#scum villain fic dump

[nonpoppie]

bingyuan sillies

[captainadwen]

Ao3 Fic Meme

@belovedstill the stars aligned i shall play the game

Rules: Go to your AO3 account and find the following:

What ratings do you write most of your fics under?

Teen (17 off anon, more on anon)

Explicit (they're all anon lmao, I counted 11...)

Gen (9)

What are your top three fandoms?

The Silmarillion (11 and some score)

Genshin Impact (6 and some more. Literally why.)

Scum Villain Self Saving System (3 or 39, depending on how you count my fic dump)

What is the top character you write about?

Maedhros (true value unknown, but at least 8)

What are your top three pairings?

Maedhros/Fingon (...various)

Luo Binghe/Shen Yuan | Shen Qingqiu (either 3 or 30 something, counting all my fic dump)

Bái | White/Sòng Shūháng (2, a throwback pairing so hard to the past I struggled to remember what fandom this is for)

What are the top three additional tags?

Humor (9)

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence (5)

And hilariously enough:

Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued (only 4??)

There's probably some reoccurring tags in the sexy anon fics but since Ao3 won't count those in my normal fics, ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯

Does any of this surprise you?

Not really. I thought I'd have more discontinued fics but I think my various fic dumps ought to count for discontinued fics. Also I'm exasperated and vaguely annoyed that I wrote 6 whole fics for Genshin Impact, but that's just a reflection of my bad breakup with Genshin. They were fun to write when I was in the fandom.

Tagging:

@pearlescentpearl @kyogre-blue @reflectionsofacreator

[idlebeks]

SVSSS Fic Recs

I'm working on a podfic list. But here, have a couple of Scum Villian recs in the mean time. All BingQui, mostly rated E. This is a fun fandom, there is so much potential for both extreme angst and extreme crack, often at the same time.

Every Binghe/ge deserves a Happy Ending [buy one SY, get one free] by Shireyaki

You can have a Shen Yuan YOU can have a Shen Yuan WE ALL CAN HAVE A SHEN YUAN

Scum Villain AUs by Feynite

Various random alternate universe fics.

Includes:

Supervillain AU Genderswap AU Hades & Persephone AU Dragon Monster AU Mermay AU Free Guy AU

& Many More!

Into the Abyss by esama

In which Shen Yuan pisses the System off and it sends him straight into the Endless Abyss.

Four years later, Shen Qingqiu does the same to Luo Binghe.

Fruiting Body by Calamity Butterfly (Calamity_Butterfly)

“A new body? What has my Shizun done?” Luo Binghe asks mildly.

“Oh, I died again, didn’t I? This time, I died saving you from a qi deviation brought on by that sword,” Shen Qingqiu answers, stroking the caps of the trembling mushrooms still pressed up against his sides. “I suspected I was going to die so I prepared a new body, just in case. But it’s taking a long time to remember myself, and I’m not sure I want to go back once I do.”

Shen Qingqiu awakens in the Sun and Moon Dew Flower body, more fungal than human, and networked into a vast, sentient mycelial network. His new body is more complicated than he anticipated. Luo Binghe finds him, and that is also more complicated than he anticipated.

The Many Trials and Tribulations of Ming Fan by The Feels Whale (miscellea)

Ming Fan just wants to get through ONE supervised night hunt without this happening.

Or: the one where Shen Qingqiu continues to be attractive to people who aren’t Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge. It's a problem.

“Da-shixiong.” Ning-shimei’s groan was barely audible to anyone who didn’t have a cultivator’s enhanced senses. To him and the rest of their assembled siblings, though, it rang out like a bell. The only one who didn’t notice was Shizun. He was up ahead and deep in conversation with the Lord who’d summoned them to investigate a series of local disappearances.

“I saw,” Ming Fan sighed. “Eyes front. Everyone knows their roles.”

Frankly, he’d been braced for this moment since he’d asked around about the family hosting them for the duration of this investigation. He’d discovered that they had two marriage-aged daughters in the household, neither of whom were engaged.

Loaded God Complex, Cock It And Pull It by Camorra

There were three things of which Shen Yuan was absolutely certain. The first, that Luo Binghe was an irredeemable jackass. The second, there was a part of Luo Binghe, and Shen Yuan didn't know how large, that wanted Shen Yuan dead for trussing him like a pig and dumping him on his own front porch. And the third, that Shen Yuan was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with Luo Binghe. P S Y C H !

omg they were roommates by smellslikecitrus

Shen Yuan was a normal chemistry major. What did he do to deserve getting booted into his least-favorite novel?!

Silver lining: Binghe makes really, really good food.

Plastromancy by x_los

"One night, Luo Binghe notices something odd about the way his blood is pooling on the floor of the woodshed."

A twelve year old Luo Binghe meets his Other Shizun.

AQ by x_los

Before he rose to captaincy, Shen Yuan attended a briefing given to all command level officers in Star Fleet that outlined the scope of the Q threat. According to Admiral Picard's report, the omnipotent Q are devious, amoral, unreliable, irresponsible and definitely not to be trusted.

Orphaned stowaway Luo Binghe doesn't even know he is one.

Living With a Tiger by x_los

Shen Yuan has been engaged to Emperor Luo Binghe from almost the hour of his birth. He grows up knowing his place in the world exactly; he is far less certain of his place in his betrothed's guarded affections.

Scum Villain's Accidental Romance System by BurnerAccount

Shen Qingqiu has accepted that yes, this is a novel. And yes, it is going to have stupid plot points that he can (probably) do nothing about. His inevitable, horrible fate is his most probable future - but hey, it's at least a ways off yet, right?

A Stallion novel has stupid tropes, but he's 100% - no, 1000% sure, that these aren't in the standard package.

Anyways, Stan Shen Qingqiu by x_los

Millennial vs Gen Z? Shen Qingqiu wishes.

A young transmigrator has a new idol; Shen Qingqiu is very tired.

I Wish You Were My Husband by Feynite

AU based on The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir (familiarity with that story's not required).

Wherein Shen Yuan transmigrates into a harem intrigues romance novel (gay edition), Yue Qingyuan really fucks up, Liu Qingge is not suitable for his job, and no one even remotely sees Luo Binghe coming.

Always the Light Falls by Letters2Elvinscend

Growing up is hard. Living up to your mother's expectations is harder. Realizing your Shizun is actually kind of hot is damn near impossible.

System Temporarily Unavailable, Please Don't Abuse The Substitute! by Asymptotical

The System has to go bail another System's world out of a plot crisis.

It told them that its Host would notice, but did they listen? Of course not.

We Never Dreamed These Walls by straightforwardly

When Luo Binghe falls into the Endless Abyss, he accidentally pulls Shen Qingqiu down with him.

[pearlescentpearl]

murder cat sword only likes its wielder's boyfriend , one of my favourite SVSS fics of all time! Either Binghe’s perspective on this unexpected Shidi with weird priorities, or a future time stamp a few months in the future?

or a thousand years is a long time to be idle future time stamp, LQG and flower!SY continuing to be disgustingly married/

oh gosh, I haven't poked at scum villain in so long. alright here we go.

When Luo Binghe opens his eyes to a wooden ceiling, the feel of sheets against bare skin, and Xin Mo nowhere near, he's prepared to have a bad day he fully intends to make someone else's bad day. He reeks like the silty end of a river, his hair feels like one big itchy clump on his scalp, and his throat is dry as hell; all in all, raking his claws on some handsy fool sounds like a perfect pick me up.

What looks like a humble bedroom is at least not the worst place he could wake up in. Luo Binghe will give it that.

Stumbling, yanking the sheets around him as he goes, Luo Binghe makes his way to the curtain separating off the bedroom and listens intently.

No one's in the house. Strange. Did a would be thief have the decency to dump his nude self under shelter before abandoning him?

No. Ridiculous. This house looks freshly occupied.

Ah, a window!

Well, Luo Binghe thinks, finding his clothes haphazardly strung up on a clothesline outside, one less thing to take out of someone's hide, he guesses. Not by much though, his nose wrinkles, even from here he can tell they've been improperly laundered.

But he sees also a water pump so he pops the wooden frame of the window out with a brief burst of qi and crawls out. Ah, blessed, clean smelling water on his scalp, sluicing away the filth, how he has missed you. When he razes the world to blood and ashes he'll be sure to spare this pump only.

Now clean and water flash dried to steam with a touch of demon fire, sheet wrapped back around him properly, Luo Binghe follows the faint sound of a voice coming from what seems to be a forge in the back. Strange... Why would a blacksmith live in such an isolated spot? It's not at all practical for their trade.

Suspicious, Luo Binghe creeps on silent feet and peeks in.

The smith's back is turned to him, and-- yes, that is the feel of a cultivator. Nowhere near as strong as himself, but Luo Binghe finds fewer and fewer of those these days.

More importantly, he has Xin Mo and appears to be doing something to it. Why the sword hasn't obliterated the flesh from his hands for touching it is a mystery.

No sense in letting this play out, he hasn't patience for that. Grabbing the sword from the nearby rack, Luo Binghe's slips it in under the man's chin, noting the cultivator-youthful features. Kind of an average pretty boy, but that kind of things gets run of the mill in the sects.

"Good morning?" the smith tries, voice pleasantly clear and low. He must have excellent recitation. "Are you... feeling better?"

Am I feeling better? Luo Binghe mocks in his head. After your cursory hospitality how could I not be in peak condition?

"Who are you and what are you doing to Xin Mo?" He demands, keeping the sword rock steady.

"This one is Shen Yuan of Wan Jian Peak, of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect," Shen Yuan says, like it's not stabbing half a dozen of Luo Binghe's reverse scales concurrently. "I pulled you out of the river this morning. As for your sword; I'm cleaning it."

Likely story! Luo Binghe was born in the morning but it wasn't this morning! He'd only been to Wan Jian Peak the once to get long lost Zheng Yang, but he'd heard all the gossip from Ning Yingying how homebodied and insular the Third Peak was. They were the one of the least inclined to leave the sect before reaching a mastery level in their craft, and that took a minimum of twenty years. This guy hardly felt older than himself, so unless he started in the cradle the only thing he's mastered is bullshit!

"Wan Jian Peak," Luo Binghe repeats, unimpressed. Let's see the liar sweat with holes poked in his story. "I was under the impression none of you ever left the mountain."

"I am a senior disciple expanding my horizons," Shen Yuan says loftily, scowling.  “Now are you going to stop being such an ungrateful guest any time soon? I’d like to get on with my day, please.”

No fear? Odd. Annoying. Who was this that being disarmed and held at sword point on his knees is treated as a mere inconvenience?

He finds his grip on the hilt relaxing despite himself. "Xin Mo doesn't need cleaning."

