I had one back in the day, after Livejournal turned itself into a dumpster fire, but I didn't keep up with it & eventually deleted it. Mainly because a lot of my LJ mutuals didn't see the point in starting again on another site (even when they could easily import their old posts over), & those that did make the move seemed to have lost interest in maintaining a blog & gradually stopped posting.
But I felt like trying again. I think it'd be worth having a little fandom blog & having interactions that way. There's nowt like the chaos of current social media to make you yearn for something simpler.
(I have already enjoyed rediscovering the simple fun of having a different icon for every situation. And being able to tag stuff purely for my own organisation & without having to deal with the potential hassle of how my tagging affects other people is so nice.)
And with the way Tumblr seems to be going, it'd be nice to have somewhere else.
I'm not leaving Tumblr. (Yet.) It's just somewhere else I'll be posting - I've already reposted a lot of my non-reblogged posts so it's not horribly empty.
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During his grief stricken wandering while Luo Binghe is in the abyss, Shen Qingqiu manages to stumble across enough artifacts and cultivation aids to ascend to the heavens quite suddenly!
Shen Qingqiu isn’t sure how to feel about this unexpected development (and certainly doesn’t feel up to recruiting followers) but is intrigued enough to talk to the handful of former Cang Qiong Mountain sect members among the Heavenly Officials, and brave the records hall to get some lore on the Heavenly Demon bloodline.
What he learns from said records hall —and the journals of former gods hidden within— changes everything.
Turns out the current Heavenly Emperor is actually the very same guy who cast out the first Heavenly Demon and gave both him and his descendants the mark of sin.
Interesting lore, but not a huge deal all things considered… except it turns out that said Emperor is also a grade A asshole who not only orchestrated the exile of the first heavenly demon in the first place, but has also been personally screwing around with the fates of every single heavenly demon descendant to make their lives as miserable as possible.
Why are there so few heavenly demons despite their nigh invulnerability?
Why did fate orchestrate such a tragic end for Tianlang Jun and Su Xiyan?
Why did Binghe suffer misery after misery as a child?!
It's all because this bitch ass motherfucker couldn’t get over the fact a freshly ascended common born rogue cultivator dared match him in talent tens of thousands of years ago!
As Binghe’s number one fan —currently suffering from the guilt and heartbreak of his forced betrayal— Shen Qingqiu is pissed.
At least “Great Master” Airplane had the excuse of not knowing the characters he wrote were real! This asshole on the other hand knew he was torturing real people and went ahead and did it anyway! Fuck him and his useless fucking heavenly court! Shen Qingqiu quits!
Before Shen Qingqiu manages to exit the heavens however, the Heavenly Emperor intercepts him and slaps him with a curse.
If Shen Qingqiu leaves the heavens, the curse mark will instantly develop into a mark of sin and begin the process of transforming Shen Qingqiu from a heavenly official into a heavenly demon. (It will be gradual because the emperor doesn't have a carefully fostered heart demon to attach it to).
If he dares help the demon mongrel he rightly cast into the abyss, the demonification will only accelerate, until he is corrupted past the point of return!
Shen Qingqiu being Shen Qingqiu, he doesn't even think twice about becoming a demon, and exits the heavens with both middle fingers raised. Better a demon than a hateful piece of shit!
First Order of Business: Save Binghe from the Endless Abyss!
So what if it accelerates Shen Qingqiu becoming a full fledged heavenly demon? If it's going to happen eventually anyway, he might as well embrace it!
He already got used to spiritual energy issues due to Without-a-Cure back when he was mortal. If he managed that, he can manage this as well. (At least this time his energy is being replaced with a different energy type, instead of just cutting out).
He possibly ends up destroying Xin Mo a little bit while trying to get it to behave for himself and Binghe, but it's probably fine... As long as it can make an exit portal, who needs it beyond that point anyway!
Binghe is just so happy his Shizun doesn't hate him after all, he's willing to do absolutely anything he asks. ♥
Second Order of Business: Let Binghe Take a Break, and Warn Shang Qinghua!
