#sj stuff

[notjusthespongenextdoor]

here's my proposed solution to any and all activist guilt;

if you're already doing some sort of activism that is rewarding and sustainable for you, great, keep doing that. good job.

if you're not, and feel sad/guilty/anxious about that for whatever reason,

for one, you have no obligation to feel those feelings. your feelings do not help anyone, and they are harming you. if you have the ability to start letting those go, take a deep breath, and try to let them go. you do not need to feel those things. you are not a bad person if you stop feeling those things. give yourself space.

if that doesn't help,

pick an organization related to the cause you are sad/guilty/anxious about. decide an amount of money that is sustainable to you, and set up a recurring donation to that organization. if there's not an option low enough that is feasible for you to donate, set a reminder somewhere to donate once a month/year/whatever is available to you. $5 a year? excellent. great. that is helping.

whatever amount of money you can give is worth infinitely more than whatever difficult feelings you are having about that issue. give that $1 a month and let that resolve you of any and all guilt you have towards it. you are helping. cash donations are a huge help.

and if you really really don't have any money to spare comfortably (you do not need to spend money you need for necessities or small comforts on this),

pick a few organizations you feel are doing a lot of good, or else research a few if you aren't familiar with any, and make a semi-recurring post politely asking people to donate, and why you think it's a good idea. i'm sure this will move at least a few dollars towards that organization

and if you don't have the energy to research, or don't feel you have a big enough reach for it to be helpful (you do not need a very big reach for this), then listen,

if you don't have the ability to do anything to help, then you are by definition doing everything that you can to help. it's okay. read the wild geese poem and try to forgive yourself. it's okay. you don't need to take the weight of the world on your shoulders. other people are doing the work.

[milktrician]

didn't think i'll also get this done today, but some cover art for my fic Shang Qinghua's Reincarnation Survival Guide.

[sourlemonadez]

THE DAYCARE ATTENDANT AMIRITE FOLKS *throws art at u and skiddadles away on all fours*

Au credits:

pic 1,2 is love, death and rollerskates by wonderful @spadillelicious

Pic 3, 4, 5 and stupid misuta owl in the 1st one is ghost in the machine by the one and only @venomous-qwille

And lastly sleuth jesters by amazing @naffeclipse is the last pic! (:

Go read all three of the aus they're fantastic trust me hehe wink wink

Pay no mind to Kingsley (Yaelokre) in the first pic, they wanted to be included \(´∇｀)/

[space-sheep08]

"They came in the night and took him away, and we stayed here on the moon."

"I'm glad to be here," she said. "Thank you for bringing me."

Drew the Blackwood sisters for an art contest on instagram, I had so much fun composing this one and thinking about the details in it !

[levemetal]

We all know and love the AUs where either SY!SQQ or SJ!SQQ get dosed with truth serum and hilariously clear up a bunch of stuff, but consider:

Yue Qingyuan accidentally gets truth serum-ed, said truth serum removes all brain to mouth filters and makes him voice his thoughts a loud.

Not only would this probably lead to him reconciling with SJ and just speaking about the damn cave incident, but also be unbearably honest to everyone else.

I cannot imagine ANY of the peak lords would be able to look at him the same ever again, we all know this man is deeply unhinged and SJ-co-dependent deep to his soul.

Mu Qingfang would probably have to deal with the worst of it as he frantically tries to find some cure so that they don't have to collectively hide their sect leader and stop him from saying real unhinged stuff

[afsosville]

Time to over-analyze things with limited canonical information just because. Here are some of the reasons why Qing Jing may have been a hindrance to Shen Jiu's emotional development and solidified his corruption arc>>

Qing Jing was like the perfect peak to let all his mental wounds fester if you think about it.

Shen Jiu acting like nobility or an educated young master (as most disciples of Qing Jing are) is purely a coping mechanism. It literally screams masking! While the exact circumstances of how he got chosen for Qing Jing is unknown, we can assume he didn't have a choice since most disciples typically just follow their new master to wherever they take them from the selection grounds (with the exception of Bai Zhan lol). He was most likely hoisted onto the Qing Jing peak lord, as no master would've wanted him because of his fucked up meridians and late age. They acquiesced to take him anyway coz of Yue Qingyuan's/the sect leader's insistance. And because it's Shen Jiu, he would naturally do whatever it took to get to the top, and if he started acting like the very sort of people he hates, then so be it.

You can imagine how disastrous imitating his abusers is going to be (he's imitating noblemen in general, but he's definitely taking the Qiu's as a primary example). Shen Jiu clearly is trying to remove and forget everything about his past, and even accepts the rumours of him being a spoiled young master to cast away suspicion. He is coping hard. Not to mention, he was named QingQIU when he became Qing Jing's succeeding disciple. Listen I don't care if it was a bad coincidence or not but that doesn't endear me to Shen Jiu's shizun in the slightest (I'm only talking abt SJ's shizun in canon, not fics, the fics are great. But it's more than likely that SJ's shizun was negligent or abusive as well. Here's why I think that). Between all of this, there's no way he's processing any of that trauma when he's constantly forced to remember all of it. No wonder he slipped into the abuser role easily since he's literally out here actually being made to copy their behavior.

