#mu qingfang + shen qingqiu reluctant wing care is my fave<333< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

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YESYESYEEEESSS!!! you get me!!! and YES mu qingfang is the BEST and i'd LOVE to hear more about wei qingwei!!! (cus i'm not very familiar with him yet so i love to know more!!). and it turning into a little bonding-gossip session with qi qingqi is sooo sweet!!

i feel yue qingyuan is definitely the "best" at wing care, being really gentle in an almost deferential way, even having all these little tools at his disposal (that all look new and unused and yet are quite old<3), and even though birds don't really need/use brushes, it feels heavenly to have him brush the itchy loose feathers (and if yue qingyuan does his hair as well, neither of them mentions it), and shen qingqiu is always all pretty and proper when he leaves

liu qingge doing it on the missions is PERFECT, esp when he doesn't know what to do and needs to be guided through it!!! he's definitely a little rougher than yue qingyuan, but we all know shen qingqiu likes that so he doesn't say anything<3 one time liu qingge pulled a new pin feather and it started bleeding badly, and it took weeks before he even dared to touch shen qingqiu's wings again. and the fighting for who gets to do it i love it so much. i can also imagine the first time on a mission, shen yuan is trying to signal he needs preeming by reaching for the difficult spots and sighing and having his wings spread in an obvious way, shaking them a little because it keeps attracting liu qingge's attention (but liu qingge doesn't dare assume a demon spirit wants a human to touch their wings, and especially not liu qingge because they used to hate each other, so shen yuan has to suck up and ask anyway🤭)

and now for the angst: i always like my shen yuan experiencing dread and anxiety about the endless abyss quest, stomach turning every time someone makes a comment about the upcoming conference, feeling sick when binghe turns a year older, when binghe expresses in his loyal little sheep way he admires his shizun so much and shizun is sooo good to him and he wants to stay on the peak forever! it's horrible to listen to, and sometimes shen yuan gets lost in his head, especially at night when the nightmares plague him and he tosses and turns until he's burning up and his wings feel too heavy and too restricting and they're itching so he starts pulling out feathers to try and make the feeling go away, always regretting it in the morning when he has to hide the "evidence" before binghe can come in with breakfast.

he has thich plumage so it isn't so noticible at first, but eventually bald spots start to form on the inside of his wing and it stresses him out even more because the excuse of moulting doesn't work when no new feathers are growing in, and though liu qingge, wei qingwei and shang qinghua and maybe qi qingqi might not know moulting isn't supposed to leave bald spots like that, yue qingyuan and mu qingfang definitely do.

cue a very embarrassing moment when mu qingfang comes for his monthly without a cure checkup and finds a bunch of loose feathers beneath the bed that don't look worn or damaged, and when he wants to have a look at shen qingqiu's lame wing (because for some reason, without a cure keeps affecting that part of him too), shen qingqiu keeps pulling it back and pressing it tight against his side as if to hide it, mumbling something about moulting season and having a thin face so if mu-shidi could please leave it...?; mu qingfang isn't stupid so he puts one and one together, but he knows he can't confront him now or it'll make him clam up, so he keeps a careful eye out until he sees with certainty that shen qingqiu is plucking feathers (maybe during long meetings shen qingqiu gets lost in his head again and pulls at feathers until they break off (compulsory hand holding, anyone?)? or when he gets visibly stressed his hand keeps going to his wing to pluck at feathers as a self soothing gesture).

it's so clearly a sign of stress, but they just can't figure out what is causing it; loneliness? too high of a workload? boredom? could it be a medical problem like allergies or wing disease, maybe? but shen qingqiu never shows any issues in those regards, seeking out plenty of socialization, he handles his work just fine and loves teaching, and if it was as simple as allergies or disease he could just go to mu qingfang for a cure. and it happens at such random times too, like deep at night, or when they're having a simple meeting (about the alliance conference), it doesn't make sense!

maybe in this au shen qingqiu discovers airplane's identity earlier in the story, and having someone to rant to helps (the other peak lords get jealous at the sudden preferential treatment, but shen qingqiu stops picking at his wings as much, so it's a win)(imagine how helpless shang qinghua feels watching shen yuan pull out feathers in front of him knowing he created both this behavioral pattern and the ending that is causing it)

and do pleeeeaaaase yap about all the other peak lords i NEED to hear!!

ahhh i'm glad you like it!! and you're SPOT ON with the pampering and carrying the other peak lords do<3 whether he's in his small bird form or his big human form with large wings, doesn't matter, he's getting picked up!! (i love liu qingge playing taxi chauffeur and realizing with horror that he likes holding shen qingqiu in his arms a little too much🤭)

so so so, i was just thinking about preening, if this is a canon compliant au, and shen yuan got dropped off in another's body, he probably has no idea how to take care of his bird features, let alone his wings, like how to align the feathers, removing molted ones, dust bathing to remove excess and stale lipids so his plumage stays fluffy, or taking care of pin feathers (new pin feathers have a blood supply flowing through it, if the pin is damaged, it can bleed pretty heavily!), so he just... doesn't. no more than clumsily washing them when he bathes, anyway. and then his wings start itching, and hurting, and the feathers are all askew, and he has all these tattered clumps and pins that hurt when he picks at it and what is he supposed to do...???

