#not that SQQ is really doing that at first

[confuzing]

Street kid Luo Binghe makes the mistake of letting some weirdo get a hold of him and finds himself locked up in a windowless room somewhere.

The only bright spot in this shit situation is that there's another boy in there with him. Shen Yuan is clearly in considerably worse shape than Luo Binghe and he says he's been here for a very long time. But he's so kind to Binghe and deliberately draws their captor's attention to himself (and away from Binghe) whenever he can.

He also, after Binghe's been there about a month, steals their captor's keys, unlocks the restraints they're both in, and then shoves Binghe out the boarded up window he's been prying open when he had time.

Shen Yuan is too big to fit through the window, he says. They both know that's not true but they can also both hear that their captor is coming-he must have noticed the keys were missing- and Shen Yuan intends to stall him while Binghe gets away.

Binghe promises to come back with help and SY just smiles and nods and shoos him away.

He runs as fast as he can, and once he's far enough away from the house he escaped from he starts asking for help- but no one is listening to him. And he knows if he goes to the local guard he'll probably be handed back over as a runaway slave... And then he sees two men who both seen almost to shine in the dirty city streets... they must be cultivators, they must. If anyone can help him now it will be them. So Luo Binghe throws himself at the taller of the two men and starts begging for help.

Shen Qingqiu is absolutely positive this kid is trying to lure them into an ambush, but Yue Qingyuan- who invited himself along on SQQ's mission without asking him- doesn't think so.

YQY goes with LBH, and SQQ follows, complaining that this is a trick the whole way- up until they discover that yes actually the local nobleman does have a secret room he's been imprisoning children in and there is indeed an almost beaten to death SY in there.

YQY sends SQQ off with SY- gotta get that kid medical attention ASAP- while he and LBH stay behind to Politely Ask Some Questions.

When YQY and LBH arrive back at the sect SY is still in the medical ward but isn't dying and is even awake! LBH is relieved and refuses to leave him again.

YQY fills SQQ in that not only were both boys not slaves, SY was actually the son of the nobleman's first wife she had as the result of an affair. He disappeared from the household around the time the first wife died and all the servants assumed their Lord had sold the boy or killed him outright.

But now that the nobleman has died a sudden and painful and extremely mysterious death it looks like SY has inherited the estate. YQY will have someone from An Ding go sort out the details since SY can't.

SQQ watches YQY smile at the little urchins they've rescued and talk in a way that obviously means he intends them to stay and says, internally 'Fuck no Qi-ge you don't get to replace me with a Shen you actually did manage to save. Absolutely not!'

Out loud the conversation goes:

SQQ: I want the older boy.

YQY: What?

SQQ: You intend for them to stay right? I want the older boy for Qing Jing Peak, you can keep the little one if you want.

YQY, pleased and assuming SQQ and SY must have bonded while he and LBH were away: Of course.

SQQ and SY have not bonded, and once they get back to QJ Peak things are tense. SQQ is low-key kinda jealous of SY and also reminded much too much of himself by the boy. Except he was never as naive and stupid as this kid is! Why is he so nice? How?? And the little shit isn't even afraid of him!

SY, deeply sarcastic: Oh nooo. I'm going to be beaten? Such a thing has never happened to me before! *Coughs because his throat is permanently messed up from being nearly strangled to death*

SQQ, aware that if he hits the kid now he loses: You're not allowed in the library for a week.

SY: What!

SQQ: The next words out of your mouth better be "yes Shizun, sorry Shizun" or it'll be two weeks.

SY: ...yes Shizun, sorry Shizun.

Meanwhile LBH and YQY are having a magical adventure in becoming a found family and are bonding over their obsessions with their respective Shens. They absolutely come visit QJ Peak at least twice a week much to SQQ's displeasure and SY's delight.

[fairsweetlonging]

truth serum / system reveal au where shen qingqiu gets hit with an uncloaking spell that reveals the system in the reflection of his eyes every time it pops up.

during one of his missions, in the treasure hoard of some dragon-like creature, he finds a golden, oval shaped hand mirror, its gaudy style more victorian based than anything (airplane you hack!), that doesn't seem to do anything when he looks into it. but when he does, it reveals the system's screen in his eyes.

he doesn't notice this, of course, because he can't see it, and the system, surprisingly, stays quiet.

the peak lords think he's cursed.

maybe mu qingfang is the first to notice, during the mandatory post mission check-up, when shen qingqiu is scrolling through his most recently accumulated points and mu qingfang can see the strange vividly-blue lines reflected in his pupils. it's gone when shen qingqiu blinks, like it was nothing but a trick of the light.

it comes out when yue qingyuan is visiting and, just as he's done laying out the plans for a new mission, shen qingqiu's eyes glaze over and a bright blue box takes over the whole of his iris. shen qingqiu goes quiet; the thing in his eyes moves, shifts, pulses for a second, like static worms crawling all over his pupils. then he blinks, and it's gone, and shen qingqiu accepts the mission that yue qingyuan was almost sure he would decline.

maybe there is an intervention, when the peak lords corner shen qingqiu at qian cao peak and try to figure out what's wrong, subjecting him to all kinds of treatments and curse-finding spells that turn up empty, they can't find anything.

of course, the silencing threat is still very much up and running. at first shen qingqiu was kind of confused by the whole ordeal, but when the peak lords start describing a "strange blue box", he realizes, with sickening suddenty, that they're describing the system. and he can't say anything.

this only makes everything worse, because their fellow peak lord now keeps evading every question and acts like he doesn't understand. liu qingge points right at his face and asks, "that blue box, what is it?" and shen qingqiu laughs nervously and starts talking about how bright the weather is and surely it's the sky and nothing to worry about!

even worse, during the intervention the system thought it was a good idea to start talking to him, so now even the peak lords who hadn't seen it and who might have been persuaded by light tricks and reflections, get a first row view that no, that definitely isn't a trick of the light.

they try to do the whole thing of "are you in danger, blink twice" but shen qingqiu can't even do that because it's still a direct admittance!

maybe eventually he starts saying vague confirmations that don't actually confirm anything, like "this master hears what you're saying", or maybe he goes with a classic "this master can neither confirm nor deny that." but the system starts warning him for that too and eventually he stops saying anything, which worries the others more.

luckily mu qingfang catches on that every time they ask a direct question about the box or shen qingqiu says anything vaguely confirming, it appears. it doesn't appear when they ask about curses or demons, so it must not see that as a threat.

for a little extra angst: maybe the peak lords keep pressuring him for answers, and at some point shen qingqiu gets fed up and snaps out something like, "why don't you understand that i'm not allowed to answer that!" the system counts this as a direct admittance, threatening it's existence. so it punishes. shen qingqiu has a qi deviation so bad it lasts two weeks and takes two people every day to cleanse his meridians. the system doesn't appear in that time. it doesn't appear for a long while after that, either. the peak lords stop asking, mainly because shen qingqiu will instantly leave the room if they do. they don't stop searching for a cure, though.

shang qinghua returns from a business trip and catches on the second someone mentions a blue box and forced silencing.