Qing Jing and even the rest of Cang Qiong were always hostile to Shen Jiu, even in his discipleship. These ppl went out of their way to run interventions on Shen Jiu when he's minding his own business. Yes I'm talking abt the whole brothel thing. There were doubtlessly so many disciples who went for the very reasons Shen Jiu was assumed of going for, so why is he the only one getting shit for it? Not only was going to brothels not even a crime worthy of conviction, it was even normalized to an extent. And it would've been so easy to figure out if he really was going for anything "lecherous" by just asking the women there. The fact that, that whole ordeal was never cleared up just shows they didn't actually care about the women or what he was supposedly doing to them. They only cared because it was Shen Jiu who was involved.

Shen Jiu being on any other peak would change things for sure even if it's marginally. Its probably just wistful thinking, but I know at least half of those peaks, even the fanon ones, would be better than Qing Jing at any rate. Again, Shen Jiu would claw his way up and try to succeed any way he can, so if he were put on another peak that would be a somewhat healthy environment for him, he would do well, regardless of the peak. Him doing well on Qing Jing doesn't mean anything other than showing off his awesome(horrible and problematic) coping skills. So really, I can't help but think Qing Jing wasn't a good fit for him, especially with Shen Jiu's specific brand of trauma.

I did a pole once asking if Shen Jiu would've done better on another peak, or if they were just curious to see him anywhere else, and I'm not surprised that the most voted for peak was Yin Hui, the fanon peak for espionage and assassins. Now I'm going to go another tangent why Yin Hui would be good for him later.

[naffeclipse]

I love how similar yet different Blackwater lure Eclipse and Naga SJ!Eclipse are.

They both become obsessed with photographer y/n after they see y/n appreciate nature, they both are technically alone due to certain circumstances (if SJ Eclipse had cut off his relations with his brothers in this AU as well), and they both want y/n’s attention.

However, Naga SJ Eclipse was the reason he lost his companionship with his family (again if we are using some of the original Sleuth Jester story), while BL!Eclipse is alone because of circumstances outside of his control (if I’m getting apex polarity’s lore correct. I’m still very behind due to school and work but have been trying to keep up with the outside lore snippets).

Additionally, Naga SJ Eclipse’s “admiration” of photographer y/n does not mean they won’t get hurt. In fact, it’s likely what causes them to be hurt by Naga SJ because he associates love with his violent tendencies (i.e. bruising y/n and threatening them). BL!Eclipse admires y/n but is against hurting them and instead chooses to try and engage y/n in their work and gift them with things such as food and showing them amazing places.

Anyways, I think if both Blackwater Lure and Naga SJ Eclipses existed in the same universe they would have an extremely intense rivalry with them both being obsessive over y/n and Blackwater Lure not being happy with SJ hurting y/n.

Oh ho, these two would hate each other's guts not least due to them both claiming the photographer. Neither are okay with sharing, either.

SJ and BL follow their OG counterparts with issues and relations, so both are alone, possessive, and very, very territorial. You're correct to point out how they contrast and mirror each other regarding Y/N.

BL!Eclipse grabs Y/N to take them to a beautiful clearing in the river where the water runs clear and every arapaima fish appears under the glittering surface. SJ!Eclipse grabs Y/N to force them to listen when he is, once again, monologing about what they will do for him once they understand that he is all they need.

BL!Eclipse takes Y/N's camera to carefully look at each photo before giving it back. SJ!Eclipse takes Y/N's camera with the threat of keeping it or breaking it. BL!Eclipse coils around Y/N to make them take a nap with him after seeing how tired they look. SJ!Eclipse coils around Y/N to ensure they can't run while he pokes their cheeks and tugs on their hair at his amusement. You can imagine how the list goes on.

If SJ Naga Eclipse exists in the same jungle as BL Eclipse, it would essentially boil down to who can get rid of who first, and once BL Eclipse learns who's been marking his photographer with bruises... It would not be pretty.

Also this—

Y/N: oh hey, you're back early

BL!Eclipse: jungle's haunted

Y/N: what?

