#there is literally no other plot in this au. this is all there is

[flowersdiceandlove]

Please tell me about your Eminence in Shadow!SY AU, that sounds really interesting and badass

Okay, so, in case you don’t know “Eminence in Shadow” is a reincarnation, isekai anime where a guy named Cid Kageno ends up in a world with magic. He likes playing as “Background Character A” by day and being “The Eminence in Shadow” by night. I was watching this anime and while I was watching, I felt like Cid and Shen Yuan were a lot alike. (I’ve only watched the anime which only has two seasons, so anything beyond that in the manga I have no idea about)

Now, onto the idea (I og had this written out as a prompt and then thought, huh, this might actually be fun to write, so just…didn’t post the prompt. I think I’ll come back later and post an actual prompt for this though. But, I'm literally just copy/pasting what I already wrote for this.)

Imagine, Shen Yuan transmigrates into Background Character A in PIDW, and, just like Cid, throws himself into the role. He just wants to get through the plot without drawing attention to himself so he can avoid Bingge's ire. But! But! This is Shen Yuan who has always dreamed of transmigrating into this type of story. How can he just pass up the chance of becoming a cool cultivator??? He can't, that's how! So then, how does one remain Background Character A while also being a Mysterious And Cool Cultivator? By acting out his role as Background Character A during the day and growing his power to become a cool cultivator in secret! That's how!

He'll spend his days idling and playing his role as Just Some Guy to perfection, but in secret, he'll hone his cultivator abilities, slay monsters, study demonic beasts, and live out his cultivator fantasy! He transmigrates early, maybe as a baby, and uses all his knowledge of reading PIDW and other cultivation stories to work out how to cultivate in secret. He won't interfere with the plot, making sure he blends into the background so as not to draw attention to himself, and will be able to survive the merging of the realms with his cultivation abilities when that time eventually comes.

But, of course, this is Shen Yuan we're talking about. He stumbles his way into trouble and wifebeams people. He plays up his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator act like Shadow/Cid does and ends up amassing his own Shadow Garden (harem of highly trained women dedicated to Shadow and his cause, for those of you who haven't seen Eminence in Shadow) but the gay xianxia version. We're gonna get Zhuzhi-Lang, Liu Qingge, ect. But, just like Shadow/Cid, Shen Yuan does not realize he has amassed this massive harem who would literally do anything for him and have created an entire clandestine organization (that's really more of an empire) with him as the head. He thinks they're all just Really Good Friends who are helping him live out his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator dreams.

Just like Shadow/Cid bullshits the Cult of Diablo, Shen Yuan is gonna bullshit his own stuff. And, just like with Shadow/Cid's stuff, Shen Yuan's words are gonna turn out to be true. I'm thinking he ends up uncovering all the corruption and drama surrounding the Old Palace Master and Huan Hua Palace. It'll probably end up being a whole big thing and once they start digging, they just find more and more sects, companies, people, etc. involved in this. Part of the corruption and wrong-doings they find, is a lot of provoking of demons. Shen Yuan, of course, knows none of this, and always ends up on the outskirts of the investigations bullshitting some Wise Nonsense that has everyone in awe before kicking the Bad Guy's butt, not knowing what's Really Going On.

He remains oblivious to all the Drama going on and what he's leaving in his wake. One thing he is absolutely certain he must do is Keep A Low Profile and remain Background Character A, so all his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator adventures are done in secret and he makes sure that his version of Shadow Garden knows that This Is SECRET!! Do Not Tell. shhhh.

Just like in Eminence in Shadow, Shen Yuan's harem (that he still doesn't know is his harem) venture out on their own to gather more people to add to the harem join their cause.

Shen Yuan had to have met Liu Qingge before he entered CQMS. Maybe Shen Yuan's Background Family is from the same village/city the Liu Family is from and so they grew up in the same social circle. When Liu Qingge eventually goes to join CQMS Shen Yuan sighs and thinks What a good guy, playing with me all this time. Now he's off to be a Great Cultivator himself. I hope we can still see each other again sometime. Not at all knowing that Liu Qingge has the BIGGEST crush on him and once in CQMS is trying to recruit more people to join Shen Yuan's harem organization. He probably convinces at least half of the future Qing generation in time as well as many disciples from various peaks. It helps when on a couple night-hunts Shen Yuan, in Mysterious And Cool Cultivator mode, showed up out of nowhere and solved the problem like a Wise Immortal and effectively wifebeaming all present.

For Zhuzhi-Lang, Shen Yuan definitely found him hurt and cooed over him, nursing him back to health. Eventually Zhuzhi-Lang had to return to the Demon Realm and Tianlang-jun, but tells Tianlang-jun about the Nice Human Cultivator who took care of him. Tianlang-jun clocks Zhuzhi-Lang's crush immediately, and tells him that he can go woo his human all he wants as long as it doesn't interfere with work, and also, he would like to meet this human.

Shen Yuan nearly has a heart attack when the DEMON EMPEROR (and Luo Binghe's father!! Ahhh!) shows up at his house to invite him to a picnic (thankfully no one else saw this so his cover as Background Character A is still in check). He doesn't turn him down though, that would be stupid, Tianlang-jun could kill him in a heartbeat if he offended him. So, he goes on the picnic. Tianlang-jun thanks him for taking such good care of his nephew, and Zhuzhi-Lang is a blushing mess the entire time. Tianlang-jun as being Tianlang-jun keeps trying to set Shen Yuan and Zhuzhi-lang up. Shen Yuan laughs it off. Clearly Tianlang-jun is quite the jokester and eternally flamboyant (and you know how Tianlang-jun is), and thinks all his suggestive comments are just his weird sense of humor. Tianglang-jun is most definitely trying to get both Zhuzhi-Lang and himself into Shen Yuan's pants. Shen Yuan is, of course, oblivious to this.

After the picnic Tianlang-jun and Zhuzhi-Lang leave but have secured invitation from Shen Yuan to return as they please so long as they keep it hush hush. Zhuzhi-Lang will actually visit a lot and spend a lot of time in tiny snake form curled up around Shen Yuan's arm under his sleeve or in his robes. Shen Yuan idly pets and strokes him, feeling the cool texture of his scales without thinking about it. When he does realize, Zhuzhi-Lang tells him that it's fine and he can keep petting him as much as he wants. Sometimes people will see Shen Yuan, Background Character A, with a green snake on his arm, or in his robes, or draped across his shoulders, but never really think too much about it, thinking he just has a normal pet snake.

Since this initial meeting, there are a lot more snakes around the Shen Estate, and Shen Yuan's parents tell him to get it under control, thinking that his pet snake is attracting them. Shen Yuan apologizes and says he will. Zhuzhi-Lang then tells his snake underlings to hide better. They were there to make sure Shen Yuan was safe, not get him in trouble.

When Zhuzhi-Lang is back in the Demon Realm he talks about Shen Yuan. He also knows about the Mysterious And Cool Cultivator thing and is also trying to recruit demons to his harem cause. Tianlang-jun knows about this and is fine with it. He's long decided that he's gonna get Shen Yuan into his bed family service and so him having his own underlings and support of demons would only make it easier to do so down the road.

