Entries tagged with 30 days

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30 days of Guardian: Favourite SID member

30 Days of Guardian Day 7: Favorite SID member

This one is the hardest to answer so far, I think, which is why I've had a blank post open in tabs for over a week while I try and decide!

Probably the boring cheaty answer is that I really do like them all as a background ensemble cast. My favourites I'm torn between, though, are Da Qing, Lin Jing, and Zhu Hong. (Zhu Hong when she's not pining ONLY because sorry people who liked that storyline but I hated it so much and it just went on and on.) Da Qing is a wonderful bratty cat (seriously, why is he second-in-command, though, other than seniority? He is not very good at it XD), Lin Jing is just great fun and enthusiastic, much as he pretends otherwise, and Zhu Hong has this whole complicated life and Yashou backstory and I really enjoy it. I was really happy with her ending, too.

Also I have a deep soft spot for Wang Zheng as the one who actually keeps the office running! In a conversation the other day

naye mentioned that she's also definitely the one making sure everyone is up on their first aid training and fire marshal protocols and all the things like that while Zhao Yunlan is mostly oblivious.

( All the days )

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30 Days of Guardian Day 6

30 Days of Guardian Day 6: Favorite character

*drumroll*

Yeah, it's Shen Wei.

I just utterly adore Shen Wei. His clothes! His face! He is a stunningly beautiful, competent, overpowered, intelligent, complete fucking disaster. I am endlessly fascinated by his complete lack of objective reality in assessing "risks I am taking" vs "risks Zhao Yunlan is taking". He is such a self-sacrificing idiot who is completely taken aback when Zhao Yunlan finally goes DO YOU THINK I COULD BE OKAY IF YOU DIED??? because this did not occur to him.

...I love him such a lot.

Also I love how fandom is united in agreement about how pretty he is when coughing blood. He does it so very well. Along with being covered in blood generally. Or literally falling apart slowly and not telling anyone. Shen Wei, I mean, what the actual fuck. "Fortunately, I'm used to getting injured." Why are you like this.

This is my favourite Shen Wei gifset

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( All the days )

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30 days of Guardian, day 5

30 Days of Guardian Day 5: Favourite set

I was going to answer this question with the SID building, which is pretty fun (although weirdly confusing -- I was extremely grateful to

naye pointing out when beta-reading one of my fics that I was clearly under the impression that both the lab and Zhao Yunlan's office are upstairs, when actually neither of them is.)

But actually I've seen several people give that answer already. So I think I'm going to go with the ridiculous over-the-top-ness which is Dixing Palace. The darkness! The lava! The definitely-not-polystyerine pillars! THE LAVA. I love it so much. It's such a Choice.

( All the days )

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30 Days of Guardian Day 4

30 Days of Guardian Day 4: How you started watching

This was one of the questions I added and I'm frankly really hoping other people might answer it too -- I'm very interested in the answers because I suspect a large proportion of them are "through fandom".

It's definitely my answer! I had seen people like

naye and

philomytha posting about these Chinese shows on DW for a while without managing to pick up anything else at all about them. (I don't think I distinguished between Guardian and Nirvana In Fire tbh.) Then at vidukon I was AMBUSHED by

loneraven and

soupytwist who sort of handed me a pen-drive. "You like hurt/comfort, we have a show which you will LOVE!" Then I had the 5-minute Weilan premise and I agreed that it did indeed sound interesting, and I put the files onto my laptop. Then started watching on the train home and the rest is history -- also from the train I tweeted that I was watching Guardian and I think

naye retweeted me and then SUDDENLY MANY ENTHUSIASTIC NEW FRIENDS who lived through my show experience with me and just increased my whole enjoyment manyfold. (The twitter Guardian fandom is like a roving gang of muggers waiting to POUNCE on new people, it's hysterical.) But then I have also watched a load more cdramas because of being told to by twitter friends, and have watched (and encouraged) many other people to get into Guardian via this method. Best channel, I'm certain, and I knew absolutely what sort of fannish experience I was letting myself in for within a couple of hours.

