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.

I would do the Shakespeare bucket list except I haven't watched a lot of Shakespeare? Bit embarrassing, that.

Currently watching Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung, and enjoying the female characters so much. The historians are terrible people but also quite enjoyable.

Still on HIStory 3 - Trapped, so much. Writing fic, though not as productive as I would like. I'm so terrible at plotting.

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Borne on the Winds of Heaven, Nirvana in Fire, alternate-ending, by Ione

For HIStory 3 - Trapped fics

and, heavens, when you looked at me, Jack/Zhao Zi, by agentlithium

Black Hands, Clean Slate | 黑手漂白, WIP, Jack/Zhao Zi, Tang Yi/Meng Shao Fei, other pairings, by pumpkinpaix (scribogenesis)

In Chinese: 逃脫術, Tang Yi/Meng Shao Fei, explicit sex, by kafkacafe

And now Nirvana in Fire fics:

Handfast, Mei Changsu/Mu Nihuang, Nirvana in Fire, by emilyenrose

after winter must come spring, Nirvana in Fire, Jingyan/Miss Liu, Lin Shu, by hanzhuyulu (RuanChunXian)

Happy new year, everyone. Good health and good tiddings to all.

It's been a strange 2016, with somewhat unbelieveable developments in politics and with rather more celebrity deaths than expected. We'll need all our strength for 2017, since the trend will probably continue.

The first newspaper article I read in the new year described December, not April, as the cruellest month, but frighteningly and bewilderingly alluded to Chaucer, which was... new. (Well, it is the new year.)

Also, schadenfreude all the way.

(Also, who does that? Doesn't it take about 2 seconds to google-check? WTF.)

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For Yuletide, I wrote Roosting Winds, Nirvana in Fire, for Naphyla. It's mostly hints and a couple of scene settings, because I couldn't really find a way of writing about a Jingyan-Mei Changsu reunion without it being OCC-ly gushy and melodramatic.

I did read quite a few Vorkosigan fics:

The Huntsman's Reel, Alys Vorpatil, Simon Illyan, by Philomytha

Odd Men Out, Mark, Dono by keerawa

Peace and Quiet, Ivan, Gregor, by alessandriana

Troublesome to Others, but a Torment to Themselves, Mark, Miles, Kareen by ozymandias314

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Also my brain has been consumed by k-dramas these past two weeks. Whoa.

Randomly:

1) I got my Yuletide assignment! It's oddly specific, which is a bit worrying as my first instinct is a "don't wanna" - right now it feels a lot like writing to spec. But will think on it.

2) I had a belated epiphany in which I realised that 'Pillar of Tennis' (as in Prince of Tennis) is a reference to the Chinese concept of 挑大梁 (tiǎo dà liáng, i.e. to play a leading role, or to bear a heavy responsibility) which probably transformed into the equivalent/similar Japanese cultural concept (挑 means to carry; 大梁 means the big/main pillar). And which is again hilarious because PoT is exactly like theatre, so when Tezuka exhorted Echizen to become the pillar of Seigaku, he's also hoping that Echizen becomes the main performer. Exactly right, then.

3) Discovered some deleted scenes of Nirvana in Fire: part 1 and part 2

4) And always, a reminder why I like Yujin so much: where Lord Marquis Yan agrees to help Mei Changsu

5) Apparently my Patronus is a Marsh Harrier.

superborb mentioned that there were Nirvana in Fire fics, and I went looking for them. It's a tiny tiny section of AO3, though I don't doubt there must be thousands of Chinese fics at Chinese websites. But at AO3:

[at the end| I still lose you] Mei Changsu/Xiao Jingyan, Langyabang, by incoherenttruth

the very first words of a lifelong love letter, Lin Shu/Xiao Jingyan, AU, WIP, by Alaceron, which is very adorable, with a plot that I'm on the verge of outgrowing: ( Read more... ) but still, pretty entertaining. WIP, though.

Am reminded of that link from yifu: why fangirling is better in your 30s, because by then you have seen trends come and go.

Thoughts:

Nirvana in Fire, episode 43, when Consort Jing diagnoses Mei Changsu... the look on his face when he realises that in front of her, he's not the powerful leader of Jiangzuo or the enigmatic strategist that everyone is in awe of, but a junior, a child to be protected. He's her nephew Xiao Shu, once again the golden boy who is favoured and beloved by everyone. Even Consort Jing offers to do everything on his behalf, though MCS doesn't agree. He has everything planned and he wants to see the thing through himself. And he wheedles her into agreeing with him, "Aunt Jing, you'll agree to what I say, right?" In that instant, he is both Mei Changsu the strategist who has been plotting for ages and he's Xiao Shu who in his usual headstrong fashion, wants adults to indulge him. So many echoes of the past and present. Excellent scene.

Empty Graves, Martha, Superman, by Unpretty

Permit A38, support staff of SHIELD, Avengers, by old_chatterhand

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colorblue found Nirvana in Fire and I gushed about it at her post here. So much fun. I remember in one of the earlier episodes, one of the characters (Mengzhi) said to Mei Changsu, "You must have been through a lot (of suffering) to the extent that it changed the way you look now, to this." He meant it in a regretful way, and my id response was: "Wha.... he looks like Hu Ge now. There is no bad!"

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Blind_Go id received for latest round. Now to write Hikago fic...

On the RL front, general fucked-up-ness in being retrenched last month, a time which is generally an awfuler time to be jobless than most other times (not that it's ever good), as organisations don't tend to hire in November/December and many of one's obligations - especially those that require money - are called in. Not best pleased with ex-boss.

Upsides, such as they are: Time to: write; recover from this stupid cold; stash-busting by starting a sweater; visiting newly opened art gallery in town. Just finished a temping stint for a non-profit, stuffing envelopes. Job-hunting too, though I don't expect much in the way of results - but best to get into the habit.

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Nonetheless, occasionally (and comfortingly) one does find instances that the universe is not as fucked-up as one assumed: Oscar Pistorius guilty of murdering Reeva Steenkamp

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Finished reading 瑯琊榜 Nirvana in Fire, novel version. It hews very closely to the TV series, so it was like watching the series again. Discovered today to my amusement that an old friend has watched it three times, before I could pimp it. Heheh. For amusement's sake: Nirvana in Fire now re-cast as the Count of Monte Cristo.

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The Judgement of Bucky Barnes, Avengers, Captain America, by copperbadge

Third Wheel Spinning, omega-verse, Tony, Avengers, by harcourt, thus proving that fanficrants sometimes provide good recs.

The Pretender and the Prince, AU, Tony/Bucky, Avengers, Captain America, by copperbadge

Reading the 《琅琊榜》 novel on kindle, which is great, by the way - also for the fact that on my kindle, I can look up any word I don't know. Because my command of Chinese, especially for classical phrases, is charitably described as juvenile. Chinese is hard. :-p

( spoilers for novel? )