No Thoughts

Hah, I'm surprised you still remember them.. Well, drawing hualianliu was fun.

I fully believe that Qijiu serve as inspiration too, and likely at greater frequency given their proximity.

Liu Qingge is going to combust on the spot if he ever finds out about the things his baby sister is writing about either two of his shixiong or a sect ally and former disciple.

There are genuine concerns Shen Yuan would dissolve their alliance over these.

One of the dragon aunties is Liu Mingyan’s beta reader and editor. This does not help the accuracy as much as you would think.

He is still taking notes.

Even if this is after they have had sex he is taking notes. He is a scholar at heart. He must be incredibly thorough in this regard.

As for the Qijiu side of things.

When Shen Jiu finds out about this he is. Going to. Explode.

Why does everyone think he’s the bottom!??! Why does everyone think his shamelessly whining to be mounted and bred by Yue Qingyuan in increasingly ridiculous ways!!??!! The amount of arm strength some of those positions would require on Qi-Ge’s part would be…

Hm.

Shen Jiu’s reaction is everything to me. Him being initially outraged at this slop someone wrote about him and Qi-ge but doing a double take to actually consider some of the nonsense sex scenes because “oh. that sounds kinda hot actually.” Perfect. Just perfect.

I like to think that Liu Mingyan’s characterization of Shen Jiu as a needy bottom stems from fascination with gap moe (since Shen Qingqiu had long since cultivated a rather intimidating reputation for being cold and cutting, an image that has since taken some hits), fueled by Qijiu’s reconciliation and almost assured excess of PDA (Shen Jiu takes offense to being portrayed as a beast in heat, but he DOES act like a particularly needy cat with Yue Qingyuan in some very public settings. For this, I am picturing Shen Qingqiu foregoing his usual seat at peak lord meetings to claim Yue Qingyuan’s lap as a seat. Predictably Yue Qingyuan lets him. If Yue Qi stops touching Shen Jiu for any length of time, Shen Jiu will die lol)—at least for the era—and a lack of understanding the twisted complexities of Qijiu.

I am a firm believer that 95% of the time, Shen Jiu is topping a very enthusiastic Yue Qi. The other 5% being when Shen Jiu works up the resolve to let Yue Qi take control and let himself be pampered (he’s still the bossiest bottom you’d ever see). And I think we all know that the one shamelessly begging for sex in this relationship is Yue Qi.

But sometimes.

Sometimes it is as simple as thinking his Qi-Ge has nice arms and absolutely refusing to admit that out loud.

It’s not like Yue Qi will ask questions about why Shen Jiu is demanding he tops or the specific positions he is requesting (though he has read it as well and definitely recognizes it but isn’t stupid enough to mention that out loud. His Xiao-Jiu would actually try to kill him for that and not in the fun way they sometimes played. He hides any smile in Shen Jiu’s shoulder and proves that he is in face stronger than the novel suggests he is)

Another reason that Liu Mingyan fell for the bottom Shen Jiu propaganda is very simple. Yue Qi is fucking huge. Like tall and built like a fucking house huge. Man is massive and all muscle. Even after his seal breaks Shen Jiu is lean and elegant and Liu Mingyan is in the yaoi trenches she cannot imagine anything other than Shen Jiu being a needy whiny bottom. That added to Shen Jiu acting like the Sect Leader’s spoiled pet cat whenever he pleases to demand attention (sitting in Yue Qi’s lap in a meeting, trailing his claws over his jaw a bit too hard to make Yue Qi look at him and only him, intentionally pushing his buttons in public until Yue Qi grabs him just so Shen Jiu can smugly call him a brute.) and can anyone blame her for being a little confused.

But behind closed doors Shen Jiu is often than not topping and it is how both of them like it. Qi-Ge has always so loved when he was mean to him and who is She Jiu of deny him that? And on the rare times they do switch things up Yu Qi made it very clear from the very beginning that Shen Jiu would always be in charge. Something that was both incredibly touching and may or may not have ended with Yue Qi sporting a black eye he refused to heal on his own and in fact looked ridiculously smug about.

