commissions open :3

________

You will be remembered as a hero. ________

So a few years ago I had this idea where SY introduces DnD to QJP as "strategy training" and SQH ends up coming over every week or so to be the DM. (Ofc all of the scenarios are written by SQH) (under SY's supervision bc you can't trust that man) and SY helps with monster-related stuff and convincing YQY to let SQH spend more time outside of An Ding Peak (or smth idk)

Anyway 3 years later here's a short comic inspired by this idea

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."

Shen Yuan would try to dissuade him, reminding Binghe that becoming a soldier means likely dying young, and that of all things his mother would have wanted for him, dying a thankless, likely bloody and painful death wouldn't have been one of them- to which Binghe would cry, revealing that he'd already thought of that and, even despite knowing as much, he still wants to; and doesn't that make him just the worst son ever? How unfilial! How ungrateful! His mother would be rolling around in her grave!

(Privately Shen Yuan admits to himself that a soldier and a cultivator aren't too different, and that the chance of dying is pretty high in both professions, but atleast if Binghe becomes a cultivator, not only is his success guaranteed, he'll live a long, long life out of the control of some uppity mortal idiot who can't tell a joke from a shoelace. Plus, Cultivators are more respected. Binghe deserves respect.)

Shen Yuan would, much to his dismay, find himself comforting Binghe; telling him that, while maybe not her first choice, his washerwoman mother would be most concerned with Binghe's happiness and success, not some last request she made of him out of what was most likely desperation to give him somewhere to go that wasn't the streets. He then says something that changes the entire trajectory of Binghe's life goal in that moment:

"Go to Cang Qiong. Become a Cultivator. If you don't like it- if it's not for you- then you don't have to stay. Binghe's mother will surely know you atleast tried, and that's all that'll matter to her."

"But...where will I go after?"

Shen Yuan flounders for a moment, then, knowing he's likely about to throw Airplane's plot in a firey bin and already dreading the future headaches from it, pulls out a small jade token and places it in Binghe's small hands. "Go to my home in [city]. Show this to the steward and tell them I sent you, and that I wish to take you in as my Charge. They will not turn you away."

Binghe stares at the token with wide, wet, disbelieving eyes. "They'll...really let me stay?"

Shen Yuan softens. He ruffles those soft curls. "They will. They'll teach you anything you want to learn, and if you truly want to follow me to the battlefields after that, then my family will help you do that too."

Binghe's eyes sparkle, "I can follow you?"

"You can follow me- *if!*" Shen Yuan brings up a hand, palm out flat towards the little lotus before he can get tackled. "-if you end up not making it as a Cultivator. Don't throw that chance away just to chase after me," (into death, he wants to say, but he holds that part in. It won't do anything but encourage Binghe to try half-heartedly and give up at the first sign of trouble. Which, well...there will be many.)

"Okay," Binghe agrees, nodding furiously. And then he tackles Shen Yuan, because a baby Binghe not expressing his happiness through excitable huggings is a very strange Binghe indeed.

Their parting is much the same as I wrote before, but instead of Binghe sticking it out under Shen Qingqiu's thumb and enduring the mistreatment, he realizes pretty early on that he doesn't have or need to take it. He's got options now.

So he becomes a bit unruly. As in cannon, he's good to Ning Yingying, but when Ming Fan and his cronies try to bully him, he fights back. When Shen Qingqiu tries to make his life hell and punish him for no reason, Binghe decides to give him reasons. He studies hard and finds work arounds to stupid restrictions put on him. When he tries to study his manual and can't make any progress, he steals an invading Bai Zhan disciple's manual and tries to learn from that.

In other words, he goes in knowing in his heart that he won't be staying, and so he decides practically the moment he's accepted that he's going to milk this as hard as he can for as long as he can stand. That way, when he leaves to join Shen Yuan, he's be *so* useful! The most useful! And maybe...maybe he can even teach Shen Yuan a thing or two? That way they'll *both* have a leg up in the battlefields!

