Thursday

[clevermanka]

I posted this on merit_brush_recs  late last night (pretty much as soon as I finished the fic) so if you didn't see it there, let me encourage you toward this story. For those who don't care for porn, the M rating is there for violence and disturbing imagery.

Endless Clarity of the Perfect Design (53760 words) by ShippersList
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Special Investigation Division | SID Ensemble & Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei (Guardian), Special Investigation Division | SID Ensemble (Guardian), Zhao Xinci, Snake Tribe's Fourth Uncle (Guardian), Ya Qing (Guardian), Ying Chun (Guardian), Ye Zun (Guardian), other guardian characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Cyberpunk, cloak and dagger, Mindfuck, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Flashbacks, Psychological Trauma, Zhao Xinci's A+ Parenting, Team as Family, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS, dreams and visions, Slow Burn, grey morals, Canon-Typical Violence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, (can be read as happy ending)
Summary: Zhao Yunlan has it all figured out. He’s the youngest Director of Standardized Information Deconstruction unit—SID for short—he has a dedicated, hardworking team (at least for the most part), and a handful of very good friends. True, he doesn’t have a social life outside his work, his relationship with his father is nonexistent, and all his friends just happen to be in his team but…that’s semantics. He’s happy. Ish.

And then the visions start pouring in.

Why I like this: It's been a long time since I read any cyberpunk, or hard SF at all, and this was a great way to reacquaint myself with the genre! It takes place in a dark (metaphorically, mostly) but vivid world that's gorgeously layered (in more than one way). A lot of the characters that don't normally appear in AUs are incorporated in small but crucial roles, and some in very surprising ways. The SW/ZYL relationship takes a back seat to what's going on in Zhao Yunlan's mind/life but it's still a driving force behind his motivations.shipperslist focuses on a hard SF style of storytelling without sacrificing any of the heart of the drama or its characters. If you're a hard SF fan, definitely give this a read!

I got my laptop back already, which is why I was able to finish reading that fic (I don't like reading on my phone). Tech Friend solved the problem by checking the exact same things I did on the system screens, only she turned the microphone sensitivity up to 80 (it had been about half that). I still don't understand how or why the microphone suddenly failed in the middle of a Zoom call when I wasn't even touching my computer. I have a sinking suspicion this wasn't the end of the problem, but at least it's fixed for now. She couldn't replicate the internet non-connectivity issue. Of course.

This week's dump on cm.net.

Comments

[clevermanka]

LOL, it very much is! And you did it wonderfully!