#JING YUAN DOES DAMAGE TO MY HEART I LOVE HIM

[nqmonarch]

Like this man is so sad I just wanna hug him and hold him and tell him everything will be okay but I can't because he's not real. Therefore fanfiction.

Minor spoilers for Jing Liu quest

Comforting Jing Yuan through the screen

To feel lonely, is a common feeling. One that nearly everyone has experienced in their life. So of course, when it was one of those nights you find yourself more than ever sympathizing with Jing Yuan. For a character in a video game, that reminds you too much of yourself.

Originally the only thing that drew your attention to him was his looks. The constant relaxed grin and posture showcasing his confidence, his clothes fit him well showing his competency and also highly attractive body, and he had a badass lion by his side in the splash art. He was just plain pretty. And lightning lord was badass to use in combat. Even if he didn't do much damage it felt like he did damage, at least he did damage to your heart.

Then the lore-- oh my gosh the lore. The only one of his friend group to remember them completely and have to bare the brunt of the pain all while fearlessly and confidently leading however many people were on the Xianzhou. He was lonely. Terribly so. Maybe not in the same way you were lonely but the two of you could be lonely, together.

Whenever he appeared on your screen during a TrailBlaze or Companion quest, your fingers embarrassingly drifted to his hair touching the screen gently. Feeling nothing but cool plastic against your fingers.

Jing Yuan, on the other hand, felt a very strange sensation. Jing Yuan and his three friends were reunited again, yet they never fully could be. Dan Heng was not Dan Feng, as much as it hurt to remember. Yingxing held no memory of the past. Jing Liu left to fight against mara. Blade and Jing Liu had engaged in combat again, air rushing around the two of them at alarming speeds and all Jing Yuan could do is watch. It was all he could ever do.

Then even as the air grew colder and picked up with each clang of the blades, Jing Yuan felt warmth surround him, a hand resting on his head in an attempt to comfort him. He wasn't alone. He wasn't quite sure what kept causing all these strange occurrences, the sudden bursts of warmth when he ran into old friends and felt alone.

Then there was the sudden burst of strength he had, he'd always been strong but each swing of the blade felt effortless now and came faster, more precise, more accurate. But lastly was the strange feeling of comfort, sometimes while he was indulged in that feeling a cut or two would appear on his body only to be healed. His body felt no pain. There'd been a few times when he'd passed out, astounded as blood appeared before him, and he'd wake up moments later perfectly fine.

He wasn't sure exactly what the cause of it all was but he didn't feel quite as alone anymore.

And for some reason, neither did you.

You felt discomfort slink up your spine and rest in your shoulders. It felt like someone was watching you but, no one was around. You turned your attention back to Honkai Star Rail, as you watched lightning lord crash down and hit the enemies.

[captainkirkk]

✩ WEEKLY FIC ROUND-UP ✩

All the fics I’ve read and really enjoyed in the past week-ish. Reminder: This list features any and all ratings and themes.

What We Do in the Shadows

Death or Enthrallment by SoonToBeCyborg

“So, just to clarify,“ Guillermo said though gritted teeth. “My options are death or possible brain damage. The third option— the people I’ve come to think of as my family decide to trust me— is not on the table?” “No,” Nadja said sharply. “‘Fraid not, chap. Too risky.” Guillermo looked to Nandor. “Master?” Nandor held his chin high, even as his eyes wavered. “It is death or enthrallment, Guillermo. But we are letting you choose.” (A season 3 canon divergence in which Guillermo has approximately 7% more self-respect and leaves the vampires in episode 1. He only goes as far as Ashley street, but it’s a start.)

DC (Batman)

1-800-ROBIN by spqr

“Gotham Youth Mental Health Hotline, this is Jason speaking. Can I ask who I’m talking to?”

There’s a long silence on the other end of the line, and then a small voice says, “I, um. Sorry, I don’t know why I called. This was a mistake. I’ll just hang up now.”

“Hey, wait.” Jason drops his feet to the floor, sitting forward in his shitty cubicle. Suddenly his heart is racing and he’s not sure why, but he can’t let this kid hang up. “You don’t have to tell me your name. That’s okay. Just – why don’t you tell me why you’re calling?”

two against the world by carolinaa

“I’m Tim,” he says, though introducing himself to a puppy makes him flush in embarrassment. “Are you hungry?”

The dog blinks at him, all scared eyes.

“Where’s your family?” Tim asks. “Did they leave you?”

(Or: Tim Drake finds a friend.)

The Martian

#BringHimHome by MelRows

Mark Watney will need to buy a lot of people beers.

A collection of in-world oneshots cataloging the world's reactions. From the news to social media and from regular people to NASA rover techs.

1: Fox vs. an 80 year old Bill Nye 2: John and Hank Green, Crash Course Mars 3: A NASA rover tech at Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station 4: The WatneyWatch app and how to tell your child their hero is going to die in an invisible dust storm on Mars 5: Tattoos, music, and what is likely to amount to the largest simultaneous worldwide traffic jam 6. 78 hours of vlogs are released, the Ares 3 crew returns home, and Mark goes on The Tonight Show

SVSSS

and judgment is just like a cup that we share by Kieron_ODuibhir

The blob finished rotating into place in a way that wasn’t quite compatible with geometry as Shen Qingqiu understood it, and cleared a throat it didn’t seem to have.

“Greetings,” it said, somehow clearly addressing him in particular more than the room as a whole despite its total lack of features other than blueness and translucency. “I’m here on behalf of the Hyper-Celestial Peace and Order Enforcement Bureau. Crime scene secure, proceeding to interviews. Beginning with Subject One: You are Shen Qingqiu, formerly Shen Yuan, also known as Peerless Cucumber?”

grief, hope, and other forms of sickness by nyoomerr

After the Immortal Alliance Conference, Shen Qingqiu qi deviates. The deviation itself isn’t bad, but it allows Without-A-Cure to spread far further than it did originally, disabling Shen Qingqiu by a non-insignificant amount.

