#when i have more time i want to re read svsss

[nibbelraz]

Does CQM sect knows how long SQH has worked for MBJ? YQY let's SQH come back (presumably because he is that good at his job?) but do they ever interrogate him? Do they have any idea that SQH has been working for MBJ for years? I just find it funny that from their perspective SQH betrayed them but in a way you could argue that SQH was never loyal to the sect. Yes, he was already part of the sect, but he was an outer disciple and while they don't know, SQH already knew he would one day work for MBJ. While he feared for his life he probably had already in his head that he would be loyal to Mobei, so he entered the sect knowing he would spy for him. From the beginning he joined the sect with dishonest notions. But other than SQQ does any other Peak Lord has any idea about this? Because honestly, how fucking scary and impressive that SQH did this 😂

I don't think it's ever stated how long they knew about Shang Qinghua being a traitor (My memory is absolutely horrible, so I could be wrong) However im sure they can pinpoint the time a demon killed a lot of disciples with Shang Qinghua being the only survivor and was missing for some days then they mightve connected the dots to how long he's been a spy for Mobei Jun. I also don't think they interrogate him either, they just kinda let him back in after all the shit that went down

Looking back into the novel, Yue Qingyuan does let him back but there really was no interrogation from what I can find

So YEAH HE REALLY JUST MANAGED TO GET AWAY WITH IT

[bloopitynoot]

Reading SVSSS: Chapter 20

For those who don't know, I am reading SVSSS for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag bloopitynoot reads SVSSS. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read.

hello hello! As promised the tattoo reveal.

I survived getting half my sleeve lined but boy am I sore. Tattoos on your hand are the absolute pits. Like no joke, hand tattoos are rough my guys. 10/10 do not recommend, but I'm doing it because it looks cute LOL.

This tattoo will be a tea themed sleeve. Featured on this half: hibiscus, chamomile, green tea leaves, raspberries + raspberry leaf, and lemons. I have another appointment in December and January to get the shading done but for now just lines!

I did not have tea with this chapter but that is okay- let's get into the notes!

I was so hung up on Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu's relationship that I totally forgot an entire war is brewing. Well. Here we go LOL

unrelated but important question- what is their ship name???

Okay we are starting the chapter strong with SQQ's gay panic LOL Re: SQQ lying to himself, the reader, and the gods about him actually meaning that he missed the light of his life LBH p241

These two!!!!! "Then why didn't you come look for this master inside the dream realm" p242

"Whenever Shizun is at Cang Qiong Mountain" Luo Binghe said quietly, "When Shizun is with other people, he always smiles so happily. So I thought you wouldn't miss me". p243 This guy is the absolute master manipulator or he just requires unlimited amounts of reassurance. Either way My HEART!

The cat and mouse game at this point is wild. Really Shen Qingqiu needs to figure his shit out because the "accidental" flirting is horse shit. p245

💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 "Why does it sound like i've become your father" p246. NO THANKS. But also no wonder it feels weird as fuck- SQQ does not want to be LBH's daddy (in that way).

OOP! FINALLY. Luo Binghe is totally sus about SQQ's knowledge about the future and other things he really shouldn't know. I really hope it's revealed that he is from another world and Luo Binghe is chill with it. p248

Liu Qingge walks into any room in which SQQ was seemingly alone: p250

This is a side note but I really like Qi Qingqi, this woman is fierce as fuck. Like no nonsense I would 100% trust her with my life, death, and rebirth. I do suspect that she doesnt play a large role in the story but I wish she was present more. I do totally want to eventually read some fics with her in them because she is such a badass. p254

Dang! So the realm merging begins! I am sad though that they don't want SQQ to go, but I get it; he keeps running away or getting grievously injured. Also it's so weird that no one is really questioning how he has this much knowledge of future events, they just kind of accept it and run with it LOL (except Luo Binghe who has done the most questioning). pp256-257

Xuan Su is so fucking cool!!!!! p257

Well I am sure that LBH reputation points will increase now that he's saved Zhao Hua Monastery! p260 Thank fuck too, because I really wasn't seeing a positive end game for him and SQQ if he wasn't able to turn his reputation around.

This cheeky guy LOL "Shizun I have missed you, it's been so long" like the fool wasn't sitting in his lap the night before LOL pp261-262

SO AWKWARD LOL. LBH telling everyone who is important that he only cares for SQQ and will only do what SQQ wants him to do and will do absolutely anything for him. Meanwhile SQQ: . I DIED: "Peak Lord Shen has truly raised a good disciple. He's become our cultivation world's tremendous fortune." Though he said "raised a good disciple" the tone was no different from the way he might say "married a good husband." pp262-263

Well. I thought it was embarrassing before, but then we get hit with the "Luo Binghe nodded solemnly. "Yes." His face spread into a smile. "And Shizun is mine.". p265

I really love every conversation between SQH and SQQ. The understanding they have and the banter is so good pp266-267

LOL LBH : I am sooooo tired, let me fly with you? p268

LBH really is shameless! The public hand holding!!! Now it makes me want to read fics from LBH POV- we get SQQ this entire time, but I want to see what LBH has going on in there LOL. p269

He really was yeeted

RIP SQH. May you not die in that hole. pp270-271

[danmei-confessions]

I truly think SVSSS deserves a revision more than any of MXTX's other novels.

I love the novel, yes, but it is poorly written. MXTX rushed the chapters after Bbingqiu's reunion due to using VIP lock for the first time and it makes the writing distinctly worse. I understand that she was young while writing it, which is the whole reason why it deserves a revision. The novel could have so much more potential than it currently does and it's no wonder that it's her least popular when even fans of her other novels choose to not read it due to being uninterested.

So much more story could be added, or just minor details. For example, we barely know anything about the 12 peaks all together, and unless you make up facts, there's practically nothing on their peak lords too. I see complaints about the SVSSS wiki being empty regarding the peak lords and I hate to say it, but that's NOT due to the moderators but rather pure lack of content. Hell, most of the facts that do existed were only in the light novel and not in the web novel at all. There's such little information it's really not shocking that the fandom runs on head-canons. In all 100 chapters of her novel, half of it in slightly plot, while the other is SQQ being... SQQ.

I have so many thoughts on the potential SVSSS has:

Despite it being mentioned that there are 'plenty of minor sects' we only hear the name of one.

Despite sects like Tian Yi or Zhao Hua being a part of the main 4, we know almost nothing about them, how they run, or their disciples/sect lead (literally the only named Tian Yi disciples are the 3 nuns). We also don't know their locations, what locations they control, or their history

The past events of SVSSS (before SY transmigrated) are so messy. Theres only 2 timelines I've found here on tumblr and even those are so different from each other. Theres no clear years compared to TGCF or MDZS and its so frustrating. This also leaves characters practically age-less (other than like. Binghe) unlike her other characters.

Almost none of the side-characters grow development with anyone other than Shen Qingqiu. I say 'almost' but I can not name any off the top of my head. There are characters that have/had such interesting relationships that were completely thrown out the window For The Plot. This is so.... disappointing, considering other character's relationships make up the plot! It's not only the MC!

Everything being rushed is heartbreaking, and with a re-write I think arcs such as the Holy Mausoleum, Jin Lan, Borderlands, etc could become SO much more interesting. Alongside that, the Mai Gu Ridge situation was blown off so fast?? Like, it was mentioned that the Endless Abyss was breaking through CCM, then just never mentioned again...

Power Scaling. Fights. Actual fights between people who aren't LGQ or LBH. We only really got NYY/LPM, MBJ/his uncle, and TLJ/LBH. Most of those were ALSO rushed.

The System's appearance was reduced LARGELY in the later chapters-almost like MXTX forgot about them. The whole first 2 volumes include The System so much, and its unique! functions! all for it to be disregarded and those functions to never be used other than the jade necklace.

Actually going into the wonderous world of PIDW that is claimed to have interesting weapons (only Xin Mo was shown), locations, plants (only Qingsi and that one thats too long for me to feel like typing shown), and creatures (only rly ZZL and Madam Meiyin shown).

That's all I really have right now. I'm not trying to be an anti of MXTX's other novels. I just think that SVSSS has so much potential that she could have brought out if she had chosen to revise it. I love TGCF and MDZS very much, they have great scaling, brought-out potential, and relationships that SVSSS so could have.

I do want to exclaim that out of all her 3 novels SVSSS has been my favorite for years. I genuinely feel upset that it was not the one picked despite how obvious it is that it has barely any NEW content. Or at the least, confirmed facts. In her QNA's most of the questions are purely MDZS/TGCF while there's maybe 2 SVSSS ones. Those few questions answered by her are literally lifelines for some fans. (Such as heights and Moshang) The novel could become popular just if the criticisms/potential of it were actually addressed. I'm not saying that casually but I am very sure of it as MXTX is a freakishly great writer and she COULD take the novel to the same heights as TGCF/MDZS if she truly wanted to.

.

[tossawary]

I'm re-reading PINTWILF and was suddenly wondering: considering how dense Shen Yuan is on SVSSS, how long do you think it will take him to realize Binghe has like, feelings, feelings for him?

I think he'll have to have it spelled out bluntly for him. But not necessarily because he's completely oblivious to the fact that he and Binghe are close and affectionate with each other in a "more than friends" way? I think by the end, even when he's still gently, jokingly encouraging Binghe to flirt with women, he'll have suspicions. Or... maybe... "he'll have hopes" is the better word?

