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teecupangel · 1 year

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Consider:

Not a specific story idea or pitch. An overarching umbrella idea with a common set of rules, like Yew Branches.

Desmond Miles has come unstuck from reality.

Of course, there are many versions of Desmond Miles, and many have ended up on other worlds, in other stories. AO3 can attest to that, you can attest to that. The Eye makes such a handy button for throwing Desmond headlong at the barrier between realities until he breaks through somewhere interesting.

What unites this Desmond, these Desmonds, all under one theme, is that he doesn't travel alone. Whether he ends up in Westeros, in deep space, flying dragons in a war with France or trying to take down the Shinra corporation, he always arrives with a companion.

A *small* companion. One might even say, a toddler-sized companion. Because they are, in fact, toddlers.

ie, imagine that whenever and wherever you try to cross Desmond over somewhere after the Eye, he ends up with one or more other characters from the AC canon as toddlers dragged along in his wake.

Rules for the companions:

- They always start out somewhere in the age range of 2-5

- only people who at some point handled a piece of Eden can be companions

- They don't start out remembering their entire first life, but gradually remember it as they grow older, at about the age they experienced it. ex, Ezio would remember the hangings when he's 17. But once they reach the age where they first made contact with a piece of Eden, they remember the rest of their former life all at once.

- Desmond instinctually pings as "safe" to them, even if they have no idea who he is

But yeah I don't have a specific story idea I'm throwing your way

I was just sitting here thinking man

it would be really interesting if in all the various let's crossover Desmond with other properties fic

he wasn't alone

and then I thought, I know, let's make him responsible for small children he has a pre established emotional attachment to in dangerous environments

that will be fun for everyone

If you add in ‘pre-established emotional attachment’ then we’d be cutting off any character after the Desmond saga. Although…

To be completely honest, Desmond would be dumb enough to form an attachment to a random baby he finds next to him because of his own sucky upbringing and you did specify that this could have crossovers so just imagine (on the top of my head)…

Desmond taking care of a very curious and prone to wandering around baby Altaïr while trying to wonder where the hell all these weirdass creatures are coming from? Oh… and apparently there’s this dude who has this weirdass dagger that can control time for a bit but Desmond and Altaïr are immune to it? “Also… who the hell just calls themselves ‘Prince’? Do you not have a name?! Altaïr, don’t touch tha-! Ah, crap.”

Really, really, reeeaaaallllly out there idea: So Ezio’s voice actor also voices Sonic in most games… how about Desmond and Ezio being stranded in one of the Sonic games and Desmond is still human so he’s super confused at what the hell is happening but Ezio seems to like the blue hedgehog who really goes fast which is nice, he guess?

Put Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton in Hamilton! Like, it acts and feels like they’re in the right timeline for the American Revolution but there are no Assassins or Templars and Desmond can’t even find Ratonhnhaké:ton’s village so he doesn’t know if Ratonhnhaké:ton even exists in this world. Hell, Davenport Homestead is just a goddamn empty field that Desmond got after asking around and now he’s building a homestead, he guesses??? Then comes the singing! Just singing coming from different places at different times like it’s the goddamn musical episode of Scrubs and Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton are just there going “What. The. Fuck.”

It would be so easy to push Desmond and baby Edward into a Pirates in the Caribbean crossover and, yeah, it would definitely work but… if I may… Desmond wakes up stranded in a small boat with baby Edward in his hands. The first ship to find them? the Revenge… being sailed by Captain Bonnet… who was kind enough to let them stay and be part of the crew. Also, Bonnet just being awkward around Edward because baby Edward thinks something is terribly wrong, that this isn’t the Bonnet he knows but that’s weird because he doesn’t know any other Bonnet. He only knows Desmond will keep him safe. Then they get first-row seats of Thatch and Bonnet falling in love and… well… they’re definitely not in Black Flag, that’s for sure. XD

You know, I was thinking of maybe one of the Joan of Arcs movie could be a good backdrop to punt Desmond and baby Shay in it. Then I realize… how can I make Desmond just go “fuck it, I’m done. I’m just done with everything. We’re going to live as hermits.” and I realize that throwing him into something that has fantasy-bullshit in it would be fun. Like… Jeanne d'Arc video game… complete will all those monsters as the backdrop for the Hundred Year War XD (and maybe, just maybe… Desmond gets his own transformations as well much to his chagrin)

Desmond having to deal with baby Arno while there’s a freaking rat plague in A Plague Tale: Innocence and joining forces with Amicia and Hugo as they run away from… well… pretty much everything. (look, it’s not set in French Revolutions but I kinda like the idea of Desmond and Amicia interacting. Otherwise, go Les Mis I guess?)

Desmond becoming a better father to Evie and Jacob Fyre while he’s in some kind of gothic-inspired setting like maybe Dishonored or Bloodborne? Dishonored would be entertaining because he would definitely be the stabby-stab-stab option that even Corvo goes “… maybe tone it down a bit?”.

And now, for something different: Desmond waking up in the middle of the desert surrounded by dudes in black robes and a baby in his arms that he’s pretty sure is named Bayek but he doesn’t know why he knows that’s the baby’s name. Then he finds out he’s in Egypt and he’s being interrogated by these people called the medjays if he knows anything about a curse and someone called Imhotep and he’s just confused. Then he finds out he’s in freaking 1926 and apparently there’s some mummy dude who can do the nine plagues (really? Like why? How???) and he gets sucked into this whole deal for reasons he doesn’t even understand.

Now, it would be easy to, you know, push Desmond and Kassandra to something like Disney’s Hercules or maybe 300 but, if I may suggest, throwing them into the world of Ubisoft’s Immortals Fenyx Rising? Hey, it’s made by the people who made Odyssey so Kassandra would be in her element and Desmond would be the tired dad just trying to stop his daughter from flying into the goddamn sun… literally. (And if you’re itching for a Percy Jackson x Assassin’s Creed AU with Desmond in it, there’s one in AO3 :))

Look. I was bound to make a God of War crossover idea and it was either Kassandra or Eivor. I had been contemplating a The Last Kingdom crossover with Desmond and Eivor but that’s mainly just me being a Harry McEntire fan so GoW crossover with Desmond and Eivor it is, with Kratos now having to deal with being a single dad to Atreus AND helping Desmond be a single dad to Eivor who may or may not like kicking Atreus for some unknown reason.

Of course, this doesn't just have to be crossovers.

You can have something like:

Desmond being the single father of Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton while the Third Crusades is happening and it's really hard not to get sucked into that, especially when Ezio brings Altaïr to their little house just a few weeks after his demotion because he looks 'lonely'

The entire plot of AC3 gets derailed because Desmond is there with a baby that Haytham is pretty sure is his father having been reincarnated

The angst potential of baby Arno growing up knowing only of papa Desmond and uncle Shay and getting his memories of Shay killing Charles Dorian later on.

Becoming part of the Alamut Assassins and having to go "No, Eivor, stop kicking him!" every time his adopted daughter sees the new recruit. What was his name again? Basil? Was it Basil? Desmond is pretty sure it's Basil ("It's Basim." "Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Roshan.")

Elijah being able to resurrect his supposed father but now has to deal with the fact that he apparently has three younger brothers and, seriously, being a Sage did not prepare Elijah for the strange family he's supposed to be a part of

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harvestar · 25 days

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You know....... I haven't been thinking about where the water comes from in skies and now that I've opened that door I feel like we need to talk about it. the lustrum ice business has to be insane. the reach for how lush it is doesn't seem to have a ton of visible water sources near civilization iirc so are they using primarily ice? is well-digging a good option if the landmasses are so small? is the atmosphere thick enough for a water cycle? and if so are there specialized fungi that collect water vapor? does correspondence play a large role in keeping the garden contained and sustainable? how does london's presence affect that balance?

