Sugardy Candy

Dear Yuletide Author

Thank you for writing a fic for me! My main fandom these past year has been MDZS | Untamed, but it's such a massive fandom that it doesn't qualify for Yuletide anymore, which also reminds me to show some love to the other fandoms I've been putting to one side. I should add that these are only suggestions, so if you have a better idea, feel free to write as the muse takes you. These are just my ramblings. So... here goes:

1) Tokyo Crazy Paradise

In one sense, it's pretty scary to think that TCP was supposedly set in 2020 (this very year) and it was supposed to be a more brutal but technologically advanced world. Now we're here and... hm, some escapism in TCP's projected future isn't bad. My favourite couple, Tsukasa and Ryuji have now gotten together and it would be cool to see how are they managing their lives as adults. I would love to see a future where they're still grappling with Tsukasa's essential set-up as a cop/cop-wannabe and Ryuji's duties as Sandaime, despite their devotion to each other. If they have children, please do not have either parent come across as ultra-cutesy (it was cool only when Kamo-san did it), but where they wryly acknowledge "you cop, me gang leader, let's do this as a team".

If there is some (more) tension where Tsukasa acknowledges her own gender confusion (either as something in the past or ongoing), that would really be great, but it is not necessary.

2) History 3: Make Our Days Count

I have only one requirement for this: it must be an AU, where that horrid event which shall remain unsaid did not happen. I want a future where they're both grad students and TAs, or both are tenured professors. Especially a fic where their respective students are rivals (maybe Xiang Hao Ting and Yu Xi Gu each specialised in a different discipline) and each group has a tiny bit of crush on them, but because rumour on campus is that they're attached and (horrors! even married) and their fans adore them too much to be disrespectful in any way. It's all very soft and sweet and fantasy-like, just the right balm for the cruelty that was canon.

3) History 3: Trapped

Much as I love the male characters in this series, one character that has always intrigued me is Zuo Hongye. She's passionate yet really rational at the same time, and she's surrounded (from her perspective) by idiot men. How did she feel when she realised that she was in love with Gu Daoyi (and also the age gap between them)? Not to mention when she realised that her adopted brother Tang Yi is interested in Meng Shao Fei, a cop? And she still has to run a company while massaging a lot of men's egos, when really, she could do so much more if all these men just did stopped deluding themselves (referring to you, Gu Daoyi) or harbouring secret revenge plots (you, Tang Yi). I would love an introspective piece, or a casefic where either Gu Daoyi or Tang Yi (or Meng Shao Fei) try to 'protect' her while some gang-related matter comes down, when Zuo Hongye could have solved the problem with her business acumen in a fraction of the time.

4. Nirvana in Fire

I've always wondered what happened to the Yans, as they don't seem to appear in Nirvana 2. So, I'm looking for fic that sheds a bit of light on what happened with Yan Yujin, after the battle where they accompanied Mei Changsu on his swansong. It would be also interesting to explore, along the way, if he (and Xiao Jingrui) ever found out if MCS was Lin Shu, or they continued to know him only as MCS all along. Preferably also a fic that shows how clever YYJ really is, as well as show his upright moral character: perhaps he came to assist MCS on some jianghu matter, or to solve a trading dispute that involved Da Liang in some way.

Bonus is if Marquis Yan came along for the ride. They had a rocky start as father and son, but in NiF they became such a strong team, and it would be great to see that relationship again.

DNWs: Violence solely for the sake of violence, especially scenes of violence against women.

Hope everything had a nice break!


I'm so gleeful to get a Trapped fic, you don't even know. Much thanks to whomever wrote this for me, because it's what I've always wanted! Thank you again!

Double Date, Meng Shaofei/Tang Yi, Jack/Zhao Zi, HIStory3 - Trapped

And I'm so moved that someone wrote this Are You Human Too? fic for me! Thank you so much!

Lets Be Boring, Nam Shin III/Kang So-bong


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Other recs

The Untamed | MDZS

A Bell That Tells Us to Rise and Fight, AU, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing, Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan, WIP, by DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee

Dimples, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, by bodhan

My job is primarily as an explainer of things.