BL!EClipse: *loading a pistol and slithering back into the trees* jungle's haunted

[radaverse]

DUDES I LEGIT FOUND A HAPPY TREE FRIENDS VERSION WITH NO GORE OMG

I know it's kinda ironic of me to whine about the gore [glances to pt ToM and sj PoM]

BUT MAN I DO LIKE THE CHARACTERS THE ARTSTYLE AND THE WAY THE SHOW IS MADE

I JUST NEVER ACTUALLY WATCHED IT BECAUSE IT'S too painful

AND WATCHING A NON-GORE VERSION IS SUCH A RELIEF

bro that was so wholesome actually

[amystarsmith]

Shen Qingqiu by himself because he’s pretty

Body horror(?), ghosts, whatever you wanna call it under the cut

Just you know, three dead souls all in the same body. (Left to right for explanation on who is who)

Left- Original Shen Jiu, first owner of the body (died of qi deviation)

Middle- Shen Yuan, second owner of the body (died of terminal illness)

Right- PIDW! Shen Qingqiu/Jiu (died of like… bloodloss, or the fact he swallows sword pieces??? Canonical death yk)

[notjusthespongenextdoor]

Ok now that the boops are gone and i can be grumpy again

"yeah the boops are fun but don't let them distract you from--" PLEASE let them distract you. Please take one goddamn day off from thinking about the world's problems. And if you can't figure out how to do that, for the love of god don't insist that everyone else be stuck in "I'm not allowed to be happy about anything ever" hell with you

If you insist that everyone be focusing on "the problems" at all times that is at best performative and at worst actively harmful to the cause you're trying to support. Taking real action uses up energy, often times a LOT of it. Insisting that no one ever takes a break means insisting that no one ever take time to rest and begin to gather more energy for another actual action. Being "on" all the time isn't your duty, it's an impossibility.

Take a fucking break. And remind everyone that they need to take breaks too.

[quietly-sleeping]

I'll admit I'm a sucker for qijiu, (this could be my hyperfixation on sy talking), but I think those idiots deserve someone who's brand of chaos isn't murder. Or self sacrifice over deeply internalized guilt.

[dr-malice]

The Wardens Dad From Superjail!

[mwagneto]

something something. rose using the fact that the doctor never mentioned sarah jane as 1) a way to insult her 2) something to get insecure about wrt her own relevance to him vs donna using the fact that he never mentioned mel to highlight how he never shares anything and never stops even though he desperately needs to just Talk About His Shit

[verycharismaticdragon]

Okay I'm not platforming ridiculous SJ stans' delusions on my blog, but the spirit of Peerless Cucumber possessed me, so I'm piling up my responses here:

---

Shen Jiu's red string was definitely with Yue Qingyuan, which is made clear in the last lines of their extra:

Threads of blood unfurled, extending outward. Right before they should have converged into one, they passed each other by.

...though I guess maybe it's not very obvious from this translation. So as a normal and sane person I'm pulling out og Chinese:

血线蔓延，就在即将汇聚成一结时，错了开来。 断了。

and offering my own TL, which is more clunky to preserve the sentence structure:

Threads of blood spread out; then, within an inch of converging together to become one knot, staggered apart. They stopped.

The symbolism in this line goes like this:

First of all, flowing blood is described as 线, threads, which is exactly the same 线 as in 红线, red string.

结, knot, is interesting because as a verb, it can mean "to form a relationship", and as a noun, it can mean both physical knot (like the two threads can form tied together) and emotional knot.

I translated 开 as "apart", but it can also mean "to unfasten", "to come loose".

And lastly, 断. It can mean "to stop", but it can also mean "to break off", "to snap", "to be severed". Important to note that in Madam Meiyin's quote @zykamiliah brought up in their response to the og post, "This thread has been cut…", the same word, 断, is used: "这红线断得……"

So their "threads" could tie together into the "knot", but it "came loose", "snapped" in the end. This is the situation in PIDW, after Yue Qingyuan's death; in SVSSS, the thread is snapped, of course, with Shen Jiu's death instead. But the use of the same word clearly indicates it was meant to be the same thread.

---

Also I've looked through the comments and saw another just plain incorrect take, which I already ran into a while ago but didn't argue against, figuring someone else would. I guess nobody did - so let's put it to rest now, at least.

The idea is that since Airplane said that the plot of SVSSS was "distorted [..] right back to the outline [he] discarded" and that after the ending "everything that [he] wanted to write has already played out before [him]" (both quotes from ch.21 of eng.edition), that means that OG PIDW was meant to have bingjiu endgame.

But this is, in fact, plainly disproved in Airplane extras (ch.26 part 4 in eng.edition, emphasis mine):

【 Basic completion of Proud Immortal Demon Way’s original outline achieved (slight deviation in romance plotline); objective complete. Retrieving function to return to original world; download complete. Activate Return Home sequence? 】 Basic completion of the original outline? That he agreed with. All the holes that needed to be filled had been filled. But this “slight deviation of romance plot” wasn’t quite right. Bing-ge was now fully gay; how could you say that was a “slight deviation”? Ah, fine, fine, in fact, in his original outline, Bing-ge hadn’t even had a romance plotline; he had been doomed to fade away, alone and unaging forever. If you insisted on adding a romance plotline, all right, that was whatever, so putting aside all the System’s rambling…this meant he could return to his original world?!