Despite Shen Yuan's meddling, the Tianlang-Jun and Su Xiyan thing still happens and the Old Palace Master stuff leading to Tianlang-jun being sealed. Even with Shen Yuan and his harem friends taking down branches of corruption, they weren't able to take down the Old Palace Master (not yet at least). So, that whole Fiasco happens. Shen Yuan feels guilty about it. Tianlang-jun and Zhuzhi-Lang had become his friends and he knew what was coming. He was confused though because Tianlang-jun did not seem like he was trying to take over the Human Realm and that was why he was sealed. Maybe the System finally decided to pop in and say he couldn't interfere in it, and that some things just had to happen for plot reasons (like with the Endless Abyss). Or, Maybe Shen Yuan didn't see it coming, thinking that he had somehow influenced Tianlang-jun to not want to invade the Human Realm, not knowing that it had always been a lie and set up, the truth never being revealed in PIDW.

Zhuzhi-Lang flees to Shen Yuan, hurt from the attack, and, of course, Shen Yuan accepts him even in his half snake, half humanoid form. It took him a moment, but then he recognized it was Zhuzhi-Lang by his eyes and tended his wounds (again). Zhuzhi-Lang tells him the story of what he and Tianlang-jun believe to be true. By the time he's well enough to do that though, Shen Yuan isn't able to do anything about Su Xiyan's situation. She's already long vanished. Shen Yuan also decides that once Bailu Forest isn't under such careful observation after Tianlang-Jun's sealing, he'll go see the man with Zhuzhi-Lang to see what his state is. Despite it all and Tianlang-jun's...unique personality, Shen Yuan still considers him a friend and wants to help where he can.

It, unfortunately, takes a while for things to cool down around Bailu Mountain and then again to find a way to Tianlang-jun's prison without setting off any alarms. By the time Shen Yuan finally sees Tianlang-jun again, years have passed. He's alive, but not in a great state what with being crushed under a mountain and all. Shen Yuan is in awe of the resilience of Heavenly Demons. When Tianlang-jun sees Shen Yuan he's like "ah, if it's the only human who hasn't betrayed me. What brings you to this place?" all casually. Shen Yuan actually brought him some trashy books and food that he knew Tianlang-jun would like and Tianlang-jun is overjoyed by it. You wouldn't even think he was being squished under a mountain with how happy he was.

Shen Yuan works with Zhuzhi-Lang to figure out how to get Tianlang-jun out, but only after he makes Tianlang-jun promise not to slaughter everyone (probably saying some Wise Nonsense, but is really just trying to get Tianlang-jun to not obliterate humanity). Tianlang-jun pouts, but does. Shen Yuan appeases him by getting him more trashy books and human paraphernalia. During this time, Shen Yuan mentions (intentionally) that he heard rumors that Su Xiyan may be pregnant—Shen Yuan doesn’t think Tianlang-jun’s as interested as he should be in this development; this is Luo Binghe after all—and also that he thinks there’s more to this than they originally thought. Tianlang-jun’s attention is then fully shifted from killing all humans except Shen Yuan, to figuring out what’s going on because hm, you’re right, A-Yuan, this doesn’t make much sense.

With Shen Yuan also working on how to get Tianlang-jun out, Zhuzhi-Lang is able to go back to the Demon Realm to keep things in order. At least to an extent. They keep the fact that they’re trying to free Tianlang-jun a secret bc you never know where there are eyes and ears. Shen Yuan helps Zhuzhi-Lang keep his more humanoid appearance since Tianlang-jun isn’t able to, so that helps Zhuzhi-Lang keep the demons under control, but doesn’t help a whole lot. Things still kinda fall apart there. Shen Yuan’s harem organization is still holding up there and work in secret despite the shakiness in the Demon Realm and the demons in it even use the political uncertainty to their advantage to gain more power.

Maybe Shen Yuan figures out how to make the Sun and Moon Dew Mushroom compatible with demonic qi or maybe he finds another solution. But, either way, he gets Tianlang-jun’s soul out from under the mountain. There is just one caveat of this new body. It must grow from infanthood again at a normal rate. They grow the body, and then Tianlang-jun’s soul pops over to it when it’s a baby, freeing him from his prison. Since the Demon Realm has grown unstable and Tianlang-jun is in a vulnerable state, they decide that the best and safest course of action is for Shen Yuan to keep Tianlang-jun in his care. So, Shen Yuan returns home with baby Tianlang-jun claiming the baby’s his. What better place to hide than in Background Family A, after all? Shen Yuan’s been doing it for decades at this point and thinks it’s the perfect way of living. Thankfully, Tianlang-jun, despite being a baby, does still know how to control his demonic qi, and is able to hide it, making himself appear like a normal human baby.

When the rest of Shen Yuan’s harem Friends find out about “his baby” they’re all seething in jealousy wondering who the mother is. (gender neutral use of the term “mother” here. That harem is definitely trying to figure out how to have Shen Yuan’s baby or get Shen Yuan to have their baby) They also start seething in jealousy over the baby itself bc Shen Yuan is doting on him to the max. He’s holding and rocking him, soothing him, patting him, feeding him, cooing over him, ect. Shen Yuan just can’t get over how cute baby Tianlang-jun is, and is wondering what baby Bingge looked like. (By this point, Binghe’s already entered CQMS)

Every time Liu Qingge leaves the sect to go on a night-hunt, he always stops by the Shen Estate to see Shen Yuan and drop off some monster head/part for him. Shen Yuan always greets him with a smile and thanks him, but asks if dropping the bloody carcass in the entry hall was really necessary. Who’s gonna clean this all up, Liu-didi, hm? Be nicer to the servants! Don’t make unnecessary work for them! The first time Liu Qingge sees the baby, he’s doing this. Shen Yuan comes out to meet him with the baby in his arms, and the sight of Shen Yuan holding a baby, smiling at him, and welcoming him back makes his brain blank for a long moment.

Shen Yuan either is super vague about the baby!Tianlang-jun’s mom or has a super detailed background story ready to go. It’s a bit of a minor scandal in the way that all bastards are, but Background Family Father A is happy to get a grandson from Shen Yuan.

As baby!Tianlang-jun grows up, he gets super smug about having Shen Yuan as his dad and attention. He’s good at playing his role as a little kid around others, but then in private just acts like his usual self, lounging around like the emperor he is, reading scandalous smut, and saying all his suggestive and lucious things. When the members of Shen Yuan’s harem Shen Yuan’s friends show up, he always plays up the act and gets Shen Yuan to let him sit in his lap, pet his hair, snuggle against his side, or something. Shen Yuan’s harem friends swear that the kid knows what he’s doing, but can only chug vinegar in silence bc it’s Shen Yuan’s son. Tianlang-jun is loving having Shen Yuan as his dad, being the only one to call him “daddy” or “baba” or “a-die” or such and has Shen Yuan curled around his finger with his cuteness. (He’s long stopped trying to get into Shen Yuan’s pants and is much happier being his adoptive son. He is still trying to set up Shen Yuan and Zhuzhi-Lang though.)

Because of Shen Yuan’s interference, Liu Qingge either doesn’t have that deadly qi deviation, or is stable enough that when Shen Qingqiu tries to help him with it, is actually able to help. So, Liu Qingge lives.

