#xie lian pincushion

[kamoteqeater]

update: i did the hair on the xie lian pincushion

[afsosville]

A BingJiu AU where Luo Binghe goes to Huan Hua instead of Cang Qiong>>

Shen Jiu’s life is pretty much how it is PIDW, but you just subtract Luo Binghe from the equation. The Qiu manor still happens, Shen Jiu is scorned by his martial siblings, Liu Qingge ends up dead, and it's not Shen Jiu’s fault, and the trial is initiated by the Old Palace Pervert. Shen Jiu is at most super negligent to his disciples and straight-up chooses to ignore their existence. So, it was not nearly as bad as his treatment of Luo Binghe because the boy was a walking trigger for Shen Jiu, but he ain���t around to set those triggers off. Qiu Haitang makes her appearance, and Shen Jiu’s name is dragged through the mud, and he, into the water prison. He is not having a good time in there. Yue Qingyuan doesn’t get the Xie Lian treatment so he’s not impaled by a thousand arrows and cosplays as a pincushion. He still attempts a rescue mission but is convinced by the Old Palace Scourge that Shen Jiu is dead and Yue Qingyuan immediately goes into a Qi Deviation that leaves him crippled (again).

Shen Jiu eventually ends up finding out about the rescue attempt and they end up patching things up.

Now onto Luo Binghe’s side of things. He goes to Huan Hua instead of Cang Qiong and gets immediately accepted after the Old Palace Fossil lays his eyes on him. He’s just as obsessed with him as he was with Su Xiyan. Luo Binghe is made head disciple and is adored by his sectmates and elders.

During one of the many conferences between sects, Shen Jiu picks up on the weirdness between Luo Binghe and the Old Palace P3d0phile and immediately recognizes him as Su Xiyan’s son. At that moment the typical hatred Shen Jiu would’ve felt for Luo Binghe doesn’t exist (bc that’s still some other sect’s disciple and couldn’t care less), and he can feel the predatory gazes rankle at his insides. In a lapse of judgment, he says a few subtle words about the boy’s shizun. Luo Binghe quickly picks up on the meaning but dismisses it because of the rumours surrounding Shen Jiu himself.

Luo Binghe eventually finds out the truth about his parents and confronts the Old Palace Creep in the immortal alliance conference and when he finds out Luo Binghe is no longer under the control of his manipulations, He is sent down, down, down, into the Endless Abyss. Shen Jiu’s trial happens during those five years he’s in there. And when Binghe crawls out of the Endless Abyss, he’s our completely blackened lotus who’s out for fucking blood and razes Huan Hua to the ground. The Old Palace Bastard gets what’s coming for him and gets the human stick treatment as he should. Luo Binghe rescues Shen Jiu from the water prison himself and their relationship blooms from there :) He recognized the Qing Jing Peak Lord as the person who warned him all those years ago and discovers that all the accusations are utter bullshit. And you know what happens from there in typical Luo Binghe fashion. He becomes obsessed with him and takes his every word as law. Shen Jiu is the only person he can even trust at the moment, and sees him as the person who hung up the moon and the stars because of that one deed Shen Jiu did on a whim.

Shen Jiu also vaguely remembers him and sees that Luo Binghe is hellbent on destroying the sects and running them into the ground. And Luo Binghe also happens to want to free him from the prison for some reason and Shen Jiu's like ohh sweet I get outta here! And proceeds to make him absolutely annihilate Cang Qiong. Nothing spells romance more than getting vengeance together on the sect’s that ruined their lives lol.

Also, I wanna know how a Luo Binghe who is getting good treatment in his sect, is well liked/respected, and then getting betrayed the way he did would turn out. His revenge on his shizun would be even more personal and hateful because of what his shizun did to his parents as well. It would definitely hurt more, but again, he still was treated well and wasn’t getting abused, so would that mean he would be less violent?? For the SV it’s different bc he still lived a shit life on Qing Jing before the coddling and that is another kind of mind fuckery idk. His obsession for Shen Qingqiu is unchanging that’s for sure haha.