Shen Qingqiu knows that with how much he infuriated the Heavenly Emperor, going back to his sect would definitely paint a target on their back. Based on what he read, the heavenly officials also have a harder time influencing the demon realm directly, so the demon realm is clearly the best place to bring Binghe to recuperate from the whole abyss ordeal.
The best place to go in the demon realm is of course Mobei Jun's palace. He can personally rough up the demon that hurt his poor white lotus —and caused the deaths of numerous other disciples— plus warn Shang Qinghua of the shitstorm that might be hitting Cang Qiong Mountain sect soon.
Upon learning the details of what happened to his beloved Shizun, and that the Heavenly Emperor was most likely responsible for his adoptive mother's death alongside all the other suffering he experienced in his childhood, Binghe is 110% ready to fight the very heavens themselves!
It's no wonder Shizun said that heavenly demons cause 'calamity upon calamity' wherever they go! He was absolutely right! He just didn't know the heavens were the ones truly responsible for this trend. The moment he found out the truth, he rescued his Binghe, even though it meant furthering his own corruption. 🥰
Third Order of Business: Shang Qinghua Warns the Sect, and they Build Cang Qiong Mountain's Defenses
Shang Qinghua immediately takes the news of their recently ascended sect sibling's fall from grace back to Cang Qiong Mountain sect —along with locations and detailed plans for picking up various protective artifacts in the human realm.
One of the Peak Lords wonders if Shen Qingqiu's ascension might have helped him recover his lost memories, and his previous bad attitude... It would certainly explain how quickly he got on the Heavenly Emperor's bad side. Shang Qinghua clarifies that no such thing happened, and mutters that his current personality was precisely the problem.
What Shang Qinghua means is that Shen Qingqiu's love for Luo Binghe and soft heart meant he would never accept the guy being tormented... but the Peak Lords come to entirely the wrong conclusion. Clearly Shen Qingqiu accidentally seduced the Heavenly Emperor, and was punished for rejecting the emperor's advances!!! How dare the Heavenly Emperor try to get away with this!?!
The Cang Qiong Mountain sect is entirely on their absentee Peak Lord's side, and are down the fight the Heavenly Emperor if they must.
That's all the specifics I've got for now (besides some additional potential details of the Heavenly Emperor's beef below).
I'd love to hear any additional ideas folks have for the saga of Shen Yuan pissing off the Heavenly Emperor and becoming a demon over it.
The Heavenly Emperor’s Hatred
This Heavenly Emperor is no Jun Wu with a tragic past that at least explains his actions— despite not exonerating him. He’s just a racist, classist, asshole who had everything handed to him life, and threw a fit the moment someone better came along.
From the various journal entries and official records he read, Shen Qingqiu learned that the then not-yet Heavenly Emperor was known for his noble bloodline (related to the mortal emperor), extraordinary cultivation talents and record breaking age of ascension. He was the heir apparent of the Jade Emperor from the moment he became a god! That is until a new god jointed the heavenly court.
The first heavenly demon ancestor was a common born rogue cultivator, with some ancestry foreign to the central planes. Despite his low status as a mortal, he dared match the prospective emperor in talent and even exceeded him in both looks and charm! Unable to accept this competition, the prospective emperor made it his goal to utterly ruin the man who dared challenge his superiority, warnings from the goddess of fate be damned.
He orchestrated an encounter between the first heavenly demon and Xin Mo, and intentionally fostered the worrying bloodlust that heavenly demons are known for. The first heavenly demon was constantly sabotaged by the not-yet-emperor and his allies, especially whenever he sought help, tried to self regulate, or expressed any concerns about the cursed blade. Truly his eventual dissent into madness and expulsion from the heavens was inevitable!
Unfortunate the future Heavenly Emperor was unsatisfied with his victory. The first heavenly demon became the first demon emperor, cast away the cursed sword poisoning his mind, and then began materially improving the lives of his demon subjects. Even in his banishment he was the first to claim a throne!
The goddess of fate warned the Heavenly Emperor to-be that if their suffering became too great, a descendant of the heavenly demon bloodline was destined to regain the cursed blade, destroy the realms, and rule all that remained. He didn’t care. The moment he finally gained his crown, he used his authority to access and manipulate the strings of fate, that he might torture and kill his enemy and all his decedents.