Shhhddbdbbajajsjdjsj

The Shens are pissed. They can barely stand each other existing in the same realm on a good day for one but for another they were characterized as the ultimate dom and the ultimate sub and neither are coming back from that. Shen Yuan is staring at his hands and asking Binghe is he comes off as a cruel lover. Shen Jiu has broken everything that he can in his home and is moving into Yue Qi’s. The whole possible relation thing never crossed either of their minds.

Binghe and Yue Qi are also pissed but in the if anyone else touches my man I will burn the world down way. They are both so possessive it’s not even funny. They do manage to use this to lay and get laid by their respective Shens though. (This puts back Binghe’s Top Me Agenda by at least a decade he can feel it)

Literally this for Bingyuan and Shen Yuan has every complex under the sun about it because he does in fact think it’s hot but the thought of causing Luo Binghe and distress at all stresses him out so bad he goes on an entire angst spiral so Shen Yuan twists himself around into thinking he can o ly ever bottom because Binghe would never want to anyway.

Binghe disagrees. He would love to bottom. Please fuck him Shen Yuan he needs it so bad. But he also knows how Shen Yuan is and that he needs to take this slow so he doesn’t spook Shen Yuan so it is a process.

Binghe is taking notes though. There are kinks he has and has not even began to dream of.

The first time had been a request from Shang Qinghua - Shen Qingqiu's presence included- and the demon lords had donned human disguises and accompanied them with no idea what they were getting themselves into.

Their human husbands had been perfectly composed and polite during the whole performance. The real show didn't start until they stopped to get some drinks after the showing.

"Alright you joyless curmudgeon, what did you think?" Shang Qinghua said.

Whereupon Shen Qingqiu unleashed an avalanche of expletive laced criticism directed at every aspect of the production before concluding. "It was fine I guess."

Then before either Demon Lord could recover Shen Qingqiu asked Shang Qinghua his thoughts.

Shang Qinghua's opinions are more forgiving but he does explain what he would have written- which is some of the raunchiest material either Demon has ever heard.

Shen Qingqiu then starts picking apart this hypothetical smutty version of the play and the pair of them keep going like that for hours.

It is the most entertaining thing Luo Binghe and Mobei Jun have ever seen. They both just sit in silence and watch their husbands' normal demeanors disappear as the two snipe at each other the whole night.

In the spring of the same year as Shen Jiu is born, Shen Yuan wakes up as the infant son of an Army General.

He hates it. Infants have no dignity, and new layers of Shen Yuan's already thin face shave off with every diaper change and feeding. So! To stave off the growing cracks in his mental state, he starts focusing on the world around him.

As an infant, he figures he must be in some hacks half-assed historical fantasy or something. At three years of age, he decides that, more likely, it's some sort of Wuxia-Xianxia mix with an emphasis on...well, he's not entirely sure, but there's a lot of hidden politics his military family has to deal with, so. Maybe it's something like Game of Thrones?

It isn't until he’s started being taught military strategy and how to read that he starts seeing familiar names. After all, what are the chances of all four Cultivation Clans of PIDW being named in one book?

So.

So...

Yeah, no. Shen Yuan loses his shit.

Some time later (much, much later), Shen Yuan has the wherewithal to start scouting around. The good news is, he's several years away from the start of PIDW's plot, and even more before he would have to worrying about the Realms Merger Luo Binghe would wrought upon them all.

The bad news is that he may not even have to worry about any of that; because while the land Shen Yuan's family currently lives on is at peace, it's tentative at best, and Shen Yuan is next in line to be General of the Nation's army.

--

Many years later, Luo Binghe is ten years old, slowly traveling from town to town on his way to Cang Qiong Mountain Sect, when he meets what he would later realize is the love of his life.

Walking a well-used path between towns, his bad luck had caught up with him when a young master in a carriage took exception to the sight of him and, as young masters always did, decided to harass and bully the poor defenseless child in their sight line. Lou Binghe was just starting to regret ever being born when he hears the sounds of hoof beats catching up to their position.

"Make way!" A stern voice shouts. "Make way for the Army!"

The young master's party tries, but their master is prideful and a fool, and thus refuses. It turns out the young master is of some higher rank (with nothing better to do than cause trouble) and so the moment he is told to move, he digs his feet in. A confrontation starts.