[rhiangalaxy]

Preparations (Origins pt.4 First/Prev/Next)

(Edit: there's now an info post for this au, you should check it out :3)

[ID: A Scum Villain Comic. Panel one has all characters drawn in chibi style. The caption at the top says " Over the course of several months.." The top half shows SJ!Shen Qingqiu kneeling the grass and feeding Qi to the spiritual tree with a blank/calm expression. The blood on it has dried and darkened. The second half has SQQ dressed with his hair done up in a more intricate style of buns and with a jeweled hairpin. He wears a dark brown over robe/coat and a dark green robe tucked into arm braces, as if trying to disguise himself a little bit. He speaks to a courtesan with a slightly surprised look as she happily chats away, handing him a basket full of cloths. The courtesan is a brunette dressed in yellow and pink robes, her hair is mostly loose but has some loops in the back.

Panel two has Chibi!SQQ sitting at his desk at the bamboo house. He is dressed down in simple green and teal robes and has his hair tied up into a bun with a teal ribbon. He has eyebags under his eyes as if he's been staying up late frequently. He intently reads a scroll in his hands whilst other scrolls and books are strewn across the desk. SQQ is then slightly surprised and looks up at the sound of someone knocking. This surprise instantly turns to vitriol as Chibi!SQQ glares and says "To what does this Master owe the pleasure for this late visit Zhangmen-Shixiong?"

Panel three has Yue Qingyuan standing with his hands folded into his sleeves with a slightly flushed and nervous closed eye smile. He earnestly says "Xiao-...ah Shen-Shidi! This one was hoping to speak with you." Chibi!SQQ opens his fan to cover the lower half of his face, turning away slightly from YQY as he mutters with a glare, yet also with flushed ears, "If you must." Chibi!YQY looks down at him with a soft smile as he replies "Thanking shidi." End ID]

[starry-bi-sky]

no context snippet for a "SY is SJ" au i thought of at 1am last night, because i am a firm believer of the "amnesia doesnt erase your trauma it just erases the context of it" agenda.

(although in SY's case he DID kinda forget that trauma.. at first. it's coming back to him. the system gave him a grace period. there that's my excuse)

crossposted on ao3 too in case anyone wants to read it there instead

--------

Shen Qingqiu is painting again.

He's found himself doing that a lot lately, now that he's out of seclusion and Binghe is in the bamboo house, squirreled away into the side room where the Head Disciple should be. Painting is, of course, a logical course of action for a peak lord to do! Especially one such as himself, the Peak Lord of Qing Jing, which was basically the peak of the creative arts.

But— well, he wasn't expecting to find himself liking it so much. Or doing it so often. Painting in the style of the time period is a lot easier to learn than he expected, and it gets him B-points for in-character actions! Who knew the Original Goods was such an artist of the time? He had such an evocative way with his brush, he should know — he's found some of his works!

(They were tucked away like a dirty secret in the back of his closet, locked away in a qiankun chest that Shen Qingqiu found the key to far too easily. He’ll admit to being a little disappointed in the Original Goods’ predictability — a false bottom in the vanity, really? Anyone could find that!) 

This brought him to his next issue; he was getting headaches, and he thinks, perhaps, just a little, that the Original Goods' thoughts and feelings were bleeding into him. Just a tad! And he was certain it was the Original Goods too, because— because, well…

He keeps flinching. You know how you’re walking down a public but otherwise empty hallway, and turn the corner and nearly run right into someone, and your heart jumps three spaces to the left and back? Subconsciously you knew there was a chance you were going to see someone, but their sudden appearance still startles you? 

Yeah, that. He keeps experiencing it with Binghe. He about jumps right out of his skin whenever Binghe emerges from the side room or the kitchen, even though he knows his disciple is there! And he knows it’s not a habit from his old world, because Shen Qingqiu lived with three other siblings in the house, and always knew to expect someone to be right around the corner. 

And he knows, especially so, that it’s not a habit from his old world, because along with the mini heart attacks that come with Binghe’s presence in the bamboo house, is the discomfort. A distinct yet indistinguishably vague feeling of unease that comes with sharing a living space with someone. The kind that makes his hackles rise like a particularly disgruntled and cornered street cat. 

Again, he grew up with three siblings! That could not be coming from him. It has to be an Original Goods feeling slipping in, and it was really getting in the way of things! How was he supposed to give Binghe a sense of belonging and a better upbringing if his presence in the bamboo house made him feel horribly exposed?

Some days, he just can't escape the gnawing feeling of dread in his chest when he returns to the bamboo house at the end of the day, knowing full well that it will soon be accompanied by someone else. Even if that someone was Binghe. 

That feeling of a lack of privacy makes his skin crawl and his shoulders lock up to his ears with every step. It was inconvenient; annoying. 

It was utterly unscientific, it was his house! And it was only Binghe, who, currently, is a harmless little white sheep! There was no darkened protagonist here, come to tear his limbs off. There was nothing to be so… tense about. 

It does nothing to stop the little swooping his heart does when he opens the door to, sometimes, Binghe already there, kneeling at the table like a dutiful disciple as always.

Oh, and that's not starting on his steadily increasing dislike of physical touch. It had to be something to do with the ludicrous amount of layers he wears and the modesty standards of the time period — and, also, of course, the Original Goods' own aversion to it.

He knows he's never felt so uncomfortable in another human being's presence before! Sure, he wasn’t the most social of people in his old world, but he still remembers being able to leave the house and be among the masses with relative ease. Here, though, was an entirely different story. His personal space bubble seemingly doubled, no, tripled in size, and it was irking him quite unhandily. 

The worst offenders were the Peak Lord meetings, it had to be. Navigating through the sea of disciples, cultivators, and visitors on Qiong Ding was a nightmare enough on its own — lessened only by the fact that said mountain occupants parted like the red sea when they saw him coming — but sitting in a secluded room with eleven other people, majority of whom still disliked him despite his turnaround? Awful.  

The proximity between him and his martial siblings isn’t even that bad, either. He has plenty of elbow room and in fact, would need to make an effort to reach out and physically touch anyone on either side of him. But, still!! Too close!! 

Shen Qingqiu made the conscious decision to sit as close to the door as his own comfort would allow, but not so close that he couldn’t see it — he tried that once. He doesn’t want to speak of the incident. The stress alone will give him heart palpitations. 

(He, pointedly, doesn’t want to think about the time he arrived at a Peak Lord meeting and found the Long Ning Shou Peak Lord sitting in His Chair either. Shen Qingqiu has never been particularly territorial about ‘assigned seating’ before, up until that moment. While he’s proud to say that he didn’t do anything to Chen Qingxuan for sitting in his spot, he’s mortified by how childishly petulant he felt about it for the rest of the meeting. He’s pretty sure everyone could sense his sour mood.)  

Why, just a few days ago he nearly bit a poor disciple's head off during martial lessons when they accidentally tumbled into him after a series of spectacularly fumbling footing. The child had been so horrified and apologetic that Shen Qingqiu remembered to reel himself back in time and merely scold them, rather than tear their skin right off with a tongue lashing.

