A Fan's Playground

Roundup post of my recs for the month of December! Yuletide happened this month so there's a wide variety :D I'm not done going through the yuletide archive yet, too many other things to do in my life, so my January post will inevitably have some yuletide recs too.

3 SVSSS fic recs

defenders of the peak, by tshirt

➤ svsss post-canon bingqiu fic

➤ lbh realises that sqq needs more enrichment in his life. he needs to be able to go back to qing jing

➤ therefore lbh needs to make it possible for lbh to be allowed back at cang qiong again!

➤ he goes about this in the most luo binghe way possible

➤ as always, tshirt's sense of comic timing in this fic is PERFECT omg

➤ I love it

➤ 1k words in length


A Drop in the Drying Sea, by tuesday

➤ svsss moshang fic about the journey of developing trust that Mobei-Jun goes on

➤ I love mbj's pov in this, the way he thinks about sqh and what his priorities are!

➤ cute!!!!

➤ 3k words in length


Fight or Flight, by acernor

➤ an svsss liushen au where lqg is an injured gyrfalcon yao who sqq wants to help

➤ it's both so sweet and so fun! lqg's pov with his total mistrust of the human cultivator, slowly evolving over time to becoming willing to let sqq help, is great

➤ and how clear it is that sqq finds lqg both fascinating as a creature of the world of pidw, and very handsome as a man

➤ the parts with the wing repair were soooo good to me, I love how seriously this fic takes the bird and feather details!

➤ a delightful fic from start to finish

➤ 12k words in length

2 TGCF fic recs

Money, Time, Patience, Love, by eggfish

➤ TGCF fic about the era after xianle falls to yong'an, when Jian Lan finds work in a brothel

➤ Jian Lan's perspective on her developing relationship with Feng Xin

➤ I love the sharpness, the awkwardness, the quiet ground-down miseries - and yet the grasping onto what hope and beauty and love that can be found in the midst of it all

➤ Jian Lan and Feng Xin are doing their best! I'm emotions

➤ and I love the gentle femdom that Jian Lan leans into when Feng Xin's women issues make it challenging for them to have sex <3

➤ 5k words in length


What Springs from Warmth and Feeding, by breathlessadoration

➤ tgcf hualian post-canon fic

➤ god this is cute, they're so CUTE!!!

➤ hua cheng and xie lian happy and comfortable together, having fun teasing and playing a drinking game

➤ the vibes are sooooo good I'm so charmed!

➤ 2k words in length

2 MDZS fic recs

you get what you give, by verity

➤ an mdzs wangxian modern au set during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, with flashbacks to 2003

➤ this fic is everything to me. it's just. so beautiful & good? grounded and present to its settings, seeing its characters with open-eyed affection, funny and heartbreakingly painful-hopeful and so, so gentle

➤ I love how the fic is about many relationships at once - wwx & the wens, wwx & jiang cheng, wwx & whatever he had going on with nhs back in the day, and of course, of course, wangxian. and all of these are vital relationships in wwx's life; all of them make him who he is

➤ a "straight boy wei ying" type fic; I love how compassionately wwx is viewed as he goes through his years-long process of realisation. the fic is never mean-spirited about wwx's lack of self-knowledge. he had a lot going on & was doing his best!

➤ I've read this fic at least 3 times and it hits just right every time

➤ 25k words


for nought / except for love's sake only, by verity

➤ modern au f/f mdzs wangxian fic

➤ lwj and wwx are academic colleagues; lwj comes to wwx for help dealing with a minor curse

➤ I love the glimpses into their broader world, the way cultivation is a part of modern life, the dynamics lwj has with her family, etc

➤ the way lwj being a poet affects the prose of the piece, and her point of view!

