#Do You Hear What I Hear

[bean-writes]

I am never going caroling at the psychiatric hospital again. In hindsight, singing “Do You Hear What I Hear” was not a great idea.

[severalpossiblemusiks]

Because I've seen so many people talk about the Christmas song "Do You Hear What I Hear?" not being in my religious Christmas songs poll:

It is NOT a religious Christmas song. It uses the religious imagery of Jesus' birth and the message of peace on earth that is found within the Christmas story to advocate for an end to war.

It was written explicitly as an anti-war protest song in the early 1960s in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

So unfortunately I did not include it in either of my two polls because it's not a religious song in the sense of being about religious figures. It's a song that uses religious imagery surrounding a religious holiday to better get the message across.

[hillwoodhouse]

🎄🎶 Do you hear what I hear? 🎶🎄

[elijones94]

⭐️ A lovely Christmas angel ✨⭐️

[boobytrapzap]

Said the lamb to the shepherd boy: baaa

[queenofalllcats]

Do you smell it? That smell. A kind of smelly smell. A smelly smell that smells....smelly? Like Mr.Krabs, I, too, can sniff out money anywhere any time. (I acknowledge he was not talking about money in this instance)

[doctorgeekery]

Do You Hear What I Hear (Tumblr Bells Edition)

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[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.

[findmeinthefallair]

It can't be overstated how powerful the catharsis is when a scene of a character connecting with their wounded inner child is done right. The key poses...the expressions...the timing...storytelling like this can help to provide some healing for so many people in the audience.

[epilepticartist]

[teegeeteegee]

Christmas Song #20:

Do You Hear What I Hear

[lazy-cat-corner]

The shepherd boy off to spill the tea that his lamb just told him to the mighty King:

[elijones94]

🌟🌴 With Christmas almost around the corner, I decided to do some religious drawings. My original intention was to have all three wise men aboard camels on the same sheet of paper, but the other two shall be added later. While in Puerto Rico this Christmas, my family and I will be in charge of a youth camp at a church in San Juan. It’s theme will be Christmas/Three Kings Day. 🐫🐑 #Christmas #ThreeKingsDay