When Luo Bingge is finally out of the Endless Abyss and is working his way through conquering the Demon Realm, he starts to slowly find out about this vast and secret organization that’s in control of so much. Digging deeper, he’s able to uncover that it spans into the Human Realm and includes some well respected and high class cultivators too. Luo Bingge tries to wriggle out who the leader is, but everyone is so tightlipped and elusive that he’s actually having trouble finding info out. It drives him mad. Xin Mo is also capitalizing on this obsession. Luo Bingge can’t be the indisputable Emperor of all if there’s some shadow organization pulling the strings behind the scenes. Shen Yuan, however, is blissfully unaware that he’s caught the attention of Luo Bingge, still thinking he’s successfully flown under the radar, and tells his harem Friends to avoid getting on Luo Binghe’s bad side and to help him however they can, hoping that this will get those that would have died as canon fodder in Bingge’s rise to greatness to be able to survive it. This just drives Luo Bingge even more up the wall bc he doesn’t know why this secret organization is deciding to back him in everything and so he doesn’t know their motives and so he can’t use those motives to his advantage and so he doesn’t have absolute control! 

When he does finally get a member of the harem organization to talk to him, they just say “Our master is wise. He sees potential in you. Do not squander our master’s good will.” because when they asked why Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan said something like “I believe he’s destined for greatness. I want to see the world he creates.” or “He has great promise. I want to see what he does.” all sage like while internally panicking, hoping that that was vague enough so they don’t continue to ask why he wants to help this random demon that he’s never met. This answer does not help to assuage Bingge’s unease at this secret organization and their secret leader, and only makes it worse bc how does this man know Luo Binghe well enough to know his POTENTIAL!?!?! But he can’t ask the person more bc they vanished from their cell after Luo Bingge was called away on urgent business. And, they also somehow have a way to counteract his blood parasites. Bingge is seriously losing it over this. (He doesn’t know about Zhuzhi-Lang and Tianlang-jun, and I’m sure they both know a lot more about Heavenly Demon abilities and how to counteract them than Bingge does)

Shen Yuan and his harem friends end up leading Bingge through the Demon and Human Realms with mind games and wild goose chases, every adventure leading to Bingge gaining more power. Shen Yuan eventually learns that he’s caught Bingge’s eye and hopes that this all will show that Shen Yuan is a friend and not a foe. See! He’s helping you gain power, Bingge!! We’re not enemies!!

Luo Bingge is not put at ease by this and every encounter with the harem organization is just leaving him more frazzled. Eventually Shen Yuan and Luo Bingge meet on one of these crazy adventures when Shen Yuan had to get involved, Shen Yuan in his Mysterious And Cool Cultivator act, and disguised so that even a Heavenly Demon and the protagonist won’t be able to recognize him. (Zhuzhi-Lang and Tianlang-jun helped him test his disguise out) Shen Yuan spouts more of his Wise Nonsense at Luo Binghe to make Luo Binghe see that they’re on Bingge’s side before vanishing without a trace. After every time, Luo Bingge screams and levels some stuff in frustration. He still doesn’t know what these people are after! How are they so elusive!? 

Because of all this, Luo Binghe’s plans to infiltrate Huan Hua Palace and destroy Cang Qiong Mountain Sect are put on hold. He doesn’t know exactly how far this secret organization's power reaches, but he can’t go in blind with such a big power behind the scenes. He does know that the secret organization has reaches in CQMS, but doesn’t know how deep (Liu Qingge’s been hard at work there and all of Bai Zhan is under Shen Yuan’s command along with over half of the other peaks. Shang Qinghua is freaking out because he didn’t write this!!! Who the fuck is that guy!?!? Why is he rivaling Bingge!?!?! And, WHY IS HE WINNING!?!?!? Bingge’s supposed to reign supreme, not some rando he never even wrote! He’s wondering if he maybe wrote out this idea while high as fuck and delusional with sleep depravation which is why he doesn’t remember it, but he knows he wouldn’t do that even at his most addled bc Bingge is supposed to be unrivaled. That’s why he scrapped the Tianlang-jun vs Bingge idea.) 

Bingge gets so caught up in paranoia over this secret organization and not knowing whose a part of it and who's not and what they really want that he’s not negating Xin Mo with dual cultivation bc are the women part of the organization? Are they in on it? What do they want? What do they gain by sleeping with me? So his control is slipping.

It’s also during this time that the harem organization start getting closer to Huan Hua Palace and the Old Palace Master. Their progress is helped when Shen Yuan, during a friendly get together with one of the high ranking members of his harem organization his Friends, he accidentally slips that he’s wondering the validity of the Old Palace Master’s claims of Tianlang-jun wanting to invade the Human Realm and the story of what’s really going on there. The harem organization takes his words as Shen Yuan telling them to look into this matter, so they set their sights fully on Huan Hua Palace and the Old Palace Master.

Not long later, they uncover the Truth, and clear Tianlang-jun’s name, dragging the Old Palace Master’s through the mud. Tianlang-jun, hearing about this, swoops in and kills a whole bunch of Huan Hua Palace high ranking members and the Old Palace Master along with a bunch of other powerful people involved in the cover up and mess. The organization, at seeing the gruesome slaughter, are at first horrified bc who has this kind of power to slip past the organization's defenses and do this? But, then someone spots Tianlang-jun slipping away, recognizes him as Shen Yuan’s son, and concludes that Shen Yuan was the one to do this. Later, at another friendly get together with Shen Yuan, one of them vaguely mentions the slaughter, subtly asking if Shen Yuan knew of it and even more subtly inquiring if he was the one to do it. Shen Yuan, knowing that Tianlang-jun was the one to do it and just got finished burning the bloody robes Tianlang-jun had come back in after reprimanding him to be more careful what if someone saw you???, doesn’t pick up on this at all and is instead trying to divert attention away from them, says something vague back which only confirms in the organizations mind that Shen Yuan was the one who did it. With their firm belief that Shen Yuan knows what’s best, even if they initially thought the execution was horrific, they believe that they had deserved it if Shen Yuan would resort to such tactics.

The organization sweeps in and helps clean the mess up, CQMS and other sects and businesses affiliated with Shen Yuan and the organization distribute Huan Hua Palace’s wealth and territory, gaining more influence. Luo Binghe hears about all this, and poking around some more, finds that the organization was behind this. The fact that this clandestine organization was able to take down such a well established and reputable sect like Huan Hua Palace only sets him more on edge about them. If they can do that, they could also dethrone him too, couldn’t they?? Just because they haven't outright opposed him yet doesn’t mean they won’t. He cannot trust such a powerful organization.

Eventually, Bingge tracks down Shen Yuan and, in a great show like in Hua Yue City, Shen Yuan has to pull the “self-destruct for you” card to stop Bingge’s qi deviation while saying more Wise And Meaningful Nonsense that has Bingge realizing that this guy was really on his side. This entire time, this guy has had unwavering faith in him and his abilities. This entire time, he’s had his whole organization working to help him in any way possible simply because of that. That this entire time, his only motive was to see what Bingge would become, see the world he creates, and for him to be happy. And now he can’t even do that. Because he’s dead. For Luo Binghe’s sake!!

And, Binghe…

Binghe just can’t take it. He hasn’t had someone so staunchly on his side since his mother died when he was little. He starts bawling. He can’t help it. He hasn’t cried in so long, and he just can’t stop the tears. They just keep coming, a heartbreaking wail from his mouth, while he hugs the dead body to his chest.

Other members of Shen Yuan’s harem organization that watched the whole thing stay standing around this scene, some tears falling from their eyes too, not able to believe that Shen Yuan is really dead. Liu Qingge, and others, are getting ready to fight Luo Binghe for Shen Yuan’s body, but before more fighting can break out, Tianlang-jun struts in with Zhuzhi-Lang following meekly behind him. The harem organization members that don’t know about the truth are shocked and scared bc they were supposed to get Shen Yuan’s son away from this chaos and protect him from Luo Binghe. But, Tianlang-jun (whose like a teenager or something by this point) just ignores everyone’s shouts and deftly evades their protective grabs for him, waking straight up to the still bawling Binghe.

