#the baby doesn't have a name yet

[itsthatlake]

Shen Yuan transmigrated as a Spirit Cat AU

Shen Yuan had only just finished processing the fact that he had reincarnated-slash-transmigrated at all after his death, never mind into a cat’s body, when he was forced to confront the equally insane reality that was this new world that he had ended up in.

A place that resembled ancient China, but where people didn’t bat an eye at seeing someone literally flying on a sword. A place where cultivation and immortality were very much real and attainable. A Xianxia world, basically. Like the setting for Proud Immortal Demon’s Way, the novel he had literally died cursing.

Shen Yuan had read enough novels in his life to, upon concluding this was in fact real and not just a very vivid hallucination, make the safe choice to send a very quick but genuinely heartfelt prayer to whatever deities were listening that he hadn’t somehow transmigrated into the world of Proud Immortal Demon’s Way.

God, he really hoped this wasn’t Proud Immortal Demon’s Way.

Anyway.

Getting used to being a cat after a lifetime of opposable thumbs and no tail wasn’t as hard as he imagined it’d be. His body seemed to know how to move even if he didn’t, and the new instincts and different senses were easy enough to get used to.

The hardest aspect of his new life was actually finding food, given how a vast majority of the people from the small village he’d woken up in seemed perfectly happy to ignore or even chase him out no matter how cute he acted. The rest were all small children, who at best could give him some sweets, and the two old ladies that lived a little up the hill and occasionally confused him for their own cat, Baobao.

So, naturally, he had taken to stealing from the bastards that annoyed him the most as a form of payback. They should’ve thought twice before throwing rocks at him if they didn’t want their food stolen. Shen Yuan had gotten pretty good at sneaking in and avoiding traps out of sheer pettiness in recent times.

…Perhaps he had gotten a little too good, actually.

Really, why else would the village chief decide to call for help catching him? Also! How could he have known they’d call a whole-ass cultivator to deal with him?! Wasn’t he just a normal (if smarter than average) cat?! Why were these people calling cultivators to deal with their day-to-day problems?! Wasn’t that just lazy?! Wasn’t it overkill?! What’s up with that?!

Shen Yuan hissed and attempted to scratch the hand that had grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and held him up in the air. The owner of the hand, a cultivator with a truly beautiful face, stared back at him utterly unimpressed.

“Stop that,” the cultivator said.

Shen Yuan hissed at him, but ultimately stopped struggling. He had given a good fight, even managing to scratch the man in the face before he was caught (something he was very proud of, despite the cultivator healing it with his qi almost immediately) but even he knew when to call it quits. He would just have to wait for the man to lower his guard before trying to escape again.

The cultivator huffed, then turned around to inform the village chief of his capture. Shen Yuan sullenly endured the whole song and dance, hissing at any bastard that looked too smug on the way. It was only as they were walking out of the village that the cultivator lifted Shen Yuan up to eye level and stared.

“How did a creature like you even end up in this place?” he suddenly asked, eyes narrowed with a level of suspicion that was, frankly, uncalled for. “Your kind isn’t from this area.”

What kind! What creature! He was just a normal cat! Shen Yuan had seen plenty of them around the village, had gotten into fights with old strays for some food more than once. He had convinced little Baobao to not attack him on sight even!

“I’m taking you back to my sect. Will you attack me if I try to hold you properly?”

Yes, Shen Yuan meowled viciously.

As if he understood anything, the cultivator nodded once and unsheathed his sword. Then he stood on it and took up flight holy fucking shit—

Shen Yuan made an alarmed sound, holding on for dear life the moment the cultivator moved him close to his chest. He sunk his claws deep on the silver robes, not wanting to find out if cats truly had nine lives in this world or if he’d survive a fall this high, and glared viciously at the man.

The cultivator had the gall to look amused.

 ---

The moment they landed, Shen Yuan wasted no time jumping away. Unfortunately, the man’s reflexes were faster than him and he managed to catch Shen Yuan before his paws could even graze the ground.

Shen Yuan meowled pitifully, turning big sad eyes that had occasionally gotten him free food in his direction. He even heard a number of young kids in the background stop and coo at him.

The man, apparently heartless, only raised an eyebrow.

Shen Yuan sighed and resigned himself to his fate for the foreseeable future. Settling down on the man’s arms (they were unexpectedly comfortable and warm, okay?), he watched idly as people hurried about, barely stopping to bow in the cultivator’s direction and glance curiously at Shen Yuan before continuing on their ways.