#ktxt #I assume albion is pretty much just powered by ice/immortality if we're being honest here #I think maybe at one point it could have been sustainable/self contained but the workworlds drained resources #to the point the non-immortals depend on the reach for survival (though HEM would never admit that)#so it's like. a thematic slam dunk where albion depends on the exploitation of the reach #I assume the mists aren't potable water seeing as they melt your clothes #edit: I'm getting deja vu so I think I might have made this exact post or read it before oops

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ssiegfriedsystem · 4 months

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「A hundred years had passed. So, so much has changed in the world, but not as much to Kazukiー

And the golden vestiges of someone still donning an all too familiar scar, smiling on the back of his mind.」

#read tags #given how kazuki is...well he is immortal #i kinda wonder what would happen a long time after the post-series #100 years immediately popped to my head because i was listening to lyrico's kiseki no hana #everyone he knew on the island would be dead #:(#idk if kouyou is still alive #i mean most likely yeah but im not sure if he has the same blessing of eternity like kazuki #would make me fucking emotional if he doesnt #of course there are the mir children/core that keeps being born again over and over but theyre never the same person. yk #what if tatsumiya ended up sinking forever for good in the future #back to kazuki he probably had stopped aging and stuff like that (but still grows. aging =/= growing guys)#so he remained pretty much similar to how he look 100 years ago. just longer hair #i like to think he decides to grow out his hair so he keeps remembering soushi #soushi is technically still there in a way because he stays in kazukis memories #as sad as it is #bro im gonna fucking cry what if kazuki gradually forgets soushi #not in a moving on way but in a its been so long that his memories of him starts to slowly fade way #in the angstier scenario he starts forgetting soushi to the point of almost forgetting him completely #and hes traveling the world all alone again #for eternity...#(this considering kouyou doesn't have the eternity blessing)#FUCKING BAWLING #soukyuu no fafner #makabe kazuki #minashiro soushi #soukazu

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w0rld0flight · 5 months

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Have I mentioned that I had a dream that Nintendo was going to post their final Feh Channel video and that Fire Emblem Heroes was approaching the end of service

#ganessa says stuff #fire emblem #fe #fire emblem heroes #fe heroes #feh #this is only a dream thankfully #so of course feh is still available today #in fact i don't think that game will ever approach the end of service #at this point feh is pretty much immortal

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anthromimicry · 10 days

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#I'VE GROWN INTO A DEEPLY UNLOVABLE ADULT: playlist.#I know this is kind of a weird place to start with misao BUT I swear this song is relevant to her character jsjsj #During the 400 years she spent in Japan after she left home she had actually become acquainted with Japanese Pirates.#And she had joined them on their ' travels ' ( which basically just means raids / illegal exploits JSJSJ ).#But something unexpected happened during her time spent with them. There was one other woman on the ship and of course Misao wanted to try-#to connect with them as a result. And Misao was left being in complete wonder of her as she had never seen someone be so agile with a sword #before that point since the other woman in question ( her name was reika ) was known for being a BRILLIANT swordfighter. and due to her-#bunk being right above reika's they often found themselves have late night convo's with each other. And over time Misao felt this-#overwhelming feeling of warmth within her heart whenever she was around her as they soon began spending pretty much every single waking-#moment of their time together. And because Misao had never experience romantic love before this point she had thought she just held a deep-#admiration for Reika for a while. But then Reika volunteered to show Misao how to sword-fight and that's when she knew that she loved Reika #Because every single time she would physically correct Misao's stance with her hands or show her how to do a move more properly-#Misao felt this uncontrollable desire to kiss her. She just thought that Reika was so beautiful. And she wanted to have the spirit-#of a ' warrior ' just like her. So she reallyyy wanted for Reika to be her gf and after having a nightmare one night-#(because she is unfortunately plagued with them sometimes) and Reika expressed her concern for Misao by telling her that she could sleep-#in the same bed as hers Misao could've sworn that her heart stopped for a second and she was hesitant to at first but crawled in bed next-#to her anyhow in the end and after just laying there for a bit Reika turned to face her + just look into her eyes for a moment Misao asked-#if she could kiss her and Reika laughed and said something akin to ' oh if you only knew how long i've wanted for you to say that. -#of course you can ' and from that moment on Misao + Reika were a couple. And Misao was sooo in love with her that she wanted to find a way-#to make her immortal too. But decided not to when the topic was met with Pity by Reika whenever Misao finally revealed to her what she-#really is. Though the years that Misao spent with her were perhaps the happiest she's ever had. And she still loves Reika to this day.#She is also the reason why Misao wants to perfect her sword-fighting skills. Because she wants to make Reika proud of her.#... wherever she may be.#NO SLEEP OF THE INNOCENT. NOT FOR YOU: character study.

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dragonstoned · 8 months

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well if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then maybe some part of it has intrinsically become human i mean duck

re gomens ending i've seen suggestions that a/c physically become human and i'm not very into it, partly bc i like their supernatural bits, partly bc i want them to enjoy the earth for as long as possible, and partly bc. they are already human enough, actually

they've eagerly lived in our skins and long adopted our customs and culture and messy human feelings and loved existing in this way, in this world, and that's what matters. this is a big plot point and one i've always liked, and feel no need to change. i am happy to welcome them to the club no additional membership fees required, no other "final step"

while they are baffled by some things Whomst the among us actually understands all of humanity btw huh no one. the incomprehensibility of the human condition is a key feature of the human condition. also i dare anyone to say there haven't been pure homo sapien individuals who've ended up more Other and Eldritch than a/c could hope to be. we contain multitudes. unironically we are all special snowflakes in some way why gatekeep a/c bc of a little spot of immortality??

so yeah might be predictable but this is my ideal ending: crowley and aziraphale just as they are except without the threat of looming destruction over their heads, and It Is Good, but also why stop there. humanity™ for EVERYBODY who wants it tbh!!

heaven and hell are abolished and now it's everyone else's turn to discover their personhood here, on not god's who has long fucked off mysteriously our not-so-green anymore earth. it's lovely and terrible and wonderful welcome to the jungle. or they can go off elsewhere if they want its a big universe. no sides no limits as long as no one's harming others it's free real estate to exist on their own terms

anyway i digress!!!! hell yeah a/c become human in the end!!! bc they are!! by choice!!! but also they deserve at least another 6000 years to live on their own terms, freely, together!!! being an us!!! both a group-of-the-two-of-us us and an all-of-us, us

#good omens #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #crowley x aziraphale #is this very soppy yes do i care not really #i will be first to salivate over Alien Cosmic Entities a/c i just dont think it conflicts with them being Human too? its fine lol #i dont think its necessary or want to Name them human in canon or whatever its just i dont want to put too huge a divide between them and #humans as separate beings. or think that “turning” them human for the ending changes them THAT significantly except in lifespan #and thats sad!! to me!!! lol. bc i dont think it rly necessary to mortalize immortals if they dont like long for death. so #a/c have lived so long under the yokeeeeeeeee let them taste happiness for longer than theyve suffereddddddd #a point is made about humans doing ~so much in their short lives~ and being ~ingenious~ etc etc but i dont think it changes much #like i agree!! but also some of us live pretty fucking slowly lol. or dont have much imagination. and its fine. we're all people #oh no........... rambling again #PS of course this is just me. personal preference. if you want them mortal then UNIRONICALLY good for you!!! go hogwild!!! all the best!!!!