"That's where you're wrong," Shen Yuan calmly refutes, still in that lofty tone, brazenly pushing the sword away with a single finger. “This poor thing smells like enough old blood to put an abandoned butchery to shame. Did you find it in a mass grave or something?”

Luo Binghe twitches, feeling caught out. That's... too accurate, actually.

“It’s a demonic sword, it does that,” he growls, scrambling to keep control of the situation. And, shit, he said too much!

He can't quite... parse the look the other is giving him. Shen Yuan almost seems to double take, eyes wide and fascinated, like he's just now noticing Luo Binghe properly. But it's too perceptive, it's too knowing, Luo Binghe feels naked before whatever enlightenment is Shen Yuan is having. Really, who is this?

“Still no harm in letting me do my job,” Shen Yuan insists, implacable and unafraid, popping the cork off of whatever poison he thinks will stick to Xin Mo. “If nothing else I can cut down on the smell.”

Should Luo Binghe just kill him now and have done with it? Is he really as weak as he feels and just stupidly overconfident, or is he hiding his strength? A normal cultivator of his strength ought to be cowering before Luo Binghe's might by this point.

He hesitates. Xin Mo pulses hungrily in his senses, angry claws. "Fine." Whatever Shen Yuan uses won't affect Xin Mo anyway.

Or, at least, so he thought. That is... an impressive amount of rancid blood trying to flood the foor.

Shen Yuan arches a brow at him, and it feels extremely judgy.

"Ah," Luo Binghe says, unable to really... defend himself here.

"Ah," Shen Yuan parrots back with a too knowing nod.

[ilthit]

Ruby sent me numbers from the choose violence meme, so here we go!

1 - the character everyone gets wrong - Shen Jiu (Scum Villain's Self-Saving System) 7 - what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? - hate is a strong word but I have mentioned: John Childermass and the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) 22 - your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores - this one is from Mo Dao Zu Shi (the novel)

Full discussion under the cut.

the character everyone gets wrong

Shen Jiu from Scum Villain's Self-Saving System. CAVEAT: You are allowed to write him anyway you like, let him fall into whatever character slot you that pleases your id. I'm not a cop, you do you. I too have even written some SJ fic that I didn't think was in canon character (the Golden Concubine one). But. If you want to be true to the character as he is written in the novel. He is not gay. Sorry. He hates men. Hairy chests make him want to vomit. He's more than a straight guy, he's like a male lesbian. Yue Qingyuan is his soulmate? Maybe, sure, if you want. Yue Qingyuan is such a big simp that Shen Jiu learned to trust him, like he doesn't trust anyone else, and then he sucker-punched that trust right out of him by appearing to have dumped him to pursue personal success. Shen Jiu is an abused, traumatized alley cat, too proud and too fragile to let anyone close. Whenever he's tried to extend a hand to make a connection with another man, such as asking Yue Qingyuan to explain, or protecting Liu Qingge in a fight, those men were unable to respond the right way*, and he immediately retreated back with all spikes out. He has to be the strongest, but he can't. He needs to be in control, but he isn't, even of his own anger and fear. The only time he can rest is in the arms of a woman, or when getting to spoil and protect an innocent girl, someone who is not trying to take his place. Also they're soft and they smell good. And I just think that's valid.

You know how many fics there are with Shen Jiu/female character on AO3? Last time I checked it was two, I think it must be three by now. Honestly, just let Shen Jiu like girls. It's fine.

*Their inability to respond correctly may be part of the critique of toxic masculinity that is a major theme of SVSSS, which is why I quite enjoy the idea that an AU where Shen Yuan meets Shen Jiu, this could change, because while SY certainly has piles of toxic masculinity, he has proven through the narrative to at least be able to respond differently. Shang Qinghua might have done it too, and he tried, but didn't have the power to push through his System and circumstances. That scene in the carriage where he tried to save Shen Jiu is one of my favourite SQH moments, it made me feel for both of them. It still doesn't mean I think canon-compliant SJ would sleep with either of those gross boys.

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Hate is a strong word, but I went from feeling vaguely positive about John Childermass, the holder of the braincell in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, to feeling vaguely negative just because the fandom is so much about this one character that I feel like all other characters get pushed aside. I get that to some people it's specifically the Childermass fandom and they wouldn't be here except for Childermass, but… hey.

In the same fandom, I went from being entertainingly creeped out by the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair to not wanting to read any fic with him in it at all, because I worry that the fic will treat Gentleman/Stephen Black as somehow romantic or desirable and, again, I don't want to judge, but that creeps me out in a way that is no longer entertaining.

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

In MDZS the book, aka The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, there is a scene in the extras where Wangxian are enjoying their honeymoon and overhear gossip at the inn where they talk about Nie Huaisang's recent political ascent, and Wei Wuxian muses briefly about how they might not be so happy with him for long, and then decides it's none of his business and he just wants to start living his life now. This is, to me, KEY to the whole story.

In The Untamed, the TV version, Lan Wangji is said to be ascending to the position of chief cultivator, and I am sure this is because on television, they wanted to say: Look, Wen Ruohan was evil, Jin Guangshan was evil, Jin Guangyao was evil--but now a good man will be Chief Cultivator and so everything will be fine!

The book, the author, is saying: It is not possible to be the leader and be a good person. It is not possible for those in control to be benevolent, because power will always fall in the hands of those who are willing to commit atrocities to gain it.

Nie Huaisang is my close second favourite character, I'm not bashing, but he is cunning and ruthless and was willing to let a lot of people die to get his revenge. Jin Guangyao was cunning and ruthless and was willing to let a lot of people die to get consequence and still wicked tongues. Jin Guangshan… You get the picture. In the book, the Wen aren't living on a volcano making zombies for fun like cartoon villains, they have a prosperous city and seem to be generally okay kinda leaders until they started overreaching with the outposts. That's all. Greed, the ambition for revenge and to attain material goods and earthly power, leads inevitably to evil. The only way to a happy ending is to refuse to participate.

You couldn't have that on TV, because it would imply the government may not be on your side. 🤫

MDZS fandom is wide, I am sure I am not the only person to discuss this aspect, but maybe it just seems so momentous to me that I am surprised I haven't yet seen more talk about it.

[omni-scient-pan-da]

Alright so, hi past me, I'm responding to you a little earlier than you'd originally intended, but WOW holy shit have you had a year of college and I mean this only in the best way possible

Let me just start off by saying you are SO loved and SO cared about and there are SO many people you haven't even met yet that are going to love you SO much

In this year alone you have

House trained an only child to cohabitate a very small dorm room, and even though she's a lot to deal with at first, you genuinely grow as friends and you're going to miss not living with her next year

Met Beatrice, who... Your social skills on this one, I have no idea how you managed to make her as a friend after trauma dumping to her within the first 72 hours of meeting her, but not only do you become really close with her, she becomes one of your best friends here, and she gets along with Michelle, to the point where they end up living with each other next year

Not only does she become one of your closest friends, she cares about you SO much and gives such great gifts and such thoughtful advice (like seriously, you get to read Stormbringer now after mentioning it ONCE to her) AND you convince her to watch all of Bungo Stray Dogs with you

Additionally you co-buy a book together? It's really cute, she's incredible

You meet Ryn, who is quite possibly THE most impressive person you've ever met, they can do literally anything they set their mind to and like holy shit, they enjoy spending time around you

Ryn notices all the small details and things you would never want to point out to someone but still want them to notice anyways and then NOTICES and MENTIONS IT TO YOU which is just epic friend behavior

You're going to have a great time in your classes first semester, second semester... Well, it's currently finals week, so I can't speak for how those are going to turn out, but I'm going to do my best to make us proud past me

I know right now you're worried about the showers but literally by the end of the year you're going to prefer showering here than at home because uh... Yeah the shower at home gets pretty backed up and doesn't have as hot of water in comparison

You get your first ever relationship this year! Unfortunately it only lasts four months but you part as friends and it's a good experience for you, to know definitively that someone can care about you like that

Speaking of ending your first relationship, Ryn brings you a whole ass stuffed animal to comfort you after you break up, because they're just thoughtful like that and... Yeah, it means a lot

And Mystic!!! You get to visit Mystic in their apartment three times if I'm remembering correctly? And explore Kalamazoo and it's epic every single time, there is no worry of being forgotten after a long period of not seeing them and you jump right back into where you left off the next time you get to hang out each time

AJR's new album is absolutely incredible and you get to see them in concert in April, and not to spoil anything that happens on the tour, but you end up bawling your eyes out at the end (/pos ofc) and getting teary-eyed whenever you think about the ending of that tour for too long

You owe Mystic BIG time for that one, honestly, if I could go back in time and tell you anything, it would be to tell you to start planning the biggest fucking birthday present ever because you're never going to be able to top being THAT close to AJR like... Ever

Your sister adores you and misses you bunches and you spend lots of time really feeling like you're getting to know her when you come back home in a way you haven't been able to before

And that's just... The tip of the iceberg? You have so many indescribable moments of joy this year and meet so many people that are going to love and care about you this year and you're going to pitch a musical to be performed next year tonight with Ryn and a few other friends you've met

You're cowriting Scum Villain fics with them and hanging out til 4 in the morning sometimes and scream singing karaoke in fields til ungodly hours in the morning and you have SO MUCH FUN

Yes there will be times where things are rough and yes there will be times where things are hard but overall you're going to have SUCH a great year, I promise, and I'm only looking forward to the things that are coming next 💜

Tonight is the last night I fall asleep in my childhood home before I move away to college

I've lived in the same house from the day I was born til right now and in the past few weeks I've had to pick and choose through everything I own in order to determine which items I deem worth bringing with me to my dorm room

Tomorrow will be the last morning I wake up to see my family first thing, the last morning I'll drive up to my old high school (to drop my sister off) and this entire time I've told myself it's not really the last time I'll be here because I'm coming back for Thanksgiving and Christmas and Spring Break and the summer

And college is going to be fun, I've signed up for so many experiences and clubs and met so many new people already and I'm lucky enough to be going to a school where I can be openly gay without worrying about how I'm going to tell my family if word gets around back to them and I'm only an hour away from home

But I'm laying here tonight, in the same bed I've had since elementary school, when I threw a fit about moving from a toddler bed to a regular twin sized bed

I remember crying that it was too tall and I was going to fall off and sleeping on the floor instead because I refused to go to sleep in it and now I wish I could have just one more night, just one more rest because I don't know the next time I'll get the chance to fall asleep in it

Tomorrow I'll wake up, and hug my mother, the way I've done every single morning for as long as I can remember

And tomorrow I'll fall asleep in a new city, 60 miles away, ready to start something new

I don't know what's in store for the next chapter of my life, and I thought I could keep pushing it back forever, just one more week of waiting, just one more week of normalcy, just one more week, so that I'm next up forever

But as the chapter of childhood truly comes to a close tonight, I know that I can't wait to see all the things I'll accomplish next

(@omni-scient-pan-da )

[kirie-mitsuru]

First of all, I love Luo Binghe with every fiber of my being and I just want him loved so thoroughly that he can't, not even for a second, doubt that he is loved.