But— enough about such stressful things! Shen Qingqiu was painting, and when he was painting, Binghe knew not to bother him, and to not let anyone do so either. Lest they all be dealt with a moderately grumpy Shizun. 

(His emotions may be as volatile as a hormonal boy lately, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t know how to keep them in check!! He still had a reputation to keep.)

His studio offered him a sense of privacy and solitary that not even his bedroom allowed him — for Binghe could knock on his bedroom door to alert him for whatever needed his attention, and while he could do the same to the studio, the fact remained; a Shizun interrupted during his precious studio time, did not, a happy Shizun make. 

There were silencing talismans painted into the walls — courtesy of the Original Goods — that Shen Qingqiu really quite appreciated. It allowed him the peace of mind to do things his face could not allow him outside of it— and that is, he got to muse aloud to himself, and hum songs from his old world that he couldn't anywhere else. Some songs that he still knew the lyrics to, he was happy to half-sing under his breath.

It had to be a form of meditation, it had to be! With how much peace and grounding it brought him, it couldn't be anything but a form of meditation.

Currently, he was just letting instincts lead his brush strokes while he hummed a melody from some myth musical he stumbled across a few weeks before he died. The songs had been so catchy that he had most of them all but memorized! He's tried repeating the instrumentals on his guqin and ruan with varying degrees of success.

Painting helped kill his migraines the most. As it stands, he’s had a killer one hammering at his skull since this morning. Bad enough to the point that he nearly snapped at poor Binghe during breakfast, and the child could all but sense the sour mood radiating off his master, and in turn had been silent and subdued until he left. 

Aish, that child… Shen Qingqiu hasn't quite quelled the guilt in him. Something about that awful subservience rankled him in a way he couldn’t explain, making him want to recoil and snap out at the same time. Something dark and deep in him had reared its head, wanting to reach over and shake Binghe for it. 

He'd been horrified by his own thoughts, and then locked himself in his studio for the rest of the day.

Even in death — or wherever the Original Goods was — he was still making things difficult! It was only natural that Binghe would go quiet and careful at the sight of Shen Qingqiu’s bad mood, he used to beat the boy at whim for imagined slights! He’ll have to reassure Binghe better that he wasn’t going to hurt him. 

Bah. He was supposed to be painting, not thinking about things that made his head pound worse or his mood dampen more! He didn't want to think about Luo Binghe right now — a surprise, even for him! — he wants to focus on the scent of ground ink and paints, and his own soft humming.

He blinks, once, twice, and focuses on the painting. It happens, like now, that he would zone out and paint entire landscapes, people, whatever, without realizing. It was always a guessing game of what he's made when he lets his mind wander. Some of things he painted were merely of Qing Jing, other times— 

— a burning red fire, encased on canvas, hangs off his eyelashes. And following it, the ensuing qi deviation he'd shoved off. —

Other times aren't worth mentioning.

He's painted a boy this time, a young one, with dark skin and even darker hair, and a smile that isn't quite right. There's a beauty mark right above the corner of his lip, artfully placed, as if it had been hand-placed by an expert craftsman. The boy's upper face remains unpainted, as if he’d been born without eyes. Yet, even without them, the boy looks completely serene and non-judgemental. Mn, no, perhaps more accurately he looks passive? Peaceful? 

Shen Qingqiu can feel his gaze, missing as it is, burning into him. He frowns immediately. His headache no less lessened, in fact— he thinks it's gotten worse. There’s a horrid familiarity about the boy in the painting, like a word poised on the tip of his tongue that he can’t quite place. "Don't look at me like that." He says aloud, bah, he hadn't meant to! But it’s not like there’s anyone to hear him. "Don't you know who I am?" 

En, no, it’s placating. That’s what it is. The boy is placating him. How unscientific! Unneeded; ridiculous. Why would he paint a boy trying to placate him? He was a scum villain, and a grown man!

The painting says nothing, as it ought to, it was only wet ink and dry parchment. Shen Qingqiu's ears burn anyways, and his eyes drop down to the smile on the boy's face. 

He finds that he deeply detests that smile on his face, it disgusts him. 

It disgusts him in the way only sheer incompetence can, a burn of irritation that bubbles up every time he saw an objectively wrong take in the PIDW comment section. As if he can't believe someone would look at him, a scum villain such as himself, and still be able to smile like that.

More than that, it's not right. That smile. It's— there's something wrong with it. Which can't be right, Shen Qingqiu hardly makes a mistake when he makes these trance-made paintings. But there is, he’s looking at it right here. He hates it. That awful smile. It's so— so… insincere. If you're going to smile at him, at least mean it, eh? Doesn't he deserve that much?

Long, slender fingers dip into the small wooden paint bowl beside him and lift back up, dripping wet ink onto the side table, and then onto the floor, across the last two layers of his robes that he always strips down to in here.

He reaches for the canvas to— to what? Smear that stupid smile off that boy's face? Mould it into his own image, back into place like the way it should be, paintbrush be damned? That wretched child, smiling at him like that. That smile is too straight, too perfect. It's mocking him.

Where is the tilt? The slant in it? That boy always smiled with an off-kilter turn of his lips, crooked, that made him real the same way blood in the mouth did, and now he's not, and it's wrong. He will wipe that smile off the boy's face himself if he must, if only to get him to wear anything else—

There is a knock on the door, gentle, hesitant. Only his cultivator hearing is what allows him to pick up on it. Shen Qingqiu's head pounds terribly at the sound. It makes a screeching sound go off in the back of his skull, like an abrupt kick to the teeth. His jaw clacks together on pure adrenaline as he regains the sense to not snarl wordlessly.

Didn't he say not to interrupt—?

His ink-stained fingers snap back, a gunshot recoil that sends splatters of ink flying and splatting coldly against his face. His nails dig painfully into the soft flesh of his palm, and Shen Qingqiu gathers himself back into his lofty cultivator persona with a single breath and a ramrod straightening of his spine. His ears ring horribly. "What." He calls, perhaps a little too coldly.

"Shizun?" Binghe says softly, and the sound of that child's voice is like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head. Recognition hits him, and the guilt crawls back in at his earlier irritation. "Forgive this one for interrupting, but Yue-shibo is here."

Shen Qingqiu is still staring at his painting, but the boy’s smile burns behind his eyelids like a fire. It takes half a beat for him to respond; "…Alright," he says, and stands up, "prepare some tea, Binghe. And use the ginger root this master owns, he has a terrible headache."

He walks around the stool, fingers still dripping black, and plucks his robes up from the chair he draped them over. His head still hurts, and there’s a peculiar ache in his heart. He takes his time putting his layers back on, vindictively tying each button and knot leisurely. 

Surely Yue Qingyuan has the patience to wait for this one after he so rudely arrived unannounced, hm?

