encompass worlds

Dear Yuletide Writer:

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 21:52:49 GMT

I'm elwinfortuna.

I'm so excited that you'll be creating something for me; I can't wait to see what you come up with! Thank you so much, I hope you have fun with my prompts and likes.

All prompts are optional and just there to serve as a jumping-off point for you. Feel free to combine prompts, including across fandoms. Take what you make in whatever direction seems best or come up with something I didn't prompt at all, I'll love it!

Treats are very welcome (and enabled on AO3), including past prompts from previous exchanges. I welcome art treats and have included art likes.

( General Likes )

( Art Likes )

( Shipping & Romance/Sex Likes )

( Do Not Wants )

Fandoms I've requested:

( 苍兰诀 | Love Between Fairy and Devil (TV) )

( 月歌行 | Song of the Moon (TV) )

( 长月烬明 | Till the End of the Moon (TV) )

( 藏海传 | Legend of Zang Hai (TV) )

( 墨雨云间 | The Double (TV 2024) )

( 安乐传 | Legend of Anle (TV) )

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Dear Trick or Treater:

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 15:42:19 GMT

I'm elwinfortuna.

I'm so excited that you'll be creating something for me; I can't wait to see what you come up with! Thank you so much, I hope you have fun with my prompts and likes.

All prompts are optional and just there to serve as a jumping-off point for you. Feel free to combine prompts, including across fandoms. Take what you make in whatever direction seems best or come up with something I didn't prompt at all, I'll love it!

Treats are very welcome (and enabled on AO3), including past prompts from previous exchanges.

( General Likes )

( Art Likes )

( Shipping & Romance/Sex Likes )

( Do Not Wants )

Fandoms I've requested:

( Crossover Fandom )

( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J. R. R. Tolkien )

( 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù )

( The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien )

( The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien )

( 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021) )

( 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) )

( 藏海传 | Legend of Zang Hai (TV) )

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Dear Innumerable Stars Creator:

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 20:35:17 GMT

I'm elwinfortuna.

I'm so excited that you'll be creating something for me; I can't wait to see what you come up with! Thank you so much, I hope you have fun with my prompts and likes.

All prompts are optional and just there to serve as a jumping-off point for you. Feel free to combine prompts and worldbuilding tags, including across fandoms. Take what you make in whatever direction seems best or come up with something I didn't prompt at all, I'll love it!

Treats are very welcome (and enabled on AO3), including past prompts from previous exchanges.

( General Likes )

( Art Likes )

( Shipping & Romance/Sex Likes )

( Do Not Wants )

Fandoms I've requested:

( Crossover Fandom )

( Leaf By Niggle )

( The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien )

( The Silmarillion )

( The Lord of the Rings (book) )

( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil )

( The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son )

( The Lord of the Rings (movies) )

( Farmer Giles of Ham )

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Dear Trick or Treat Creator:

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 22:33:35 GMT

I'm elwinfortuna.

I'm so excited that you'll be creating something for me; I can't wait to see what you come up with and enjoy it! Thank you so much, I hope you enjoy the experience too and are happy with what you make.

Of course any prompts are optional and just there to serve as a jumping-off point for you. Take what you make in whatever direction seems best or come up with something I didn't prompt at all, I'll love it!

Treats are very welcome (and enabled on AO3), including past prompts from previous exchanges.

( General Likes )

( Art preferences )

( Shipping and smut preferences )

( DNWs )

Fandoms I've requested:

( The Selkie's Wife - Flett )

( The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien )

( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J. R. R. Tolkien )

( The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien )

( 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) )

( 山河令 | Word of Honor (TV 2021) )

( 天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù )

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Dear Innumerable Stars Creator:

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 11:25:47 GMT

I'm elwinfortuna.

I'm so excited that you'll be creating something for me; I can't wait to see what you come up with and enjoy it! Thank you so much, I hope you enjoy the experience too and are happy with what you make.

Of course any prompts are optional and just there to serve as a jumping-off point for you. Take what you make in whatever direction seems best or come up with something I didn't prompt at all, I'll love it!

Treats are very welcome (and enabled on AO3), including past prompts from previous exchanges.

( General Likes )

( Art preferences )

( Shipping and smut preferences )

( DNWs )

Fandoms I've requested:

( Crossover Fandom )

( The Adventures of Tom Bombadil )

( Leaf By Niggle )

( Farmer Giles of Ham )

( Smith of Wootton Major )

( The Notion Club Papers )

( The Silmarillion )

( The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son )

( Sir Orfeo )

( Sir Gawain and the Green Knight )

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Augh

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:58:14 GMT

If you saw "me" spamming a server or private messages on Discord, that was because my Discord got hacked.