Now while the heavenly demon bloodline suffered the brunt of his machinations, his fellow gods certainly weren’t immune. As far as Shen Qingqiu can tell, those with humble backgrounds or little interest in bowing and scraping before the heavenly emperor, also had agents and believers who suffered from unusual levels of misfortune.
What if a secret semi “cure” for the mark of sin slowly turning Shen Qingqiu into a demon was dual cultivating with an existing heavenly demon capable of using pure spiritual energy!
It doesn’t undo the transformation completely or anything, but “trains” Shen Qingqiu’s spiritual system to split itself and isolate the demonic energy to only one half, same as it is for Binghe. Shen Qingqiu effectively becomes a half heavenly demon half god-like immortal cultivator, just like his beloved!
Binghe would be so thrilled with this result! Unlike Without-a-Cure— which any heavenly demon can cure— including his new found father and cousin— this fix really was a Luo Binghe exclusive! 🥰
Shen Qingqiu still gave up godhood for Binghe, but Binghe was at least able to prevent him from losing his spiritual abilities entirely!
Shen Qingqiu is of course somewhat miffed that even this turned into a weird sort of wifeplot. Seriously, Airplane?! Luo Binghe can partially cure demonification now?!
Ah, he’s not mad at you, Binghe! It’s fine that he’s “stuck” as a half demon. Don’t worry.
I'm always a sucker for time travel fix-its/do-overs, & this is quite probably the best one I've ever read. Watching LQR trying to solve the problem that is WWX, & creating whole new WWX-related problems for himself in the process, is hilarious (with a nice dash of angst due to the readers having greater knowledge than him about why WWX is the way he is), & bb!wangxian are adorable.
@thispatternismine
The Weight We Carry
by BenevolentErrancy
T, WIP, 86k, Wangxian | WangxianFicRecs' Rec
Summary: Lan Qiren looked at the guan in his hand. Once it had been his, before he had bequeathed it to Lan Xichen. Now that guan was once again in his hands, its weight familiar and damning.
His nephews were not yet grown. The war had not yet been fought. So many lives had not yet been lost. And yet even with his forewarning Lan Qiren didn’t know how to fix anything. He could hardly kill Wen Ruohan, who was already near-immortal and protected by a powerful sect.
(There was another threat he could kill. One which wouldn't have any cultivation or protection, not yet. A child who would grow to be a demon, who would grow to doom his nephew. The Yiling Patriarch would be just as young as his nephews were, and who would miss a single, orphaned child?)
-
Lan Qiren sets out to kill the Yiling Patriarch. This is not exactly what happens.
~*~
(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)
A few months ago I made a post giving my impressions of volume 1 of the official English publication of Devil/Demon Venerable Also Wants to Know. But until now the post has, apparently, been incomplete.
The preview pictures on the product page showed a bunch of smudgy rectangles above the picture of the cover. It resembled a dust jacket, but paperbacks don't generally have those, & the design was weird. When I saw other people posting photos of their orders, their book had that as a cover, so I just shrugged & figured it was exclusive to Haitang's official retailer Nebelland. Kind of annoying for other retailers to use the same photos & not explain this, but whatever.
Well, fast forward to a few days ago & out of the blue I get an email from Travelling Man apologizing for a missing dust jacket with my order, & that Haitang sent out a bunch without them, & replacements have finally arrived. Which was quickly followed by another email with tracking information.
Front & back of the book wrapped in the dust jacket:
Side views:
Inside:
I'm not sure how to feel about the design. I like the torn/burned pages look. I like the pink lineart. I just don't think those things work together.