[ihopeitruinsrocknroll]

ughh i have so many feelings about characters that are backed into a corner, snarling and bleeding and dying but instead of letting themselves die and fade into obscurity they get up and keep fighting. they don’t just let themselves get swept into the wings of the heavens—instead they grit their teeth and make their death mean something. if they’re going down, if there’s no other option—their death is going to mean something. if they’re dying, they’ll take another dozen, hundred, thousand of their enemies with them. even if it’s meaningless in the end, even if they won’t survive to see the happy ending the bloodshed won them. they’d rather plunge a knife into their heart and make the world watch than pass away in a hospital bedside, they’d rather bleed themselves dry out of spite to cover up the sight of their foes celebrating.

[k0mmari]

SYSTEM! SHEN YUAN AU

Okay, look, I've head a System SY idea for a while now (in fact, some of the ideas for this were used when I was first planning out Locked & Loaded), but after seeing @/artsarasp's System!SQQ AU, the brainworms have been once again come alive and I just need to get this out into the world. This is a very bare bones idea that I (probably) won't actually write, so walk with me for a second! Also this is going to be a very, very long post.

In this idea, the System actually is an interdimensional organization that deal with creating new worlds based on stories and making sure these worlds continue working as intended and (eventually), sending transmigrators to worlds that need 'improvement' (this improvement being very subjectice depending on which worker is assigned which story).

In SY's case, he's just someone who usually works behing a screen, in the most exciting cases he gets to guide transmigrators around but most of the time he just makes sure the stories 'code' is running normally and nothing world-breaking is going on in the stories (like someone managing to find a hack to skip defining plot points, or activating God-Mode somehow). He's very happy with this arrangement, btw! He was never one to run around and his boss has warned him once or twice for apparently being 'way too harsh' on the few transmigrators he got to be a System for.

Unfortunately, one day he is assigned to 'manually inspect' a world because a certain co-worker of his (Shang Qinghua) had been sent down there to handle a glitch but had gone missing instead. When SY asks why was he being the one asked to do this (not that he doesn't care for his friend, but he REALLY isnt made for running around), his boss says SY is the only other one who is familiar enough with the world to not get lost.

So that's how he find out SQH had managed to get himself stuck on the world he created (as a joke even, he hadn't even expected that when he was messing around with the company's program he would actually be able to create a new world based on the shitty novel he'd written as a human). And of course, SQH only having one friend, subjected SY to the story.

SY grumbles and denies ever seeing anything about SQH's story (or liking it, even if his boss kindly points out they never mentioned SY liked it) but eventually he agrees; and that's how he finds himself being teletransported onto the world of PIDW, carrying a pair of Debugging Sheers he'd never thought he would have to hold (he calls them Big Scissors), with the mission of finding SQH and dealing with the glitch that was still somewhere in the world.

Though, when he goes to message his supervisor about the specifics (where he should go or what was the last known location of SQH), he finds out that his Personal System has apparently already been affected by the glitch ("ALREADY??") that he was realizing worked more like a virus. Fortunately some messages were still going through, and his supervisor notified him they couldn't send him directly to the location he needed to be, specially because the virus seemed to have fragmented and spread to various parts of the stories timeline. SY now has to jump around through time a few times and slowly cut doen the glitches caused by the virus.

Thus begins Shen Yuan's Great Narrative Haunting (in real time.).

Luckily, for him, the place he first appeared was already one of the spots the virus has infected the world, and it seems to be in a town not too far away from him, so with a quick activation of the 'Ghost Mode' function (avaiable for all System staff to make it easier when they have to manually fix something, making them invisible and untouchable), SY heads to the town.

The glitch actually doesnt take too long to find (it was a buggy tree clipping onto a nearby river, which only needs a snip of the Big Scissors to disappear from reality), but when SY and passing through the town to find some better signal for his Personal System so he can jump forward to the next stop, he sees a group of snickering kids leaving an alleyway. A bit curious, he passes by the alley and barely manages to see through the pouring rain and spot a trembling figure on the floor. Of course, PIDW was never meant to be a happy or forgiving world, so SY is not surprised at the idea that some kids were bullying a smaller kid, though it still makes him upset.

He kneels close to the child and turns off 'Ghost Mode', pulling out an umbrella from his inventory (yes, System staff ALSO get an inventory, no one wants to have to carry aroung those big ass scissors), covering him from the rain. The boy is shaking from the cold, and even if SY can't check the boy's identity (since his system is still buggy), he reasons the probability of him coming into contact with an important character is very small, and even if System staff aren't supposed to interact with characters, he limits himself to at least getting the boy out of the rain.

Luo Binghe later wakes in a bench underneath a small shop's roof, covered in a thick cloth, having no idea how he'd gotten there besides the vague dream (or memory?) of a strangely dressed person patting his hair and taking him into their arms. He notices the rain has stopped and he's perfectly dry. Shen Yuan, seeing the kid seems to be doing well, finally jumps to his next location.

It doesn't take long for SY to figure out where he is when he loads onto the next mission location, in fact, he's almost certain he'd recognize the bamboo forest and calm, almost dream-like atmosphere of Qing Jing Peak anywhere. Seeing there that Qing Jing even exists in the first place, he deduces Binghe is still not emperor, so this time he makes sure to not be seen by any characters. It also doesn't take for SY to find his next target, as a commotion behind him catches his attention.

And oh, if he isn't familiar with the scene. A few older looking disciples push around a smaller looking boy, while a girl insistently shouts for the leader of the older disciples to stop. SY barely managed to appreaciate how Luo Binghe looks so cute as a child before (who he assumes is) Ming Fan snatches rips an amulet out of Binghe's neck. It's quite the heartbreaking scene to watch live, poor Binghe fighting for the only remaining piece of his adoptive mother without even knowing he's destined to never see it again. SY's Personal System may be buggy but it's still functional enough to detect if SY has a direct impact on the main storyline, so SY is basically forced to stand still and watch.

Though, since he had a clear view of the whole scene, when Ming Fan throws the jade pendant into the forest, SY can perfectly follow the arch of the necklace and sees where it landed, which is when an idea pops into his head. Distantly hearing Luo Binghe and NYY frantically searching for a necklace they'll never find, SY spots where the fake jade glimmers high up on a tree brench, though it's glimmer is distorted by the distinct sight of a glitch corrupting it's form. If SY were to follow standard procedure, he'd just have to bring out his Sheers and snip the necklace out of existence, but looking at it... Would it be so bad if he debugged the necklace the longer way?

Besides, if Binghe has the necklace or not, it's not like this one item is going to interfere with the major story anyways. SY isn't stopping Binghe from falling into the Abyss, he's just... Returning a lost item to it's intended owner.

Later, after an exhausting afternoon of what seemed to be searching through every nook and cranny of Qing Jing Peak's surrounding forest, Luo Binghe goes back to the shed he sleeps in utterly defeat and feeling strangely hollow; that is, until he opens the door and finds a new, thick blanket neatly folded in the middle of the shed, way too clean to be anything he had previously owned, and atop of it, his precious jade pendent, sitting there as if it never even dissapeared. Luo Binghe distantly notices that nobody that visits the shed ever lets the door closed after they visit.