See, Tianlang-jun is not nearly as oblivious as Shen Yuan is—he’s the exact opposite really—so he clocked Luo Binghe starting to fall for Shen Yuan a while ago, captivated by the challenge and mind games that Shen Yuan was playing with him, and is staunchly knowing that Luo Binghe won’t attack them again.

“Luo Binghe, do not fear,” he starts seriously, then breaks out in a massive grin and gives him a thumbs up, “we have contingency plans in case of death! Many of them!” Because of course they do. They’ve long secured the Sun And Moon Dew Mushroom Seeds and started growing them to Shen Yuan’s body. Tianlang-jun also still has access to the Holy Mausoleum and the Resurrection Chamber. And, with both Shen Yuan’s PIDW knowledge and Tianlang-jun’s and with his resources, they have a vast variety of back up bodies and plans for many different circumstances. It is also revealed that this is Tianlang-jun and literally no one is surprised by this development. Of course Shen Yuan’s son is the last Demon Emperor who’s supposed to be sealed under a mountain. It also made some of them “understand” why Shen Yuan had been so ruthless in his execution of the Old Palace Master and others since they now knew he had a personal interest in the matter.

When Shen Yuan wakes up, he’s immediately tackled by a sobbing Luo Binghe who places a big, fat, wet kiss on his mouth. He tries to reel back, but Luo Binghe has him in a death grip, so he can only stare wide-eyed at Luo Binghe until he pulls back to keep sobbing against his chest. Those of the harem organization that were there were furious at this bc barely any of them have kissed Shen Yuan and they’ve been in his harem service longer!! And, instead of shoving Luo Binghe away, Shen Yuan hugs him closer and pats his head, trying to calm him down, whispering that “No, Binghe, I won’t go anywhere. Yes, I can stay with you. Please don’t apologize, Binghe, this isn’t your fault. I should have done better to make you see I was on your side. You’ve done nothing wrong.” and so on.

After this, Shen Yuan is no longer able to maintain his cover as Background Character A, but that’s okay because he only kept it so he wouldn’t get taken out as Bingge’s rival or something. Since Binghe is on his side, he can live his whole life as a Mysterious And Cool Cultivator, living out his transmigration dreams unhindered! But, Binghe, what do you mean you’re making me Empress of the Demon Realm? I’m a man! I can’t be your Empress! Pick a pretty girl for that if you want one! Tianlang-jun, why are you laughing!? Why are you supporting this!?

Binghe convinces Shen Yuan to marry him by presenting it as a political marriage since Shen Yuan is in control of so much, and if he wants Luo Binghe to be the Emperor of it all (which he knows Shen Yuan wants) then they really need to be married and Shen Yuan made Empress for his reign to be undisputed. Shen Yuan eventually figures it out, and by that point he’s also figuring out that he actually has feelings for a lot of his “friends.” Well, it’s a good thing they all want to marry him too.

There are a long line of weddings after this as so many of Shen Yuan’s friends harem demand to be formally married. Binghe fights for position of First Husband. And wins. Because of course he does.

Luo Binghe has pretty much lost interest in his own harem (which was still pretty small and shrinking when he decided to kick women out for fear they were part of the organization), and becomes nonexistent after his marriage to Shen Yuan. It’s not a problem though, because Tianlang-jun, Shen Yuan, and Shang Qinghua pull resources and knowledge to nullify Xin Mo’s effect on him, so his harem is obsolete anyway.

—Later, once things are settled, probably:

SQH: bro, wtf? You haremed my harem novel.

SY: 🤷

I just feel like Shen Yuan and Cid are so similar. They both curate their role in their new transmigration life, bullshit through so much by spouting wise nonsense, and making people fall for them left and right while being totally oblivious. Shen Yuan just gives Cid levels of oblivious vibes.

I’m not super feeling my svsss fics right now, so I don’t think I’m gonna write on them and just close the tabs for now. Idk. I’ll prbly come back to this later at some point, but 🤷‍♀️ Hoped you enjoyed this 😊

If anyone has any ideas for what to call sy's version of Shadow Garden, let me know. I was feeling stuck on that part, but like I said, I don't know when I'll come back to this.

[novastaree]

random spn opinions that no one asked for

Lilith always should have possessed or appeared as a little girl. everything is the same but i just view her as someone who died young and took people to possess accordingly. Also It's pretty scary for one of the most powerful demons to just always appear as an innocent child

chuck should have just been a prophet or at least not confirmed god because personally i like when stories let you theorize about something as important as god. It also would have played into the Faith idea of the show

for the same reason as before i never really liked Amara. like shes cool. also she was in such an off putting love situation with dean him meeting her as an infant and all.

sam should have been 'the boy king' at some point and i get that could be a reference to the fact he is Lucifer's vessel. but him as a yellow eyed demon like hinted to would have been amazing (like how did we get night of hell Dean before Prince of hell Sam?)

In the later seasons sam and dean kept calling themselves hunters but they really were people who kept ending the world for each other and then trying to fix that problem by ending the world in a different way. Love them anyway

the cage shouldn't have been so easily broken into by Rowena, like it took 66 seals by Lilith to open it the first time and The four horsemen rings to open it to throw something back in. Love Rowena obviously she's really powerful but still seemed too easy

The alternate reality plot shouldn't have been introduced at all. i love au Michael buttttt there could have been so many different ways to reintroduce Michael without introducing different realities.

I loveeee love love love love Adam but They should have either never introduced him or treated him better as a character than they did. Because he deserved it, he did quite literally take the fall for Dean

SOMEONE LITERALLY ANYONE SHOULD HAVE KEPT TRACK OF WHAT WAS CANON. it pmo soooo much every time they went back on what they said last season or at the beginning of the show and never mentioned that it changed or why it changed.

The boys should have never lost their saving people part of the hunting things quote because at some point they just started killing every single possessed person either by an angel or a demon they ever came by

The Angels falling was a beautiful scene but them never gaining their wings back was odd to me, And I feel like it was only done like that because they didn't want them to be so powerful So they could just go back to having demons being problems

The angel tablet made me mad as a whole, like why was it powerful?? none of the other tablets were powerful They just were things prophets read

[chickenkurage]

"The Author" (Reality Warped AU)

This is the villain.... "Alan"

He's not that scary yet XP...... Anyways, lore!

· • —– ٠ 📜 ٠ —– • ·

Summary/Synopsis:

Imagine sitting at your desk, writing the ending of your own book. When all of the sudden you wake up in a world that you literally made! Goodness this is an author’s wet dream! At least that’s what Alan is supposed to feel, until he remembers what kind of person “Alan” is in his story….

Where Alan Becker, the author of Animation vs Animator and his standalone Animation vs Minecraft (kudos to Mojang) was suddenly sucked in his own book, now he finds himself in place of his self insert character named “Alan”.... He’s supposed to be glad because he’s meeting his own creations (his own characters! Can you believe that?!), until he remembered he’s the “supposed” villain of the story.

Oh well, he can change things up right?

Ugh, right…. He is the villain, and being a villain means it’s hard to gain your character's trust (why did he even write his character as a villain?......a right because he couldn't think of any other villain, so naturally he wrote himself as one.... ugh).

