#and SQQ resents him for that

[benevolenterrancy]

May your hardened heart be woken By the soft and distant song Of all you left here unspoken All the shards we keep stepping on - Take this body home Take this body home Call the wind, and let her know Take this life outgrown Take this broken soul Call the stars, call them all And take it high, take it far, take it home

[thegoldenavenger]

Mmmmm, thinking about Luo Binghe flying high on his sword when a magnificent bird veers close to him, flaring its wings and catching the buffet of wind around lbh and riding alongside him

The bird looks at him with steely, piercing eyes and delicately reaches its talons out to grip zheng yang's hilt. It settles carefully onto the sword, ruffling its feathers as it balances. Idly, it toys with the hem of lbh's robe, at the tie on his boot.

Lbh is heading to Qing Jing Peak, of course and this bird rides with him the whole way. Approaching the bamboo forest, the bird catches flight again, quickly looping around lbh before folding its wings and diving.

Not to be outclassed, lbh also tucks himself in and dives. Unerring, the bird and lbh are heading for the same figure.

LBH finally has to pull out of the dive, jumping off Zheng Yang and sweeping it back into its sheath in an elegant movement while the bird, like an arrow, drops almost directly onto Shen Qingqiu, who is waiting.

At the last moment the bird pulls up, it's talons reaching out and it's wings breaking its speed. It perches on sqq's arm, almost a third to half the size of sqq himself.

"Oh you brought home Binghe! How good!" Sqq scratches the bird's feathers around its face, and the bird floofs and twists its head appreciatively. It delicately nips at sqq's fingers and sqq let's out a little "Oh! Right!" And procures a little meat snack for it.

Lbh, totally not jealous of a bird, announces himself and sqq smiles at him, very gleeful.

"Shizun...?"

"Binghe, welcome back! You may not have noticed, but your Liu-Shishu had a little qi deviation and turned into a bird!"

The bird makes a trilling noise after it—he—snapped up the snack, and goes back to nibbling at sqq's hand, pulling softly at his sleeve. Lbh makes a face.

"How long is he going to be like that?" Lbh asks, edging into sqq's space, not so subtly planning how best to oust bird-lqg from sqq's arm.

"Mu Qingfang said that he would likely have to clear the resentment that caused the qi deviation, before his energy can rebalance and return to normal."

"And... he can do that?" Lbh looks VERY doubtfully at lqg, who is busy trying to fit his head back into sqq's palm, begging for more scritches.

"Ah, well. Probably?" Sqq says, "He has times where he seems more lucid. Yang Yixuan is, uh, dedicated, but I don't trust Bai Zhan to have the delicacy required to take care of Liu-Shidi while he's this indisposed..."

"They might still try to fight him..." Lbh agrees.

"Exactly! He's still so intimidating!" Sqq says this while cooing, dragging his hand down the bird's chest. Bird-lqg obligingly raises a talon, showing off wicked finger-length curving claws to Sqq's obvious delight.

Lbh starts, in reflex, as sqq holds his hand out and bird-lqg curves his talons around it, but bird-lqg is exceedingly delicate, exerting a control that normal birds wouldn't possess.

"And he can't stay on the beast mountain?" Lbh asks

"Well, they have so many other responsibilities..." sqq says, almost pouting at lbh.

Lbh thinks that is entirely unfair. He is the one who should be crying in this situation, seeing as his husband has, once again, done backflips in order to arrange lqg into their care.

"You just want to study him." Lbh accuses, finally burrowing his way into sqq's shoulder, leaning on it enough that it unbalanced bird-lqg. Lbh keeps an eye out, but as expected, bird-lqg launches off of sqq with a few powerful flaps of his wings instead of risking harming sqq to readjusting his perch.

"I could turn into a better animal for you to study." Lbh says, petulant, into sqq's hair.

"Ahhh, it will only be for awhile you sticky husband." Sqq says, but dutifully pets lbh's hair.

Lbh shuffles them back into the bamboo house, intending on visiting the kitchens then heading to bed, but he's stopped by the mess of straw and woodchips spread along the floor. A large, wickedly gnarled branch leans haphazardly across the home, almost wall to wall.

"Shizun......" lbh says in despair. "Shizun, he is not staying in the house, is he?"

As if in punctuation, a beautiful feather floats down lazily in front of lbh's face.

[dayurno]

No but for real do you think Jean blamed Kevin for leaving him at the Nest?

(being held at gunpoint) ok ok ok ok ill answer officer please

i dont think jean necessarily blames kevin for anything thats happened in the nest, but he's still just a person after all. in such a harsh environment and suddenly alone after hanging so much of his sanity on kevin and their friendship, of course jean resents him for leaving; he doesn't have the time nor the space to process the feeling of loss in any other meaningful way.

but! i think after he is no longer in such peril and can think clearly, jean learns to be angry at the world again. the realization that the anger towards the nest riko beat out of him was actually Rightful and Just like the sword of an angel will also bring the logical explanation that kevin was in no more control than he himself was, and that ultimately it was not his fault. i believe the pain of abandonment for jean comes from a much deeper place though, and that will be something that creates a rift between them even if jean doesn't blame kevin anymore; kevin, because he is too afraid of jean hating him to actually allow them to interact again, and jean, because kevin's avoidance of him makes him angry when he was prepared to absolve kevin of guilt in the first place

[caspertheloudassghost]

Scum villain crack fic idea:

One or more of the peak lords switch places in time with their younger selves for like a week and basically decides to spend that time gossiping. “It’s so nice to be able to not hear Shen-Shixiong and his husbands causing another scandal” “An Ding is so much warmer without the King of the North in semi-permanent residence” “Have you heard of ‘The resentment of Chunshan?’”

This person just keeps dropping multiple bombshells and is low key revealing in the chaos. The current head disciples and previous peak lords are loosing their shit at the idea that not only is TLJ roaming free, the demon realm is united, HHP is run by a half demon, etc, but also that, at minimum two peak lords are married to demon royalty.

For comedic purposes I propose that this au includes as many peak lords as possible in some sort of human-demon relationship.