Bonus points if Shen Jiu knew Luo Binghe would end up becoming a powerful figure in some way. So he decided to cryptically warn him about the OPM because he recognized Luo Binghe as the type of person who pays back his kindness debts and thought he could get in good with him yknow. And it worked!!!

He just didn't think that falling in love with the person who actually cared about finding the truth behind his 'crimes' and someone who genuinely believed he deserved better and wanted to help him get his revenge would be part of the process.

[levemetal]

I have a million and one svsss AU ideas that idk if I'll ever write cause I have 0 confidence in my untested writing skills. Any of these appeal to you?? Go ahead, use 'em. Know any fanfics like that? Please please PLEASE leave them in the comments. Ideas to add? Anything? Please go ahead I have no friends that are as deep in the svsss brainrot as me to subject this to ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅ )‧º·˚

Continued under the cut due to excessive rambling

These will be Ghost King/Calamity!SJ cause he has been living rentfree in my brain ever since one braincell at one AM shouted about it so you have been warned.

- Dual Ghost Kings YQY and SJ, Post canon of PIDW. That's it that's the idea. Their extras hurt my cold dead heart way too much and as much as bbygirl SJ is a piece of shit, Yue Qingyuan deserves happiness, and for that he needs his Xiao-Jiu. Basically YQY does not stay dead when Bingge turns him into a pincushion à la White No Face to Xie Lian except with arrows. What happens from here? Idk didn't get that far but I imagine he steals back his (probably dead) Xiao-Jiu, maybe does some other batshit insane shit like we all know that deep down he's capable of, and the duo fucking COMMUNICATES for once in their life and they live happily ever after. Bonus points for hilarious deaths for Bingge.

- If you're a filthy multishipper like me, want a BingJiu version of the above QiJiu? Easy, SJ decides to haunt Bingge's ass for eternity and vice versa when Bingge kicks the bucket and so they spent the rest of eternity trying to make each other miserable in increasingly ridiculous and creative ways. Maybe along the centuries they find a common enemy or sort their shit out and proceed to make their awful existence everyone else's problem. A match made in hell, truly <3

Are you seeing a theme yet. I like a general comedic air to svsss AUs, it just belongs to the svsss experience ya know? Anyway carrying on-

Shen twins, and SQH twins cause why not. If you want Binghe twins too, actually probably funnier with Binghe twins, where one is our beloved maiden Bingmei and the other OG!PIDW Bingge but forced back in time with memories of the PIDW timeline. Transmigrator SQH aka Airplane gets the peak lord + Mobei-Jun plotline while OG!SQH is just chilling as an An Ding Peak Hallmaster or something. Meanwhile, the Shen twins have a funny game of imposter going on. As far as everyone is concerned, there is only one Shen Qingqiu, Shen Yuan. Shen Yuan transmigrated in earlier into the novel, but ended up going to CQM with Yue Qi while SJ got stuck in the Qiu household as in canon. From here the details can change but the main idea is that

A) Shen Yuan knows how to do his peak lord job actually

B) SJ is a calamity ghost, having died either in his disciple years or alternatively never made it out of the Qiu household alive

C) Both SY and SJ have been playing switcheroo when SY needs to head out and do stuff or just wants SJ to do his paperwork for him.

I still need a good reason for the switching and duping, but wouldn't it be funny if the disciples just had to deal with their peak lord behaving WILDLY different at times. Most of the time it's good ol' Shen Yuan smiling at disciples, way too enthusiastic for monsters and plants and keeps forgetting his fans everywhere. Then one random week in the month after he has a resting bitch face, scowls, snarls and bitches at anyone and has 0 patience for teenage attempts at music.

Most shrug it off as just terrible migraine weeks, but some disciples are suspicious, most of all Bingge who is CONVINCED something is WrongTM. Like, he KNOWS SQQ and this SQQ is just so different, something must be different. He doesn't know how right he is yet everyone just thinks he's actually insane.