Binghe tries to subtly scuttle away, but he's grabbed before he can go far and thrown to the ground between the two parties- used as a scapegoat for why the young master is being so obstinate. He knows- from years of watching servants take the fall- that the next few minutes are likely to hurt real bad.

But then the clouds part, and under a ray of gentle light, a voice calls out amongst the army men. Binghe dares glance up, just in time to see the rugged men part for another man on horseback.

He's different from the others. Oh, he had the build, the armor, and his hair was tied up tight in a bun, making him seemingly indistinguishable from the others, but there was something there that called all eyes to him. A silent assurance, or maybe just a quiet gravity.

Binghe feels himself fill with cautious awe.

"Why have we stopped? What is the issue?"

"Apparently this child is blocking the road." The leading soldier informed.

"That's right, this little runt refused to move for his superiors! The Master will not be moving until some proper respect is beaten into him!"

The man on horseback turns to him then. All awe dies. Binghe's heart sinks. There is a cold analysis in that gaze, and-

No. No, wait. Even as Binghe's heart fell...did those eyes gain a hint of warmth?

"I see." The man speaks. "So a single lost child is enough to ruffle the young master's feathers like this? How great your house must have fallen, that it cannot ignore a single slight from an orphaned boy."

The young master seethes, "You-!"

The man turns to the leading soldiers, cutting him off with a swift order- "Move Them," -then in a smooth, well-practiced move, swings off his horse and lands in the dirt with a gentle, heavy thud.

Binghe watches him with eyes wide- and getting wider as he approaches Binghe's kneeling self and drops to bended knee right in front of him.

"You've found some trouble, child."

Ah! A scolding! Binghe's cheeks flush with shame, his wide stare dropping to his hands. "This lowly one is sorry! This lowly one did not mean to cause trouble for you-"

"Stop. I'm not criticizing you." A warm hand lands on his head, and Binghe nearly gasps aloud. "What's your name? Where are you going?" A small pause. "You've been injured; let me bandage that for you."

For the next little while, Binghe basks in the care of a total stranger. He tells his name, his life story, and for the first time since his mother's death, feels as if he is really and truly being seen.

"Cang Qiong, huh?" The man, plain and indistinguishable from any other soldier at first appearance- oh, but Binghe will never forget his face now. He stares at the man's features as long as he dares, determined to memorize every line and scar and out of place strand of hair. "I can't take you all the way there, but if you don't mind sharing a horse and promise to hide if trouble comes knocking, I see no reason we can't take you a town close by."

Forget memories, he needs to know this man's name now!!

--

He shares a horse with the man (Shen Yuan!). Others offer, but for the second time in Binghe's life, he dares to hide behind someone's legs and clings to the man's pants. (It was entirely impulse, and he scolded himself for it viciously, but Shen Yuan- proving Binghe's mother right that there are kind people in the world still- laughed. Laughed!)

Binghe had never ridden a horse before, but Shen Yuan was so kind. He taught him how to get on, helped him up the entire way, guided him on the best way to sit and hold the resigns; and when Shen Yuan climbed up himself, Binghe didn't feel nervous about their closeness at all.

In fact, an hour into the ride, Binghe fell into a light doze. He couldn't help it. Shen Yuan was warm and sturdy, and Binghe was small and tired. It was bound to happen, and he only woke up when new sounds reached his ears.

When camp was made, Shen Yuan shared his food with him. When it was time to sleep, he didn't mind that Binghe clung to his side and refused to go anywhere else. When Binghe got scared to relieve himself in the forest at night, Shen Yuan would sigh, pat his head, and say "Alright, I'll go with you. But only the once, got it?" And Binghe would happily agree; but by that point they both knew if Binghe asked, Shen Yuan would indulge him. A week of this, and even the other soldiers would tease them for becoming "father and child on the way to war."

Traveling through towns was the best, though. Shen Yuan told the best stories, and when he saw things in the markets or food in the stalls, he would point at them and tell Binghe stories of "that time I ripped some drunk a new one for messing with a girl," and "when I was younger I accidentally broke my mother's prized necklace and spent the next month trying to hide it from her."