The third location SY goes to leaves him no time to acclimatize, as he's immediately attacked by a beast, and only after (struggling to) kill it, does SY notice the unfortunate situation he was placed into: the Immortal Alliance Conference. By this point, he's already figured out his Personal System is most likely using Binghe's energy as Protagonist to make up for the energy it can't use due to it being partially corrupted, and the energy it needs to save up so SY can go back to the System's head quarters, so it really wasn't a surprise that he would be sent to this specific plot point, but dammit can't he avoid having to be near the place where his favorite character is thrown into hell??

And, well, there's also the problem that a beast attacked him, which meant it saw him, which meant his Ghost Mode was also glitching out, and after fiddling around which a half functioning System interface, it seems that the presence of the virus here is stronger than the other places, though still not the biggest chunk. Truly, just the cherry on top of his situation that he'd have to scurry around and somehow manage to not bump into anyone.

As is his luck, as SY tries to head closer to where his System is signaling the glitch's presence, other monsters continue attacking him, which besides slowing him down a considerable amount, it also causes the risk of him being picked up by the people watching the Conference through the Spirit Eagles circling the area, which is the last thing he needs.

Eventually he goes to the closest spot he can to the glitch, but a snapping sound behind him sends him into full panic. A person stands behind him, which leaves SY wondering how he managed to miss someone sneaking up on him like this. "You seem to have dropped something." the person says, and SY eyes immediately fall to his body, scanning himself to what he might have lost, and his hand basically flies to his throat when he notices the tassle that is usually nestled there is missing. He quickly turns around, only to come face to face to the golden protagonist, mister Luo Binghe himself.

Binghe tries interrogating SY as to what he's doing, sneaking around the supposedly sealed off Conference grounds, and SY, in his panicked state (slightly fuelled by a fanboy-induced craze) tries to fumble for excuses, but only when Binghe finally understands that the feeling he gets when looking at this strange person is an undeniable sense of deja-vu and tries asking SY if they'd met before, a loud rumblind shakes the ground: the Abyss has opened.

SY feels even more panicked, cause what this means is eventually, not only will he be discovered by Luo Binghe (his supervisor is going to kill him), but he could possibly be discovered by Shen Qingqiu, of all people! He doesn't get too much time to think about his grand escape however, as a piercing shriek comes from the Abyss rift. Right, how could he forget about the Black Moon Rhinoceros Python? And-- Oh, of course! Of course the damn thing would be virus-infected object!

After teaming-up with Binghe, the both of them manage to subdue the monster long enough that SY managed to snip it, though while they both catch their breath, SY belatedly realizes he just helped Binghe fight with the monster he was supposed to fight. Alone! The monster who was supposed to break his demonic seal! And, like clockwork, he can distantly hear what can only be SQQ's hurried steps through the forest! FUCK!!

With no other option, and Binghe now wanting to continue his interrogation, SY hurriedly start to walk towards the Abyss rift, frantically giving Binghe tips about what he could do in the Abyss to have an easier time, though when he catches a glimpse of green robes between the trees, SY types something on a floating screen and jumps backwards, Binghe letting out a shocked scream. Unfortunately, the protagonist won't be able to do nothing about the seemingly insane and way too familiar man who just jumped into the Abyss, as a rustling sounds behind him, and he's met with a newly regenrated Black Moon Rhino.

SY feels horrible about spawning a new one after Binghe just finished fighting one, but the story must continue, and with his Personal System finally free from most of the virus corruption, SY leaves one last gift as an apology and warping away before hitting the Abyss' ground. Later, when Binghe wakes up at the bottom of the rift after being pushed by SQQ, the first thing he sees is a qiakun pouch, full of useful items and tiny note at the bottom that reads 'Sorry!'

Pt.2

Pt.3

[angie-the-hobbit]

Pokemon AU: Cultivator’s spiritual powers are tied to Pokemon. These Pokemon are bonded with spiritual objects, the most powerful of which are bound to swords. It is taboo to bind a Pokemon against their will.

Shen Qingqiu’s Pokemon include SJ’s Serperior, Xiu Ya (sword) and SY’s Mimikyu, Cucumber (fan).

Xiu Ya took a while to warm up to SY, recognizing SQQ but not the soul within him. At first it hated SY and would not cooperate at all, blaming him for the loss of its master. Eventually it came to realize that its reckless partner had died in a qi deviation and the idiot inhabiting SQQ’s body could not have killed him (he is too stupid). It contemplated breaking their bond, but found that it did not want to give up its old life and SY is at least amusing.

Cucumber showed up on Qing Jing peak shortly after SY’s transmigration. It recognized a kindred spirit and started following him everywhere. When it started dressing up like Xiu Ya, the Serperior was at first disgusted before becoming grudgingly flattered. It thinks its idiot master and his idiot fan really do grow on you. Like mold.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

[confuzing]

Two months after Shen Jiu joins the sect he's finally forced to go get a full medical exam. It's remarkably tolerable- but they keep asking if he has any siblings and don't seem to be taking 'no' for an answer. Finally he's like "if I do I've never met them!" And fuck if the healers don't bring in an older boy with Shen Jiu's exact same face.

Chen Xuan is an inner disciple specializing in spiritual veins. He's from a middle class merchant family, but admits he doesn't look much like either of his parents.

Eventually they take a magical DNA test and yep, they are brothers.

Both of them are like, "this doesn't really change anything, I don't know you."

But they meet for tea frequently, and eventually after they become genuine friends Chen Xuan coaxes Shen Jiu to let him work on his spiritual veins. (Shen Jiu might start going to hide in his brother's room when he can't sleep but they never talk about that.)

Life goes on and not much is different until one year disciple selection gets Real Weird. Shen Qingqiu is just trying to snipe a promising kid from Liu Qingge - but then Ming Fan is like, "Shizun that other little boy bit me when I tried to separate them"

That other little boy, is of course Shen Yuan, who has his same face again. SQQ hadn't noticed him at first, he kept his head down. He's mentally cursing his slut-dad when Yue Qingyuan steps in and scoops up both boys despite his protests. (He noticed the mini Shen immediately)

Chen Xuan tells him later they do indeed have a new didi, just one thank the gods. If SQQ was related to both those little brats he'd kill someone.

He doesn't see either boy often but Shen Yuan has it out for him for some reason. He'll feel eyes on him and turn and there's that little street rat, glaring at him.

Again life goes on, once the boy's a little more settled he's invited to the brotherly tea meet ups. He and Shen Qingqiu reluctantly become fond of each other. (Chen Xuan's plan worked perfectly.)

Until Shen Yuan comes back from his first night hunt and crashes tea with a little baby girl. (Also Binghe comes too.)

SQQ rightfully asks why SY stole a baby and SY informs then that 1) the demon they killed had her in a sack so she was free not stolen and 2) "It's Meimei."