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( All the days )

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30 days of Guardian: Day 3, favourite Hallows arc

30 Days of Guardian Day 2: Favourite Hallows arc

I spent a lot of time before writing this post trying to decide which Hallows arc makes the most *sense*. Probably it's the Dial, because it's short and the Dial does one specified thing which is related to what it's explained power actually is. (Obviously later it also features as a defensive weapon, for reasons never discussed, but not DURING its arc.)

The Hallows arc I found the most *fun* was probably the Awl, because mountain field trip! In my head I definitely have an extremely edited version of Guardian in which the Hanga flashbacks are much shorter and maybe it's explained why the Hallows can turn someone into a creepy chained pillar in their weirdest yet repeatable party trick. (Show, why are you like this.) Anyway! I liked Zhu Jiu lurking in caves and the battle couple fighting and obviously I enjoyed Shen Wei with his terrible self-sacrificing plans to save Zhao Yunlan from himself re alcohol and I liked Zhu Hong and Wang Zheng being good friends.

Also I really liked Lao-Chu demonstrating he can do serious damage with his threads (ripping the rocks open) and also while the cgi of what I persist in calling the youtubes were awful, I did like there being monsters to fight! (Why are there not more fics featuring random monster attacks??)

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(Also I just went through and made some more changes to the list of questions, so the "least favourite Hallows arc/case" ones are now replaced too with some things I'd rather talk about. List items I have changed from the original are now 4, 5, 10, 11, 18, 19.)

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30 days of Guardian + Guardian fic

So "Shen Wei takes Jiajia as his newest grad student post-canon" is now a series! The unofficial newsletter of Dragon City University (BioEng Dept). And here is a second fic for it.

Title: Please refer to the list of ingredients (Guardian | 镇魂)
Word count: 3200 words
Characters/Pairing: Jiajia, Li Qian, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Content/Tags: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, Awkward university functions, Accidental Alcohol
Summary: Jiajia, Professor Shen's newest grad student, is nervous at her first faculty-and-guests function at the university. But really, what could go wrong?
On AO3
For the "trust issues" square on my hc_bingo card

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30 Days of Guardian Day 2: Favourite case

The one with the ultrasound noises and the little girl and the wedding and the mind-control... good thing this question isn't "most coherent case" XD But it facilitates so many excellent scenes, including Shen Wei being super badass, Zhao Yunlan being clever, super awkward conversations, and Shen Wei coughing blood.

Also I really liked it for Zhao Yunlan being unhappy with both Shen Wei and the Envoy for different reasons (even though he was pretty sure by then that they were the same person). He really didn't want the Envoy to arrest the little girl and it was *such* a relief (for him and the audience) to afterwards know that mercy was being shown.

Also! This case arc had Zhao Yunlan touching the Awl and then swooning in Shen Wei's arms *and* Shen Wei being unhelpful to the cause of science by messing up Lin Jing's scan. Which weren't really related to the case I guess other than Zhu Jiu being related to the case in a very nebulous sort of way. It's a good job I wasn't watching this show for the cases, really.

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( All the days )

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30 days of Guardian: Day 1 - Favourite episode

tassosss made a 30 days of Guardian meme! Since I have been talking about Guardian nonstop for way more than 30 days so far, let's see if I can do it in a structured way. You can find their original list here. I made a couple of changes (4, 5, 10, 11, 18, 19).

Day 1: Favourite episode

I'm glad there will be lots of chances to talk about specific favourite moments later, but for favourite entire episode I'm going to pick episode 8. Which was the episode when I fell utterly and deeply in love with the show. Also it is consistently great the entire way through.