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mysticarcanum · 1 year

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straight up getting emotional about a thing that happened in a campaign that ended over a year ago

like. i wrote an ambiguous and biased backstory of a character who is part of an apocalyptic world-ending cult, who deep down wanted to study wizardry but had to frame it as going undercover as an apprentice and stealing secrets from this doddering old archmage to aid her people’s cause . and then she goes and learns wizardry and eventually realizes she wants more for herself and breaks from her cult

and i mean. there’s a lot of ways my dm could have run with that. i was fully expecting that archmage to be furious at my character for lying to and stealing from him. and so when they ran into each other again, i was braced for a fight, or at least an altercation

but instead the archmage went. i knew all along. of course i knew. i’m a divination wizard, silly. i saw a young woman in a bad place and i wanted to help her. i thought that by showing her kindness and creating an environment for her that wasn’t all about power struggles and nihilistic fanaticism that she might realize that there was more out there in the world for her. that she deserved more. you didn’t steal secrets from me, because i gave them to you. i was your teacher. i loved you and love you still

and god i didn’t know where that character was going to end up before then. i thought maybe she could go on a typical wizard hubris spiral, or a revenge quest against her old cult, but in that moment i was like. oh. she is loved. she has new friends, new family. she has a reason to change, a reason to care. her story is just about love, and about making people’s lives better

her alignment shifted from neutral to neutral good soon after. she never stopped being curious, sometimes to the point of foolishness, but she never squandered her teacher’s gift. she left the world better than she found it

#i just WEEP when i think about it sometimes #and then her teacher did just become the party's best wizard bud #we got his teleportation circle and then just showed up to his tower all the time #to hang out #we eventually got a dedicated guest room #my wizard shared all the spells she learned with him. including some dunamancy ones that she pieced together herself #he even fought a tarrasque with us #eventually she even passed him in level #and when he found out she could cast wish...he was SO PROUD #genuinely in the final arc getting an 'im proud of you' from this man was the best thing that had ever happened to me #and honestly i think his influence is why at the end of the campaign my wizard chose to die of old age #she had access to pretty much every necromantic secret in the world #given she did a LOT of necromancy research over the course of the campaign. plus her old cult did a lot of it so she was well versed #she could have found immortality in a hundred different ways #but instead she lived a good life. loved her friends #and passed on peacefully with her warforged friend by her side #so the point of all this is love IS the answer #her character arc felt so natural to me. i lived it for YEARS and one day i looked back and realized she had changed utterly #even though i hadn't once made the conscious choice for her to change #it was just love. from everyone around her #it was impossible for her to NOT change in the face of it all #AUGHGHGHGGGHH #oc: arabella

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serufu · 7 months

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Live Action One Piece inspired me to reread the manga for a third time, and once again I get to this page and realize that it's so glaringly obvious why Robin is my favorite character of all time. Ugh! Oof!

#her “I want to live!!!” scene is the reason I'm even alive today #because at my lowest point in college Id resolved to starve myself to death #and decided to watch this weird show called One Piece to pass the time #and was so moved by that scene that I swore to not die until One Piece was over (which might make me immortal lmao)#(also don't worry I'm doing so so so so so so much better these days! therapy and self care really work!! you can do it!)#but ya even before all that I loved her from this moment onwards she's so relatable #but also so cool and smart and darkly humorous and pretty an-

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sanstropfremir · 2 years

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Omg! I saw you briefly mentioned Tomorrow in an ask and I just finished the show. I have so many thoughts about it and not sure if they’re all good but I would love to hear your opinion about the overall show (especially the distinct costume design of each character and the set design!!). For a show that navigated some heavy material — it was full of such bright color and fun fashion decisions! Unsure if you talk about shows but I thought to ask because you always provide such interesting and thoughtful critiques.

THE COSTUME DESIGN IN TOMORROW!!!!!! it's soooooooooooo good it was one of the things that kept me watching bc yes there some glaringly obvious problems with the script. the production/set design are excellent too, especially for jumadeung. literally framing it as a company is a.....choice, but visually framing it with art deco style architecture a la the chrysler building is a smart way to keep it feeling outside time, because our brains still interpret art deco as a relatively modern style because of its scarcity and association with wealth, but in reality art deco is approaching it's centennial in just a couple of years.

ok i'm gonna talk about some major plot beats so spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't finished the show or cares about that kind of thing.

tbh i actually think the best costume design was in the scenes with all the team leaders because they were so quick and so infrequent but each of them had such a clear signature that tbh i spent like five minutes stopping and starting that first intro scene where we see everyone just to try and pick up all the little details.

other than that though, they do such a good job with koo ryeon, joong-gil and ryung-gu and interpreting how very old/essentially immortal characters would interpret clothing and what they would be comfortable in. jun-woong is fine, but the show itself kind of acknowledges by the back half that really he's the vehicle for the rest of their stories, so imo his design choices are all intentionally wallflower-y. but koo ryeon, joong-gil, and ryung-gu all share some key character traits: they're all extremely loyal, dedicated, defensive, AND they all lived their formative lives pre the invention of the zipper and stretch fabric. i know this sounds like a very weird point to make, but trust me on this one, i'll get to it. and all three of these characters embody all of these traits in their clothing. many of the creature comforts that we associate with fashion are very very modern, think within the last 100-150 years. zippers? the 1910s. spandex/lycra/synthetic stretch fabrics? 1958. hell, even the concept of sportswear and leisure clothing only started cropping up in the mid 1800s. for a lot of cultures and for long periods of history, clothing consisted of a lot of layers and a fair amount of internal structure, by virtue of fabric being a solid weave. for a significant portion of their lives, all three of these characters were wearing anywhere between two and probably five layers at all times, with koo ryeon and joong-gil for about 250yrs longer and also with much more intricacy due to their higher class. clothing plays a very big part into how someone presents themselves to the world, and it can be a protective measure. this might be a bit difficult for some to understand for some, especially in our modern 'comfort first' fashion culture, but the structure and weight of a lot of layers and the rituals around getting dressed a specific way can be both a defensive mechanism and also a physical comfort. you see it with older generations and their likelihood of wearing older styles/styles that were 'on trend' in their youth; think grannies who still get their hair permed and put on lipstick every time they leave the house, or someone like my grandfather, who never stopped wearing the same style of highwaisted slacks and dress shirts from the early 60s. and i think it's a very fair trait to extrapolate to characters who 1) have had particularly traumatic lives, 2) have spent a very long time wearing the same thing, and 3) have a textually noted extended/different understanding of time.

let's start with joong-gil, who exclusively wears a three piece suit post-becoming a reaper. this means he's wearing at least three well structured layers, and i'd be willing to bet that he'd be the type to wear a singlet/underlayer as well, which brings that total up to four. he's also frequently shown wearing an additional jacket (five layers) and gloves, another further barrier. given the fact that jumadeung appears to have 'westernized' aesthetically when korea was freed from japanese colonial rule***, three piece suits were still standard business attire. and he's very strict about his own dress code, he's either in white shirt and three piece or a black shirt and three piece. obviously this is also a physical manifestation of his discipline and dedication of the 'rules', as we can see that when he deviates from that uniform it is as a specific character point for him. the most notable instances of this are in the last episode, where he's wearing a turtleneck (but still a waistcoat) when jun-woong goes to try and reason with him, and then again later in the episode when joong-gil is taking his punishment in his shirtsleeves. and then for a third time at the very end of the episode, where his black three piece has been exchanged for a grey one, signalling his softening and the merging of his two selves (his pre-reaper self that wore mostly lighter colours, and his post-reaper self that wore mostly black).

