#plotweasel

[plotweasels]

Original Luo Binghe: Gotta Catch Them All

So the basic concept here is that Bingge after his adventure with meeting Shen Yuan decides to start traveling through various alternate timelines, trying to find the Shen Qingqiu who likes him back. He is basically kidnapping Shen Jiu from various timelines and ends up with a harem of very angry Shen Jius. (Should the collective noun for a group of Shen Jius be a "pissy?")

So far, he has only found Shen Jiu, not Shen Yuan. He does not yet know that it's Shen Yuan who likes him. Or that Shen Yuan even exists. He cannot exactly go back and ask the Other Version of him about it.

He has been going up and down various timelines under the theory that if he can just interject himself at the right point in time, that he will be able to steal a Shen Jiu who will fall in love with him.

(Original Mobei-jun is not comfortable with the bridestealing, even if it's Traditional.)

The Wives are kinda cranky about this new hobby of Binghe's and many of them are kind of pissy about the slowly growing Shen Qingqiu harem. (The "other harem" has to be kept warded from the wife-harem because of the homicidal tendencies of Liu Mingyan and Qiu Haitang and the Little Palace Mistress.)

All of the Shen Jius hate each other. So. Very. Much. They snipe and they argue and they threaten each other. They hate each other so much they usually can't even present a united front to Bingge.

I am not sure whether it would be better or worse for Bingge's Shen Qingiu to still be alive.

If alive he's technically a part of the harem, but also very much not, and is viewed as something of a threat of what might happen to them, even though Bingge is actually not INTENDING it to be a threat.

There is a Shen Jiu who was at the point where Yue Qingyuan brought him to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. (And had been there about a year.)

There is a Shen Jiu who was stolen at the point where he was a still a disciple of Wu Yanzi.

There is a Shen Jiu who had recently ascended as the Peak Lord of Qing Jing.

There is a Shen Jiu from the point where Luo Binghe first came to Cang Qiong mountain sect.

There is a Shen Jiu from the point where Liu Qingge qi deviates, and also a Liu Qingge who is slightly horrified that his baby sis married a demon emperor and helped bring about the destruction of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. (Luo Bingge does not want to be selfish and also wants to placate Liu Mingyan.) At this point Luo Binghe starts to get the feeling that some of the information he got was bad or inaccurate.

There is a Shen Jiu from the point where Luo Binghe gets thrown into the Abyss.

This may or may not also mean that there are two younger versions of Luo Binghe.

There is a slight panic among the Shen Qingqius when Bingge turns up with a Xiao Jiu. And a Qiu Jianluo. Who now has stumps in place of hands. Qiu Haitang has a qi deviation after an argument about the condition he found Xiao Jiu in.

At least three or more of the Shen Qingqius engage in what they consider to be survival sex work with Luo Binghe. None of these people including Bingge are actually all that great at conceptualizing consent because of trauma and Bingge being a stallion novel protagonist who is also full of trauma and brainworms.

Basic theme: Negotiating Polyamory When You Are Six Kinds of Mentally and Emotionally Compromised by Trauma and/or an Evil Sword And Have Almost No Concept of Healthy Relationships Because of Same.

[shadow-words]

Update: It Should be Called "Nada Wrimo"

_It Should be Called "Nada Wrimo"_ Or, various attempts at #Nanowrimo that have flopped, and one more attempt. #writingcommunity #writing

I have never completed a Nanowrimo project, despite my attempts at trying. (To be fair, I have never completed a long form original work ever. Also, I can’t do deadlines because Anxiety.) And yet, the idea of “write an entire novel in a month” calls to me. “Yes, it would be great if I could do that! I’m sure this time I won’t completely fail because something came up and I get derailed!” I say…

[bomberqueen17]

You’ve mentioned that you might make Eskel aro, so here’s how I think it will play out in the story: Geralt/Yenn/Jaskier & Lambert/Kiera/Aiden: Gee Eskle, why aren’t you dating two hot people? Eskel: I saw the drama and thought “it’s easier to just kiss my succubus friend and have no further commitments” Obvs it may not play out like this & I’m excited to see how it goes for real

HA there IS a succubus! and it’s... somewhat more complicated, but not super far off! Though I just got plotweaseled (THANKS @akilah12902 you are so mean to me) with another great idea so I have to rewrite the whole thing, but I was already going to have to rewrite it based on uhhh bringing Aiden back which i hadn’t initially planned to do either so. It’s all rewrites all the way down and I’m not entirely sure how it’s going to go. It’s kind of a ways out, at this point, but it’s in the works.