I know this is probably increasingly insane and dumb, but fast forward to the Abyss opening. SJ was probably there to keep an eye on his clumsy twin, but SY ends up asking the ghost to look over the Luos, as the system still demands that they go to the abyss. So SJ after much grumbling agrees (after all he probably just was unmasked as ghost calamity, and the twins as demons, with a huge amount of cultivators moving their way. It's really the smaller hassle to jump into the Abyss and deal with the horrors there. Besides, the scholar in SJ would be curious about the abyss (and SY too let's be honest) ), kicks both in and goes "Alright we're taking an impromptu field trip" and jumps in after leaving SY to deal with the political mess that comes after.

Anyway, the last AU can be changed in various ways, like make it a PIDW time travel fix it with only the OGs around, or just Shen twins, etc. Feel free to shout at me how dumb this all is.

[markthekng]

I see too much talk about how Hua Cheng's pining, constant search for Xie Lian, observing him without his knowledge is creepy, but not enough discussion about how White Clothed Calamity Arc Xie Lian would probably be an enabler to that behavior.

Potential spoilers under the cut

Like, at any given point, Hua Cheng's behavior is meant to protect Xie Lian. He's lost him so many times, watched him be used as a pincushion, saw him rise and fall over and over again with no way to help him. Why would he be so clingy and anxious about Xie Lian's well being at all times? Because he's seen what can happen to him when he fails to protect him.

Meanwhile white clothed Calamity was when Xie Lian had reached his lowest. And as a result of everything he'd become cold and didn't really care what Wuming did as long as he did what he was told since he only served as a point of annoyance and a reminder of his failure to Xianle. Out of annoyance if Wuming tried to do anything like keep watch over Xie Lian, he would have gotten pissed off and told him to just do it without him having to deal with his presence.

Meanwhile white clothed Xie Lian would have unhesitatingly gripped Wuming by the chin and looked him in the eyes to say, "You are a constant source of annoyance in my life and if it weren't for your devotion I would have thrown you into the pits of hell. I have no time for your pathetic whims of romance and lovey dovey bullshit. You want romantic? I'll slice your arms off and suck your veins dry to spit your tainted blood back into your own mouth! Now do us all a favor and beat it!"

Like, it's definitely not an excuse, but with how cold Xie Lian got and how willing he was to do things like spread plague, collect souls, and murder, you'd definitely think Hua Cheng would pick up on something like, "well, if he can do that and be fine with it, I can probably do something like that.

Or maybe I'm thinking too much, idk.

[just-a-little-kreature]

XIE LIAN PINCUSHION KEEPS HUMAN FACE DISEASE AWAY [NOT CLICKBAIT]*

*needles must be stuck in the heart in order to render the method effective!!! (and it also keeps them from getting lost inside the pincushion!!!!)

[squaloropera]

How I see the tgcf timeline as someone who hasn’t gotten far enough to have my theories proved or not

(Note: this is based on what little evidence I’ve been given and mostly fandom spoilers)

Sp firstly, Jun Wu is a dope ass prince but has his kingdom all die to a volcano (I think) and ends up living what is basically a parallel to Xie Lian’s life (will touch on that later) but ends up becoming the emperor of heaven and just all around a real ominous dude. Before that, he became that half-smiley half-frowny dude (white-clothed calamity I think? Or, he might have just dressed up as that during the fall of Xianle? Idk yet)

He uses his little heaven binoculars or something and sees that Xie Lian is living his best life in Xianle and is an incredibly dope ass prince, just like JW was when he was alive mortal so JW decided to go ‘Haha kin’ and ruin his entire life because ‘Body in abyss mind in paradise’ or whatever the fuck his saying is (I think it’s actually cause he’s a bitch but whatever). Xie Lian has the worst life humanly (godly?) possible after that and also almost becomes a calamity but doesn’t for some reason idk. Then he gets banished and then ascends a second time, during which he lasts a whole thirty seconds as a god and gets turned into sort of (sword of haha) a pincushion (I’ll see myself out) and then banished again. Then he ascends a third time and the Story starts, and he ends up getting a ghost boyfriend who had the hots for him cause he caught him one time when he yeeted himself off a building. Eventually HC fucking dies somehow, idk how that happens. Qi Rong gets turned into a lamp somehow and now Guzi is traumatised (I think it was Lang Qianqiu (Who has a tiger for some reason btw) who did it?Fuck if I know. Also right before getting lampified Qi Rong might take Jun Wu’s side in something he shouldn’t which I honestly can’t say is out of character cause he’s a little shit. Anyways)

After all the mt tong’lu shit (that’s where I’m at rn) I imagine everyone tries to beat the shit outta Jun Wu and that’s probably where Hua Cheng dies, but idk. Will update later when I can be bothered to read more.