Fortunately I got a bunch of messages from people letting me know, which meant I was able to change my password very quickly and recover my account. Pretty sure it was just Discord and not my email or anything which would have been way worse.

So now I'm setting up 2 factor authentication everywhere, updating passwords all over the place, etc. That was a super stressful hour or so last night and I would like very much to never repeat it again.

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I turn 44!

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 14:51:09 GMT

My beloved wibbble has booked me a trip to Madrid for early March as a birthday present. It's the first holiday I'll have been on since January 2020 (when he took me to Aberdeen to play Skeeball in an arcades hall -- I love Skeeball and hadn't played it for years), and the first time I've been out of the country since our tenth anniversary trip to Amsterdam.

I also have another holiday coming up in February: a two-night trip away with some friends to a place near Loch Lomond. We're planning to spend a lot of time in the hot tub or roasting marshmallows over a fire, should be lovely.

So I'm feeling very spoiled and have lots of exciting things to look forward to, which actually seems to do wonders for staving off the winter SAD.

After a break for a while, I'm restarting my weightlifting in February. Quite eager to get back to it. I'm really hoping this is going to be the year I do better at fixing the various physical things that are going on, and doing some exercise is going to help with that.

Uni is going fairly well; I fell behind a bit due to being sick in November/December, but I'm catching back up. We are now working on the English Lit section of the course, reading Jane Eyre and Twelfth Night. I love both of those so I'm very happy with it. Next is the Creative Writing section, so it's a good time from here on out in this module.

Here's hoping my 44th year is a good one! I think it will be.

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Snowflake Challenge #6

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 10:58:37 GMT

Challenge #6

In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. . Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

This took me ages because it's so hard to choose! I didn't want to pick something I've already talked about at length like LOTR, Word of Honor, Heaven Official's Blessing or one of many other well-known stories.

So I'm going to talk about Velvet Goldmine! This movie was incredibly influential to me as I was figuring my sexuality out, circa late 90s/early 2000s.

Velvet Goldmine is a dazzling, glittery creation, a fantasy rooted in gritty reality, a picture of the 1970s glam rock scene in the UK, fictionalised. The music is unbelievably good, so incredible that I still listen to the songs today. The movie is part Citizen Kane, part 1984, part Oscar Wilde, part bildungsroman, part fanfiction, part music video, part Ewan McGregor showing his dick off, and completely bonkers. It has layers upon layers of meaning, symbolism, and queer beauty. Every time I watch it, I get something new out of it.

One of my favourite scenes (they're all my favourite scenes) has two little girls acting out part of the story with their dolls, dressed up as Brian Slade and Curt Wild. Here's a YouTube link to the scene in question.

Velvet Goldmine stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Ewan McGregor, Christian Bale, Eddie Izzard, and Toni Collette. It won a BAFTA for costume design (so well-deserved!)

Recommended viewing for queer folks, fandom folks, lovers of glitter, great music, and gorgeous people.

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Snowflake Challenge #5

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 14:48:40 GMT

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture (a link to a picture will be fine!) or description of something that is or represents:

1. Something your favorite character would like
2. Something that makes you laugh
3. A fandom place you would like to visit
4. A fandom creator (pro or not) you'd like to meet
5. Something you find comforting
6. Something from a favorite TV series or movie from your childhood
7. A piece of clothing you love
8. A book or song with a color in the title
9. Something only someone in your fandom would understand

You don't have to do them all, do whatever you are comfortable with.

Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

( Answers under here )

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Catching up on Snowflake Challenge

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 13:40:28 GMT

Challenge #1

Update your fandom information. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I've updated my DW profile with some minor wording changes, as nothing much has changed in the last year.

Challenge #2

In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I'm only going to set myself one goal for 2024 as regards fandom: write and post at least one thing just for fun, not for an exchange, not for anyone else, just for me, just because it's what I want to write. It feels like quite a long time since I wrote something just because I wanted to.

Challenge #3

Create a wish list of fandom things (podfic, graphics, playlists, canon recs translations, research help, vids, sky's the limit!) that you'd like to receive. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

( A Short Wishlist )

Challenge #4

IceBreaker Challenge! Tell us about yourself. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

( I generated 7 random questions )

I'll do 5 and 6 in separate posts in the next couple of days!