· • —– ٠ 📜 ٠ —– • ·

LORE:

“Alan” in this AU is the villain, the creator of victim, The Chosen One, The Dark Lord and The Second Coming: The Chosen One’s Return. He was the worst out of the worst, he only thought of them as some play toy. Telling them what to do, and such. He was the fucking worst, at least to their point of view…. Actually, scratch that, he was the worst to everyone’s eyes. Even the Color Gang hates Alan (and somehow, they were the “chillest” out of them all). They were so used to Alan treating them like dirt at this point. Then all of the sudden he’s all kind now? What games is he playing?

Alan Becker is just an author, a really well-known author that created Animator vs Animation, originally a story he created as a teen then he tweaked it a little bit when he got older (his writing was atrocious, it clearly needed some work). But nevertheless, he was proud of his work, he even gained a fandom because of it. Met a lot of people too, and friends too! As a child, he always wanted friends on his own computer, always fantasizing how he would be with them and how fun it would be. So naturally he made a story, and that story became a sensation years later. He really should be thankful for his family and friends for giving him a push to actually publish it. After losing his interest in drawing (he clearly was not improving) he decided to just hone his writing skills better, after all a lot had said he was better at writing than drawing. And somehow, he’s glad he actually continued it. So, tell him, why the fuck did he suddenly wake up in his own story?!?! Not only that, but he also has no face?! Oh god he has no face (actually it was his fault for not really going in depth on how “Alan” looks like, now he suffered the consequence of losing his own face).

Now he's stuck as his own self insert character, forced to play a villain role, before deciding, fuck it and fed his characters kindness and love, because for the life of him he cannot act like an asshole; he feels too bad............ Naturally, he also knew how the story would end, and it won't end on a good note. So thankfully, acting kind will MOST PROBABLY change their ending... Hopefully, oh god out of all books he gets sucked into, it's his own book which probably has so many plot holes?! Someone please save him now!!!

· • —– ٠ 📜 ٠ —– • ·

Here is your well-deserved lore everyone! We finally got another Alan who isn't crazy, turned crazy, evil, a terrorist need I say more? - S

[andikiramman]

hey riot

quick question... ಠ_ಠ

can you plz explain to me why this had to happen :)

like other than the fact that you hate us and want us to suffer for some weird reason :D

but like, seriously... i genuinely do not see the point in jinx dying.

maybe i'm fucking slow and missed some major plot point that made jinx dying a reasonable plot point, but i'm seriously drawing a blank here.

(edit: okay so i just saw a post basically explaining how jinx actually escaped the explosion and only faked her death, so please disregard everything i said after this… i really did miss something, didn’t i lmao)

i know at this point, jinx feels that there is no reason for her to be alive anymore. she truly sees herself as the root of all the bad things happening around her. but we the watcher know that that's factually not true. recall the hexless AU ekko and heimerdinger traveled to. there, literally everyone was alive except for vi. and even then, notice how she was able to cope with it in a healthy way and didn't become jinx???? maybe, just maybe, that's because she was never the problem. y'all already got rid of the guys that started all this shit just a few minutes prior, so literally what was the point of this?

maybe i'm just lacking some media literacy, but for the latter half of this season, jinx and vi were getting along and reconnecting. of course, it would have never been the same as before, but in my personal opinion, from the way they built their relationship up, they made it seem like jinx would get at least something better than this...

and honestly, i get it, that whole "conversation" she had with silco while she was in prison about killing being a cycle sort of alluded to jinx dying. in her mind, as long as she's alive, the people around her that she loves will keep dying (mylo & claggor, vander, silco, isha)... i guess this was her own fucked up way of protecting vi, because she fears that if she got too close to her for too long, vi would end up dying too.

but i'm still not satisfied, sorry ┐(´д`)┌

and legit what sense does it make for vi to lose her sister... she's already lost everyone in her family. genuinely i do not see the point. if someone could please enlighten me, i would very much appreciate it.

[zarnzarn]

How do you think Diomedes would react to Odypenath becoming a thing, especially considering he also becomes immortal on some versions

oh he is SO fucking confused lmao

literally no one was expecting it, not even them. he was the closest to all three of them and the first thing he actively shouts when he finds out is "WHAT THE FUCK"

but in the to be loved is to lose series au tho where he's like. immortal mentor to demigods and such who goes and hangs out in hades as his power wanes; he actually does know what odysseus is going to try and pull, it's just that they're all shocked when he succeeds, including the man himself and also Athena. he's leading the charge up there to ask Athena if she's running a temperature.

sometimes he'll have some odd paranoia of them asking to join their polycule. he is NOT joining their relationship thank you.

(after the whole thing w aphrodite, hes not really allowed to Love per se; but in general he wasnt keen on anything of the sort before, just going through the motions detachedly. he cares, they care, thats enough. he does not need their madness.)

another hilarious idea ive had is him coming to ithaka and finding odysseus and athena sharing penelope because athena was a part of both of them so long- helping penelope rule, helping odysseus get home- that somewhere on the way she fell for the familiar shape of penelope, and odysseus cannot blame her. penelope who begs dio to fucking help her cause she is going MAD- odyath only have gotten fonder of each other and no one knows how to break to them that its ok to express an emotion about each other. cue the FUNNIEST wackiest matchmaking plotting youve ever seen.

(which doubles as a good excuse to keep dio around. penelope adores him, and the rest of the family dotes on him, so perhaps she will sabotage their own plots sometimes so he can stick around longer.)

[yslende]

ask and ye shall receive!!! context + fic clipping below

context: both bruce and clark are AFAB in this au. bruce's deadname is antigone, clark's i haven't actually picked yet but whatever! antigone wayne isn't out publicly, clark kent is; batman is batman and kal jor-el is supergirl. woohoo!

(this isn't edited, sorry for grammar or weird plot stuff. i like to think that i write with good grammar, but idk. the stuff in bold is footnotes (yes i do footnotes. fight me) but tumblr doesn't support those. enjoy!! :) )

—

One miasma and crime-coated night, not to say that all days and nights in Gotham aren’t like that, the Bat sees a flying woman. She’s dressed in blue and red with a giant S on her chest, roaming around Gotham, looking for something. Presumably. Batman does a quick search online.

Supergirl, a superpowered alien native to Metropolis, became active around a year and a half ago. She fashions herself a hero, and Metropolis residents certainly aren’t complaining. The Daily Planet has several interviews with her on record, though in every single one the interviewer was Lois Lane. She has a multitude of powers, not limited to invincibility, superstrength, laser vision, and flight. He’s almost jealous.

Of course, he already knew all of that [He keeps tabs on everything that could threaten Gotham—the database already spans 12 terabytes—and a superpowered alien definitely applies. He already has four fully constructed contingency plans with phases, steps, and instructions prepared, but another four couldn’t hurt. [Yes, they could, but that’s to worry about later.]], but why she’s come to Gotham is still a mystery. The Bat plans to find out.

She lands a few roofs away from the Bat’s current stakeout spot, seemingly frustrated, but he knows better. She’s pointedly not looking towards where he’s watching, instead faux-searching the previous row of buildings that she’d already searched. She, quite literally, twiddles her thumbs.

He can’t get out of this, can he. He quickly adds super senses, x-ray vision? to the powers list before standing, silencing the click of his boots to try and stay hidden as long as he can, knowing that it’s a futile effort. To her credit, Supergirl does a good job of pretending to be fooled.