Which is why I need to know if Shen Qingqiu is explicitly banned by the system to tell anything to LBH? I read through the novel twice, but I don't remember this being a thing. I am too emotionally damaged by how traumatized my pure LBH is by everything SQQ did to him and them not talking about everything that happened between them at all even until the very end. Unless they did and I missed it??

By things, I mean:

1. Why LBH has to go through the Abyss

2. Why SQQ assumes LBH is the cause of everything going wrong to SQQ during Jin Lan arc

3. Why SQQ keeps rejecting LBH presence even after knowing tht LBH loves him as a lover

4. Why LBH lost all trust in SQQ after the many lies and rejection LBH went through

5. Why SQQ restrains his affection even when they are already a couple

6. Why SQQ still lets the rest of the sect and the human realm people bad mouth LBH despite knowing how wrong they are abt LBH

(Warning: The rest is just my word vomit on my frustration over their nonexistent communication and why I feel they need it, so don't read the rest if it bothers you! Read the tags before you read the rest at least.)

I love BingQiu only because I can't see LBH truly happy w anyone else and I know tht SQQ actually loves all of LBH, the good and the bad, throughout the novel. It's just his denial and so called God's POV blinding him from seeing LBH as himself instead of what SQQ expects from LBH.

It happened, I get it. Teen angst (from both of them, SQQ is in his early 20ies too), realization, character growth and all that, but it does not change the fact that probs ard 90% of LBH trauma is caused by SQQ.

Like being put, going through, and surviving this universe ver of Hell (which I think Shang QingHua glazed through w convenient time skip in PIDW?) because of and for SQQ. Watching the love of his life die in his arms for him and because of him (even though LBH is equally clueless on what even happened during Jinlan arc until he tortures the truth out of the Old Palace master)(and multiple times too). Believing that he is being hated and feared by the love of his life because of his genetics or gender, which he have 0 say on and painful coz no one else seems to care about gender for couples in the novel besides SQQ so how else would LBH translate tht as nothing but an excuse for SQQ to reject him.

Oh, of course, not forgetting Xin Mo, the mind corrupting OP sword that constantly tries to take control of LBH's mind, which SQQ was looking forward to for LBH to acquire to be OP despite knowing what it does to its user.

(Personally, the scene where LBH secretly watch SQQ, who just ordered him to go away, laugh and say nothing as everyone bad mouth LBH before agreeing to stay for these people after treating LBH like a shameful secret that he don't want anyone to know was the most painful betrayal SQQ had done. Because, at this point, SQQ knows LBH loves him and has been pursing him all these time instead of wishing SQQ harm, yet he never even try to clarify this to his sect siblings, laughing instead when they insult LBH. This scene hurts me so much because how can SQQ eff up so quickly after acknowledging that he had broke LBH's heart so so many times into thousands of pieces just a few minutes before. Does the realization mean nothing at all to SQQ? I hate SQQ a little bit here even tho I know he didn't mean anything and is just too lazy too correct these many ppl and hates confrontation. At least he knew he eff-ed up when he knew LBH was listening)

I get why SQQ does the thing he did which he does w the underlying intention of 'helping' LBH get all the good things he deserve (nevermind that SQQ's definition of best is never what LBH wants for himself) (a painfully perfect example of the path to hell is paved with good intentions), but LBH doesn't know and he deserve to know if only to help him overcome or minimize his trauma.

I'm also sad that the main reason SQQ misunderstood LBH so much and expects the worst out of LBH is not even because of what LBH did. It's mainly the result of him reading abt Luo Bingge, punishment from the system, and his own cowardice to stop denying the truth. The only part LBH eff up is the blood parasite torture in the water jail thing, his blackening to the point 'lets end the world so there is only me and shizun' (which technically is due to the myriad of trauma caused by SQQ) and the last dub con scene which technically is orchestrated by the system due to SQQ's choice... why don't SQQ even expect it tho, all of his choices via the system prompts always led to him seducing LBH or in compromising situation w LBH and its the deluxe scene smtg...

... Yet the ending is just SQQ declaring he will always go wherever LBH go from now on (which he broke soon after coz LBH has to go to the demon realm and SQQ stays in the sect in the extras, which led to Luo Bingge showing up). Also, the extra just shows LBH acting pitiful to get affection and attention from SQQ (which is sad that he needs to be like this to get affection from SQQ, especially when internally SQQ 100% wants to pamper and love LBH already), their abrupt and private marriage.

Please, if I miss any scene they actually talk about their issues, do enlighten me.

(If there is any fanfic of them actually communicating w SQQ acknowledging his mistakes outloud and comforting LBH, or of SQQ 100% spoiling LBH, or going balistic when LBH is hurt, or dead LBH -especially considering tht his halo means near 100% his death caused by some form of suicide- which leaves crazy SQQ suffering and regreting everything he did to LBH, tell me too! I may or may not love yandere-for-LBH SQQ hehe. .)

[comehereduck]

Fics where SY enters the beast peak are severely underrated

[masteryaddleisagilf]

I got curious, so I did a bit of “research”

The most popular fic in English is an NSFW (incredibly raunchy, wow) Guardians of the Galaxy fic with 128.179 kudos.

In Mandarin, it is a mature RPF fic of the actors from The Untamed that resulted in AO3 being blocked in Mainland China. It currently has 26.916 kudos

For Spanish, the prize goes to an explicit omegaverse & mpreg The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System fic with  3.245 kudos

Indonesian gives us a BTS college AU with 1.569 kudos and French stays on the bandom vibes by giving us an explicit One Direction dystopian story. But the band rpf award goes to Tagalog* ***, with their first page (sorted by kudos) being all Kpop (ENHYPEN, EXO & SEVENTEEN) and no-fandom.

(For those curious, Korean has a low amount of Kpop rpf on their first page. I assume they publish it somewhere else)

Egyptian Hieroglyphics (which, yes, is an option on AO3) gives us a beautiful song translation with an impressive 495 kudos. I really recommend everyone check it out; it is incredible. Welsh** (160) and Old English (222)  also had their most popular work have an English translation. Latin (124), on the other hand, is just fully in Latin. There are a few translations, but they are provided by other people and not the original author.

Greek has a lot of Greek political RPF. Like, a lot. 

I was incredibly surprised by the fact that you can write fanfiction in Quebecois sign language. I was not surprised at all by the fact that Sindarin was an option.

.

A few of the languages had their most popular stories not be in that language and just be a case of mislabelling (or, in some cases, people using less-used languages on AO3 as dumping grounds for tests or personal notes.) Also, there were a couple of languages with no stories at all. 

If you have been thinking about writing fic in a language other than English, take this as a call for action. There are a lot of people out there reading in all sorts of languages. Even in languages with only a couple kudos, those are a couple of people who are incredibly happy to find a story of a media they love in a language they love too.

. Edits from 7/12/2022:

* Filipino*** is the standardized version of Tagalog and the way Ao3 refers to the language, which is why that is the word used instead of Tagalog. Feel free to reach out if there is a better way to word that sentence. 

** Welsh was included next to Old English as they both had English translations, and not as an implication that it is a dead language. Welsh is a living, thriving language with more than half a million speakers.

.

Edits from 26/12/2022:

*** More Tagalog speakers reached out asking me to change the language name to Tagalog. I did. The original note is left for those looking at the notes/asks and wondering what is going on. 

[rarepears]

reborn!Shen Jiu X Shen Yuan in modern China setting

Not to say "always", but typically with Scum Villain fics that are set in the modern China setting with the PIDW cast, Shen Jiu is a member of the Shen family and Shen Yuan's older brother.

Let's flip things around a bit.

Firstly, the PIDW cast still have their memory. They have been reborn to the modern China setting.

Shen Jiu is an orphan. In fact, he and Yue Qingyuan were in the same orphanage, but they got separated early on. Maybe Shen Jiu ended up getting moved to another orphanage for whatever reason - their original orphanage closed down? Or Shen Jiu was adopted (by the Qiu family) and quickly found himself orphaned again.

Anyways, Shen Jiu was not born to the rich and powerful Shen family. Shen Jiu also grows up separately from the reborn PIDW cast.

Remember how Shen Jiu fell in love with Qiu Haitang's kindness even though she was spoiled? Anyways, that's Shen Jiu when he encounters a kind man at the bookstore. And when they keep running into each other at the bookstore again, and at the coffeeshop, and at the art gallery (where Shen Yuan's mother is a donor while Shen Jiu is interning).

So, Shen Jiu X Shen Yuan happens. Shen Yuan is older than Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan acts like a sugar daddy because he's rather free with his money. Why yes, Shen Jiu gets dumped into therapy because he no longer has the excuse of not having money for it.

With Shen Jiu's look, he could be an idol/celebrity. In fact, he got scouted multiple times, but he knew that if he became famous, anyone reborn from the PIDW world (because his luck is just bad) would be able to track him down. He's also not interested in fame - he just wants a quiet and peaceful life.

Shen Yuan looks playing dress up with Shen Jiu. Shen Jiu has to model so many cosplay outfits for Shen Yuan.

After Shen Yuan has a significant hospital scare as a result of eating expired yogurt, the reborn PIDW start popping up in Shen Jiu's life. PIDW people cannot believe that THIS is Shen Jiu. So sweet and cuddly and soft and how???

Because of the whole yogurt situation, Shen Yuan's parents force Shen Yuan to have domestic helpers (who are also bodyguards unbeknownst to Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu). These bodyguards see that their two young chargers have suddenly acquired a number of stalkers, oh dear.

Aka this is a story of a very large game of Keep Away where the goal is to get Shen Jiu alone and the two sides playing this game are the reborn PIDW cast vs. Shen Yuan and hired help.

[writeiolite]

東京 (동경): the state of longing.

who: dabi/touya todoroki x gn!reader

what: angst, fluff, friends with benefits

plot: after being “liberated” from his villainous life, touya integrates into society just like his family asks. soon enough he finds what he’s been missing, but he doesn’t deserve it. villains don’t get happy endings.

wc: 3,600

a/n: a late submission for the bnha hangout xmas collab! here is part two and part three

[ ! ]   if you want to use this fic in a reading video (like ASMR or smth), please dm me and get my permission first

. . . ♡ — crossposted to my AO3

“Christmas isn’t all that great,” is a nice way of phrasing things. Nicer than what you were recently told. You sincerely wish Touya had more tact, but there’s not much you can expect from a guy like him. The best reasoning you got from him — the crude response that had you overthinking for days — came in his usual burnt timbre.