The two older men have sudden violent flashbacks to their past lives as Shen Yuan's Da-ge and Er-ge. Shen Yuan, of course has always remembered. After they recover from the shock they do another magical DNA test. The baby is definitely Meimei.

[piningqingge]

Regressor!LQG AU

Imagine if SQQ didn’t wake after five years (or even during) and LBH actually did get fed up with and kill LQG, who, in ORV style, woke back up in the Lingxi caves.

Since LQG obviously doesn’t know what happened the way SQQ did during his transmigration he’d be absolutely bewildered, perhaps think it was a dream, and launch himself at SQQ like a cat jumping from a particularly high shelf. SQQ thinks LQG is still attacking, even after his deviation’s been righted, until LQG stops his attack(?) and is just staring down at him with something akin to awe, near-reverently, “Shen Qingqiu?”

Anyway once LQG figures out that he’s in the past armed with knowledge of a future he doesn’t wish to come he’ll naturally do whatever he can to keep SQQ alive and get rid of LBH. This is the fun part- LBH has the protagonist halo, of course, so he won’t die. I’m thinking of a series of definitely-accidental-death (attempts) that LQG tries to pull on disciple LBH that are always inevitable Thwarted by seemingly Mother Nature herself. Idk if LBH starts to catch on (as I dont think LQG would be too obvious at first, setting up traps instead of poisons or outright attacking since he’s currently still a disciple- a beloved one at that) or if he thinks he just has the worst (or best) luck in the world.

This really got away from me but The Point of this AU was really to go ORV style and have LQG keep failing to save SQQ/kill LBH and regressing repeatedly. He didn’t go nearly insane enough during the five year gap and I’m here to fix that.

TLDR:

Peak Lord, renowned undefeated War God, vs. virtually untrained 12 year old boy (one-sided)

The war god is losing.

[ancientnapdragon]

Not sorry everyone but I have more Jiuyuan brainworms. Scumcum be upon ye

This flavor: Yams has been reading Too Many "I accidentally saved the villain?!" Style stories.

On my phone as usual so forgive my weird typos

Shen Yuan wakes up and is told he's been transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way. He has no idea what in the hell that is.

SY isn’t ignorant! He loves to read! But usually his standard fair involves mystery and is more grounded in reality. The only stuff he knows about the Cultivation Genre is what little his sister has shown him and some general cultural stuff.

A System appears to tell him that he has been given a powerful new body and his duty is to save the protagonist from his horrible suffering backstory... Then the System fucks off. He is given exactly one Systen-issued power: the suffering meter. With this, he can look over people's heads and see how "blackened" they are. The closer to 100% the worse off they are- and the more likely to do bad things!

SY has been given the body of a Demon Lord; he's part Death's Pure Butterfly and is as pretty as he is deadly. He has some vague memories and senses from his Original Goods. The guy was feared for his skills as an assassin and was quite crafty with poison, on top of being able to control all sorts of insects from the common grasshopper to huge demonic wasps. He was sent out here to kill... some... cultivator guy? A Peak Lord? What was that?

(The Original Goods was supposed to take Luo Binghe hostage during a mission early into his disciple stay. The Original Goods thought that Shen Quinqiu would surely take the bait to protect one of his students, which would allow him to kill the Peak Lord... instead, it was one of the first chips in LBH's mind that his Shizun maybe didn't care about him. The Demon Lord was killed and LBH only survived the powerful poison thanks to his hidden Heavenly Demon bloodline.)

After getting his bearings he spies his target: a very pretty man with a gaggle of kids, all looking to be in the "preteen/early teenager" stage. Most of them seem to just be fucking around while the smallest kid is being forced to dig up some roots with his hands. The man is sitting in the middle with his eyes closed and a fan out, ignoring them all. SY uses his Meter ability and... woah...

That guy has like... a 97% full meter. Some of the kids have like maybe 15 or 20%, the kid digging even has a 32%, but the Cultivator guy...

That must be his target! Don't worry, Protag, SY will keep you from turning evil!

(This SY, not understanding genre conventions, does not seem to understand that the Tragic Backstory has already happened to SQQ. Which is why his Blackening is so high.)

SY ends up being clever and using his insect controlling powers and a less potent poison to knock out the kids and the guy. Feeling bad for leaving the kids out here, he finds an emergency talisman on the man and uses it before flat out just kidnapping him.

SY ends up taking him all the way back to his palace in the demon realm. He's the last of his bloodline and his people are really loyal to him, so this should be the safest place to be! When he gets back and orders some of his staff to help him make SQQ comfortable they're all very confused but go along with it. One of the staff has the foresight to put a Spirit Dampening Bracelet on SQQ. It doesn't seal his Cultivation like binding cables but it does weaken it to be near useless and has the bonus of being a tracking device.

When SQQ wakes up he is very confused and even more mad. He's been laid in a huge bed and is basically being treated like a princess. After bullying one of the guards outside of his room he realizes where he is and who did it. He very quickly realizes a few things. The most pressing, however, is that he has very clearly been Bridenapped. If he can't escape (or be rescued, but he doesn't hold his breath for that) from here within the next 90 days, the Demon Lord that captured him will marry him...

Cue a very confused SY trying to give this very angry and combative man things to heal his damaged Cultivation, make him happy, and just generally being nice to him to try and bring that Meter down. Meanwhile, SQQ thinks they're playing some 5d chess mindgame and he REFUSES to lose.

(The System finds this all very unconventional, but it does look at LBH who seems to be having a much better time and shrugs this off. YQY is frantic and tearing himself apart trying to find ANY clue on where Xiao Jiu is. SQH is really confused since he knows he didn't write any of this. MBJ is wondering if he should Bridenap his own Peak Lord; he is the only one who actually knows where SQQ is because of the trade agreements with SY...)

[momxian]

AU where Shen Yuan gets transmigrated as an Original Character into the Demon Realm a few years before Bingge gets there. But even though he's not SQQ, he LOOKS like a near exact copy. So he figures that if he wants to survive he needs to make himself useful. First things first, he needs to know what the hell is going on, so he starts working with lower level demons setting himself up as someone necessary, and relatively important so he can figure out when in the plot they are. It's pretty easy, there's not much in the way of organization down here and despite everything he's not that bad an actor. It helps that SQJ's face is beautiful in every setting and he will quickly create a reputation of the stubborn beauty amongst the demon realm. It's around this time he starts wearing a veil to mask his resemblance to SQJ, but really it just adds to the mysterious allure aspect.

He utilizes his plot knowledge to get things ready for Binghe's arrival, tidying up the palace, setting up good staff, getting rid of some of the smaller villains that kidnap Ning Yingying and Liu Mingyan etc later. Actually a lot of smaller villains who kidnap, harass or belittle Bingge's harem. It's like every time he's running an errand he meets another piece of cannon fodder that will inevitably lead Bingge to another papapa scene. It's fine, by the time he's done with them (thank god this body doesn't have the same limitations as his old one) they follow him around with big demon puppy eyes and scramble to do chores and tasks for him.

