china_shop: A wide shot of Dixing (volcanic hellscape) with the text "Lava and Melodrama". (Guardian - Dx lava and melodrama)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-06-20 03:03 pm
Entry tags:

Whump fic: Whatever It Takes to Bring You Back (Guardian, SW/ZYL)

Title: Whatever It Takes to Bring You Back (5691 words) [Teen and Up]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, Wu Tian'en, Ding Dun
Additional Tags: Whump, Pain, Loss of Agency, Episode Related, episode 17, Zhao Yunlan's first trip to Dixing does not end well, Until it does, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt!Zhao Yunlan, hurt!Shen Wei, Get Together, First Kiss (for one of them)

Summary:

“Shen Wei! You’re here—” Zhao Yunlan was sobbing. Then he screamed again, curling in on himself and clutching his forearm. “Fuck, this hurts! Get it—this—get it out of me! Help, Shen Wei—”

Something was very wrong. Even if he were terribly injured, Zhao Yunlan wouldn’t permit panic into his voice. He would make jokes, not scream for help. How much agony must he be in, to have broken like this?
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-06-20 02:45 pm
Entry tags:

Me-and-media update

Previous poll review
In the The Tower poll, by far the most popular princess is the cat (63%), so I guess it's a cat tower. Runner up is the dragon princess with 47.8%, and third is the minotaur princess (32.6%), who I imagine is enjoying the view after so much time shut up in a labyrinth.

In ticky-boxes, rescue dragons came second to hugs, 60.9% to 69.6%, and puppies came third with 45.7%. Thank you for your votes!!

Reading
Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think Smarter About People Who Think Differently by Steve Silberman, narrated by William Hope. This is (understandably) more about parenting than I was expecting, so I don't know that I'm getting a huge amount out of it. But it's well-written and well-read, and I'll keep going a bit further. (It's over 20 hours.)

Maybe a little more of The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander -- I'm not sure if I've got back to this since I last posted. I'm awaiting new intermediate glasses, which I'm hoping will make life easier and mean I can read on my exercise machine again, without having to set the font size to "huge". (Breaking news: ageing is overrated.)

Guardian by priest -- I think we're nearly through the epic (in both senses) mythology dump, and we'll soon be getting back to what I think of as the main plot arc.

Release Your Persona by Yeaze (Korean BL manhwa) (via [personal profile] reviews_and_ramblings, which I found via [personal profile] cornerofmadness) -- this sure was an education in how porny BL manhwa are. It's a short-and-sweet celeb/non-celeb romance. Very cute (and did I mention E-rated?).

No Peter Whimsy this week because I disliked the narrator of the audiobook.

Kdramas
Our Unwritten Seoul -- okay, I'm loving this story of adult twins who swap lives; it's interesting and hopeful without being fluffy. Curious to see where it's going, and (of course) impatient for secrets to come out.

Sell Your Haunted House -- rewatch continues. Such a good show.

Other TV
The first episode of Étoile, a ballet drama created by the Sherman-Palladinos (of Gilmore Girls and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fame). Seems fun so far. We'll get back to it.

Finished the first season of the Argentinian show, El Eternauta, and I totally see why it was recommended to go in unspoiled (I agree!), but just ftr, the season doesn't wrap up. It's one of those gear-shift to-be-continued endings. Still, it was fascinating and I always appreciate a different-from-the-usual-suspects setting. ([personal profile] laireshi, if you happen to be reading this, this show hits one of your DNWs.)

Turning Point: The Vietnam War continues to be excellent; really impressive range of interview subjects from all sides. Murderbot is still really fun. Finished season 5 of The Expanse. The school episode of Poker Face and the con artist one (John Cho & Melanie Lynskey 4 eva), and episodes 4 & 5 of Andor season 2.

Guardian/Fandom
My fannish activity consists of the readalong, the polls, and writing -- which is all so much fun and plenty to keep me busy.

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, a lot of Coherent (local politics argh), and a couple of episodes of Midnight Burger because I was starving for fiction. (Episode 7 was so good I made Andrew listen to it. I'm not sure it worked as well out of context, but mostly I just liked the physics conversation anyway.)

Writing/making things
I'm still writing! This is a pretty great streak for me. How long can it last? Trying to finish a minor character/outsider POV flashfic for tomorrow's [community profile] fan_flashworks deadline (prompt: Yield), and I still have the Guardian bingo prompts for June on my mind. One day I'll get back to my WIPs.

Also, there's been author reveals, so I can say that I picked up a pinch hit for [community profile] whumpex, which was really fun. I had not previously thought I'd enjoy writing a fic where Zhao Yunlan spends most of it screaming in pain, but... you live, you learn.

Life/health/mental state things
Idek. )

Good things
Sunshine and biking. The bakery at Greta Point, with its delicious cinnamon rolls and seed-strewn rye sourdough. Achieving getting my car fixed. Writing! Guardian and comments and polls and the readalong and happy brain-sparky times and people. My favourite hand cream courtesy of [personal profile] mergatrude. Crosswords. Kdramas. My arms are holding up pretty well.