See, one of the things I personally really like about MXTX's works is that while the protagonists are a little (or a lot) romantically oblivious sometimes, they're all capable of being very clever and observant, and I get a really strong vibe that their obliviousness is actually partly denial/disbelief that they would actually be allowed to have this thing (this person) that they come to really, really want. They often can't bring themselves to look at the idea directly. They know but also can't even bring themselves to think about it, because the rejection would hurt them too deeply, and rejection feels inevitable, by the world if not by the person they love, so they might as well blind themselves to the possibility of happiness.

It's a remarkably queer element that I vibe with on a personal level. It's also just one interpretation of things. Which is why, for example in MDZS fics, we get the spectrum of Genuinely Completely Oblivious Wei Wuxian to a Wei Wuxian who is so, so in love with Lan Wangji for so long but can't fully believe LWJ would ever like him back and, more importantly, doesn't want to "ruin" LWJ with everything that he is. (I am personally partial to interpretations which lean more towards the latter. I like obliviousness just fine, I like mixes of both, but the angst of love being known deep-down, but feeling unspeakable, being unthinkable, is delicious to me. The pining is so good.)

Now, Shen Yuan is a very different character to Wei Wuxian, just as SY is a very different character to Airplane. My personal interpretation is that each of the MXTX protagonists perform this "defensive obliviousness" in very different ways, to very different degrees, and for very different reasons. (I mean, for some of them, we're dealing with "loving me back would ruin your life and I love you too much to let you do that" and others are dealing with "if I reveal my love/lust to this person and they're not open to it, they might kill me for it".)

I actually went into SVSSS (SPOILERS) feeling really wary of the teacher-student angle, but my impression of their time together as teacher and student was that Shen Yuan's feelings for Luo Binghe were genuinely platonic. And while I make jokes about Shen Yuan being oblivious to LBH's feelings for him, he had a lot of really good reasons for thinking that Luo Binghe wanted to kill him at first upon their reunion. I think any romantic/sexual feelings only started to develop for SY upon their reunion and only became fully realized even later. My personal interpretation of Shen Yuan is that he's asexual (he reads as sooo ace to me), probably gay but possibly bi-romantic, sex-neutral or sex-favorable. (Though I also think that, in SVSSS, even married to Binghe, he still probably personally identifies mostly as "straight with an exception".)

I'm losing the thread of where I'm going with this because I'm desperately trying not to write like five different meta essays here.

In PINTWILF (SPOILERS), Shen Yuan is already in a different situation to SVSSS. Shang Qinghua is SY's mentor-figure and openly queer, openly in a relationship with a demon, and SQH has at least told SY that marrying all those wives in PIDW didn't make LBH happy. I can't remember if SQH ever directly hinted to SY that LBH might be into men, but the other family members aren't exactly 100% discrete or subtle about their teasing. Shen Yuan has a lot more space to get comfortable with his own queerness and LBH's queerness, though he has a lot of internalized homophobia to get through (and misogyny, my goodness, sometimes in SVSSS I really wanted to bop him on the head for his behavior around women even if he's simultaneously mocking the sexist tropes).

But there's still Shen Yuan's self-confidence and self-image to contend against. Even when he's not mentally slotted himself into the role of "teacher" and "betrayer", he's still had the time to mentally slot himself into the role of "older friend" and "confidant". Shen Yuan seems to view himself as a kind of boring person and he likes it that way, so while he would be happy to have Binghe as a partner, he likes him so very much, he can't quite shake the feeling that Binghe could do better and so it's best not to read too much into it. He's honestly happy enough just being friends (or so he tells himself) and doesn't want to "make it weird" unless Binghe takes the first step.

[nyoomerr]

oooo writer's meme!! tagged by @celardor12 - thank you for thinking of me! <3

How many wips do you have currently? this is a deceptively difficult question, bc i'm not sure what should actually count here. i have fics that i haven't worked on in over a year but that i do intend on finishing, as well as some heavily outlined but not actually started work on some new fics...

for the stuff that i am actively working on day by day, though, i've got 2 main WIPs! there's the multichapter fic i'm writing for my FTH donor, and then the small piece i'm putting together for the binggeyuan zine. unfortunately due to the nature of both these projects, i can't really say much about them... but i think they're both very tasty svsss treats 😌

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish? the multichapter fic for sure ;A; i'm probably 75% the way done, which means i'm right at the point in writing a multichapter where i'm no longer interested in writing it and just want it to be done. i've hit this point for every multichapter i've ever written, unfortunately, and it's why most of my fics are oneshots - i just have trouble staying focused on a single idea for that long;;;

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you? i very rarely write because inspiration strikes - usually, i'm sitting down to write because i told myself i would and i know i'll feel better after having engaged in a creative/productive hobby. if inspiration 'strikes' during that time, it just looks like me writing more than i'd originally planned in that moment. outside of actively writing, inspiration striking seems to always look like me frantically trying to convince myself that i only want to talk about a potential au and i don't plan on writing it, and the discord chat that's listening to me and nodding along and waiting for when i inevitably capitulate and announce that i'm putting the au on my 'to write' list, lmao.

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different? i don't think i've consciously sought out music to listen to while writing (or reading) for the entire time i've been in this fandom, tbh 😅 sometimes i'll put on some rain sounds or study music if the ambient noise where i'm working is a bit loud, i guess?

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized? i've talked about this a bit before, but i very much need an outline. i don't mind changing the plan and diverging from my outline if a scene is more naturally heading in a different direction, but then i need to take a break and re-do the outline to match the new direction before i write anymore.

i'm too shy to actually tag people 🙈🙈 so if you want to do this, please take this as an invitation to do so! gently and invisibly tagging every writer in this fandom ...

[neonscandal]

So excited to know that you also love Link Click...! I watched it first before JJK (I know, still kinda new in thw fandom), so Cheng Xiaoshi/ Lu Guang are special to me. And after 2nd season with that finale, wow, for me it feels like came out of a fanfic. So when I got to know Gojo/ Geto somehow they remind me of Cheng Xiaoshi/ Lu Guang, cause both couples are doomed by the narative....

And what do you think after you finished TGCF? Have you read the novels? Just so you know, it is worth it to collect the books. Their story is that good. Also when you finished it, most likely you'll also have some non-canon fav couples (I have 4 non canon fav couples from TGCF)....And have you watch MDZS or SVSSS?

Sorry for my rambling, MXTX is one of my favorite author ever and I like to talk about their works. (And now I'm still depressed with the latest JJK update and nervous with the BNHA update)......

OMG SEASON TWO FINALE OF LINK CLICK ABSOLUTELY SLAYED ME. Lu Guang, the enigma that you are. This whole time!? What a damn reveal! Just thinking about it, tbh, I'm gagged. I like to guess at things, obviously, but just never even fathomed.

I don't know if I'd mentioned that before RE: Gojo and Geto but same. It might be on an anime recommendation draft 😅 Like, sure, their character design is an obvious indication but it's really all the anguish bubbling just beneath the surface. And now I need to read all the source material because I'm not sure I can wait for them to animate (even though the animation is just 😘👌🏾

For background on my experience while watching TGCF, there are a lot of cultural/religious things that were completely out of my current realm of understanding re: ascension, conditions/relation of the supernatural beings discussed, etc. but I was still able to really enjoy it without and prompted curiosity to learn more before jumping into the novels. Like, having watched and read media informed by Japanese culture (and growing up on Inuyasha), you understand the idea of youkai, general types and their dispositions, even some religious aspects to practices by priestesses and even everyday people, etc. so it's a little easier to navigate. So getting into Chinese media of a certain time period where those beliefs and practices inform the story was a challenge but it also just kind of opens your eyes to how much you don't know which is exciting. I absolutely want to check out the books because I need to know Xie Lian's whole origin (including his 17th birthday and his parents backstory) and what transpired to have created the delicate soft spot San Lung has for him. I hadn't heard of SVSSS yet but MDZS is on my TBW and I'm wondering if watching it will help clarify my confusion from TGCF or if I should do some research ahead of time so I'm not as lost.

Never apologize, I love when people are inspired and passionate! Lol and makes the conversation I have with you guys feel less one sided (with my disproportionate essay responses haha). 💛 I'm sure I'll post when I start watching/reading any of the above so we can reconvene! I'm currently finishing up Stars Align and, from what I've gathered might need to add this to my TBR to get a satisfactory end to things, too. 😭

I've been running on an empty battery lately so Tumblr's really the only social media platform I've been consistently perusing and posting on (RIP to twitter, insta and tiktok, ig). The upside of this being that I see JJK and BNHA leaks less frequently so I'm out here living in ignorant bliss ✨ So if you're out in these virtual streets, be safe out there, anon!

[jingyi-ma-boi]

I’m going to join in on the fun, If you’ll allow me, cause it makes so much sense that SY is SJ reincarnated. Not only because of everything you’ve said, but also because of the enormous time span between one life and the other. Before re-entering the reincarnation wheel, SJ’s soul would have had to spend centuries atoning for his sins, receiving his due punishment in the different levels of Diyu (yes, he was already tortured in life, but that doesn’t count in Yan Wang’s book). Bingge’s search for his own kind Shizun alone makes for fantastic fanfic fodder.

