Sundial Exchange - Happy Hils

On Thursday evening I joked on Twitter that it felt like Christmas Eve because were all sat counting down until the time all the fanworks for sundial_exchange would be unlocked on Friday morning.

Although it wasn't planned for this reason, I had Friday off work and it really did feel like Christmas when I woke up and had a load of gifts to enjoy.

This was my first time participating in this exchange and I've honestly had so much fun. Initially I was just going to write my gift and leave it at that but I totally got caught up in the community spirit of creating treats and ended up writing a couple of additional little things. It's not over yet, either. Although the fanworks have been revealed the collection is going to remain open for another month for people to add more treats if they wish. I have one in progress at the moment and I have several more Dear Creator letters open that I am hopefully going to write treats for.

I have had such a blast doing this. It's really made me feel part of a fandom community in a way that I haven't felt for quite a while. Everyone is just so friendly and supportive. It's been wonderful.

I think my favourite thing, though, has been the new friends I've made. I contacted achray on a whim because I saw her name on the beta reader list and she mentioned Lost Tomb RPF was a fandom she was happy to beta for. I pinged her a message and we've been chatting pretty regularly on Discord for the past couple of weeks. Not only was she great with the beta work but she got so invested in what I'd written she ended up writing a fic of her own in the same universe as mine as a treat for my recipient.

It was an adventure too. The pairing tinny requested as her first choice has basically no fic so I watched a bunch of behind the scenes videos (looking at Zhu Yilong's face for hours is such a chore) to get some inspiration and then I just dove in. When I first contacted achray I told her the fic was going to be 'no more than 5k' and it ended up being 10k because I couldn't seem to stop.

Then, after I'd submitted it of course, I saw some gifs and thought 'damn, I wish I'd seen that before I'd submitted my fic' so I decided to write another 3k and turn it into a series.

Zero regrets I loved every minute of it.

So, a roundup of what I wrote.

Title: The Unravelling of Zhu Yilong
Fandom: The Lost Tomb RPF
Pairing: Zhu Yilong/Chen Minghao
Rating: Explicit
Summary: Chen Minghao has a deep admiration for anyone who works hard to master their craft. He’s already imagining what he and Zhu Yilong can do together.

Title: Hotpot Reunion
Fandom: The Lost Tomb RPF
Pairing: Zhu Yilong/Chen Minghao
Rating: Explicit
Summary: “Wu Xie and I also have our own pairing.” Chen Minghao is talking like he hasn’t read some of the most filthy Wu Xie/Pangzi fanfiction down the phone at him and then described at length what it would be like if they decided to act it out “But what about me and Xiaoge?”

Title: Because the Night
Fandom: The Lost Tomb
Pairing: Gen
Rating: General Audiences
Summary: This is what they do. They’ve been through so much together, and they help each other through it together.

And, I received some wonderful gifts too! naye made a wonderful cover for my first Guardian fic which I have already added. I love it so much!

And I received two lovely fics from two of my favourite authors. I honestly couldn't be more happy!

Title: All the Maps Were Wrong
Author: frith_in_thorns
Fandom: The Lost Tomb
Pairing: Gen
Rating: Teen
Summary: On the way back from Thunder City, Liu Sang is struggling more than he wants to admit.

Title: Let Him Lay His Head On My Chest
Author: laireshi
Fandom: The Lost Tomb
Pairing: Wu Xie/Zhang Qiling
Rating: Teen
Summary: Xiaoge gets scratched with a poisoned arrow. Wu Xie and Pangzi take care of him.