“It’s a holiday for overly optimistic scum to pretend presents fix everything. You really think I want to spend it with you?”

Ouch.

Guys like Touya don’t like to be considered anything but “hard.” Tough guys. Guys that have insecurities and probable daddy issues they never ironed out despite wanting to be called daddy themselves. He’s ridiculous, really, and his excuse to not spend a holiday with you?

“Bullshit.”

Dabi raises a brow at your tone. 

“Keep it up and you’ll be spending every holiday alone.”

He scoffs, then nearly laughs like you’ve said the merriest thing — a Christmas joke. It’s only when you don’t sway that he stops, still grinning, but he realizes you meant every word. “Sure, sure, I don’t care. You’re not the only person out there for me to spend the holidays with.”

Ouch. Maybe that one stung a bit more than the last.

You give him a once over, purposefully picking apart his dark jeans that hang loosely off of him, the loose t-shirt that’s cut too low for his mother’s liking, and the piercings adorned in his singed skin. Chances are, he’d spend the holidays with lots of other people besides you. If they’re all guards of Tartarus, that is.

“I’ll be sure to post alllllll about my Valentine’s Day.”

His grin melts right off his skin, the whole charade landing in a puddle on the floor of this rundown bar. Christmas is one thing, but Valentine’s Day is different. Touya is great at remembering anniversaries — deep-seated grudges and a taste of vengeance make you remember every little detail and when exactly they happened. He never forgot the way you carried yourself that day, as ridiculous as that sounds. 

His villainous record had been somewhat excused earlier this year — he was allowed to walk through the city as long as he didn’t get too far from his house. Granted, the only places he frequented were the dimmest, most familiar, hole-in-the-wall dumps. A change of scenery should’ve been nice. That whole “starting anew” bullshit was something he tried for one (1) week and it just happened to be the week of Valentine’s. 

Of course, they shouldn’t have expected him to change immediately. He had specific intentions when he chose that club to spend his aromantic holiday on.

Despite that, you showed up. You paraded past him with subtle hints of amber perfume wafting off of you, confidence and boredom mixed in your eyes that bore into a mixed drink in your hand. You. You were the one he picked for the night, yet things didn’t go how he anticipated. 

It should’ve been brief. It should not have led to binge eating and accidental naps, puff-puff-passing, musings of crime, light scoldings of his “new life,” and waiting for the next time. He wasn’t interested in making friends, especially with the stigma he wears, but you were fun. He had everything his parents could give him to help him change his ways for the greater good, but he didn’t have you.

Not until Valentine’s Day. 

“Fuck you,” he says firmly. Apathetically. He doesn’t know which emotion to put behind it because he’s feeling them all.

“That’s what I thought.” The triumph on your face isn’t grandiose, but it shines a little brighter under the dim lighting when you tilt your chin up in defiance. “We’re doing Christmas. I’m not coming over — your parents freak me out, sorry — but you can come to my place.”

He can’t look at you anymore, his jaw tensing and a tick in his temple giving away his agitation. “Whatever. Don’t expect a present.”

“Won’t count on it,” you answer right away. After seeing how he dresses for the past few months, you don’t exactly want a present from him. 

Your stare is palpable but he doesn’t give you the satisfaction of knowing that. Instead, he leaves you like he always does, a cold shoulder, hands in pockets, and a gruff “See ya” slipping past his lips. The most minimal of goodbyes, yet there are still so many of them since he can’t stay away. 

Should he feel ashamed? It’s weird how comfortable he feels with these expectations, and no matter how he skins the cat, it’s still a cat. He’ll turn his brain inside out before he figures out why he wants to be with you, but first he’ll knock on your door on Christmas. Two times, and then he searches with his eyes for a spare key out of sheer habit. That’s what he’s always done with flings, he tells himself, but… Some fling, huh? 

He snorts when you open the door, the ghost of Christmas Past hanging under your eyes. “All nighter without me?”

Why did he say that?

A Grinch scowl curls on his face right away. You usher him inside, eyes lingering a bit too long on his unwelcome display of emotional turmoil. 

“Yeah, I was waiting for Santa Claus to come by all night and the bastard never showed.”

With the intention of leaving soon, Touya doesn’t take his shoes off, just walks past you and throws himself into his usual spot on the couch. Considering you’re the one that wanted him here, you sure didn’t decorate much besides the stuffed reindeer toy that almost got a tour up his ass. He pulls it out from underneath him and tosses it aside. 

“You invited me but you stayed up all night waiting for another man? Not surprised.”

The reindeer hits him square in the face, much to his surprise. You don’t even have the decency to give him that sarcastic laugh or the coquettish giggle that makes heat sear through his stomach. Instead, heat bursts in the wrong place. Everything about this is wrong in his book, but Touya’s never been one to do the right thing. Maybe that’s just an excuse for him to accept the way you now run your hand through his hair and leave a kiss on his forehead.

It’s so wrongly innocent that he feels exceptionally tainted now. 

Your lips are as soft as they are fleeting, a frown adorning them when he looks up at you. It’s obvious that you’re straddling him, the pressure at the sides of his hips so familiar, yet all he can really see is the decadent disappointment in your eyes. 

“What?” he sighs, covering up his lovestruck daze like hiding an elephant.

“I had to get you to shut up somehow,” you tell him, voice just as calm as his. When he rolls his eyes, you continue. “Today should be a good day.”

“Should it?” Honestly, should it? His baby brother’s birthday is coming up, another reminder that he’s not the hero child his father strived for. Today was always worse than any other day in his home, and he can only imagine it’s regressed further down the line of shitty days. Now, his family has to face the music and welcome him as part of the festivities. There was a stocking hanging in the main family room with his name on it that he hadn’t seen since he was a kid, and he’s sure it hadn’t seen the light of day since the day he stopped being their kid.

Christmas has always just been a show of gifts to make up for unforgivable shit. 

Suddenly, your gaze is too rich and he’s suffocating under you, trapped against the back of the couch with a tongue too thick for flowery words. He doesn’t have the patience to be nice right now.

“I’ve overstayed my welcome.” Touya starts sitting up, using an arm to push you aside, but the next thing you trap is his wrist in your hand. 

“If everything goes as planned,” you grit, “then today should be a good day. Are you gonna ruin my plans now?”

So what if I do? You? Planning something? Laughable. It’s piquing his interest, but whether out of curiosity or caution, he doesn’t know. 

“Hurry up and do whatever you have planned so I can leave.” Yanking his wrist from you, Touya gestures for you to get up. You’re usually not stubborn with him… whatever the hell it is matters enough to you to get under his skin. If you’re hellbent on having your way then he’ll let you, but he’s leaving as soon as he feels you’ve had enough fun. 

You’re off of him soon after, grabbing gifts from under the tree and a mug from off the counter with what he can only assume is hot liquid sugar inside of it. One gift was more than enough, honestly, but you’ve placed one large box and a few smaller ones in a stack at his feet. Really, it gets on his fuckin’ nerves.

“Always had to outdo the people around you, huh?” Touya continues grumbling while he unwraps each gift, glancing over new clothes, some toiletries, candy, and other small things. It’s obvious that you’re not much of a gift-giver, but who’s he to talk? The box in his pocket is burning a hole through his leg right now, begging to be let out and opened up. 

“Sure,” you shrug nonchalantly. There are days you make him do his laundry at your apartment and you’ll see him ungraciously ball up the clothes in his fist even after they’re clean. No surprise — he clearly doesn’t care about appearances, but you figured it would be nice to care for him. Still… “If you don’t like anything then the receipts are inside.” 

“Mm.” Touya places the small stack of clothes back inside the box just like he found it, pausing for a moment to eye the mug. Just one sip and he’s outta here. Back to some bar that’s worse for wear to clear his head. Grabbing the ceramic from the top, he tilts it back against his parted lips and lets heaven roll across his tastebuds. His entire body temperature rises in a good way — he’s not burning, he feels at ease. And as nice as it is, as much as he wants to gulp it all down, he doesn’t intend on staying.

The magic of the moment is lost when he sets the cup down and stands up from his spot. “Thanks,” he mutters, “but I’m leaving.”

Again, stubbornness isn’t common with you. It leaves a weird tickle in his chest to see you put up a fight about him parting ways. You stand and lean on one leg, a hand on your hip with sass in your eyes. “After drinking my hot cocoa?”

Huh…? He glances at the mug and then back at you. “Your name isn’t on it.”

“Pfft, yours isn’t either!”

“Want me to spit it back up?” An evil smirk tugs at his lips even though he really doesn’t want to show any form of enjoyment about being here. 

That’d be a sight to see — Touya’s best impression of the Number Two — but given your company, birds aren’t exactly your type. You shake your head in disbelief before walking away in silence. Your back disappears behind the kitchen wall, leaving Touya only with questions. 

Why’s he still h-

“Hurry up,” you call. Homely sounds of drawers opening and closing follow. The fridge rattles slightly when you shut it, and his boots on the tile coming up behind you somehow doesn’t sound out of place.

“What?”

You point to another mug on the counter, one that looks just like yours but with a black base instead of white. “That’s yours. How much whipped cream do you want?”

“Don’t need it.” 

“Touya, seriously, I’m not gonna drink thi-”

He’s already picking up this mug and repeating the same actions as before but… much better. This one isn’t as sweet. It’s a little hotter than yours, but soon enough he’s halfway through it before he realizes he had closed his eyes in enjoyment. 

The mug is nearly slammed down from how quick he is to correct himself. Should he… leave now? He doesn’t look at you, but he can feel you staring at him. Just like how he can feel hot cocoa cooling on his upper lip and his heart rate getting faster in his chest. 

“Good?”

“Whatever.”

You smirk and leave him in the kitchen to “have some privacy” while you clean up the wrapping paper. The desire to grab your attention and slam the little box in your hand is ringing throughout his body, like pressing so softly on a piano key that there’s no harmonic tone, just the dull thud for the ears of one. And now that he thinks about it, he wouldn’t know such a sound if it weren’t for you showing it to him over summer. 

“Hey,” he speaks up a little bit louder, not leaving the kitchen so you can’t see him. “I need to show you something.”

You’re silent in there, probably with a smile of satisfaction. Yeah, yeah, he’s a fuckin’ sap, he gets it. He can’t tell what’s worse, you being quiet to force him to fill the silence or you taunting him. He’s already doing a lot by bringing this up — he’s not going to say any more. You’re not the only one who can be stubborn. 

The last of his hot cocoa is finished off, and this time he sets the mug down without any noise or aggression, as if the sound would give him away. You, on the other hand, remain mousy, not a peep leaving you. Brat.