“What do you want,” he intones, standing with shadows draped over him like blankets. Right now, to a normal human, he’d be a pair of white slits where his eyes are. He has no idea what Supergirl sees. 

She pretends to startle. “Dear—Rao, you scared me!” She rubs a hand on the back of her neck, smiling sheepishly, before flying over to stand in front of him.

Her eyes are inhumanly blue, with glowing white irises. They’re enchanting.

“Leave Gotham.” He narrows his eyes.

“Woah there!” she says, holding her hands up, palms out. Is she trying to look less intimidating? Does she think that he’ll think that she’s, what, cramping his I am a terrifying vigilante style? “I just want to talk to you! Can you spare five minutes?”

“No.”

“Three minutes?”

“No.”

“One minute and you consider what I say?”

He considers. “No.”

“Great!” Supergirl looks inordinately pleased with herself and her technicality. She takes a deep breath, one that seems to make a slight rattling purr. “So!”

One excruciating minute later, the Bat has a rudimentary understanding of the superhero club Supergirl’s trying to start and an unwelcome reminder of why he stopped watching most videos on 2x speed. He squints his eyes further.

Supergirl’s stopped floating, holding her hands behind her back and looking cheery. Even standing at his full height with his boots, she’s taller than him.

To be fair, it’s not a completely unsalvageable idea. Having an alliance already set up for world-ending threats with other superpowered people saves the ideological arguments for drawing the contracts up, not when something’s trying to absorb all oxygen from Earth or something similar. [Simply a hypothetical; Ivy doesn’t work at as large of a scale.] Supergirl already has a roster in mind, including him for some reason, but that’s about all that’s been prepared in advance.

There are several flaws with this plan: first, he doesn’t have superpowers. Supergirl had explicitly said “superhero team,” and he fits on none of the counts. Besides that oversight, the logistics weren’t thought out at all. Where would they be operating? What are they planning to do? Who’s taking responsibility for this? How are they going to settle the power structure? Conflicts of interest? The governmental alliances alone deserve an entirely separate discussion, and funding—dear God, funding.

All of it is incredibly idealistic. Did Supergirl come all the way to Gotham to propose a first draft to the Bat of Gotham? That’s an insult, even disregarding the fact that she’d interrupted him on patrol.

“Why now decide to make a team?” As good an opener as any. Supergirl seems to mistake his skepticism as curiosity, looking pleased.

“So, the United Nations contacted me—” she grimaces for a split-second— “and asked if I could be their interplanetary defense person. Basically. And I’m totally not against that!” She holds her hands palms-outward again, bashful. “But I don’t think it’s a job I can do totally on my own. And I felt like it was right to ask, since you’re kinda the first superhero, y’know?”

He did not know that. Some quick mental math reveals—yeah, he was the first. Supergirl made her debut a few months after he did, Wonder Woman revealed Themyscira shortly after, and now it’s a tossup of which superhuman will come out of the woodwork this month. Fuck, and he started it. Shit.

He grunts. She hesitates, before taking it in stride. “What do you think? Questions, comments?”

Plenty, but he doesn’t care to give her the entire roadmap. “Short-sighted. This ‘Justice Party’” —some vicious, clawed airquotes are employed— “will starve to death even with my involvement.” What did she think was going to happen? Her and her tea party sing kumbaya while he duct tapes the entire operation together?

Supergirl winces. “So that’s a no?” She sounds disgustingly hopeful.

He glares at 52% intensity. “No.” 

As her face falls, the Bat fades into the darkness, jumping off the building almost faster than the human eye can see. He doesn't have any data on what Supergirl can and can't see.

As he makes his exit, he hears a faint, frustrated “Goddammit,” alongside a sniffle.

It’s good for her to be disappointed now, Bruce tells himself. The world is disappointing, cruel, and unkind, and it’s best for her to shape up before she actually puts it into motion.

He tells himself that, listening to Supergirl fly off crying.

( @securitycapecreature wanted to be tagged when the fic was posted; i think this counts at least a little)

[eerna]

I’d totally get silco and Vander being all ok in that au where slick probably got to get the letter from Vander but like how did vi’s death somehow solved all the problems and suddenly everything’s ok in zaun like did I miss that part? Did the piltover decide to make it all ok just cause they caused a child’s death as if they weren’t everyday? Why Cait never apologized to vi and vi never expected one? And why we’ve rarely mentioned about the whole unfair fight between piltover and zaun? Like did they want to clarify alls good now that sevika and the other zaun members are in council? Idk the only good thing that came out of this arc was Timebomb cause fck everyone else genuinely the two people who deserved the best-one literally never having one happy moment in her life and the other giving up from everything he could have asked for only to end up with nothing for the sake of saving his people-ended up being the saddest. I honestly don’t care about the jinx being alive theories cause even if she survived that and decided to run away we had the right to see that and to see her true end instead of just dying in the most unnecessary way. Amanda was too focused on caitvi that she forgot the real issue ig.

Yeah, I'm really confused on whether they wanted to imply that somehow Vi's death would stop Piltover from going ham on Zaun? And if they did... why? The way Cait never apologized, the way Heimerdinger was totally dumped out of the plot, the way they gave Zaun a seat on the council (Zaun already HAD a council and it was BAD) and treated it as a happy ending... Really, this show totally forgot about the social aspect of its plot. Even with Vicait??? They got together in the worst way possible that did no service to either of their characters. I will have to rewatch ep 7 a million times (bc it is an alternate universe and i don't have to think about the messiness of the main timeline) and then s1 two million times

[nylloth]

@tloczek

I'm afraid Viktor's whole story won't fit in comment. First off he was never the “time traveling wizard” who gave Jayce the stone. The time loop is the worst trope that leads him to “Only Jayce can change my mind”. not a consequence of his decisions (s1 Sky death changed his mind without Jayce!), not a result of his work, not something logical, but only Jayce. It's silly

Secondly his “cultists” were not puppets of the void, Viktor believed in choice! He only helped those who asked for his help. He gave them new arms and legs, but he didn't force them or render them unconscious. They believed in him, that's why it's a cult. They had personalities. Viktor doesn't have a disability in LoL, his choice of evolutions isn't forced by illness. I'm fine with adding a disability, but it should never be the sole reason for his belief in evolution. Jayce is emphasizing Viktor's disability in his final sentence, again! Evolution is NOT about that.

Jayce changes Viktor's mind in 5 minutes, the original Viktor is always true to his views as they are not born out of resentment or lack of self-confidence. “Hasty” is putting it mildly. Keep in mind that Viktor made the decision to kill his humanity (Sky), for the sake of this evolution. It should have been a dramatic and sad process. So why wasn't it? Because he already gets his humanity back in the next episode because of Jayce's words. This nullifies killing Sky and makes this move extremely tasteless.

LoL MH has motivation and belief in what he is doing. These are feelings stronger than resentment or disappointment. Jayce killed Viktor and he became disillusioned with humanity (and Jayce???) and so chose evolution. Viktor had no convictions, he's like a guided kitten who got trapped because Jayce resurrected him.

Gradually changing your own body because you believe it, and unwanted resurrection from the dead are not the same thing.

I said it after the first act, he's a hostage to circumstance. Everything's been decided for him. The murder, the resurrection, the second murder without any discussion. Only at the end he makes his own decision, only to abandon it 10 minutes later. This is bad for any character, not just Viktor. The character doesn't stick to his views.