unsurprisingly, koo ryeon is also a very defensive dresser. all the same observations from joong-gil apply here, but with koo ryeon instead of her being a dedicated rule-follower, her dedication manifests as rule-breaking in order to achieve her goals; as you can see she wears a lot of colours in counter to joong-gil's monochrome. but i think the most interesting of her visual 'rule-breaking' is that she doesn't particularly follow the convenions of 'feminine' coded dressing. this is most noticable in when the rm team goes on 'assignment' in different workplaces, where ryeon will wear nearly identical suits to jun-woong and ryung-gu (interestingly, it's pointedly not her wearing men's clothes, she's always wearing a 'female' version even if the cuts are virtually identical. you can tell bc the button closures are opposite). she also dresses very 'modestly', she doesn't show any skin at all and more notably, she doesn't wear anything form fitting. she favours boxy and bulky shapes with a predominance for longer lines and wider shapes on her lower body. now there's two reasons to speculate for this: the first is the same as for joong-gil, that she's very used to layers and a specific silhouette, especially considering that the shape of female hanbok is not even close to being form-fitting and has heavy skirting. and the second is that her trauma is directly tied to people's perception of her femininity. literally the reason ryeon died is because she was stigmatized for 'using her femininity to get out of an adverse situation' even though we are explicitly shown that that is emphatically not the case. thus her rejection of more western feminine silhouettes is directly related to how she wants there to be no question that the reason she is so accomplished at her job is purely because of her skills, and not for any other reason.

and ryung-gu! more similar to koo ryeon in style than joong-gil, but again they all share that propensity for numerous heavy and obscurative layers that echoes a more traditional style of dress. because ryung-gu is younger (literal age wise but also i'm pretty sure he died younger as well) there's a little more flexibility in his materials and cuts, and because he's of a lower class than koo ryeon and joong-gil, he tends towards less formal shapes too. although i would not describe koo ryeon as a 'formal' dresser, she wears a lot of blazers and two piece suits, as well as heavy wools and fabrics that are generally associated with business and formalwear. ryung-gu however, almost exclusively picks his shapes from garments that have a working class or blue collar origin; lots of jeans, informal but still structured jackets like bombers and denim jackets, and a fair amount of casual sportswear, practical wear, and synthetic fabrics. and although ryung-gu is framed as being rebellious like koo ryeon, unlike ryeon his rebellion always comes as an active response to something that upsets his internal or external systems. as a child he is dutifully and lovingly reverent of his mother, she's the centre of his world, and even as a reaper he isn't shown to have any real issues with authority. sure he clocks out right at eight hours, but that's not being rebellious, that's just following the rules to a technicality. it's only when his mother is taken from his life and he loses that external structure that he actively 'becomes rebellious', and even then i think rebellion is the wrong word; it's actually just self destructive behaviour that is 'morally' grey according to the wider societal system. when his story arc finally concludes and he has his mother back in his life (sort of), he visually sheds some of his more 'rebelliously' attributes by cutting and redying his hair to the 'standard masculine' haircut and showing up to work in a suit and/or less flamboyant patterns and garments. but he does still keep the same number of layers and shapes as he did before.

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***when japan surrendered in 1945 it ceded all its territories to the us, so really korea was actually just colonized again. you can see in the korean war vet episode that in flashbacks joong-gil is wearing a western style suit as a reaper, which would have been between 1950-53, but in the comfort women episode he's still wearing hanbok, which would have been at the earliest 1930ish. also it would makes sense logistically as jumadeung is supposed to mirror the 'real' world. i also think this is where the framing of it as a 'company' comes from as well.

#OK I HAVE TO STOP NOW THIS IS WAY TOO LONG #non kpop questions #if more ppl start asking me about shows and stuff i might start a general media analysis tag #tomorrow #netflix tomorrow #tv #this show had like a TON of problems but i think the heart of it was really good and it was probably necessary?#like the fact that it was extremely empathetic is very important but also. it wasn't realistic at all #and also it was relatively kind to character stereotypes that don't normally receive kindness? like fat characters #AND the fact that ryung-gu is explicitly a recovered addict and still framed sooo empathetically is a huge deal #esp for a country with massive drug stigmas still #but the fact that christian morality is SO deeply baked into just the concept of the show is big oof. like huge massive very large OOF #anyways. here's my very long essay on defensive dressing and how immortal characters arent just gonna dress in the latest trends #text #answers #also further point about ryeon. i think the reason we rarely saw her as a reaper in the period between when jumadeung 'westernized'#and the present is bc it would be a huge betrayal of her character to dress her in something 'traditionally' feminine from that time frame #but they couldn't feasibly dress her as more gender-nonconforming because it would have pretty much instantly coded her as a lesbian #which i think they were actively trying to avoid #OH I FORGOT ABT JOONG-GILS CAMEL NUMBER IN EP5 #thats an important character beat for him tho too so it still fits the pattern #since its the first time he makes an effort to try and see a different perspective. even if it doesn't actually work and he regresses lol #anyways these three characters are sooooooo interesting and unusual and i really like all of them #yes ryung-gu is my favourite and no its not just bc he cries pretty! i have real reasons!!

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mariocki · 1 month

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Parasite (1982)

"That thing on your stomach..."

"A new strain of parasite. I deserve it, in a way. I created it."

"For the Merchants? Why?"

"I thought for the government. They're so mixed up with the Merchants now, they work for one another. This 'thing', as you call it, is growing. It's dormant now but it will soon grow larger... and kill me."

#parasite #1982 #blood tw #horror imagery #video nasty #horror film #charles band #alan j. adler #michael shoob #frank levering #robert glaudini #demi moore #james davidson #luca bercovici #al fann #tom villard #scott thomson #cherie currie #vivian blaine #james cavan #cheryl smith #pretty meh post apocalyptic horror which would probably have been entirely forgotten to the mists of time if it wasn't for the double #whammy of having been classed a video nasty by the bbfc (which granted every film on that list some measure of immortality) and for being #an early leading role for Demi Moore (how much do you wanna bet it isn't on her CV tho...). actually it isn't without interest for its own #merits: the vaguely sketched in details of this post apocalyptic society (some time later‚ which is always most interesting‚ to see how ppl #have adapted and evolved to a new normal) and the shady implications of whatever the Merchants are‚ that stuff is all genuinely very #intriguing. the main thrust‚ tho‚ the parasite stuff‚ that's somehow less stupid (and much less clever and much less original). Moore is #fine‚ nothing more (potentially controversial take? i don't rate her as an actor) and the rest of the cast is nothing to write home about #the fx are sometimes goofy and sometimes gore splattered ingenuity; the final act contains some real gruesome body horror #oh and as the poster subtly suggests‚ this was shot for 3d so expect much pointing into the camera and stuff jumping up

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amazinlei · 2 years

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I wanna make a Lamb-sona/Self insertion thing for COTL but also don’t wanna offend since I know this game is iffy on people who were ya know... ex-cult survivors. I don’t think it’s much for me to worry over too much, since I’m not really religious, I just think the lore is neat as someone who has a special interest in demonology... 👉👈

I mean, I’m OBVIOUSLY not going to base this off real-world stuff... I just wanna make littol sheep...

