Hand nor in the Bush. Summary: As far as kidnappings went, Xie Yuchen rated this one two out of ten stars. (350 words, rated T, Heihua)
- A Touch of Frost in the Air Summary: It was a night like many others and a conversation they'd had before.(600 words, rated T, Heihua post-movie and Xiazi's eye issues)
- Paying for a Moment's Inattention. Summary: Everything had been going so well which was never a good sign. (1511 words, rated T, Heihua and a tomb raid that goes awry)
- An Inconvenience About to be Averted. Summary: It was only a slight hiccup to the evening's plans. (323 words, rated G, Pangzi just wants to make dinner for his boys)
- Oh for Those Lazy Days. Summary: Retirement suited Wang Pangzi. (300 words, rated M, lazy days (in bed) for the Iron Triangle)

余烬之上 | The Embers (TV)
- Toward the Dead, Into the Light. Summary: Whenever Liao Siyuan had needed his brother, Zhibai had always been there for him. Even Zhibai's death didn't stop that. (449 words, canonical character death, weird and trippy like the start of the show)

His wife has filled his house with chintz - jjbang8 (Photograph)
- Midweek Matinee. Summary: It's the tennis instructor this time. An excellent choice, if she does say so herself. (429 words, rated E, a combination of voyeurism and a twist on the just who is keeping it real here)

The Magnificent Seven (TV)
- The Invisible Enemy. Summary:There were some enemies that you couldn't win against. no matter how good a fighter you were. (700 words, rated T for Period-Typical Homophobia, Vin standing up for himself)

MDZS:
- fraught and frightful. Summary: An unexpected ambush, a surprising result. (1,460 words, rated M for violence - ambushing the Yiling Laozu, always a good idea)

Original Work:
- A Flame by Any Other Means Will Smoke as Sweetly. Summary: Just because Schmeckle couldn't make his own flame didn't mean he couldn't create it some other way. (513 words, rated G - a dragon and his bar mitzvah!)
- Baa Baa Battlesheep. Summary: Baa baa battlesheep, have you any battles? (art of the battleship I crocheted)

See Your Love (Taiwanese Drama)
- Music and Messes Summary: Jiang Shaoping, Yang Zixiang, and a moment in the kitchen. (320 words, rated G - just a sweet little Jiang Shaoping/Yang Zixiang moment)

Sherlock Holmes (Downey films)
- The Miscalculation. Summary: As it turned out he hadn't taken everything into consideration. (800 words, rated G, Watson whump)

Stargate Atlantis
- Those Who Stayed. Summary: For some, their time on Atlantis was brief. But for others.... (350 words, rated G, major character death - newcomers to Atlantis and those who never leave)

The Untamed
- To Embrace the New. Summary: Long ago the Burial Mounds had been a verdant place. Now, nothing thrived within its wards. Or, at least, nothing had.... (400 words, rated T, Burial Mounds POV my beloved)

As gifts, I got one ficlet for Red Devil and Heroine Su, to touch softly by treescape. Summary: The Red Devil loves as she fights—merciless and unyielding to any who stand in her way.

and one adorable art (based off some battleship lore that was happening during the game: [art] Donut Teapot - Donut Time by embraideryart (embraidery).

and two podfics made of things I'd written (both <10min):
Charmed - Prue Diligence by buries. Summary: There was someone paging through the Book of Shadows, someone who piqued Prue's interest. (fic, originally written for 2024's Yuletide is here)
The Old Guard - Food of the Ages by wilfriede0815. Summary: If Nicky was going to try to bake baklava for Andy, he was make sure he did it right. (fic, originally written for 2020's Battleship is here)

and one other thing of mine was podficced for someone else (25min):
MCU- [Podfic] The Time With The... by sisi_rambles. Summary: The five times Steve and Bucky lied about what they faced during the War and the one time they told the truth. Aka the five times they trolled the Avengers and one truth that enabled them to get away with it. (Fic, originally an avengers kink meme fill, is on AO3 here)

Podficcers are amazing, all three were done just perfectly, and I loved my other two gifts as well.