Minds are blown with the mention of SQH being both the King of the North’s Consort, but also advisor to the demon emperor.

SQQ the leacher is in a committed gay relationship with two men? With his Disciple?? Who is said Current Demonic Emperor?! And LIU QINGGE?!

Tianlang-jun and YQY’s relationship is like two divorcees who bond over missing their spouses. Do Not Separate that is his emotional support demon/peak lord.

QQQ and SHL become gossip buddies after she marries LMY.

MQF the doctor meets the ultimate snakeboy (anti venom!) who is Also part Heavenly Demon (ultimate cure all!!!!)(on Qiong Ding with his uncle) and decides he’s keeping him. A relationship originating from medical researcher & subject of research becomes an extremely close friendship. They are very done with everyone’s nonsense.

WQW and Six Balls are engaged.

[koipalm]

liushennnn in my attendant sy au (read right to left)

notes on this au:

sy transmigrates into a new body when sqq fights the system trying to force him out of his body. sqq is livid and decides to take sy as his retainer/secretary/assistant, forcing him to do most of the accounting & administrative work on qing jing peak and work for sqq for free while also helping sqq avoid his tragic fate by telling him spoilers and secrets about the world that sy remembers. sy has no golden core and no cultivation, and cant wield a spiritual sword or fight. sy has no documents, no money, and no prospects. sqq basically provides everything for him & can also take it away. sy moves into the other room in the bamboo house and cleans and organizes as well, although his own room is a mess. sqq never makes it clear what sy's position on the peak is, so all of the disciples follow his orders in fear of disobeying sqq. sy is basically 2nd to sqq, although he doesnt see it that way; he sees himself as sqq's overworked servant. he resents sqq for his control over sy's life, but he's terrified of being kicked out.

sqq takes sy to the peak lord meetings as well, using sy to carry documents, serve tea, and to give him information about anything that might be useful to sqq if it comes up during the meeting. sy also often acts as a messenger for sqq between peaks. he doesnt get much interaction outside of senior disciples and the other peak lords.

since sy's hands are usually full with documents, accounting books, talisman paper, & anything else sqq wants him to carry, sy can't use his fan to hide his face as much. instead he uses his hair & his glasses. his skin is sallow & he often misses meals from running around doing sqq's errands, so he always seems tired. clothes he wears are simple & loose, either slip on or buttoned up. he dislikes loud & bright patterns bc he doesn't want to stand out, but sometimes has no choice bc sqq buys his clothes. sqq will often make him wear more extravagant patterns, even when it makes sy nervous about attracting attention.

since sy seemed to appear out of nowhere to the other sect members, sy is very worried about acting too suspicious and getting kicked out. he copies sqq as much as possible to acclimate to the world and seem unphased & elegant.

sy is very interested in the other peak lords since he interacts with them often, especially liu qingge. liu qingge often catches him staring, but sy tries not to interact with anyone more than he has to. liu qingge usually sees him hiding behind sqq as a buffer. if sy does speak, he does it low & quiet, & if behind his fan if possible.

sy looks like his old body & has long black hair, similarly styled to sqq by his insistence. sy dislikes this.

sqq calls sy "a-yuan" bc sy doesnt like it. sy doesnt like telling people his name though bc it makes ppl think theyre related, which he also doesnt like, so he doesnt stop sqq from indroducing sy as "a-yuan". this makes it very difficult for other ppl to know what to call sy in fear of being too familiar

sy does meet sqh earlier in this au, and he helps him as much as he can get away with behind sqq's back. since sy is less bound by the system than sqh is, sqh sometimes "sponsors" sy to do things he himself cant do.

sy calls sqq the equivalent of "sir".

[gaywarcriminals]

Shen Jiu is an Abusive Mother

Yeah this is my Mother's Day post <3 This is just for funsies, and I by no mean think its the best lens through which to see SJ and LBH's relationship— its just a comparison I find interesting, and I was feeling festive 🥰.

To start, none of this is to say that SJ is a feminine character. I don't believe that, and I think that he's often misinterpreted as more feminine by western fans due to differences in gender norms/gender roles (which is a Whole Other Coversation). Maternal/mommy are being used loosely here.

Secondly, I don't think we'd even be looking at SJ through a maternal framework if the man who took over his body wasn't Shen "I would never abort you" Yuan. SJ is mostly pulled into this because he exist in juxtaposition to Mr. Freud's Wet Dream (go read tshirt's SVSSS Freud zine btw, several points here are inspired by it).

The fact remains, though, that even without Wifebeam Supreme playing the part, there is something distinctly parental about the role of Shizun. Shizuns cannot be compared to teachers or tutors, who the child either go to visit durning the day, or who come to the child's home when it's time for lessons. Even with the respect due to them, a teacher remains distinct from a child's home and family. They do not overly incorporate themselves into these things that define a child's life. 

Shizuns are a little different. There is, ofc, lots of variation within the xianxia and wuxia genres, but in most of the stories I've encountered— and more importantly for our purposes, in SVSSS itself— unless the child’s family home is their sect, when a child is accepted as a disciple, they're expected to join their shizun/shifu either in the master's home/sect, or in free-roaming travel. In both cases, the shizun's home becomes the disciple's home, and their shizun becomes the main adult responsible for the child. The master will take over in guiding the child's development from here, shaping them by their hand. Is that not a parent? I think some such imprinting is inevitable, even among more well-adjusted disciples. Do you know who's not well-adjusted?

Luo Binghe enters the sect soon after the death of his mother. There is a mommy shaped hole in his heart. Though absolutely nothing could replace her, he's a sad, lost, and angry child, coming to a mountain of immortal masters, desperately hoping for one of them to take him as their own. As much as he's motivated by fulfilling his mother's wishes, isn't he also looking for a place to belong in this world, now that the hut that he once called home is ruined by his mother's absence? Doesn't he hope, if only for a short time, that someone else will see fit to care for him? As much as Luo Binghe is already hurt and hardened in many ways, he's still just a child; he's not yet blackened beyond dreaming of someone to love him.

