Clever Manka is dressed and undressed

Today's another Guardian collection on my Tumblr, if you wanna check that out.

Guardian and Guardian-adjacent on Twitter:
Fanart: Zhao Yunlan with Shen Wei's glasses. Battle couple! 
More ReFa stuff: Hands. Chibi fanart (with a close up of hands). And let's just...watch the ad again, shall we? 
Rehearsal for the Guardian Premiere Press Conference. How do I still want to bang Bai Yu even with those slippers and bucket hat?

There's a fic about Zhao Yunlan dancing for Shen Wei and I'm so sorry I don't remember who wrote it or the title but there was discussion (or maybe this was someone's post? sorry, apparently I'm high) about what idol choreography he'd memorized and I suggested (I think) Taemin's Press Your Number (I know it was something by Taemin bc omg Taemin's choreographies) but uh, I'd like to revise that.

Am becoming less inclined to write my own sex worker AU as I see more great stuff coming out from other people. I'm relieved that none of the ones I've read yet do the sex work is shameful/incompatible with being in love thing. This clears one plot bunny off my farm and makes it more likely I'll actually get to the Garage Mechanic AU which I have now decided is going to be Zhubai instead of Weilan. Partially because of glymr 's delightful fic and also because I kinda wanna smash together Bai Yu's mechanic photo shoot with spoiled rich playboy Zhu Yilong from the ReFa ads. That might be my next fic after Deconstruction. And after my History 3 fic which will be my focus the next week or so. Wanna post that by the end of the month if possible, so I can hop on this challenge

Twitter:
So Tender!
Fanart: Domestic bliss. Portraits. Wrist kiss. I still want a Guardian Inception AU instead of a Zhubai one but I will never not love these.
Love how we're all falling apart (in various ways) over those ReFa ~face massager~ ads.
Zhu Yilong lookin' good in suits again.
"Packing your stuff for a house move and finding an old picture you took w ur first boyfriend 10 yrs ago. Wondering how he is, if he’s married, if he ever got his dream job, if he ever thinks about you on rainy Saturdays" *insert crying emoji here*

Why people like slow burns.

Finally got to THE KISSING in Deconstruction yesterday. As I noted on Twitter, it took 31,059 words of hurt to get there, but they got there! \o/ mckitterick asked me why I didn't think it counted as a slow burn and I was like, well, it's thirty thousand words, but it's only been like three and a half days in story time. I'm just really putting the guys through it. Poor Shen Wei!

Okay so before we talk about anything else, y'all need to know glymr gifted me with a Mechanic AU tweetfic (ThreadReader option). This fic, I'm telling you, THIS FIC. I read a bit of it while I was taking a lunch break from my own Porn Day project and even though they hadn't yet got down to business, I was hooked. Finally got to read the whole thing after I sent my fic for a quick SPAG check (thanks, kazoogrrl, you're a gem!) and IT WAS SO GOOD. Just, go, go! *shoos* Read it! Immediately, of course, I had a headcanon for the Envoy character and I'm going to be writing that up and sending it to glymr in hopes of  inspiring her to write more. Or maybe co-write? idk! the idea is tantalizing, but... *looks at bunny pile* Anyway. I've been wanting that Mechanic AU for ages, now, and this was just lovely and so unexpected!

A massive thank you to glymr for organizing Porn Day and giving me a gift for it! Makes me VERY happy I decided to go for it and submit my own piece for the day.

Writing that many words in 24 hours was Something, let me tell you. Hilariously, I'm pretty sure I'd only be capable of writing that much porn in a day. Took me 2 hours to write the first 400 words or so and the rest of it (all 4k some) happened over fourteen hours on Monday. Unemployment sure can be handy. Someone tagged it "partially successful edging" in their bookmark note and that cracks my shit up. Yes, I absolutely cheated the ending by making Zhao Yunlan (uh, spoiler?) unable to continue much longer either because it was (I thought) two hours to deadline and I needed to wrap up the damn fic already. So, yeah, bookmarker--You're Not Wrong. XD

Oh, yeah, and I totally did the math wrong between the countdown timer and my own clock, so I shortchanged myself an hour for the actual deadline. *emoji shrug*

mckitterick, whom I must give credit for encouraging me to go for it, as well as allowing me the financial resources to, you know, not be employed so I could actually pull this off, pushed back on my firm stance to not revise it. If I find a typo, sure, but I know there are some wording choices I might not have kept, and some things I definitely would have added, given more time to cultivate the story. But I like the freedom of leaving it as is. A sort of testament to what I accomplished in 24 hours. That said, if anyone ever podfics it, I'd like to provide them a version that at least doesn't have things like the same word used too many times too close together, etc. Maybe I should mention that in the story notes...

Twitter:
It's no wonder that Shen Wei could never say no to this face. Toot toot, idk how Zhu Yilong did it, either. I mean, seriously how? 
Fanart: Breeze Wong's animated fanarts. Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing Action Shot! A heartbreaking dream.
My Internet Wishlist has a new #1 slot: Reaction Videos.

Fanart of Luo Fusheng/Luo Fei.