#if people are interested I'll talk about my basic idea since it's mostly just developing my version of lamb and how protective they are #his name is shep and he studied the blade while you were asleep <3 #sheepy go STAB #but seriously my idea was that before the slaughter of the lambs shep was the child of a small village blacksmith #generally the sheep are a peaceful type but won't hesitate to remove any wolves from the flock #and while the sheep clans have small settlements the family expand like CRAZY #sheep are herding animals after all and thrive better with more sheep but they're chill enough to get along with almost any other #so the larger the families the safer they generally feel #so a couple of years of running and trying to survive but the skin of their teeth and hopping from place to place #the numbers gradually decreased over time #so eventually out of sick pleasure the bishops possessed the sheep to slaughter each other... all except one who survived #eventually this will become our lamb and while being called the lamb brings up uncomfortable PTSD feelings #only the longest members of the village know their true name #still despite everything he's not cold or unfeeling he's actually a pretty emotional sheep!#though mostly prideful than anything else and dyes his wool with the blood of his enemies <3 #well not really it just matches his fleece cause he knows they pretty #he wears gold and has a pretty fucked up ear and missing an arm that the crown takes over in dungeons as a weapon #he's naturally strong to the point where he can pretty much do the hard work like mining by themself #he's also got a lot of scars but that's not from the slaugter but because they're immortal and I keep dying a lot #plus they'd just look cool :]#Cult Of The Lamb #Lei stop being silly

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sunderwight · 3 months

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SV fic where Shen Yuan's status as a body-snatching entity is revealed before the Immortal Alliance Conference can happen.

Maybe the system suffers a glitch while some unforeseen side quest is active, and suddenly Shen Yuan's status is revealed and some of the other peak lords he's with seize the opportunity to exorcise his spirit and put Shen Jiu back in his place.

Shen Yuan has mixed feelings about this development, needless to say. On the one hand, it's kind of not actually that bad? He got caught out like a week away from the IAC and the necessary Abyss plotline, so at least like this, he's managed to give Luo Binghe a slightly better time on Qing Jing for the past few years and equip him more capably to survive the Abyss, but he also doesn't have to personally throw him down there. That's the silver lining.

On the other hand, everything else about this situation sucks! He got attached to his life as Shen Qingqiu, dammit! And now he's been revealed and branded as some kind of horrible demonic spirit thing, and he was rather painfully expelled (even though he wasn't even there willingly in the first place), and so he's been reduced to some a kind of sparkly ghost light hovering on the fringes of existence, highly susceptible to being harmed if any more righteous cultivators get it in their heads to disperse him!

Which is better than just being catapulted back into his rotting corpse in the other world, but not by as big of a margin as he'd like.

Basically, in terms of his ability to influence the world Shen Yuan has been downgraded back to "read only" status. He finds that he can manifest himself in places that he's already been, or around people he has a particular affinity towards, but they can't perceive him and he can't communicate or even do much more than some minor poltergeist type activity. Which he is cautious about anyway, because if he gets caught around Shen Jiu, Shen Jiu is going to disperse him with extra prejudice.

Unfortunately, nearly everything Shen Yuan cares about is in Shen Jiu's orbit.

So he can only watch, metaphorically gritting his teeth as the newly-restored Shen Qingqiu kicks Luo Binghe out of the bamboo house, burns all the bridges that Shen Yuan painstakingly rebuilt for him, refuses point blank to let Liu Qingge help with Without-a-Cure, resumes and even begins taking more frequent trips to the nearest brothels, and neglects his duties to turn into a paranoid wreck as if he half-expects Shen Yuan to steal his body back from him the next time he lets his guard down. Corporal punishment spikes back up on Qing Jing Peak.

Shen Yuan is surprised to hear the whispers of dissent, even so. A spirit possessing a righteous cultivator is a pretty damning incident, and there's no way that he could come out of it smelling like roses. And yet, even though his -- Shen Qingqiu's disciples know enough to be circumspect about saying anything of the sort, there are still murmurs and rumblings about how things used to run, not too long ago.

Ming Fan quiets any such talk as soon as he hears it. Ning Yingying scarcely seems to know how to respond to the situation, except to sometimes plaintively insist that she hadn't even noticed much change between Shen Qingqiu's at all. But Luo Binghe...

Well.

Whenever there are mutterings, it often seems as though Binghe is there. Nodding. Whispering. Carefully putting forth suggestions that others barely seem to recognize as suggestions. Shen Yuan only notices because he knows what Binghe's capable of when he decides to be manipulative, and even he finds himself wondering if it's not just a coincidence, something he's imagining, because Luo Binghe hasn't even blackened through his Abyss arc yet.

Even so, there he is, musing carefully on how strange it was that he's heard that Hong Jing hadn't identified any untoward presence in Shen Qingqiu before, how Shizun had never done anything bad to the peak despite all the claims that he'd supposedly been possessed by a malicious entity for years, and wasn't this new Shen Qingqiu acting much more suspicious? Much more malicious? Isn't is the new Shizun who jumps at shadows and talks to people who aren't there, and seems so uneasy in his own skin?

If one had to guess which version was an unstable monster possessing a human's body, and which was the righteous and noble peak lord... ah, well. It's just surprising, isn't it? Luo Binghe would of course never suggest that this new Shen Qingqiu was in actuality the being that had stolen someone else's place. He's surely never second guess the judgment of the peak lords, who claim to have let an interloper among them for YEARS in total ignorance. It's just something to think about.

Alas for Binghe, though a lot of the peak seems inclined to agree with him, he can't win over enough to inspire anything worse than discontent. The "new" Shen Qingqiu does behave a lot more like the one that most of the Qing Jing knew prior to his qi deviation, after all, and it's no mystery why Luo Binghe -- spurned former favorite, now back to being at the bottom of the pecking order -- would be unhappy with the change. Shen Yuan appreciates that this is at least doing a good job of setting up Luo Binghe's altered opinion on his shizun, and he's touched that he made a good enough impression for Binghe to be mad about the sudden regression, but he wishes he could tell Binghe that there's simply nothing to be done about it. That is the real Shen Qingqiu, and Binghe ought to concern himself more with the upcoming conference!

At least, despite being kicked out of the bamboo house, Luo Binghe managed to farm enough good opinion with some of the other disciples during his tenure as Favorite that he doesn't go back to sleeping in the woodshed. Without Shen Qingqiu expressly demanding it, no one would dare, just in case Luo Binghe might regain his status one day. There seems to be an awareness that "evil" Shizun would have made them run laps, but "good" Shizun would now probably whip them half to death in a fit of temper. No one wants to take chances.

Finally, the Immortal Alliance Conference rolls around. Shen Yuan can only watch and cheer Binghe on as best as he's able to, even knowing the probable outcome. And Binghe does so well! He fights bravely but also smartly. When Shen Qingqiu arrives, Binghe doesn't lose an ounce of his caution, though he does still nobly defend his master even though the good feelings between them have dried up. He correctly identifies Without-a-Cure's flare up and silently helps compensate for Shen Jiu's weakness, and sticks by him even though the Original Goods is hardly appreciative.

When the Abyss opens up, and Luo Binghe's demonic seal is broken, Shen Qingqiu seems almost relieved to have this information brought to light. He accuses Luo Binghe not only of orchestrating the invasion of demons at the conference, but of arranging fro Shen Jiu to be replaced too.

"Of course, for a demon like you, summoning some wicked force into this master's body would be easy!" he spits.

Luo Binghe looks bowled over by the accusation. But rather than defending himself, he latches onto it as if it might be some kind of lifeline.

"For a demon like this one... it would be possible?" he echoes.