Here’s a preview of the beginning of the story, before I’ve done any rewriting, which does show you that you’re roughly on the right track, here. I think I’ve posted part of this before, sorry, but the rest is not terribly polished and anyway it’s all getting redone:

But it had looked like Lambert’s poor bruised little heart was settling down with that sorceress. And generally Eskel disapproved of sorceresses, but-- well, he and Triss had been fine, and it had been fun for a while, but Eskel wasn’t the kind to give a woman what she needed over any kind of long haul, and Triss had figured that out well enough. She wanted what Geralt was for Yennefer, and that just wasn’t Eskel. He was too sensible for it but he also suspected his heart just didn’t work that way. 

But it had ended well, really; no throwing of things, not really any bitterness. She’d hit him up a time or two since, just for a good time, and he’d been very clear about it and there hadn’t really been drama.

He didn’t do drama. This wasn’t a principled stance; he just couldn’t actually manage it. Which he’d always figured was good, since his-- well, whatever Geralt was; his Geralt was the best way of describing him-- was all drama. There wouldn’t be room for any, if Eskel produced any. Maybe that was it, maybe he’d just developed like this out of sheer self-defense. 

Whatever. 

He was fucking lonely, was the upshot, and it was a bad upshot. He hadn’t managed to line up anywhere to go for the winter despite his best efforts, which honestly hadn’t been very good, and he really wasn’t sure what he was going to do about it.

and then Plot Ensues-- but you are, by and large, correct. [Spoiler: there is going to be an Accidental Child Acquisition and some Found Family-ing, but Eskel is not going to be called upon to fulfill anybody’s romantic needs, no sir. Family, yes; sex yes, romance no.]

[I am not saying aromantic people should be paired exclusively with monsters, btw, I am saying aros belong in families and loving relationships and also Eskel is the most canonical monsterfucker among the Witchers in W3 so it’s cromulent to have him continue to do that. Also I too like women with horns.]

I think I shared some of that above snippet before so here’s another bit, which I know I didn’t, to make up for it; this whole bit might get tossed but I liked this tiny description.

At some point when he was drunk he must’ve told his brothers about that one succubus hunt. He’d told himself not to do that, but obviously it had come out at some point. He blamed alcohol. But in his defense, succubi were the kind of “monsters” that were people, and if you knew what you were getting into, were just as dangerous or not as anyone. He’d been perfectly within the bounds of rational behavior to have sex with one. He felt like that was the sort of thing any monster hunter should try at least once, and on the whole it had been among his more successful interactions. Maybe it was because succubi didn’t expect things of you that your heart maybe wasn’t built for. Maybe that was it.

[plotweasels]

This Child is Spicy--Does He Ever Unspice?

So, this SVSSS AU is based on a combination of this picture and comments from people on discord. (Basically, this picture inspired a age-reversal plot weasel.) I think this dynamic has some potential, either as a bingjiu fic or just "Luo Binghe is basically a copy of Tianlang-jun" Not Very Accidental Child Acquisition.

To set this up, Su Xiyan was actually part of the previous generation of cultivators. Still ended up with Tianlang-jun, still betrayed by the Palace Master, but in this case Tianlang-jun found out about the set up for one reason or another. Palace Master's plot collapsed because of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect figuring out it WAS a plot. Su Xiyan and Tianlang-jun go off to be married.

This makes Su Xiyan and Demon Emperor very partial to CQM, which is why Baby Binghe ends up at Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. (Being half human, and pretty balanced he needs to learn human style cultivation anyway for a base before working on the demon side of his cultivation. Su Xiyan doesn't want to pass on anything of Huan Hua because she's extremely pissed at Huan Hua.) Luo Binghe is either selected for one of the Peaks or does whatever is the xianxia equivalent of auditing classes.