➤ and the dynamics between lwj and wwx are soooo good <3

➤ 1.7k words in length

2 Hamlet fic recs

Improving Fortinbras, by a_t_rain

➤ post-canon fanfic of shakespeare's Hamlet

➤ from Horatio's pov as he considers how best to mould the new young king Fortinbras in useful directions

➤ I love the evolution of Horatio's thoughts over the course of the fic, and the brief glimpses we get of Fortinbras

➤ love the integration of various minor characters and OC's, to good effect!

➤ 9k words in length


As a stranger give him welcome, by morethanfantasy

➜ yuletide fic - for Hamlet

➜ taking an interpretation that Horatio and Hamlet barely knew each other before the start of the play, and running with it from Horatio's pov

➜ I love the way this interpretation shapes the story!

➜ And Horatio's pov is so good. the way he feels helplessly drawn into the mess by Hamlet's charisma, never sure what he can do or what he should do, but unable to make himself step back and leave Hamlet alone

➜ because Hamlet IS so charismatic, and so visibly struggling at the same time! and there's so much depth there that Horatio simply cannot have the context to understand, but he wants to, he wants to be there for Hamlet

➜ but in the end, of course, all he can do is tell everyone what happened.

➜ I'm so emotions!!!!

➜ 9k words

1 fic rec each for:
Nirvana in Fire
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water (Zen Cho)
Barrett's Privateers (Stan Rogers)
Mairelon the Magician (Patricia C Wrede)
Lord Peter Wimsey series (Dorothy L Sayers)
Fandom for Robots (Vina Jie-Min Prasad)
A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Jeeves & Wooster (PG Wodehouse)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke)

the hero saves the beauty, by Nemainofthewater

➜ pre-canon Nirvana in Fire fanfic

➜ outside pov about Lin Chen being his bestworst self at unsuspecting people

➜ it's so funny. I love Lin Chen.

➜ 2k words in length


Beneath These Sparks and Stars, by Shadaras

➜ yuletide fic - for The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water

➜ post-canon, Lau Fung Cheung runs into Tet Sang and Guet Imm at a festival

➜ lovely voice and povs! I really enjoyed this glimpse into their lives after what happens in canon

➜ 1k words in length


"God Damned Them All"? Documenting the Loss of the Privateer Antelope, by machiavellijr

➜ yuletide fic - for the song Barrett's Privateers

➜ omg it's an outside pov of the events of the song, told through the medium of correspondence and other written records in relation to the ship the Antelope. and it's SO GOOD

➜ I love the way all these letters build up such a picture of what happened! and there are so many fun details

➜ 2k words in length


hear the wrong and see the right, by etben

➜ yuletide fic - for Mairelon the Magician

➜ set mid-canon, a conversation between Mairelon and his mother about the realities of Kim being out in society and the male attention she'll attract

➜ Mairelon's oblivious focus on Kim's magical education and inability to follow where his mother is going with this line of questioning is so fun and so him

➜ what a cute and fun fic!

➜ 1k words in length


If our two loves be one, by phoenixflight

➜ yuletide fic - for the Lord Peter Wimsey books

➜ Harriet's POV on v-shaped polyamory negotiations, Harriet/Peter and Peter/Bunter

➜ the voice is so well done, of Harriet's whole pov but also every line of Peter's dialogue is dripping with the exact right kind of piffle he likes to talk, with all the casual references and so forth

➜ and the way they work out the relationship dynamics between the three of them, what is and isn't said, and what each of them is looking for, feels so right too!

➜ 10k words in length


Processing Time, by Toft

➜ yuletide fic - for Fandom For Robots

➜ Computron and bjornruffian work on their next collab, and Computron revisits memories of his creator

➜ and hello I had SO many sad robot feels and robot friendship feels! shrieking with delight

➜ 2k words in length


The First Morning, by genarti

➜ yuletide fic, for A Little Princess

➜ Becky's pov on the day after all the climactic reveals, when she gets to leave Miss Minchin's and go join Sara next door

➜ this does such a good job of capturing the tone of the book, the magic and wonder and the depths of emotions, and the kind of relationship Sara and Becky have

➜ these two young edwardian-era girls doing their best to navigate what they can be to each other within the bounds of societal understandings of power differentials, and their own internalized senses of such things.....I'm so emotions!!

