#I hope he’s seething

[skitter-smack]

i wonder if that man misses me.

[starry-bi-sky]

Okay so this is almost a direct copy-paste of my earlier reblog but only the Xin Yuan parts, because its long enough to be its own post and i want to share it! It deserves it's own post <3 typical starry stuff to write a 2k word long reblog, unfortunately.

I say almost because I went through to proof read and ended up adding more stuff.

I've been cooking on this idea for the last two days since I saw the Xin Mo!Shen Yuan post but??? I can't find anything on Xin Mo's backstory or how it came to be -- which means that's free fucking plot right there baby. That's a sandbox and im making LIFE SIZED CASTLES. I'm so excited.

The idea of Shen Yuan transmigrating centuries before the events of PIDW as Xin Mo -- but when he wakes up, he's not the sword. He wakes up in the body of a young boy named Xin Yuan. Now it makes sense for this boy to be a demon, but the drama, the intrigue, the spice of Xin Yuan being a human child.

SY wakes up as a boy below the age of ten, and the System tells him where he is, and SY is excited to meet his favorite protagonist -- only to gradually realize that he's like, a thousand years or so before the events of the novel. The rant he gives the system is legendary.

Bc what's the point of getting dropped into PIDW if he's never going to meet his favorite character??? This is a scam! BUT he settles into his new life, he's like, some orphan street rat or some other tragic airplane-esq backstory.

The system gives Shen Yuan his first mandatory quest: become a righteous cultivator. Which was like, kinda his plan/hopes anyways, except! There's like?? No official cultivator sects anywhere? The Cang Qiong Mountain Sect hasn't even been established yet, and there are pockets of cultivators running around, maybe some groups or schools popping up and then sinking back down, but nothing's really taken root!

If he asks someone how to become a cultivator, there's no straight answer. No "oh you can go to X to do that". He's pissed! How can he become a cultivator if there aren't any schools around to teach him? Deus ex machina, that's how.

Out of sheer luck, SY manages to help save a rogue cultivator, and promptly gets adopted by said rogue cultivator, who gives SY the name 'Xin Yuan'. He is ecstatic. And you know what? It's actually pretty fun!

He's getting to travel the world of PIDW in its early stages, and gets to see the building blocks for the eventual main story. He's discovering all this local flora and fauna that are foreign to his old world and unmentioned in the book, and he's learning cultivation! Granted, its unsafe, newly(ish) discovered cultivation, but it counts!

Wistfully, he thinks about perhaps he'll do something grand and get his name carved into legend. Something that would eventually help the protagonist later down the line in his quest for revenge.

The system remains silent to his thoughts.

But Xin Yuan doesn't take much stock in that daydream anyways. It's nothing more than fantasy to him; wish-fulfillment. He does discover however, that he is positively brimming with spiritual energy. Overwhelmingly so.

It's both a blessing and a curse, as it puts a strain on his meridians if he's not careful, and leaves him prone to qi deviations for the exact same reasons. He already has a heart demon or two from a few traumatic experiences in the past.

(bc hey! angst a day keeps the writer sadism at bay, and all that)

I'll say he's about... eight when he gets picked up by the rogue cultivator, who I'm calling Lin Kai bc he deserves a name. They travel around PIDW up until Xin Yuan is twelve, where he goes through a traumatic experience that results in a heart demon.

It's after that that Lin Kai decides to put a stop to his wandering, and find a place to settle down to raise Xin Yuan in. Coincidentally! They settle down in a nice mountain region that's thriving with spiritual energy. The mountains at the time were called something different, but they will be eventually known as the Cang Qiong Mountain Sect

Coincidentally, the mountain Lin Kai and Xin Yuan end up on is Qing Jing Peak. XY does not realize that the mountain he's on is Qing Jing. The System does not tell him. But he likes it there, more than he was expecting. And as much as he's traveled around, he really does enjoy being in one place.

He has a tendency to go down the mountain and help the village setting up down there, and when he's a teenager he starts venturing out more and more.