Whoops, I completely forgot to mention in my last post that there was a Friday the 13th tattoo related flash and I wrote an Iron Triangle triple drabble for it: As Evening Slowly Slides Into Night. Summary: An evening, like many others, for the Iron Triangle. (And their shared big bed.)

The Hurt/Comfort exchange has (finally) opened! Lots of fandoms to peruse here. Authors will be revealed on the 11th. I got great Guardian art and a fic for The First Shot and, as always, there's just a ton of amazing things in the collection.

Battleship hit its signup cap within 36 hours of opening so now it's just a random prompt period for a few more days until teams are assigned and then it actually starts on the 12th I think. If you want the chance of getting stuff created (fic, art or podfic) for you, prompting is open to anyone. As prompting is a bit complicated, a few different people have written up guides on how to do it: guide #1, guide #2, and guide #3. All are tumblr posts but I checked them in a private tab and they all work when not signed into tumblr. You might not get anything, but, then again, you might so feel free to peruse the tagset (also linked in all the tumblr posts) and see if there's some fandoms and a few freeform additional tags (500+ ranging from the most E rated things to very, very G) that catch your eye and consider throwing in a prompt or two (or 50, the max).

I've only done 11 prompts so far and haven't decided if I want to do more or not. I tend to keep mine pretty simple as I find my eyes glaze over at huge walls of tags so I pick 10-20 and leave it at that with a few comments in the prompt box along with my DNWs but everyone does it differently. If you want to prompt and have any questions, I'd be happy to help.

Well into the ramp up of this year's Battleship it randomly changed its rules to no longer accept crochet art. I'd already started planning a project to fulfill the 'battlesheep' additional tag and decided to finish it anyway. Behold the 'fearsome' (major use of airquotes there) Battlesheep!! (And I now make up 12.7% of AO3's entire crochet tag between my main and birthday bash account.)

I still haven't gotten any of the links from Pocket posted to any of my research link posts, I really need to start working on that. Ugh. So much to do, so little time.

Last but not least, a single recthething fic rec (MDZS/Untamed):

Burn with the sun, die with the sun (series). Summary: A collection of works in which Wen Xu picks Wei Wuxian off Yiling's streets and makes him an integral part of the Wen Sect. (An interesting AU series where shortly after getting his sword WWX is sort of thrown out of the Jiang/Madam Yu sends him to Yiling and tells him he can't return until he's tamed the Burial Mounds but after saving Wen Xu's life there he is taken in by the Wen, currently 3 works, 21k total)

First off, my amazing gifts!

A cute Untamed ficlet Fairy's Job by gayowyn. Summary: for the prompt: Fairy's PoV.

and three podfics of old works of mine (my team had an amazing collab channel where people who'd requested any of the "Creator's Choice of Recipient's Completed Ao3 Works to (Remix/Recurse, podfic, illustrate, etc)" to suggest works that might hit numerous tags/specific word counts so I'd offered a few of mine up and people filled the request and did so BEAUTIFULLY) and these all have criminally few comments so if you like podfics please go give these (or the Downey Holmes collab for a fic I wrote for this year's Battleship listed below) a listen and let their creators know what a great job they all did.

[podfic] Dispatches From the Data Stream by donutsweeper by JocundaSykesEncore. Fandom: The Old Guard. Summary: The news holovids have begun to claim that the tide of war has begun to turn. The reason why might be one of myth and legend. (length <10 min)

[Podfic] Is That A Smile I See Before Me? by peasina. Fandom: MCU. Summary: In Tony's opinion Steve Rogers is the most stuffy, boring human being in existence, but when he complains as much to Natasha she suggests he's doing the man a disservice and seeing only what he wants to see so Tony goes out to prove her wrong. Things do not go the way he expects they will, not at all. (length 10-20 min)

Podfic: World Repair by pinklotus9. Fandom: Captain America (Moves). Summary: Few people knew Steve Rogers was Jewish. (length <10 min)

And then onto what I created (9-1-1, All Souls, Doctor Who/Elementary, due South, Guardian, MDZS/Untamed, Nirvana in Fire, Original Work, Sherlock Holmes (Downey Films) Star Trek: Lower Decks, Zhǎng Gōng Zhǔ Zài Shàng):

9-1-1
- Baking Time. Buck/Eddie/Tommy. Summary: Cookies are better when everyone works together to make them. (Why have a ship war when polyamory is the obvious answer?)

