#System exists and that's it

[luobinghehasbpd]

My favorite Svsss fanfic trope is when svsss native characters get to interact with system

For us the concepts of a system is intuitive even if you aren't familiar with this trope. But for from characters' perspective? System is so... Eldritch

Like, they have their gods, spirits, heavenly demons etc and there must be something overworldly about them. But system? System is something else

Even gods usually look like humans. System tho? It's usually described as a floating glowing blue rectangle words on it. It speaks in a weird monotonous voice with no life in it. It communicates using strange vocabulary that obviously means something but is absolutely incomprehensible. It's can change reality. I think it made Skinner demon stupid??

SYSTEM IS SO WEIRD

[victusinveritas]

[wynntermelon]

big fan of this guy!!!

[deikshen]

Luo Bingge who searches for his kind Shizun ends up in a strange version of his own universe where he (yet?) does not exist

However, there is the kind Shizun there. He is not Shen Qingqiu, but he is very similar to him —same eyes, similar facial features; perhaps some kind of close blood connection? Luo Binghe is dying of curiosity to find out— and GENUINELY kind, warm, a rogue cultivator that helps both mortals and demons. Everything would be perfect for Luo Binghe; he doesn't exist in that world, there's another, rather absent Demon Emperor hanging around. His existence is a blank slate with no reputation or horrors, and he can simply walk up and win over his kind and gentle Shizun.

Except for the fact that his gentle Shizun actually SEEMS to know him even if that's impossible. The way he reacts when Luo Binghe introduces himself by name is not normal, which makes Luo Binghe frustrated. What exactly is going on?

And also except that his kind Shizun has adopted two slave kids, who are now his spoiled children. And if Luo Binghe had the slightest intention of reaching his Shizun's heart by being kind to his children, all his plans go down the drain when those Yue Qi and Xiao Jiu prove that Luo Binghe is not at all welcome to court their Baba.

[whos-the-seme]

Shen Qingqiu was doomed.

He stood still, fluttering his fan nervously and trying to avoid catching his counterpart's, the real Shen Qingqiu, glaring eyes from across the room. Instead, he idly observed the other Cang Qiong Mountain Peak Lords, trying to spot the differences between the ones he knew and their alternates.

Liu Qingge had brought back a strange artifact from one of his hunts to the monthly Peak Lord meeting. It was a mirror, rimmed an ugly tarnished gold, topped with a decoration that was shaped into an unidentifiable creature with ruby red eyes.

[Important Artifact Detected: Red-Eyed Sphinx's Mirror! Quest starting...]

Shen Qingqiu had been trying to remember where it might have appeared in PIDW when the surface of the mirror suddenly began to glow a dull yellow. It quickly brightened until it obscured everyone's vision.

And then, there stood another set of peak lords across the room, facing them down.

System, what on earth is going on???

[Quest started: Lost Long Spirit in My Reflection! Other characters have been transported to this universe. Host must find a way to send them back without revealing his identity as a transmigrator.]

WTF? I didn't agree to this!

[Good luck!]

System??? Get back here!

While the two Yue Qingyuans and Xu Qinglis conversed together to try to understand what had happened, the other peak lords had begun to mingle with each other, curious about their counterparts.

Shen Qingqiu tried to suppress his panic, sticking close to Shang Qinghua. His Yue Qingyuan occasionally flicked his softened gaze towards the alternate Shen Qingqiu, likely noticing that the other still acted as he used to before his qi deviation. In fact, several of the peak lords he had gotten to know over the years were sending some looks at the other Shen Qingqiu.

With the original goods right there, how long would it be before something exposed him as a fraud?? What if he was confronted about why he acted so differently?

[Host must avoid having his identity exposed. Being revealed as a transmigrator will result in Host being immediately sent back to his old body.]

Yeah, yeah, same shit as always!

Looking to his side, Shang Qinghua seemed to be experiencing the same threats, desperately looking away from the more dead-eyed Shang Qinghua across the room who, luckily, was barely paying him any attention.

Fuck, what do we do?