Shen Jiu hurls more accusations. Of course it is. Luo Binghe is not just any demon, but the most powerful, dangerous, and destructive sort there is. Little is beyond the scope of a Heavenly Demon's power, or wretchedness. Luo Binghe must have uncovered his heritage and seen a convenient means of ridding himself of an inconvenient master. Wherever that horrid spirit is now, it's probably just waiting for the next chance to leap back in at Luo Binghe's call!

"Shizun's spirit... that spirit from before, it still exists?" Luo Binghe catches.

"As if you don't know. Beast. Even the sect leader could not destroy your minion completely," Shen Jiu sneers.

"And it would be within my abilities to put it back in your body. Instead of you."

"You won't get the chance."

Shen Jiu stabs Luo Binghe before throwing him into the Abyss. Binghe fights back, but he seems reluctant to injure his shizun, even now.

Shen Yuan supposes that such reluctance won't survive the Abyss. Still, it's emotional for him. That such a little kindness could cause Luo Binghe to hesitate, even at this point, it really speaks to the resilience of hope in Binghe's heart.

Shen Yuan's little ghost light almost follows him down. But the Abyss would be too dangerous for him, even as he is now. He'd be a little mote of spiritual energy, easily gobbled up by any number of creatures in that place, if he wasn't just swept up by the chaotic ambient energies themselves. So he can only stay behind and think some very colorful swear words in Shen Jiu's general direction, until the rift closes and leaves no trace of Luo Binghe behind, except for the shards of Zheng Yang.

The shards are left behind. Shen Yuan finds that he has a little bit of spiritual storage space. Just enough to maybe fit all of them, so he goes and painstakingly uses his limited powers to lift up each piece and drop it in. It takes him hours and hours, but luckily the clean-up of the whole disaster is something that will take months. No one seems inclined to go reclaim Luo Binghe's shattered blade or risk getting too close to the remnants of the rift, even closed. So, Shen Yuan manages.

The next few years prove difficult. Shen Yuan finds that it's hard to retain his presence in the world. His little spirit has dampened considerably, and few things seem to perk him back up. He has more troubles following anyone who isn't Shen Jiu now that Binghe is in the Abyss, and Shen Jiu is depressing as hell to spend time around. He's rotten with kids, sucks at teaching, he has no friends, his health is deteriorating, and Shen Yuan has no interest in seeing what he gets up to in the brothels.

But Binghe is definitely coming back, and Shen Yuan wants to see him again.

His patience is rewarded the first time he finds his consciousness drifting, only to snap back to awareness in a place that's not Qing Jing Peak. He instead finds that he's in an unfamiliar patch of wilderness along a river, watching as Luo Binghe fights a small pack of demonic beasts.

It's definitely not the Endless Abyss. Has it been five years already...? Shen Yuan hadn't thought so, but then again, he's not the best at keeping track of time in this state.

Luo Binghe defeats the beasts, but they land more hits and wound him worse than Shen Yuan would have anticipated. The wounds aren't healing as quick as they should either. Was Binghe poisoned? Or is this a remnant of Shen Yuan's own poor teaching, the clumsiness in sword practice he never totally managed to correct leading somehow to this?

He gets it when Qin Wanyue and several other Huan Hua cultivators show up, however, and Luo Binghe manages to play the righteous cultivator who just survived a harrowing battle role to the hilt. It takes him very little effort to get the Huan Hua disciples to take him back with them and help "patch him up", and soon enough Shen Yuan has front row seats to watch as Binghe ingratiates himself with the sect.

Mostly, Shen Yuan is just relieved to confirm that Binghe did indeed survive, and glad that he's out of the horrible Abyss and in a place where he can rest and eat decent meals and be fawned over by his well-deserved admirers. Though Luo Binghe seems colder even than Shen Yuan expected, especially in some places where a bit of charm would serve him better. He declines outright to address the Palace Master as "shizun", even though he accepts the offer to stay as a guest disciple at Huan Hua Palace, and he is abrupt and aloof towards both Qin Wanyue and the Little Palace Mistress, despite their obvious interest in him.

Binghe doesn't seem to sleep as soundly as he should either. At night he often brings out a dream stone, which Shen Yuan recognizes as an amplification tool from the novel, but it seems that whatever Binghe is trying to search for with it is beyond his reach. Sometimes Shen Yuan imagines he can hear his disciple's voice calling Shizun at night. But always, Binghe is asleep, and there's no one in Huan Hua Palace he has deigned to address like that anyway. It's a trick of his own imagination, missing the days when Luo Binghe could call out and he himself could answer.

Things go mostly according to the plot, with a few disruptions here and there. Luo Binghe seems to be lagging behind on the romantic subplots, but rushing ahead on the vendetta against his old teacher. The Trial of Shen Qingqiu takes place at Jinlan City, with demon instigators who work for Luo Binghe accusing the peak lord of colluding with demons and setting him up to seem like he was involved in the sower attack. Shen Yuan knows, from watching Binghe, that the sower thing was mostly taking advantage of an existing situation to frame Shen Qingqiu. Binghe himself didn't have anything to do with Jinlan's suffering, but is obviously not above using it to his advantage.

Combined with Qiu Haitang's testimony, Shen Qingqiu is arrested and locked up where Luo Binghe can torture and dismember him at will.

However, Binghe... doesn't do that?

Instead he swiftly relocates Shen Qingqiu to a prison in the demon realms, and seems to abandon his concerns with Huan Hua Palace and the righteous cultivation sects altogether. He just leaves them to fight it out amongst themselves, as if he's got no concern with who comes out on top, and in the meanwhile he keeps Shen Qingqiu locked up but surprisingly well-treated?

Despite Shen Qingqiu's obvious terror and vitriol towards him, Luo Binghe forces him to eat nutritious meals, and attends to his health problems, and makes no move to injure him at all. He has nothing good to say to Shen Jiu, but he doesn't hurt him. Yet there is something distinctly weird about the whole dynamic, not at all like someone who has decided to keep a prisoner under ethical conditions for moral reasons or something like that.

Shen Yuan's not sure what to make of it.

In the end, Shen Jiu himself illuminates the situation.

It happens after Shen Jiu has rejected food. Luo Binghe tuts and asks if Shen Jiu suspects it would be poisoned. Shen Jiu sneers at him.

"I know it isn't," he says. "You wouldn't poison this body. I know what you're after."

"Oh? Wise Master Shen figured out this much?" Binghe replies, dry as the fucking desert.

"You're keeping me in this condition because you want to put that thing back in my body!" Shen Jiu accuses.

It takes Shen Yuan a moment to realize that Shen Jiu is referring to him. That he thinks Luo Binghe is keeping him fit and healthy for Shen Yuan's sake.

Wouldn't that be going too far just for some old teacher who was nice?! Yes, he knows that he made an impact on Luo Binghe, but it wasn't hard! Shen Jiu set the bar at the earth's crust, clearing it hardly required the kind of effort or devotion that would inspire an entire elaborate scheme purely on Shen Yuan's behalf!

He can't believe it.

But, Binghe doesn't deny it.

In fact he smiles, his expression somehow conveying that Shen Jiu guessed perfectly correct, but also that there's no good it can do him. Binghe has never looked so much like a piece of PIDW fanart before, with some dark and potent rage simmering just beneath the veneer of his placid smile.

"Shizun should not be referred to so impolitely," Luo Binghe counters. "If anyone in this room is a thing, it is this usurper in front of me."

"Usurper?! In my own body? You're mad."

Binghe tuts.