All Souls (TV 2001)
- The Souls of All Souls. Summary: All Souls was more than just a typical hospital. 300 words (I've been requesting this canon for Yuletide for five years running and it finally occurred to me I could just fill a CCoF {creator's choice of fandom} with it to jumpstart the canon myself)
- A Soul of All Souls. Summary: You never knew what you might see when you walked the halls of All Souls Hospital, or what it might want you to see. (accompanying art for the triple drabble, I tried different things to imply different textures and whatnot and also learned how to do layers for this. I didn't manage it perfectly, but I'm still pretty happy with the result.)

Doctor Who/Elementary Crossover
- A Doctor in Need Summary: Martha comes to Joan for help. 500 words (I think Joan would have really gotten on well with Ten and Martha)

due South
- Is This A Half-Wolf I See Before Me?. Summary: Diefenbaker makes a better nursemaid than Benton ever would have thought. 700 words. (Trying to have unreliable narrator is always a bit iffy and I'm not sure I really managed what I was trying for on this one.)

Guardian
- To Days Where One Must Rest. Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan. A weary Zhao Yunlan returns home to find Shen Wei waiting for him. 500 words (I love writing when these two are soft for each other)

MDZS or The Untamed or both
- A Dish Best Served. NHS/JGY. Summary: Revenge was a dish best served... when no one would even see it coming. 500 words (I had some fun writing this dark revenge NHS time travel fic)
- Strength Takes Many Forms. WQ/OC (attempted rape warning). Summary: Physically, the men might be much stronger than her, but in the end, would that matter? (WQ being scary and not taking any shit from anyone is my favorite WQ)
- The Mountain That Was Not a Mountain. Summary: Yiling was a burgeoning city nestled at the base of a mountain that wasn't there. And there were many stories about that. (1365 words) (I love the Burial Mounds and there's so many different ways to write stuff centered around them. I'd had the idea for a Brigadoon Burial Mounds Settlement story noodling around in my head for years but it'd never been more than an 'oh that might be neat to do something with' idea. This could make a really detailed 10 or 20k (or more) story but I like the brief glimpse I finally managed to get down on paper of it here.)

Nirvana in Fire
- Reassessing the Water Buffalo. Summary: Lin Chen had many preconceived notions about Xiao Jingyan. 406 words (a little look at what might have led to Lin Chen/MCS/Jingyan)

Original Work
- Cluck Cluck Goose Summary: The Soulmate Enforcing Goose may have gotten in a little over its head.... (previous Battleships had established the tag 'sex chicken' could be interpreted creatively so I did my own silly art take on the Sex Chicken/Soulmate Enforcing Goose pairing. It took me 2 tutorials and such a stupidly long time to draw this. Sigh)
- An Offer Summary: Mermaid captains are rare, it is only fair their pets are equally as rare. 70 words (I turned the battleship forest dragon into a little multimedia art story for my team's captain)

Sherlock Holmes (Downey Filmes)
- Dressing for Success. Holmes/Watson/Mary. Summary: When Mary is too ill to do her part in an investigation, Sherlock decides he is going to take her place. 765 words. (I did a stupid amount of research for this trying to ascertain if nail polish was actually a thing and whatnot before finally finding an ad to prove at least something like it existed at approximately the right time, I included a link to the ad in the author's notes) - - collaborated with flowersforgraves who did an awesome podfic of this, give a listen here!
- Of Fight and Follow-Through. Holmes & Watson. Summary: When Holmes and Watson are attacked the fight goes almost to plan. Almost. 900 words. (Fight Scene Choreography was a battleship tag this year and perfect for these two)

Star Trek: Lower Decks
- consequences, schmonsequences. Summary: It wasn't that Mariner was growing as a person, it was just that she decided to give that friends thing a try. 312 words. (Unexpectedly, I actually wrote for one of the fandoms I checked out from Battleship's promo posts!)

