This post brought to you by All Guardian All The Time

[clevermanka]

I saw this Amazeballs Guardian Cosplay on Twitter and have now transcended our mortal plane. Thanks, naye, for liking it and alerting me to its existence.

Sent off my Guardian pitch post to The Rec Center and I feel like A Real Fandom Ambassador now. I'll put the text of it in a comment.

Yesterday I was still struggling with Blowjob Emotions in First Time. kazoogrrl gave me some detailed ideas in an email and this How to Write a Sex Scene essay by Resonant showed up on my dash this week. I gave them both a lot of thought but only produced about, um, twenty words of Actual Feelings in the fic itself. khellekson I know you said they weren't always Strictly Necessary, but I think this story + these characters = better with More Feels. DANG IT. I sent it to solo for beta follow-up anyway because I'm not sure if I should just call it done or not. New writer uncertainty! Fun times! This probably doesn't get better does it! Love it!

I have another AU idea god damn it. Like, I actually have a vague storyline (parts of which I  have no idea how to make work). I heard this sort of thing was likely to happen once I started writing. It's like tattoos. Once you start... /o\

Also I signed up for teaotter 's Getting Together Challenge. /o\ /o\ /o\

Guess it's nice to be unemployed! Which, speaking of, that's almost not funny, finally. This month's insurance (which I need to submit today before I forget and lose my expensive and yet utterly useless health insurance--What A Country! USA! USA!), will use up the last of my final paycheck/vacation time payout. It's (past) time to file for unemployment if I want to avoid dipping into savings.

Spent nearly all day (when I wasn't doing hair henna stuff) on the couch yesterday and did not speak a word aloud to another human being the entire day. It was necessary and delightful. Today I must run some (fun!) errands and then (not so fun!) clean the kitchen and bathroom. I don't know how I can completely trash a bathroom just doing my hair and the kitchen was already pretty gross. Stovetops: are they actually a magnet for spills? Inquiring minds want to know.

Comments

[writedragon]

Welcome to the wonderful world of writing. You will start to feel more competent soon, but the doubts never go away because every story is different and you will constantly want to try new things. You’re going to love/hate it. 😉 *fist bump *

[clevermanka]

[ride_4ever]

*points to icon*

Also: I read that essay by resonant a while back and I've also read Res's due South fic (which I rec).

[clevermanka]

Resonant is just SO FUCKIN' GOOD. All their dS fic, obviously YES and Transfigurations is the only Harry Potter fic I ever truly loved.

ETA: thank you for the reminder to Keep Calm. It's just fic, right? Supposed to be fun!

The Rec Center primer for Guardian

[clevermanka]

The last time Clever Manka had a media obsession like this, it was 1982 and she'd just discovered Duran Duran. She can be found on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, and does a terrible job of pretending to be on Twitter. She also hosts an online house party for former Toasties.

Guardian is 40-episode Chinese web drama based on a Boy Love novel by priest. The book's overt romance was removed and the supernatural aspects were transformed into "science" in order to accommodate Chinese censorship laws (the show was pulled almost immediately after airing and edited for re-release). The show creators managed to skate just under the edge of plausible deniability, though, to keep the love story intact (Twitter codename #socialistbrotherhood).

The plot is impossible to describe concisely, but contains: aliens, found family, police procedurals, political criticism, shapeshifters, superpowers, and time travel. I love all those things except time travel—which I usually despise. The time travel absolutely worked for me with this, though, because of how thoroughly and intimately it influences the two main characters’ relationship.

I agree with the fans who compare it to the last two seasons of due South (full disclosure, one of my other great fandom loves) because while there are still major events happening plot-wise, the show’s main focus is that relationship between the two main characters. There’s a secondary m/m ship that’s about as obvious as the main one, but with very different dynamics. Female representation isn’t as great as it could be (only two of the nine core actors are women) but all of the women on the show, even the ones who are minor or one-shot characters, have agency—they’re doctors, scientists, leaders—not a sexy lamp in the bunch.

That's not to say everyone with a major role on this show isn't outrageously attractive. They are—especially the two leads, Shen Wei (played by Zhu Yilong) and Zhao Yunlan (played by Bai Yu). The special effects are sometimes questionable, but the actors supply plenty of eye candy as well as chemistry that’s more convincing than a lot of explicitly-portrayed romances (both actors read the novel before filming).

The subtitles on YouTube are fan-generated and can be spotty quality but I prefer them to the subtitles on Viki which convert Chinese names for the three types of people populating the world (Haixing, Dixing, and Yashou) into English words (human, undergrounders, demi-humans). Even better, though, are the revised subtitles by Guardian fandom hero Solo, downloadable here.

Please be aware, this show is an emotional roller-coaster and may result in more Feels than expected. Luckily, there's a great fandom community on Dreamwidth if you find yourself falling down the rabbit hole.