➜ 3k words in length


Jeeves and the Birdcatcher's Costume, by WyvernQuill

➜ yuletide fic, for Jeeves & Wooster

➜ in which Jeeves and Wooster separately attend a masquerade ball, each in costume

➜ hidden identity shenanigans are such fun and this one is great!

➜ I love how much Wooster loves getting to interact with Jeeves without Jeeves's feudal spirit getting in the way

➜ and the vision of Jeeves at a party flirting with a flighty young master of unknown identity.....so good

➜ 11k words in length


Katharina Stellans, by yvain

➜ a yuletide fic, for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

➜ About the tudor-era magician Martin Pale and his relationship with his tutor, Catherine of Winchester, from the golden age of magic

➜ gosh wow I am just -- so blown away by this?! it feels like it fits so perfectly into the interstices of canon. The undeniable weight of reality that the whole piece has, even as it is shot through with shards of the numinous....the characters all being people who are difficult, and real, and not altogether pleasant, but you love them for how real they are.

➜ Pale and Catherine are so different from each other, yet so connected, and though we get to hear much of Pale's life, Catherine remains as mysterious to us as she is to Pale. And yet we know her from who she is.

➜ idk, idk, I'm not sure how to explain this better! I just....really recommend reading this fic. it is so satisfying.

➜ 16k words

one

oh my gosh?! I just learned this week that great blue herons, though they mostly eat fish, will also eat "amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles, mammals, and birds"

here's links to a sequence of three photos of a blue heron eating a least bittern. it's WILD. (content note for these photos for animal death!)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4461543032/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4460766121/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48752517@N08/4460766487/

You can also find photos of great blue herons eating crocodiles if you search online for it!

anyway this is why I need to do more reading about very common birds, because there's just so MUCH to know that I won't necessarily pick up from watching the ones I see around me!!


two

finally took the time to figure out how to use my manual guillotine for trimming text blocks for bookbinding; I got it secondhand and it came without a manual.

and it turns out to be remarkably straightforward!

LOVE it.

more bookbinding projects to come!


three

a very important way of conceptualising relationship frameworks for your blorbos: mommy baby tyrant serf

anyway Mei Changsu is determined to be a mommy tyrant but you put him with Lin Chen who can outdo the mommy tyrant in anyone, and Lin Chen wins. mcs does not get to mommy tyrant back at him. and this is why lin chen/mcs is such a fun and funny ship!


four

it's so cool to be able to learn things over time! you start knowing nothing and if you just keep putting effort and energy into the thing then you grow in skills and knowledge! and there's always more to learn, but it doesn't have to be in an intimidating way, it's just like.... the world is out there offering. and you get to explore! you'll never not have the opportunity to experience the joy of seeing yourself grow!

(yes this thought is about birds. but it's also about anything you want it to be about!)

Once again time for my monthly recs round-up! This month you will find:

9 mdzs/cql recs
2 nirvana in fire recs
5 svsss recs
1 tortall rec
1 word of honor rec
6 poetry/short story/novelette recs
1 youtube video essay rec
1 zine rec

MDZS/CQL

MDZS/CQL


Rule the World, by remellow

- cql fanvid about wei wuxian as the yiling laozu, set to the Lorde song Everybody Wants to Rule the World

- incredible ominous vibes threaded through with the pain of everything that happens

- beautifully edited! I was hooked from the start

- 2:33 in length

- thanks to lookitmychicken for the rec!


Tucked inside the heart of every nice girl, by phnelt

- I've read this fic before but today I had call to reread it and it's still SO good

- t4t jzx/jyl!!!! always into this, in every permutation

- cql/mdzs modern au jin zixuan is a trans woman finding her gender euphoria in the midst of the work of being a woman under patriarchy, and jiang yanli, in watching her, realises just how much every aspect of being a woman has been a burden and not a joy for herself

- the relationship jyl has with gender here is so good and makes so much sense for the character!