[bonfireart1]

Headcanon Xie Lian

My main heads:

There are rare moles on the face and body

After the pincushion, there was a scar on the chest and stomach

Prefers to hide scars and cangs with bandages

There is gray hair, Got it after the pincushion

[gotinterest]

Hua Cheng is still deeply traumatized over the Xie Lian Pincushion Incident

[theunstablejester]

There is only one character that I could ever consider as in the same level as suffering from Anthy and that is David "Solid Snake" Metal Gear. Literally no one else I could ever think near Anthy's level, maybe Xie Lian as a fellow pincushion.

[tylerjaaay]

Dianxia ✨

[rohneart]

friend called Xie Lian a tragic pincushion

[kamoteqeater]

HE IS COMPLETE

[egelantier]

Tian Guan Ci Fu

where is it and what is it

it’s a chinese webnovel by mxtx, the same author who did untamed; it exists as a webnovel, finished and kindly translated here, the manhwa, the donghua (animated adaptation) happening right now, and there’s a live action adaptation in plans, directed by the same guy who did untamed. the donghua is gorgeous, the adaptation i’m unsure about but prepared to be hopeful, the manhwa seems to be very pretty. but all the adaptations only cover the very beginning of the novel for now, so i went ahead and read the novel, and i have no regrets. it helps that the translation is very good - not without awkward translatorese, but it has consistent and engaging flow and style, and it’s also pretty good at conveying mxtx’s humor without awkwardness. it reads pretty well.

what’s it about?

the world is split into two parts: mortals and various ghosts and demons and entities share the land, while ‘heaven officials’, aka gods, live in the heavenly kingdom in the sky. pretty much anybody can become a god if they do something really heroic or memorable and/or cultivate (meditation, training, virtuous behavior) really hard. when above, the gods rule their domains and fulfill their believers’ wishes; they work sort of like pratchettian gods, dependent on their followers’ beliefs and getting influenced by them. heavens are strictly hierarchical, with their own economy and pecking order, and the gods aren’t particularly sinless or benevolent; mostly it’s a question of scale.

our hero, xie lian, is a prince of a prosperous kingdom who’s been on a fast track to ascension for most of his very short life; he’s talented, he’s virtuous, he’s kind, he’s strong, and his only peculiar flaw is (somehow naive, but well-meaning) obsession with equality and value of human lives and so on. he becomes a god, unexpectedly, at seventeen, after slaying one especially dangerous god, and rises in heaven at the peak of his faith, influence and happiness.

…and then he finds out about drought and incipient trouble in his own kingdom, and, being a young and righteous god too close to his mortality, eschews heavens and returns to save everybody. it, to put it lightly, does not go well. at all. in fact, it goes catastrophically wrong, and, having lost everything, xie lian ascends again, only to get into a fight with the heavenly emperor, and get banished again, this time for good. he roams the mortal lands for next eight hundred of very lonely, luckless and hard years, technically immortal but not invincible, with his powers and his luck stripped away, and leans to make do, eking out a living as a scrap collector. his temples are desecrated, his name is forgotten, his kingdom is long gone, and - well. so it goes.

so it goes! until one day, to everybody’s great surprise, he ascends once again: a humble, gentle, immune to embarrassment, unflappable man, an embarrassment to heavens, a 'laughingstock of three realms’ who just wants to be left well enough alone. he’s Tired.

instead of rest, he gets sent to investigate a dangerous ghost stealing brides who pass through its mountain, and there, during the course of the interrogation, has his first (he thinks) meeting with a terrifying, old-powerful and vengeful ghost king named hua cheng, who likes to terrorize heavens from time to time. but said ghost king seems to be very benevolent and very interested in helping xie lian, and xie lian is pretty instantly smitten… with knowing what’s the cause of such interest.

