#its why hes not looking at shen yuan in their portraits!

[koipalm]

I know the attendant!sy is a liushen fic but... I'm sorry, but my brain literally can't stop turning SQQ's and SY's relationship over a fire like a very juicy roast. Not even in a slash way just... Like, a god tried to stuff Some Guy in his body, failed, made him a new one and SQQ's brilliant idea was to adopt him as an overworked TA/stray cat. The guy is from a different world entirely, knows just about everything about this world and hates his guts. He has a very good reason to hate his guts. That's fine tho, SQQ believes this is a perfectly normal reaction to him because he literally can't concieve someone NOT hating him. SY being grudgingly grateful is the highest level of regard SQQ is capable of tolerating/understanding. He hates his guts back and yet still takes care of him. He overworks him to the point everybody thinks SY is gonna drop dead any minute and thinks this is perfectly normal, that was how SQQ lived 90% of his life. This man should not be within hearing distance of a child and pounced on the opportunity to put a socially acceptable buffer between himself and his disciples. Tearing his limbs off wouldn't be enough to admit he cares one iota about SY and yet he's probably planning ten different ways to discreetly poison LQG if he so much as looks at SY. This is probably the best relationship (non-romantic or otherwise) SQQ has in his life rn and if that doesn't terrify everyone who hears about it then I don't know what does.

Just. Slowly turning all this over a firepit in my brain.

ive tried to write like 5 different replies to this and theyre all incoherent AUGHHH anyway lets just get into it

one of the most interesting things that i wanted to explore in this au was if sqq and sy had to exist in somewhat close proximity to each other. the truth of the situation is that sqq is actually a lot more lax about watching sy than shen yuan makes it out to be. in reality a lot of sqq's outward expression towards shen yuan is very blank or dismissive. sqq will only really step in if he thinks that someone is trying to take shen yuan away from him. but if shen yuan was in actual physical danger like a demonic beast or a roof caving in, sqq would not move to help him. AHHHH its hard to explain super clearly.

shen qingqiu sees shen yuan as something that is "his" in a more metaphysical sense. although the system could have torn his life apart and shen yuan could have ruined his image and stolen his place, that didnt happen, and instead, shen qingqiu was given essentially an ace-in-the-hole. shen yuan, to him, was almost divinely given, even if it was by divine fuck-up.

shen qingqiu would see shen yuan being in danger as basically natural selection though. he wouldnt keep someone around that couldnt handle themselves, so shen yuan has to get out of conflicts himself. if someones tries to take shen yuan from him though, thats pretty much interfering with the will of the gods, and trying to take someone from qing jing peak (his assistant specifically), so in that instance, shen qingqiu would step in

its interesting tho, shen qingqiu really does just see shen yuan as an assistant. a divinely ordained assistant, but still