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Oh no, it's been a long time again...

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 13:21:48 GMT

Time passes so much!

Anyway, quick update on me: I was knocked flat at the end of November by a really rough chest infection that left me useless for about three weeks, and I'm still not 100%. Apparently it was going around -- so many of my friends had this exact same thing at some point in the last couple of months.

Holidays have been quiet and nice, with an undercurrent of stress because, due to aforementioned chest infection, I didn't get my assignment in for uni before the holidays. I got an extension, but that means I have to do all the work now. :(

So, I have watched a few things and I'm going to give brief non-spoilery reviews of them!

Doctor Who: Enjoyed the specials, love Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor, very excited to see more of him. Finally the Doctor gets to be as fabulously queer on the outside as they have always been on the inside! Meh on Ruby Sunday at the minute but maybe she'll grow on me. Love her mum and grandma though.

Heaven Official's Blessing Season 2: OH MY GOD it's SO good! I love it I love it I love it, I want it to never end. I know some people are worried about the pacing, and the fact that if they keep going this slowly through the book, it's going to take like 8-10 seasons to get through it all, but frankly I feel the donghua team are here to adapt TGCF accurately and commit gay crimes, and there's plenty more of both! The English dub is vastly improved this season too; the writing is MUCH better.

Violent Night: John and I watched this movie the other night, and really enjoyed it! It was a little, um, spicy on the gore at times but the storyline was fun, the dialogue was excellent, and the character of Santa Claus really captured me. His backstory is revealed just enough to be tantalising, honestly! I want more about him!

Happy holidays and New Year to everyone, I hope you're all having a great time! I'm planning to participate in snowflake_challenge again next year, looking forward to seeing all of your posts for it as well.

Edit: I'm also planning to restart #fannish50 in the new year, maybe that will get me posting again. I've been so social-media-avoidant since I quit Twitter in August.

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Fannish Fifty #6: Obsessive Love in Heaven Official's Blessing

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 11:04:39 GMT

I'm very behind on my Fannish Fifty; oh well, I'll just start again next year!

Yesterday I rewatched the first five episodes of the Heaven Official's Blessing donghua in the company of narya_flame, and I was thinking about the Xuanji story and how it plays into the whole tale, because at first it seems like we spend a fair bit of time on characters who don't appear all that much later.

( Some spoilers for the end of TGCF/Heaven Official's Blessing )

So, yeah, that got away from me a bit!

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Dear Yuletide Creator:

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 02:48:49 GMT

Backdated Fic Post

Fri, 18 Aug 2023 14:47:28 GMT

I went through my files recently and pulled out a bunch of short fics I'd only ever posted anonymously, and have now added them to AO3. Since they're all backdated, they're not going to get much attention, so I figured I would put them here so anyone who might be interested can have a look!

Silmarillion:
The one where Fëanor doesn't swear the Oath
Fëanor/Nerdanel, T.
Fëanor wakes up, confused, to learn that history is different now.

Then Despair
Galadriel/Celeborn, M.
Celeborn, once again, kneels before Galadriel.

Teaching the Teacher
Fingon/Maedhros, E.
Findekáno, student of Maitimo, has been studying diligently, and now it is his turn to teach.

Bend or Break
Curufin/Eöl, E.
Curufin and Eöl have a rough encounter in the forest.

Heaven Official's Blessing:
True Love's Kiss
Hua Cheng/Xie Lian, G.
Hua Cheng, on his unending quest to find Xie Lian, hears a tale of a strange statue on a lonely hillside.

The Untamed
A Question of Naming
Lan Wangji, Lan Xichen, Lan Yuan, G.
Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji discuss young Wen Yuan's name.

Word of Honor
Without Conflict
Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu, T.
Wen Kexing proposes something Zhou Zishu can't stand.

Those Two Devils
Xie Wang, Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu, M.
Xie Wang ponders the strange relationship of Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu.

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Fannish Fifty #5: Writer's Meme

Sat, 22 Apr 2023 08:27:29 GMT

Please comment with as many of these as you would like for me to answer and I will!

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

9. Do you believe in ghosts? This isn’t about writing I just wanna know.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

( the rest of the questions are below the cut )

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At least it's Spring now...

Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:45:31 GMT

So, it's been a little while since I posted here, and there's multiple reasons for that, but they mostly come back to February and March are difficult months for me due to SAD. One thing that happened was that I sliced my finger open quite deeply with a kitchen knife while cutting up carrots. It's all healed up now but it effectively stopped me from using a keyboard for a good couple of weeks. Also, I had Covid, round 2, this time it's personal. It was pretty mild, and two weeks later, I'm more or less recovered.