“Hey, when someone gets you a gift you’re supposed to-” he walks into the living room now, seeing that the wrapping paper has disappeared and so have you. “-say thank you…” 

“Uh, thank you?” You’re standing in the hallway wearing new clothes and confusion. “What gift?”

Fuck me. He takes in the frizz on your head, no doubt caused by the shirt you pulled over your head — his shirt — and then notices the red and green Christmas pajama pants. You’ve always made his shirts look good even though he knows you hate how they look on him. Maybe it’s because you secretly want to wear them yourself, not that he minds. And if it couldn’t get any worse, now he’s tactlessly mentioned your gift,

“Nothing. What are you wearing?” He lazily gestures at your attire. “Why the change?”

Thankfully, you let it go. “Felt like it. I can show you more in my room.”

That’s more like it. Don’t get him wrong, Touya wants to leave, but at least this could be him leaving on a high note. You don’t even have to ask him to follow you — he nearly leads the way there, right on your heels until you get to the bed with… another gift.

“Put it on,” you say simply, but he sees that appeased smirk on your lips. Of course, this was intentional. 

“Fuckin’ tease,” he hisses, snatching the matching pair of pajama pants from you. “I’m not wearing this shit.”

“Then why are you holding it?”

“To throw it out.”

“Just stay long- what? No!” You grab at the pants and miss when he moves away just in time. It’s playful at the same time that it’s desperate, the way you lunge and he dodges. A mere hand on your forehead would easily keep you away, but it wouldn’t be cat and mouse if he didn’t have you diving after him. 

It’s just a pair of pants, but you’re smiling again, uncaring as you jump to reach his hand and uncaring when you slam into his chest. His other arm winds around you naturally, holding you close just so you can’t move anymore. Cementing you to him, you wriggle as much as possible, laughter leaving you from toes up; filling him from head down. 

“At least try them on,” you bargain, nearly climbing him now. 

Touya holds you tighter, making it harder to leave. “So I can look like you? No.”

“You’d be lucky to look like me. I might kill you in your sleep one day, y’know,” you snap like a newborn kitten, giving one last attempt to reach above his head. It’s a little painful trying to jump up against such a tight grip, especially when you feel something hard almost scrape against your thigh. 

Instantly, you both widen your eyes, looking at each other for confirmation. Except what he’s thinking is definitely not the same as what you’re thinking. And he can tell you’re headed down that track when your heart pounds against his.

“Touya…” you murmur carefully, pulling away from him with no resistance this time. Your eyes dart downward, not expecting to see a small velvet box fall out of his pocket onto the floor. “Oh.” Your cheeks warm up.

“Yeah.” He snatches it off the floor and keeps it in his fist, but your eyes are so prying… what’s the point anymore. Somehow it’s like you’re looking through his hand right now, but this isn’t the first time. There have been times where you steal a glance and take a peek into his heart. No matter how guarded he is, you get to him without trying. Hell, he doesn’t even know if you want to be that close to him, and that’s exactly why this Pandora’s box should stay closed. 

You definitely want to know more — clouds of curiosity swirling in your eyes — but you don’t ask. Of course. Why would you? You’re not one to pry — never have been. If he wanted you to know about this then he should speak up himself. 

There’s a wall — that shitty, heavy tongue of his — blocking his speech. This would be a good time for those embellished confessions and promises for love, but all he can do is clench the box tighter. Today should be a good day, but it won’t be if he gives you this prematurely.

“Don’t worry about it,” he tells you, shoving the gift in his jacket pocket now. “It’s not what you think.”

“I wasn’t thinking about it,” you answer, and he almost hates how honest you sound despite how he should appreciate it. “I was thinking about the pants.”

“Can’t you fucking think about me for once?”

You fall hush, body still, and hair on end. Now he’s fucking done it.

A sigh of aggravation leaves him and he runs a hand through his hair. “Forget it. I’m leaving.”

And you don’t stop him. It hurts, but this might be the pain he needs — the pain he’s familiar with. If you chased after him and begged him to stay he might just say or do something much worse. Touya is crude, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. Tactless, but always truthful. Isolated but-

“I’ll go with you.” You push past him, beating him to the door and putting your shoes on. There’s no following, just leading. “Let’s get something to eat and pick up liquor to hold us over until tonight.”

Right, alcohol and food is a safe zone — that’s what it should’ve been this whole time. Something brief. 

You grab your keys off the hook in the wall and swing the door open, nearly leaving him in the door as it closes. There’s that tangible silence again, but this time he’s desperate to keep it that way. He takes steady paces beside you and each step hopefully builds the distance between now and his short-fuse moment. 

Distancing yourselves from each other is naturally practiced now — you two always grow ever closer, but there’s a small padding of safety just in case. To think he nearly broke through that… What an idiot.

The next door you swing open is the apartment building’s front door, this one whipping you both in the face with wintry air and sending blood rushing to his nose and ears. No longer is it quiet when the snow crushes beneath your steps or the bustling bystanders move around you two moving in tandem. Just like before, the sound of his steps don’t feel out of place, but they don’t feel at home either.

He steals a glance at you and instantly softens, irritation laced in his worries. It’s the dead of winter and you were stupid enough to come out with only that hated-by-mother shirt and hated-by-Touya pants. Taking his jacket off, he places it around your shoulders. 

“Won’t you get cold?” You look up at him in shocked appreciation, almost stopping in your tracks when his hand meets your lower back to usher you onward. He keeps his eyes forward, face getting a little warmer by the second. 

“Keep it. Merry fucking Christmas~,” he mocks, giving you a lopsided grin and a glance. 

If it were any colder, maybe this moment could freeze over — a picturesque confection of two could-be lovers. Every angle gives it away, but it’s a good thing you two don’t have to view anything but the road ahead and each other.

“Can I keep it forever?” Your tone is playful once more as you put your arms through the sleeves, hands traveling through a tunnel of warmth until they land in their final destination: the pockets.

“Sure, it’s all yours.” 

His jacket, his gift, and him.

thank you, @reddriot​, for beta reading this! ^^

[captainadwen]

was bored, saw @jaz-the-bard do this, why not

so the scum villain fic dump wins everything so i'm going to just... outlier that

hits and word count goes to Into the Arena, aka that one time when i tried to prove i could write a novel length fic and the result was 90k worth of a russingon hunger games au for the silmarillion...

kudos, comments, and bookmarks goes to second verse (same as the first) which, true to form for me! is just a scum villain au of 1/2 prince (scum villain fics be popular with me, huh)

least words goes to [redacted old stuff from genshin impact I don't feel like bringing out here and had honestly forgotten existed]

...

i've basically just got three popular fics huh

@pearlescentpearl @kyogre-blue if you are also bored, i am so curious

[wuxiaphoenix]

Writing Fanfic: Another Weird Trick

Now let’s talk about the neatness of very different cultures or groups running into each other. This is far easier to pull off in original fiction than the AU Villain. Entire books and even series can be made out of cultural clashes; Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold is one stunning example, and C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series is one of my personal favorites to read and re-read.

The thing is, it usually takes a whole book - or series! - to set up a proper cultural clash. If all you want is to write a relatively short, fun story exploring the concept, you may not have the energy for that. So how to do it in a short piece for fun?

Trick #2: Crossover Cultural Clash.

Every show, and group of heroes, has its own “culture” and standards as to what are the proper ways to do things. How do you defeat an enemy - by beating them in a card game, or beheading? How do you treat a friend; candy and hugs, or a rough pep talk when the chips are down? What are the limits when you’re defending people you care about? What’s the worst thing that could happen to you on any given day?

If you find two shows that you think you can make fit together for a story, you have a built-in culture clash.

Three authors on Archive of Our Own I’m particularly going to recc’ for this: Kryal, Ellen Brand, and Jedi Buttercup. I’m sure there’s plenty more, but I’ve been following these three for a long time.

For Kryal, two that are particularly good are The Dragon-King’s Temple (Stargate/AtLA) and What the Cat Dragged In (MCU/Miraculous Ladybug). The usual levels of violence are higher in Stargate and the MCU, so there are some interesting ways things either get toned down (ML) or we see more real-life consequences than usual (AtLA).

Ellen Brand has plenty, but I really like Unprofessional Opinion (outsider take on Detective Conan) and Loose Ends (Tony Hicks of Godzilla: the Series poking Sunnydale). An outsider’s look at how really weird a canon situation is brings the wonder of the original canon right back again.

Jedi Buttercup... wow, so many awesome crossovers. Pausing to Wonder (CSI/Dragonriders of Pern), imagine the delinquency (Sleepy Hollow/Guardians of the Galaxy) and Of Iron and Fire (Fast and Furious/The Last Witch-Hunter) are three in particular you would never think work... and they do.

In case anyone’s wondering, there is one particular culture clash I’d like to see in a fic, but I’m not sure I can write it myself. That would be Shen Yuan (Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System) as Shen Qingqiu suffering reverse culture shock by getting dumped back into the modern world still as a xianxia cultivator... and still up against monsters that need his level of skills and power to take down. Say, if he ended up in the Chitauri invasion of NYC, or something....

(Which a friend pointed out is actually three culture clashes in one neat package. 1) Reverse culture shock of coming back to the modern world. 2) NYC is definitely not China. 3) Aliens WTH.

Bonus: I'm a scholar and geek, not a fighter, why does everyone expect me to use this sword, I'm not Liu Qingge-!)

Free to good home!

[ao3feed-liushen]

Scum Villain Insanity

read it on the AO3 here

by 4sseater

A dump for fic ideas & other weird shit that I will probably never get to actually writing. I will probably be updating with no regularity. If you’d like to expand on any of these ideas feel free, just please tag me and/or mention me in the work.

Words: 215, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Multi

Characters: Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Shàng Qīnghuá, Luò Bīnghé, Yuè Qīngyuán, Mòběi-jūn, Liǔ Qīnggē

Relationships: Luò Bīnghé/Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Original Shěn Qīngqiū/Yuè Qīngyuán, Liǔ Qīnggē/Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Shàng Qīnghuá & Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū, Mòběi-jūn/Shàng Qīnghuá

Additional Tags: Drabble Collection, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crack, Fluff and Crack, youtuber Shen yuan, Airplane Bro Shàng Qīnghuá

read it on the AO3 here

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 81: Turning a Corner

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

The instant Katsuki had asked to “borrow” Park for a bit, the Shiketsu students had erupted into chaos. Shida looked on the verge of panic, those extra limbs of hers twitching, while Tsuchikawa looked only slightly worried.  Shinji looked nervously between him and Park, but ultimately settled into a kind of hard look that mixed protectiveness of his classmate with a trust in Katsuki.

