WIP Meme

[trickytricky]

This looked like an entirely-too-fun meme that Elenothar kindly encouraged me to participate in, so, please enjoy my version of: 

• Post a list of your WIPs (exact title of your document, no fibbing); people can ask about the ones they're curious about!

 Guardian

- ZYL & BCE in early captivity

- YOHE Era 3

- Fic_BCE attends Team Building

- Masquerade!

- Ambassador-Clerk ID Porn

- YOHE mpreg

- Guardian - HPS_as_exiled_vigilante_AU

- Guardian fic - SW meets ZYL as HPS

Star Wars

- Carbon

- Marooned 3 – A Fine and Private Place

- Sweet Dreams Ch2

- Nest 3

I only started actually writing full fic/posting it fairly recently in Star Wars fandom, so just that and Guardian is what you’ll see here... Though I’ve been drafting fannish stories in my head for decades. ^_^  Writing has been slow (or non-existent) recently, so not a lot of recent updates on fic activity on my AO3, but I do hope I can get back into the groove with it one of these days. Full disclosure, I have no earthly idea whether any of these will ever actually be finished and see the light of day! A few have fairly big chunks of text written, some just a sentence or two of an idea, most are mainly comprised of long, detailed outlines with a more detailed, vivid concept sprinkled in here and there. 

The titles listed below are for the stories that had clicked solidly enough in my brain to actually get their own doc created… in addition to asking for more info on any one of these, if you were interested in hearing about any of the totally undeveloped Guardian-related fic ideas/concepts I jotted down to possibly explore one of these days, you could give me a random number from 1-29… that’s how many ‘Fic Idea’ bullets I have listed out in my main ‘Guardian’ notes Document! 

So, if any of these catch your eye, pick away! I’ll post a snippet, if I have one, and I always love to talk a bit about ideas and hear other peoples' takes on them.

Comments

[trobadora]

I'm curious about all the Guardian fic, but especially SW meets ZYL as HPS. :D

And for a random number ... 13?

[trickytricky]

Thanks for playing! XD

Ah, the 'Guardian fic - SW meets ZYL as HPS' is one where I haven't really written any of the narrative out yet, just ideas and outlines, but I think it could be really cute!

The starting concept is one I've seen once or twice in other fic... basically, an alternate first meeting for Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan where instead of spotting ZYL initially in modern times by looking up at the window while in his Professor Shen-mode, the first time Shen Wei sees Zhao Yunlan after the 10,000 years of waiting is a tiny bit earlier in the timeline, but while he's in his Black Cloaked Envoy role, instead. I haven't worked out the details, but somehow events transpire shortly before the Li Qian-Sundial case, where the Black-Cloaked Envoy shows up in the nick of time to restrain a Dixingren criminal with dangerous abilities that Zhao Yunlan/the SID couldn't quite get under control, saving a bunch of bystanders from injury. So, the whole three-years-of-being-SID-Chief-without-being-greeted-by-the-Black-Cloaked-Envoy streak is broken just a little earlier. Said Envoy is *incredibly* shocked once he actually gets a look at the SID Chief’s face and realizes who he must be.

Shen Wei is pretty good at self-restraint and all that jazz, but I'm expecting a full-on freeze-frame moment of utter shock in that moment, same level of shooken-ness that we saw him cope with when looking up at the window...which *then*, ZYL didn’t see because he had ducked out of sight to try to hide, but *now*, him and the SID members present all get to witness it in glorious technicolor detail. Some of the finer details of his expression are concealed by the hood/mask combo, but there’s definitely a visible speechlessness, mouth-parted-in-shock, wide-eyes-rapid-blinking reaction that has everyone present going ??? about. Chu Shuzhi in particular is utterly flabbergasted when the endlessly confident and composed Black Cloaked Envoy full on stutters a couple of incoherent syllables before drawing himself up and trying to scrape the remnants of his scattered brain back together… at that point Shen Wei is just trying to make it out of the encounter with some of his dignity intact. He’s tempted to just flee through a portal to give himself a chance to get his wits together, but, also, Kunlun is here!!!, he finally found him again, how could he possibly leave???

The Envoy coordinates more closely with the SID after that on a few cases… nominally because now that they’ve been introduced, he’s found that ZYL is more welcoming/reasonable than the previous SID leadership who came before, and he welcomes the chance at more fruitful cooperation, but really because, KUNLUN!!! He takes Zhou Yunlan up on offers of tea and sits down with him to talk and is generally having a decently nice time of things basking in the fact the love of his life exists again… he’s a little despondent right at the beginning about how relatively distant/cold Zhao Yunlan is with him, but that’s fine...they’ve got time to get to know one another, and Zhao Yunlan actually responds more and more warmly with every effort the Envoy makes to reach out and every friendly overture he makes to bring their acquaintanceship closer seems welcomed.