Now, who’s the real God of timelines? Well, it makes perfect sense that as a disciple of Meng Mo, Bingge tampered with Airplane’s dream realm to ensure that he wrote PIDW. He’s an Immortal Demon, cross-realm Emperor. Of course he’s the God of timelines. There’s no other way. The question is how he gets to the point of becoming the System, right?

Scenario 1: He shows Airplane only crucial snippets of his life journey, allowing him to build on the idea with creative freedom.

This leaves room for ample divergence from Bingge’s actual past, meaning that PIDW is loosely based on his life (kinda like dramatized biopics and biographies) while being accurate enough that SY!SQQ acquires the leverage he has on SVSSS. The ‘creative freedom’ bit is relevant, cause it supports the fact that initially, Airplane had a totally different idea for the plot that gets sidetracked in favour of fan service.

Now this means that Bingge’s existence is totally independent from PIDW. Maybe Airplane’s original outline resembles more Bingge’s actual past. Maybe parts of the fan service are an exaggerated version of the snippets Aireplane got in his dreams. Either way, this Bingge that manipulates Airplane’s dreams is not a book character but a divine being capable of both, traveling among universes and creating his own as he wishes. Whatever it is that Airplane writes in the end, doesn’t affect him but the version of him that SY believes he knows. As long as it makes his kind Shizun bent on getting in his good graces, anything goes.

Airplane is a simple tool that Bingge rewards with the honor of allowing him to self-insert himself in the story and transmigrating in return for his service. In this scenario, Bingge could’ve chosen anyone to be Airplane (explaining why his ID is the only relevant information about his identity that we get in SVSSS), and his transmigration isn’t even necessary. But Bingge thinks that SY will appreciate having someone from his og timeline with him.

In this scenario, the Bingge vs Bingmei extra can either be Bingge traveling into the future unknowingly, a premonitory dream of his that he fixates on, or him accidentally jumping into the SVSSS universe before knowing it was his creation. Whatever it is, Bingge’s the one kickstarting the time-paradox.

Scenario 2. He shows Airplane small snippets of his life knowing that whatever he writes will directly affect Bingge’s existence.

Instead of granting him actual creative freedom, Bingge wants Airplane to think he possesses such freedom. He has the perfect plan: have the writer make some subtle but vital changes to PIDW and reap the benefits by going back to his own kind Shizun.

Airplane cannot know the entirety of Bingge’s life story cause he could either leave it as it is, or change things he shouldn’t. Enter time-traveling chaotic shenanigans where Bingge’s fuck-ups when trying to improve his own life cause the dreaded, unescapable canon events. This part would be so fun to write/read. Bingge trying to force Airplane to give him a kind Shizun, failing in the process, and discovering that he caused his own biggest tragedies trying to escape fate can be hilarious or angsty AF, hurt/no-comfort. Choose your fighter!

In the end, when he realizes he cannot change his past, Bingge has his big revelation and the gears of plan ‘become a System and make Shizun fall in love with me’ start running.

I could stop here and call it a day cause this is already long enough. BUT. HEAR ME OUT! How would it work if the actual God of timelines was Airplane? The same way he could be anyone as long as he knows how to write because we lack background information on him, Airplane can be a God because we lack background information on him.

Scenario 3. Bingge has an existential crisis and refuses to believe his life depends on the whims of a writer.

This is my personal favourite. Bingge stumbles upon SY and Airplane’s universe by accident, while looking for his kind Shizun. As a fictional character, he shouldn’t have been able to traverse universes outside of fiction. He breaks the 4th wall going down on a metaphysical rabbit hole à la Unamuno’s Mist, fighting his creator in a battle of wills.

During their tug-of-war, Bingge learns about SJ’s reincarnation into this universe’s SY. That gets him running. If this God who created them and the universe he calls PIDW, was able to influence the universe he lives in by overseeing SJ’s reincarnation, there should be a way for Bingge to exert that same power. He learns that SY’s passage through this other universe is a test to his atonement in Diyu and refuses to accept that the only way for him to enjoy life with his Shizun is hoping to reincarnate in the same time and place as him. This is not his place, no matter how much he wants to fight this hamster God for his Shizun. And neither is it SY’s. He’s glad his Shizun hasn’t gone through his past life’s torments, but he deserves power, recognition, immortality. He can only get that back in their own universe.

Next thing Airplane knows, he has fallen into Bingge’s trap —he’s forcibly thrown into PIDW, the pocket universe he’s been toying with, carrying out every experiment he couldn’t do in the actual universe he was assigned to reign over. Him being born as SQH and going through a whole life of tiresome trials is Bingge’s vengeance. SY’s transmigrating when LBH is already 15 instead of at an earlier point is just so he can make sure SQH doesn’t know where to look. That damn hamster would’ve noticed if SY transmigrated before that point. By the time he starts behaving OOC after a convenient Qi deviation, it can easily pass as SY’s soul being reincarnated where it belongs as a reward and an ultimate test to the strength of his atonement. Bingge’s no God, but he’s managed to best one.

When SQH finally realizes what’s going on, it’s too late for him to act. His System had been working just like it did when it helped him operate on Earth. He couldn’t have known it was the freaking demon he created. He doesn’t know until SY discovers him and he starts going on about his own System. Now he can only get close to SQQ in hopes that Bingge will spare him on account of being his Shizun’s bro, and bid his time to come up with his own plan. This also explains his grumpiness because bro you’ve turned this into a fucking danmei. He’s not complaining to SY, but to Bingge, cause he knows he’s in there listening. In the end, SQH stops caring because being Mobei Jun’s wife is more fun, and the prospects of what punishments might be waiting for him if he got out aren’t attractive.

Sometimes I wonder if Shen Yuan is Shen Jiu himself, just from a different timeline. Shen Yuan is what Shen Jiu could have been if he had the right upbringing — A Sharp, cutthroat nerd with a silver tongue.

People oftentimes forget that Shen Yuan is actually pretty smart when he is not freaking out or fanboy-ing. Maybe not going through the same sickening circumstances of the PIDW world never lead him to develop the wicked shrewdness of Shen Jiu but there are still some uncanny similarities.

Since, some people theorise that Shen Yuan used to be chronically ill in the modern universe, it forces me to think if Shen Jiu ever incurred severe soul damage from Bingge's torture that lead him to be reborn with a weak constitution in the modern universe. The only purpose of Shen Yuan's life could have been to atone for his sins and break the cycle of abuse in the PIDW universe. And everything was planned and settled by the superior being that is the "System" as it cut through and merged different realities and timelines.

It's a different kind of multiverse of madness.

[shijiujun]

Just A Few More Notes on MXTX EN Official Translations

SO...

1. Yes, MXTX IS getting money from this set of publications! However, as reminded from a friend in the industry, Seven Seas’ FAQ says rights holders and not MXTX herself, and it’s likely the contract was made with JJWXC so... we can only trust their word that money DOES go back to MXTX. Not casting any doubt, it’s just what it is based on what we can see on the FAQ page

2. ALL translators across all three books are fan translators that have been hired to do the job properly. This does include Suika and Pengie for TGCF and others for MDZS and SVSSS - So for all of you who shitted on fan translators, fan translators are making it happen for yall right now

3. ALL of them will be uncensored

4. Yes, there’ll be hard and soft copies! I KNOW that the EN copies are definitely way more expensive than those who can read Chinese and buy Chinese original versions are used to but there’ll be soft copies which should be cheaper - And hey if you want freebies and all that stuff, you can still buy the cheaper Chinese copies hahahaha

5. Any fan translations of these three books are NOW illegal basically, for real, since there are official ones coming up - I do feel sorry for proper actual respectful fan translators who were taking on MDZS and SVSSS who were doing re-translations and now have to stop etc.

6. SevenSeas will decide whether or not to do further translations of other popular danmeis based on this pre-order so do support if you can

7. Suika found SevenSeas to publish at least TGCF from what I can see from her tweets, so she made it work. With plenty of help of course, but she really, really made it work, even while people were hating on her during the entire translations and buying drama. Now you really can support so no more excuses!

8. What I said about there being no impetus for EN translations: This wouldn’t have been possible if Suika and other translators didn’t push hard for this, and if SevenSeas wasn’t willing to listen to the fan translators, and also give MXTX a proper cut of the profits. What I’m saying is that EN-speaking fandom now, in an economic sense, SHOULD be profitable for authors to want to have their books licensed in EN, and have proper and great translators we’ve seen doing proper work. I’m happy to be wrong definitely, if more EN official translations pop up from SevenSeas, but like I said, this was a concerted effort based on mutual respect on all parties, and we don’t get that very often, so now’s the time to support.

