I just noticed looking at the picture it needs some more aggressive blocking, but otherwise it is done, yay.



( charts, knitting instructions in German, yell if you want me to attempt to translate them )

Where has the month gone?! All right, a lot of it has gone into writing, but that surely can't be all ... *looks around, waves at everyone* Hi! I'm still here. *g*

Anyway! I wrote longer stories for fffx and highadrenalineexchange, both of which revealed this month, and fffx has already had author reveals. So now that I'm actually posting, of course this is the first thing to post about!

It took me a while to actually settle on what I wanted to write for this exchange. I had another idea that I hope to tackle some day, but I think I picked the right thing in the end! It came together pretty well once I actually decided.

It's Guardian again, canon divergence during the early episodes - set right after the face-stealer case (episode 4) and before the water kidnapping/Butler Wu case (episode 5). Zhao Yunlan gets to interact more closely with the Black-Cloaked Envoy, rather than Professor Shen, and gains some insights. There is coughing up blood and wound-tending and tea and conversation, and all of it takes place in a very constrained space, because I trapped them together. *g*

If you want, there's even a visual reference for the space they're stuck in, because my beta noted that things weren't completely clear, so I made myself a reference for editing purposes. Have a floor plan!

(And many thanks to china_shop for beta-reading, as usual! ♥)

**

Title: Close the Distance, Lock Us In
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Relationship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Yunlan & Black-Cloaked Envoy
Characters: Shen Wei, Zhao Yunlan, mini-cameos by SID members
Content tags: Episode Related, Post-Episode 4, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Zhao Yunlan & the Black-Cloaked Envoy, Protective Shen Wei, Hurt Shen Wei, Protective Zhao Yunlan, Trapped Together, Black and White Energy, a bit of Hurt/Comfort, Identity Porn

Summary:

The Black-Cloaked Envoy slammed down into the nondescript little flat like a thunderbolt from the heavens, not a moment too soon.

Zhao Yunlan and the Black-Cloaked Envoy, trapped together early on: how much of a difference can it really make? Turns out, a surprising amount.

Happy Wednesday!

I'm taking search offline sometime today to upgrade the server to a new instance type. It should be down for a day or so -- sorry for the inconvenience. If you're curious, the existing search machine is over 10 years old and was starting to accumulate a decade of cruft...!

Also, apparently these older machines cost more than twice what the newer ones cost, on top of being slower. Trying to save a bit of maintenance and cost, and hopefully a Wednesday is okay!

Edited: The other cool thing is that this also means that the search index will be effectively realtime afterwards... no more waiting a few minutes for the indexer to catch new content.

kazzy_cee's April questions continued:

12. What’s your favourite breed of dog?

I'm afraid I don't have one. I don't have enough experience with dogs to be able to pick out a breed that would be particularly compatible with me. I can only be very general and say if I'd ever get a dog, it should have a size I can still carry for practical reasons.

13. Have you ever volunteered to do something long-term?

Only helping with the Fair Trade stall at the old work building. That I did for about twenty years or so, but it didn't require all that much work. Unpacking new goods, sometimes putting prize tags on them and decorating them nicely on the stall, and occasionally tagging along with someone with a car to get new goods. It got a bit frustrating, because you only ever got complaints because even coworkers often didn't realize this was a spare time project of volunteers and expected everything to be always filled up and things we had not ever offered available, and also because it started out as supporting a Fair Trade store but after one change of volunteers too many there they more and more felt we were taking goods they'd rather sell themselves than enabling to sell to an additional set of customers. This ended up being the main reason why I finally stopped participating.

14. It’s International Laverbread Day (here’s the Wiki entry). Have you ever tried it?

I had until this not ever heard of it, but if I get the opportunity I will definitely try.

15. Leonardo Da Vinci was born today in 1452. What comes to mind when you think of Leonardo? Have you ever seen one of his works?

The vitruvian man is my first association. I doubt I ever saw any in the original.

16. In 1922, Annie Oakley set a women's record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row. Have you ever been clay pigeon shooting?

Never. I would have no idea where I could do that here.

17. Have you ever seen bats flying in your area? Have you ever seen a bat up close or seen a bat house attached to a tree?

Knowingly I have only seen bats at the zoo, but I might well not have realized and thought it was a bird.

18. How often do you listen to the radio? If you do, what kind of things do you listen to (talk/pop/classical)?

I used to listen to the radio very much. Then my favourite station was joined with another station somewhere around 1999, and I didn't like the result all that much and kind of got out of it and into having the tv on all the time. Lately I am rediscovering the radio, as I have gotten out of the tv habit once I moved into the bigger place, but it hasn't become a real habit again.
For some reason I find advertisements on the radio particularly annoying, so I stick to the public radio stations that have less of them. Usually I alternate between SWR3 (pop music for the younger) and SWR1 (pop music for the middle aged).

19. In 1934, Shirley Temple starred in her first film. Have you ever seen any of her films?

I cannot really imagine I never did, but looking at her filmography nothing rings a bell.