So when Huan Hua calls for Shen Qingqiu’s imprisonment in Jinlan City, Without-A-Cure makes it very clear that Shen Qingqiu can not be held in the Water Prison away from the medical attention he needs these days.

Instead, Shen Qingqiu is allowed to return to Qing Jing, provided he takes Luo Binghe back with him.

purely eyeshine by sunson

In a world where, at the last moment, the System does not force Shen Qingqiu to push Luo Binghe down into the Endless Abyss, things are fine. Things are great, even.

Until the demon puberty sets in.

you are who you love by kitschlet

Shen Qingqiu gets hit by an amnesia wife plot that selectively erases Luo Binghe from his memories. Luckily, the cure is simple: Luo Binghe just has to make him fall in love all over again.

Just Like A Monkey (I've Been Dancing My Whole Life) by millepertuis

Shen Qingqiu is supposed to wake in his new body after he self-destructs.

It’s not what happens.

[spockandawe]

BingYuan~

Ooh, interesting! I’m guessing this is distinct from bingqiu, since I already tackled that one. I assume it uses non-transmigration shen yuan? So I can tell you that the biggest downside is that I’ve put very minimal thought into this ship before now, but let’s see what we get!

Downsides: 

My lack of interest in this ship is... a lot drive by the fact that I’m rarely looking for an opportunity to have less fantasy in my stories, and most bingyuan I’ve seen takes place in a modern setting :X 

It’s not a dealbreaker, and like, for example Iove the yi city coffee shop au, but fantasy-story-with-less-fantasy is almost never something I will seek out, it’s something I have to be persuaded into trying. I do love the silly, questionably-constructed universe of PIDW, especially with the conceit that it was constructed by Shang Qinghua, which I can identify with as an author who is sometimes forced into worldbuilding. The modern world? I live there, I don’t dislike it, but it’s a very familiar environment, while ancient fantasy china is very novel to me.

And honestly, I get much less invested in binghe and shen qingqiu/shen yuan without that ‘oh boy, my teacher who i want to please more than anything stopped hating me and started loving me instead.’ Binghe’s damage and the way that his damage affects the way he interacts with the people in my life is one of my favorite, FAVORITE parts of svsss, and dropping a shen yuan into his life after those formative childhood years... it’s just not going to have the same OOMPH as the canon body stealing situation.

Upsides: 

Now, you can get some really fascinating aus working with this situation, ones that had plain never occurred to me until someone presented it as a bingyuan scenario. Portal fantasies for binghe to show up in the modern world are fine, but don’t grip me as much of some of the more inventive ones. Two specific fics that pop out off the top of my head are feynite’s homemaker au one-shot (binghe exists in the modern world.... as well as his extended demon family, which interferes with his desire to be a nice quiet house husband), and pandaflower’s great and terrible oz series (binghe has been ruling the world for a very time, and is not terribly.... balanced, then shen yuan is born into the world, and binghe thinks he recognizes his old shizun reincarnated)

Those are both wild! I never would have thought of them myself, because honestly, aus are not typically my forte, but they are delicious. WIth the feynite one-shot, you get a bingyuan dynamic with a very bingmei flavor to it, and in the pandaflower series, binghe is very bingge, and it’s delicious and tense. Not having shen yuan as a fish out of water trying to integrate himself into a new place does take away some things that I like a lot about the original canon, but it introduces some really lovely new character dynamics to play with, and gives you a lot of room to explore.

And... oh........

Anon, I may have accidentally lied to you.

‘I’ve put very minimal thought into this ship’, I type, as I alt+tab over to my writing window, where I returned to working on (one of) my bingyuan wip(s) this morning.

Okay, yeah, I’ve got... 3.5 bingyuan aus (in one of them it’s not a good situation, but his original marriage was with a bingge, which went..... badly). Now, most of these are aus-of-aus situations, and explaining them is probably more words than I want to put into this ask meme, but like..... ‘I’ve put very minimal thought into this ship’ jfc

My main priority in these is that I love shen jiu, deeply, despite his many, many flaws, and his death breaks my heart. First au! Qijiu is a thing, Shen Yuan shows up mysteriously, lost and sick, dressed in modern clothing, and looking very much like Xiao Jiu as a child. He’s adopted into their family despite Strong protests from Shen Jiu, and then Shen Jiu gets attached. Second au! Binghe (bingge lite) is working on building his harem, and one of his new husbands is a certain Sha Yuan, who transmigrated into Sha Hualing’s younger brother at a very young age and basically (re)grew up in the PIDW world. 2.5th au! Binghe (true bingge) married Sha Yuan, things were.... Not Good, and anyways, Bingge died(?), the harem fell apart, and now Sha Yuan is kind of on the run with Mobei-jun and..... Xue Yang. I swear it makes sense, but what if i... don’t explain.

And, final au, what if Liu Mingyan and Liu Qingge were swapped, and she grows up to be the Bai Zhan Peak Lord and Shen Jiu copes less badly with her than her brother because [men] are a lowkey trigger for him, doesn’t spitefully recruit Luo Binghe to Qing Jing Peak, and little Liu Qingge drags Luo Binghe off to go train with his sister. Then........ also Shen Yuan as Shen Qingqiu’s little mini-me protege. All of these are technically bingliuyuan aus (except the 2.5th one) because I love Liu Qingge and can’t stand to see him sad or heartbroken, but yes, apparently I have spent a lot of time thinking about bingyuan and love it very much :V