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there are some people who unironically believe that no one except wei wuxian and lan wangji got their “happy ending” and the rest of the cast (consisting majorly of antagonists and characters who had previously suffered no consequences for their actions) getting any degree of miserable conclusions is unfair. to which i must wonder... do they realise that for thirteen years before the second timeline began in full swing, these positions were completely reversed and wei wuxian literally died and lan wangji was faced with the most brutal punishment a member of the great sects could be faced with? that we were given a taste of what a “happy ending” could look like for characters like jin guangyao, lan xichen, jiang cheng and the fact that it blew up in flames demonstrates exactly how no one deserves a bump-free aftermath if it means their actions have gone unaddressed.
if our protagonist and deuteragonist were not spared consequences—truly “no good deed goes unpunished”—what makes people think that the characters who were the antagonists and on the fringes and allowed atrocities to occur should get a scot-free end? mind you, i still think alot of people get a mere slap on the wrist for the magnitude of harm they have caused but that is consistent with the themes of the gentry class receiving leniency in every aspect possible.
look, i get wanting your favourite characters to have “good” endings but just think for a second about what these characters have done and why their finish line in the story looks the way it does. what would the weight of mdzs’ narrative remain if after all the rotten actions of people in power were exposed, all the wilful negligence was brought to light, these characters were allowed to go back to normalcy and immediately find a way to enjoy life as if nothing was amiss? as if their actions were meant only to affect other people and never their ownselves? and even then, the thing to remember is that mdzs’ ending is just one point in time. much like the “ending” of the first timeline, things go on, life goes on and characters like jiang cheng and lan xichen won’t stagnate till eternity—they will move past their circumstances shown in the end of the novels, for better or for worse.
it’s not that wei wuxian and lan wangji get to enjoy their happy ending while the rest suffer because in actuality, they have paid the prices for their actions threefold, they have faced their consequences and why should they not get some morsel of happiness after everything they have endured? as wei wuxian rightfully asked the sect leaders—what more would you want from him? why should he not be allowed this more pleasant conclusion because some think his happiness is a slight against the antagonists’ “misery” and feel compelled to have them flattened to the same level to ignore acknowledging why they received the endings that they did?
It makes me wonder what those people consider an unhappy ending?
Jiang Cheng just got a reality check, nothing particularly horrible. He was a man in his 30s who still went around throwing tantrums and pity parties to himself as if he were a toddler, murdered a whole lot of people unjustly and knowingly, and still had the audacity to call himself the victim - all because he couldn't get over his one-sided teenage rivalry against the son of a servant who dares to be more talented than him. And yet, he got away with it. In the end, the only consequence Jiang Cheng faced was being told the truth about the golden core, which forced him to stop pretending to be victimized by Wei Wuxian when the actual truth was that Wei Wuxian was the victim, not Jiang Cheng. Then, Wei Wuxian decided to cut off Jiang Cheng for the rest of time, which is the only appropriate response to someone who led a siege against you, got all of your friends killed, was partially (largely) responsible for your death, spent 13 years murdering you by proxy through other unfortunate people who happened to remind him of you, then, once you came back to life, tried his damnedest to kill you again. All the while knowing you were innocent. That's not including Jiang Cheng's slander campaign against Wei Wuxian and his blatant homophobia. Like, Wei Wuxian is a saint for just cutting ties with Jiang Cheng and doing nothing else.
But otherwise, there's nothing keeping Jiang Cheng from moving on and living a happy life. Except for Jiang Cheng himself. Jiang Cheng is a very negative person and approaches life with a victim mentality. He doesn't want to be happy, because that would take away his ability to see himself as the victim of every situation ever. And he can't do that, because if he accepts that he isn't the victim he sees himself as, he'll be forced to hold himself accountable for his own actions, and he is completely averse to the idea of accountability. The only person keeping Jiang Cheng from being happy is Jiang Cheng himself. He's very much his mother's son in this sense. He was a villain who got away. To me, a happier ending would've been if he got to be held accountable for his actions. But I suppose the point MXTX was trying to make was that society didn't really change, so that's that.