9. And am I ever so glad to say that once again MTL etc. really cannot compare to actual, proper translations, and I’m so happy for Suika and the other translators that they’re now ACTUAL translators and wannabe “I learnt Chinese for 6 months or 1 year and now will translate this terribly difficult novel because I am Smart” and everyone who’s given them trouble can now really shut up, because Suika really made it happen (along with many others yes!). She be all action and talk, I love that

10. Will there still be problems? YES, I think there will be. Despite everything going on official right now, we can all probably agree that troublemakers in the EN-speaking or international fandoms still exist. There’ll always be issues. Especially with new people joining in on the fun now that these super viral and hot titles are available in English, yes we can expect a lot more stupid questions and stupid people coming up. I don’t deny that overall it’s a huge thing, but as always, fandom is fandom, and with new entrants coming in? We definitely have a hell of a ride on our hands

11. Should you take the EN translations as honest gospel and it being THE one translation? I mean not in the sense of publishing or creating fan translations but if any people who speak CN and EN have different takes on translations in terms of expression I’d say those are equally valid and correct. I expect people might go “oh but the official translation version” blah blah but... language is nuanced. Although these translators for the books are the best there are out there, language can still be interpreted or expressed differently in translations! So yep, don’t go accusing smaller translators or content creators for “wrong translations” especially when they speak and lived Chinese all their lives thanks

12. The purest form of the content is still the Chinese version - I’m not being a wet blanket here, but the most, most original form of it is definitely the Chinese version, and things ARE still lost in translation regardless, so personally I of course still prefer the CN versions for all

13. Will novels like 2ha and SPL get official translations? I’d say it might be a bit hard for 2ha because there’re already so many haters in the EN-only speaking fandom for all the “immoral” stuff so yeah. SPL maybe? I honestly think Priest is not that interested in having EN translations for her books tbh unless the money is really boomz, so that one is up there for anyone’s guess as well. 

14. In the meantime, Via Lactea does have licensed books for smaller danmei prints so do support them as well!!!

[neonghostcat]

Thwarted by Reason

(In which I ramble about upcoming SVSSS fanfics. ;) Cut for the sake of your dashboards.)

It is, indeed, a tragic life a writer leads. Particularly the life of a fanfic writer, if Author's Notes are anything to go by.

If you are not beset with life's little calamities and delayed six hours from posting the newest chapter because a meteorite crashed into your car and exploded the neighborhood into a fireball that still rages (so please forgive the dreadful delay), then things like (ugh!) "practicality" and "the time-space continuum" forbid you working on a project you just thought up.

TL;DR: I want to write for LiuShen Week 2022, but I could instead, y'know not try to force myself to hurry and complete a fic that will inevitably rush through the story just to meet the deadline.

That means... I could just write it at a more normal pace and really linger into those bits and pieces that are tasty for me (the writer) and hopefully also you (the reader).

Here's the concept I came up with:

(Working Title: Joint Custody)

Standard Opening: Shen Yuan transmigrates into PIDW and is told, "Fix this."

SY, being genre-savvy, expects he's meant to take the original PIDW plot and fix all of the plot holes and things that make a reader like himself table-flip in rage.

Only... no.

He's instead dropped into the body of Shen Qingqiu, who has joint-custody with Liu Qingge over which Peak Luo Binghe will end up on after he turns 16, the deadline Yue Qingyuan gave for him deciding.

This works out overall better for Binghe because while the disciples of both peaks don't really consider him "one of their own" and as such no one but NYY befriends him, no one is inclined to bully him either.

Plus SQQ can't bully him, because that would definitely make him choose Bai Zhan and he can't abide losing to LQG so easily.

So SQQ just ignores Binghe, being icy-cold to him when he can't.

LQG neglects him in his own way, basically just because he's off doing LQG things and not out of malice. It's just how he runs his peak.

Binghe grows up more akin to Bingge - a little wolf who plays at being the white sheep.

So that's why when SY pops in and his 'perfect' Shizun starts acting weird because he clearly has huge gaps in his memory, he takes particular interest in fucking with him.

Basically, Binghe bats his beautiful starry sheep eyes at SQQ and starts shit between him and LQG, doing the whole manipulative brat playing one divorced parent off of the other to get extra attention from both.

And suddenly Binghe is soaked with attention and decides to himself, "Gosh, wouldn't it be great if both my dads got together so even when I eventually choose a peak I'd still have them both and would never lose this?"

For the curious - that's exactly how I brainstorm my stories - bullet-points with memes. I basically just made the version I'm posting here a little more readable without my shorthand stuffed into it. ;) (My outlines are pretty much the same, only I'd be breaking down the different events involved.)

SO - yes. That is now a story that's in the queue of stories I intend to write. But after I finish Cultivate.

Speaking of which:

Cultivate! I re-read what I had the other day and had one of the most annoying feelings you can have as a writer: "AAaaah I am enjoying this - where is the rest of it so I can read it???"

(Keep in mind that the following assumes you have at least a basic understanding of what Cultivate is. You can find more information in the blog entries listed here, but the summary should do ya. I put an 📓 emoji next to the entries that feature excerpts from my draft you can read.)

So far Cultivate features:

Two POVs (Shen Yuan's + Liu Qingge's) that switch arbitrarily to whomever's POV would be most entertaining or interesting.

Multiple running gags that make me giggle. (This is probably the story that has the most overt comedy of my SVSSS fics.)

Shen Yuan is a silly fucking bastard when he doesn't have to pretend to be SQQ, he of dignity and respectability.

Liu Qingge looking around SY's little home base and thinking, "Bitch, you live like this? Better take care of you because you are helpless."

Shen Yuan is: Snow White

Gratuitous paeans on the charms of both of our heroes.

The death throes of The Original Plot, only to have it threaten to come back as a zombie thirsty for vengeance.

A surprising amount of creepiness for something that's mostly fluff. (I'm considering tagging it with "mild horror elements".)

You thought I did worldbuilding before? Hold on to your socks.

Shen Yuan using knowledge gleaned from his geeky interests to try to live the Stardew Valley/Harvest Moon/Rune Factory slowlife.

It is still shocking to me that I'm ~10 chapters in and it still feels like the story just got started. I may need to post them two chapters a week just so I'm not posting on the same story for years, if ~40k really is only "just beginning" the story...

Anyway - 'tis a horrendous fate. Lament, lament the tyranny of time; etc, etc. etc.

[draftingteacups]

I'm a bit curious, how did you find out about twisted wonderland?

This is a long story actually! I think I just wrote my whole journey through TWST, so uh, buckle up ig 😂😅

So, way before the game was released, there were these cool promo pictures. One of them was of Malleus rising from his coffin, which immediately caught my eye. My favorite Disney movie growing up was Sleeping Beauty, so much so that I dressed up as Sleeping Beauty for three Halloweens and had the movie on DVD. Of course, I was hooked.

I then found AmiYoshiko from Youtube talking about Twisted Wonderland as the dorms were revealed.

I was excited by the concept. It was really, really cool! Magic, Disney, anime, it was pretty fun to see!

And then I got distracted with other fandoms for a while, completely forgetting about it in the process.

Fast forward to around the end of Episode 5 where the VDC was just about to begin and Vil's OB design was about to be revealed to the public. I think this was around... this time last year? Anyways-

I was randomly scrolling through Pinterest one day and saw alternative designs for the Overblot Boys. I distinctly remember one of them had Riddle's OB design as a guillotine while Jamil's OB form was half-snake and half-human.

I was like, "Whoa, these look really cool. Where's this from?"

The comments were like, "I kinda wish that these were the designs. They look really cool."

I don't think they ever shared the fandom name, so I just picked pictures that had similar characteristics to the people in the photo and figured it out that way. Little did I know that I was spoiled to one of the biggest reveals in the whole game lol

Like Alice in Wonderland, I fell down the rabbit hole of Twisted Wonderland.

Bit by bit, I found the art really good and finally found out where it came from. I slowly realized that it was the same fandom I saw a long-ass time ago and became even more obsessed with it. I was fully entranced by it by the end of Episode 5 and dived into it wholeheartedly.

That's not to say that I was active in the fandom. I was just existing in the fandom space just collecting stories and reading them.

I was also indulging in other fandoms at the time like SVSSS (Scum Villain Self-Saving System) and MDZS (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by MXTX, so I cycled between them all with TWST taking a backburner seat to my prime fandoms at the time.

I watched the events that I missed, the first being Ghost Marriage and the second being Fairy Gala. I learned about the whole Main Story and re-read it whenever I could.

The artists that I found out about early on were lolleia and laizy-boy, but back then, I didn't have a Tumblr because I didn't know what exactly to do on Tumblr. I still don't rip.

By the end of summer, I was swinging back hard into TWST when Episode 6 hit. And then fast-forward into the current day where I'm here as a Twisted Wonderland x Pokemon blog with other fandoms mixed it.

I wanted to include my story of how I made TEBF and how that spiraled into this whole blog/story place, but it was getting long and I didn't wanna bore you😅

But yeah, that's the story in a nutshell of how I got into TWST!

