teamotc 🍵

Topless Version [TW: (softcore) necrophilia, loss of body parts (but it’s wrapped/stitched), scars (if you’re squeamish about that) & implied decapitation and torture]

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The idea came from @ros-ales who said to me,

She knows me so well <3. Me thinks Nirei didn’t intend for Suo to actually go through with it, they’re all in mourning after discovering Sakura’s remains and a lot of things can be said carelessly in the moment. Unfortunately, Suo was already unhinged to begin with and Sakura’s death just made him spiral down further. So yeah, this is both horny and sad. Horny sad. (Week 3 is just horny, promise 🖐️😔)

They also gave me the idea for Sakura’s left eye (or lack thereof 😭) since his golden eye might be a valuable prize for some (in this AU skr was considered one of the strongest cultivators in their generation) and I’d imagine the opposing sect responsible for his torture and death would do something like that. Why is it not back in his body like his head? Uhhh, me thinks his scarred eye serves for better storytelling. Oh! And Sakura’s choppy haircut was the result of his head being *gestures to the neck*. Between you and me, Suo has some of the hair remains kept preserved in a pouch inside his magical storage sleeves.

-bUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE:

In East Asian culture, the standard practice in wearing traditional robes was left over right; in China, this is called Yòurèn (右衽, lit. right lapel). The opposite, Zuǒren (左衽, lit. left lapel), is commonly used for the deceased.

Considering in this AU Suo dresses Sakura daily, he was initially hesitant in putting on the robe the appropriate way since it would be the final nail to the coffin (ha!) so to speak—thank you to @psychicwavementality for this additional tidbit! Ah, but I love making Suo lowkey insane so eventually he gave into his delulu and dresses Sakura as if he were still alive. It terrifies and worries the sect though, they’re scared of what might happen if they address this to Suo directly (Suo left quite the mess in their first recovery of Sakura’s body) so they continue to indulge with the pretense. It goes without saying that this is not a healthy way to cope, like at all. If you ask the sect, they would say they’re doing this for Suo, but remember it’s not just Suo who was devastated by Sakura’s death.

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First of all, yes, this is a reference to Suo’s costume for the WindBre Event in Kofu Shopping Street Halloween Festival. It was never going to be anything else 😭 but I added spice (read: lore) to the mix with Sakura’s design to make it more interesting. This piece was originally going to be spicier with a different pose, but I didn’t like the anatomy on that one.

concept:

For this AU, a person’s energy can be visible to the eyes of yaoguai and the appearance of the energy is similar to that of kintsugi (big thanks to @psychicwavementality for the idea). The more potent one’s (yang) energy is, the more it will attract stronger creatures. Sakura is one of the rare people who makes a lot of excess yang energy that Suo could probably live off of for years without draining the former too much.

Also while researching for references, I found that the fulu inscripted on Suo’s talisman from the official art is just “Bofurin ~ Halloween”. Incredibly cheeky of whoever drew the design and approved of it and also very fitting of Suo’s character.

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Bro just dubcon-ed the poor guy for his geese and ran off, leaving a very angry and confused (+ a lil turned on) vendor.

Also, I’ve had the Fox Yaoguai-Scholar! Suo thing stuck in my brain for weeks and I just decided to use the idea for Tea’s MFM na lang because why not…and it’s hot. On that note, I originally had the idea to assign the boar demon to Sakura (which if you aren’t familiar with the story; the boar demon is the lover of the fox demon’s concubine aka rabbit demon), but then I remember the chemistry between the peddler and the fox scholar so I went with that instead.

Lastly, here’s a lil preview of my piece for Week 2: Ghosts/“He Came Back Wrong”