Queer rep and multidimensional women in The Untamed. Coincidentally, today's Tumblr collection is The Untamed. First batch went up at 10am, second one goes up at 1pm.

Today I'm settled in a very uncomfortable chair at a coffee shop in KC waiting for the cat to be out of surgery. She's getting most of her teeth removed, poor pumpkin, but everyone assures me she'll feel so much better soon. As soon as these women to the right of me leave, I am so stealing their couch.

Feeling real good about Deconstruction right now. *knock knock* They've got about 48 more hours of story time before Shen Wei (spoiler!) pulls his head out of his ass (mostly). \o/ Since I'm not driving back to Lawrence until the cat's ready to go home, I might actually get there before the end of the day!

ETA: I'm not going to get as far as I thought--kitty is projected to be done closer to 3pm than 5pm--but I just typed the words "There was only one bed" and I'm feeling pretty darn good about that.

Twitter:
I cannot sufficiently articulate how absolutely unprepared I was for A-line shirt wearing long hair Bai Yu.
Toot toot!
Fanart: Pop-art style. Kisses! Chibi kisses! Caught kissing on the lawn! Shen Wei past and present.
King of the slow blink.

The art of acting like a spoiled child. (this is actually a brilliant cultural technique and short but educational)

More heartbreaking thoughts on Dr. Li Wenliang, who defied authorities to let people know about the coronavirus. People continuing to try to help their fellows makes me feel better about humanity.

According to the Guardian prologue, the planet where the story takes place is called Seastar (in the subtitles I remember, anyway), and I understood that term to be separate from Haixing which is (as I interpreted it) the word for the China-nation equivalent. Is this an accepted standard? McKitterick thought Haixing was the name of the planet which, once he said it, doesn't seem an unreasonable assumption. Where does fandom stand on this? It's kind of important for how I phrase things in Deconstruction.

I'm fifty years old today and posted the first part of my first multi-chapter work on AO3! Guess which I'm more excited about?

The house where most of the story takes place is a silent character in Ghost Story, but a crucial one, and it holds a special place in my heart. I lived in it for seven years, and I and everyone who lived there during my residence think it's possibly (probably) haunted. I lived in the downstairs apartment, and the most trouble it ever caused me were random puddles of water on the kitchen floor (no ceiling leaks) and frequently ~misplaced~ items would reappear days or weeks later exactly where I left them (no roommates). The three different people who rented the upstairs apartment reported similarly minor but regular issues and frequent cold spots in the hallway near the attic door. I miss the house like I would a friend.

Thank you so much to everyone here who encouraged me on the adventure of writing Ghost Story. I hope you like it as much as I do.
( Click for pics )
ETA: Three days later I have realized the folly of including the birthday information in this post. Not that I mind people knowing about my birthday, but the possibility of getting birthday greetings weeks from now when people get around to the fic is... not something I care to deal with so I'm turning off comments to this post. Manka: Sometimes Not As Clever As She Looks.

Deconstruction continues to inch along. I'm not writing at the same clip I did Ghost Story (which, 1k words/day? I didn't expect to keep that up), but when I do get words down, a few hundred at a time every day or so, they're decent words. And thank dogs, the guys are finally on the damn plane.

“You did all you could do, Shen Wei,” said Zhao Yunlan. He sounded tired. “You died to protect me and Dixing, and probably saved Ye Zun, too—at least from himself. What else could you have possibly done?”

It could take the rest of the flight for Shen Wei to list everything he could have done differently. Voicing the litany aloud wouldn’t help anything, though, so he kept his silence. Zhao Yunlan probably didn’t really want an answer to the question, anyway. He still faced forward, eyes closed, and Shen Wei watched him until his breath evened out and his shoulders relaxed. He slept for nearly two hours and Shen Wei didn’t take his eyes off him for a moment.

I'm not sure how much I'll be active online today. Things are tired. But these links are building up, so have at 'em:

Twitter:
Possibly my favorite Shen Wei expression.
Angst Sex Angst Sex (fanart)
I'd love for the person who wrote The Untamed social media AU to tackle Zhao Yunlan as a beauty vlogger.
The layers of acting in this five-second gif are incredible
I don't even know what Bai Yu part has been mashed together with Luo Fu Sheng but I've watched this about a hundred times.
The simple line-art of this is beautiful.
Bai Yu looks so beautiful in this Fairyland Lovers gif I could cry.
Y'all know to send me anything that feeds my smoking kink, right? RIGHT? 
If someone sends me a download link for this Zhu Yilong vid, I will add your name to my list of intendeds for art cards. Which I am going to work on as soon as my new airbrush arrives (ordered last week). If you are already on the list, I'll make you a little storage/gift box or tea canister. Whatever. Something. I WANT THAT VID.

Untamed-related: what if Suibian had a spirit?

Tumblr:
BL, “Okama”, and gay stereotypes in animanga.
I don't know how and I don't know when but I know I will use this as foreplay in a fic at some point.

Elsewhere:
A musical theory discussion of what makes K-pop different.