Smart kid.  Respectful too.  Always used his Sir’s around Katsuki.  Exuberant as his old man though, which meant he was best in small doses.

It wasn’t surprising that Tatsuma was the one who had a problem with it.  The giant girl stepped between Katsuki and Park protectively.  “With all due respect, sensei” she began, in the same way Katsuki had used countless times over the years, where no respect was actually intended, but the performative aspect of it was required, “I’m not sure I should allow you to be alone with my classmate.”

For fuck’s sake, what kind of monster did these kids think he was?  And sure, he’d spent more than enough time threatening to blow Villains apart, or shove their heads up their asses, or take out enough of their teeth that they’d be drinking from a straw the rest of their lives, but he wasn’t some psycho who’d explode at the drop of a hat!

Just because he was known for having a temper and this little brat had beat the shit out of his daughter was no reason to think he was going to enact some kind of brutal revenge!

“Sticking by your friend’s a good quality to have,” he said, holding Tatsuma’s gaze and not backing down in the slightest.  But neither did he put up any more of aggressive posture than he already was. He was here to build bridges, not burn them.  “Your classmates are lucky to have you looking out for them.  But I promise you, I’m not here to dish out punishment or anything like that.  I just want to talk.  We won’t even go far, in case you hear something that makes you want to come running.”

Tatsuma frowned, but dropped her challenging stance.  She looked over at Park, her eyes seeming to ask what do you want to do?

And that was the scary thing, wasn’t it?  Park hadn’t flinched, hadn’t budged.  She’s shown no fear whatsoever.  But she hadn’t shown any other kind of reaction either.  It was as though she was just resigned to whatever happened to her.  What the hell had they done to this girl?  Who the hell had done this to this girl?  Even with what he’d read in her file, it didn’t all add up to this.

“It will be fine,” Park said.  “There’s nothing he can do to me.”   That hasn’t already been done was left unsaid, but Katsuki heard it hanging in the air all the same.

He had worked with Heroes who fought traffickers and some of the worst scum the world had to offer, serial killers, rapists, and even cannibals.  Some of them managed to find the balance separate themselves from the job and live at least something like a normal life.  But some of them saw the worst and lost a part of themselves to it. Something inside them died.  You could see it in their eyes.

Park’s eyes were the same.

***

Park followed quietly behind Katsuki, stopping when he did once they got closer to one of the compound’s utility sheds. She remained stoic, almost uncaring, but there was an element of readiness.  He’d been on the receiving end of any number of lectures and chewing outs over the years. He knew what it looked like when you knew you were getting one of those.  This wasn’t it.

It was the kind of readiness where you were prepared to, at a moment’s notice, either physically defend yourself or hold yourself to a dignity that would not give your attacker satisfaction.  He had a brief flashback to being violently restrained and muzzled at his first Sports Festival.

“I am ready, seon seang nhim,” she stated in a neutral tone. She used the Korean phrase for “teacher,” which he vaguely recalled included not using the teacher’s name as it was considered disrespectful to show familiarity.

Katsuki frowned, briefly, but forced himself to keep a more professional expression.  As much as part of him wanted to tear into this kid for beating his daughter, that wasn’t something an adult did to a child.  It wasn’t something a teacher did either.  Katsuki would have to ask the damned hobo how he’d kept himself from killing kids like him.

“Okay,” he said, carefully. His anger rose up in him, like a threating to spill out like a bomb, but he forced it back down.  “I’m not going to lie to you.  I’m mad as hell.  And I’m not saying there wasn’t blame to go around.  But I want to hear your side of things first, before anything else.”

“There is nothing to tell,” Park explained plainly. “The arrogant one had us fight each other to demonstrate a lack of practical martial training as some sort of lesson in not becoming arrogant with our quirks. I treated it as I would any fight in the line of duty.” She tilted her head back at where Hokori and the other Shikestsu students still were. “By the instructor’s own logic, I acted accordingly. If anything, I exercised restraint.” She said all this was stone cold logic, but the expression on her face indicated she didn’t expect him to accept that logic.

Park’s description of Boost-Rush as “the arrogant one” nearly had Katsuki laughing.  If that wasn’t the truth!

“You get you’re a student, right?” he asked. He was trying not to be sarcastic, but some of that bled through. “There’s giving your all in training and there’s going all out in the field.  And even with that, there’s proportionality of a threat.”

His own words came back to haunt him again, ringing in his ears.  HE WON’T DIE IF HE DODGES!

That wasn’t who he was anymore.  Not most days, anyway.  He pushed that particularly unsettling memory down.  “Is that how you do your training at Shiketsu?”

She looked him straight in the eye. “No, I learned that by simply surviving in the neighborhood my parents were dumped in when they fled the Humanist bigots back home. They didn’t realize they would be even less welcome here. Some were very explicit in their disdain of our presence.”

She was speaking calmly, but there was the barest hint of a murderous rage in her eyes, simmering and growing steadily, the lid barely holding it back.

Katsuki knew all about rage. His is irrational, a fire that flares up like one of his explosions and takes out everything that’s nearby.  It’s a flashfire anger, lashing out at whatever upsets him, whatever perceived wrongs the universe or some specific individual has committed against him.  It’s rarely as justified as he’d like to pretend it is.

On his good days, he’s tamed his.  He learned to use it, fueling his actions in battle.  Outside of that, the worst he usually gets these days is yelling. There’s times, like earlier with Boost-Rush, where he did lose his control, and unleashed his anger on someone through violence.  But it’s not like before, not like when he was a child, where would sometimes vent his anger on Izuku for perceived slight of challenging his status as “top dog.”

He hadn’t been a rich kid, like Glasses or Ponytail or IcyHot.  But he’d been remarkably well off as a kid.  Nice neighborhood, never had to worry about anything.  The struggles this kid or others like her had faced, he couldn’t have begun to imagine.  And add being an immigrant on top of that…

“You had to fight just to survive,” he said.  It wasn’t a question.

She stared at him for a moment, then lifted her shirt slightly above her waist. This revealed the scar of a deep gash.

“That was at the hands of Japanese motorcyclists who objected to a “chon” being in their neighborhood.” She turned and exposed her lower back, which revealed a series of jagged scars. “A Zainichi gang leader ran barbed wire over my back for “drawing the Japanese back on us.”

She then kicked off her shoe, leaned down and took the sock off, revealing her little toe was missing. “And that was some of my own “countrymen,” gangsters who wanted me to join them for “solidarity.” I refused. They beat me, then cut that off as a reminder not to be a “race traitor.” And none of that accounts for the casual racism and hate from the “polite aspects” of society. A police force that doesn’t care unless the public outside knows about it, along with no pros to look after my people when this country offered “sanctuary” to us, so yes, Teacher,” she said in Japanese this time, but without the implication of respect. “I have.”

With great effort, Katsuki kept himself under control as Park went through her litany of injuries and injustices.  She was no older than Katsumi or the others, but in terms of life experience, may as well have already been an adult Pro-Hero for all the horrors she had seen.  No wonder she was so ready to strike out during simple training exercises.  The school of hard knocks had nothing on her.

It made his blood boil. Kids should get to be kids, not have to worry about gangs and their neighbors threatening their lives and bodies.   He knew that things had improved some in the last few years, but the Hero Public Safety Commission was still playing a light hand with making inroads to minority neighborhoods.  The really good Heroes went wherever they were needed, but they still played it light with actual Agencies.  That this shit was still happening and no one was really doing anything about it..!

“You got dealt a shit hand,” he growled.  “A kid, no, a woman your age, shouldn’t have had to deal with any of that.  But you survived and showed them you’re tougher than anybody who tried to kick you down.”

He gestured around, broadly. “Most of the kids here, they grew up with pretty cushy lives.”  He thought of Katsumi, when Eijiro had been beaten within an inch of his life.  Of Sato and his kid, when they’d lost his wife. Of Izumi’s infected with a debilitating influence as a means to hurt her grandfather.  Of the small, but still somehow too great a number of close calls, when Villains had tried to cross lines and come after their families.  Of the myriad others who had to worry about whether or not mom or dad was coming home.  

“Not always easy.  And not without their own tragedies.  But you’re operating from a whole different perspective.  Not one they’d understand easily, and not one you’re obligated to explain to them.”

Katsuki continued.  “I was an angry kid too.  Ready to take on anything and everything that pissed me off. I had legitimate issues that were driving my anger.  But I didn’t have real reasons for being angry. I invented them, lies I told myself about why it was okay to be so anger.  But you, you have real reasons.  And don’t let people tell you otherwise.”

He looked her straight in the eye.  “But you’ve got to use that anger.  Direct it at the right people.  And the people at this camp aren’t it.  Everybody’s here to get better.  Everybody’s here because they want to be a Hero and help people.”   He frowned.  “And yeah, my kid was ready to pick a fight with your classmate.  Or you.  She knows she screwed up.”  

It was a good thing he couldn’t share the details of this conversation with Katsumi.  She’d have been pissed at him for admitting that, even if it was the truth.  Or at least, an approximation of it.  She knew it was a bad decision.  Whether or not she’d internalized it as a screw up was a different question.

“I can’t change what happened to you, personally, or to your people or neighborhood.  My job’s to help put you on the best path to being a Hero. And I can’t do that if you’re treating your fellow students or instructors like they’re the enemy.”

He’d managed to get through that without yelling once.  Impressive. Maybe he was getting soft in his old age

She hadn’t gone to put her sock back on. Instead she’d listened to all of what he had to say. It was obvious she’d been expecting a variety of directions for this conversation to go: an angry lecture, threats, self-righteous condemnation, head-in-the-dirt denial, but hadn’t been prepared for acceptance or validation. Especially given his reputation for a short fuse and quick judgements. She’d paid attention to all of it, but had made no movements, nods, or sounds to indicate her stance.

When he finished, Park was quiet for a long time. Unknowingly she had begun to hold her cross in her hand, a thumb rubbing across the metal.

“I..I know, but..it’s so hard.” There was the tiniest of breaks in her voice, but she composed herself. She reached down to put her sock back on, probably distract herself from her conflicting feelings.  “I’m used to seeing enemies on all sides.”

“It is,” he agreed. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. Walking around with all that anger, even with plenty of therapy, it’s something I deal with every damn day. It’s something I’ve got to constantly be aware of, be on guard against.  I find healthy outlets.  Or, at least, mostly healthy ones.”

He thought back to some of the conversations he’d had with Eijiro over the years, questioning whether he was a good enough person to deserve love and family.  Of long talks with Izuku, about all the wrongs he’d done to him.  Of the making amends part of his therapy and the long time he’d spent grappling with realizing he’d been chasing after a goal without ever truly understanding what it meant.