Not too long after this, the Sundial case comes up and ZYL briefly spots Shen Wei in professor!mode outside the window like before. But, this time Shen Wei isn’t taken by surprise when he sees him, and decides he needs to make himself scarce right away… there’s too high a chance that clever, observant ZYL will put the pieces together if he gets a close enough look at Professor Shen’s features/mannerisms after all the exposure he’s had to him as the Envoy now, and he really wants to keep his university life as entirely unconnected with his work as the Envoy as possible...it's far safer for the students he's in charge of that way. A fun, slow-build, cat-and-mouse chase around the campus and faculty dorms ensues where ZYL tries to track down the elusive professor he only got a glimpse of from the window near their crime scene, and who he somehow keeps narrowly missing, no matter how close he comes to cornering in person… the best he manages for a good long while is catching him voice-only on his office landline on several occasions. He’s not *too* concerned about it though, because the Envoy is working the Sundial case with him, and has provided high-confidence assurances that the Dixingren murderer they're looking for isn’t any of the university’s faculty...chasing down Pretty!Mysterious!Elusive!Professor is really more of a hobby to pass the time at this point. He only got the most fleeting glimpse of that professor from the window before he ducked away, but for some reason even that short an exposure has him more intrigued than he can logically explain. But, also, *how* and *why* has this professor managed to avoid being cornered in person so deftly all this time? No such thing as this many coincidences and all that, plus his voice over the phone is just… really compelling.

This story has no particular overarching plot, and I have no idea how it actually ends… but that concept/beginning grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let go! XD

Random fic idea #13 is:
Short PWP-lite canon-divergent: 6-8ish years before their canon meeting, ZYL is out at a bar drinking and doing his social networking thing, and sees a slightly-younger Shen Wei out with a group of other college students… Shen Wei immediately stands out to ZYL as an outlier, doesn’t fit in with the crowd (is hanging out with his bottled water, politely watching coats and bags while the other students he’s socializing with drink and take turns dancing/singing karaoke/whatever, seems warm and welcome in the group but holds himself a bit stiffly, a bit apart at the same time...). Shen Wei spots him staring and recognizes him, of course, can’t keep his eyes off him in return… which ZYL takes as flirting/interest… so he propositions him. Shen Wei can’t quite help himself from agreeing to take him up on it (even with the pieces falling into place in the back of his mind like pins in a cipher lock, about timelines and all the implications confirmed by Kunlun being younger than when they first met, by him not remembering/recognizing Shen Wei...yet), but in the end decides ZYL is a bit too drunk to actually fully follow-through on what he's offering. Shen Wei gets him back to his apartment (with as much handsy dirty talk from the highly intoxicated college-aged ZYL as he is being allowed to get away with... which Shen Wei *really* isn't shutting down, but *is* derailing and preventing from progressing into anything serious), makes sure he's comfortably tucked in and has water/food/medicine in arm's reach, and then leaves ZYL his dorm room phone number to reach him later (and memorizes his cell number and address, too, of course); tells him as he's tucking him in bed (and reinforces by leaving in a note as well), that once he’s sober, if he's still so inclined, SW would be really really really interested in taking this not-quite-too-young-devastatingly-shameless-distractingly-sweet-and-FAR-too-reckless! version of Kunlun up on some of the ideas he was proposing, and convincing him that it would be worth getting to know one another and entwining their lives more closely all around.

[elenothar]

Oooh, both of these sound like a lot of fun, particularly that first one because a) HPS double take at seeing ZYL for the first time is always great and b) Pretty!Mysterious!Elusive!Professor (I'm still giggling). Shen Wei probably doesn't even realise that by being elusive and making it into some kind of chase, ZYL only gets more and more interested because that's how ZYL rolls. I do also always enjoy the concept of Shen Wei having to talk about himself while pretending he's not, either as HPS (about Professor Shen) or as Professor Shen (about HPS). Oh yes, that mildly suspicious professor who is definitely not me is 100% not involved in anything, oh no, why would you think that?

[trickytricky]

God, yes, exactly, all of this! XD

Trying to picture how Professor Shen's utterly gob-smacked reaction to initially spotting Zhao Yunlan in that window would translate while he's in Hei Pao Shi-mode is just always hilarity-inducing.

And the identity!porn aspect of him having to navigate addressing the existence of his alter-ego (in either form) is totally cat-nip to me.