Master Shen should understand that his claim is contested. After all, if one woman gives birth to a child but then casts it into a river to die, but another fishes the babe out and cradles it to her breast -- which woman deserves to be called that child's mother? Just because Shen Jiu was born into that body, doesn't mean he deserves it more than anyone else.

But even if he did, Luo Binghe wouldn't care. He would kill to get his Shizun back. This isn't really so different from that, is it? And there is no love lost between him and Shen Jiu to make him hesitate. If his Shizun disagrees, he may disciple Binghe as he sees fit once he returns.

Shen Jiu points out that Luo Binghe's machinations have ruined his reputation. Even if he gets that creature to possess his body again, there's no way that they could infiltrate Cang Qiong Sect a second time.

But Binghe waves off his concerns. He clearly has thought of this, and has plans for it, but is also not about to be stupid enough to monologue any more at Shen Jiu. Once he leaves, Shen Yuan lingers for a little while, and notices that Shen Jiu actually seems genuinely concerned about what might happen to the sect if Luo Binghe succeeds and gets Shen Yuan put back on Qing Jing Peak.

Of course, Shen Yuan knows he wouldn't actually do anything to harm Cang Qiong, but Shen Jiu doesn't. This is the first time Shen Yuan has seen him actually reveal shades of what might be called a noble impulse.

It's not much, but... sigh.

The thing is, Shen Yuan doesn't really want to steal anybody's body! No one consulted with him the first time it happened! And they sure aren't consulting with him now, either, although to be fair they can't. But he might just have enough ability as a little ghost light to stave off some of this whole process, and he's got to decide if he wants to try. Or if he'll let Binghe have his way, and succeed in pushing Shen Jiu back out and giving Shen Yuan his life again.

Because Binghe will definitely succeed if he really does try. That's how the world works.

And if he did... that might be the only way for Shen Yuan to get his life as Shen Qingqiu back. Which he does want, desperately! He misses it. He misses it both in the general sense of having a body at all, but also in the particular sense of all the things he managed to attain as Qing Jing Peak Lord. As Shen Qingqiu.

Shen Jiu, also, makes a very tempting sacrifice in all this. Shen Yuan frankly hates his guts. Maybe it could have been different, but the fact that Shen Yuan worked so hard to try and make that life better, only for Shen Jiu to just go right back to being an intractable asshole who, frankly, should never be in charge of children ever, rankles! He went right back to mistreating Luo Binghe as well, and threw him into the Abyss, and if Binghe's plan was to violently kill him again as revenge for that then Shen Yuan wouldn't fault him. He didn't fault him the first time. He wasn't going to fault him even when it seemed like he would be the one Binghe was destined to rip apart in justified vengeance.

This is different, though. Shen Yuan wants to fight for the life he longs to be living, especially now when the axe of the Abyss is no longer hanging over him.

But is he willing to actually become the thing everyone else decided he was in order to get it? A body-snatching, malicious spirit?

Shen Jiu is horribly unsuited to his life as Shen Qingqiu. But, it is still his life. Shen Yuan really just managed to borrow it for a while.

Deep down he knows that, even if he would like to ignore it.

So when Binghe finally sets up the ceremony, and Shen Yuan's soul is called back into Shen Qingqiu's body, he hesitates. Shen Jiu is poised like a snarling, wounded animal within the confines of his own body. Even the gentlest tap would knock him back out again. Shen Yuan gets the sense that the system is also there, just waiting and even eager for him to do it. Take back the body, resume whatever quests or directives are waiting for him there.

Shen Yuan, even as fragile as his own spirit is, could crush Shen Jiu's battered soul to dust.

Instead he withdraws.

Binghe tries the ritual again, and again, and each time Shen Yuan feels stronger. But it doesn't matter, because he doesn't want to be an evil body-stealing parasite! He wishes he could just tell Binghe to stop wasting valuable resources on this, especially when Binghe could be focusing on other, more important things! Like building up happy relationships or consolidating his rule of the demon realms or establishing an actual strong foothold in the human world, or something!

Somehow, Shen Jiu figures this out before Luo Binghe does. Of course, he conveys the information in the worst way possible, snidely wondering what Luo Binghe did to alienate "that creature" he's trying so hard to resurrect so badly that it will refuse even the open, glowing invitation he keeps writing for it!

Excuse you, you miserable old man, Shen Yuan isn't avoiding Binghe! He is facing a very difficult moral dilemma and handling it LIKE A CHAMP! Fuck you!

Unfortunately, even though Shen Jiu has decided that Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan were in cahoots about the first body snatch, Luo Binghe knows that they weren't. He also doesn't know that his old Shizun knew full well that he was a Heavenly Demon the whole time. So now he has a lot of doubts to wrestle with, especially give that, despite the consensus of the rest of the world, Luo Binghe is not convinced that Shen Yuan actually is some kind of demonic spirit.

Maybe he's a good spirit that has rejected Binghe for his wretched blood?

But Shizun always said that things like that didn't matter!

So... maybe it's not his blood. Maybe Binghe's actions are what has caused Shizun to forsake him. All the terrible things he did to survive the Abyss, and the machinations afterwards, framing Shen Qingqiu and imprisoning him, setting himself up as a demonic ruler... all of that.

Binghe entreats his Shizun to forgive him. Or even if he won't forgive him, to still come back. Binghe will... stay away, if that's what Shizun wants. Just so long as Shizun is alive, is somewhere in the world, safe and happy, then... then...

He can't quite get through lying to claim that it would be enough. But it would be better than the current situation, so he tries.

Shen Yuan, luckily, has been juiced up enough from all the failed summoning rituals that later that night, he finally recognizes the little whisper-calls as echoes of Luo Binghe's dreams. And he's strong enough to follow the invitations! He goes to visit Binghe in his dreams, and reassures him that he's not trying to reject him at all. He's very proud of Binghe, and wants him to be happy and successful. Binghe could rule the world and Shizun would just cheer him on!

It's just that Shen Yuan never willingly possessed Shen Qingqiu in the first place. He misses his life, but given the choice, he doesn't want to be that kind of entity.

So, new plan -- if Shen Yuan won't take a body off of an undeserving asshole, then Binghe will make him a new body! Luckily, Shen Yuan knows a way to grow one. They "borrow" some genetic materials from Shen Jiu to aid the process, and then Luo Binghe, surprisingly indifferent about the whole thing, cuts Shen Jiu loose at the border.

Shen Yuan is surprised. Binghe really doesn't care about that? Turns out no, not so much. Shen Jiu is awful, but he's nothing to Binghe in the long run. (Also it's a long shot but if nothing else does work Binghe might have to force Shen Yuan to take Shen Qingqiu's body back, though of course he's not about to say so, and anyway Shen Jiu is still going to have a hell of a time waiting for him back in the cultivation world. Luo Binghe wishes him luck and every pleasure of trying to clear his ruined name, living a life on the lamb with an insidious poison constantly eating away at him, or the full enjoyment of a second visit to the water prison, whichever ends up happening.)

With the help of Luo Binghe's blood parasites, the Sun and Moon Dew whatever mushroom body grows in record time. A summoning ritual isn't even required, Shen Yuan just scoots right in as soon as the body is ready and blinks his eyes open to see his anxious disciple's face peering back at him.

Happily ever after!