naturally, people notice when the prim proper scholar's peak lord, with the perfect hair and flawless skin, has two disheveled wings trailing after him. some of them are worried it might be some sign of self-neglect (also bc it's specifically his demon features that look uncared for), and of course when shen qingqiu coughs once so to speak, yue qingyuan shows up at his doorstep; and i was thinkingggg..... different peak lords taking turns coming to his bamboo house for some casual wing care and preening..... in some bird species preening each other strengthens the trust and bond between the two, for crows it's even a big aspect of social bonding! crows preen their young, their mates, and sick or injured birds, so it's only nature that a ill-feeling shen qingqiu relies on his companions to help him when he's incapable himself...

also because i can't stop imagining shen qingqiu sprawled out across liu qingge or yue qingyuan's lap in bliss while they very carefully align his feathers and tease out molted ones, maybe freeing some matured pin feathers, feeling akin to having his hair brushed and played with while they take care of hard to reach places (thinking about how allopreening birds in nature often have less ticks/healthier plumage bc other birds reach places they can't, but shen jiu probably wouldn't let anyone touch his wings so some parts of them were always a little... messy).

some birds (like parrots) might even overpreen when exposed to strong scents, so all the peak lords quickly learn not to put on too much or heavy perfume because it makes shen qingqiu rub and dig into his wings until feathers fall out

(and i haven't even mentioned the sheer angst potential of stress plucking, but ahh this ask is already so long!!!)

OOOOH MY GOD!!! That's such a wholesome idea. I can already imagine it - and it's always a fight of who gets to preen Shen Qingqiu's wings, to the point where it actually turns into a fight (thanks to Liu Qingge) and it's almost an all-out brawl until Mu Qingfang (the only reasonable peak lord jhebus) makes everyone draw lots to see who gets to do it (- and then cheats because everyone else is so hyped up from the brawl, and his dear shixiong simply cannot deal with such stress!!). It becomes a natural thing to come up with different ways of deciding (unless Shen Qingqiu asks one, then the others just have to choke on vinegar(kiiiidding sort of)), and the peak lord who got to do it last time is not allowed to participate in the next game because that's unfair! Spitballing about how different peak lords go about offering it at first, if I may!! I think that Qi Qingqi would be actually quite gentle about it - she's used to helping out the girls with their hair and other things (shark week 😔😔), so she knows how to go about being like, "hey, I know we don't always get along but I'm going to help you out with your wings, 'kay?" and he is immediately just like "jesus christ please save me from this torment pleasepleaseplease" - kidding, kidding, he'd be much more hesitant about it because he knows that his wings are delicate and he needs to place his trust in whoever's touching them. Qi Qingqi has been...hostile towards him (because of Shen Jiu, so he can't be too offended), and this could be a moment of weakness (- jesus, bestie boo, I'm making him sound like Shen Jiu) but...his wings hurt :[ At first it's awkward, but then Shen Qingqiu relaxes and it does NOT become a gossip session (it should and it does, you can take that from my cold dead hands). Of course, Yue Qingyuan is the first to offer at all, being all like "xiao-Jiu plleeeaaasseeee 🥺" and who is Shen Qingqiu to resist those puppy dog eyes? He seems to have a history with Shen Jiu so it wouldn't be suspicious of him to deign to allow Yue Qingyuan to help out. Of course, Shen Jiu used to let Yue Qingyuan preen his wings on the streets (if we're going that route), so he's skilled and immediately makes Shen Qingqiu feel comfortable as he feels the itchy feeling in his wings FINALLY disappear with every movement the other man makes. Of course, he should be analysing so he can learn to do it himself but...he's so comfy :( When Liu Qingge first does it, it's on a mission! GASP!! Yue Qingyuan sent them on a mission together because it was a matter of both brute force that needed some form of plan involved that wasn't just "grab smash kill" (and mayyybe he wanted his shidi to bond, who cares? Shen Qingqiu has been a lot less hostile recently, and he's going to take advantage). So, they're out on this mission, and it's a LOT fucking harder than they first thought, leaving them waylaid in the forests (stereotypical I know but screw you (/j)). Shen Yuan's (for brevity's sake) wings are slowly getting worse and he's so very uncomfortable but he can't reach the worse bits so he forces himself to abandon his pride for a second and begrudgingly ask Liu Qingge for help! Obviously, Liu Qingge has no clue what he's doing and has to be guided by Shen Yuan (Liu Qingge later claims to not at all be nervous, but his hands were shaking because he didn't mind this new Shen Qingqiu and didn't reaally want to hurt him). The next time Shen Yuan needs his wings preening, Liu Qingge (literally) kicks the door down to offer to do it. He may seem overly aggressive when he manhandles the peak lord, but he's really quite gentle. I do want to yap about the other peak lords, but this answer's really long already!!! If you want me to, please let me know, because I severely want to expose myself as a Mu Qingfang and Wei Qingwei fan and PLEASE tell me more about the angst potential pretty please, I'll be like Yue Qingyuan at your door with puppy dog eyes. I'm INVESTED NOW, GOD.