“There’s days I don’t do that good of a job,” he said, finally.  “The internet’s full of clips from times I lost it.  But I don’t stop trying.”

Park had long since put her sock and shoe back on and was once more listening. She had resumed fiddling with her cross, but not quite as frantically as before.

“Outlets.” She spoke the word with a familiarity that indicated she had heard it multiple times before now. “My parents have tried to find such things for me. A friend of my father’s instructed me in Yongmudo since I was small. Such things have been known to instill discipline, peace of mind, and perhaps even an “outlet.” In truth it just gave me a means to start fighting back. I “want” peace, Teacher, but to strike at those who wronged you...feels very good.” She squeezed the cross, hard enough that he saw her knuckles turn white. She chuckled bitterly.  “Probably what drew them to me to begin with.”

“Them?” he asked, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.  Was someone using Park?  It only took him a few seconds to connect the dots.  He may have been a brawler at heart, but not for nothing did he have an investigative record second only to Tintin’s.  “The Commission.  Dammit, I thought Hawks had all those programs shut down!”

Park gave him a confused look. “I’m not sure what you mean, but yes, your Hero Commission. I had been rounded up more than once by police for getting in fights with local thugs, but nothing on my record. So I thought anyway. One day a Japanese man in a suit knocks on our door and asks to speak with me. He knows who I am, apparently from the police, and asks me “How would you like to take them down legally?”

She sighed, crossing her arms. “Of course I knew these were the bastards who left us without Heroes to protect us. The same ones who unleashed Ignition on Chinese civilians. All the same, they were also the only ones who could arrange Pro protection in the future. I love my family, my community...if it meant working with them, then I would do it. Our neighborhood is poor, purposely nondescript, no way for the big schools to notice. So they arranged for my name to end up on Shiketsu’s radar.”

She shook her head, a rue smile actually crossing her lips. She said some words in Korean, caught herself, then said, “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I’ve only ever told my parents and Chie.”

“It must be my winning bedside manner,” he said, putting on a small smile of his own.  He was still going to give that bird-brained Deputy Commissioner a piece of his mind, even if the programs didn’t sound quite the same. It was still predatory as hell.  

“But that’s a good goal,” he said.  “Sounds like you’re doing it for the right reasons.”  Maybe a little revenge, but it still sounded to his ears like she wanted to help, to make a difference, more than she wanted to hurt.   She was sticking up for people who didn’t have anyone else.  Izuku’d like that.  “So I’ll cut you a deal…  You’ve got my permission to walk away from anything here, anytime you get too mad to function.  But in exchange, you’ve got to talk to somebody after, and you’ve got to stop trying to beat the stuffing out of my students.”

Park looked visibly shocked, the first time her usual composure had completely cracked. She was clearly not used to Japanese people in authority being on her side. For the first time since the conversation had started, she finally seemed to show her age.

“Teacher,” she stops, realizing she was using Korean phrasing. “Sanada Sensei in Shiketsu has actually been trying to get me to see their counselor. I have refused every time.” She seemed to think for a moment. “Maybe I should reconsider that.”

At the mention of beating up his students, she closes her eyes. They seem to vibrate a bit, closing them had been a means of hiding intense emotions. A hand squeezed her cross tightly. There was the very smallest hint of wetness to her eyes, but it was brief. Park opened her eyes again.

“I can do that.”

***

Isamu gulped, not for the first time.  Aizawa-sensei made him nervous on a good day, when he was just being his usual brooding self at Class 1-A.  He made him even more nervous when he was giving him direct attention, like what was happening now.  Like several other students, he’d been pulled aside for one-on-one, individualized or small group training.

“You’re getting good with your Quirk,” Aizawa said, flatly.  “Your father must have taught you well.”  Was it just his imagination or was there a little more warmth in his voice when he said that?

“As best he could, Sensei,” Isamu said quickly.  “Though he never got good enough with it for Hero work.”  Why would he say that?!

Aizawa gave him a flat look, one eyebrow slightly raised.  “You really want to dance around this, kid?  I know you know that I know.  Maybe not everything, but enough.  Your parents were pains in my ass, but they did good work.  Especially the Sky Egg.”

This wasn’t a surprise. But it was a surprise to be talking about it so openly.  Sure, he was the kid of a couple of Vigilantes, not Heroes like just about everyone else here.  And sure, Aizawa had worked with his parents multiple times, as had Midnight.  So it wasn’t like he really thought he was hiding anything.  At least not from them.   Deku had figured it out too.  And there were probably more people he hadn’t figured out.  But he hadn’t told any of his friends.  He trusted them, didn’t think it would come back to bite him in the ass.  It was just… something known but not talked about.

“Ah, thank you, Sensei.” That seemed like the proper response. And he didn’t even incur another round of foot in mouth disease.  “I’ll tell him you said that.”

Aizawa gave him a look. “You’ll do no such thing.”

Isamu gulped.

“All of which means I’ve got a pretty good idea of what your Quirk’s capable of,” Aizawa went on. “Yours is like his.  Almost identical, but subtly different if you know what you’re looking for.  I’m surprised Deku didn’t figure it out, honestly. But since you think you’ve got an identical Quirk, you’re limiting yourself.  He figured out ways to use his propulsion offensively and even for short bursts to launch himself, but you’ve already mastered all those tricks.  I’ve even see you firing repulsion blasts without having to brace yourself.  You don’t actually need three points of contact.  And I’ve seen you launch yourself during training too and steer yourself once you’re in the air.  So I want you to try something.”

There was, perhaps, a slightly maniac look in his teacher’s eyes.  “You’re going to fly.”

Isamu gulped yet again and his eyes went wide.  “Sensei?” He definitely couldn’t fly.  He could use a repulsion burst to launch himself and steer a little in the air, even keep himself from too bad of a landing, but he definitely couldn’t fly.   Could he?

Dad has said that he’d been able to slide through the air as a baby.  He’d even been able to recover something like it with boosts through the air. But that was really just not falling, not flying.  Wasn’t it?

He managed a nod. “Okay,” he said.  “I’ll try it.  What do I need to do?”

“Unfortunately,” Aizawa said, “I’m not allowed to just push you off the roof of the compound.  Sink or swim tactics work wonders.”

That was a joke, right? He had to be joking about that! Someone tell him Aizawa was joking!

His teacher’s expression betrayed no hint of emotion.  “So instead, what I want you to do is concentrate your power on pushing against the ground under your feet and the air under your hands.  You’ll need steady output from all four limbs to control it.”

Right.  He could do that.  He could do that.  He could probably do that.  He could possibly do that.

He took a deep breath and concentrated on his Quirk.  Just like when he was sliding along.  Energy out from his feet, energy out from his hands.   Steady, smooth, power.  

Nope!  Not steady!  Too much power flared from his feet and launched him into the air.  Cursed laws of physics!  Isamu cut his Quirk, but it was like trying to stop a bullet after it had already left the gun.  His arms and legs flailed uselessly as he launched skyward, until gravity began to reassert itself and drag him back down. Aizawa wouldn’t just let him go splat, would he?

Boy, was that a stupid question.  

So he had to save himself!

He scrunched up his eyes and concentrated on his Quirk again.   Steady, consistent, power.

Isamu felt the energy flow from all his limbs again, the pressure fairly equal.  Quickly, he realized he wasn’t falling.  His eyes snapped open.  His was only a few feet off the ground, but he was holding himself up in the air, unsteadily.  Trails of blue-white energy from all his limbs filled the air.  He kept his hands pointed carefully down, using them for stabilizing bursts while his feet provided the thrust.  

“Whoa!”  It was extremely unsteady.  His head was already beginning to hurt from concentrating so hard.  But he was doing it!  

And just as easily as it had come about, his concentration wavered and his power faded.  He hit the ground with a soft thump, landing on his butt. Isamu looked up to see Aizawa standing over him, offering a hand up, but also smirking knowingly.  Isamu took it.

“Good,” Aizawa said. “Keep practicing that.  I’ll send Ground Zero over later if you’re still having trouble.  His explosive-powered flight is similar.”

He needed to get very good. Immediately.

And he really needed a conversation with his friends.

***

Kimiko was fuming. Lunch had ended and they hadn’t even been able to begin the big shipping operation!  Even worse, it was entirely possible they wouldn’t get to do it at all! She hadn’t been able to tell what anyone was saying, but it sure looked like Koda and Aoyama had had a major heart-to-heart.  And since it hadn’t ended with any slaps or either of them walking away in tears, it was probably good news!

Which was, in and of itself, a good thing.  Koda definitely deserved all the happiness in the world.  She was probably the sweetest person that Kimiko knew.  And Aoyama was… not exactly a friend, but someone she was definitely friendly with.  Even if he didn’t particularly like Takuma, he was good people under the fancy-pants attitude.  Plus he loved listening to gossip and always had the best dirt on foreign celebrities. If they got together, it was a good thing!

But she didn’t know!  And since she didn’t have her phone, she couldn’t even share her speculation!  There was major league gossip going on and not only couldn’t she share it, but she didn’t even know the full story!

What was the world coming to?!

So many of Class 1-A was dating now!  Midoriya was dating Sora Iida, Takuma was dating Tensei Iida, Mineta was dating Yoarashi, Shoji had his girlfriend Shiryoku from the Business Course, Kaminari was apparently dating Monoma (What?  What was the story there?!  Why didn’t she know any details?!), Haimawari was dating Tetsutetsu, Koda and Aoyama were a maybe, and she was dating Kenta!

So that left… Kirishima-Bakugo, Kocho, Tokoyami, and Shinso, right?  Todoroki wasn’t interested in romance or sex, her loss, but Kimiko could respect boundaries. Sometimes.  And she wasn’t even sure what kind of people Shinso was interested in. He was only about six months younger than most of them, but he sometimes seemed like a kid by comparison.

None of which was relevant to the task in front of her.  Namely, personal medical training with the Metabolic Hero: Bioshock!

“Eri, ah, Doc Clock, sent me over files on everything she’s been teaching you,” Bioshock explained. “Including all the scores from your practice tests.  She’s definitely proud of you.”

Kimiko felt a smile spread across her face.  She’d actually really been applying herself to her medical studies.  Schoolwork didn’t come easily to her, but this was definitely worth it.

“So, pop quiz,” Bioshock said.  “Best way to treat a broken arm in the field?”

This one was easy. “If there’s bleeding, use a sterile dressing to stop it.  If there’s no skin puncture, use my Quirk to assess the extent of the break.  After either one, immobilize, construct a splint if possible.  Once I’ve gotten them to safety, ice packs can help with the swelling.”

He nodded. “Good.  And what’s the most important thing to keep an eye out for when doing search and rescue?”

She knew this one!   “Structural stability and my own safety. Don’t want to make a problem worse and I can’t help anyone if I need someone to rescue me!”