Xin Yuan forgets sometimes that he's in a novel, especially after settling down on Qing Jing peak. The system becomes remarkably quiet since there's no quests for him to do and not a ton of opportunities to get B-Points. He cultivates with Lin Kai, helps tend to the garden they're growing, goes down to the village to play with the other kids.

There's one boy he's best friends with, a boy whose not all that good with words, named Liu Zhihao. He's got potential for cultivation though, so Xin Yuan drags him up the mountain when he can so that Liu Zhihao can sit in on lessons with Lin Kai. He drags him all over the forest at the foot of the mountain to go look at bugs and animals.

(One time, when they're fourteen and Liu Zhihao has been learning cultivation for a few years now, Xin Yuan drags him out of bed late one night to go look at the stars. Xin Yuan tells Liu Zhihao about ascension -- something that still feels like a far off dream to many in this time -- that night, while they're sitting on the wet grass.)

("We should ascend together." Xin Yuan tells Liu Zhihao, jade eyes gleaming. Never let it be said that Xin Yuan doesn't love deeply, no matter what kind of love it is. He was always so lonely as Shen Yuan, Liu Zhihao is his best friend. "We'll become immortals, and then we won't ascend until the other is able to.")

(Liu Zhihao stares at him silently, his face unreadable. Then, quietly, he asks; "Promise?")

("Promise.")

When he starts adventuring outwards, further away from the mountain and the village, Liu Zhihao sticks to him like rice. Not that Xin Yuan's complaining, that's his best friend after all, and Liu Zhihao has become a formidable cultivator. He deserves to show off his skills.

He starts making something of a name for himself by the time he's, like, 18 -- although that name is in its baby steps, along with Liu Zhihao. They're slowly growing renown.

Perhaps XY uses his knowledge of PIDW and cultivation in general to help make advancements in the cultivation field. Although the system prevents him from sharing too much, it doesn't mean he can't practice it himself. Perhaps he's one of the first cultivators to develop a golden core. One of the first known immortal cultivators. One of the first to have a spirit sword.

(Although I don't know the logistics of any of this since my knowledge on xanxia/cultivation stuff in general is all still pretty new and google wasn't all that helpful lol.)

Either way, its my excuse to eventually make Xin Yuan come across as ethereal to other people. Peerless beauty SY for the win. Hs wifebeam is too strong, Xin Yuan has a line of suitors following after him and he's completely unaware of it. The rest of history is not.

Demon realm stuff has been stirring up since Xin Yuan was a kid, but at the time it was rare and in the beginning stages. Its been steadily ramping up and the system is sending him on more and more treacherous quests -- some of them mandatory, some optional. SY doesn't often take the optional ones unless it comes with a sufficient B-point reward.

for all intents and purposes though, he's a wandering rogue cultivator with Liu Zhihao, going from place to place to either help a town or village, or to discover more creatures or artifacts (although there aren't that many). Just all around living his life. He participates in a few major quest lines that are sure to get him mentioned in legend, even if it's a background character way.

(Unbeknownst to him, rather than being a side character in these legends, he's named directly. You can't become one of the first immortal cultivators and NOT get name dropped for clout.)

He has a spirit sword named Shā Mó, (杀 shā - to kill/weaken/counteract/reduce) (魔 mó - evil spirit, demon, possession). He routinely goes back to QJP to see Lin Kai, or to rest when traveling has worn down on him and he wants nothing more than to sleep somewhere he knows he'll be safe in. It becomes more frequent as Xin Yuan becomes more famous. Liu Zhihao often comes with him.

it all comes to a head though when the rifts between the demonic realm and the human realm become too great, and the balance between both realms becomes unstable. A demonic emperor's influence, wanting to merge the two realms so he could conquer both to satiate his own greed.

Typical evil king stuff. This comes to a climatic head in a great battle between every cultivator available and the demon emperor's army. Xin Yuan was one of the many who helped lead the charge.