Eventually they reached what was definitely some kind of doctor’s office and the cultivator barged in like he owned the place. Shen Yuan could’ve believed that, if it weren’t for the real owner of the office looking up sharply from behind the cluttered desk at their entrance.

“Liu-shixiong!” The poor doctor looked genuinely startled, understandably so, as he reflexively stood up. He hadn’t even seemed to notice Shen Yuan yet. “How may this shidi help you?”

In response, the cultivator —Liu?— shifted Shen Yuan in his arm so he was more visible while still keeping a tight hold on him. Not like there was anywhere for him to run, mind you, seeing as all entrances to the office were firmly shut.

The doctor blinked and adjusted his glasses, peering closely at Shen Yuan.

“Is… that a Colored Claw Spirit Cat?” the doctor asked slowly, and for some reason he looked just as baffled as Shen Yuan abruptly felt.

Excuse me? I’m a what now?

“En,” the cultivator confirmed. “I found him terrorizing a village near Huan Hua Palace. With Lan Qingyi in seclusion, I thought you could give him a check-up.”

‘Terrorizing’ was too strong a word for what he’d been doing, in Shen Yuan’s honest opinion. He was only trying to eat! It was everyone else that overreacted to his presence! Also, Huan Hua Palace? Why did that sound familiar? Did he hear of it somewhere in the village?

“Hmm. I agree that Lan-shijie would be best for this. I don’t think anyone else at her peak has even seen a Colored Claw Spirit Cat in person before, given how rare they are,” the doctor agreed, rummaging through drawers for this and that. “Alright. Set him on the table, please. This shidi will see what he can do.”

“He’ll attack you,” the cultivator warned as he gently set him down on the table, one arm posed to catch him were he to try and get away. Shen Yuan stared at him deadpan. Again, there was nowhere for him to run unless someone were to open the door for him.

The doctor settled a couple of items down on the table next to him and smiled wearily at the cultivator.

“Ah, how much does shixiong know about Spirit Cats?”

“I know they have the capacity to cultivate a human form, as well as achieve immortality. Though it’s extremely rare.”

Shen Yuan… had not known any of that. In fact, up until a couple minutes ago, he was convinced he was just a normal cat. It’s not like he had any other frame of reference to work with here. All the little kids at the village called him a cat and rural villages from Xianxia worlds were hardly overflowing with mirrors. He couldn’t have possibly known if there was anything special about his appearance that gave him away as not-a-normal-cat.

But this… wasn’t this kind of cool actually? He could become an immortal master! And get back his human form! And have opposable thumbs again! God, did he miss those.

Unaware of Shen Yuan’s growing excitement, the doctor nodded at the cultivator’s words.

“Shixiong is correct. Furthermore, Spirit Cats tend to have a level of sentience on par with humans long before acquiring a human form themselves. One can usually tell their age just by how much they’re able to understand, since even young ones are somewhat intelligent. This one certainly seems to understand us just fine. Isn’t that right, esteemed spirit?”

Not expecting to be addressed so suddenly, or at all, Shen Yuan gave the doctor a somewhat startled meow, tail twitching.

“See? This one must be a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. His growth phase must not be long now.”

Growth phase? Shen Yuan wondered, then filed it away for later thought, alongside all that information about Spirit Cats.

The cultivator grunted, eyeing Shen Yuan for a moment before finally stepping back, seemingly deciding that Shen Yuan wasn’t about to run for the hills if he let down his guard. Shen Yuan, no longer worried about acting out of character for a normal cat, pointedly rolled his eyes at him.

An odd noise drew his gaze back to the doctor, who quickly schooled his expression back to a mask of pleasant neutrality.

“Esteemed spirit, this Mu Qingfang will examine you now and narrate what he is doing. Would that be acceptable?”

Shen Yuan meowed an affirmation, something about that sentence tickling at the back of his mind, and the doctor finally got started.

It was only a moment later that the realization hit him in full.

Mu Qingfang, a healer. ‘Liu-shixiong,’ who flew them all the way here and up a mountain. Even the off-handed mention of goddamn Huan Hua Palace.

Oh fuck.

He’s inside of Proud Immortal Demon’s Way.

---

Next Chapter.