Zhǎng Gōng Zhǔ Zài Shàng || Eldest Princess on Top
- On the Wielding of Wings. Summary: The state of one's wings said a lot about a person. 300 words (oh look, wingfic for Shadaras. How surprising :D)

(Oddly, despite writing three things for MDZS/The Untamed I didn't wind up writing any LWJ/WWX, which surprised me. Also, looking at the word count of these now makes me laugh, with only one exception I think, it's kind of obvious which fics were posted for the tags boards {where 100 words=1 tag that could be claimed} vs the bosses where whatever the word count was counted as points towards the boss' hp and that I write best with some constraints aka meeting specific word counts.)

And, here's this week's recthething recs, two MDZS/Untamed fics:

Roadside Attractions by Bodldops (10k)
Summary: According to Lan Wangji, Yiling has two main items of interest. First, there is a supposedly demonic cultivator who a) may not exist and b) if he does, is keeping the town remarkably safe and not demonic. Secondly, there is Wei Ying, a man he is falling in love with. These are definitely two separate things. (delightful modern-with-cultivation fic)

Rule of Law by Deastar (2k)
Summary: Lan Jingyi shuffles into the office looking as if he’s eaten something unpleasant.
“Hanguang-jun,” he says, with some trepidation. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but… I think what the cultivation world needs is a—a code of rules. Written down.” (I'd like to think LWJ helped push changes like this as Chief Cultivator, or at least tried)

It cooled down here a bit so I was able to do some baking (applesauce oatmeal raisin bread, nutella cookies and some bars) but the cool weather came thanks to a huge storm coming through which uprooted and downed a big bush/small tree and made a general mess which has been a pain to try to clear (and we haven't quite finished, there's a lot of restrictions to yard waste here and how to get rid of things bigger than some bagged leaves/branches is annoying). Sigh.

*Sigh* the snow from last week has nearly melted. This winter is so weird.

Candyhearts revealed! I wrote two things this year:
To Trod an Unplanned Path - Sherlock Holmes-ACD fandom. Summary: Not all plans come to fruition. (500 words)

an obstacle, averted - 长公主在上 | Zhǎng Gōng Zhǔ Zài Shàng (Web Series)// Eldest Princess on Top fandom. Summary: It had only been the briefest of lapses, but it told Li Yunzhen so much. (300 words)

Rewatching 'Eldest Princess' had me poking about its mdl page and realizing the screenwriter/director worked with both main actors on another webdrama, '东栏雪 | Dōng Lán Xuě' or Dong Lan Snow, this one 30 three minute episodes. Like Eldest Princess, the youtube playlist has been removed but there's an excellent version available on viewasian here and compiled into a single 'movie' on youtube here (lower quality version, unfortunately, with much worse subs and a strange wobbly quality to its audio). It's an interesting story with a few odd notes. The basic premise is the unfavored 7th Prince, Chu Ningyuan, wants revenge for his mother's murder which set up by the Crown Prince and partners with Shen Yan who becomes a palace maid after saving his life and has her own reasons for wanting revenge.

I thought it was well done (for a webdrama) and I liked that neither Chu Ningyuan nor Shen Yan try to hide that they have become cold and hard and vicious in their quests for revenge, but that being vicious doesn't necessarily mean being cruel. It's only about an hour and a half long and well worth a watch. (The odd note is a character introduced in the first episode and will be obvious as soon as they appear, I'll admit I am not sure I understand their point, but maybe I missed something.)

I nommed it for h/c exchange, but not sure I'll request it. There's tons of great potential to do so though.

This week's recthething recs (two new mdzs/untamed short fics):

Lifetime Pursuits: Exploring New Hobbies in Retirement by DiceRaven (3k)
Summary: Lan Qiren discovers the joy of learning new things after retiring and, while spending his afternoons at his favourite cafe, he meets Wei Wuxian and his son. (short but cute modern AU)

Sunflower Child by OccasionalArtist (8k)
Summary: Most young witches, the ones who live with their birth families, know that they are witches before their magic manifests. Most young witches don’t learn they are witches by turning their skin purple while trying to bake cupcakes for their best friend’s birthday.