In the midst of all that, some coursework was due, and because of see above re finger, Covid, and SAD, it did not go well for me. It was not good, and I knew it was not good, but that doesn't mean I wasn't disappointed when I got the marked assignment back.

Anyway, I have one more essay to do before I finish this module, so hopefully I can go out on a somewhat better showing. This course so far has been difficult in ways I wasn't expecting as well as ways I was. My brain feels like it's not nearly as sharp as it was when I was twenty and easily juggling seven classes, a retail job, and a burgeoning fanfic career. Now just one class kind of wrecks me.

Something else that's really bothering me is that I appear to completely lack inspiration with regard to writing anything right now. The well is dry, the music is silent, and despite having both time and energy, I was unable to force even a single word of any type of creative work out of myself. This is scaring me a little; I often lack time, I often lack energy, but rarely do I lack inspiration.

So I'll probably be doing something else to fulfil my creative needs for the moment. I really want to pull out my jewellery supplies, for the first time since 2020, and make some necklaces or something. We'll see how it goes.

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Fannish Fifty #4: TGCF & Censorship

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 14:15:59 GMT

Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX), author of Tian Guan Ci Fu (Heaven Official's Blessing), is also the author of The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System and Mo Dao Zu Shi (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation). But TGCF is missing something that the other two earlier books have: explicit sex scenes.

( Some spoilery details about sex in TGCF )

TGCF's missing sex scenes seem to produce a fandom of two parts: one element of TGCF fandom that clearly hates the loss and is doing its best to make up for it by writing the horniest fanfic and drawing the most explicit fanart possible, and another element that ends up praising the censorship because the story is "pure." I need not say how much this second element of TGCF fandom disgusts and horrifies me. I hate censorship; I love danmei and dangai because it fights it, undercuts it, gets the queer love and sex across despite it.

My goal whenever I experience a creation that is not from my own culture is to try to learn, as much as I can, the context of the work, why it does what it does, and to judge it in that context rather than in the one I was born and raised in. And TGCF was written in an era where the censorship was getting stricter and also by a writer who was becoming more and more well-known. MXTX knew there was a spotlight on her as she was writing TGCF. She avoided writing sex scenes not because she wanted to but because she felt she had to. The frustration is all but visible at times, and the story is even more grounded in and bound up in queer love in various forms, not just a gay main couple but also worldbuilding that involves gender fluidity where switching from male to female is just a thing that some characters do sometimes because they want to (this includes Hua Cheng's female form, mentioned but never seen on page).

I hope with all my heart that things will change in China and LGBTQ+ people will gain the rights they need so badly, along with the artistic freedom to portray queer relationships as what they are without worrying about terrible consequences. And in the meantime, I praise creators who persist in writing queer love stories, even in constraints, who find clever ways of getting the message out. Fighting censorship by any means possible is lifesaving work.

With that in mind, I'd like to celebrate and recommend a few fanworks that do a brilliant job of either highlighting the sexual tension and love already present in the story, or taking it further and writing amazing sex scenes. The quality of TGCF fanfic is IMO pretty high; this is just a small selection!

( Some great fanfic and a couple of fanvids )

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AO3 gives us a mute button!

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 23:43:30 GMT

I was overjoyed to see news from AO3 a few days ago that a mute button would be coming soon, making it so you could never ever ever have to see a particular user's fics again.

I got the button today, and I am so glad to be able to use it, finally.

There was an incident a couple years back where someone was putting explicit details of torture into their story summary, and every time I scrolled past it, I couldn't help but see it. It disturbed me so much that I couldn't even look at the Silmarillion tag for a while.

Needless to say, I have now muted that author, plus a few others whose works I never want to see. I love this new tool so much; I can finally curate my space on Ao3 appropriately.

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Snowflake Challenge #15

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 22:44:11 GMT

Challenge #15: In your own space, opine on the future of fandom.

I'm not sure I have much to say that hasn't already been said better by others.

I think fandom will continue becoming more mainstream and there's every chance in another twenty years, you're as likely to be asked what fandom you're into as what sports team you support.

Even now, fandom isn't just one thing. It's too big for that. The sort of nebulous "science fiction and fantasy fandom" populated mainly by older, often white, and sometimes very conservative people who attend and run conventions, which tends to be what is generally meant by "fandom," is by far the minority of fandom now.