…and meanwhile, in the beginning, there'was an unlucky boy, born under the worst stars, whom xie lian saved from falling once, while still mortal, and promptly lost track of. a lot of things happened to this boy, who wanted to be the most devoted worshipper to xie lian the god of the sword and the flower. as one does, you know.

that’s the beginning! from there on: investigations, heavenly secrets, old friends and enemies and acquaintances, thematic parallels, old tragedies, more pining than you can shake a stick at, grand acts of love.

is it good?

it’s very, very good. it’s the first fantasy cnovel i read (aside from the hilarious one about a guy traveling back in his own timeline and becoming a sugar baby to a mafia boss, which was in a very different league), so i don’t know which things are baseline and which things are unique, but it had a very solid foundation: ambitious multilevel, multi-timeline plot coming together in the end both events- and emotions-wise, beautifully iddy main relationship, maybe multifaceted characters who change and grow and clash together in fun ways, a clear and heartfelt understanding of its own core themes.

it’s also, unexpectedly, very funny, in this visual, slapsticky, begs-to-be-adapted way - i found myself laughing out loud over it a lot of times, and it possesses this gift of swerve between understated but earnest emotions and all-out jokes that i associate with… a bit of prattchett and a bit of gintama, honestly. take it as you will.

(oh my god the mecha. i will laugh over this one until i die.)

it also made me cry several times; granted, it’s not like it’s this time, but those were very heartfelt tears.

and the main duo?

first let me say that xie lian was lifted out, wholesale, out of my deepest character preferences. he fell really, really far, and did some bad things, and some very horrible things were done to him, and by the time we meet him he went through everything and achieved this effortless kind of traumatized, humble, accepting, wryly self-deprecating, utterly competent chill that makes a character incredibly appealing to me. he’s kind, and he’s sweet, and he’s gotten any possible embarrassment at least a couple of centuries ago, and he kinda made peace with himself and kinda didn’t. i love him.

and, thankfully for me, hua cheng, the ghost king, loves him a whole damn lot, a ridiculous amount, an epic, over-the-lifetimes, life-shattering amount, and he’s a terrifying presence to everybody else and a shy, protective, sweet dork to xie lian, and every time they’re together on page my entire heart is just. it’s AMAZING. he’s a great combination of playing the obsessive protective yandere stalker-lover trope straight and putting it on its head, by making hua cheng not just revere but respect xie lian, in all his good and bad decisions.

they are just so - good for each other, holy shit. they get each other so well. they’re the best ever power team. i love them.

(the rest of canon is various character reenacting “really? in front of my salad?” meme at them. it’s hysterical, and it’s the best. everybody teams up to tell xie lian that his boyfriend is Problematic way, way before xie lian clues into the fact that he does have a boyfriend, and he’s having none of it. i love it.)

and the themes?

okay, so. roughly half of this novel is ridiculous iddy pining, and a fourth of it is various tropes (off the top of my head: soulbond, sex pollen, body switch, de-age, various shades of identity porn… crossdressing…) played very shamelessly. but it also really benefits from having an overarching set of ethical questions, and while it deals with them a bit shounen-style, it still deals with them, and it makes the whole text fresh, and sweet, and bold.

is it possible to save everybody? should you try to save everybody? if you lack the powers to back your convictions, does it make you complicit? when is it possible to stop the cycle of suffering, what can you do if you want to but can’t? if you tried and people you failed turned on you, whose fault it is, where does the blame stop?

Detailed spoilers begin from here, and i would REALLY advise to stay unspoiled, because the domino reveals are very fun

i loved the various ways the novel sets all those pieces up and then overturns them and then returns to them. xie lian wanted to save everybody and it was arrogant naivete of an untried, untested, privileged young man who never had a real challenge before; his presence made things escalate quicker, and yet everybody around him pretended it was his attempt to make things better that ruined everything, and not a combination of factors outside of his control. and yet he accepts the blame, because it dovetails with his shame at not having enough powers to back his intent up; and yet his triumph over bai wuxian is that he doesn’t, after all, renege on his initial drive to help people.