#bingqiu #svsss #scum villain's self saving system #scum villain #long post #and I'm sure that nothing else subsequently goes awry or drags anyone into further dramatic plots #shen jiu absolutely got the system by the way #it's in that body #he was SO confused #but didn't want anyone to think he was still possessed or anything either so he didn't tell anyone about it #lbh downplays it but he is REALLY BIG MAD about how that whole possession plot/reveal went down #oh so everyone's just going to assume the spirit possessing the asshole peak lord was malicious?#yeah luo binghe's not letting that go any time soon

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hallowxiu · 4 months

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How the Brothers Would Deal with MC's Mortality

Mammon:

You casually brought it up as a joke

Probably something like “i’m here for a good time, not a long time” or “why should i care what happens in 100 years? It’s not like i’ll be around to care”

Would probably confuse Mammon at first as to why you wouldn’t be around, but he would put the pieces together in the middle of the night when trying to sleep.

A whole, eyes snapping wide opening and flinging out of his bed kind of moment.

Mammon would worry himself sick

Yes, he knows humans can die, hell, he used to mock you for being so frail when you first came to the Devildom, but now?

Well, now things are different. How he feels about you is different

He's spending all his money on ways to keep you kicking longer.

Anything he can think of that’ll help, he’s buying it. Vegetables, fruits, protein powder, comfortable clothes, a nice pillow, vitamins, shampoos- anything. He has no idea where to start, so he just starts grabbing everything.

I mean, something will have to help, right?

If you notice he looks panicked, don’t point it out, it’ll only make it worse. Unless you want to be smothered to death from his affection and worry, then by all means. ;)

Leviathan:

Look, he can barely handle his favorite anime characters dying, so you? Yeah, no, that’s way too much.

Nothing actually popped up to remind Leviathan of your mortality, it was because of Satan throwing his books all around the house that did it.

Suddenly, it was all he could think about. How did he not think of this before?

Leviathan is no Satan though, and he’s certainly not Lucifer. Researching medical documents and trying to think of things to keep you alive longer are a little over his head. That being said, there were some things he could do.

Leviathan dove into his own research that would be within his realm of understanding, studying that humans who have more positive mindsets and who are less exposed to depressing forms of media, may live longer than the average person. This- this was something he could work with.

Suddenly, you were constantly being invited to his room, Leviathan having a variety of slice-of-life anime for you to watch with him, all of which had happy endings to boot. If an anime was even remotely depressing, he made sure to keep that out of reach.

Video games? He’s keeping it safe; he’s not risking anything here. If it’s not similar to Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, Dreamlight Valley, or The Sims (which must be on a good day), you’re just not playing it. Kingdom Hearts if you’re lucky.

Satan:

Would do an insane amount of research

Likely overheard the topic on a news segment about the tragically short lifespans of humans before it all clicked together.

Satan, unlike the other brothers, has never experienced death before, so while it sounds silly, he never had reason to think of you dying.

Looks up humans who had long lifespans to see how he can implement those things into your lifestyle.

Books will be littered everywhere (although that’s not really unusual, but what is would be the topic of said books- The Long Lives of Humans, Human Lifestyle for Dummies 101, The Road to Human Immortality, etc. etc.)

This is when Satan learns just how easy it is for a human to kick the bucket.

Heart attacks, brain aneurysms, strokes, seizures, cancer, the list goes on and on and it’s starting to scare him. He didn’t know humans could just drop dead.

He’s going to start researching curses to increase your lifespan, or at the very least he’s going to make sure you’re careful as hell.

You won’t even get as much as a cut without him being aware of it; he’s going to hover around and mother hen the absolute shit out of you.

Try not to get too annoyed with him though, it all stems from good intentions.

Asmodeus:

He’ll be damned if his shopping partner for life is going to die on him.

Asmo isn’t stupid; if anything he’s pretty emotionally aware. He's known for a long time just how short the lifespan of humans is.

But still, it came in the form of a nightmare. One where he couldn’t save you, despite giving his best efforts. The way you died was tragic, long before your life should have ended.

This sent Asmo somewhat into a frenzied state trying to find things to keep you alive once he woke up.

Vitamins, vitamins, vitamins

Humans benefit from vitamins, right? Surely you’d benefit from Devildom vitamins then. If it’ll increase the lifespan of a demon, he sees no reason why it wouldn’t increase your lifespan.

Of course, it really only gives you nicer nails and shinier hair.

He’s 10x more intense with your morning and night routines.

He will be unloading all his facial creams on you, and telling you the benefits of each one and how it might add a few years to your lifespan.

You want to stay up late at night to finish homework? Maybe watch a movie? Yeah, no, not on Asmo’s watch.

Your ass is going to bed every night at 10pm, right along with him. You do realize you’ll be getting exactly 8 hours of sleep each night, too, right?

Beelzebub:

Regarding his trauma with Lilith, it came as no surprise when he started to fret over your well-being.

Poor Beel saw an article that discussed how tragically easy it is for a human to die. The cherry on top? How they could die from simply overeating.

Overeating isn’t a concept Beel is overly familiar with (because to him, it’s never overeating), and while he knew most people couldn’t keep up with his eating habits, he didn’t think it could actually cause harm to a human, let alone kill them.

Grocery trips are now a more anxiety-inducing event.

He’s suddenly paranoid that any of the Devildom food could and will kill you. Are you allergic to anything? How would you even know?

What if one day he serves you his favorite boiled dragonhead and you just drop dead at the dinner table?? No, that will never do.

There’s a list of Devildom foods that he knows for sure you can have without dying, but then comes the issue of portion control. How much is too much for a human?

Beelzebub swore he would never lose another loved one again, and it’s a promise he intends to keep. From now on, you will only eat what he deems safe.

You want to try a new food in the Devildom that you’ve never had before? You better get some seriously good convincing skills if you want him to cave in. For someone who only ever thinks with his stomach, he’s surprisingly stubborn.

Belphegor:

He’s still plagued with nightmares about Lilith, especially since he still thinks it’s his fault. Tack that on to the way he blamed you and the rest of the human race for it? The man is walking trauma.

Like Asmodeus, this was brought on by nightmares about you dying. Different from Asmo’s, however, you usually died by his hand. Naturally, considering your tumultuous history.

Belphegor, unlike his brothers, takes a different approach. He just doesn’t approach you at all.

What better way to keep your lifespan long than by staying away from you altogether?

Is it something that he wants? Of course not! But how can he trust himself to never hurt you again? To never kill you again.

He can’t.

So, he locks himself away in his room, sleeping most of the day or just avoiding the areas you normally like to lounge.

On a normal day, almost everyone in the household, including yourself, would notice this behavior change. However, since you’re now being cornered by all the brothers and their concerns about your lifespan, it’s easy for Belphegor’s absence to slip your mind.

This hurts Belphegor, but at the end of the day, he believes this is for the best.

Lucifer:

Lucifer didn’t need a reminder of your short lifespan; if anything, it’s something he’s thought plenty about.

Lucifer has trauma, we all know that much. After Lilith, he’s absolutely terrified of losing another loved one to something outside of his control.

And your lifespan is not something that’s out of his control. At least not how he sees it, anyway.

If you thought he was overbearing or overprotective before, brace yourself. He’s going to step it up several notches.

No excess of junk food, no more pulling all-nighters, no more sitting around the house gaming all day, and definitely no more overexerting your use of magic. He’s no fool, he knows the toll your magic could eventually take on your body.

Honestly? He wasn’t this bad until his brothers started to panic about your mortality, and though Lucifer told himself he was above such nonsense, he quickly found himself taking all the precautions they were taking (and then some).

Fortunately, if you find yourself becoming overwhelmed, they’ll be more than willing to listen to you (granted you take some of their concerns into account).

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