Shen Jiu is very much Not That. Shen Jiu is not a merely a lofty immortal ambivalent to his disciple’s emotional needs. No, Shen Jiu hates Luo Binghe enough to unfairly punish and ostracize him, and even puts him in deadly harm's way twice before just outright trying to kill him (the manual, the demon invasion, the abyss). Going by the framework of SQQ as a parental figure, he's undeniably an abusive one. In what way could this be said to be maternal, though? In my eyes, it comes down to motive.

Shen Jiu has a lot of motivations for abusing Binghe, mostly coming down to the fact that's he's more trauma response than man at this point, but one of these is more explicitly outlined in the text than the others: Shen Qingqiu saw three things on the original flavor’s face: envy, envy, and more envy. Envy that Luo Binghe had a mother who was “the kindest in all the world to him,” envy of Luo Binghe’s talent, envy that Luo Binghe would enter Cang Qiong Mountain Sect at the best age for cultivating. He was indeed the kind of person to brim with envy and resentment toward a young child.

Envy and jealously, at least in the western canon, are usually associated with female characters (and though it’s outside the scope of this post to dissect, let it not go unremarked that this trope is deeply misogynistic in origin). They are almost always envious of a younger, more beautiful, and/or more skillful woman, who are posed at the moral superior to the jealous woman. That's right, Shen Jiu is an evil stepmother! He tolerates having no superior or equal on his peak, needing his power and superiority to go unquestioned. Outside of his abuse of Binghe, and the references early in the novel to SJ chasing away talented disciples, I think this is also shown by how the male disciple SJ tolerates the most is Ming Fan, who has only middling talent and is obsequious before his shifu, never challenging SJ in any way, and never threatening to surpass him.

But of course, SJ’s relationship to Binghe is the most obvious example. Shen Jiu sees himself in Luo Binghe (derogatory). He sees Luo Binghe as a symbol of everything he never had. Luo Binghe is a creature like himself that, for no rhythm or reason, was given so much more than SJ. It is also notable that, at least as far as Shen Qingqiu, as an outside observer, can tell, the thing which first sparked SJ's ire was the mention of LBH's mother. Never mind that LBH says in the same breath that she's dead; the fact that when she lived, she was a kind and loving mother to LBH is enough for SJ to envy him, and as he finds more to envy, it comes justification to hate the boy, and to punish him for daring to have someone who died loving him. 

(Side note: after consulting the qijiu server about the implications of SJ’s reaction, my reading is that SJ never knew his mother. The only alternative is that she was a bad mother, but I don't think he would find such unilateral comfort in women if that was the case. It's made me wonder if SJ ever believed that having a mother, a protector, would have spared him his fate. But alas, this post is not about SJ's mommy issues. Another day!)

Even outside the realm of cartoonish villains, I think this particular brand of envy is, in some ways, associate with motherhood. There's a natural tendency in parents to see themselves in their children, but as mothers are almost always the ones more involved in raising children and more expected to foster emotional connections with their children, I think this is both more common and more encouraged in mothers than fathers. Mothers are expected to be in charge of and over-involved in most aspects of a child's life, and in turn their lives are expected to revolve around their children, blurring the boarder between the self and the child. The child becomes symbolic of the mother's past self and what she can no longer be. The expectations on the child are the expectations of the mother's idealized self, and whether the child meets them or not, the mother will resent them for it, for daring to fail when they are her, or daring to succeed when they are not.

That's not to say SJ ever had such deep identification with LBH— he certainly never cared for LBH, and if anything, he's more like a mother who resents her child being born (as though he did not pick this boy out of the dirt himself)— but the hatred for a child under his care being like him but supposedly better off feels evocative of this characteristically maternal form of envy.

And finally, there is the fruit of SJ's actions, and the most explicitly/textually maternal aspect of SJ's abuse: it created Luo Bingge.

“Has Shidi ever considered that, if you hadn’t treated Luo Binghe like that in the beginning, everything that unfolded today never would have happened?”

He had singlehandedly created the Luo Binghe of today,

Luo Bingge, the all-powerful demon, the ruler of the three realms, and Shen Jiu's own personal torturer, would never have existed without SJ's intervention. Luo Bingge is shaped in Shen Jiu's image, and everything Shen Jiu ever did to destroy the boy only twisted him to further fit this mold. Luo Bingge's fate, the shape of his very soul, have been defined by SJ. And what is more maternal than giving someone their life defining trauma? 

[stiltonbasket]

stilton I love all the sv fics you've been posting lately 🥺 will you be posting more in the future?

I have two multichapter SVSSS WIPs (A Wife by Any Other Name and my ongoing LOTR-inspired Bingqiu fic), and I plan to post around six more oneshots for the SVSSS Gotcha for Gaza. After that, though, my SVSSS writing days will likely come to an end! :')

I do have a Qijiu age gap AU in the works; but my (countless, at this point) MDZS projects take priority, so this one might not ever see the light of day. I've attached a few scenes below the cut, in case anyone is interested. <3

Short background: in this AU, Yue Qingyuan and Shen Jiu met when they were fifteen and five years old respectively, when YQY (then a kitchen slave) took little Shen Jiu off the streets and hid him in an abandoned wing of his master's manor. They were separated when SJ was discovered, and Yue Qingyuan was badly beaten and thrown out of the estate while Shen Jiu managed to escape and ended up being sold to the Qius a few years later. When they reunited at the Immortal Alliance Conference, YQY had been Qiong Ding's head disciple for nearly a decade and had just earned the right to accept disciples of his own, so SJ became YQY's disciple and went back to Cang Qiong with him.

Shen Jiu later realizes that he and SY!SQQ (head disciple/future peak lord of Qing Jing) are brothers; the following scenes mostly concern his relationship with Shen Yuan.

scene 1, set shortly after Shen Jiu comes to Cang Qiong and discovers that he and Shen Qingqiu are related:

This soft-eyed, fair-faced fool—he could never have lived through the trials Shen Jiu and his Qi-ge had endured, no matter how strong his cultivation, or how fine his calligraphy, or how well he swayed the hearts of men to bow to his every whim—

“Oh,” Shen Qingqiu murmurs, his voice full of such pain that Qi-ge makes a sound of distress behind him. “Of course. They must have had another child after they sold me away.”