In the end, it was Xin Yuan who ends up defeating the demonic emperor, but the rift that the emperor used to cross between worlds is destabilizing as well. Except instead of trying to close, it's getting bigger and bigger, threatening to swallow the heavens and earth and demonic realm whole.

You know how Yue Qingyuan's soul is bonded to his sword due to a qi deviation? Let's take it a step further >:)

Xin Yuan uses himself and Shā Mó to close the rift. However, it takes all of his spiritual energy to do so, as well as him filtering the demonic qi into his body to redirect it back to the demon realm.

In the end, Xin Yuan and his beloved sword Shā Mó fuse. Xin Yuan's soul becomes trapped in the sword. His physical body is unable to handle the immense amount of power it takes to close the rift, and is destroyed. He is immortalized in legend by his grieving cultivators.

(Liu Zhihao ends up ascending alone. He ascends with the hope that one day he'll see Xin Yuan again, even if it's in the face of someone else. Lin Kai does not ascend, too weighed down by the grief of losing his son.)

Xin Yuan, now Xin Mo, falls into a stasis. He's very confused and disorientated when he regains 'consciousness'. The system has been silent for most of his life, only popping up to give him mandatory quests, hints, points, or to answer any questions.

But once he wakes up, it cheerfully pops up again, congratulating him on completing the origin story of Xin Mo. SY freaks the fuck out. he'd shake the system screen if he could, but he doesn't have arms. or legs. or eyes for that matter.

He can sense his surroundings, but its all like imprints to him. He can sense the energies, but he can't see anything. It's all very disorientating and horrifying after years of being human. Like a sensory deprivation chamber.

The closing of the rift and the cycling demonic qi tainted both Sha Mo and Xin Yuan irreparably, and it did some kind of damage that resulted in SY needing to feed in order to use the spiritual powers. Kinda like how Xuan Su uses YQY's life force for it's spiritual energy, but instead of feeding on his own lifeforce, Xin Mo feeds on others.

The rest is history. Xin Mo is originally tied to the story of Xin Yuan -- believed to be all that remained of the man after he sacrificed himself to keep the realms separate. It's believed that the force of the realms closing permanently infused Sha Mo with demonic energy, turning it into Xin Mo.

But, like many stories do when faced against the tide of time, things get lost; chipped off; changed. Xin Mo is steadily separated from Xin Yuan, especially once it becomes clear how parasitic the sword really is, until they are all but separate entities themselves and the origin of Xin Mo's creation all but forgotten.

The years blur together when Xin Mo is not being wielded, and at first Xin Yuan was agonized by the fact that he stole the lives of all his wielders. He knows it's only a novel, but his decades spent in this life have softened him, and he's grown attached to the world around him.

But time erodes the mind like water erodes stone, and he becomes numb to it, then eventually anticipating of it. He forces himself to remember what he knows of PIDW's plot, and kinda fixates back on his old obsession on Luo Binghe. But while PIDW stays in his mind, his memories as Xin Yuan fall to the wayside.

Not forgotten, per se, but... tucked away. The system prevents him from forgetting fully.

Xin Mo isn't fully a demonic sword either i think, but instead harbors an ugly cocktail of both spiritual and demonic qi. Special circumstances and all that. Everyone just assumes he's a fully demonic sword because that's usually at the forefront, his spiritual qi weakened from the initial fusion and from years of not being fed spiritual qi. It's part of the reason his wielders always end up destroyed by him, other than the whole, yk, 'overwhelming qi' thing.

Nobody would recognize Xin Mo's human form as Xin Yuan other than some truly ancient demons. Of which Meng Mo might. But even that's iffy because there's a lack of surviving paintings of Xin Yuan, but also because of XM's demonic appearance and supposed lack of connection to XY.

Xin Mo has never spoken to his wielders before, not in the same way he does Luo Binghe. He tells Luo Binghe this, and he also tells Luo Binghe down the line that he is both spiritual and demonic -- something he also never told his wielders because there was no point to it.

okay okay i've got to end it here because its already gotten ridiculously long -- of which im both apologetic and unapologetic for -- but i DO think the Shang Qinghua and Shen Yuan meeting (and reveal) would be fucking hilarious. Especially if SY has learned how to pop between sword form and human form by then -- although i guess it doesnt matter either way because SQH's reaction is still the same.