They couldn't really stop in town, but at one point Shen Yuan decided to wait until they'd made camp and eaten before taking Binghe on the speediest ride back into town of his life- and all to get him a bath and change of clothes.

A bath! A warm, clean bath! And he wasn't weird about it at all, like some of the street kids told him adults could be! He even bought Binghe's new clothes with his own personal coin! (It wasn't new, and the colors were a little faded, but it was clean and sturdy and bought just a little bigger than Binghe's size- but most importantly, it was His! His, and a gift from the man who was quickly becoming his favorite person!)

All in all, Binghe- oh, Binghe didn't want to leave Shen Yuan at all!

And then he overheard it.

It was a town close to Binghe's last shared destination with Shen Yuan. The townsfolk were quieter there, and when they saw the soldiers, they all murmured and stared as they passed, quiet and solemn. Like the wake of a funeral.

Binghe tentatively called up to Shen Yuan, unnerved.

"Hm?" He followed Binghe's eyes, sighed, and pat his head. "Don't worry, Binghe. They're just worried."

Later in camp, Binghe asked more about it; and that's when he learned what an Army was. Really learned.

"You could die?"

The firelight made odd shadows on Shen Yuan's face, but for a second Binghe thought he saw somberness settle there.

"That's right."

"Why?" Binghe asked- and he knew he shouldn't, but a new fear had grown in him and the image of Shen Yuan cold and still on a battlefield, injured so bad he died, all alone without Binghe there to help- oh, it made his little heart tremble and made his eyes burn with tears.

"Orders from our dearest Emperor," another soldier chimed in, poking their fire with a stick. Shen Yuan called his name in a scolding tone, but another soldier cut in just as quickly.

"You see, the mortal realm's Emperor decided fighting with our neighbors was better than brokering peace."

Shen Yuan tried to scold him too, but Binghe beat him to it with another "Why?"

"Enough. Binghe does not need to hear-"

Another man- one that spoke to Shen Yuan frequently with information and questions- stepped in then. "Captain, he of all people needs to hear. You'll be parting soon, doesn't he have the right to know why you might not meet again?"

And Binghe learned. He learned that the current Emperor of the mortal realm was recently instated. That he was young and tyrannical and bore no insult, no matter if insult was meant or had ever existed in the first place. Executions were plentiful, relations with old neighboring allies were failing, negotiations with opposing neighbors were falling apart, and in fact the only person here in this camp that had come out of any sort of willingness was Shen Yuan, as the son of a General. The others had been enlisted very much against their will with little expectation to make it out alive, let alone gain anything from their misery.

Why? Because the Emperor had perceived insult from an envoy negotiating peace, had them locked up, and when the country they came from refused to apologize for some imagined slight, the Emperor had lost it and had the envoy executed before the whole capital.

Binghe had never hated someone before, but now, knowing that it would be on this man's orders that his Shen Yuan could die...

"Let me come with you."

The soldiers laughed at him. It wasn't mean-spirited, just sad and knowing, and Binghe understood even if he didn't like it. What would a ten year old do on the battlefield? Die, that's what.

Shen Yuan pulled him over into his arms before Binghe could really start crying, sitting him in his lap and rocking him side to side.

"It'll be alright. Even if I do die, I won't go."

"You won't?" Binghe hiccups into his chest. His small arms cling to Shen Yuan's sides, and Shen Yuan holds him almost exactly how his mama used to.

"Of course not. Binghe wants me to stay, so how could I die?"

There's a smattering of laughs behind him, and Binghe pouts. "Don't joke!"

"Not joking, not joking," Shen Yuan soothes with lightness in his voice- definitely laughing then! "I'm very serious. The most serious. Binghe doesn't want me to go, so even if I die, I'll stay and wait for Binghe to find me; how does that sound?'

Binghe sniffles, "Sounds good."

"Good. Then it's a deal: as long as Binghe wants me, I won't move on to the next life. I'll wait right where I fell, I promise."