The episode title, btw, is "Zhao Yunlan fails at impressing Shen Wei with antique books". Yes. Yes, he did. So much fail. I was screeching out loud watching this and wailing "oh nooooooo", especially when Shen Wei just... walks off. AND ALSO this is then the episode where Shen Wei first has a fight with Zhu Jiu and then rescues an unwell Zhao Yunlan and brings him home and tucks him into bed and then cleans his apartment and it's generally the episode of him realising in despair what a disaster he has fallen in love with. IT'S ALL SO GREAT. Also I just watched all these scenes, for research, and I adore Zhao Yunlan flirting so utterly shamelessly after he wakes up and finds Shen Wei in his apartment. "If you keep on rejecting me it'll be my life's greatest failure!"

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( All the days )

Crossposts: http://frith-in-thorns.livejournal.com/127185.html

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Meme: 30 song questions (10-12)

Day 10 - A song that makes you fall asleep
All Good Things (Come To An End) — Nelly Futardo

I just really love this one. It's had a lot of repeat plays. This is one I used to have on loop to work/revise to in sixth form, actually, because it's nice relaxing noise.

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Day 11 - A song from your favourite band
Speed the Collapse — Metric

This was a really hard question to answer -- I have quite a lot of bands I love! But I haven't used a Metric song for any of my other meme answers, so I'll go with them. This is also one of my favourite apocalypse songs. (I have a lot of favourite apocalypse songs.)

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Day 12 - A song from a band you hate
A Light As Bright As Ours — Sandi Thom

Yeah, this is the "I wish I was a punk rocker" singer. Which is one of the most annoying songs I know XD But this one is okay! Although I have no idea why I have it in my music collection -- I think may be one my sister added way back when she used to steal my laptop...

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Current Mood: content
Crossposts: http://frith-in-thorns.livejournal.com/125826.html

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meme: 30 song questions (7-9)

Day 07 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Bow to the Crown — Heather Dale

I listened to Heather Dale a lot right before my Finals. (She's good listening on the way to job interviews, too!) For people unfamiliar with her she is a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, and that's what her songs are. Medieval style, with chivalry and quests but also lady knights and magic and all these stories about fictional places which are basically out of ren-faires or Merlin or something. And they're delightful.

This particular one is about knights fighting in a tournament. (Deliberately, there are no genders attached to either the knights or their sweethearts, which I think is a lovely touch.) It was great pre-Finals music to listen to!

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Day 08 - A song that you know all the words to
Piazza, New York Catcher — Belle & Sebastian

This question was a bit tricky to answer -- I just automatically pick up and memorise song lyrics, and therefore I know pretty much all the lyrics to all my songs. But I really like this one, and it's a fun song to sing along to!

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Day 09 - A song that you can dance to
Never Look Away — Vienna Teng

This is my favourite song from her newest album. And it's so great! you are made of nebulas and novas and night sky / you’re made of memories you bury or live by I also think this would make a great vid song -- I want to make a Warehouse 13 team vid to it.

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Current Mood: thoughtful
Crossposts: http://frith-in-thorns.livejournal.com/123850.html

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meme: 30 song questions (4-6)

Unrelated note: I've had to turn off anon commenting on LJ. I've been getting an enormous volume of spam, about one an hour! They're currently enabled on DW -- I'll see how this goes.

Day 04 - A song that makes you sad
Samson — Regina Spektor

This is one of the songs which no one will ever convince me is not about lesbians, because it totally is. (Note: please don't actually try to convince me.) Also I've spent the last year planning in my head how I want to do a Myka/HG vid to it, and definitely plan to make it after Warehouse 13 finishes airing.

I love the sweetness about this song, and the sadness. It's got beautiful lyrics. We couldn't bring the columns down, no we couldn't destroy a single one / and the history books forgot about us and the bible didn't mention us, not even once.