And that reaction is internally screaming and going "hey what the FUCK?? WHY DOES XIN MO HAVE A HUMAN FORM??? WHAT IS THIS??? SYSTEM??? EXPLAIN???"

meanwhile from his place on the sword hilt xin mo is squinting at Shang Qinghua in bewilderment and going "aren't you supposed to be dead" but doesn't pay too much mind to it because its not like its going to change anything.

...up until he catches shang qinghua going "WTF" silently from his little corner while all eyes are off him. One moment SQH is standing beside his king, and the next he's been tackled to the ground by one wild-eyed, human-shaped Xin Mo.

everyone, including SQH, thinks Xin Mo is going to kill him. It is a surprise to everyone when he does not, and instead dissolves into deranged, uncontrollable laughter after spitting out some phrase in some ancient tongue and watching SQH's eyes grow wide in recognition.

[wat-zu]

Dysfunctional family au— showdown aftermath, one week later

[ellestrade]

I've scrolled through your posts (maybe creepy but who cares im lovin em). Loved your posts about the Al Ghuls!

And I'm wondering what you think about the Dick/Talia beef? I personally find it hilarious that Dick has beef with the one who gave birth to Damian, one of the people he loves and cherishes very much

Hi anon, thank you for the compliment!

Anyhow, regarding your question, I don't think that Dick's hostility towards Talia doesn't revolve around Damian— not at first, at least. Of course, the hate could've been amplified when Damian came to light, though until then it was pretty tame in comparison. Or not, I don't know which would be funnier.

Also, I'm going to direct you to @rasalghul777 , again, because I believe that they're more adverse in this than I am when it comes to the complex relationship between Talia and pretty much all other characters, stressing on Brutalia. However, since this is in regards to my opinion, I'll try to put things into perspective. So take this with a grain of salt.

Anyhow, Dick has shown to dislike Talia early on. This is because, considering that she's an antagonist (her father is among Barman's Rogues' Gallery, if I'm not mistaken, as he was one of the main villains) Dick sees that she's a bad influence to Bruce— since this man was madly in love with Talia at the time to the point it's unhealthy for him (one of the main reason why Talia faked her miscarriage and gave Damian away in the original run of his appearance), and vice versa.

(BruTalia my beloved, BruTalia my Roman empire)

So much, in fact, that Bruce did not hesitate when it comes to choosing between her and his own ward, that being Dick at the time.

While I could be wrong, this is the context that I've gathered from this panel 🤷🤷 though I honestly doubt so.

It could also be read as the "Children not wanting to trust their parents' spouse" type of thing, which is hilarious on its' own accord.

It also doesn't help that they have fundamental disagreement from the get-go— their clashed beliefs makes it difficult for them to meet eye-to-eye.

Dick doesn't owe Talia anything, similar to how Talia doesn't owe Dick anything; he doesn't have to try to understand her, nor does she have to prove anything to him. He's entitled to hate her just as she's entitled to hate him. That hate was very much mutual between them.

(Which, when you think about it, is the same exact argument people brought up when justifying Tim's hostility towards Damian. But I don't want to go too off tangent, so that's a conversation for another day.)

However, when Damian came along, you could imagine that Dick's hatred towards Talia would be amplified ten-fold— while it's possible that he doesn't necessarily see Talia as a stereotypical bad mother (mostly for Damian's sake, and the boy insisted that she wasn't) it was difficult for him to see her as an actual decent one too.

I feel like Dick would be more inclined to blame Talia more on Damian's upbringing; even though it was (heavily, sorta) implied that Talia herself wasn't allowed to see Damian, let alone raise him back in the League.

It's worth mentioning that Dick isn't an all-knowing being. He couldn't've known, and having an actual conversation with Damian regarding his upbringing is a delicate process in itself, but he does recognize Talia as a parental figure in Damian's life and would, therefore, instinctively blame her for the majority of Damian's issues.