---

Shen Qingqiu continued to glare at the Other Shen Qingqiu in the room. The other Shen Qingqiu was so obviously a fraud, he could tell within minutes of being here. While his alternate seemed somewhat familiar, he didn't act like him at all, his mannerisms were all off, and despite the attempt at keeping a poker face, Shen Qingqiu could tell that he was nervous. Probably at being caught out.

His alternate self had likely been replaced with a bodysnatcher or some sort of spirt, if they truly were supposed to be the same person. Was everyone else stupid, or had they had their brains sucked out by a Heart Mouthed Lobster-Squid?

Or maybe they simply like the bodysnatcher better and didn't bother to investigate.

Shen Qingqiu's face became stormier, turning his glare to the Other Yue Qingyuan, wondering if he had felt happier once his precious Xiao-Jiu had vanished. The other Yue Qingyuan's face grew even more pathetic. Tch. Typical.

"That stupid System--" Shen Qingqiu nearly snapped his neck in looking at the bodysnatcher upon hearing his murmur. The fraud, upon noticing his sudden attention, clammed back up and looked away. But Shen Qingqiu knew what he heard.

Xi Tong.

He hadn't heard those words in years, not since--

He stepped forward, scanning the other once more. Upon a second, more thorough look, Shen Qingqiu realized that he grew more familiar. He wore his hair in the way that Shen Qingqiu wore it, but looser and less severe. His eyes were clearer and lighter, with hints of a smile, despite his nerves. He occasionally quickly glanced up and to his left, as if seeing something there, before bringing his attention back to the room at large.

No. It couldn't be. He was long dead, despite Shen Qingqiu's best efforts. Even if the fake had some similar things about him, that doesn't mean--

Shen Jiu had once had a brother, besides Qi-ge. Slightly smaller than him, despite the fact that Shen Jiu passed him along as much food as he could when on the streets. He smiled so much despite their circumstances, and was so kind despite Shen Jiu constantly telling him that he was making himself a target. But he looked so, so similar to Shen Jiu himself. They could have switched their clothes and looked exactly the same, if one didn't notice the difference in their demeanors.

His brother has also always been a little odd, talking to himself and arguing with an imaginary friend that only he could see named Xi Tong. One of the reasons that they survived as long as they did on the streets was due to the inexplicable knowledge that his brother seemed to have. Somehow, his brother knew about the various plants or small animals that they could hunt and sell for a pretty coin in the markets. Shen Jiu never asked, not looking a gift horse in the mouth.

But his brother was dead. He had died years ago, in the time during when they were in Qiu's manor. During a punishment for Shen Jiu's attempt to get them both to join Wu Yanzi; he had switched their clothes and taken Shen Jiu's place and died for it. That had been the final catalyst that made him set the manor ablaze and escape, mourning his brother's death as his fault for daring to be free. Cursing Qi-ge for not coming back for them.

Dazed and his vision dim, Shen Jiu took another step forward, and another. Hope, something he thought he had killed off long ago, slowly rose in his chest.

Had his brother survived in this world? Had he managed to escape alongside Shen Jiu? Or had Shen Jiu died in his place? Dimly, he can't help but think that the world would be far kinder if that were the case. If his brother had made it to Cang Qiong Mountain and became a peak lord all on his own and still managed to keep his smile. If he didn't have Shen Jiu dragging him down with him.

The other Shen Qingqiu, not having noticed his approach, laughed at something the other Shang Qinghua said ("Wonder if Shang Qinghua is a traitor here, too," Shen Jiu thought dimly). His laugh was the same. He rose his fan to hide his face, but Shen Jiu noticed how his nose crinkled, and his eyes nearly closed in delight, exactly like--

"A-Yuan?"

[disgracefulthings]

Shang Qinghua: So you slept with a corpse

Luo Binghe: Yep!

Shang Qinghua: And you raised the dead and caressed the bodies of corpses

Wei Wuxian: Well when you say it like that...

Shang Qinghua: And your husband is literally a ghost

Xie Lian: He is <3

Shang Qinghua: ...

Shang Qinghua, to Mobei-Jun: Are we the only couple with no necrophilic implications?