Shen Jiu stares. “What? You were…”

“There was a drought in the second-to-last dog year, before you were born,” Shen Qingqiu says distantly, unfolding his fan and placing it over his mouth. “I was the third son, and born sickly—so when the slavers came to Jinan, they told Father that I was quick-witted and handsome enough to serve a lordling in a great house, and that I would have all the food I wanted and medicine to treat my infirmity as long as I did not make too much of a nuisance of myself. So I was sold and taken away.”

He casts a thoughtful glance at Shen Jiu’s sharp nose and smooth jaw, and then at the mole behind his left ear. “The sixth year after that was a bad year, too. You must have been sold then.”

Shen Jiu wants to tell this cheap brother of his that he had not even been sold, for the slavers had wanted nothing to do with a three-year-old infant scarcely out of babyhood. His mother was long-dead by then, and his father and the two kept brothers had resented her for bearing Shen Jiu and hated Shen Jiu for not having died before he was weaned: so there was no one to protest when his father carried him out of their shack while he slept and abandoned him in an alley a few miles away. If this heretofore-unknown third elder brother, Shen Yuan, had not been pretty enough to catch the eyes of the Jinan slavers, perhaps their father would have done the same to him.

scene 2, set about a year later, after Shen Jiu finds out that Yue Qingyuan's personal name Yue Qi is not written with the character for "seven" in CQM's sect records:

“Qi was good enough for Qi-ge.”

“Yue Qi’s name was changed when he entered the sect,” Shen Qingqiu tells him. “The Qi that Shixiong uses now comes from qi xi, for a bird resting on a perch.”

Shen Jiu turns around to stare accusingly at Yue Qinguan. “You never told me that you’d changed your name. Why did I have to find out from—from Senior Shen?”

“Ah, well,” Yue Qingyuan says awkwardly, “Shizun was the one who decided that the Qi for seven wasn’t worthy of a Qiong Ding Peak disciple, and then I became the head disciple, and my name was changed again, to Qingyuan. I haven’t signed my name with the new Qi in years. But, A-Jiu, I do think that Shidi is right; it’ll be years before you can become a head disciple, and in that time…”

“Should I use the jiu for ‘a long while,’ then?” Shen Jiu quips. “Or jiu zhi?”

Shen Qingqiu snaps his fan closed. “No. How practiced are you in the scholarly arts?”

“I do well enough,” Shen Jiu bristles. Reading, writing, and the reciting of poetry were the three subjects that came to him easily after he entered the sect; and though he had been near the bottom of the class when he first arrived, his weekly reports placed him at the top by the beginning of the second month. “Ask Qi-ge.”

“Then why not use the name Jiu’ge, after the second volume of the Chuci?” Shen Qingqiu asks. “What do you think, shixiong?”

“I think Jiu'ge is a fine name. But it’s no good if Xiao-Jiu doesn’t like it.”

Shen Jiu thinks for a moment. In truth, he had wanted Yue Qi to bestow a new name upon him, if it so happened that he needed one. He gave Shen Jiu the very first name he remembers, Xiao Lizi, after the plums that Yue Qi used to smuggle to him when he was a child in the Huang manor; but he does not entirely detest the thought of this strange elder brother, thrown away just as he was, choosing the name Shen Jiu will be known by in the future.

“It’s not bad,” he admits at last. “Very well, then. Let it be Jiu’ge.”

[miaoqing]

(some of) the times Shen Jiu was an asshole to Binghe

(these are excerpts from chapters 1, 19, and the SQQ&YQY extra ONLY. There's definitely more but I feel like this amount gets the points across lol + addresses some of the things people most often "forget")

chapter 1

pg 2

“Shen Qingqiu was jealous of Luo Binghe’s unparalleled and exceptional talent, and he secretly feared his disciple, whose cultivation improved by leaps and bounds every day. He always found new ways to demean Luo Binghe, even enlisting the boy’s peers to belittle him. Throughout these years of studying, Luo Binghe endured every humiliation.”

pg 11

“Where is Luo Binghe?”

(...)

Yue Qingyuan sighed. “I know you don’t like him. But that child’s already worked hard enough, and he hasn’t made any significant mistakes. Don’t punish him any further, all right?”

(...)

“Whenever you finish stringing him up and beating him, haven’t you always shut him in the woodshed?”

pg 12

“Why was he so unable to tolerate the main character no matter how innocuous his behavior, and why did he spend day in and day out scheming up new torments for him, even getting others to do so in his place?”

pg 13

“Whenever Shen Qingqiu had called for Luo Binghe in the past, he’d always referred to him as “that little beast,” “ungrateful brat," "this wretch,” or “whelp”.”

pg 20

"It meant they had also passed the incident where Luo Binghe’s fellow Qing Jing Peak disciples had pummeled him en masse, as well as the incident where he’d “backtalked” Shizun and been strung up and beaten, in addition to the incident where he’s ruined the peak’s talismans and been punished with hard labor…”

chapter 19

“What the original flavor cared about more than anything else in life was his cultivation. (...) Otherwise he wouldn’t have hated and envied Luo Binghe to the point of insanity.”

---

“Shen Qingqiu saw three things on the original flavor’s face: envy, envy, and more envy. Envy that Luo Binghe had a mother who was “the kindest in all the world to him,” envy of Luo Binghe’s talent, envy that Luo Binghe would enter Cang Qiong Mountain Sect at the best age for cultivating. He was indeed the kind of person to brim with envy and resentment toward a young child. Shen Jiu stood and walked over to Luo Binghe, his steps measured. (...) Shen Jiu casually tossed the tea in his hand, cup and lid and all, onto Luo Binghe.

The tea wasn’t freshly boiled, the temperature only hot instead of scalding, but Luo Binghe’s entire person still froze, stunned.

Ming Fan’s footsteps padded after Shen Jiu, who’d walked out of the Bamboo House without a second word, hands behind his back. But before the former stepped out the door, he yelled behind him, “Kneel! Shizun hasn’t allowed you to get up. If you dare get up, be warned that you’ll be strung up and beaten, and after the beating, you’ll be shut in the woodshed for three days!”