Though Dick eventually learns to distribute the hate equally on both parents 🤷🤷🤷 I found that to be more comical compared to a one-sided hate.

Dick: I hate both of you, I really do. You both belong together, because then the world would have to worry about two less horrible people.

Dick: But thank you for the child. I love him. He's mine now.

Bruce and Talia: ?????????

However, when push comes to shove, Dick would still (albeit begrudgingly) team up with Talia. Funnily enough, I always see it that Dick would rather side with Talia more than he would Bruce— because fuck if she doesn't have an actual reason to have a complicated relationship with Damian. Bruce has raised, like, 5 kids and couldn't figure out his teenage son? A 14 year old boy with crippling anxiety??? Get outta here.

All in all, I think both Dick and Talia would have that one relationship like two bitter grandma's who hated each other, but would still attend to the same tea party within punching distance if their beloved grandchild asked.

At least Talia would only suffer from glares. Dick would actually tackle Bruce.

[anghraine]

Speaking of Sauron, I've been amusing myself by thinking about how a disproportionate number of people who super ruined his day are descendants of Melian:

Lúthien, obviously, kicked his ass.

Elwing retaining Lúthien's Silmaril and giving it to Eärendil led to the utter defeat of Morgoth's forces including Sauron.

Tar-Telperiën and her nephew Tar-Minastir, descendants of Elwing's son Elros, were responsible for the vast Númenórean fleet that crushed Sauron's attempts to seize Eregion in the Second Age.

Tar-Minastir's descendant Pharazôn (a usurper and terrible person, but nevertheless) led a massive force against Sauron that intimidated Sauron's armies into giving up. Sauron tricked Pharazôn and managed to take out Númenor, only to end up drowning with it, and was significantly damaged and limited by the event.

Meanwhile, a different descendant of Elros, Elendil, survived! He led Númenórean dissenters away just in time to establish sprawling Númenórean-controlled kingdoms in Middle-earth.

Elendil and the Elvish king Gil-galad proceeded to defeat Sauron in single combat after a long siege. The effort killed them but also took out Sauron himself for a very, very long time. Elendil's son Isildur cut the Ring away from Sauron's body as repayment for the deaths of Elendil and Isildur's younger brother Anárion.

Anárion's children produced various lines of descent that would go on to include the Stewards of Gondor, resolute enemies of Mordor who recruited the Rohirrim into Team We Hate Sauron.

Isildur's and Anárion's descendant Aragorn spent decades criss-crossing the map to spike various evil plans, like when he torched the Corsair fleet as Thorongil and disappeared into the night only to turn up decades later to threaten Sauron with Elendil's reforged sword.

The Ring ended up in the hands of Frodo, who would be only too happy to turn it over to Aragorn as Isildur's heir. Aragorn promptly rejected the idea, crucially leading to Frodo remaining as Ringbearer while Sauron came to mistakenly believe Aragorn had the Ring and meant to use it.

The only time Frodo was ever truly captured by Men (the people easily assumed to be the greatest danger to the quest) was by Anárion's descendant Faramir. Faramir could have taken the Ring with disastrous results for everyone but Sauron, but instead shrugged off the temptation and laughed at it before helping Frodo on his way.

Sauron understandably panicked about the Aragorn situation and sent his forces to Gondor earlier than planned, despite knowing at that point that the Steward Denethor was much better prepared than he'd hoped. Faramir used his abilities to lead a retreat across favorable ground that inflicted large casualties on Sauron's armies, as planned. This tactic functionally sacrificed Faramir and Denethor but bought enough time for the Rohirrim and Aragorn's mainly southern Gondorian armies to arrive and turn the tide of the battle of the Pelennor Fields. Sauron's forces in that battle were defeated. Again.

Aragorn exploited Sauron's understandable fixation on him by making a flashy frontal assault as (unofficial) king of the Dúnedain to distract Sauron's attention from the real threat (three hobbits making their way to Mount Doom). This was 100% successful. Through a series of good and bad choices on the part of the hobbits, the Ring was destroyed and Sauron with it.