[jooniely]

svsss thoughts lol

i posted this on twitter but wanted to post it here too cuz ppl here love to discuss and will actually read this maybe and i would love to discuss things cuz that way i get to see things in a new light

so here it goes, my messy thoughts months after finishing svsss main story but not the extras:

thought about how shen jiu and bingge are parallels of each other and illustrate how cycles of abuse work, and how both suffered and made others suffer, and ultimately lost everything they ever wanted and worked for in their lives and now im sad

i dont think theres a lot of fics that explore how similar their characters are. its also odd to me that there are fics that paint bingge as being okay while sj is irredeemable and scum. i had a lot of issues and was upset about the potentials of svsss that were not met

thankfully i was not the only one & i was able to find very few fics that delved into things svsss ignored. i appreciate how mxtx writes her stories as realistically as possible cuz she loves to write about how ppl judge without knowing everything. its a common theme in her works

it works well in tgcf and mdzs but to me it ends up being frustrating in svsss. it works well in tgcf cuz we still see the whole picture so we dont miss anything, its the same with mdzs but with some restrictions ex/ mxy and how we only know him thru rumours

and given the false rumours that we saw with wwx we can guess how false the rumours about mxy were as well. someone also wrote about this lack of closure or knowledge for both the characters and readers and how it works well with the themes of the novel but i cant find it lol

that being said, this style, although perfect for her other 2 novels, it falls short imo with svsss. now im admitting that i have yet to read the extras so maybe these things were answered there but there are major characters that we just dont get much about

my complaint here is 100% not critical lol, its personal, i wanted more info more screen time for characters like shen jiu given how important he is but we never got that. our narrator is so unreliable we cant trust him on anything (imo that takes away from the reading pleasure)

sy 100% believes everything from PIDW when it comes to lbh and sj and with lbh it causes so many issues that could have been avoided, this is not a complaint, this is part of the story and theme. but it leaves me frustrated especially since with the other 2 stories the reader gets to get out of the narrator's head or can see to an extent the flawed judgemental way of thinking and how it was wrong. with svsss we dont really get that? maybe cuz i never realized our narrator is extremely unreliable, idk. tbh idek how to explain

idk how to explain properly cuz my thoughts about it are messy. like random thought i re-remembered: the lack of reaction to sj just up and disappearing. sy never realizing the ppl around him are ppl and not just fictional characters. sy not caring about the person who's life he had to live. from the lack of background on sy himself we as a fandom assumed he had absent parents and died alone and thats why he never cared about his old life, no mourning or grief. he easily gets accustomed to life without almost everything old teens/young adults live with. no reaction to the amount of violence and death around him. its one thing to read about but another to live thru. from our assumed old life about him, he should have been very sheltered

the more i think about it the more i see things that frustrate me cuz the potential was so high &honestly if mxtx took a crack at it now with her improved skills, it would reach the popularity levels of her other novels. but oh well i guess thats why we have fanfic lol

there are other things that i just didnt like at all, like that assault scene or how it ended with them apparently just leaving everything behind? and how i can literally list the red flags in their relationship (and i have listed them in a previous svsss rants/thoughts post on here when i hadnt yet finished the novel) but i attribute this to just idk, i like to ignore it, its not great

this is all over the place but if you read this, then i welcome any response just be nice pls lol, i had to block some ppl from my last post cuz they were being mean and rude and honestly that just makes me upset and less likely to enjoy the content you may be rudely defending. despite my criticisms of svsss i still love reading fanfics about it cuz i see the potential and see some writers who are angels and write some amazing svsss fics that fulfill the potential.

[bloopitynoot]

Reading SVSSS: Chapter 7

For those who don't know, I am reading SVSSS for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag bloopitynoot reads SVSSS. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read.

A new day a new chapter! Today we get into the Water Prison. The real question: will Shen Qingqiu actually make it out?

No Charlie pics today, I have been abandoned at my reading/writing station, but I do have tea! Tea today is a blueberry jasmine.

Let's get into it!!!!

What the fuck?! Is this an acid lake? p89

Dang it really is crazy how after two accusations with zero evidence or proof that Shen Qingqiu actually did anything, he get's locked up in maximum security prison. p89

Right now I'm having war flashbacks from MDZS -> another protagonist out here doing their best with the rest of the world just making shit up about them for fun. RE: Little Palace mistress and her delusions of what SQQ did. She literally even says- he didnt say you did anything but I have a vibe. Like what? p91

We are gathered here today to all witness how Shen Qingqiu is once again refusing to acknowledge that he is indeed the Love Interest. Honestly, does anyone ever tell him? I live for the day the system changes his classification from villain to Love interest and actually tells him this. Idk if it happens, but now I need it to happen. Re: "what fit even less was the fact, in the original work, the Little Palace Mistress's refined iron whip had only been used for attacking love rivals" p93

Luo Binghe to the rescue!! p94 just catching that whip

Okay but when SQQ states that something is wrong with the script- is he actually on the path to understanding? or still clueless? I hope he sort of realizes what's happening, because dang this guy has 0 idea Luo Binghe would kill for him p95

OOP. "There is no need for Shizun to be so wary. If I wished to do something to you, I wouldn't need to touch you at all" p96

Re: point above about "is he understanding?" *deep sigh * SQQ has not learned at all and refuses to actively listen. He is still trying to follow the old script p.97. Okay but I do love how this guy is accidentally getting himself (in a weird way) romanced.

I honestly am pretty sure this is a dating sim XD "*to the system* Do you think we're playing a dating sim?!" p99

omg torture via demon blood is horrible. Like this is a worst nightmare, having little bugs in your organs NO THANKS. p101

I'm crying LOOOOOL two options; 1. the fake jade guanyin. 2. [Activate Small Scene Pusher] and gets his CLOTHES ripped off. Bro is now the lead in a period bodice ripper XD p102

*face palm* "Does it just take advantage of Luo Binghe's physiological disgust upon seeing a man's half-naked body?" p104. no my man, it is not disgust

oh no, giving him his outer robe made it more scandalous p104

RIP confirmed that that is the previous canon's sex robe p106

literally everyone has a feeling about what's up. Gongyi Xiao is eyeing SQQ, see's the robe and does indeed assume things about SQQ and Luo Binghe. How stupid is SQQ??? p107

Re: the note from Shang Qinghua to SQQ. Shang Qinghua is also an idiot, this guy had 1 job and that was to not fuck up the mushrooms. he goofed this exponentially. RIP those mushrooms. p109

Welp. Gongyi Xiao is realizing that Luo BInghe may not be as pure of heart as he thought p112

it's so much worse though- he really thinks that Luo Binghe assaulted SQQ and is now helping SQQ escape. p113

meanwhile SQQ is living in his own universe LOL no idea these are the assumptions. Also, IDK what's going to happen when Luo Binghe inevitably see's SQQ in Gongyi Xiao's robe. RIP GYX p115

Okay but SQQ I too would freak the fuck out if I had a walking/wake dream. Meng Mo's realm is no joke. p120-121

Dang Luo Binghe has become so strong. This dreamscape is insane. pp 124-126

again with the clothes ripping. I hope one day they enjoy this consensually. p127 (blessed be this canon for the fanfics)

in which SQQ does not realize that the fight in the dreamscape is indeed not a fight- it is most definitely foreplay. p128

I fucking KNEW IT Luo Binghe was NOT pleased with SQQ wearing Gongyi Xiao's robe. LOOOL. p130

but also I don't know what became of GYX but let's take a moment to remember him, I am sure he did not make it.

oh gosh more tragic SQQ backstory :( p132

I am glad I clocked it in the last chapter. Something was so fishy about the family that took him in and his "betrothal" my heart for SQQ :( :( :( p134

Okay get it Ning YinYing!!!! Re: her talking shit to and about Little Palace Mistress to her face! p138

yes she got slapped but still she did a pretty good job! and her sect siblings have her back.

That is it for today!!

Oh god. ofc we leave on a cliffhanger with a shady guy ready to super saiyan AND the next chapter is ominously titled "Death". I am not prepared for this!

[oddishblossom]

Thanks for answering my ask......if you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask your top 3 favorite characters from SVSSS? And your top 5 (or top 3) favorite moments from the novel? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

Hi again! You just activated my brain rot, I’m literally obsessed with scum villain right now lol. It’s so hard to narrow it down to three characters so here’s my favorite six instead ☺️

6. Gongyi Xiao (my boy!!! he has so little screen time but for the time that he did show up, i was rooting for sqq to run away with him lol)

5. Sha Hualing (my favorite evil henchman omg. i love her character design so much. she may not have a lot to do but she’s beautiful and i adore her)

4. Liu Mingyan (she is soooo pretty. every time she’s on screen i’m like wow airplane really knew what he was doing when he created her. plus her hobby is hilarious! she’s living her best life and earning that cash money <3)

3. Liu Qingge (king of comedy over here! he’s such a good guy and super loyal and the powerful war lord of bai zhan but i think the guy’s so hilarious, too! i love his intense hatred of lbh lol. when asked where lbh is, without even hesitating lgq’s like “he’s dead” and then he gets yelled at by nyy and qi qingqi 🤣)

2. Ning Yingying (best girl!!! i literally love her! i know she started out as just a silly girl who’s always accidentally making trouble for those around her and destined to be lbh’s first wife, but i love how she grows out of that shadow and every time she stomps on mf’s foot or gets into a fight for shizun or talks back to lqg and lbh i’m so proud of her!)

1. Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu (yes i’m cheating. but i love these codependent losers. i’m always switching between who’s my favorite character so i’m going to say both of them are. they are a set do not separate ❤️)

If you’d like to read about my favorite scenes click the read more :)

Unlike mdzs (which I’ve read 3 times and know scenes by heart) I’ve only read svsss once. I binge read it while the donghua was still airing and I’m slowly re-reading it right now. So it took a second for me to rank my favorite scenes. There were so many I wanted to include!! Like the scene where shen qingqiu kept trying to cover luo binghe with blankets but the man refused to stay hidden. Or the bing-ge vs bing-mei extra. Or the scene where luo binghe “only has enough money for two rooms” and shen qingqiu takes one room for himself and makes lbh share with liu qingge. But anyway, here’s my favorites.