[hahasuchagarbage]

YES, the time has come for me to give a member of fearsome gang an offspring, because of course parenthood is something reckless egocentric criminals are good at!

+bonus:

[kotikaleo]

Hi hi hello!

So this one needs a little bit of a context.

Do you remember this art? It was inspired by a roleplay with my friend, and as I said it started as a Fluffynight and added Killer to that mix. This comic happened years later when they had a child and when the kid was about five years old. Killer taught him to throw knives and Nightmare is so not happy about this XD.

Don't worry, Ccino is behind the corner about to calm down both of his partners uωu

[cloudellesims]

idk what he's trying to tell her but she's definitely not convinced

[tennessoui]

can’t believe there’s no balcony neighbors to friends to lovers obikin au

so like imagine like anakin and obi-wan live in apartments that face each other and are separated by a narrrow alleyway, so when both are out on their own balconies, they can pretty easily see each other and talk. they don’t but they could is the thing, it’s just a weird sort of line to step over, being in someone’s space so intimately but not being invited there, witnessing someone’s life move along like an unstoppable ocean current, but not being in the water with them.

anakin knows what book obi-wan is reading and which newspaper he subscribes to. obi-wan knows anakin’s favored brand of beer and how he sounds when he sings his baby to sleep. anakin has overheard many arguments between obi-wan and his lawyer and his estranged wife about the divorce case. they’re physically close enough that when anakin steps out one summer night, obi-wan can wordlessly pass him a cigarette over the divide. “i don’t smoke normally,” obi-wan says, with a flick of his wrist to shake loose the ash. “i know,” anakin says, because he does. “divorce was finalized yesterday,” obi-wan says. “i know,” anakin says, because he does. “my name’s obi-wan,” obi-wan says. “anakin,” anakin says because he hadn’t known that.

[megamindsupremacy]

I reread my baby obi-wan fic last night and now im having feelings again

[elleryhart]

i have three whole new fallen london ocs that I haven't begun to tell y'all about bc i can't think of how.

[randomnameless]

are you still cooking your half nabatean lycaon AU ? If you're interested, there are some fics on Ao3 about him! In a more serious setting though he wouldn't be outed as a half nabatean

I've seen them!

Soon, he will have 10 properly tagged fics on AO3 !

(and i've read them all lol)

I think I can see what fic you're talking about in the "more serious setting" lol, but first let it be a "Rhea blows up Seteth's microwave by reheating a ravioli can AU" or a "WoH storytelling" AU, I suppose fics are fics, and they're both "serious" in their own way.

Maybe you meant "serious" as in the most "canon compliant" - still taking into consideration that we're talking about fanfics, aka, headcanons?

Discussing about headcanons - the way reasonable people do - is much like discussing about your favourite recipe, it's ultimately a matter of taste - You're not saying the recipe of the person you're talking to sucks, but you just say you prefers yours and don't force it on anyone else.

Now, why I don't put carrot in my curries -

iirc in this fic I'm thinking of and you might be talking about anon, the premise was basically an alliance, Willy has to marry a lady to secure an alliance with her father and get Gronder on his side for his future conquest.

If Rhea tells him about bby!Lycaon and marries him, his wedding is annuled, no alliance means more warfare and Adrestia needs more time to gather troops to march on Nemesis.

If she doesn't, the son he and his wife were supposed to have dies in childbirth and Rhea swaps the babies so Lycaon is raised by his dad and his stepmom, no one knows his stepmom isn't his mom, save for Willy himself and the nabateans.

In this setting though, children between nabateans and humans will either be humans, or nabatean, so no half-nabatean hijinks (and Lycaon was born a human).

---

This isn't the headcanon I'm rolling with - which prompted this entire cooking stuff lol - hybrid nabateans have more magic/power than humans, but less than full blooded nabateans.

With that being said, in a WoH setting, I couldn't legit see Rhea accepting to part or even to entrust her kid (half or not) to anyone else than her bros/relatives, maybe the trustworthy people of her Church and Willy himself.

But anyone else in Enbarr and its palace?

If the secret is out of the bag, Lycaon will become a dagger (or so she thinks!).

So he stays with his maternal family, or under their care.

Now, what about Willy?

The hc of the 120 bastard kids was just nonsense, but if we supposed Willy fucked like what the real world inspiration for Adrestia of old is supposed to be, I HC Willy should at least have some illegitimate kids.