Lan Sizhui, as he is learning very quickly, is not most young witches. (sweet modern-with-magic modern AU)

I honestly didn't think I'd get much written for yuletide this year considering my brain just was NOT cooperating, but I managed 5 fics for the main collection as well as a triple drabble and regular drabble (the first time writing for Madness since 2018 as I've really been trying for full length stuff lately) in a total of 6 fandoms (cut to save scrolling):

Charmed
Progression in B Minor - Summary: A progression: from mark to meeting to what might be. 1704 words (thanks to ff.net no longer being considered for Yuletide eligibility, Charmed was eligible which was exciting. The title comes from me listening to this B minor chord progression on youtube on repeat while writing it)

Detective L
Those Shiny Stones, Waiting to be Turned - Summary: One of these days Luo Fei would learn not to let the lure of searching for clues lead him into danger. Or, at least, stop dragging Ben along with him. One of these days.... 1868 words (I really, really like writing fics (that at least begin) with muddled, confused POV characters. I did it last year with Finch in the Peacemakers fic, the year before with Pangzi in one of the DMBJ ones etc etc etc. And the title is because Luo Fei is just a magpie, always drawn to those shiny, interesting clues)

Sherlock Holmes (1954's Ronald Howard Holmes version)
The Case of the Confounding Closet - Summary: Although unable to leave Baker Street due to unforeseen circumstances, Sherlock Holmes still managed to help Inspector Lestrade. 1276 words. (This is such a fun version with mostly original cases, I really love the interactions between Holmes and Watson in this and after rewatching the 9th episode, The Case of Harry Crocker, I knew exactly the framing this story needed to have.)

Under the Skin
Foundation and Firmament - Generally speaking, Shen Yi didn't mind the reputation he had within the police department, despite how unearned he felt it was and how busy it kept him. 1465 words. (I still love this tiny fandom so much, S2 just got announced so I'm hoping it'll bring more interest to the English side of things!)

Reunion: Mystery of the Abyss (aka the HeiHua movie)
A Found Farwell - Summary: His eyes were getting worse. 1368 words. (There was such a sweet sadness to this movie and how Xiazi is first introduced, I hope this prequel-set fic does that justice)

A Horizon, Dark and Indistinct - Summary: Xie Yuchen isn't about to let Xiazi give up, not as long as there's anything he can do about it. 100 words. (I couldn't give this missing scene moment the full length story it deserved, but hopefully this drabble gave a glimpse of what might have happened.)

Eastern Airlines "Move Forward With Courage" Commercial (The very wtf 'wait, this is really an ad?!?!' commercial that starred Hu Ge and can be watched here)
Gone to the Mountain, See It Call to Thee - Summary: The mountain is, the mountain was, the mountain will always be. 300 words. (after promoting this everywhere once someone actually requested it I figured had to write for it, which was easier said then done and after winding up with 11 pages of random fits and starts and paragraphs, decided to just aim for a snippet and ended up with this triple drabble.)

I got a really cool worldbuilding fic for The Vampires. One of the things that really interested me about that drama was how the world seemed to know (at least somewhat?) that vampires, etc existed and this delves into it: Sample Menu: Blood Pudding. It's absolutely delightful and requires no canon knowledge other than what I mentioned above so please do check it out if that sort of in universe presentation appeals to you.

It actually snowed some overnight between the 30th and 31st, just enough for a quick shovel, but there will actually be a snow cover going into the new year which wasn't looking likely since temps had (incredibly atypically) been above freezing for most of December.

I managed to rec something every week over at recthething!! That's two years in a row and for however many months in a row I did for in 2021. Most recently was art from multifandomdoodle (art for Aliens Series and Original Works, works still anon):

Alien Series: The 8th passenger (excellent xenomorph)

Original Works:
- [art] My Pet Cockatiel. Summary: Little bird with an attitude. (so cute)
- a tiny, furious flame. Summary: Zooming past your head with a loud buzz and a burst of heat ... (lovely phoenix, locked to archive)
- Tea time with the fam. Summary: As many Guinea-pigs as I felt like drawing (and a witch)
- No Thoughts. Summary: Head empty. Just vibes. (darling kitty)
- sanguine lady. Summary: Moving silently through the night, a shadow among shadows. (great middle ages vampire lady, locked to archive)
- Piggyback Ride (adorable guinea pigs on a capybara)

The hurt/Comfort exchange just revealed. I wrote:

Respair, The Untamed, Summary: Night Hunts don't always go well but as the saying goes, "if at first you don't succeed....." 9,162 words. (timeloops make things looooong)

Walking Together for a While, Again, The Blood of Youth, Summary: Their paths might be far apart, but distance did not mean distant. 1,160 words. (humorously, marquisguyun and I wound up writing for each other)

I received marquisguyun's lovely take on the same Blood of Youth h/c pairing, push our sickbeds together like children and a cute Guardian art with Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing, Support by facethestrange.