5. The one where Shen Qingqiu gives his life for Luo Binghe after nearly qi deviating (Chapter 43). It took me a long time to root for bingqiu. But after the abyss, and seeing how sqq mourned for lbh, I was slowly starting to see these two in a different light. And when sqq gives his life to save lbh’s, I cried like a baby. That scene of lbh on the ground, surrounded by enemies, cradling his dead shizun in his arms as he cries and begs for forgiveness broke me. I was like that’s it! I don’t care if they’re “not healthy for each other,” I want them to be together! And then I was fully rooting for these two.

4. The scene where Yue Qingyuan reveals his backstory after he nearly dies on Maigu Ridge. This scene is very small but I had to include it. I’m a big fan of tragic irony, so when yqy reveals to sqq that the reason he doesn’t draw his sword is because it draws from his lifespan and it caused him to qi deviate all those years ago and this was the reason he was late to saving him, I was so heartbroken. Because here yqy is, learning the hard way that his impatience was a bad thing, and he’s finally telling his xiao jiu the truth but he is too late and his xiao jiu is gone. There is only sqq. We see this scene from sqq’s point of view and we get to hear the system’s hollow words ring out, congratulating him on his achievements, as a man is dying in his arms. The system’s presence alone reminds us that he is not xiao jiu. I felt so bad for yqy and that he never got closure with xiao jiu and because of that dreaded system, he will never learn that his xiao jiu is actually gone 🥺💔

3. The scene when Luo Binghe proposed to Shen Qingqiu. I have never been more fond of lbh than in this scene where he’s thinking about proposing to sqq and he becomes a total klutz! Spacing out in the middle of a conversation, tripping over thresholds, stuttering over his words. The way he trips and when sqq goes over to help him, he grabs his hand and asks if he’ll marry him. “Will you become family with me?” 😭❤️❤️❤️

2. The scene that takes place after Shen Qingqiu is tortured by the original LBH and looks into the original SQQ’s memories. The quiet moment he shares with Luo Binghe in the bamboo house. This was such a fascinating scene to me. Even though sqq refuses to think about how he feels for lbh, I think this was a moment he realized that he is not as indifferent to lbh as he says he is. He begs the original lbh not to stop hurting him, but to not hurt him while wearing that face. He sees the original sqq make lbh cry and even though it’s just a memory that he cannot touch, sqq tries to wipe lbh’s tears, hold him close, and tell him that he will never hurt him. It was clear as daylight to me that no matter what sqq said he loves lbh so much. And when he wakes up from such horrid visions and the real lbh asks him if he missed him, he nods his head. And lbh is so overwhelmed and kisses his eyelids and “your eyelashes are so long” and “you are the roundworm in my stomach” I literally CANNOT with this scene. How my dumb sqq didn’t realize he was in love astounds me.

1. The scene where Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu talk on Maigu Ridge and afterward. These two… are so bad at talking to each other. And I completely get it! Like, the system’s awful rules aside (preventing sqq from telling lbh why he hurt him in the abyss), there’s this mental image they have of each other that they can’t seem to get rid of. Sqq denying his own feelings and seeing lbh as either the heterosexual protagonist or his disciple who he will make decisions for. Lbh charging forward with his feelings and seeing sqq as both the cold, stoic peak lord he’s afraid of and the one person he loves who showed him kindness. There’s this disconnect. And shortly before the disaster on Maigu Ridge, sqq realizes that things would never have gotten so out of hand if he had just listened to lbh and talked to him. So once these two reach their literal worst point and sqq brings lbh’s consciousness back, they finally talk to each other as the world is collapsing around them. Sqq even returns the jade necklace he had kept hidden from lbh all those years ago. And when sqq is about to sacrifice himself (again) to save the world from xin mo’s destruction, he tries to get lbh to leave so that only one of them has to die. And that’s the thing: It is a good thing, sacrificing yourself so that the one that you love will live. It would’ve been healthier if lbh weren’t so codependent on sqq that he cannot live without him. But these two are always pushing aside each other’s wishes, not listening to what the other one wants. What lbh wants is to stay with sqq. And this time, sqq listens to lbh’s wishes and holds him tight. Afterward, when sqq wakes up in his home, he immediately asks about lbh and searches for him, wanting to follow him. He’s finally letting go of fear and chasing after what he wants, instead of what he feels he needs to do. And idk man. There’s something so nice about how they choose to stay by each other, even though they’ve gone through so much.

[magnificentstrangerchaos]

Books

It's so incredibly exhausting to live in the middle of nowhere, you know? I can't believe that my first post on his website after years of forsaking it for the comfort of Twitter (believe it or not) brings me here so I could whine about how Am/zon asks for my skin and kidneys every time I decide I desire something. While beggars can't be choosers and I am blessed someone out there decided to offer MXTX's books to my grabby, greedy little hands (thank you Bookholic for supporting this obsession so far even though I don't understand why I had to literally find the third book of SVSSS on the lowest shelf of an Orange Books shops) it's still frustrating that something old, but gold is unreachable at this day and age. I could always wait for when I have the money, right? Maybe I should be less greedy and buy the Kindle version to have it over with? It's the memories that are important to me in regards to these books. Imagine a wee lass figuring out her way through Wattpad with her big eyes and wide smile, just fresh off 'Scary Stories' the APP where she published her first work of fiction at the age of 12 and it got 1K views. She finds books that are hard to read, but are so comforting and interesting she can't drop them even during school. While other people chatted with their friends I was at the back being a little rapscallion reading werewolf fanfiction with my phone hidden inside my pencil case. I stumbled upon 'Bite the Bullet' by Angela Louise McGurk and latched onto it so hard I could forever taste the bittersweet satisfaction of seeing that the Author managed to publish her works because people loved them. I went to her website, and I found that she had updated it in 2022. I'm so glad someone that built up my love for MODERN vampire and mythos is doing alright. After that, I familiarized myself with 'Dragon's Prize' by Maya Starling and have re-read it multiple times by the time it came out. The story was amazing, really worthy of being spread once again as a classic fantasy romance that had everything you'd want from it. I've abandoned Wattpad for many years now, deleted my account mayhaps... In... May? Because I wanted the name I am known with for my SFW work to not be linked to anything else. A start-all-over if you will. I'm greedy for owning physical copies of books, they are my one pride and joy with so much that I have yet to accomplish in the landscape of things I failed to fight for. Because I really want to learn from those I admire and what better way than to directly consume? Take a little sip from the spring of knowledge, have a nibble of the forbidden apple. It's just increasingly frustrating the more often I go back looking through the websites and links that offer only one book, be it first or second, through websites that are blocked, that ask for shipping more expensive than the book itself. I hope that in the future the websites that literally feel like smugglers over the border, the types that pass you the order through the garden fence like it's illegal, would continue providing what we need in this small, beautiful, but sadly unproviding and un-nurturing spot in the world.

Because hope dies last, and only after it - I.

[spockandawe]

I doubt this is something I’ll ever even try to write, because I rarely have the energy these days to devote my energy to a ‘lol but what if’ ship. But never say never, and I legit wrote the emilonni and tlj/sqq fics, after all, so I’m going to write this down and maybe, possibly, someday come back to it.

Now, hear me out

Wei Wuxian/Jin Zixun

Yes, yes, I know, but give me a second. It’s the sort of ship where I kind of want to do it just to see if it can be done, and where the idea of ‘textual support’ is kind of laughable, and it’s not like I’m smashing together two super-popular characters who just never happened to speak, and it’s the kind of ship where I think I could only shake one fic out of it before I was repeating myself, BUT.

First, a quote:

The person at the head of the group was Jin Zixun. He said, “Zixuan, is that Wei making trouble for you again?!”

Jin Zixuan said, “None of your business, don’t worry about it for now!” Seeing that Wei Wuxian grabbed Jiang Yanli and was about to take her away, he added, “Stop!”

Wei Wuxian said, “Oh, you want to fight? That’s fine with me!”

Jin Zixun said, “You Wei, just what do you mean by going against Zixuan so many times?”

Wei Wuxian looked at him. “Who are you?”

Jin Zixun paused in shock, and fumed, “You don’t know who I am?!”

“Why should I know who you are?”

When the Sunshot Campaign had first broken out, Jin Zixun had insisted on defending the back lines, due to an injury. He hadn’t had the chance to see what Wei Wuxian was like on the front lines, and most of his knowledge had come from rumors. He hadn’t care much for him, thinking that the rumors were simply exaggerations. However, a while ago, Wei Wuxian had summoned all of the dark creatures in the forest with a whistle, calling away the fierce corpses Jin Zixun’s group had been about to capture, causing their efforts to be wasted. He was already displeased.

Now, in front of his face, Wei Wuxian was asking who he was, stirring up a strange sense of indignation within him— He knew Wei Wuxian, yet Wei Wuxian didn’t know him, and even dared ask who he was in front of everyone. It was as if this had caused him to lose too much face. The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became.

Now, there’s a thoughtful meta I hopefully reblogged to my sideblog, which I would have to dig up or recreate on my own, about the most sympathetic possible reading of Jin Zixun. If memory serves, it has a lot to do about the precarious nature of his social position, where he’s part of the Jin clan, and kind of the closest thing Jin Zixuan has to a brother, but also, everyone knows that Jin Zixuan has half-siblings coming out of the woodwork, and many of them would be stoked to get Jin Guangshan to accept them into the family. At this stage in the story, Jin Guangyao is already a major player and a hero of the war and part of the venerated triad, where Jin Zixun spent a lot of time... not in the thick of things, like most other peers of his generation.