Viktor's evolution never destroyed nature, but if you take that element out of Jayce's story (the apocalypse) then all their interactions immediately lose meaning. And of course Viktor can't talk about “loneliness”, because Viktor is not alone with his supporters. (which are not empty)

LoL Jayce are not opposed to hextech. He thinks it should be controlled and that's why he and Viktor had a conflict. They used different methods and that's why their quarrels seemed more logical. Arcane Jayce hates everything to do with it.

The time loop creates a bunch of gaps, like in au where Ekko got to, where hextech wasn't invented and Viktor can't be a mage there.

Viktor also has a robot son, Blitz. He is not mentioned in Arcane and since Viktor dissolved in time (don't know what happened to them), he will never be. Jayce's influence literally predetermines Viktor's entire fate (death-resurrection-death), but they kind of make it look like Viktor is looping his own suffering fate with a time loop (the stone). That seems like a bad plot move to me. All Viktor's roads lead to Jayce, and believe me, that never happened in the original lore. Yes, they were adversaries, but Viktor had a robot son, ties to Renata, other henchmen, etc… It wasn't just “me and my friendship with Jayce, the only person who can change my mind”.

It's as if the characters can't exist outside of this cycle, making them appendages. While the original Viktor lore still exists, I suggest you read it, there are some nice stories in there and this man is much more like the Viktor from season one than Viktor we see in season two. He has motivation, motives, determination and a separate personality. I'd say Viktor s1 was a pretty good backstory for Viktor LoL if they didn't kill him off in season 2 with the first episode. Knowing the original lore and comparing it to what we got, there is a bad flavor. I know ppl like Jayce/Viktor connection, for parallels, but given the pacing of the story and the crappy “time loop” branch, it sucks. Though even if it had been given more time it wouldn't have worked. For the reasons I described above.

“Viktor and Jayce got the best ending ever” if you knew Viktor's original lore and appreciated him as a separate character and not an appendage to Jayce, you would never say that.

[missluthorwillseeyounow]

Codename: Red Daughter

Kara is eyeing her purse, it's small but one could fit a handgun in there if one wanted. Lena deliberately sets it down on the sideboard, and Kara's left eyebrow twitches. "What, are you gonna shoot me again?"

Kara looks royally pissed, and Lena can’t help the smirk that pulls on her lips. "Well, the night's not over yet."

Kara glowers at her, but instead of intimidating Lena, she just finds it cute. "You shot me."

Lena shrugs her shawl off. "With a tranquilizer dart."

"Oh, my mistake," Kara scoffs. "You shot me and drugged me."

"Sarcasm is adorable on you, darling." Lena approaches her with a fond smile. "But you had a clear shot. Even your incompetent little DEO friends could see that. You know as well as I do that it would have looked suspicious if I didn't shoot you before you could shoot me."

She straddles Kara, who looks up at her with the cutest pout even as she pulls Lena's hips flush against hers. "That's not the point. I'm still mad at you."

"No, the point is: The half-life of that drug I gave you is 4 hours. It's barely 10 o'clock. You must still be feeling the effects of it." She slips her hand over Kara's collarbone which is unnaturally flushed. "You have exactly 6 hours until the drug I gave you wears off."

Lena gives Kara a wicked, challenging smile. "What do you plan to do about it?"

...

Later, when the aftershocks of her last orgasm finally die down, Kara slumps forward, panting into Lena's shoulder. "What on earth was in that drug you gave me? Stimulants? Some kind of aphrodisiac?"

And then Lena laughs breathlessly, slipping her arms around her. "That was just a mild sedative, it would have worn off before you even got here. This," she gestures at their sweaty, sticky bodies, "was all you, Supergirl."

....

....

....

....

Back at the DEO, Lex Luthor examines the small dart in his hand intently. The knocking on his office door barely registers and he mutters a distracted "Enter."

Alex Danvers, ever efficient, gets straight to the point with her report. "Red Daughter has been cleared by medical, sir. She's sleeping off the drug. I saw her home personally myself."

Lex turns the dart over in his fingers, a small smile pulling at the corner of his mouth "Oh, Lena...." he tuts under his breath in amusement.

Danvers frowns a little in confusion, but she doesn't question him. She's a good little soldier, this one. Lex gives her a beatific smile. "Tell me, Director Danvers. Statistically, how many people are killed by this sedative?"

"In that dose, sir? Likely none."

"Exactly." A grim smile appears on Lex's face. ".... You might want to check on your sister, Director. I think you'll find that whatever drug this is my fool of a sister dosed her with, she's not sleeping it off."

______________

A little supercorp spy AU based on the Earth prime thing where Lex is the head of the DEO. It's a no powers AU, but Alex and Kara are both working with the DEO (and as you probably already figured out, Kara's code name is Red Daughter). Lena is actively working against Lex, but she crosses paths with Kara, who begins to doubt Lex's intentions, and together they team up to expose Lex and bring him down.

Kiiiiiiiinda related to this one, but not really. I just went nuts after seeing The Continental trailer and then I remembered this AU, so here you go.

[tangramkey]

i love my Basketbot Portal AU

[half-a-life-left]

LOYALTY (PART 6/?)

[daisybell-on-a-carousel]

I'm a big fan of crossovers and fusions, but was devastated to discover dc x mlb tends to focus on just taking Marinette to Gotham, so I made what I wanted to see! And that is Jason Todd with a miraculous

I haven't properly watched Miraculous Ladybug in a long while, but augh, do I still love and adore making designs or redesigns based on the series. The Tiger miraculous suits Jason well from what I can tell!

Powerups :] Click for better quality bdjsbdks

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Fais fanfic rambles: Introduction to my 'Selkies by Starlight' ISaT AU

Note: Not to be confused with @looped-140-and-counting / Soren_793's wonderful Selkie AU oneshot series 'The Northern Islanders are Selkies' which was hugely inspiring for this if potentially VERY different in vibe (we got very into talking about cloaks! XD)

Basic premise/summary:

In an alternate version of the precanon adventure, the party lead by Mirabelle to stop the King freezing Vaugarde in time, recruit Siffrin as per usual.

Thing is, Siffrin is a Selkie.

A very skittish selkie without a cloak of their own, who openly wears the cloak of another, and due to Reasons is under the impression that the party know all both of those things and the Implications about them, and for whatever reason have decided to welcome him into their group anyway.

Which er, he's completely wrong about as the party know absolutely nothing.

Mira and Isa like most Vaugardian humans think 'shifters' are just fairytales, Odile knows shapeshifters are real but is only really familiar with how foxes like her father work, and Bonnie is actually able to sense some pretty major things but is a preteen dealing with a lot and hasn't even joined the party yet, so this pretty major misunderstanding is sustained for quite a while...

Cue the AUs' main focus being on the resulting party dynamic shifts as more and more canon divergence due to Sif's 'selkie stuff' (both cute and serious) comes into play, the party slowly realising something is up, and all of it hitting an eruption point right around the time of the 4th Orb/the loss of Siffrin's eye...

Some key world building notes: (Note: very summarised from my docs. I have like 20k+ words on this stuff XD)

The Island - Probably the most drastically different thing from canon here, the Island was not forgotten or erased here. Rather it is hidden away and permanently shrouded in Wish Craft generated fog from 'those without cloaks'. Side note: Sif is still unable to return home and continues to have some very plot critical memory problems but those are due to unrelated issues, which means yay I get to have Sif talk 'home culture' with the others in this =D Also idk why the King is freezing Vaugarde still. I've got a few ideas I'm not sure about and he's not in focus enough for it to even matter really, but random suggestions -especially those with possible selkie motivations- would be very much appreciated.