Now, fandom is defined far more by how you feel about a canon rather than what activities you do, and I think that will continue. No one asks you what you do for your favourite sports team when you say you're a fan of them, and this is also becoming the case for fandoms in general.

I think I need to write up a whole separate post on what we mean when we say "fandom." It's hard to talk about the future of something that I haven't yet fully defined in my own mind.

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Snowflake Challenge #14

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 15:24:37 GMT

Challenge #14: In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge.

What were your top 5 fandoms for 2022 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
1. Junzhe
2. Word of Honor
3. Tolkien
4. Heaven Official's Blessing
5. The Untamed

What were your top 5 fandom spaces (Discord, Twitter, etc.) you experienced fandom in terms of time spent?
1. AO3
2. Twitter
3. Discord
4. Dreamwidth
5. Tumblr

What are the top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in terms of time? Did you write? Comment? Send positive energy into the universe? Create art?
1. Writing
2. Interacting on social media
3. Kudos and comments
4. Downloaded and archived
5. Did behind-the-scenes work on Innumerable Stars

What were your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions? (i.e. in terms of likes, kudos, reblogs, comments, etc.)
1. Innumerable Stars as an exchange
2. Heart In Paradise, a TGCF fic
3. Ten Thousand Years of Love, a Word of Honor fic
4. Give Back the Gift, a Silmarillion fic
5. For Real This Time, a Junzhe fic

Have a Top 5 List you'd like to share?? By all means!
Let's go with Top 5 YouTubers I enjoyed in 2022!
1. Crying Raven's fantastic Word of Honor Songvids.
2. Shuoshuo Chinese's really helpful videos on learning Mandarin.
3. Uncle Roger's hilarious critiques of terrible cooking.
4. GeGeAiNi's extremely funny Word of Honor "crack" vids, especially "Word of Honor memes to watch with your cat."
5. Gaywatch's delightful reaction videos that made me feel like I was watching the shows again along with her.

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Snowflake Challenge #13

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 12:22:34 GMT

Challenge #13: In your own space, rec three fanworks that you did not create.

I'm going to rec some of my favourite stories that can be read without knowing the canon.

Digging for Orchids by betts
Fandom: Heaven Official's Blessing/Tian Guan Ci Fu
Rating: E
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Pairing: Hua Cheng/Xie Lian

A modern AU of Heaven Official's Blessing. Xie Lian is a Cdrama actor who was injured in a stunt gone wrong and then cancelled/blacklisted when provoked into a fit of rage about it. Afterward, he moves to Los Angeles and exists in a depressed haze, until a sexy art student shows up to house-share with him. An art student who, apparently, has been telling everyone they're married.

This fic does a great job of capturing what the vibes between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian might be in a modern context. I enjoyed how the author incorporated details of the backstory as elements in dramas Xie Lian has acted in. Although the plot is totally different, of course, the characters feel very similar. The sexual and romantic tension also builds beautifully through the story, with the fake-married elements providing a great excuse for the characters to act out what they are really feeling. You can read this fic canon-blind without worrying too much about spoilers; I think there's only one relatively minor spoiler for the actual plot of TGCF.

At Aphelion by gunjourui
Fandom: Word of Honor RPF aka Junzhe
Rating: E
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Pairing: Gong Jun/Zhang Zhehan

Junzhe in spaaaaaace! Zhang Zhehan, a human from Earth, falls into a wormhole and encounters Gong Jun, pilot of the Exa, and the rest of the Exa's crew and passengers.

This story is very easy to read as original fic. I love the worldbuilding, the space politics, the danger that the Ataraxians present as a superior fighting force, the wormhole thing in and of itself, and the characterisation.

Happy For Now by ScarlettStorm
Fandom: The Untamed
Rating: E
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Pairing: Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (genderswapped)

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are romance novelists, at a convention, sharing a bed. As you do.

Love the characterisation in particular. This story gets the vibes and their personalities so right. The story is full of humour and fun, as well as some good old-fashioned mutual pining.

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Snowflake Challenge #12

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 13:16:42 GMT

Challenge 12: In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private.

1. To break a million words on AO3! It's an achievable goal with a bit of stretch involved for me as it'll require writing about twice as much as I did last year or the year before. But I think it's doable!

2. To create at least one songvid. I've been poking around in Da Vinci Resolve for a while but haven't truly made anything yet. Time to change that.