SQQ&YQY extra:

“Luo Binghe was using the incorrect cultivation manual that Shen Qingqiu had handed him*; he should have long since died bleeding from the seven apertures, his body rupturing down to his bones, skin, meridians, tendons, and flesh.”

*ch. 1 vol 1: "The cultivation manual Ming Fan had given Luo Binghe was a fake"

ETA: ch. 2 vol 1: "Shen Qingqiu had inspired Ming Fan to give Luo Binghe a fake cultivation manual"

[fun-mxtx-polls]

E'ming vs. Xuan Su

E'ming propaganda:

I just had to come here and wax poetically about E-Ming. Not only is he a) a deadly scimitar that can and has defeated gods, b) the legendary weapon of the strongest ghost king, and c) made USING that ghost king’s eye, he’s also the goodest boy to have ever existed.

He’s basically a puppy dog in sword form and he just wants love and pets. He’s so expressive and adorable that Xie Lian completely ignore all warnings to avoid him to instead treat him like the puppy he is.

Plus there’s his creation story! (Spoilers for TGCF). Back when Hua Cheng was still a weak ghost on Mount Tonglu, he chose to pretext a group of lost mortals by ripping out his eye and forging E-Ming as a weapon. It was a dangerous and risky choice that could have forever separated Hua Cheng from Xie Lian, but he still did it simply because he cares more about others than he likes to admit. E-Ming represents Hua Cheng’s weakness and humanity and even though Hua Cheng resents him for that, Xie Lian loves him for it all the same.

Therefore E-Ming is a) a badass sword, b) an adorable puppy who deserves love, and c) a physical representation of who Hua Cheng is and how he and Xie Lian perceive him. E-Ming is precious and deserves all the votes (and pets)!

Also he just looks really, really cool too! (submitted by @alittlelessalone)

e'ming is babie!!!!!

Xuan Su propaganda:

Xuan Su means "Dark and solemn". Yue Qingyuan's sword, vitality important to his backstory. Its so strong that few cultivators can even stand when he pulls it out, even by a sliver. It drain's yqy's lifeforce in exchange for incredible amounts of power! It wasn't even drawn fully during the sealing of Tianlang-jun, and was instrumental to his defeat. Even pidw Bingge couldn't defeat him one-on-one!

i haven't been able to get 'Xuan Su is YQY's erectile dysfunction' out of my head for multiple days and I have one thing to say about it: it's SO funny, please let Xuan Su win so that this extremely powerful, OP, life ending sword can instead be known as YQY's limp dick. (submitted by @valiantbarnes)

Xuan Su is quite possibly the strongest sword on this list. It is so powerful that when Yue Qingyuan first got it, he was forced (via many broken bones) into secluded meditation in a cave for YEARS to prevent a deadly qi deviation, preventing him from saving Shen Jiu, destroying their relationship. And even once YQY grew to be the most powerful cultivator in the world (Bingge couldn't even kill him without an ambush) he still couldn't draw it without it sapping years off of his life every time. YQY had to carry two swords for his entire life because his first sword could and would kill him if given the chance.

Also, in PIDW, after Bingge killed YQY and Xuan Su shattered, Bingge used the shards to taunt Shen Qingqiu and SQQ swallows the shards to kill himself. Imagine swallowing the shards of a sword that belonged to your beloved childhood friend turned kind-of boss who missed you so much even when you were right there and for whom you feel so much bitterness and longing and yet cared for so much that news of his death is the only thing that could have broken you, even after years of horrific torture. The drama of that alone should win it some points, I think. (submitted by @slythavakna)

[xiulric]

On SV fics and jin lan city AU fanfics

Jin lan city is one of my fave arcs in SV bc we have all this wonderful tension coming to a head. Sqq's devotion to binghe turned over its head, into fear and animosity

meanwhile binghe laboriously built himself up, meticulously planned and manipulated his way into a favorable political position both in the demon realm and as a huan hua disciple

despite his anger and resentment. he thinks this will prove to shizun that hes still valuable. bc xin mo digs its claws into binghes insecurity: sqq either rejected him bc of his demon heritage, or worse. sqq found him unlovable, the person who knew him best, saw the core of who he is, found him insufficient

hell. maybe this was a long con years in the making, sqq hated him since they met, and then only pretended to be nice to binghe so that sqqs betrayal would hurt more

and all this planning bites him in the ass!!!! it makes shizun resent him more!!!

some fics make the mistake of dissolving this tension too early. for the sake of speeding up the bingqiu cuddles

and like i think thats a waste bc those same misunderstandings, when resolved with good storytelling, lead to a satisfying conclusion that makes bingqiu feel deeper, with a stronger connection ! 

so anyway theres so many ways the jin lan meeting post abyss couldve gone. RIPE with potential for a variety of fun fanfic scenarios!!!

ive seen truth serum jin lan city aus, or obedience spell aus. even ones where sqq forces a soul connection so binghe. cant kill him without hurting himself

point is!! SO MANY OPTIONS

but my absolute favourite jin lan city aus, the most ironic, juicy, and hardest to execute imo :

aus where Binghe realizes something baffling about his shizun. the key to successfully manipulating SQQ and resolving this post-abyss misunderstanding.

its not through demonic power, prestige, manners or huan hua palace.

it's by binghe showing the most unlovable, weak side of himself. that makes sqq crumble like wet tissue paper IN AN INSTANT

if binghe in jin lan city cries, if hes hurt or sick, sqq will be there to help him immediately despite sqqs fear of binghe

sqq is so so weak to white lotus binghe that he would risk getting mauled by the demon emperor. bc he cant hold back his own need to coddle binghe

a sub point to this same weakness sqq has; jin lan aus where binghe pushes the limit of "how far will shizun go to pamper me?"

that one is tricky bc. it can sound OOC if written without believable buildup

disciple white lotus binghe is aware that sqq favours him; sqq vastly prefers binghes cooking over any other food. sqq got without-a-cure for binghes sake. binghe is head disciple.