Selkie powers in my setting - Went into something of a deep dive regarding selkie folklore for this and did you know they have an absolute ton of seer/oracle based stuff going on?

From selkie being summoned by their human lovers shedding seven tears into the ocean, to a selkie man telling a former lover that he and their child will die at the hands by her genuinely good and loving future husband, to a selkie woman forseeing her fisherman husband about to die out in a storm just in time for her to swim over there and rescue him, etc.

So... Yeah. This AU has a lot of plot relevant sensory/seer stuff going on as well as the standard seal shapeshifter stuff (Islander selkie traditionally believe it to be the Universe talking with them, in the same way Wish Craft is talking to the Universe), and going off all the stuff I read decided it'd be most fitting if the general rule for how it all works is: - Selkie always passively have a bit of it going on (aka Sif's canon 'you sense someone nearby' stuff) which like most things can be enhanced with Craft use a bit. - Near perfect understanding of all 'connected' bodies of water (aka they know EXACTLY where the tasty fish are/will be and can probably get a general sense of location for most people on a boat) - Potentially get strong 'visions of the future' and/or instincts on what they need to do to avert an outcome when it comes to loved ones being in danger/distress.

They also maybe get to pull very fast, high power Wish Craft 'curses'/miracles' at idk, the cost of something major like their cloak or lives (mostly based off of the The Legend of Kópakonan where the whole island of Kalsoy was cursed with death by a selkie in retaliation for her husband and children being murdered) but not super attached to this idea past it being in 'seal shifter' stories in-setting.

Other non humans in setting and regional differences in shifters - Pretty much only selkie and selkie issues are in focus here, but just as a general thing, all non humans in setting are shapeshifters and originated from human ancestors who went crazy with the the Body Craft and/or used Wish Craft in some way.

Ka Bue in particular has a ton of them since yokai, with their origins being various sects/clans back in the warring eras going so nuts with trying to weaponize Body Craft (super soldiers, enhanced life spans, infiltration, exploiting attraction to furries, etc), that after some particularly high profile incidents (for an idea plz see: Kiyohime, Tamamo no Mae, Kachi-kachi Yama) and 'Body Craft misuse leading to shut down of the brain/vital organs' being the most common cause of death for 10+ years once peace time was established, eventually Ka Bue's authorities set their foot down and banned Body Craft altogether.

Currently the shifter population in Ka Bue is around 30% of the population, shifters are required to have ID regarding their forms (or potential forms if they're merely 'half'), and it's considered distasteful for a shifter to be in non human form outside of private settings/necessity and even ruder to ask a shifter about their non human forms if they haven't brought the topic up yet first (kinda like seeing/asking about someone's underwear or something XD).

In contrast the Vaugarde, Mwudu and Porteria region is extremely shifter sparce, with most of its original shifter population being the result of various Universe worshipping peoples (mostly small groups, like greek mystery cults) deciding to use a big Wish Craft ritual as some sort of religious rite and becoming shifters as a side effect of their primary Wish (usually stuff like 'we wish for us and our descendants to be one with You and the sea/air' or 'may we Change with the phases of the holy moon' etc) which granted them some pretty neat skills but also tended to come with some 'potentially nasty' drawbacks attached (see: selkie and swan maidens with their cloaks, werewolves Changing in both body and mind etc) Which er, lead to some issues born of lack of knowledge about this stuff, later some very nasty anti shifter sentiment in the region, and then around... IDK 200 to 300 years ago or so ended up exploding into violence and other very nasty things, with most shifters able to do so fleeing the region, and those that couldn't either enduring horrible conditions until they could escape/died or went deep into hiding, with the Island's Country being founded by the two later groups who used Wish Craft to hide their new home, erase awareness of their existence from their enemies (a short term, fully intentionally 'forgetting' blast centered specifically around shifters), and developed a LOT of culture and traditions regarding when, who and what can be told to 'outsiders' about themselves, Wish Craft, etc in order to keep their people safe.

There are shifters living in present in Vaugarde of course (anti shifter sentiment died back a LOT after most people stopped thinking they were real, and most modern day Change Believers are more likely to view these 'totally fictional/allegorical' beings as children/messengers of the Change God rather than 'evil demons who stole power by tearing apart the Change God's cloak for themselves and thus have to be hunted down and made to repent' propaganda take that was everywhere back then) but numbers actually living outside the Island as opposed to merely visiting remain low, since either the shifters know their history and stick firmly to their 'stay secret' traditions or quickly pick up on how oddly unknown shifters are around these parts and decide to err on the side of caution... Also 'trust worthy' humans who do learn about them (usually northern coastal folk, gee wonder why) tend to help cover them up so... Yeah =D

---

And... Yeah!

This is hella long as is, so will stop here and ramble about the actual 'how this all affects our beloved Sif and Co plot and culture wise' stuff that is the actual meat of the AU in another post later, but hope this made for an interesting/idea provoking read, know that I have no issue with anyone using any of this for their own works (just please, don't use the 'Selkies under starlight' same story name unless it's actually a fanfic/fanart of my 'hopefully soon has a chapter/one shot up' fic/Ao3 series of the same name so people don't get confused), and I would love to chatter with you about any thoughts/questions you might have so...

Wishing you a good day =D

(sighes in relief finally getting this post finished after literal months. Pheeeeww~)

[fluffypotatey]

hear me out, hear me out

Sharpwolf modern au except it’s practically just “Stacy’s mom”

you genius

and like, Antinous isn’t even friends with Telemachus either. just one of the neighbors, who also commutes to uni

AND!!!! AND!!!! Penelope is the dean of their department :0

which just adds to all of it

[why-is-it-always-autumn]

canon divergent/au/crossover fics that give the Tragic Doomed Girlfriend character a gun and make her survival everyone's problem my beloved

[sweetandglovelyart]

A little art/comic announcement: While Knightfall in Dream Land is still in progress and I’m still working on that I’ve also started plotting out the storylines for both the Daroach backstory comic and the Susie redemption arc comic that I want to do.

Before I started drawing Knightfall in Dream Land I did some very simple pencil sketches with dialogue written on them to get an idea for the direction the story of the comic would go in and get an estimate of how long the finished comic would likely be/how many pages it would likely have. That’s the stage I’m at right now with the Daroach comic and Susie comic. I’m planning to start posting actual pages for both of these comics in January 2025, because I want to get a little bit further into Knightfall in Dream Land first before I launch the new comics. The final length may vary a little bit depending on whether or not I decide to add more stuff or change some of the dialogue I’ve plotted out, but when Knightfall in Dream Land is finished I’m estimating that it’ll be around 34-36 pages, so I’d like to maybe get to page 20 or so before I start posting the new comics. Knowing how slowly I update I’ll probably hit page 20 around late December of this year so January is likely when I’ll be launching the new comics.

Like I’ve mentioned before I’m also still very busy with grad school stuff (I’m working very hard to finish up my PhD in the next year and hopefully get a job lined up if I can so I don’t have to live with my parents when I graduate) so comic updates might get even slower than they already are in the coming months. Thank you to everyone who’s been reading the comic even though I update it really slowly, it really means a lot to me to see people enjoying what I’ve created, and I hope you’ll enjoy the new comics too when I eventually start posting them.