Bioshock nodded again.  “Good,” he said.  “And where in the body would you find a squeedily spooch?”

Panic gripped Kimiko’s heart as she realized she didn’t know the answer to that.  Squeedily spooch… squeedily spooch... what the heck was a squeedily spooch?!

She frowned as she realized he was struggling not to laugh.  “Hey!  That’s not fair!”  Her arms waved wildly through the air as she voiced her displeasure.  He was a teacher, so she couldn’t actually hit him like she would Kenta or Takuma, but… “There’s no such thing as a squeedily spooch!  You can’t just make stuff up like that!  What the heck is wrong with you?!  WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?!”

The Rookie held his composure for a moment longer, before breaking into laughter.  “Sorry, sorry,” he said.  “I shouldn’t laugh, but I just wanted to see what you’d do…   Which reminds me, actually, I’ve got a theory about your Quirk…”

He was cut off as a shrill alarm cut through the air.  Bioshock’s face instantly went serious as he looked around.

“Perimeter breach!  Perimeter breach!”  An electronic voice sounded in the space between alarms.

“Come with me,” Bioshock said.  He was clearly trying not to let his worry show. “I’ll get you to the compound…”

If I can was left unsaid.

***

The second the alarms went off, the Rookies and teachers leapt into action, with a speed that would have impressed just about any Hero, forming a defensive circle around the U.A. students.    Uncle Kacchan set off small explosions on his palms, working himself up into the agitated state needed to sweat and use his power to its fullest.  Aizawa unraveled his capture cloth and lifted his goggles to cover his eyes.  Super-Ball dropped into a fighting stance, lightly bouncing on the balls of his feet, his rubberized features set into grim determination.    

Ravenous unleashed several of his Binging Balls, the chomping spheroids floating about him like small planets orbiting the sun.  Small puffs of thrust flared from Boost-Rush’s arm pipes.  Bezoar dropped to all fours, his canon emerging from his mouth as he swept the tree line.  Aunt Mahoro pulled a small metal cylinder from her belt, which expanded into a staff.

Aunt Mahoro looked back, as though wanted to assure them that it was going to be okay.  She waved a hand in their direction and the world went a hazy green.  She had to have cast some kind of illusion over the twenty-odd students, probably making the training field look like they weren’t there at all.  Most of them had been on the main grounds, working on their Quirks.  The Shiketsu students, Ojiro, and about a dozen others had been elsewhere on the grounds, receiving their own training.

“We’ll stop or hold off whatever it is,” Toshi heard Aizawa say. Was he imaging it, or was his teacher’s voice shaking?  “You’ve all got full permission to use your Quirks to escape or fight off anything that tries to stop that escape.  The other Rookies are either on their way or protecting your classmates.

As it was, Toshi felt his heart racing in his chest.  A quick glance around revealed a sharp divide in reactions.  Some, like Kocho, along with members of Class 1-B like the bat-like Koumori and Kaniyashiki looked worried, but not overly frightened. They probably even wondered if this was just a test or one of Aizawa’s famous “logical ruses.”  It was absolutely a reasonable reaction to the presence of danger.  But they were all also Hero-students, quickly pushing past it to at least take up basic defensive stances, some of them calling up their Quirks.

The kids who had Hero parents reacted differently.  There was fear first.  They’d all been told the stories of what had happened during their parents’ first training camp.  The injuries. The kidnapping.  The fact that the League of Villains had nearly killed so many of them.  Would have killed so many of them, if not for a lot of luck.  Haimawari too, was reacting similarly.  His experiences between the Internship and the incident on I-Island had stirred up a great deal of courage in his friend, but also shown him how bad things could get very quickly.

This was supposed to have been a safe place.  The world was supposed to have been a safer place. The worst Villains had been faced and defeated.  And yes, it still needed Heroes, still needed people to stand up and say “I am here!” in the fight against evil.  But the past was not supposed to repeat like this.  

Their parents had fought hard so that their lives would not be as filled with trauma.

Already, the Nomu incident has put a lie to that.   Was it becoming even more of one?  Some of them had been tested in that, scarred, made afraid.  Some of them had been spared, aware of the terror but not a part of it.  

The fears of the past rose up to claim them.

But beneath the fear was grim determination.  Katsumi was already scowling, putting herself in front of Izumi.  Asuka had deployed Frog-Shadow and she and Haimawari had both put themselves around Shota.  The Twins looked ready to take off at a moment’s notice.  Tetsutetsu had transformed her arms to metal.  One by one, everyone was activating their Quirks. Even Kocho was extending her wings.

“I don’t need you to protect me, dammit!” Kaminari snapped, pushing Monoma so that she was standing shoulder to shoulder with him, instead of behind him.

Monoma himself looked very pale.  If Toshi didn’t know better, he’d swear the other boy was shaking. He didn’t have any of his support items with him, Toshi realized.  “I.. I was just trying to…”

“Look,” Kaminari said. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m a big girl.”

If ever there was a sign of how seriously his classmates were taking this, it was that Mineta did not make a joke about Kaminari’s statement.  Even Sero was quiet.  This was deadly serious.

“Do you think we are really under attack, Toshi?” Sora asked.

“Quit yapping, all of you!” Katsumi snapped, before he could answer.  Toshi recognized her body language.  Feet planted, knees slightly bent, arms out, fists clenched.  She was spoiling for a fight.  That was Katsumi all over.  Always spoiling for a fight.  After the beating she’d taken, he suspected she was looking for a target even more than usual.  He hoped and prayed that she had the good sense to recognize the odds were very good they were outmatched.

“This is bad,” Fukidashi whispered.  The animated girl’s face had gone blue and covered with hashlines.  “The background music’s getting really scary!”

***

For just a moment, Katsuki was fifteen again.  An arrogant, hot-headed kid with too much rage and an inferiority-superiority complex he won’t even begin to really unpack until he’s failed his Provisional License Exam, and won’t have finished unpacking until…  Well, it’s a work in progress.  But he’s back there, more than twenty-five years ago, thinking that Villains—murderers like Muscular and Dabi, master criminals like Mister Compress, deathrow inmates like Moonfish—don’t stand a chance against his barely trained ass.

He was wrong.  So wrong.  He was captured, perceived as a Villain, with All Might unable to properly fight because he was there.  And then he had to live with the shame of having to be rescued.  Of knowing that Izuku would stage a rescue for him, when he definitely wouldn’t have done the same.  He’d have let those Villains have the “worthless Deku.”

The knowledge of how much of a shit child he was still fills him with shame.

But here and now, even broken and bowed, he will not allow the same thing to happen to his daughter and her classmates.  He’d be cold and dead before he allowed that to happen.

“Just heard from the others,” Mahoro said.  “Sandblast and Locksmith are with the Shiketsu students.  Petal Princess and Lady Luminous are with the other students, and my brother and his student are hooking up with them.  Everyone’s accounted for.”

Boost-Rush tapped the side of his helmet.  “Getting data from the security feed…whatever it is, it’s coming up on us.  It’s managed to evade or disable our entire security system.”

“Any chance it’s a false alarm?” Fujii asked.  The rubberized Hero wasn’t joking.  It was a genuine statement.  “Nobody should know the students are here.”

“No one was supposed to know the first time either,” Aizawa snapped.  “Don’t let your guard down.”  Bakugo had to give the hobo credit.  Even in his mid-fifties, he still looked more than ready to kick anyone’s ass who trifled with his “kids.”

“Not a chance,” Mahoro said. “Hatsume and Shield designed all of it. But if it’s not an attack on them, it’s an attack on us Rookies.”

Either way, it wasn’t good.

There was a rustling in the grass of the tree line and suddenly, something emerged.  At first, he didn’t see anything, until he looked down.

“What the fuck?”

It was a… dog?  A Shiba Inu, if he was any judge.  

“What the fuck?”

Not just a dog, he realized. A dog wearing clothes.  It had on a dog-version of a Shiketsu uniform, complete with a peaked cap that its ears were poking through, and a backpack.

“What the fuck?”

The dog looked around and seemed to smile.  There was a strange, human intelligence to his eyes.  Eyes that finally fell on Bakugo, the other teachers, and the Rookies.

“Hi!” the dog said. “I’m Hachi Inuzaki from Shiketsu! Sorry I missed the bus!  It took me forever to get here!”

Katsuki felt like someone had just punched him in the face.  Aizawa, Fujii, and the Rookies were equally dumbfounded.

“What,” he said, “and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck?”

[rentfreecat]

SVSSS Fanfic Recs

fuck I love reading fanfic about this I just like fell down a hole recently

say it again and again - lqg gets caught in a time loop when he and sqq visit the succubi. sped-read it super quickly so I don’t have that much to say but I’m a liushen shipper, here are my liushen credentials

Secret Route Unlocked - liushen fluff. action. adventure. drama. sqq being sqq and thus a complete fucking idiot. okay but yeah the confession scene, it’s great.

An easy lie - shen jiu, shen yuan’s older brother, is the one who transmigrates into sqq’s body instead. angst. fluff. humor (sj’s snark). utterly amazing. i just kept checking for new updates, luckily there is a very quick update pace.

Insert A Ry’leh Original Title - sqq is an eldritch abomination. he is still incredibly oblivious. even someone like me who can’t stand misunderstandings found this pretty hilarious. you need to read this. pun title too which is always a bonus.

Deluxe System 2.0: Co-op Mode! - after refusing to kick lbh down the endless abyss the system makes sy share sj’s body with sj. stuff and teaching sj to be an actually good teacher then happens. i am trash for sy/sj body sharing fics and so far this doesn’t seem like it’ll pull out (fuck I just realized—) from that too soon so rec!

Falling in love with a Demon Lord - bamf sqq is great. here is a part of me that is just power fantasy trash and also i like how it makes bingshen much more equal. i also kinda love how the author seems to love cool demon monsters just as much as sqq. 

Little House in the Hellscape Prairie - og!binghe is very, very, horny for bamf sqq, and he’s suffering from that because he is an idiot. hilarious. content warnings for, well, og!binghe fantasizing about dubious consent scenarios with sqq.

Ascension - nice character study on bingge!

High Mountain, How I Long - sqq is held captive as an “honored guest” by lbh in huan hua palace. absolutely amazing dream sequence. i love the melancholy mood. sqq please develop even a modicum of basic social skills and just communicate

Scum Villain Archive - oneshot collection. they are all very big and very long. faves are 1, 3, and 23-24.

Scum Villain Fic Dump - oneshot collection. by the force you have to read the star wars one. the nyanzun stuff is pretty cute and funny too.

Scum Villain AUs - yep another oneshot collection! i like transmigrator swap and cucumber planes best of them, though the f/f one is also pretty good.