3. To get a driver's license! The last time I drove was in 2004 in America, time to relearn how. wibbble and I just bought ourselves a new car and I'm so excited about it. (It's such a pretty blue!!!)

4. To truly and completely sort out the damn house and get my study/office set up properly. I have the space, it's just covered in stuff at the moment, and I need to sell, donate, or chuck most of it.

5. Once our craft space is set up in the living room, start painting miniatures. I'd like to be able to raise my skill levels to the point where I could sell my services at mini painting by the end of this year.

6. To make strides towards achieving fitness goals. I'd like to build some muscle, and I think I'd really enjoy weightlifting, so I'm going to give that a go. Once I can drive, as well, I'd like to go and do some hill walking (with a camera so I can take photos). And then maybe down the line, cycling, kayaking, and powergliding/paramotoring; these are all expensive hobbies but I'm interested in them. One of these years (probably at some point in the fairly distant future), I'd like to do some travelling, and I know that I need to be fit enough to handle it when that time comes.

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Snowflake Challenge #11

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 10:47:39 GMT

Challenge #11: In your own space, talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.

This is difficult because I like so many! I'm really easy to please when it comes to tropes, kinks, etc.

One of my favourites is loyalty kink, which I define as "enjoying and/or kinking on aspects of mutual loyalty, faithfulness, and devotion between two characters (who often but not necessarily have a power or status imbalance) which usually includes some degree of sexual tension, which may or may not build to a romantic relationship over time."

My ultimate par excellence example of loyalty kink is the relationship between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian in Heaven Official's Blessing. They are perfect; they tick every box for me and then some.

Some other great examples are Beleg/Turin and Fingon/Maedhros in the Silmarillion, Frodo/Sam, Aragorn/Frodo, and Aragorn/Faramir in Lord of the Rings, Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishu in Word of Honor (about the time when Tian Ye Ke fans are complaining that the plot has gone off the rails, I'm rubbing my hands together with delight and asking for more delicious food), Marcus/Esca in Eagle of the Ninth, Jack/Ianto in Torchwood, Marco Loristan/The Rat in The Lost Prince, and Steve/Bucky in the MCU.

A very important part of the enjoyment is that the loyalty is mutual; the characters involved are devoted to each other, consider each other special, protect each other, sacrifice for each other. If one of them is pining and the other one is not really invested in the relationship, that's a different thing to me. I also enjoy it but it's not my absolute fave.

Looking back over this list, I've realised that all my examples are m/m couples, and I know I love this no matter the configuration. I'd include Dongfang Qingcang/Xiao Lan Hua(/Changheng) from Love Between Fairy and Devil as an m/f (and rare threesome) example, Aerin/Morwen from the Silmarillion (I <3 them so much!), Corky/Violet from Bound (SUCH a good movie!), and Yasmin Khan/The 13th Doctor from Doctor Who as good f/f examples of this trope.

I'm always looking out for more canons that feature loyalty kink, especially between women, so please, if you have any recs, let me know!

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Snowflake Challenge #10

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 11:48:35 GMT

Challenge #10: In your own space, create a fanwork.

I made three icons from the Heaven Official's Blessing donghua.

1.
Xie Lian smiling and saying part of one of my favourite lines from the book: "Since meeting you, I've rediscovered that it's such a simple thing to be happy."

2.
Hua Cheng (in his San Lang twinksona) saying something to Xie Lian, Xie Lian looking a bit shocked about it. In the donghua this is a flirty moment, so I captioned it with "Let me seduce you."

3.
Hua Cheng as San Lang looking adoringly at Xie Lian, out of frame. Captioned in red with "Love in his eyes."

I'm going to be using these myself but anyone else is absolutely welcome to use them as well, with credit to me.

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Fannish Fifty #3: Let's Exchange the Experience: DNWs

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 09:57:32 GMT

As part of my #fannish50 this year, some of the posts I intend to make will be about fanworks exchanges, both from the perspective of a participant and a moderator. This is the first of them, and I want to talk about Do Not Wants (DNWs). This particular subject can be quite sensitive and difficult to discuss, so I'm hoping to take some of the stress out of it by talking about my own mindset and experiences.

You look at almost any letter from any exchange participant (let's take my most recent letter to my Candy Hearts creator as an example) and the DNW section is one of the most important to be aware of when creating a fanwork for that person. But what might influence what gets added to DNWs? How important is it to be aware of how you're phrasing any particular DNW? And how should a creator read DNWs to be sure they avoid them?

( Into the DNWverse )

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