By the time the Endless Abyss moment is set to happen, SY has thorough knowledge of the abyss and all of the special items tucked away in various locations across it. You can't be mad and murder someone who helped you through the torture torment evil maze of plot relevant trauma, right?

He finds Bingge post fall and does his best to act callous and only vaguely helpful, leading Bingge in the right direction and away from the biggest threats. His goal is to be a helpful and forgettable NPC. Someone who, if he runs into him again, Bingge will have mercy for and be left alone. Despite his resemblance to SQJ. But what he doesn't take into account is A) in no version of this story is he capable of being that hands off and B) Bingge was just shown kindness for the first time in years by a mysterious and elusive beauty with brilliant eyes and an obvious intelligence.

Since this is Bingge and not Binghe, he doesn't immediately fall for SY, and is in fact wildly paranoid, terrified and angry about things in general. But every time something seems to go wrong in the abyss, instead of taking the hits and becoming the stallion protagonist, SY shows up to give him a magic item, or rushes in to protect him from fatal blows and on two separate occasions thoughtlessly petted Bingge's hair when he was injured, which rattled Bingge so bad that he almost died again fighting the next monster.

Shen Yuan is gone often enough that he still makes his way to the Demon Palace, collects Xin Mo and builds his harem, though it's smaller than it was originally. Mostly because SY had taken out the smaller villains and then because SY had interfered with Bingge's quests so often.

Obviously Shen Yuan has a soft spot for Bingge now but doesn't admit it. But he's satisfied he can slip away now without too much consequence, except no he can't. Bingge asks for him, to collect something for him. To ask him something about another demon. To just stare at him for a half hour with a vein about to pop in his forehead as he tried to see through the veil before huffing and sending him away again.

Since Bingge is obviously not going to let him slip away, and SY isn't sure if Bingge is going to kill him or not he desperately makes himself useful again. He takes care of Bingge's harem. That's a lot of housing and food and clothes to take care of! The girls fight often! He'll just slip into the mix and keep the peace until Bingge forgets about him. And in the meantime sometimes he tends to Bingge and he and Bingge have dinner together. And isn't it so cute how the stallion protagonist can blush when he compliments the dish? And once or twice he combs out Bingge's hair. And sometimes Bingge rubs the scowl from between Shen Yuan's brows and lets his finger outline his jaw over the silk of his veil when SY is tending to tedious business.

Yeah, I'm sure one of these days Bingge will let you slip away SY.

Anyway Bingge is just relieved that Shen Yuan has accepted that he's part of the harem now.

[zirasposts]

Shen twins sword spirit au

sy dies during the qiu manor, sj accidentally binds hes spirit into the blade he used to kill the qiu guy. At first SY can only make chiming noises but he'll be able to talk in the future.

-Hes very unhappy with YQY (which yes nothing new) since he not only left him but SY too and now his twin is basically dead

-when he get to the sect he figures out a way to turn the sword into a spiritual blade (i have no idea how dis works)

-Over the years SJ learns to understand SY on level where he understands intentions even thou SY can't form words yet. They 'talk' shit about the other peak lords during peak lord meetings.

-SJ can actualy sleep in his own house since SY even in a blade form is with him. He still goes to the brothels but he can sleep with out going there.

-SY tries to stop the whole poring tea on tiny binghe, it doesent work

-SY and SQQ do manage to save LQG (because i happen to like him ) By SY shearing his spiritual energy with SQQ. Unfortunately this knocks SY to a healing slumber for like a few weeks. SQQ does not take it all that well so when LQG wakes up he sees SQQ aka the guy he really doesent like shaking hes spiritual blade and telling it to speak or else.

-one thing leads to another and SQQ tells LQG the truth behind the blade. Lqg agrees to help SY somehow to settle the dept. He can relate to the older sibling struggle if nothing else.

-they figure out SY is still in the sword just sleeping. SQQ is not going to be able to sleep till SY wakes up. LQG sometimes sits with sqq as they wait. They dont become friends per say

but they manage to come to an understanding and manage to go from 'its on sight to i don't hate you but i don't exactly like you either ' which is good development.

-But you didn't think SY was really just sleeping did ya? …Well he kina is but that's not the point. He ends up in Binghes dreamscape for Meng mos first appearance. Binghe finds him (he looks the age he died but hes wearing his brothers peaks colors) and thinks his a fellow discaple. SY clears the misunderstanding thou (shocker i know) and apologize for his brothers behavior, gives binghe a head pat and tells him hes a good boy and then apologize for rambling and explain he hasen't gotten to really speak with anyone since he died.

-Binghe got critical hit from the wife beam.

-Meng mo stuff happens but afterwards, he ends up staying in binghes dreamscape till he wakes up. He helps Binghe with cultivations classes and little bit of everything. He does tell Binghe the last day of his slumber that he most likely wont see him again after this, Binghe cries and SY gives him a hug.

-binghe knows SY is Xiu ya and the little binghe is resolved to find a way to save SY from SQQ. He has four step plan 1. Figure a way to get a body for a sword spirit 2. steal Xiu ya right from under sqq's nouse and run as far as possible 3. actually get SY into that body and 4. live happily ever after.

-SY wakes up and gets a toung lashing of his life from his very relieved twin.

-SY is very happy to see LQG still alive. SY is also very confused when LQG comes by and him and SQQ arent trying to kill each other.

-that night SY tells SQQ hes happy that his brother has made a friend. SQQ gives a very tsundere hmph as an only answer.

-Binghe finds a lot of ways to even catch glimpses of xiu ya. at some point when the imortal conference the live happily ever after part of the plan becomes. Get married, cook A-Yuan All the foods and have a joined tomb stone. Meng mo thinks he is delucional.

-so imortal aliance happens SQQ stabs binghe and as he is about to fall he craps Xiu Ya and falls with it. As you can imagine SQQ did not like that.

[dataframe]

my thoughts are so scattered right now, honestly. i'm just pacing around and around thinking about them... shen jiu who hoards all he can and abuses his power vs. yue qi who refuses to cling onto anything precious or substantial so he doesn't lose/break it...

[theredcuyo]

The confessions in danmei i've read are actually pretty funny once you look past them for a bit

Svsss? Bingqiu never actually confesses, or more exactly, it's harder to pin point than you'd expect. No, i'm being for real. Binghe kisses Sqq and then Sqq realizes "Oh fuck he's in love with me" and continues on for the rest of the novel without addresing it but acting positively about couple shit with him, until it blows up in his face, then proceeds to tell Binghe he doesn't regret meeting him (Trhu telling him that if he was his mom he wouldn't have aborted him) but that's not enough because Lbh still doesn't think they're a thing until Sqq goes to meet him and tells him he'll follow him wherever THIS IS THE END OF THE NOVEL MIND YOU. Then they get married and Binghe admits to still be insecure about their relationship by then. The closest thing there is, is Sqq telling Binghe that he likes him on one of the extras. Bingqiu never publicly addreseses their relationship, at least not directly or in words but everyone seems to know anyway.