Eg (1):
Me: Your mortgage will be paid off when you sell the property.
Client: Why can't I pay off my mortage a few months after I sell the property?
Also me: *struggles to define "mortgage" in an easy-to-understand way*

Eg (2):
Me: You're supposed to repay your loan with the money you get from the sale.
Client: But I hate handling large sums of money. Why can't you do it?
Me: Because.

Eg (3):
Client: Yes, my wife and I are buying the house. Does she need to come and sign the documents?
Me: *What do you think?* Yes.

So, work has been fun. Add some RL stuff and it's been time-consuming thing after time-consuming thing. Which is another way of saying ficcing is taking more time than I planned. Which pisses me off, because I have all these things in my head to write, and when I come to write them I'm already out of energy, gah.

Part of that could be the new obssession with The Untamed, ahahah, which comes in novel, animated and live action versions, so you're spoilt for choice. Well, it's a good problem to have.

Lan Zhan|Lan Wangji/Wei Ying|Wei Wuxian (I gotta say, I'm loving this birth name & courtesy name thing, it's so layered) fics:

It's Only Time, by etymologyplayground

Grand Pianos Crash Together, also by etymologyplayground

The Heart of a Lan, by cerbykerby

The (Several) Convenient Kidnappings of the Chief Cultivator by the Yiling Patriarch, crack, by misscam

And not forgetting the still unforgettable Trapped:

Every Spark a Conflagration, Jack/Zhao Zi, by skuldchan

Also, is anyone writing Trapped for Yuletide? Because I went to nominate it.

捕快捕心, Meng Shao Fei/Tang Yi, ancient China AU, History 3 - Trapped, by Rico. In Chinese.

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I think I went a little overboard on watching History 3 vids on Youtube, haha, because my entire Youtube history is now History 3 vids. Oh, well. I think of it as a meditative experience, especially while I'm thinking through my fic.

I do wish that there were more Trapped fics on AO3. I haven't tried looking at other websites; AO3 is pretty much where I spend most of my time these days. A good many of the current Trapped fics are RPS, which I don't really go for, so I'm stuck re-reading the ones I do like. Others that I've read (which ended up being a lot in Chinese) are sex-intensive (which is not unwelcome!) but I feel a bit perplexed by those that tend to characterise Meng Shao Fei as the... how do I say, the awkward sub. And Tang Yi the top, who pretty much dominates all of the interactions in their sex scenes.

Which is not quite the way I see MSF? And TY? I love how they are in the drama, how the tension between them waxes and wanes, how the role of aggressor (so as to speak) shifts through the scenes. E.g. the scene in the lift, where SF is the one who first backs TY into a corner, teasing him about his ears turning red, and then TY crosses his arms, and soon TY is pushing back, and it's his turn to back SF into a corner, and dip him, AND grab his handcuffs. I love the push-pull dynamics of their interactions; it's a deft way of showing that they're each dominant and passive at different points. It is SF who takes the first step and it is SF who baldly declares that he likes TY, and TY's the one for him, and that's that. And then he just moves in with TY, no further discussion needed. When I think of that, I feel like all the marriage proposal scenes (I wrote one too!) in fics are just struggling to keep up with canon.

I mean, SF and TY are already at the 'we're together forever' stage whereas we poor fic writers are still struggling to have TY ask SF if he'd marry him. Or vice versa. *rolls eyes* It's like they're bam! we want to be together, so we're together. Did we need flowers and rings?

Each of them have aspects that are codedly more masculine. TY displays aggression: he's a gang boss! He beats up baddies! SF is definitely protective: he shields Hong Ye and TY from gunmen! He fights off baddies! And both have sides that seem, erm (forgive me) more associated with female traits. Who got bashful when it came to sex? Who cried when someone celebrated his birthday? *shrugs* It just feels right to me to not have one person to be designated so obviously as the sole aggressor in the relationship.

Which is a very long way of saying I wish there were more fics that portrayed these parts of them.

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Also started watching 陈情令 aka The Untamed, the live-action version of 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù. Just the first three episodes, though I've read bit of the novel here and there. So much eye candy. I love the character of Wei Wuxian.