but its not always that binghe realizes how FAR sqq would go to coddle binghe, and worse, sqq justifies it and lies to himself about it. "its only what binghe is owed! hes the protagonist! this world was built for him!"

so in some delicious jin lan aus, binghe goes; ok ok. shizun hates me now. but when i hug him.. he doesnt push me away? when i kill all the sowers, and jin lan proclaims me a hero, and i ask for shizuns hand in marriage... he doesnt DENY it to me??

shizun doesnt look happy. but he goes along willingly!?!?!?  WHAT IS GOING ON

basically it leads to more misunderstandings before a resolution BUT ITS SO JUICY!? SQQ's love for binghe vs his lying to himself about loving binghe! a truth he can hardly admit in the privacy of his mind !

and binghes confusion blending with his delight and the stinging betrayal of 3 years ago!!! CHEFS KISS

example below of this dynamic; from Sadie Hawkins fic by X_los

[bloopitynoot]

Reading SVSSS: Bonus- Chapter 24

For those who don't know, I am reading SVSSS for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag bloopitynoot reads SVSSS. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read.

This was a two part-two tea read LOL. I started this chapter right before my union meeting with a vanilla chai tea and now i'm ending it after the meeting with a chamomile lavender tea.

I finally feel like i'm coming out of my sick haze and hoping these flowers will knock me out tonight.

Let's get into the saddest fucking chapter I have read in a while- Bonus 24:

Shen Jiu breaks my heart. I hate it so much that all of the kids that were trafficked were given numbers for names. Like these kids probably had actual names but no one knows them. p81

I totally forgot until now that Yue Qingyuan was also one of the kids. I can already tell this chapter is going to ruin me. My heart hurts at the roles they had to play to survive. Yue Qi being the protector, Shen Jiu making money. pp82-83

omg. Shiwa was a snot nose, but the child did not deserve that at all (his face sliced). Who the fuck is this "youthful master" p85

fuck it's Qiu Jianluo.

And he would deserve it! I too would "swear to fuck the qiu family graves a hundred and eighteen times" p86 Qiu Jianluo is vile.

I think it's actually worse that he's only 4 years older than shen jiu. They're both children at this point but one is sadistic as fuck. This guy is so horrible. p88

uuugh. Okay. Going back a page, I just clocked something that has me feeling sad things. The fact that the only things Shen Jiu can write are "seven" and "nine" (his and Yue Qi's names :(((((( )and only because he saw someone (presumably his traffickers) write them. p87 I cannot with this boys life. It is truly so awful.

omg. and the rationale Qiu Jianluo has for making shen jiu marry his sister "so she wouldn't need to leave" p88 and the way he does it by threatening shen jiu's life pretty much constantly

someone, many chapters back, said I would be upset with the extras involving Shen jiu and they are not wrong. This is deeply awful.

I also dislike Wu Yanzi; this guy is terrible too. Shen Jiu really is a bad luck and terrible people magnet. pp92-93

Bless. As awful and shameful as stabbing someone in the back is, good on shen jiu for saving Yue Qi and ending this fight! p93

Oh gosh. Shen jiu really needs some therapy. this guy holds so much darkness and resentment. Like shit; the hatred he has for Liu Qingge literally just for existing and having a good life. p95

So. What I don't understand is how no one thought it was odd that one day SQQ wakes up and is totally different. This man went from Brothel Rewards Card Holder to "I have never so much as looked at a woman in my life" like HOW did not one know. p97

Yue Qingyuan to Shen Qingqiu about Liu Qingge "If you extend him a single share of kindness, he'll return it two-fold" p98 and he truly did. transmigrated shen yuan saved this mans life one time and the bro sold him his soul twice over.

oh poor trauma baby. The reason why he (SQQ) doesn't sleep in the dorms/disciples quarters hurt. p100

The guilt that Yue Qingyuan carries is heavier than the Catholic Church. My god. I totally get why this guy is always doing the most for SQQ. pp102-203

Oh no. Yue Qingyuan was defo the person who was fighting for their life in the cave while qi deviating attempting to leave it. This one hurts :((( Shen Qingqiu doesn't even know and he is not wrong p108 I just want to hug Yue Qingyuan.

ah, okay. This chapter is the original Shen Jiu's timeline not the prequel to Shen yuan version. I got so confused when part 6 started talking about the water prison and Shen Qingqiu killing Liu Qingge. pp109-110

oof. It truly sucks when a character has had a rough go and is struggling but refuses to allow themselves to be redeemed in any way. Shen Jiu feels like that for me. It's so upsetting. pp112-113

This is so tragic. Literally two seconds after I read the part where Shen Jiu tells Yue Qingyuan to get lost and had that thought about him refusing to be redeemed this part happens, "I thought you weren't coming" p114 my HEART at Shen Jiu thinking Yue Qi would never come back but he did :( and Yue Qingyuan still feeling the guilt and burden of not doing it when they were young.

Well that was fucking awful

This chapter ruined my life. No thoughts, only sadness.

[teufelsabbiss]

Story-idea: de-aged OG!SQQ

(eventual Liu Qingge/Yue Qingyuan/Shen Qingqiu)

Can't be the only one who'd love to see a de-aged, amnesiac Shen Qingqiu bite someone's hand out of possessive over-protectiveness, because they dared to threaten (or just touch) Yue Qingyuan. Especially if most of the other peak lords see this.

Anyway, this is what sparked this story idea.

Shen Qingqiu hasn't been well for a while already and then gets into a big argument during a peak lord meeting, which causes him to suffer a qi-deviation. He ends up de-aged to his 12 or 13 year old self and only remembers what happened up to that point.

And holy shit, this is very clearly the opposite of a spoiled rich kid. He's malnourished, neglected and possibly mistreated. He also clearly speaks (and curses) like a street urchin. It's a pretty big shock to his fellow peak lords.

Except for Yue Qingyuan, who immediately tries shielding him from the others. Which isn't going too well at first, seeing how tall, strong men usually spell danger to Shen Jiu. Some of the others try with the best of intentions to get a hold of him to prevent more harm, like him tripping off the rainbow bridge or having an even worse qi-deviation etc. But naturally he's trying to run away from everyone who does. It gets very chaotic, until Yue Qingyuan draws Xuan Su an inch out of its sheath and stops any further shenanigans.