Two possible plotlines come to mind.

--Luo Binghe ends up becoming a Peak Lord! This is possibly hilarious and I kind of like this idea. In this case, Luo Binghe figure out why his Shixiong's favorite inner disciple/head disciple just about killed himself trying to take a sword when he wasn't ready. (Or, actually keeps him from doing it.)

Luo Binghe pries the story out of the kid and decides to go get this Shen Jiu kid. So he goes off, locates the Qius and absconds with a frightened, rage-filled fourteen year old Shen Jiu. Shen Jiu ends up as a guest of sorts on Cang Qiong until he can go through the diggydiggy hole test. Luo Binghe ends up picking him for his Peak. Stuff Happens.

--The other possible plotline is Luo Binghe becomes a wandering cultivator affiliated with Cang Qiong Mountain Sect. He goes on various missions for CQM and also for his father. (Sometimes those missions are pretty much shopping trips for books) A lot of what he does is the equivalent of bounty hunting as well as hunting ghosts/monsters/demons/demonic animals.

Luo Binghe's current bounty is Wu Yanzi! He is able to track Wu Yanzi down to the Qius, where he is up to some kind of scam. He is too late to stop the scam, but he is able to kill Wu Yanzi. Luo Binghe is now stuck with a hysterical young mistress and a slave having a goddamn qi-deviation. Luo Binghe dumps the young mistress with the local cultivation sect, and keeps the kid, who is only barely being kept from wrecking his spiritual veins due to qi deviation.

Shen Jiu wakes up, confused, angry and terrified. He does not calm down. He has no chill. Luo Binghe doesn't know if this is funny or incredibly sad. He decides the kid needs help, and decides to cart him off to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect to recuperate. And then Stuff Happens.

[plotweasels]

"We Have the Chosen One," "No, WE Have the Chosen One!"

I have previously wrote this (idea) as a royaltystuck AU for Homestuck. As one does. The basic concept is that you have the usual Evil Empire, and a small coalition of rebel countries. And as is often the case when you have an evil empire and a small coalition of rebel countires, you also have a prophecy involving a Chosen One who eventually defeats the Evil Empire and is all heroic.

The SCRC has what they think is the Chosen One and the Chosen One's Prophesized Companions! They think they are finally going to defeat the Evil Empire so they go on the immediate offensive and go to war. And their Chosen One and Companions are a) defeated b) tossed into prison. This is followed by a nasty letter, the gist of which is, "Um, Maybe don't invade us with a fake Chosen One? Or anyone else for that matter, because we're still bigger than you?"

For you see, the Formerly Evil Empire has been under the control of their own Chosen One and Companion Chosen Ones, who also seemingly fits the prophecy, for at least a few years now! (And these other Chosen kind of fit better because they are actually from the Evil Empire after all.) The SCRC was mostly unaware of the goings on of the coup/revolution due to an extremely closed border and certainly didn't know anyone potentially fulfilling the prophecy was involved.

What I'd be going for is a comedy of errors as the opposing "Chosen" argue and flail at each other. Also some fun interactions as the SCRC attempt to get their Chosen Ones back. Also maybe some romance? I don't know. At least something funny and ridiculous.

[plotweasels]

Cranky War Machine Gets Mistaken for Demonic Automaton, You Won't Believe What Happens Next

Anyway! A recurring idea I have is a situation where a summoned being decides to ally itself with the enemy (or the down-trodden minion) of the mage who summoned it. The entity does not have to be a demon, just something that can be summoned and then coerced into doing the mage's bidding. (With variable levels of success.)

Now, in this case, the entity is a robot. Mr. Roboto's backstory is that he comes from an apocalyptic environment full of soldier bots who are no longer at war due to a severe lack of anyone to be at war with. (Unlike Skynet, they did not particularly want this outcome and fought relentlessly to keep it from happening. Mr. Roboto as a result is somewhat full of angst about this.)