Binghe would prefer a promise to live, but even he knew that wasn't one a person could keep. Atleast this way, even if Shen Yuan wasn't alive, Binghe could still keep him. Maybe...maybe he could even find a way to bring him back? If cultivation magic was real and demons walked amongst mortals, then why not bringing back the dead?

--

Their parting isn't happy in that final town. Everyone knew Binghe had to go. Binghe knew he had to go. Yet, when Binghe looked up at Shen Yuan, he could see the soldier struggling with himself. His hold on Binghe's hand was firm, and it tightened when Binghe adjusted his hand inside it before finally letting go.

Just like the first time they met, Shen Yuan moves to kneel before him.

"You'll be safe? Stay out of trouble? Cang Qiong isn't far; if you're scared, I can take you the rest of the way..."

Binghe shakes his head. "You can't. The Emperor won't like it."

Shen Yuan purses his lips. Binghe likes to think he knows the man very well now, and so he swears he can almost hear Shen Yuan say "Damn the Emperor!" in his mind. It makes him smile.

The soldier moves on. "Food then? Water? Do you have enough? Should I give you coin for an Inn? A bath might be good if you want to make a good first impression on Cang Qiong."

"The boy will be fine, Captain. You've given him everything he'll need. If you give anymore, you'll end up giving him half our supplies and go broke."

Binghe and Yuan both pout at the man: Binghe, for interrupting their goodbye, and Shen Yuan for denying his need to care for (spoil) Binghe with his Logic. Still, the logic was sound. Binghe had to convince Shen Yuan not to give him his entire coin pouch as a parting gift.

(Binghe loves this man. He's too young to know what kind of love it is at the moment, but when he's fifteen and discovering the existence of romance for the first time, he'll think back on these long weeks with Shen Yuan and Know.)

It takes awhile for Shen Yuan to drag himself away. Binghe doesn't even try to put distance between them, watching Shen Yuan mount his horse like- like a man off to war.

The procession leaves slowly, each soldier yelling out their own farwell as they pass. Binghe waves to them as they call, but his eyes cling to Shen Yuan, not wanting to miss a second.

Shen Yuan glances back frequently over his shoulder. Their eyes meet more than once, and each time Binghe feels a jolt in his heart. Will Shen Yuan turn around? Will he take him with him after all?

He never does. Eventually the soldiers take a turn on the path and disappear behind the trees.

Alone, Binghe makes his way to Cang Qiong Mountain.

--

There's a phrase he hears on Qing Jing that doesn't quite process until he’s knee deep in the demon realm, amassing power at an alarming rate: "A General must follow an Emperor."

NYY laying down on the ground and screaming, and when someone else rushes in she says that shixiong shoved her.

NYY copying someone’s assignment and accusing them of copying her, and the teacher taking her side because she’s such a nice girl who wouldn’t lie about that.

NYY hides some of her hair ribbons under one of their pillows and then raises the alarm that she thinks someone broke into her room.

As she supports her shizun's drunk self back up to the bamboo house, Yingying can't help but worry. Her Shizun has never gotten drunk like this before; and though he isn't saying much, his usually stoic face is twisting in unusually open displays of emotion. It was...unsettling.

But it was also an opportunity.

"Shizun," Yingying starts quietly. "Shizun, lately..."

"Mm?" Shen Qingqiu turns his head to look at her. At the same time he stumbles, and Yingying has to quickly correct his balance. "Ah, careful, careful!"

Yingying feels the urge to smile. Her silly Shizun...

She smothers it.

"Yingying wonders if Shizun will do her a favor?"

The words take a visible moment to register. When they do, Yingying feels warmed that her Shizun’s first response was worry.

"Is Yingying in trouble? Is someone daring to trouble my disciple?"

Yingying nods, mustering up all her daring. "Shizun has been, yes."

She watches his face closely, waiting only long enough for his face to twist in confusion before barreling forward. "Shizun has been grieving- no, Shizun, don't deny it. I have seen it. More than that, though, Shizun has been withdrawn and will not confide in even this Yingying. What is wrong, Shizun?"

Her shizun tries to deflect, but Yingying expected that. In a way she couldn't have when her Shizun was sober, she maneuvers him into a verbal corner, waits for him to make a mistake, then stikes.