After that, Shen Jiu has a good look at his face and recognizes him as the adult Qi-ge. That Shen Jiu is still wearing (and tripping over) his own too big robes makes it easier for him to believe that he somehow de-aged. Then he pretty much hides in Yue Qingyuan's embrace.

Everyone always questioned why the sect leader is so partial toward Shen Qingqiu and how they first met. Now, with how they interact, they strongly suspect the two grew up together. Which means everyone realizes that Yue Qingyuan is likely a former street child as well. Contrary to Yue Qingyuan's expectations this actually makes them more appreciative of his accomplishments and friendship.

But now Mu Qingfang has to make sure drawing Xuan Su didn't cause lingering damage. Which in turn makes Shen Qingqiu question what's wrong. He's only getting an abridged version, but that's already enough for extreme concern and vile curses against Yue Qingyuan's shizun. Everyone is really shocked and baffled how much he actually cares about the person he usually couldn't even speak five phrases to before flying off the handle.

As for Shen Qingqiu, his qi-deviation was severe. No one can say for sure whether the de-aging will revert back or is permanent. For the time being it's best to assume it's the latter. He has to completely start over with his cultivation. And here comes the next big surprise for the others – Shen Qingqiu has outstanding talent. No wonder he was so salty about his comparably mediocre abilities before...

He can't perform his peak lord duties until he trained up to it again. Qing Jing is run by teachers, hallmasters and occasionally the other peak lords. There are no new disciples accepted and Shen Qingqiu is re-tracing and re-learning most things from his personal library. Most of the time he is on Qiong Ding, partly because he wants to be close to Qi-ge and partly because Yue Qingyuan is too worried to leave him alone on Qing Jing. It's also awesome for both to just enjoy being together without the misunderstandings and resentment poisoning them. Finally everything seems to go well.

Shen Qingqiu can't help admiring his Qi-ge. He's become so much more attractive as an adult. He already was in love before, but now these feelings get a lot more pronounced over the years.

Then Liu Qingge decides to teach Shen Qingqiu proper fight etiquette and gets more than he bargained for. Because Shen Qingqiu unexpectedly develops feelings for him as well. Instead of a treacherous viper threatening to kill him, he now seemingly has a smitten troublesome gremlin hell-bent on future marriage to deal with. Hearing that Shen Qingqiu is exclusively into men is yet again flipping assumptions about him.

Shen Qingqiu is rather torn about having feelings for someone other than Qi-ge in the beginning. But then he decides he wants both! He has always been greedy, why stop now? It doesn't take much convincing for Yue Qingyuan to agree to marry him later. Liu Qingge is a harder nut to crack, but he's immortal and Shen Qingqiu will be soon again as well, so he's ready for a long courtship.

When Luo Binghe joins the sect, he's accepted into Qiong Ding. He and Shen Qingqiu have a complicated relationship. Luo Binghe is very confused and a bit intimidated by knowing this teenager, who is only a few years older than him, is a peak lord who had an accident. And Shen Qingqiu thinks Luo Binghe is too naive and a pushover who needs to learn to stand up for himself. His brand of tough love and help is sadly sparking feelings in Luo Binghe that will ultimately stay unrequited.

Shen Qingqiu's courtship of Liu Qingge naturally includes gifts. Among other things a trinket of some kind that alerts him should Liu Qingge be in trouble. He has to more or less be bullied into taking it with him into the Lingxi caves, but it ends up saving his life. Shen Qingqiu knows something bad happens the moment the qi-deviation starts and he can alert Yue Qingyuan to go in and help. This finally fully convinces Liu Qingge that the courting isn't a long-running ploy. He's more receptive to the courting after this, even though the whole situation is still very strange.

Sha Hualing attacks the sect and is pretty handily defeated in the three matches. Shen Qingqiu wins the first fight, Luo Binghe is eager to impress him and barges in to fight Sha Hualing. Since he's very well trained, he wins. Shen Qingqiu sent a message to Liu Qingge as soon as the attack happened and he rushes out of seclusion to arrive just in time to easily win the third match and, with the combined attack of the others, chase the rest of the demons away.

Shen Qingqiu is drawn into Luo Binghe's dream realm and aids him, thus inadvertently strengthening Luo Binghe's romantic feelings towards him. Shen Qingqiu has no idea this is the case.

Shen Qingqiu accompanies Liu Qingge on his hunts and missions quite often. It's good practice for Shen Qingqiu's duties and opportunity to get closer. Yue Qingyuan and Liu Qingge get more fond of each other as well during this time. This makes Shen Qingqiu stress over losing both at first, but once they reassure him they intend to marry him as well as each other, this is alright for him.

Years later, both Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe are attending the Immortal Alliance Conference. Binghe's seal breaks and a cultivator from another sect attacks Binghe upon seeing him. Shen Qingqiu by chance arrives and knocks the cultivator out from behind. After thinking of ways to get Binghe out and realizing there's no way this could work without others noticing that he's a demon and getting the wrong ideas, he urges Binghe to jump into the Endless Abyss. His main concern is not so much Luo Binghe staying alive, but keeping Qi-ge and Liu Qingge safe. He's sure that would be in jeopardy with the sect under scrutiny for harboring a demon and consequently being suspected of responsibility for sabotaging the conference. Eventually Binghe does as he says.

When Shen Qingqiu turns 20 or 21 he is ready to take charge of Qing Jing peak again. Soon after, he, Yue Qingyuan and Liu Qingge marry.

Binghe comes back after three years and intends to propose to Shen Qingqiu, only to find he's too late.

Obviously this could lead to more drama or even another addition to the marriage. But I personally am really fond of Binghe/Vinegar and him pining in vain, so...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[leonidele]

Oh! you're new to MXTX?

Here are the rules to understanding what the heck is literally going on in the novels: 1. never, Ever, believe what a character says about themselves or their perception of the world.