Is he an asshole? Yes! Is... Wei Wuxian an asshole? Also yes! One of them may be a more likeable asshole than the other, but that’s part of the excitement of a story like this, trying to coax people into holding a fannish position that they’d never considered before, and aren’t particularly eager to be convinced of. I don’t think I’m bad at that uphill climb, it just takes a lot of energy that I don’t often have to begin that journey in the first place. Also, one of these assholes is a certified grade-A torturer, and it’s probably not the one you dislike. Jin Zixun isn’t starting from an insurmountable disadvantage here. 

And see, the thing that got my attention is this: Earlier in this chapter, Wei Wuxian is a little melancholy, thinking about how since the Sunshot Campaign, lots of people are scared of him, hardly anyone is willing to be alone with him, and almost nobody would ever be willing to approach him alone. And here, we get the information that because Jin Zixun was injured early and wasn’t on the front lines of the Sunshot Campaign, he doesn’t know to be afraid. He tried to provoke Wei Wuxian before the hunt, he’s about to keep provoking Wei Wuxian, he’s Jin Zixun and he doesn’t afraid of anything. Yes, he’s about to say some very hurtful things, but I look at that, and I think ‘okay, now how do we recover from this?’ Giving Wei Wuxian someone who just... plain isn’t afraid of him (but is also derailed by me, your author, from taking that to unrecoverable places) would be good for him. Jiang Cheng will antagonize him and isn’t afraid of him, but they also share years of history and are dealing with a lot of other stresses in this situation, and Jiang Cheng is asking things from Wei Wuxian that Wei Wuxian is struggling to provide, and the golden core thing is still hanging between them. Lan Wangji isn’t afraid of Wei Wuxian, but Wei Wuxian parses his concern and worries as antagonism and criticism, and those stress him out in a whole different way. This dynamic, as much as I would have to work to make it happen, would bring something new to the table.

One of my favorite activities is crackshipping with sincerity, and when I poke at this, it genuinely feels like richer territory than it looks at first glance. A lot of the antagonists share some fascinating character notes with our lead, and what’s most interesting to me here is an elevated-but-precarious social position and the various stresses that puts upon our characters. Jin Guangyao is the most obvious example, and Su She echoes it more quietly, with how he struggled within the Lan Sect and eventually left (honestly, kudos to him for him and mianmian to be two of the only characters to realize that their home was hurting them and to leave). Jin Zixun is in a family position that’s close to being brothers with his sect’s heir, but isn’t quite brothers, and is close to the seat of power, but also in a precarious social position if someone acts against him. Jin Guangshan and Madam Jin create a dysfunctional family dynamic to grow up in, where Jin Guangshan’s heart attention strays from his wife, and his wife has beat at least one kid who wasn’t biologically hers in the household.

There’s some common ground, is all I’m saying

I don’t even know what would happen, necessarily, I’m talking this all out here right now, and the interesting part of ships like this is digging in extra deep, and seeing what unexpected thing shakes out. It isn’t quite in the style of the other notable rarepair fics I have managed to write, which tend to follow a paradigm of ‘[person] is floating unmoored from the world, and [love interest] gets them engaged with life again’, but it’s not totally out of line with my interests. Svsss won’t give us more detail about Tianlang-jun? Okay, what happens if I make him hopelessly fond, what happens then? What happens if I properly re-engage his sense of humor? I hardly had anything of substance to go on with Horuss, and that fic is old, but I managed to pull interesting things out of him with Roxy. And I mean... what does happen when Jin Zixun stops self-destructively antagonizing the people around him and starts acting in more neutral ways? Not even positive, I think this relationship is going to have a strong antagonistic component, but what happens if he stops basing his interactions purely on who gets the higher rung on the social ladder?

Now, I do have a problem, which is that plot is something that happens to other people. See also: the reason there has not been a tianlang-jun sequel. I think that it would almost definitely have to do with repairing the situation between Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli and both of them managing to dial it back a LITTLE so as not to completely sabotage their family member’s happiness, and that leading things forward. And in a ridiculous pipe dream that will never be realized, because either possible pov will be completely oblivious, I would also want to include Jin Zixuan’s confused bisexual awakening and his resentful (also confused) attraction towards Wei Wuxian, even if he still ends up with Jiang Yanli, but... wei wuxian isn’t going to notice, and neither is jin zixun, SO. That’s probably right out. And the plot implications would have to be... significant. Setting it post-Sunshot campaign means that the Wen situation is simmering, and any plot that involves me untangling that mess... terrifying! I wouldn’t know where to begin! But like, also. What if I could write this ship in a compelling way. I bet I could do it. Nothing feels as good as the sensation of ‘I have scored points on my own darling readers by convincing them to like something they didn’t want to like’, and usually, I only get that from the second person pov. It would be so hard to write this ship. But also, what if I did it.

[tossawary]

Chapter 19: “Weddings and Funerals” of “pride is not the word I’m looking for” random favorite lines with commentary because I’m doing a re-read. Not a full list or full commentary. 

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 When Shang Qinghua told Mobei-Jun that he didn’t need Shen Qingqiu assassinated, it wasn’t because he thought everything would somehow work out if he just sat back and didn’t do anything. It definitely wasn’t because he was planning a so-called “perfect murder” and didn’t want the demon lord messing up his plans. The Problem of Shen Qingqiu has always been a lot more  complicated than “just get rid of the guy potentially making my nephew’s life a living hell”. That’s why it’s a real problem! 

- 

AN: Shang Qinghua’s thought process: “Can this problem be solved by: 

A) Waiting for the problem to go away? 

B) Murder? 

C) None of the above? 

If the answer is C... 

Fuck, it’s a real problem.” 

- 

 Shang Qinghua thinks that might actually be possible, though he’d have to do some research and smack his head until his Author God memories hopped into line. He thinks that the youth-restoration procedure would probably do the job, but he also thinks that Shen Qingqiu would probably rather be dead than be physically sixteen again or something (super fucking understandable) and have to start the cultivation process over from scratch (ah, that would be so annoying and embarrassing). 

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AN: Given that I actually invented a de-aging potion for this fic (if one that’s difficult to put together), the AU of “Original Shen Qingqiu is physically 16 again” has been rattling around inside my head ever since I wrote these lines. Shen Qingqiu was like, “Wait, let me picture how unbearably overprotective Yue Qingyuan would be... hmm... no, I’ll just stay like this.” 

- 

 Luo Jiahui seems a little anxious about the empty spaces at the table, but she fills the space as best she can by chattering about assorted restaurant business. At least until she abruptly takes a deep breath and says, “Hua-Ge, I have something to tell you.” 

 Shang Qinghua freezes in the middle of taking a drink. His unhelpful brain immediately races to guess the worst possible conversational subjects. His sister-in-law has somehow figured out that he’s a transmigrator?! His sister-in-law has decided that her son is not going to the Demon Realm under any circumstances?! His sister-in-law knows Binghe better than he does and has realized that the young protagonist is being abused after all?! Oh,  fuck, what is it? 

 “I’m getting married!” Luo Jiahui announces, breathlessly. 

 “Oh,” Shang Qinghua says, heart rate going at the speed of sound. “Wait,  what?” 

- 

AN: This chapter is why I didn’t go into the details of LJH/LQG in the last chapter, immediately post-timeskip. I wanted to blindside everyone with an “Oh, it’s THAT serious?!” moment. The last chapter established that “SQH is handling things”, then this chapter establishes that, as the plot goes on, “SQH is only barely handling things”. Which helps prep the following breakdown with the System World Update in chapters 20-22. 

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 “You didn’t have any time for yourself,” Shang Qinghua agrees, following this conversation of very obvious things that he already knew so far. He didn’t have any time for himself back then either, between organizing a conference and finding a cure on top of the usual day-in-day-out of the sect. “You did a really good job looking after them all by yourself!” 

 “They don’t always agree with that,” Luo Jiahui says, smiling but self-deprecating. 

 “Aha, well, they’re young.” 

 The disagreements of what was best for the children is why Shang Qinghua really had to get Fanli (who didn’t see herself as a child) out of the house by any means necessary. He was at a bit of a loss at how else to help. She was never part of  Proud Immortal Demon Way! Not even as a fragment of backstory mentioned in passing! Shang Qinghua struggles to compensate for these extra people who were never characters sometimes. 

 “Qingge was very understanding,” Luo Jiahui says. “But… well… then Fanli was gone and I had the restaurant keeping me busy, but that was all my own choice… and what good was waiting really doing us? It didn’t have to be everything or nothing. So… we talked… about what we wanted and what- what we were afraid of… and we decided to go forward slowly.” 

- 

AN: I said in the Author’s Notes on AO3 that I was going to use Jiage to shame Moshang and Qijiu, and I meant it. TALK TO EACH OTHER!!! Shang Qinghua, you need to talk to Mobei-Jun about what you want! Shang Qinghua, you can’t keep putting things on hold because of the plot! 

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 No offense to either his sister-in-law or his junior martial brother, but aren’t love stories supposed to be a little more… fiery? 