Poll #33270 Impending doom of the natural variety
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15


What natural disaster threat(s) do you live with?

View Answers

earthquake
6 (40.0%)

fire
5 (33.3%)

volcano
3 (20.0%)

flood
9 (60.0%)

drought/heat
7 (46.7%)

hurricane/cyclone
2 (13.3%)

landslide/avalanche
1 (6.7%)

blizzard
6 (40.0%)

tornado
4 (26.7%)

tsumani
1 (6.7%)

other
2 (13.3%)

ticky-box full of emergency kits/go bags
6 (40.0%)

ticky-box made of Möbius strips and Escher staircases
9 (60.0%)

ticky-box full of unlabelled VHS tapes
7 (46.7%)

ticky-box full of zebras in headphones listening to 80s pop on Stripe-ify
7 (46.7%)

ticky-box full of hugs
10 (66.7%)

china_shop: Fraser's not so sure about that (Fraser Oh-I'm-not-so-sure-about-that)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-06-15 06:00 pm
Entry tags:

orphaned quote

Does anyone know where referring to diamonds dismissively as "the most boring form of carbon" is from? We picked it up somewhere (movie, tv, or book), and now we can't even remember if it was an ordinary character being geeky and pedantic, or a supernatural being eye-rolling at a human.

It could even have been Douglas Adams, except then I'm pretty sure a) I'd be able to identify it, and/or b) it would come up in an internet search.
china_shop: Chu Shuzhi wearing a black face mask with a cat mouth and whiskers on it. (Guardian - CSZ cat mask)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-06-12 05:42 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

Haha, I just signed up for a free online Harvard course on a whim,[1] and having spent the last few months in the Three Billion Comments Club on [community profile] sid_guardian, naturally I'm diligently replying to people's comments in the discussion sections of the course, too. What could possibly go wrong?

(You don't have to reply to everyone, china! This is not your circus! /o\)

[1] Someone on my flist pointed out a while ago that there are a bunch of free online courses.
siria: (old guard - joe nicky van)
this is not in the proper spirit of rumspringa ([personal profile] siria) wrote2025-06-11 11:16 pm
Entry tags:
china_shop: Close-up of Zhao Yunlan grinning (Default)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-06-12 10:40 am
Entry tags:

Me-and-media update

Previous poll review
In the hair, there, and everywhair poll, 78% of respondents said they air dry, 35.6% towel dry roughly, 30.5% towel dry carefully / squeezingly, and 22% use a hair dryer or other device. (I towel dry carefully / squeezingly, then air dry. But I have thick, slow-drying hair, and I can’t sleep with it wet, so I use a hair dryer occasionally.)

In ticky-boxes, “a yawning cat broadcasting calm and satisfaction into the world” beat hugs, 71.2% to 67.8%! The power of toxiplasmosis cats on the internet! Thirty-six point two percent of respondents agreed that other people are, generally speaking, quite mysterious. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain) -- Welsh children’s fantasy, and the first book in the trilogy that Disney’s The Black Cauldron is loosely based on. I’m not far into this yet, I haven’t read it before, and I've misplaced my kindle. But it starts well.

Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers, narrated by Robert Bathurst -- This ripped along very engagingly. I like that Whimsy isn’t falling over bodies left, right and centre à la Jessica Fletcher; he has to actually seek out cases, and I appreciated his sporting enthusiasm at the outset, and also that he feels it when his actions have consequences. Also, I loved the spinster assistant, Katharine Climpson -- I hope for more of her. (And I just spoiled myself for that on wikipedia, oops, but anyway, good to know she’ll be back.) Is it the Bellona Club next, or am I missing one?

Guardian by priest -- The readalong continues, along with its sixty million comments each week. :D

Argh, I got distracted and still haven’t finished or commented on the rest of the 520 Day collection. Note to self!!

Kdramas
Nada.

Other TV
Department Q -- We finished off the 9-episode season earlier this week. It’s rather messy (not all the mysteries and loose ends get tied up), and there are a few different flavours of police violence (messed-up cop losing control; very controlled cop “extracting” information; but not group or institutionalised/authorised violence that I recall), as well as the bad guys torturing the victim. If the season had been longer, I might have bailed. But it is very compelling, and Morck (Matthew Goode) is extremely watchable.

Doctor Who -- I think I’m just not the target audience for RTD’s style of story-telling. I’m really going to miss Gatwa on my screen, though.

Stick -- the first episode of Owen Wilson’s new Apple+ golf dramedy. It was okay. Good cast, but the problem with a show about golf is the lack of ~team~. I’m reserving judgement.

El Eternauta -- we’ve finished episode 2 now. It’s fascinatingly creepy. Has a pretty bleak view of human nature, but I’m intrigued to see where it goes. (I was advised to start it with as few spoilers as possible, so I know nothing. Please don’t tell me anything!)

Also, more Murderbot, Poker Face, and Turning Point: The Vietnam War.