Crafting-wise, the plastic bread bag rug is on hold until I get more bags. It's kind of stupidly big for a plastic bag rug but in a weird way- very long but not wide so it definitely needs more rows to hopefully even out. You'd think after making 3 dozen of these I'd have figure out the way to prevent that from happening but I haven't. (There probably is some formula as to how long your starter row is to how big an oval it will be but I assume it would involve more math and figuring and effort than I am interested in committing to a side keep-myself-busy project.) I've been trying swatches of various patterns to find a crochet blanket pattern I like to use up some stash stuff but haven't settled on one I liked yet.

I've done a bunch more baking the last month or so- photos of some under cut

and
('kitchen sink' cookies - M&Ms, chocolate + peanut butter chips and cinnamon sugar donut muffins, with a name like that you know I had to try them)
and
(peanut butter chocolate chip jumbo muffins and oatmeal scotchies)
and
(spiced applesauce walnut bread and chocolate peanut butter icebox cookies)

Some recthething recs:

wonder under summer skies by dragongirlG (24k)
Summary Snippet: In the summer heat of the American South, two college students working in Chinatown fall in love over the making of a hanfu. (sweet modern AU where LWJ is out of his depth, but still tries to help)

season to taste by soleiloquies. (3.3k)
Summary: While recovering from an injury, Wei Ying contemplates the meaning of home. Turns out the Wens have a lot to say on the topic. (soft and sweet modern-with-cultivation AU)

慈母手中线 | a thread in a mother's hand by DrPanda99, PandaReads (DrPanda99) (1k fic and 9 minute podfic of it posted together)
Summary: Jiang Yanli spins yarn for a brother who has disappeared. She hopes he will return by the time she completes his sweater. (gorgeous melancholic Jaing Yanli modern AU fic with accompanying podfic)

I only managed about half the fic I had hopes for this year, but that's still more than I thought I might given where I was, writing-wise, late November. It was also another year where I didn't wind up picking up anything from the tagset to write although, again, I did watch/read a bunch of new stuff from it.

The five things I wrote were:
Two 琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV) fics (sadly/happily, NIF has probably now grown too big for yuletide so I'm glad I could help it go out with a bang aka the fandom with the second most things written for it)

The Power of Deviousness (AKA Friendship) - It was not a conspiracy. Well, not a planned one anyway. 2,284 words. (A fun 'force MCS to take care of himself' friendship fic)
The Weight of a Ghost - He was now Mei Changsu, not Lin Shu, but it often felt like Lin Shu was haunting him. 1,527 words. (a little look into the different ways MCS's schemes and dreams affect how he is and how people see him)

one each for 盗墓笔记重启 | The Lost Tomb Reboot (TV)
Life Past the Horizon, Rearranged - Wrangling Tianzhen was easier said than done. 2511 words. (WX's health and (chaotic) life post-canon)

猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin (TV 2022)
Fussed and Frustrated - Various times Du Cheng worried about Shen Yi and the one time he didn't have to. 2,777 words. (this was supposed to be a 5+1 but I got carried away. Oops)

and Peacemakers (2003)
A Breath, Expanding Slow - He's not sure what happened, but he knows he's safe. 1214 words. (At some point Settiai will get tired of me writing Peacemakers for them but until then....)

I got two lovely gifts! For 'Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? - Gerald Kersh' (an unusual immortal short story) Always and Forever by Gheyn and for 'Měl jsem psa a kočku | From the Point of View of a Cat - Karel Čapek' (the very short, quirky and creepy story 'by' a cat), From the Point of View of a Man by rabidsamfan. Both were excellent and in incredibly tiny fandoms so don't have anywhere enough hits, please do check them out!

