Sunshine Revival - Challenge #1

 Challenge #1

Journaling Prompt: Light up your journal with activity this month. Talk about your goals for July or for the second half of 2025.

For full transparency I find goals to be a little overwhelming, so these are tentative things I'd like to do rather than 'I'm definitely going to complete these', for my sanity. 

July goals

FIC/FANNISH GOALS

• Write One more fic for VeinFei Week
• Write a drabble sequence for Xia Fei's birthday 
• Do something to celebrate Xia Fei's birthday (I'm thinking a movie since his character profile specifies he likes movies, and/or a picnic!)

PERSONAL GOALS 

• Prepare + get through my grad ceremony without having a breakdown (lmao)
• Continue going on walks a few times a week 
• Reduce my phone screen time at least a little...

Longer term goals for the rest of the year include:

FIC/FANNISH 

• Write SGDLR exchange fic
• Write pt.3 of piercing the window paper series
• Do something fun for Vein's birthday in August! (Hotpot restaurant...perhaps... ^^)

PERSONAL (movement, work, and hobby goals)

• Get back into going to the gym (if money allows)
• Get back into running (if foot allows orz)
• Go to a fitness class (very curious as to whether I'd even enjoy one of these) OR a dance class

• Rewrite CV
• Start looking for part-time work
• Get proactive about looking for experience + opportunities in the publishing industry

• Get back into writing original fiction (this would be an autumn/winter endeavour I think)
• Start a substack (maybe. I'm thinking about it)
• Solidify reading into my everyday routine (I want to read more!!! I've only read eight books this year...)

draft notes on - veifei mirror image observations

 This is something I've always had in the back of my mind when thinking about VeiFei, the way they orbit around each other and what characterises their dynamic. Pain mv (and MoD) made it stand out more for me, so I'm sharing my (bullet pointed, messy) thoughts! The main takeaway here is that Vein and Xia Fei are two sides of the same coin, in more ways than one...

reflections / mirror images / parallels 

- VeiFei ambidextrous, perhaps ? (We see Xia Fei writing with his left hand in his PV, and we also see Vein using his left hand at various points)

- PAIN MV: literal double!vein, figurative double!felix (his disguise/mask); chp1-2 being similar tonally, and colour wise (the real shift musically is in the final chp); xf and reflections (he's a vampire who cannot behold his beauty, plus the lift where he's surrounded by pictures of himself), and vein's portraits in memory of a man who is Not dead (both hit a similar note of dramatic irony, perhaps)

- XF aesthetically takes after vein in pain mv (seeing pain!XF's outfit next to Vein's canon outfit really draws attention to this lol)

- In canon, we have both of them sporting black turtlenecks

- (the latter being heavily implied/potentially canon) "all i do is pursue" (PV song lyrics) /"i only go for the best" (canon quote) > Vein, youngest son working his way to the top (like!!! such a parallel)

- MoD — Vein turns people who win against him into tiles; Prince Xiafeierwen or whatever they called him LMAO is a prince, but one who if you are not sufficiently charmed by, he'll turn you into stone ? < need to check the details on this 

- "taboo maze" (PAIN lyric, Feifei's verse) and "all taboos are off (no paths are bound)" (MoD; Vein's line/lyric) .. interesting 

- The fact the episode we're introduced to BOTH Vein and Xia Fei is called THEM...

contrasts / duplicity / duality

- Colour contrast, water/fire motifs

- the translations/interpretations of their (CN) name as contrasting 

- wolf/deer ( < love of the wolf by cixous core. To me.)

- Xia Fei who is all about masks and facades; Vein who Hates lies... < but, still mentions facades in bloody storm 

p.s this is taken straight from my notes app, but I wanted to throw it up here as a way of....remembering it exists I guess? I'd like to do a proper write up of my thoughts on this and share it on my tumblr, but I can't quite get myself to expand on said thoughts currently. So I'm posting this here partially for my own satisfaction as well (since I don't know if anyone who stumbles across this will even know what I'm on about. Anyway!!)