Bad day all around for Sauron! Aragorn, meanwhile, married Elrond's daughter and became overlord of Sauron's allies with Faramir as his prime minister.

[imakimseonhoe]

Not Sanha's mom coming out of the fucking blue thinking everything's all good and cool now. Got me a new husband, a daughter, now I want my son that I abandoned. Like get the fuck out of here you stupid bitch.

[jaggybot3000]

Alright. i had to get at least one Jashtober art piece out there.

of course it's mind...but get it, he's wearing a crown of thorns......but its made of lightning bc of his....he's.....the Mind Electric........GET IUT

sketches/textless vers. below

im gonna push him down the stairs

[pieofdeath]

"Liv's gonna kiss Wendell to shut him up" WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[scarlettjskipper]

HSR: Spoilers for Penacony's Trailblazer Mission 2.1!

God, the WAY Sunday yelled at Gallagher at end, demanding to know why he killed Robin broke my heart. I wanted to pat his back and hold his hand, dear Lord.

I can't imagine the agony he must be going through. He's reunited with his sister after literal years, only for her to be murdered, then the people who adopted them both force him to pretend that she's alive, try to stop him from looking into her death and who caused it.

AND THAT LIGHTCONE OH MY GOD THAT LIGHTCONE The fact that he kept it securely... After all this time... He looked so young and happy, too. Oh, my heart.

There's a lot of questionable things going on with him (just like everyone else in Penacony) but my heart really goes out to him. He's one of the people who has, arguably, been having the worst times.

[fandomsfordays21]

Ya know what? Had Jimmy simply just killed people then maybe he'd be alright. He'd still be an asshole and I still wouldn't be fond of him but he'd still have the kind of asshole appeal to some people that Jax does. But the MOMENT he even THOUGHT about touching Anya? Much less when he actually had the AUDACITY to? Nah, that fucker's going in the meatgrinder.

[poliodeuces]

i started playing genshin again💔💔💔 i stopped playing the game in the middle of the inazuma stuff bc i thought the puzzles were so tedious. but every once in a while i think abt dottore. and then i discovered he's actually in the game ?! my only motivation is dottore bc he's my favourite since the webcomic. i even put him in my cursed hypothetical idol group. he looks and sounds gorgeous in the game but in my heart he's the shark-toothed bastard in the comic. he reminds me of julien de la mettrie, particularly his book 'man a machine,' (it was so controversial he fled deutschland), although ofc. his is if l'homme machine, the mechanisation of the human body, is taken literally w

here's dottore and pantalone. im surprised the game actually made direct references to the roles of these characters in commedia dell'arte w the tiny crumbs of lore saying these two work closely together wwww it makes me giggle

[sugarcube-stillabookworm]

oh not the capital D Drama at the men's foil final

[arcsin27]

Hello shadamy fandom, I am offering you this

[mikey-stardust-way]

Good job sticking to that freak RandomFox He literally acts like some kind of Super Villain.

HE DOES THOOO!!!! It's sad in the sence of, "Dude please get a life this isn't normal or healthy behavior-"

But otherwise? It's a little funny (and bit pathetic) how riled up he gets and like super villainy and just...everything...

Doing my part Anon!!! 🫡🎉🎉🎉

Fact! I made a separate blog (on another email and then fucked that up because I can't log back in-) called. "SensibleFox" which was just me saying how much I love and appreciate the comic artist IDW and games even if they aren't perfect and I hope if he ever sees it it gives him an aneurysm💖

[ornithological]

everyday i daydream about going seawatching or on a pelagic in the pacific and southern oceans...so many tubenoses in those parts of the world

[tomboyyyaoi]

trigun twitter blows like actually fucking sucks ass like actually eats shit like good god what a cesspit. what a fucking travesty how those people live and consume media, twitter fandoms continue losing, seethe, rot, fester, youre all doomed