#i'm a bit foggy on the lore but i tried to cook

[cactosaurio]

This is a certified mucho texto, but I had ideas about the Luofu plot (there is selfship again) (and spoilers)

ok, so Mao Qian and Jing Yuan exchanged fates when she gave JY her trainee uniform and he showed MQ a library to hide from bullies; coming into contact with each other's life experiences makes them invert their philosophies on words and conflic. She's a bit unhealthy, the idea that Jing Yuan is hers to protect starts fermenting in her mind and so does the fear that anything might happen if he's too far from her reach.

Jing Yuan didn't consider himself a gifted cloudknight and he truly wasn't, but seeing Mao Qian amazed by his swordmanship despite its flaws makes him realize that purely hard work can bear fruits in the shape of other people's safety, dismissing her inability to access such effort due to a poor physical condition. Mao Qian reaches the opposite conclussion when Jing Yuan compliments her memory and starts to believe in her inherent talent and efficiency, despite him taking much effort and succeeding in teaching her calligraphy.

The age of the High Cloud Quintet starts and both friends hang out less, Jing Yuan goes with the legendary group, eventually close-knit friends while Mao Qian becomes the main scribe for the previous general Teng Xiao. The death of Baiheng, Dan Feng's successful attempts at granting her a new life, preserving Ying Xing's and Jingliu's fall into mara breaks the group apart; dealing with the aftermath eventually leads to Jing Yuan being ascended to general, giving him a chance to lessen the blow of punishment for all of his old friends.

It indirectly rekindles his relationship with Mao Qian as well; the Quintet's consecutive losses left him with a gaping solitude that will never close, but when she's around at least one of the five pieces of his heart won't be alone and he feels so sure that she won't open a new wound. On her end, what has happened to both her previous general and the legendary group makes her willing to do anything (withing the confines of the law for now) to keep Jing Yuan safe, including thwarting assasination attempts whenever his guard is lowered.

Both take radically different perspectives after witnessing YX/Blade's immortality; the general is set on the disaster it caused and finds it more trouble than it's worth, the scribe fixates on the fact that it's not impossible in the first place without realizing why she would want to keep it in mind.

Among the old stories and texts the woman recites to distract him there's the existence of a very old, destructive nuisance hiding among the roots of the Luofu.

The main conflicting forces are Phantylia/Tingyun and the Stellaron Hunters, since one wishes to destroy the Luofu and the other wants it in one piece for an ulterior motive; Sanctus Medicus and the Astral Express are means to an end for each. The neutral ground they fight on is the ship itself, lead by Jing Yuan.

Tingyun is either related to Yukong or has some deep affection for her, is aware of how much time the older woman has left and is unwilling to accept it. Phantylia, a being that has pestered the ship for centuries and spent a long time hidden has made her believe she has the power to extend someone's lifespan if both strike a deal and revive the Ambrosial Tree; the foxian's body now partially possesed both take turns using it and lead a double life. This collaboration revived Sanctus Medicus with monetary support and illegal trafficking, something in which Luocha is involved.

When the Astral Express arrives Jing Yuan finds himself with a new chance to get rid of that very ancient nuisance, but it also reveals a weak link within the Seat of Divine Foresight to Tingyun.

Just as when the mine fills with gas canaries panick inside their cages first, Mao Qian is the first to notice something's amiss with their arrival, although she chalks it up to them being paperwork nuisances.

She won't believe Phantylia/Tingyun's words or promises for a second, but there is merit to their goal and the scribe is more skilled at working than uncovering secret plots, following them might give more results. Betrayal stings regardless, so she must put her anxieties aside or else her new bosses will try to exploit them; she proves to be a little hard to manipulate, a self-proclaimed simpleton that turned out to be the opposite of hot-blooded.

Part of the plan is using Jing Yuan's scribe to obtain intel, erase inconvenient registers and eventually lure out the general himself where Phantylia can catch him; it's good that Tingyun and Mao Qian have the same exploitable weakness, if a bit inconvenient that both want a potentially limited resource.

The true issue is when, instead of confronting his scribe and retaining her personally as the antagonists expected, Jing Yuan lets Mao Qian do as she pleases and tracks down Phantylia's whereabouts by checking what is written, what's missing, where she says she's going and her most recent strange aquaintaces.

At first it looked like an arrogant move that only benefits their plan, but a lot of Sanctus Medicus followers have been imprisoned by the cloudknights recently.

Knowing the Stellaron Hunters were the ones to bring the Astral Express to him after the stellaron outbreak and those two who broke apart centuries ago, Jing Yuan releases Blade as bait for Dan Heng to reveal his true powers and eventually open a way to the tree. This way there's the cloudknights as a handle that will open the way while tracking down Mao Qian's road, and now there's also the spearhead as the Astral Express for when everyone reaches destination.

