rlyqueer

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! I hope you all enjoy the festivities and that this year is a fantastic one for you.

I'm really excited and proud to have participated in my first ever exchange this year at sundial_exchange. The collection has been revealed here and it's full of goodness! Everyone worked so hard and all these gifts are amazing. A big thank you to the outstanding mods for organizing this gorgeous Guardian exchange and making it happen!!

Borrowing frith_in_thorns's share format, because it's super tidy—

tsubame_17 made me a stunning paper doll gift and included the craft blueprints:


And I contributed two works, both for the lovely clevermanka:


I'm extremely proud of my contributions, as they mark the first moodboard I've ever made (is that wild for a web designer?) and my now-longest fic completed & posted. I was super inspired and taken by clevermanka's prompts! And shoutout to glymr, who introduced me to The Time Engraver with her wonderful fic Time Enough, which definitely inspired me to write for the fandom some day. And now I have!!

I won't say it wasn't difficult getting these both done in time for the reveal, but it's also incredibly gratifying and I did exactly what I set out to do.

It's party time!!

I thought I could go in on a simple flashfic prompt and produce a little something nice, but nahh. Two months later and I'm still trying to finish up the first part of something that's turned into a complete BEAST.

The rest of it needs plenty of brainstorming and outlining, but I've finally accepted what this fic wants to be. cries This is baptism by fire and I am full of fear, but there's really nothing to do but forge stubbornly ahead at this point!

Today's frustration is the copious amounts of head-scratching I had to do before rewriting part one's conclusion. How do people end fics? This is wild, man. It's done, though, so one holistic read-through to go before I send it off for its second beta round.

Don't know when it'll start getting posted (nothing else has even been outlined, let alone drafted!! ahh!!!), but I wanted to share a snippet:

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“Zhao Yunlan?” Shen Wei tries to keep the uncertain waver out of his voice.

When Zhao Yunlan straightens up again, he smiles at Shen Wei, but it isn’t... It doesn’t reach his eyes, and the way he bares his teeth looks more like a snarl. “It’s good to see you awake!” he says with false cheer. “You really gave us a scare. How are you feeling?”

How is he...?

Shen Wei stares, and Zhao Yunlan tilts his head, sliding his hands into his pockets. It’d look casual if Shen Wei didn’t know better. “I—Zhao Yunlan, what’s going on?”

Something flashes across Zhao Yunlan’s face, but it disappears so quickly behind that sharp gaze that Shen Wei isn't sure he’s seen anything at all. Zhao Yunlan shifts his weight onto one foot and asks, “What do you remember?”