Shen Yuan: "I'm an easygoing person!" no you're not. you spent every single day since transmigration fixing and plotting and stressing over a hundred things at once, stop lying Mu Qing: "I rlly think we should just let them die." proceeds to save them. LBH: "An eye for an eye, Shizun hurt me I will repay" proceeds to only save, cure and worry for SQQ and keep him close to him.

2. no difficulty in the world hasn't been made because of another person. be it misunderstandings, miscommunication, resentment, ill intents, character personality, etc, the only thing that pushes a plot point (backward or forward) are singular people who are more often than not working against their own favor. (someone pls give MXTX a sociology book) if you like that sort of thing, good for you! if you're a person who gets frustrated by miscommunication... *screams into a pillow. incoherently ranting about specific moments in the novels* 3. nobody knows what actually happened. (no one else was in the room where it happened~) all three (and possibly other) books of MXTX have been filled to the brim with gossip, fangirling, and gossip. if a random character is saying it, that is definitely not what happened. if someone explaining second hand is saying it, you are being intentionally put so off track you can't even see the road. if the subject of the conversation is saying what happened, look at the company, the character, and the subject, and resolutely understand that you will never get the actual story of what happened from anyone. because clearly, the man himself is delusional.

and that's all for now! tell me if you want more tips (or if you think I should correct anything)

[lovefrombegonia]

My headcanon: Yue Qingyuan knows pretty much from the beginning that the Shen Qingqiu in the canon SVSSS is not the actual Shen Jiu, not his Shen Jiu. He has secretly been trying to find the real Shen Jiu but he doesn't resent Shen Yuan. He is fond of this another SQQ. He is even protective towards him. In the end, he does look so much like his Xiao Jiu.

He will never stop looking for his Xiao Jiu. He won't abandon him again. Even if he might never find him, Yue Qi will still look for him. He will never stop. Even if it is destined that they will remain forever torn apart from each other by fate.

They will meet again though. It's just a matter of time. That's what Yue Qingyuan always tells himself.

[cooliogirl101]

For all you SVSSS fans out there, I highly recommend Tarnished Gold by Prim_the_Amazing on ao3, featuring a SY that was transmigrated into Gongyi Xiao instead of SQQ. Writing style is amazing and it’s genuinely one of the best characterizations of LBH I’ve ever seen (I mean he’s a total mess, but that just makes him more IC as far as I’m concerned). Also they managed to make the Little Palace Mistress likable without doing a complete 180 on her personality, which I love.

To summarize the fic:

LBH: *schemes to turn people against SY!GYX*

People: *begin to turn against SY!GYX*

LBH: what the fuck is wrong with all of you

See also:

LBH: How can you just let me do this to you?? Don’t you resent my stealing everything from you?

SY!GXY: I suppose I don’t resent it because Binghe is the kind of person who deserves everything. And so everything that I have, I want to give to Binghe. How can I resent that?

LBH: …

LBH: …

LBH: goddamn it why did you have to go ahead and make yourself irresistible

[zykamiliah]

they didn’t say that a 20 y/o dating someone in their early 30s was pedophilia though? they said it was a power imbalance, and that it doesn’t disappear as soon as they are a legal adult. look, i enjoy svsss, but it’s true there is a mental gap. and a student pursuing a teacher doesn’t necessarily make the teacher’s reciprocation okay. i think there’s room for nuance here that neither you nor the other blogger is realizing

they were relating the feeling of weirdness they got from reading svsss to the power imbalance of a real life teacher/student relationship or actual pedophilia.

like i said, the power imbalance is part of the conflict in svsss and bingqiu's relationship. No one in this fandom believes they were the perfect soulmates from start to finish, Healthy and Unproblematic. But it's one thing that their dynamic was unbalanced and toxic because of the their misunderstandings and communications problems, and another entirely different what that other blogger was saying.

by the time binghe comes from the abyss, he has already grown into his own power and become a demon lord. when they meet again, sqq is not the one leveling his power against sqq, but the opposite.

here I talked about why i don't think bingqiu is toxic, if you'd like to read my analysis on it.

now, for the mental gap, what exactly are you saying here? Because if we're going to compare mental age gaps, we need to take into consideration that binghe and shen yuan are from different worlds, and that their upbringing was very different. lbh practically grew in the streets as an orphan before his adoptive mother took him in, and the he went back to that after her death, before entering CQM. shen yuan, on the other hand, grew with a loving family, was a rich and pampered young master and never had to go through the struggles that lbh went through: starvation, mistreatment, poverty, loneliness, being homeless and parentless, with no one to care for him or protect him. so really, between the two, who has more worthy life experiences?

okay, let's get at it from another angle. through the entire novel, and specially after the sqq's death, lbh is very honest with himself about his own feelings and thoughts. he knows his mind really well, even under the influence of xin mo. he knows how to manipulate dreams, after all. you could said that his most unhealthy habits are his codependency and the way he internalizes his self-hate, and the subsequent self-harm he does to his mind and body because of this. i'd say his most childish moments are in the Jinlan arc, where his actions contradict themselves, as he's both resentful toward SQQ and trying to win his approval at the same time.

shen yuan, on the other hand? emotionally repressed. he doesn't process his own thoughts and emotions and pushes everything under the surface. queerphobic. homophobic. deep in denial of his own queerness and gayness, oblivious to everything gay going own around him, runs from his problems, self-sacrificial to the detriment of his own well-being, so tsundere it backfires on him sometimes, unable to understand why someone like airplane would write shitty porn to pay the bills; even thought at his core he's kind to must people, he spends a great part of the novel being very vitriolic towards sqh. it's because he can't let go of his hatred towards the authors, who he partly blames for the bad things that happen to him.

taking all this into account, i really can't say what their true mental ages are, and if the gap is really that big, or if it really has such a huge impact on their relationship.

and a student pursuing a teacher doesn’t necessarily make the teacher’s reciprocation okay.

maybe you're right on this one, but are all cases of teacher/student relationships the same? must we, just as sqq did, ignore lbh's agency and own wishes and do what he thought was best?

there's thinking that teenagers under 18 have no way of making rational decisions when it comes to love and sexual attraction, and there's thinking that a 25 years old's agency in regards to who he wants to be with is meaningless.