Dan Heng's power opens way to friends, foes and traitors alike, anyone that's relevant to the main fight arrives and the tree starts to grow its first fruits after a long time.

Knowing this exacerbates the scribe's growing anxiety, Yanqing got the ass whooping of the century and soon Jing Yuan will be involved in the frontlines of this tangled issue. Her deal with that double-faced foxian doesn't matter compared to them, she was getting played anyways, and so the single ripe fruit that grew fell in her hands.

Phantylia's true goal was the destruction of the Luofu and Tingyun realizes such an entity won't care enough about Yukong to keep even the ground she stands on, so she decides to deviate from Phantylia's plans, getting her to twist her neck and reveal her position early.

After Mao Qian's death/imprisonment (undecided) while attempting to give Jing Yuan the fruit of immortality she managed to snatch, the fight proceeds as normal.

The current loose threads in this business are the silent enablers.

[kogglyuffs]

hoooh man me sharing dead plate fics.. fun: ghost au pt. 2

//i will say beforehand that this one was my second time writting somethin bout dead plate therefore i may have made some mischaracterizations and probs had foggy memory of the exact lore yaddayadda ok plz bear w me, and lets move on

@aactuallyno

"Uugh..Ack.. it hurts... yet it doesn't feel much like it..."

He started opening his eyes, feeling mild but still noticeable pain, he looked at his hands, covered in roasted flesh and showing bones. Vincent caressed himself on the face, and the rest of his body, all of it, was just burnt flesh and uncovered bones

"My body... It's all ruined... and painful" He muttered, "And it itches... It itches sooo much..."

He tumbled as he tried to get up, just a pathetic void of roasted flesh. He scratched all around his body, but there was a specific spot itching the most, he reached his hand were it was, in a side of his neck, he remembered that moment...

"This is where Rody stabbed me..." Vincent scratched faster, "It itches, it itches so much it hurts... But it won't stop, no matter how much I scratch it, how hard I try..."

He was standing in the middle of a sketchy background, basically nowhere, talking to himself, being just a mere lost soul in nothingness.

"My life, my bistro, my dreams... All gone, all got ruined because of him... If only he didn't know, if only he complied, but no! All he cared is for that damn girl!

...You disappoint me so much, Rody"

But in a strange glance of the void, he slowly turned as he felt there was someone else nearby. He turned to see another voidy soul like him, but it was a shady looking Manon, she was red void with a single, creepy eye open, with tears dropping across her face, and the marking, the markings she had when she got cut up...

"Ah... Manon" Vince stepped back a bit, "So, we meet again, huh?"

Manon kept staring at him, without making a single movement

"Well, if that's the revenge you wanted, then you got it! Your precious ex-boyfriend saved a life that was long gone... It's just that pathetic, isn't it?"

She didn't reply, just standing there

"Well, now he's out there, probably lost in the city, because all he cared for is no longer there, just disappeared, just like all my dreams and ambitions! Are you happy with that!?"

Manon kept staring at him, Vincent just felt something snap inside him

"I tried so hard to get there! I did all my best to overcome my own limits! I tried to wipe off the fact I couldn't taste ANYTHING just to accomplish my dream! My life! All of that taken away by a mere person that only cared about his girlfriend more than anything in the world! How could you dump him!? How could you leave him over someone like me!? I wish I had someone to love me the way he loved you! But I never got it, because I was too focused on my dream, my ambition, my obsession! And to get over that day I lost my sense of taste... That's all you wanted to hear? All my woes and how pathetic I've become?"

Seeing no response from her, he groaned

"I wanted my taste back, I wanted to see what 'cooking with love' felt... But it didn't happen, and now it never will! Ironic, isn't it? I will not feel or taste anything but demise in this limbo where I'm at, with you.."

He looked back at Manon, "You know what? Fine, take the revenge you want to do! Torture me as much as you please! I do not deserve forgiveness for what I've done and what I was about to do, because it was ALL for NOTHING!"

It was at that moment he saw Manon take a step forward, "I forgive you", she replied

"Eh, what was that?" Vincent tilted his head

"I forgive you... Because you will not harm Rody anymore, nor anybody else... I do not mind what you've done to me... But"

She stepped closer to Vincent, whom didn't take steps back anymore, her red eye looking straight at his, he knew it was more dead serious...

"Your actions still have consequences..."

Vincent mildly closed his eye, "What else might happen? I am nothing but ashes and burnt flesh now..."

"You will not hurt Rody in any way, or I will know..."

The two ghosts stood there in the sketchy void, with tension surrounding in their staring contest.

"I will not let you harm him anymore."