"Shizun, what happened at the conference?"

It was strange to see Shen Qingqiu so open with his emotions. She almost didn't recognize the shapes his brows took or the curve of his mouth like this.

Almost.

"....Shizun looks so miserable. Was it really that bad?"

".......worse than you could imagine," he pauses, glances to the side. Something flicks through his eyes- Surprise? Outrage? Exasperation??- before focusing back on her. ".....if you truly wish to know, then it's best we speak elsewhere."

Yingying gets the hint. They continue to the bamboo house.

Once she's settled Shizun in on a seat, she takes the seat across, not daring to make tea lest Shizun changes his mind.

"Shizun, what happened?"

He purses his lips. "Yingting must promise to speak of this with no one-...."

-and for the next half-hour Yingying hears of the conference from her Shizun's perspective. The chaos, the fighting, and also- also-

Oh, A-Luo...he must have been so scared.

Shizun seems to agree. There's this far off look in his eyes as he explains how A-Luo begged and pleaded. He spares no detail of the confrontation, telling Yingying exactly what he did. What he said. Giving himself no excuses to hide behind as his eyes mist and stare somewhere past her head.

Yingying doesn't need to hear his reasoning. She can guess why he did what he did. However, she still asks him anyway. She just...needed to know for sure.

"They would have killed him, Yingying. A Heavenly Demon, discovered at the sight of an invasion in progress?" He shakes his head. "There is nothing so hated amongst the four cultivation clans as one with his blood. The Abyss is hell, but atleast he would live and come out of it stronger. Death is not something so easily beaten."

"I only regret," He continues. "That I said such terrible things to him before pushing him in." He deflated, hunching in on himself. "Undoubtedly, Binghe hates this master now; and while I know I deserve it, it is a hard pill to swallow."

Yingying blinks, silently reeling. She's barely processed any of that before she's blurting out, "Then why say it at all? Shizun is not usually one to say what he doesn't mean."

"This Master panicked. Binghe has always been so sticky. He needed a way to cut ties, otherwise..."

Oh. Otherwise A-Luo would just come right back.

Yingying understands now. Shizun...really had tried his best for A-Luo, hadn't he?

That said, "Shizun must know that A-Luo could never hate him."

Resignation lined his entire body. "You more than anyone must know that Binghe, while a sweet child, gives back exactly what is given to him." Which...yes, that is true. But still-! "If he returns, it will be to return the harm I've done to him ten times over." Shizun sighs, "But that's alright. This Master will accept whatever he plans to do with me."

She can see that, in this, Shizun is resolute.

Except...

Except.

Does it really have to be like this? When her shidi returns, will she really have to watch the two people she loves suffer and fight?

No. "Shizun should find a way to save A-Luo."

Shen Qingqiu watches her with confused eyes, but she is sure. Determined. It...almost seems to fill him with a new light.

"Remind me of this conversation tomorrow."

A month later, they have a plan, and it's simple: Shizun will find an item or spell that will allow he and Binghe to switch bodies. While Yingying is helping A-Luo readjust to the human realm and hiding that he's taken over Shen Qingqiu's body, Shizun will navigate A-Luo's safely out of the Abyss and return it to Binghe as soon as possible! This way, all debts are paid, and A-Luo won't be left to stew in suffering in a pit designed specifically just for that!

(And while Shizun is gone, Yingying can secretly dissolve the entire misunderstanding! A win-win!)

Yes, a simple, foolproof plan. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

NYY laying down on the ground and screaming, and when someone else rushes in she says that shixiong shoved her.

NYY copying someone’s assignment and accusing them of copying her, and the teacher taking her side because she’s such a nice girl who wouldn’t lie about that.

NYY hides some of her hair ribbons under one of their pillows and then raises the alarm that she thinks someone broke into her room.