Wangxian has the most clear and direct confession in two parts. First, under a hostage situation Wwx yells at the top of his lungs, and infront of family of BOTH of them that he really wanted to sleep with Lwj because they did just sleep together like a few hours ago. Second, when everyone is too shocked still by that and the plot, he proceeds to sit on Lwj's lap and continue to explain that he loves him very, very much, to which Lwj repeats his words. Then not five minutes after they're disguting everyone with over the top pda, WHILE STILL ON A HOSTAGE SITUATION AND BEING UNDER TREATS. When the plot let's them go, they hug their adopted son, and then proceed to elope.

Hualian is funny because it happens in the worst situation one of them could imagine and they still come out on top. Hua Cheng was an anxious mess about the whole cave of statues because surely Dianxia would get disguisted by him, then they get under attack by the big bad and traumatic prescense of an asshole, and while they scape Xie Lian tells him they should talk about the statues, then despite of saying that there are things to be said outloud, Xie Lian proceeds to not say shit and silently hug Hua Cheng. Hua Cheng hugs him back, then the plot stoles Xie Lian away for a bit and when he comes back they proceed to gross out everyone with over the top pda for the rest of the novel, on account of Hua Cheng not restraining himself anymore. At some point after the ending they get married and this is common knowledge, said common knowledge includes very accurate descriptions of what happened in their weeding night.

Ranwan? Mo Ran has been mentally torturing himself since he realized he was in love with Chu Wanning and kicking himself mentally for even thinking about it to the point that he doesn't realize the feelings are mutual until they help people escape from attempted genocide. Then he proceeds to be as gentle about it as possible but still being bold in his declaration. Chu Wanning gay panics and runs away but he gets that they do share feelings, he also kicks himself and angsts about it. They then start a relationship without more discussion about it. Ranwan's confession is funny because it's the most normal, planned and gentle thing there is, which is the complete fucking opposite of literally everything else they ever go trhu. How come Mo Ran the moron who can't go two chapters for most of the volumes without being horny about Chu Wanning gets the normal confession? Lfmao. Also, the novel spents a good chunk of time anguishing over the view people will have on their relationship just for everyone not to give a fuck after the ending.

Pd: Special mention to Moshang with one of them not knowing they apparently were a thing, scaping from what seemed like an abusive situation and going back after the other promised to be better. Only his best friend seems aware of all of this.

[meltedmush]

Since the Scum Villain characters have slightly differing designs depending on what version of the books you're reading (and books vs donghua), what are your favorites? The designs you draw seem to be your own / possibly bases on a mix of several, but what are some others you like but maybe don't draw?

My Binghe design is based off of the Thai and Donghua versions, and my SQQ is based off of the Thai, Japanese, and Donghua versions! Although they do carry most inspiration from the donghua, since that was my first experience with SVSSS!

I’m very biased, and I absolutely love the donghua designs because they make SQQ and LBH look so stupid.

LBH’s donghua design looks like a garbage emo OC design, that someone would absolutely make overly powerful so they can project their power fantasy onto them, and live out their fantasies vicariously through their emo OC. Because of how silly donghua LBH looks, I love how it's canonical that he's handsome, and these two contradictions just make his character funnier. The other LBH designs look so cool, but I NEED LBH to keep his cringe.

For SQQ, I just wanted him to look so sharp, and hard to approach like a villain! I'll sometimes make a few differences between SJ and SQQ to help visually deliver the idea that Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu are very different people, down to their habits and how they carry themselves. — Although I'm pretty lazy, and most of the time I'll draw them identical, and differentiate them via body language.

In the future, I'd absolutely love to try to draw the Japanese, Korean, and Viet versions of LBH! Viet's hair is really pretty! Although I love how Korean and Japanese LBH's designs look, I think my wrist would snap off if I tried to draw them more than once, or I would simply find it difficult to remember how each layer looks. And I'd also love to draw Korean SQQ,,,, 💖

[grubus]

Hi! do you have any svsss fic recs? I really like syonr and I'm curious about what you like to read!

*rubs hands together*

Alright alright. Now some of these are probably already well known, but still!!

I make no secret of this, but as Prim is my favorite author and very cool friend, I will HAPPILY recommend these first;

Masochism is probably THE qijiu fic of all time, absolutely adore it. It's set in their disciple era, with YQY just grabbing at whatever scraps he can even as SQQ tries to push the boundaries and see what will make him BREAK. So, so good. Happy ending!

Tarnished Gold is my favorite original Binghe fic, and I hope more people give it a chance. I think the summary scare some but it's GREAT! I love it! Binghe's thought process, the way someone perceives SY as GYX from an outside perspective, and omg LPM is such a great character in it...

of course I recommend basically everything Prim writes.

(Shen Yuan Voice) It's not gay if- by Nachtofthedead is porn. Just straight up modern time BingYuan porn. It is filthy and great and *thumbs up* love it. Bingge decides to play along with SY's delulu thoughts on gayness and everyone are happy.

The Many Trials and Tribulations of Ming Fan by The Feels Whale (miscellea) is great and I think often overlooked. A oneshot from MF's point of view on how to handle SQQ's wife beam, deeply funny to me. They also wrote-

Dust and Broken Grains , which is basically "Binghe discovers early that Crying Works" and it becomes a fix-it fic. but there's more to it than that!!! Love it a lot.

Celestial Afterglow by elanor_pam is just. So good. SO GOOD. It's hilarious, it uses the System in a way few fics ever does and it has me cackling every time I read it.

What Is Seen by CaveteDracones is a fix-it with a side of whump fic, where SQQ's trial at HHP goes VERY differently. Truth serum! Torture! System Reveal! Yay!

Dual Cultivate or Date by acernor is THE BingLiuShen fic out there. Adore it. I'm sure many have already appreciated it, but it doesn't hurt to remind others that it exists!

A Child Once by Tossawary is a very, very good BingQiu and MoShang fic, and I honestly love not only BingQiu being forced to play parents, but also the MobeiBing friendship? Great, amazing. All the relationships in this is great, and I know most have heard of Tossawary but if you haven't given this specific fic a chance you SHOULD.

easy fix by airplanelanding (TheCourtSorcerer) is a smutty cumplane oneshot, where they are friends with benefits (approved by their husbands) for whenever said husbands are unavailable for Dual Cultivation Cure. This fic just really captures the snark and is also *chefs kiss*

with the tail of the snake by tciddaemina is a very, very good monsterfucker!SQQ fic where Binghe became a dragon in the abyss. I LOVE IT. It's a WIP, but *clenches fist* it's just so good. Soft and gooey and so HHHH yes good. I would probably put all their svsss fics in here but I am running out of time!!

.... but I have enough time to recommend my other favorite fic from them, which isn't even svsss! And is how I found them to begin with!

come all ye mighty is a Solo Leveling fic! It's Igris/Jinwoo, from Igris' pov, and I love the world building in it. As they say in the author's notes, it's a little bit of an au since it doesn't follow the original plot of the comic, but I reread this so, so often. 10/10, if you like solo leveling at all please give it a go I BEG OF YOU.