The Tomb Raiders' Guild

by qilinxiong

Link

i'm not done thinking about hei xiazi in sha hai, and how as the narrative progresses it gradually strips back all his layers and brings out that bright streak of humanity he's got running through him that he's wrapped himself around at heart.
we're first introduced to him through li cu's perspective. this kid knows nothing about hei xiazi, and so he's unsettling, half-unreadable, a reason to be cautious. both of them are tired and someone like hei xiazi who made it through the desert this far while following them has to be dangerous; one of the first shots they cut to once he's taken off his disguise is his blade, after all. and hei xiazi does spend the conversation calculating out loud what it is to him to save li cu's life over prioritizing wu xie's, too casually, like he doesn't care. but at the same time their first interactions as a whole are just hei xiazi sitting down, explaining everything at once, and then letting li cu eat his fried rice.
and then later, in the abandoned base, is where he gets more interesting. hei xiazi isn't nice to li cu by any stretch (honestly their whole dynamic is mostly just them comfortably being bastards to one another) but they fall into a partnership, and even though their whole mission is urgent he still drops it all to do something like give li cu a shoulder massage. sure he's still an enigma who holds a gun to people's heads without hesitation, but when hei xiazi could have used that same gun on the mutant stalking/attacking them, he doesn't. even when killing him would've been a justified reaction.
(his words here when talking to the mutant in particular are fascinating to me. once hei xiazi confirms he can understand him, the first thing he tells him is "你是人". you're human. and he pauses after that before asking about his mutation. that sentence wasn't part of the question, it was a statement. a declaration, to someone warped almost beyond recognition of the living.)

Warning: Discussion of near death experiences

On We TV

Trailer on YouTube( more promo pics )

Check out all the cool fanworks here!

"Welcome to the Heihua Exchange, an an event dedicated to the pairing Xie Yuchen/Hei Xiazi from the 盗墓笔记 | Daomu Biji fandom. In this exchange, participants will be anonymously matched to create gifts for one another during a seven-week long creation period.

This exchange is open to all the DMBJ canons - books, movies, TV series, comics, donghua, etc. The gifts can be fic, art, video, podfic or some other form of creation you feel inspired to gift to your recipient, but all of it must be focused on the ship Xie Yuchen/Hei Xiazi."

Infopost on Tumblr

Sign-up form on AO3

Rules and Guidelines Post on Tumblr

I‘ve updated the DMBj Fandom Events Post (Heihua exchange dates, Liu Sang character week), and added a new Fandom Primer in the Resources Masterpost!

Content guidelines:

• Art and fic must be rated no higher than T (nothing 18+). This applies for any suggestive pose/clothing/etc. and also for blood/whump.


• Art should be mostly gen, featuring your chosen character, but you can hint at a pairing if you want to.


• Fic can include a ship, but please make your character the focus still!


• Art and fic for one month do not need to be a collab between the two creators - you can definitely make them match if you want to, but it is not a requirement.


• No AUs please! Please stick to depicting your character doing something that fits with your favorite novel or drama canon (no animal-shifters, school AUs, magic, etc. - just straight-up weird DMBJ)


• The only AU exception is if you’d like to depict a character who died as still alive, since we have too many fridged ladies and dead Zhangs as it is!
  But if you have any questions about what counts as an AU, definitely let Mekare or Vergoftowels know and we can help out.

Format Guidelines

ART

• Image ratio: month pages 5:4 (landscape), seasons pages 4:5 (portrait)


• dimensions for traditional art: month pages: 17,9 cm x 14,3 cm or 7.1 inch x 5.6 inch (or a multiple thereof)


• season pages: 17,9 cm x 22,3 cm or 7.1 inch x 8.6 inch


• digital art dimensions: month pages: 2180 x 1744 pixels, season pages: 2180 x 2725 pixels


• 300 ppi (minimum 150, maximum 600),
  Colour profiles: cmyk


• Recommended file formats: .jpg . png . psd (ONLY if image has been flattened) .pdf (ONLY if no digital text is included in artwork)

FIC

• Choose a quote or excerpt from the fic to put on the calendar page next to the QR code - maximum: 400 characters including spaces


• quote should be gen like the art (the rest of the fic can include shippy content)

How do I know which character I‘m going to create for?

During sign-ups we‘re asking how many characters you‘re confident about being able to create a fanwork for (from a pool of major and minor characters). Once we conclude sign-ups we‘re going to make a numbered list of participants and let people choose their characters in order. Artists get to choose first!
The goal is to have people who are familiar with only a few characters choose first, so we don‘t end up with participants having to create a fanwork for a novel character they don‘t know! Artists choose first, so we won‘t have a fic about a novel character no artist feels confident about making art for.

We‘re relying on participants being honest about the numbers they provide us to determine the order of choosing characters.

What if I want to create for a character that isn‘t mentioned in the lists on the sign-up form (e.g. Yatou)?

That is not a problem! The lists are just there for us to determine the draw order. We included all major characters and a lot of minor characters, but we couldn‘t mention everyone!

Can we draw according to novel/popular fan-interpretations of the characters instead of the live action series?

Yes, of course!

Why are you asking if I‘m interested in the Yucun Discord invite link?

First things first: Participation in the Discord is entirely optional! The project idea originated there and there is a channel reserved for participants to chat and support each other. If enough people on Dreamwidth are interested, we can have something similar (e.g. regualr check-ins/support posts) here.

What is the template for?

The template is just there so you know what the final page design looks like, please use the dimensions/ratios provided in the email to make your artworks. Everyone uses different art programs, so we would like you send us your artworks in the file formats we sent out.

The title page is up, stay tuned for more chapters to be posted from the 24th onwards!

HERE

And here's the title page:( Read more... )

This theme was suggested by foxofninetails - and this fandom lends itself really well to it. Competence has many forms though, so here are some suggestions for how it could show up in fanworks:

Is it the mastery over one‘s body (like Zhang Qiling, Zhang Rishan)?
Is it the ability to plan and successfully pull off a heist (looking at you Xiao Hua and Xiu Xiu in TLT2)?
Is it wielding power with precision and cunning (looking at Wu Nainai and Huo Xiangyu)?
Is it a special skillset and expertise (Pangzi, Liu Sang, Ah Tou, Luo Que, the hearing servants in Yinyue restaurant)?
Is it being really good at many things (Ah Ning, Hei Xiazi)?
Is it medical knowledge and skills (Liang Wang, Hei Xiazi, Huo Daofu)?


Rec us your favourite fanworks showcasing a character‘s skills! Remember to think of art, vids and other types of fanworks as well!

<strong>Title:</strong> <strong>Creator:</strong> <strong>Pairing:</strong> <strong>Rating:</strong> <strong>Warnings:</strong> <strong>Why I like it:</strong>