my most favorite part of this novel is that its turning point, the lynchpin of the whole novel, the moment that keeps xie lian’s soul and safety intact, is not his personal purity and drive; it’s not even hua cheng’s devotion and sacrificial love. it’s just a moment of little, grudging, human kindness from a little, petty, rude man whom the history will sweep away soon. the bamboo hat in the rain. the rest of the plot keeps twisting and turning and coming back to itself, but this? this was unquestionably, beautifully clear, and i loved it. it’s never about the gods, it’s all down to - fallen human is human, ascended human is human, and human is not some state, virtuous or sinful, you get stuck with - it’s a multitude of choices, and there’s never a final one.

and incoherent spoilery screaming for people who read it already

oh my god i had SO MUCH FUN. i’ve been flailing on meme for days, because somebody just finished reading there too, and i’m still bursting with ALL THE FEELS. ruoye origins oh my god! that hat! jin wu’s backstory and ultimate end! e-ming’s praise kink! pei ming’s little shippery 'hoho’! hua cheng’s horribly handwritten stick and poke tattoo of xie lian’s name! the lanteeeeeeeeeeeeerns. feng xin and mu qing on the bridge, making up with each other and with xie lian! hua cheng trying to explain to xie lian that his habit of using himself as bait and pincushion at any given moment is deeply emotionally upsetting to him, and succeeding! banyue’s learning from xie lian to be a truly horrible cook! the entire deal with shi qingxuan and he xuan and the wind fan in the end. THE CAVE. THE GIANT MECHA. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and aaaaaaaaaaaaa and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa and i am beset, beset by feelings. come scream with me.

[whomturgled]

also since I’m on the tgcf brainworm rot express again,, when xie lian says he doesn’t feel pain anymore i think it’s bullshit and what he means is that he’s lived so long and suffered much more painful things (ex: the thing that made hua cheng ykno Materialize or w/e) than being stung by a scorpion snake or falling from the sky into a bunch of trees so in comparison it’s nothing. he’s just used to it and knows he won’t die and if he can tolerate it then it’s fine and he’d rather ppl didn’t worry bc at the end of the day; it won’t kill him. and he’s seen other ppl suffer so much, especially during the human face disease plague, and he was powerless to help (except that one time) like he even cut that one guys leg off or w/e which didn’t even end up fixing it- if it could kill someone else, then he may as well take it for them. bit of a martyr complex. he is quick to want to change subjects/not talk abt the pains he’s endured, like being trampled to death, saying he doesn’t remember (and whether or not that’s him repressing traumatic memories or him just saying he’s forgotten or genuinely bc he’s 800 fuckin yes old) and then that he’d rather remember eating a steamed bun the other day than being trampled. also the “DOES IT HURT” w/ jw. also a less meta thing that was prob meant more as a joke and a way to show that xie lian is the equivalent to ur 70 y/o grandpa on fb sharing minion memes but he literally shares Pain Relief for Backs and Joints :) or whatever in the heavenly dm’s.

he has become desensitized over time to pain to some degree, sure, just like how someone with chronic pain will become used to it over time and discount their own pain (ex; i have fibro among other things but why list them all out lol and am constantly in pain but like that’s just how it is and I’m used to it as my base level of existing so it’s Normal and i’m Fine but my Fine might be intolerable for someone else, etc etc.) i think it’s really mostly a mentality thing. he wanted to save the world, the common people and he continues to be a compassionate person. also probably recognizing .. essentially.. privilege in like. again he Won’t Die and he came from such luxury and all that ??? idk how to word where I’m going w( that one. the losing sense of Dignity or caring abt that stuff and his years living as The Common People (see: poverty and How The Real World Workstm and cruelty etc) i bet he also just got used to essentially being a pincushion whether that be in the sense of physically or insults @ him or ppl hating him, him taking blame (that one thing w the prince of yong’an and fangxin), w/e. he’s gone beyond humbled lol

anyway what i’m saying is xie lian it’s okay to admit things are unpleasant and you should care abt your own well-being and please go to therapy

[kamoteqeater]

In case you havent seen the xie lian one, here it is

[kamoteqeater]

I started crocheting the xie lian pin cushion last night, here is my progress:

The pattern is by Crochethea on youtube