This week's recthething recs were a collection of tumblr art (Merlin, MDZS and Guardian):

Merlin:
- “The winner takes it all / The loser has to fall...” (hauntingly gorgeous Merthur art)
- Can’t think of a reasonable lie? Can’t rely on your king to make a helpful assumption? Try this tip: be a lil shit (hilarious comic)
- Day 16: “I hate you” “I love you” Simply as that. (cute Merthur comic)
- They took us off NETFLIX, Merlin (adorable doodle)
- Very quick drawing to celebrate and mourn (for the 10th anniversary, how it should have ended)
MDZS/The Untamed:
- Love can grow even in the most impossible places (Absolutely adorable WWX & A-Yuan piece)
- Poor Lan Zhan stood no chance (the utter longing on his face here, wow)
- holding on to what little remains of wei wuxian (heartbreaking and lovely LWJ and A-Yuan work)
- Posting my old shitposts and art on Tumblr (hilarious modern AU!NHS and WWX)
Guardian:
- Zhao Yunlan Housekeeping (Hilarious)
- One Bed (ZYL, Shen Wei and Da Qing, absolutely adorable)

I managed to rec something every single week this year! Pretty proud of that :)

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2023!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I surprised myself by not only reaching my personal writing goal, but surpassing it this year, which is nice. Unusually, I didn't wind up picking up and writing any fandoms from the tagset, although I did try out a ton of them. I think this is the first year I didn't since 2015; usually there's a short story, song or comic or something that combines with a request in a way that gets my creative brain going but oh well. (There was a hilarious set of prompts for Duolingo Welsh and I actually did take a stab at learning it since Welsh had interested me ever since a YA book I read as a child but... it did not happen. I tried! And I learned how to say I do not like eating insects (which, valid, but also wtf duolingo) but I did not get to whatever level parsnips, and thus the requests, were on so was out of luck when it came to trying to write for it.)

Yuletide would up being an all Cdrama all the time for me but oh well, whatever. I did make stabs at a ton of other things (new-to-me as well as not) but nothing wound up coalescing into completed fics. The words flow strangely sometimes, I guess.

Anyway, the nine things I wrote were:

By fandom, in alphabetical order:
Detective L
The Detective Deduced Summary: Luo Fei comes to what he considers the obvious conclusion after accidentally eavesdropping on a conversation. (2088 words)

Lost Tomb Reboot aka Reunion: Sound of Providence
A Call For Rescue Summary: Some jobs were more important than others. (3122 words)
Scales, Uneven Yet Level Summary: Confusingly, Wu Xie kept saving his life. (1908 words)
Travel Down the Road and Back Again (and Again) Summary: The Iron Triangle's adventures don't always go according to plan. (2019 words)
Unsteady Footsteps Along a Familiar Path Summary: As Tianzhen's health deteriorated he'd requested this, one last adventure for the Iron Triangle, but why was it so similar to Pangzi's dream? (4748 words)

Nirvana in Fire
A Block, a Kick, and a Laugh Summary: Meng Zhi loved a good spar. (1310 words)
On Guilt and Burdens Summary: Guilt and secrets can be heavy burdens to bear. (1696 words)
To Plan a Practice Run Summary: Mei Changsu, unlike Lin Shu, was a commoner and not a member of the nobility and needed to act that way. (1257 words)

Ultimate Note
Palmoscopy Summary: It was so loud that Xiaoge found it difficult to sleep. (1219 words)

Oddly, this is the third year in a row I didn't manage to write anything for Madness, not sure what's happening with that. It seems like for Yuletide my brain's realigned itself so all things are main collection sized? Who knows. It meant I did cross the 100 works overall in the main collection all total, which is neat.