Canon-compliant fic that's even moderately spoiler-free is kinda thin on the ground for Guardian, so if you don't want spoilers, please be careful if you go digging for fic before watching the show. There's a ton of great stuff when you better know the characters or if you don't mind spoilers. There's even a directory for works in English that are listed as public on AO3.

"A constellation of two” by naye. 9K words, rated Explicit. 
Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Backstory: Zhao Yunlan gets the impression that Shen Wei is holding back something in bed and wants to find out what.
Rec: This is the story that inspired me to write my first fic (I remixed it from Shen Wei’s point of view). Not terribly spoilery, even though it’s set nearly halfway into the series. A lighthearted and hot exploration of boundaries and roleplay in an established relationship.
Content warnings: N/A

“Love Touch” by china_shop. 1557 words, rated Mature. 
Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Backstory: Dixingians (the “alien” people who have superpowers) usually have one power. Shen Wei’s power is learning—including learning other powers. Zhao Yunlan appreciates that some of those are applicable during sexy times.
Rec: Superpower-enhanced sex (with feels, because this fandom does very little without feels) in an established relationship.
Content warnings: N/A

“Not All Those Who Wander” by Xparrot. 23K words, rated Teen. 
Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Backstory: “The god Kunlun is as old as the mountain range that bears his name, if not older. Or so the villagers say. He was here before any people were, as eternal as the mountains — moreso, in truth. The mountains might change, but Kunlun remains Kunlun.”
Rec: An epic fantasy AU that draws inspiration from the show and book but you don’t need to have seen or read either to appreciate it.
Content warnings: N/A

“If Life Was A Movie We’d Have A Better Soundtrack Than This” by galaxysoup. 46K words, rated Teen. 
Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Backstory: A no-powers meet-cute AU.
Rec: Charming and angsty slow burn fic with great character voices that incorporates some canon circumstances without spoiling anything that actually happens in the show.
Content warnings: N/A

“Augustine” by bonibaru. 3:13, not rated (vid).    
Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Backstory: “Shen Wei finds something to believe in.”   
Rec: My favorite Guardian vid, and an excellent portrayal of their relationship. Some mild spoilers, but nothing major or past mid-series.

Fanartists: Marmaladica on AO3 and Breeze Wong on Tumblr.

[jo_lasalle]

I heard this sort of thing was likely to happen once I started writing. It's like tattoos. Once you start... /o\

mwhahahahahahaha!

(I clicked through, and *___*)

Sometimes notalky days are necessary! They happen to me far less often these days, but, yeah.

[clevermanka]

I clicked through, and *___*
HA HA HA HA RIGHT???? I typed up a two-paragraph super melodramatic summary for my designated cheerleader kazoogrrl and was all "maybe talk me down from this ledge" but she responded with "This means sex in, on, and generally around cars, correct? Maybe with some racing, with consolation or celebration sex, depending on the outcome? Then yes."

/o\

[minoanmiss]

Stovetops definitely call spills to them.

I was going to say something else but then I actually had to do some work.

[clevermanka]

STUPID WORK =D

[khellekson]

I hear you about the More Feels!

I now have two GUARDIAN fics in my head, but I can't write them because I need some info and context that I don't have. But yet I want to draft them super fast before I read fic online and then realize that I totally suck and what was I thinking? Because that always happens to me.

[clevermanka]

Can I maybe help with the info and context? I would LOVE to help you get writing again because you absolutely Do Not Suck, bb. Your Firefly fic got me started reading slashfic and I wasn't even the fandom!

[khellekson]

Did I know that my Firefly fic got you started in slash?? I don't know that I knew that, or if I knew, I forgot it, and I AM KIND OF FREAKED OUT ABOUT THAT but thank you!

If I get far enough I will force you to beta, how about that?

[clevermanka]

I don't know if you knew at the time but YOU DO NOW!

I will happily beta for you but tbh I'm not sure what help I'll be beyond SPAG stuff (which is probably the last thing you need). Very honored to at least try, though!

[teaotter]

Writing IS very much like tattoos! There's so many feels while you're doing it, then it's annoying and painful and itchy during the edits/healing phase, and then you think it's the most beautiful thing ever (or notice the flaws and doubt your judgment forever) (or sometimes both simultaneously).

After a while, you look at all the empty space available to you and decide to do it again.

Also: henna!

[clevermanka]

Wow, my metaphor was a lot more apt than I intended. Awesome!

Woooo henna people! Do you henna, too?

[teaotter]

I've been dying my hair with henna for years now. It's the only thing that will actually work on my monstrous hair.

[clevermanka]

I don't know why it makes me happy to learn about other henna people, but it always does. Misery loves company, I guess? (eta: I've been using the henna + indigo on mine for ten years now, I just realized!)

[teaotter]

I kinda like the whole routine of henna, even if it does take five hours (four to sit in my hair and an hour to wash it out). It's soothing to carve out a chunk of time to just be for a while.