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Day 05 - A song that reminds you of someone
Pressure Suit — Aqualung

This is song which I was given by Esvan, during the period of my life when I was in 6th form and had literally no one to talk to (and he was in his first year of uni) and I was just incredibly lonely and depressed and suicidal. But he sent me a song and I played it over and over and over and just. It's such a good song. Somewhere far beneath your pointed tongue and teeth is where you really are and just the repeated it's alright was so much what I needed right then, and yeah. Esvan's song. ♥

Dammit, now I'm crying.

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Day 06 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Fire And Rain — James Taylor

Years ago, we went on holiday each summer to France, to the Alps and to the south. We'd drive there, and go between campsites which were all in the middle of nowhere, with all the camping stuff for three weeks wedged into one car (because apparently it cost a load to take the little trailer on the ferry). But basically there was a lot of driving. And we'd all make one or two mixtapes each to be played in the car (except my mother, who was too busy actually organising the holiday). My sister's tapes were universally hated by everyone else, being comprised of Atomic Kitten and the Sugarbabes and the like. Mine were bizarre mixtures with Steeleye Span wedged up next to Snow Patrol and the end-songs from LOTR and Death Cab for Cutie and Cat Stevens in a way that I thought was great. And dad's tended to be made of the exact same songs every year, even though he made new ones every time. (This meant that I never had to put them on mine unless I wanted a duplicate, which worked great for me!)

So this song is France. There are actually lots that are, the ones that dad repeated every year -- James Taylor and Neal Young and Carol King and other artists I can't remember although I could still sing you their songs. But I picked this one here because it's a specific place to me -- driving through a golden evening on a high, narrow road above a long reservoir that we'd spent all day beside. Cork oaks beside the road, all glowing gold in the sunset. That's this song.

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Crossposts: http://frith-in-thorns.livejournal.com/123326.html

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meme: 30 song questions (1-3)

I have started 30-day memes in the past and never finished them. This may happen here, but I'm hoping not. And I can actually ramble on about songs for a surprisingly long time!

Also I'm doing three questions at once. That might help too.

Day 01 - Your favourite song
King And Lionheart — Of Monsters And Men

This has been my favourite song since pretty much the first time I heard it. It's good to listen to in all moods -- happiness, sadness, depression... Many of my favourites songs are ones where the lyrics are along the lines of "yeah, things are shit, but you can go on", and this is a prime example. Howling ghosts they reappear in mountains that are stacked with fear, but you're a king and I'm a lionheart. It's just lovely the whole way through.

Also the official video is gorgeous. (I recommend viewing HD and fullscreen.)

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Day 02 - Your least favourite song
Blood — My Chemical Romance

There is a very simple reason why this is my least favourite song. When my sister was in her emo years she realised that I wasn't a fan of MCR and found this song rather annoying. So she put her speakers against our dividing wall and played it very loudly. For hours. And hours. And hours.

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Day 03 - A song that makes you happy
Wicked Girls — Seanan McGuire

(I can't find a youtube embed of this song, so I uploaded it to my tumblr. You can play it here.)

This is the song I'd been wanting for all of my life without knowing it. Especially as I grew increasingly dissatisfied with the fates of the girls in the books I'd read since I was a child. (Then of course I got into sci-fi and computer gaming... :P) This is a song about how we deserve better stories, and it's beautiful.

It's also another example of songs I find very motivational when I'm massively down. Our roads may be golden or broken or lost, but we'll walk on them willingly knowing the cost ... We're wicked girls saving ourselves.

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Current Mood: tired
Crossposts: http://frith-in-thorns.livejournal.com/76617.html

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she chose a yard to burn, but the ground remembers her

Signal boost: This round of Last Author Standing urgently needs more votes! Link to voting post and fics.

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I have found a new meme I'm going to play, one of the 30 Days ones. Not that I have illusions about me remembering to post for 30 consecutive days. It's 30 Days of Favourite Female Characters. I'm assuming TV show only, as a) more people are likely to recognise them and b) I can illustrate with pretty pictures.

( So, list: )