- I love how careful jyl is to not ever stifle jzx's baby trans joy, even as jyl is struggling

- 4k words in length


Borne, by Cordial

- cql fic

- after wen qing's execution, she ends up sharing jiang cheng's body!

- they're both dealing with so MUCH at this point in the narrative, and they're so careful with each other now that they are tied together like this, and it's so gorgeous

- 3k words in length


All I Really Want, by trelkez

- a cql vid about Wei Wuxian & Wen Qing

- ahhhhhh I have SO MANY feels about them and this vid GETS them

- ouchy in the best way

- audio is solely the music

- no subtitles

- 4:41 in length

- thanks to lesbianwangyibo for the rec!


Reunion Dinner | 团圆饭, by vivisextion

- mdzs/cql, post-canon, jiang cheng realises jin ling has never tasted his mother's soup

- cue the epic quest to learn how to recreate it, and the things he learns along the way

- lovely fic about family and about food

- 4k words in length

- thanks to stultiloquentia for the rec!


The Other Mountain, by nirejseki

- omggg I tore through this fic SO fast and had SO much fun with it

- mdzs lan qiren/wen ruohan arranged marriage!

- I'm always here for fic that's like "okay this ship might sound ridiculous but WHAT IF --" and then comes up with genius ways to make it plausible

- there's fun character interactions and fascinating plot and it does interesting things exploring the situation between Qingheng-Jun and his wife, and I love how much lan qiren loves rules and has carefully considered what they mean wrt right behaviour

- I love this vision of lqr so much, and I love how FUNNY the interactions between lqr and wrh are, and how well these interpretations of the characters work with each other and play off each other in mutually beneficial ways!

- the fic started off a little slow but once I was into it I was INTO IT and read every word with relish

- completely delightful. do recommend.

- 287,000 words in length


Spilled Pearls, by nirejseki

- another mdzs lan qiren/wen ruohan canon divergence au! and also wen ruohan/nie dad at the same time

- this one follows lqr from when he's a young teen and it's very fun to see his changing perspectives on wrh over time

- I enjoyed it a great deal, and also it's fun to see what is and isn't the same between this fic and the others by the same author featuring these characters and ships

- and I just want MORE!

- 89k words in length


Tricks of the Trade, by nirejseki

- a reread, just as fun the second time as the first

- mdzs, jin guangyao/lan qiren!

- jgy coming up with schemes to get hugs from lqr and accidentally developing a relationship of mutual respect and care which changes the trajectory of jgy's life goals

- it's so delightful

- getting bits of lqr's perspectives on the whole course of events at the end, in the form of excerpts from his diary, is incredible for recontextualising what was happening from his pov

- 31k words in length


of all the gin joints in all the world, by bloodletter

- cql, jiang cheng/nie huaisang

- a post-canon fic, running into each other at an inn and Not Talking About Things

- a wonderful little interlude of finding space to have a bit of something fun

- because sometimes the opportunity to not talk about things, and not even think about things, is what you want the most!

- even though everything that happened IS still there. but you're with someone else who knows and understands and has seen you since before anything went bad.

- it's great

- 1k words in length

NIRVANA IN FIRE

NIRVANA IN FIRE

Never knew a part of you / you didn't set in ink, by BromeliadDreams

- Nirvana in Fire fic about Cai Quan/Shen Zhui!!!!!! god I love these nerds

- Reading fic about their comfortable relationship with each other as they argue and work and engage in endless bureaucracy just filled me with enormous fondness for them both

- they should be a thriving ship in the fandom and it's a tragedy there's not more fic about them, but this one is GREAT.