[crabussy]

"well it's obvious this person is faking being part of a system LOOK! the way they draw one of their alters is super similar to an old OC they had!!" hey man so. I don't really know how to explain this to you but the way the brain works. is that anything your brain creates. FOR EXAMPLE an ENTIRE INDIVIDUAL. will usually draw from things YOU PERSONALLY KNOW. and that are PERSONALLY SIGNIFICANT TO YOU IN SOME WAY. "why doesn't this so-called system have a 30 year old bricklayer called bob in their system" that person is a queer teenager heavily invested in the alt fashion community. bricklayer bob is not in any way relevant to this person's life. why would their brain form an individual like that when it is not significant at all to this persons experiences or memories. shut up shut up shut up stop making the lives of traumatised strangers harder I'll EAT YOU

[stars-obsession-pit]

Following an accident, Danny wakes up in Gotham City in a DC universe. Lacking any forms of ID or possessions beyond the clothes on his back, he’s forced to commit some crimes to survive. Minor crimes, but still.

And then he gets caught.

During the court proceedings, they come to the mistaken conclusion that he’s a Meta suffering from some psychiatric issues such as Cotard’s Syndrome (a real rare condition where a person holds the delusional belief that they’re dead/don’t exist/etc).

Thus, between his “need for mental treatment” and the concerns about housing someone with his unique physical traits, he is sentenced to spend time in Arkham Asylum. He’s under pretty low security aside from the anti-Meta stuff and has more freedoms than some other inmates, but it’s still not a great experience. Even at the best of times, Arkham is hardly a nice place.

Some of his fellow residents are decently chill all things considered, but lots very much aren’t.

[sunderwight]

I love thinking about how a Shen Yuan reveal would go from Luo Binghe's perspective, maybe even especially in cases where Binghe doesn't actually get to see Shen Yuan's world or understand it very well.

Imagine finding out that your husband is some kind of interdimensional alien spirit/angel who saw your fate and got so upset about it that he died. Then he came to your world, even though he didn't know that was possible, but since it was he immediately set about making your life less shitty and trying to change your fate. Except he couldn't change all of your fate because some kind of godlike being, the same one that brought him here, didn't want to let him. He's haunted by the fact that he couldn't figure out better ways to help you. He never expected any of his regard to be reciprocated, either, in fact he assumed you'd hate him. You never had to convince him to love you or respect you. He has always loved and respected you. There's basically nothing you can do to lose that love and respect either, because the first version of you that he even knew about was your edgelord comphet idiot mirror universe counterpart.

The bar has been at the earth's crust this entire time.

The fluffy parts of this reveal are obviously good, but I also think Luo Binghe deserves to know just how fully terrible his husband's judgment is. Also that Shizun has been dying for him since before they even met.

I think it'd be fun how often that would probably keep him awake at night, quietly trying not to have a crisis over the fact that his husband has made an honest to god habit of dying for him.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

*peering down at my own genetic sequence* uh-huh uh-huh bold choice bold fucking choices my friend

[lucabyte]

On autonomy, and what it means to be Obliged to Help.

Bonus:

[spatiotemporal]

disciples ₊˚⊹ ᰔ

all of them lined up under the cut!

[victusinveritas]

[notbecauseofvictories]

Watching this again, it becomes incredibly clear in s3 that Nate is teaching Parker how to run her own crew. He fully anticipates that she will be his legacy, and more than anyone else---more than Sophie or Hardison, more than Eliot (though I would argue that Eliot never even slightly wanted it)---he is teaching her how to take over, think like he thinks and plan like he plans. He fumbles some of the emotional stuff, never actually tells her explicitly...but by the time you reach s3 he's clearly all-in. He's decided. Parker is going to be Nate 2.0, with different more exciting bugs than the 1.0 version.

[vebokki]

go go demon gang

[disgracefulthings]

Shen Qingqiu: Hey Airplane, stupid question, but mpreg doesn't exist in PIDW, right?

Shang Qinghua: ...

Shen Qingqiu: RIGHT?!

Shang Qinghua: Nah, I don't believe so

Shen Qingqiu, wiping his forehead: Phew, you had me for a moment there

A Week Later

Mu Qingfang: You are pregnant

Shen Qingqiu, stewing in rage: This is all Shang Qinghua's fault!

Mu Qingfang: ...Shang-Shixiong got you pregnant?