So: Bing-ge originally wasn't meant to have an endgame ship at all. The return to the og outline, then, refers to plot events such as return of Tianlang-jun, revealing the truth about Su Xiyan's fate, and the merging of realms being avoided ("As Shang Qinghua had planned in his outline, Mai Gu Ridge exploded into a mass of flying sand and countless pieces of rubble, with roiling smoke and clouds of billowing dust." - also ch.26 part 4). BingQiu relationship were a deviation, but one Airplane didn't care about much, especially given everything that went right (according to his creative vision) as a result.

---

Also, while I find the mere notion that Binghe could have a red thread with Shen Jiu ridiculous and undeserving of an argument, I did type out a response to vent, so here it is, under cut.

PIDW Luo Binghe did not have a red thread with Shen Jiu, because if he did, Madam Meiyin would've divined that for him - same as she told him about his wives and their preferences with full accuracy in PIDW, and same as she gave SY!SQQ an accurate description of Binghe despite himself not being aware of his feelings in SVSSS.

And when it comes to SVSSS!Luo Binghe, Shen Jiu in this 'verse didn't do anything to change his fate with Binghe. They were heading down the same course. Shen Yuan was the one who changed the narrative, the genre, and Luo Binghe's life; so of course it's him with whom that red thread formed.

And, yes, to return to QiJiu's thread metaphor, it actually describes the red thread not as something permanent, but as something that can be tied together or snap - depending on circumstances. If Luo Binghe had a red thread with Shen Jiu and not Shen Yuan, wouldn't it have frayed and broke off once Shen Jiu was dead, same as the other red string Madam Meiyin saw?

Also, I want to point out that when Madam Meiyin describes "Shen Qingqiu's" fated person, there are descriptors such as "You have both saved each other’s lives" and "Perhaps they may endure short periods of separation, but they quickly reunite". Not only had Shen Jiu never saved Luo Binghe's life - and in fact several times deliberately put his life in danger - but he was also dead for well over a hundred years by the end of PIDW. On the other hand, Shen Yuan has taken multiple blows for Binghe, and their longest separation was five years - after which SY immediately gravitated right back into Luo Binghe's orbit. So which Shen do those lines describe then hmmm i wonder..... /sarcasm

Also, as a last nail, how does Bing-ge's situation fit into the idea that it was SJ? Are you telling me he gleefully tortured his soulmate to death, then ~200 years later met a random guy who just happened to occupy his soulmate's body, and it was the random guy that gave him a bi(?) awakening, made him beg the man to choose him/come with him, and made him cry? Does this make a shred of sense to you, be honest.

[tweetsongs]

i love shen jiu because there's just something deliciously horrifying about a character who was meant to be redeemed becoming doomed in the story because an author was pressured by readers to go in a different direction. what a cosmic horror for the character! you had the potential for good, the potential to be redeemed. all the seeds were there, and because of a million invisible hands you will never be able to comprehend you are thrust into the place of the villain. you cannot be saved and even when you are it can't be as yourself.

it's so interesting bc mxtx protags tend to be like 'you were a hero because it is what was asked of you. but now that the world refuses it for you will you still choose to be good', but sy is the only protag for whom that choice just...never quite comes?  there's never quite a moment where being good would be the harder choice for him. even when he dies for lbh there's the threat of system failure & the knowledge that he has a chance of coming back. at every turn his goal IS to be kind, as dictated by a seemingly omniscient being. in that way, sj occupies a much more traditionally tragic mxtx protagonist role - whenever he IS kind, he is ostracized by the world. when he tries to save lqg, when he's kind to nyy, when he tried to shield qht...what did that get him? 

it's soooo interesting that like many mxtx characters, he's seen by the world to be awful but internally does try to do good, but because he is doomed by the narrative he never gets anyone who /understands/ him, which is the grace that redeemed both wwx and xl at their lowest points. yqy is the closest to fitting this role for sj, but he like. was a COWARD about shit and never tried to heal the rift between him and sj and also semi-believed the rumors by the end. he wasn't like mxtx mls who are defined by 'even if the world is against you, i believe in your heart'

yqy was like i will protect you without the i will believe in your heart part, which would've felt worse for sj. like he can protect himself fine!!! he needed someone to just, understand that he wasn't the evil person ppl said he was.

a lot of people have spoken more eloquently than me abt how sj was deprived of the chance to be good because of his circumstances within the narrative, but i’m just fascinated by how he was deprived of the chance to be good because of something greater than that, a mass of god-like beings outside of the story, exerting their will for a black and white narrative where he can be the one to blame. even when he could’ve been redeemed, he couldn’t have. the world literally refused him the chance.

[frostbeees]

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