More fanarts for "Dance in the Dusk" by @sareyen!!!!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/64877248/chapters/166749796 I just read the new chapter and it gave me brain bugs about this master and disciple pair again. It's a fic of Shen Yuan as Shen Jiu's demonic cultivator shizun Wu Yanzi btw. PLEASE GO READ IT. IT IS SO GOOD.

so hard to get information on whoever you're stuck with when their god keeps using a strange dialect </3

big dog aura VS small dog energy

saw this cute pic of a raven making a heart, had to draw crowxian

One of the quiet background realities of the Star Wars galaxy is that it is spectacularly bad at labor. Not just “late-stage capitalism” bad, but structurally, culturally, and institutionally allergic to the idea that workers should have enforceable protections. You’ve got child soldiers, child labor, debt slavery, corporate fiefdoms, and a Republic that can field a galaxy-spanning bureaucracy but somehow never gets around to standardizing “maybe don’t enslave people.” The Empire of course doesn’t fix this; it industrializes it.

So in that environment, formal labor law is either nonexistent, unenforced, or actively hostile. Which means if you’re operating in a sector where the state either can’t or won’t protect you, you get a classic historical pattern: workers build their own rules.

Enter the gray economies.

Groups like the Smugglers' Alliance (Legends) and the Bounty Hunters' Guild (new canon) look, at first glance, like professional associations for criminals. But if you squint at them through a labor history lens, they start to look a lot like early, proto-union structures — especially the kinds you see in maritime or extralegal industries on Earth.

Think pirate codes (yes actual ones, Pirates of the Caribbean didn't make that up). Think matelotage agreements. Think dockworker brotherhoods that predate formal unions.

Because what do these groups actually do?

They:

set norms for compensation and contracts

regulate competition to prevent destructive undercutting

provide a framework for dispute resolution

establish reputational systems (“you don’t honor contracts, you don’t get work”)

That’s industry self-governance in the absence of law.

Take bounty hunting. Without something like the Bounty Hunters' Guild, the field collapses into chaos: clients don’t pay; hunters underbid each other into oblivion; jobs get duplicated, interfered with, or sabotaged. And nobody trusts anybody!

The Guild steps in and says: here are the rules of engagement. Here’s how claims work. Here’s how you get paid. Here’s what happens if you break contract.

That’s basically a union crossed with a licensing board and a regulatory agency, just without any moral pretense.

Same with the Smugglers' Alliance. Smuggling is inherently risky, decentralized, and dependent on trust networks. If everyone is constantly betraying everyone else, the whole system stops functioning. So instead, you hash out agreed-upon routes and territories, informal protections against betrayal, mechanisms for information sharing, and consequences for breaking the code

Again: not altruism. Stability.

And the reason this emerges specifically in gray/illegal sectors is because they have to. The Core Worlds might pretend they have laws, but those laws don’t meaningfully protect the people actually doing dangerous, itinerant, high-risk work. So the margins of the galaxy — where enforcement is weakest and risk is highest — become the places where labor organization evolves first.

Which is very historically grounded.

On Earth, some of the earliest labor protections didn’t come from governments; they came from workers in dangerous, decentralized industries—sailors, pirates, miners—who literally wrote their own rules because no one else was going to save them.

Pirate codes, for example, often included:

compensation for injury

shared distribution of loot

limits on captain authority

Which is … shockingly progressive compared to a lot of contemporary working conditions (cough Amazon cough).

So in the galaxy far, far away, you end up with this ironic inversion:

The “legitimate” systems — Republic, Empire, megacorporations — are exploitative, inconsistent, or indifferent.

The “illegitimate” systems — smugglers, bounty hunters — are the ones building functional labor frameworks, because they need to survive.

And that feeds back into why the galaxy feels so unstable overall. There’s no universal baseline of rights. Everything is hyper-local, network-dependent, and contingent on whether you’re inside a system that has rules you can rely on.

If you’re a clone trooper? You are literally property.

If you’re a factory worker on a corporate world? Your protections are whatever your employer feels like offering.

But if you’re a smuggler or a bounty hunter?

You might actually have clearer expectations about your pay, your risks, and your recourse — because your “union” is the only thing standing between you and total chaos.

So yeah: the Smugglers’ Alliance and the Bounty Hunters’ Guild aren’t just flavor. They’re a glimpse of what labor organization looks like in a galaxy where the state has fundamentally failed to provide it.

Based of the latest chapter of "The Unwritten Prologue" by @tsukithewolf