One thing I did really notice when writing this year is how, unlike most of my previous fandoms, many Cdramas tend to have characters who have multiple names (either nickname, various level of formal/birth names, or aliases or whatever) and it can take a lot of forethought to figure out to who calls who what in different circumstances or what they call themselves. Then there's also the terminology aspect (is it inches, centimeters, or a different measurement completely? what about time? How would it be counted?) which I probably spend longer considering that I probably should but oh well.

snowflake_challenge is running again this year so I'll probably do the occasional post about that. Otherwise, the next real exchange (I don't really count EAD's birthday bash since it's all in jest but technically that's next week I think?) is chocolateboxcomm, which is currently in signups. With any luck I'll find a few things to treat for it, it's usually a fun one to write for if I can get the creative juices flowing. Then again, who knows, maybe lighting will strike again and I'll actually write something outside of an exchange this year again, unlikely, but who knows....

Whoops, totally forgot to do a multifandomdrabble reveal post so have a ficlist and this week's recthething recs!

Drabbles:
DMBJ (Lost Tomb Reboot) - Liminal Lives- Xiaoge had lived for a long time but only remembered a small portion of it.
DMBJ (Ultimate Note)- A Soul's Firmament- He'd thought he was a blank slate, that he didn't remember anything. He was wrong.
Guardian- A Well Worn Pattern- Zhao Yunlan never puts his own wellbeing first.
Original Fic- Lake Harriet's Fairy Door- Once upon a time there was a tree with a door....
Original Fic- The Delightful Trudge- Humanity trudged by thirty stories below, unseeing, unknowing.
Untamed/MDZS- To the Changing of Traditions- While alcohol was forbidden to members of the Lan Clan, many still bought it occasionally.
Untamed/MDZS- Eye of the Observer- When out and about Lan Sizhui and Wen Ning made an odd looking pair.

Double Drabble:
Untamed/MDZS- Moments of Warmth and Home- The Jingshi was empty, but Lan Wangji knew where to find his wayward husband.

Triple Drabble:
NCIS- Moments, Stolen and Tucked Away- It was only moments like this that Gibbs could study Tony unobserved.

Nine things again, just like round one, and two new-to-me fandoms again as well :)

I think there's a break in exchanges until Yuletide (only a month until noms!) and Trick or Treat (which, as always, I won't sign up for but may nom and hope to find something to treat) which I suppose means I could work on my WIP LXC fucks things up time travel fic but... yeah, that probably won't happen.

And now for the recs, all Untamed/MDZS, and accidentally, all Modern+Cultivation AUs:

A bit back I recced Stratisphyre's i really want to know (who are you), a hilariously wonderful modern cultivation AU where WWX is a skilled but overly friendly Cultivation Technician and Cultivation Agent LWJ tries to not be impressed (although he really, really is). It's now a series! CSI: Gusu Lan Edition with a prequel, but his smile never dimmed (Summary snippet: While temporarily teaching at Yungmeng University, Lan Qiren finds himself dealing with an unruly student.) and a sequel found myself and my melodies (Summary: The kaleidoscope of events that led to Lan Xichen's eventual resignation from the Gusu Bureau of Cultivation began when a rotting corpse from Lanling rolled in through their receiving bay. - LXC/NMJ fic - both as absolutely excellent as the first.)

结局难更改 (the ending is hard to change) by PorcupineGirl (series, 2 works, 43.7k combined)
Summary of first fic: Exhausted from a busy cultivation conference, the last thing Lan Zhan needs is a man appearing out of thin air as he and his brother walk back to their hotel. Wei Wuxian isn't the first time traveler to appear in modern cultivation history, but that doesn't mean anyone knows how to send him back. As he helps them fill in gaps in the historical record - whether left by destruction or revisionism - Lan Zhan finds himself hoping that he'll stay. Even if there are things Wei Wuxian isn't telling him. (wonderful modern cultivation plus canon divergent plus reincarnation series- but is less confusing than that sounds)

Night of the Living History (an edutainment special!) by Aerlalaith (51k)
Summary snippet: Wei Ying lands a job as the Yiling Patriarch at the Lanling Cultivation Museum. Lan Zhan (Hanguang-Jun 4x per week, Sect Leader Lan 2x per week) suffers accordingly. (really interesting modern but with minor cultivation worldbuilding museum docent fic)

Attempt the Impawsible by cl410 (6k)
Summary snipper: A ridiculous thought occurred to Lan Zhan. “...Wei Ying?”

At his feet, the cat responded with an emphatic trilling noise and a little hop of excitement. (hilarious and adorable modern cultivation AU)