- 3k words in length


our hands our hearts are empty, by egelantier

- NiF canon divergence fic where Jingyan is called back to the capital to an arranged marriage with a young maiden named Mei Changsu

- I love seeing what is and what is not different in the plans and in how the two of them relate to each other, in this changed context!

- some great cameos from other characters too

- what a fun and satisfying read!

- 10k words in length

SVSSS

SVSSS


Ignorance Leads to Bliss, by Tainaron

- An svsss qijiu canon divergence fic, about things that might have happened while lbh was still a very young disciple to change the course of events

- I love how small the things are that cause these changes, and that it's a small unthinking kindness from yqy to his own disciples that in a winding way leads to his own happiness

- as the author says, these two are freak4freak and I love it

- the desperation both of them feel about each other while being unable to talk about any of it!

- 11k words in length


petal and vine, by aibari

- an SVSSS bingqiu fanfic wherein sqq wakes up in his plant body with amnesia and makes a home in the small village nearby, blessing its crops

- lbh eventually comes through looking for his shizun, and sqq helps him

- trying to find the right words to describe the tone or flavour of a piece of writing can be so hard but imo that's one of the things this fic does best! it's got this like....distanced, fairy-tale, dreamy vibe that really drives home how disconnected sqq is from his life and his emotions here and it's so great

- (happy ending, of course!)

- 5k words in length


raised by winter winds, by nyoomerr

- this is a fic that really understands the fundamental problem with original sqq, which is that the child abuse is real but so is the tragic backstory. he contains multitudes! one feels complex and conflicting things about him!

- ok so the fic is a canon divergence fic where shen yuan is transmigrated in early as a disciple of og!sqq, and it's a bingqiu fic but also a fic about the master-disciple relationship between sy and sqq, and also about sy's relationship with his role as head disciple on the peak

- and it's so good at all of that! I love what it does, I love all the sides of sy you get to see and all the things he cares about and puts his energies into (... and what he doesn't), it's all so perfectly him

- and aughghhhhhh I have SO MANY FEELS

- I am very emotion. I highly recommend.

- 36k words in length


Toxic, by Prim_the_Amazing

- Ming Fan/OMC, where the OC is another disciple on Qing Jing Peak

- it's truly impressively horrible, the pov of this awful bully who manipulates Ming Fan into misery and encourages Ming Fan in all of his own worst bullying tendencies

- it's so well and believably done, and so compelling!

- mind the tags on this one, it means what it says. I enjoyed the fic a lot but it's not a kind fic!

- 13k words in length


Lost and Found in Limitless Clarity, by TGP

- bingqiu postcanon fic

- lbh is miserable because sqq has died again, permanently, and lbh blames himself

- this weird recluse Shang Yuan is a compelling mystery for lbh to investigate though......

- the fic is deliciously full of angst and misunderstandings and attempts to learn from the past

- 75k words in length

TORTALL

TORTALL


A Personal Challenge, by bobbiewickham

- fic for the Tortall books, in epistolary form

- Alanna was forbidden from challenging Wyldon to a duel because she was king's Champion, but obviously as soon as she's not anymore, she goes for it

- various people react

- it's perfect. it's delightful. it's everything.

- 2k words in length

WORD OF HONOR

WORD OF HONOR


A Little Bit Ghost Valley, by alpheratz_vids

- a Word of Honor vid focusing on Wen Kexing. I have never seen any of the show and do not know who any of these people are and it's still so fun!

- stylish and snappily edited and confident

- audio is solely the music

- subtitles available

- 2:04 in length

- thanks to lesbianwangyibo for the rec!

ORIGINAL POETRY/SHORT STORY/NOVELETTE

ORIGINAL POETRY/SHORT STORY/NOVELETTE


Merciful Even to Scorpions, by Kay Chronister

- in a village where people possessed by demons are turned into javelinas, cared for by a pig-boy for the rest of their lives, what happens when the new pig-boy has a little too much empathy for his charges?