Regarding the legitimate ones, what if he married someone, to form an alliance, and basically sealed it with the promise that their kid was going to become the next emperor?

It's plausible enough, that Willy survives the potential kid, due to receiving Rhea's crest he ages slower than his kid who might or not get a crest at birth (like the characters we see in FE16!).

With time, the alliance becomes void because hey, the heir isn't inheriting a thing since Willy's still alive and rocking his imperial armor - and looks younger than his own kid!

Should Willy contract a new alliance or would the people who joined him through this alliance bail out realising they would never have one of their people sit on Adrestia's throne ?

Or, even before realising that the "alliance made heir" will never get the throne since Willy can live up to 300 years, I got the idea/HC that Willy, much like your typical FE protag, starts with Bord'n'Cord and later ends up leading an army without needing to contract "alliances through marriages" to gain soldiers.

Both because of personal preferences lol, but also because it creates a precedent : if Willy marries the heir of land A who has 50 soldiers to offer in exchange of the throne, what if he later gets a proposal from land J who has 5k soldiers to offer for the same prize? If A's proposal looks good when Willy starts with 3 soldiers, later when he has 3k, wouldn't J's be better? In that situation, would A be casted away to have J instead?

However, the most serious issue in this "race for the throne" is, well, Rhea herself!

She's the Prophet who can perform miracles, totes call a giant divine beast to help her and is assisted by Saintly people who can perform the same miracles (and also maybe call giant divine beasts on their own?). The CoS has a lot of followers in Southern Fodlan, hell Enbarr is picked as the capital of the Empire because of Seiros' presence.

"300 devout randoms aren't the same as 300 soldiers and the CoS has no land to offer!"

Macuil is the source of magic and brags about it, what if he very relunctantly accepted to teach humans how to use magic, with the first humans he would have picked would have been the ones from the CoS? And we know Cichol's "blessing" makes lands grow more fertile, so while the CoS has no land to offer, the things they can offer are of a different worth.

Sure they're no 300 soldiers, but they bring mages and can create magic users + use magic/stuff to help Adrestia grow, as in, getting more food, healing and what not.

Add to that cocktail half-nab!Lycaon?

Like, there's a kid hanging out with the Saints - who looks like them - and is basically raised by them and hangs out with them, ages maybe as slowly as the Emperor, and is close to Seiros herself.

If there are any doubts about Lycaon's mom in the modern times, in this AU there would be none! Assuming Willy recognises him as his own, well, between heir X born out of an alliance to secure 50k soldiers to get the entire southern peninsula, and Jesus' son...

(hell even if Willy doesn't recognise him, he could still adopt him later on?)

Even if Lycaon isn't officialy in the race for the throne - by his sheer existence, he is a serious contestant, and all the more if the "human" heirs age as humans do, as opposed to Willy, Lycaon and the Saints.

Meritocracy happening means the young (?), martially talented, wise and fair (it might be a joke, but adrestians of old were lusting after nabateans in their stories/poems/songs...) Prince Lycaon has no competition for the throne, and it's not an alliance contracted 90 or 40 years ago that will be enough to push the claim of Prince/ss X over Lycaon's for the throne...

So the only solution to get rid of him is to push him down some stairs, and hope his death will be "natural" enough that people will believe he died of an illness - or maybe enlisting the help of some strange people wearing hoods and being really pale who promised to get rid of "this beast".

But I can't write/finish fics for shit lol, so i'm just throwing stuff here and there.

[quillvice]

"was there a reason you didn't cancel this" honestly I thought I had so no there wasn't a reason but also if clients are going to have Your personal number and reach out to You about canceling (when they Should be reaching out via email per our cancelation policy) then You should be canceling the appt anyway imo. all the other trainers cancel their appointments AND add their appointments to the system 🤪

[gatorallegations]

new blorbo in town!

[attractthecrows]

retconning stroud out of the deep roads so i can shove laure amell and the hawke siblings and varric and anders all into the same little camp. they would all have such a bad time

[junebugtwin]

big smile big teeth big heart

[karasui]

I am totally normal about him.

[automatonknight]

i <3 2fort forever yay ^__^

[nyssasorbit]

My wifi went out, so here's some progress on Dokugai's gremlin fankids I've been thinking about forever

[the-irrelevant-trumpeter]

thinking about frangipani and ylang ylang... what's the story there