As for Lan Xichen, his situation is somewhat similar. There's nothing keeping him from moving on with his life and being happy in the future, and in Lan Xichen's case, that's his most likely future. Unlike Jiang Cheng, Lan Xichen is very much capable of holding himself accountable for his own actions. This means he is capable of introspection, something that was very much needed after the events of Guanyin temple. Lan Xichen merely took some time to sort himself out, rethink his former beliefs and worldview so that he could learn from his mistakes and also grieve the friend he thought he had, but who was never real, so that he could grieve NMJ all over again knowing he had actually been murdered and that he, Lan Xichen, had unknowingly facilitated his murder. He has to reevaluate a lot, relearn to trust in himself after being gaslighted for years by someone he saw as his closest friend. But he is willing to work on all of this, that's what his seclusion was about. Lan Xichen ended the story on a journey to recovery. It's implied he will get his happy ending eventually.
As for people like Jin Guangyao, Xue Yang and Jin Guangshan? They got the classic villain ending: death as a direct consequence of their own actions. Instead of pitying them, might as well pity the sex workers who were used in Jin Guangshan's assassination and then murdered with him. Might as well pity the people of Yi city, might as well pity Qin Su and her son, Might as well pity their victims, rather than those scumbags.
I wonder how many times Shen Qingqiu was wildly shaken awake in the middle of the night, because Luo Binghe woke up for whatever reason and saw familiar shape in the darkness, and his poor sleepy confused brain momentarily decided that it was all just a dream and he's still at Huanhua palace with shizun's dead body and he got really scared as the result and just did the first thing that came to mind to check if Shen Qingqiu was truly alive or not.
I think Luo Binghe would chill eventually, but this seems like a thing that could very well happen in the beginning of their relationship, especially given LBH"s unstable mental condition.
They probably had to leave enough light so Luo Binghe could see the moment he wakes up that Shen Qinqiu's cheeks are rosy, his hair is messy from turning, maybe he has a hand under his cheek or his mouth is slightly open.
Shen Qingqiu probably wished he could learn to snore and do it really fucking loudly.
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Shen Jiu Week brings you the schedule so you can choose the classes you want to participate in and create your best fanwork. Don't forget to use some music for break time!
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Been lost in the Tenakth desert so long, these memes appeared to me in a mirage. Need to hydrate at the Wound in the Sand... or maybe at a bar in Hidden Ember...
something i think would make a lot of historical romance more accurate & interesting is the realization that people are less likely to totally disparage the ethical & social values of their time than they are to use those values to defend whatever it is they want to do
a woman is less likely to go "it's stupid that women are expected to be modest" than she is to go "there is nothing immodest about a woman going out without a chaperone" or even "i can go out without a chaperone because i am so modest"
people also seem less likely to see someone's shitty behavior as reflecting a shitty society than they are to view that behavior as being out of accordance with that society - e.g. a father who's excessively controlling of his daughters' marriage prospects isn't, in her mind, acting that way because he lives in a repressive patriarchal culture, but is actually outdated in his values - his cruelty is unmodern, ungentlemanly, stuck in the past, barbaric. we might think he's upholding the values of his culture perfectly, but the people around him who took issue with his behavior probably wouldn't see it that way
There's this legal theory (bear with me here!!) that says, basically, that you can make a general moral principal connect to pretty much any argumentative position you want. So, for example, you can start with "modesty is a core virtue for women" as a moral principal, and that can lead you to 1) "so women should not go out in public because being in public is immodest", 2) "so it's neutral for women to go out in public because being in public is not immodest", 3) "so women should go out in public to demonstrate their modesty and spread that virtue," etc etc. It all depends on the reasoning and evidence you choose.
In the legal field, this is how you get lawyers on opposing sides of a case both citing freedom, or public safety, or justice, as the value at the basis of their argument: they both think that that value is important or particularly compelling for the decision-maker they're appealing to, so they have to find reasoning and evidence that allows their opposite arguments to both lay claim to it. (A lot of the time that reasoning and evidence is incoherent "transcendental nonsense," as one of the originators of this theory Felix Cohen called it. But that's a subject for a different rant.)
In writing fiction, as OP demonstrates so elegantly, this theory can help draw the connection between the values of a character's culture and upbringing, and the decisions and stances the author has them take. Rarely, people's core values are different from the prevailing ones of their society. But much more often, they're working from the same value, and reaching a different conclusion than the people around them/their past self/the antagonists, etc. What kinds of life experiences and personality characteristics have led to that difference? That's where you get a really solid character arc imo.