- excellent use of fantasy alternate world to engage with questions of the failures of the justice system and the penal system, and the ways people become complicit with the system

- really well done pov character

- 5k words in length


Also, the Cat, by Rachel Swirsky

- an original story about ghosts and toxic family dynamics and feeling trapped

- the three sisters who are the main characters are all difficult people in their own way, and all fully-realized characters I truly believe in

- I loved that it's a story where the moral isn't "family should always stick together." family can be wonderful but it can also be awful, and sometimes you're better off apart

- 14k words in length


The Naming of Knots, by M.A. Carrick

- an original story that I believe to be set in the same world as Carrick's Rook & Rose trilogy, which I haven't read yet but which is on my tbr list

- having read this story and enjoyed it definitely increases my interest in that trilogy!

- this one's about a thief who gets talked into helping a legend steal information to get back at people who misuse their positions of power

- the importance of public infrastructure! the usefulness of recordkeeping! the will to carry out audacious crime!

- fun and interesting and I want to know more about this world

- 9k words in length


I'll Be Your Mirror, by Rebecca Schneider

- an original story about AI personhood, and about the bond between one AI who is different from the others, and their bond with a human who is different from other humans

- it's also about the difficulties of caregiving during a pandemic, and the toll it takes

- a beautiful, quiet, tender story about finding where you belong, no matter what others think

- and ultimately, in my read, about a neurodivergent robot and a queerplatonic relationship, which like. AS ALWAYS, TAKE ME TO THERE. I'm here for it.

- 6k words in length


Then Came the Ghost of My Dead Mother, Antikleia, by Nadia Radovich

- about grief and loss; losing a parent young, and losing access to that parent's culture and language; and about holding on to what things you can

- the story isn't specific about exactly what happened in the disaster when the main character was a young child but the hints are enough to be pretty dark

- beautiful, longing, sharp and bittersweet

- second person pov

-1k words in length


My Last Duke, by Jess Nevins

- narrative poetry from the pov of a dead woman to her terrible husband's new wife

- really fun and compelling to read on in a vacuum, but also it is clearly written in response to Browning's famous poem "My Last Duchess" and is from the pov of the dead woman that poem is about!

- also seems to be an alternate history narrative? again you don't need to know this to appreciate the poem but after reading it I had to look up the characters involved. POV character is Lucrezia de' Medici, her terrible husband is Alfonso II d'Este, but as far as I can tell the new wife is someone who in irl history died in infancy: Isabella, daughter of Charles III of Savoy.

- and now I really want to know more about the history of the time period and the ways that this would have affected things and why the author made these choices for the story of the poem!

- anyway. I like the poem. it's good.

- 1k words in length

YOUTUBE VIDEO ESSAY

YOUTUBE VIDEO ESSAY


Ranking Every 2023 Historical Drama on Costume Accuracy, by Bernadette Banner

- bernadette banner on youtube has been in the habit for a few years of putting out a video rating the historical accuracy of costumes from tv/movies of the previous year, and each year the video gets longer and includes more guest experts for other cultures she's not as intimately familiar with, and this year's video for 2023 was SO much fun!

- I loved hearing about all these different time periods in different parts of the world from people who know what they're talking about, and seeing how very wrong (or right!) various media gets the details

- no subtitles

- video is 2 hr 20 min long

ZINE

ZINE


Fucking Trans Women, by Mira Bellwether

- I have never read a piece quite like this before and it's incredible

- the structure, the way she arranges the order in which she leads you through her thoughts!

- the many informative details, and the encouragement, and the desire for a conversation!

- and I love the way she talks about bodies, and celebrating the things about bodies that are soft and that require a delicate touch

- 80 pages long; word count hard to calculate

And now I'm saving my live reaction of watching Nirvana in Fire in early 2022! this came from a group chat and I had to do some real digging to unearth it, but it was so fun to reread through the whole thing while copying it over for saving. It's just such a good show!!!!!!!


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