Mr. Roboto gets summoned by your Average Dark Lord. The Dark Lord does not know that Mr. Roboto is a very cranky pacifist! Mr. Roboto is less than cooperative and eventually the Dark Lord, in a fit of frustration just locks up the completely inert hunk of resentful retired killing machine.

Now, the Dark Lord has a daughter, who is alternately spoiled and neglected because Dark Lord is a crappy parent. Our Girl is very curious about Mr. Roboto and they form an unlikely friendship. The goal here with the plot is Found Family, and escape from the Dark Lord's castle when the Heroes finally invade. Mr. Roboto decides to protect the kid and they abscond. Maybe settle down very far away. (I kind of like the idea of a robot gardener/farmer type.)

[plotweasels]

This Crossover...Doesn't Even Work

However, I am struck by the idea of a Crossover between Books of the Raksura and MDZS. First, a fusion (the kind of crossover I write the most frequently) would be just about impossible. While I can easily see Yu Ziyuan as a Raksuran queen, I do not actually like her that much. (And her classism would not actually fit the queen mindset.) Also, while Jiang Fengmian does fit into the personality more or less of a First Consort, the xianxia Fantasy Ancient China power dynamics would not combine well with that of a Raksura colony. (Also there's the naming conventions.)

On the other hand, if the Jiangs were a Raksura colony, I would want to make Wei Wuxian an Arbora Mentor who ended up becoming a warrior. (Though that wouldn't really fit the necromancy.) So if I did a fusion, the Jiangs would have to be some variety of groundling or possibly waterling/groundling related to waterling. (Note: not humans. There are no humans in the Books of the Raksura setting, just various species of groundling, skyling, waterling and so on.)

So lets say that the sects in the Cultivation World are all related species of groundling. And these species are related to the forerunners. Let's also say that Cangse Sanren is either a) an orphaned raksura queen b) an equally orphaned raksura/fell hybrid or c) an orphaned fell raised by a mysterious Raksura Queen who lost her Colony. (The cultivators do not know that Baoshan Sanren is a Raksura. If they see her, she's always in Arbora form. They just think of her as a powerful immortal.) Cangse Sanren marries Wei Changze and they have Wei Ying, who has an interesting mix of abilities.

This would probably be more or less a "Wei Ying is not raised by the Jiangs" AU where Wei Ying is more or less self taught, and has a "secret weapon" in the form of a really big scary winged form. Combining the cultivation system with the Books of the Raksura magic system would be a challenge, as would trying to tack on the Sunshot Campaign, and the geography of the Three Worlds. (Floating Islands, man. Floating. Islands.)

However, I can also see an "insert characters from fandom a into fandom b" type of crossover. This can happen by way of my favorite plot weasel of "Wei Wuxian attempts to create some kind of transportation talisman to escape with the Wen Remnants But Something goes Very Wrong," and everyone ends up in a distant part of the Three Worlds. Or near enough the Reaches that Raksura investigate. By preference I'd drop them in the middle of a ruined city, where they can run into all kinds of weird shit, in addition to suddenly having wingy people show up. (I originally thought Raksura, but maybe members of Consolation's Flight? And then Raksura?) I think I would spend a great deal of time worrying about the Instant Genetic Bottleneck however, so maybe not that? (Or have Wei Wuxian accidentally bring most of Yiling with him, as well as any Wen who were still in hiding, and any number of cultivators who were in the town trying to find WWX.)

This would be fun as cultivation is so much different than the kind of magic system(s) that are present in the Raksura setting. Another problem: we don't really have a clear idea of fauna, as the Raksura tend not to have names for various animal species, instead dividing them up by what they eat. It will be interesting to see how Wei Wuxian and friends end up dealing with various other sentients, and how they react to these weird groundlings that just turned up...

[plotweasels]

Ye Olde Intention Post

This blog is intended to be a containment zone for my AU and crossover plotweasels. I will also be reblogging the AU and crossover plotweasels of other people if I think they are cool. (Who am I kidding, I always think crossovers and AUs are cool.)