Brief but neat: I signed on for a communal writing project that was floated on Twitter and I'm frexcited about it. I'm not a group project person, but I am a great lover of community-building and I think it sounds like a great learning experiment for me. Since I'll be coming in as the cleaner (other people are responsible for idea and drafting), it'll probably be a while before I see it but that's fine. I broke past the current difficulties with Deconstruction and got nearly 1k words yesterday.

A fairly small Untamed collection today.

Twitter:
The sheer physicality of the scene where Shen Wei catches a swooning Zhao Yunlan--the strength and trust required for that--is just staggeringly erotic.

I am mortally offended that I cannot immediately purchase this calendar. If anyone knows where I can do so in a reasonable manner, please let me know.

A lovely thread on Jiang Yanli from The Untamed.

Let me be clear, I hate paparazzi photos and other pics where it's obvious someone snapped a photo of a celebrity in a private moment but I also need to tell y'all I had an Actual Meltdown when I saw this pic and video of Zhu Yilong smoking. My smoking kink is apparently strong enough to overpower the angel of my better nature because when I say Actual Meltdown, I'm not shitting you, even I was embarrassed for me. It was bad.

Neither Guardian or Untamed related, but this clip of RM (from BTS) is just... The dude is fucking talented.

Would someone (looking in bonibaru 's direction) tell me what is the significance of Xiao Zhan singing ABBA? I am obviously missing out on a delightful cultural reference here and it's killing me.

naye, I got your card yesterday and it moved my heart of stone to tears. Actual, legit tears. Thank you thank you thank you. It made me feel so good. I love fandom as a thing, and I love the fandoms I'm in, and the fact that Guardian fandom has been so welcoming and friendly to me is just... it's really great. *warm fuzzies*

Speaking of cards, I am getting a new airbrush for my birthday! It's scheduled to arrive by this weekend so perhaps I will be motivated to work on those cards I promised everyone Actual Ages Ago. The brush itself cost twice as much as the entire rig I got last year, so it had better be more reliable. At least the old one came with a good air compressor so it wasn't a complete waste.

Writing is not coming easily lately and I'm not sure why. Uncertainty about character motivation for one is definitely a problem for one (the History 3: Trapped PWP) but I don't know why Deconstruction is giving me such a hard ti.... oh, oh yeah I do. Never mind, ha ha! Typing it out made me realize--I've got everything but the last chapter and epilogue of Ghost Story back from beta so my brain really wants to stay there where the water is nice and warm and soft and easy and doesn't involve creating new stuff. Revisions, y'all. I like revising soooo much more than writing. sigh. Welp.

At least I got my sundial_exchange  fic uploaded!

*puts on headphones and big girl pants to get cracking on Actual Writing*

I don't remember who hadn't seen the preliminary costume checks for Shen Wei/Hei Pao Shi (part of the Hei Pao Shi one is in bonibaru 's Leave the Light On vid) but sakana17 made a post with the earlier suit fittings and rejected glasses. Go for the awkwardness, stay for the glory of the wardrobe department's final decisions.

Voice dubbing in Chinese media fascinates me. I think my interest is a combination of thinking how at least Western actors would ruffle at this. Someone else speaking their lines? Wouldn't that sacrifice the integrity of their art??? (idk that all actors would feel this way, but you know a lot who would) and my own issues with the way my voice sounds. Do most voice actors dub the same actor in different roles? Or does the voice change from show to show (or ads)? Who (if anyone) did their own dubbing for Guardian?

My writing habits have gone to hell after finishing Ghost Story. I intentionally took some time off writing (off anything, really), and then the holidays plus visitors plus illness threw everything off for much longer than I'd planned. My energy is returning to pre-NYE illness levels finally (although I did collapse into a 2-hour nap yesterday before going to Tessa's book launch last night so maybe I should watch what I say) and I'm ready to slip into a better schedule (that much is definitely true).

I hope to integrate some other things into my schedule, too. Like relearning Spanish, again, finally. My Spanish used to be actually pretty good, it's just a matter of pulling all that back to usable memory. I want to get back to the gym, too, but that's not happening for a couple more weeks. At least I had the strength to do some mobility work a few times since I got back home, and that felt good.

Y'all will be happy to hear that I moved the first of Shen Wei's breakdowns in Deconstruction of Hei Pao Shi to waaaay earlier in the story and now it happens in chapter three instead of, like, chapter five or six. Whew! This is my first hurt/comfort fic to write and it's interesting to see how different (for this fic, anyway) the pacing demands are for it versus pining (because they're both happening at the same time--Shen Wei's going through A Lot in this fic you guys).

Lastly, that social media AU twitfic I posted about a while ago is complete (556 entries) and it was amazing. I could go on for paragraphs about how much I love everything about the style of storytelling, but I'm sure it's nothing that hasn't been said before. I'll just leave it at  God Damn I Love Fandom and leave it at that. If you haven't started the story, let me warn for some people (Xiao Xingchen) making bad decisions about sex. It works in the story, but I wasn't expecting it amidst all the fluff so if you need a warning for that sort of thing, there you go. I LOVED THIS STORY and how much it couldn't have been told with the same efficacy in plain text. The author is planning to make a YouTuber AU next, they have other, similar AUs already written and yes, I am now a fan.