Guardian/Fandom
Mostly I’ve just been doing the Guardian novel readalong, the Guardian drama polls, and allllll the discussion that goes along with them. ♥ ♥ ♥

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, and several episodes of Coherent, a podcast focusing on our Deputy Prime Minister's move to set up a sort-of equivalent of DOGE and turn us into a libertarian hellhole. Gah! (Locals, submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill close on 1pm, Monday 23rd June.)

Writing/making things
Plugging away. Yesterday I posted a flashfic that I started in March last year. The first draft didn’t work and was wildly misguided (thanks to my beta for helping me realise that!), but I dusted it off and rebuilt it over the weekend, and I like how it turned out. I have a couple of other things in the works, too, and one day I’ll actually finish this ridiculous 13k-so-far gen fic. At least I’ve worked out why it was losing momentum, to wit, the longer a “missing scene” is, the more it needs to have its own build and climax, rather than relying on canon or narrative irony for the payoff. Unfortunately, the upshot of that is that I need an actual plot development.

I spent Monday’s writers’ hour looking for two story titles, and came up with one I really liked that doesn’t fit either fic. So I guess I also need to write a story to fit that title.

Life/health/mental state things
Optometrist and GP (for a laundry list of minor questions) this week. Both went fine. The weather is bitterly cold. I’ve been a bit headachy, but I’m mostly putting that down to needing new glasses.

Goals
Huh. I wonder if I should make some.

Link dump
Operation Spiderweb (wikipedia link; Ukraine’s strategic drone strike on Russia’s air capability) | From cat urine to gunpowder: Exploring the peculiar smells of outer space | Dynasty's Gay Journey - Killer Dads, Shoulderpads, and the Kiss that Rocked Hollywood (Youtube, 33:25, via a comment at [community profile] tv_talk). I have too many tabs open to rootle out more right now.

Good things
Writing. Writers’ hour. Beta. Guaaaardian. Chocolate. Cat. Andrew.

Poll #33240 The Tower
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 46


What kind of princess is in the tower?

View Answers

goblin princess
12 (26.1%)

elf princess
8 (17.4%)

vampire princess
6 (13.0%)

mermaid princess
4 (8.7%)

minotaur princess
15 (32.6%)

dragon princess
22 (47.8%)

troll princess
5 (10.9%)

orc princess
8 (17.4%)

cat
29 (63.0%)

other
4 (8.7%)

actually it's another-gendered member of royalty
17 (37.0%)

ticky-box full of intending to bake but not getting around to it
20 (43.5%)

ticky-box full of still resisting multi-focal lenses
7 (15.2%)

ticky-box of a squadron of rescue dragons who can exhale fire or water, as required
28 (60.9%)

ticky-box of clumsy fledgling puppies, tumbling all over each other out of the nest
21 (45.7%)

ticky-box of spoiler fairies leaving them under your pillow
12 (26.1%)

ticky-box full of hugs
32 (69.6%)

china_shop: Zhao Yunlan looking quizzically at the camera (Guardian - ZYL quizzical/skeptical)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-06-11 11:50 am
Entry tags:

Flashfic: Raw Nerves, Old Scars (Guardian, CSZ/SW/ZYL, ZYL & DQ, Teen)

Title: Raw Nerves, Old Scars (5967 words) [Teen and Up]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationships: Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei & Ye Zun, Da Qing & Zhao Yunlan
Characters: Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei, Chu Shuzhi, Da Qing
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, (sort of), (except Ye Zun), Anger, effects of past trauma, Complicated Relationships, Poly Relationships, Shen Wei misses his didi, Zhao Yunlan hates Ye Zun, Zhao Yunlan is triggered, Loyalty, Friendship, Sharing Clothes, Unreliable Narration
Series: Part 3 of Breakage and Repair 'verse (CSZ/SW/ZYL)

Summary: Feel the anger and do it anyway.


I started this for the Anger prompt last year, and finished it (15 minutes after the deadline /o\) for the Charity prompt. Ha!
siria: (the pitt - robby is over this shit)
this is not in the proper spirit of rumspringa ([personal profile] siria) wrote2025-06-09 05:57 pm
siria: (the pitt - dr robby swag)
this is not in the proper spirit of rumspringa ([personal profile] siria) wrote2025-06-07 07:30 pm

2511 / Fic - ER

bend your branches down
ER | ~4700 words | Luka/Carter(/Gillian) | Thanks to [tumblr.com profile] trinityofone for betaing. Set during ER 9.22, "Kisangani." Some lines of dialogue taken directly from the episode.

(Also on AO3)

Gillian said, 'You should join me and Luka tonight.' )
china_shop: Shen Wei sitting by Zhao Yunlan's bed, and Zhao Yunlan flinching back in surprise. (Guardian - good morning)
The Gauche in the Machine ([personal profile] china_shop) wrote2025-06-07 11:17 am
Entry tags:

Random Guardian meme and pic

I was just clearing out my screenshot folder and re-found some things I made a couple of years ago during the Guardian rewatch. They amused me, so: repost!



:D

[Tumblr post #1 | Tumblr post #2]