 “When I was younger, I thought that falling in love was supposed to be all excitement and passion and not being able to live without someone even for a second,” Luo Jiahui admits, a little wistfully. “I thought that it was supposed to be thinking about them all the time, not being able to stay away from each other, and needing to know what they’d been doing every second they were away. It was like becoming a completely different person. I thought that being in love was about one of us getting horribly jealous every time we even talked to someone else, doing things I didn’t really understand and changing myself just to keep him happy, and keeping secrets and sneaking around just to keep things from exploding. Because love is not being able to help yourself like that, right?” 

 Shang Qinghua can’t really manage to speak right now. 

 It’s like someone has cut his fucking throat. 

 Which is fine! 

 “But that ended really badly for me,” Luo Jiahui says, with a nervous huff at her own understatement. “It was very exciting, but looking back, being in that kind of love was also very frightening sometimes… and it was a little lonely too… being in love with someone I couldn’t really talk to or trust.” 

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AN: This is more specifically vagueing SVSSS Bingqiu than Moshang, but it’s also shaming Moshang too. Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky wrote some extremely messed-up romances and he would have said, “Yes! It’s all super messed-up! That’s kind of the point!” But it also means that the man can’t really conceptualize (at least at first) or articulate the kind of relationship he would actually be happy to have with Mobei-Jun, especially when his relationship with Mobei-Jun had such violent beginnings 

- 

 The first person he tells himself is, weirdly enough, Qi Qingqi. Liu Qingge apparently already told both Liu Mingyan and Luo Fanli before he left, so Shang Qinghua heads over to see how the girls are handling it. (Also, he wants to pump Liu Mingyan for information on her mother’s opinions on weddings and marriage, in a really pathetic attempt to ready himself for the rumble.) He makes her agree to keep the information to herself before telling and she does, like a bro! 

 And then he tells and she laughs in his fucking face! Eventually, she realizes that he’s looking for sympathy, he’s not just here to let her enjoy his suffering, as a form of payment after everything he and Liu Qingge have inflicted on her. Then she laughs at him again, even louder. 

 Sure, he’d laugh too if he was in her shoes! But not to her face! Rude! 

 - 

AN: Qi Qingqi also pointed while laughing, I think. It’s funny because it’s not her dealing with Liu Family shit this time. 

- 

 Shang Qinghua expected, this time last year, to be laser-focused on the plot! His attention was not going to stray even a little bit, he promised himself; he was going to be 110% dedicated to making sure that everyone he tripped into caring about made it through the least shitty version of  Proud Immortal Demon Way  possible. He was going to be a  machine  of a transmigrator! No distractions! All he wanted was for his family to make it through the quickest, least shitty bare bones of a plot! And he was going to  achieve, damn it! 

 Instead, he finds himself planning his sister-in-law’s wedding and it eats up time he didn’t fucking know he had to give. Immortal Alliance Conference, eat your fucking heart out! Cang Qiong Mountain Sect? Did he work there? Nope, he’s never heard of the place! He’s the Peak Lord of wedding planning now! 

- 

AN: This is me telling myself I’m going to get my life 100% together and then getting into a new video game and baking cookies instead. Or ditching my housecleaning plans to hang out with friends at a moment’s notice. 

- 

 At the wedding itself, Fanli tells her sister’s father-in-law that Binghe is also  very into birds and Shang Qinghua’s nephew spends a good chunk of the rest of the celebrations (and his precious time away from Qing Jing Peak) held hostage by his own politeness, listening to his new grandfather earnestly tell him about the various migration habits of demonic birds. 

 Well! Better him than Shang Qinghua, honestly! 

-

AN: Inspired by that time we went on vacation and one of my brothers got mistaken by one of our travelling companions for a budding serious birdwatcher instead of someone who just thinks they’re neat - and also likes to point at them and intentionally call them by the wrong name. 

Also, LQG’s Dad in this fic and SY would probably get along super well. 

LQG and his dad in this universe have gone out on month-long camping trips to in which they pretty much don’t talk the entire time. They stalk monsters through the wilderness and have a great time.

- 

 Shang Qinghua is too busy keeping an eye on Luo Fanli and being  not talked to by Liu Mingyan, who is eighteen-ish years old now he thinks and still deeply embarrassed by the fact that he told her off for her real person fiction. (He doesn’t want to discourage her passion for writing! She’s pretty good for a kid! It’s pretty cute! Everyone needs their escapist hobbies! He just doesn’t want identifying information about his family being spread around freely, even if the characterizations of the couple are… uh… wildly reimagined, and he doesn't want to have to spend his very valuable time keeping a lookout for more illicit fiction.) It’s difficult to read her expression through the ever-present veil, but… yeah, she’s still pissed off at him.

 Ugh, teenagers. 

 Binghe is not allowed to bring several hundred nieces-in-law into Shang Qinghua's life. Just... no. Fuck, no. 

 He doesn’t even get a date to commiserate about this with. 

 It’s a very small wedding, family only (Luo Jiahui’s shitty parents  don’t count  and her older brother was forced to decline the invitation), so that Luo Jiahui and Liu Qingge can keep their privacy. Madam Liu huffed about it - the battles in talking her down were both great and terrible - but her son stood his ground! Sure, people might whine someday about not being invited, but the great thing about Liu Qingge is that they can more or less just say,  “Well, we couldn’t stop him from doing whatever he wanted!”  And people just have to take that unless they want to claim they could take on the Bai Zhan Peak War God! 

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AN: Trying to imagine the AU in which SQH brought MBJ as his date to this wedding. SQH would’ve liked to be able to bring MBJ as a date, but alas, they are not dating and the groom would probably try to kill the man. 

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 Shang Qinghua is not expecting, soon after returning from his sister-in-law’s happy and long-awaited wedding, to be solemnly informed that Shen Qingqiu’s health has only really deteriorated these past months. Wow, that’s a huge downer. 

 Also, he already knew that? He’s been getting Mu Qingfang all the right supplies to treat their shixiong. He didn’t actually abandon his duties to the sect for a family wedding. He knew that Shen Qingqiu had fallen sufficiently ill to need tending on Qian Cao Peak in the past month and he considered it, well, convenient timing in regards to Binghe’s permission to attend his mother’s wedding not being randomly revoked. Cold-hearted, maybe! But he had lots of other things to worry about at the time, like informing Mobei-Jun that his sister-in-law was getting married and so he’d be regrettably absent to attend the wedding. 

 Then he’s told that Shen Qingqiu is not expected to improve this time. 

  “Oh, shit, they really think he’s dying,” Shang Qinghua realizes. 

 This really wasn’t in  Proud Immortal Demon Way. 

- 

AN: I seriously contemplated cutting this chapter in half because of this mood switch. Like, I went in intending on writing a serious mood switch, but in practice, wow. It felt like a lot more in practice. 

- 

 “Our sect leader asks about the boy and his progress,” Shen Qingqiu rasps, his voice turning more and more accusing. “He’s  so very  concerned about the boy. We can’t have such a beloved child  crying  to his devoted family that he’s been mistreated or neglected, can we? How flattering these assumptions are. It makes a man wonder what exactly people think he’s going to  do to the boy.” 

 Shang Qinghua might have an itemized list somewhere, honestly. 

 “Ah, I can’t speak for anyone else,” Shang Qinghua says finally. “But please don’t take it personally, Shen-Shixiong. I don’t really trust anyone. Anything can happen behind a locked door, you know?” 

 Some honest cynicism can go over well with the man. 

 Shen Qingqiu laughs bitterly now. 

- 

AN: It can be fun in media where Character A is like, “Ahhh, I hope no one discovers my secret!” And Character B is like, “So, about this extremely obvious thing that you’re doing...!” 

Shen Qingqiu is as honest and open as he is throughout this scene because he honestly thinks that he’s dying. He’s determined to be blithe about it. 

- 

Shang Qinghua at least gets to see Mu Qingfang’s face journey as Shen Qingqiu accuses their sect leader of letting him think that he’d left him to die. As Shen Qingqiu yells about being treated like an unwanted ghost, as a potential blackmailer, as an embarrassing disappointment, as a petty troublemaker, as a spoiled child, as a problem to be solved, and as the last blemish on Yue Qingyuan’s reputation - anything but as someone worthy of being trusted with Yue Qingyuan’s problems and of being treated like an equal friend. 

 Yue Qingyuan tries to explain that he didn’t think Shen Qingqiu wanted to hear his excuses, and Shen Qingqiu shoots back that he would rather fucking die than beg the man he’d thought had forgotten about him to explain when exactly he became not worth rescuing as soon as possible. 

 Yue Qingyuan tries to explain that he didn’t want Shen Qingqiu’s pity or to force the man to be grateful that he’d  tried. 

 Shen Qingqiu tells the man to go fuck himself. How could it not hurt for someone he loved to hurt him and then just…  move past the hurt  like the pain wasn’t  who they were? 

 “All the world could revile me… reject me… leave me to die… and I would pay their hatred no heed! What do they truly know of what I am? Of who I am?” Shen Qingqiu demands. “But if  Qi-Ge  could throw me away… decide that I just wasn’t worth the  trouble anymore now that he’d had a taste of a better life… then I really must be wretched beyond all things at the root! If he believed it, then… then it had to be true.” 

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AN: Because I just wrote a Qijiu confrontation over this exact thing, like, a few days before, I thought that I could get away with writing out this entire confrontation in full. I think it works better if the audience has to imagine some of it. And because SQH is the POV character, it felt right that he not be in the room and not be a full witness to this scene. He doesn’t get to see everything.