ALLRIGHT!!!!! my 1k celebration you guys voted for!!!! a “kiss challenge” but instead, its ‘everyone gets a turn with transmigrated SY’ challenge hehe. (they might still kiss..)

i would appreciate if you’d comment to let me know whether you want him in his original form or if I should make him a new form to cater to all the peaklords(+plus bingge and zzl’s) tastes~

Gesture practice w lqg

Made some courtesan OCs to fill out the warm red pavilion cast for a fic I’m working on, and I have become very attached

Ning Wuxie is Ning Yingying’s mom, and she’s 54 when Luo Binghe is 14. She was raised by a poor farming family and married off at 16 years old to a merchant’s son who found her extremely beautiful. After 5 years of marriage she still hadn’t conceived a child, and everyone assumed she was infertile, leading her husband to divorce her, since he didn’t have enough money to support two wives. She eventually founds the Warm Red Pavilion in the town at the base of Qing Jing— made to be a unique brothel where the women owned the building in common and got all the money they made directly. She’s a very maternal person, taking in a lot of girls off the street to be servants when she can afford it. She ends up getting pregnant at 43, and decides to keep it since she doubts she will have another opportunity to be a mother. Shen Jiu meets her when he’s 17 and she’s 36, and she becomes more like a mother to him than a big sister, referring to him (as well as the serving girls) as her baby. She raises Ning Yingying in the Pavilion until she’s 9, at which point Shen Jiu brings her to Qing Jing as a disciple. Even now, Ning Wuxie is still an active courtesan, well loved for her mature beauty and her benevolent kindness.

Bei Chenghua is a weird girl from a wealthy silk weaving family. She’s 26 when Luo Binghe is 14, and she joined the pavilion at 19. She is obsessed with indulgence and obscenity, and ever since she was small has idolized courtesans for their glamor and supposed hedonistic lifestyle. She is the most popular courtesan in the pavilion, and Shen Jiu’s most cherished meimei.

(CW FOR SA, CANNIBALISM, AND REPRODUCTIVE HORROR BELOW)

Guan Yueji is often mistaken as security in the pavilion, but she is the solitary big beautiful butch they have on offer. She was sold to a brothel when she was 14, quickly befriending another serving girl/courtesan in training— Jin Fengdie. At 15, a year before she was old enough to begin working as a courtesan, a wealthy client at the brothel raped her. Guan Yueji was horrified at the idea she could become pregnant by this man, and asks Jin Fengdie to remove her uterus. Guan Yueji just barely survives the surgery, and Jin Fengdie eats the organ, saying saying that they’re a part of one another now. Two years older and already working, Jin Fengdie is also paid several visits by this man, who eventually cuts off her hair to buy her at a lower price as his wife. Guan Yueji saves her hair. Before Jin Fengdie left, she promised that she would kill her husband and come back to Guan Yueji. Even if she died, she would become a supreme ghost and come back for her. 3 months later, the family manor of Jin Fengdie’s husband burns to the ground, killing everyone inside. Guan Yueji runs away from the brothel to bury Jin Fengdie, convinced that Jin Fengdie set the fire to kill her rapist. She eats the hair she had saved, and wanders town to town for a while, eventually being taken in by Ning Wuxie. She comes to greatly enjoy life in the pavilion, and is still utterly convinced that Jin Fengdie will come back for her, because they are a part of each other. She is 39 when Luo Binghe is 14. Shen Jiu bears a passing resemblance to Jin Fengdie, and Guan Yueji bares a passing resemblance to Yue Qi, leading the two of them to occasionally have trysts. While Guan Yueji is a lesbian, she feminizes Shen Jiu severely, and vise versa for Shen Jiu. Shen Jiu wants her to turn on the memory of Jin Fengdie and realize she’s been left behind. Guan Yueji wants Shen Jiu to do something drastic and make it where Yue Qingyuan can never truly leave him. They are at an eternal stalemate.

More pavilion OCs!

Fa-fa is a serving girl who has no desires to ever become a courtesan. She’s a former street kid who doesn’t remember her given name, so she just lets everyone call her Fa-fa. She absolutely despises men, so she found the safest place to work that only employs non-men. She is completely obsessive about doing the cleaning and maintenance the best, to the point of chasing off other serving girls. She’s rude, she doesn’t care about pleasing people, and more than anyone else she HATES Shen Jiu. She was hired during a long gap between his visits, and when she saw him hanging out in the living quarters with his jies, she tried to chase him out with a broom. She doesn’t smack him with a broom that much anymore, but she still wants him out of her establishment no matter what her aunties tell her. She’s 12 when Luo Binghe was 14, and she started working at the pavilion at 11. Shen Jiu thinks she’s great, and enjoys teasing her until she chases him with the broom again.

Hua Mei is a flower demon who feeds on human life energy, and wanted to join the pavilion so food would come to them. They are very obviously a demon and don’t know enough about human culture to act very normal, but they are under the impression their secret is very well kept. Since they only skim a little life energy off the top and eat violent clients when necessary, the other courtesans are happy to have them around. They also keep fresh flowers around the pavilion so that’s nice too. Hua Mei doesn’t understand why they can’t walk the floor like their sisters, but they are still okay with playing the qin behind a screen until someone brings them a client (the other courtesans make sure clients aren’t cultivators before showing them to Hua Mei). Fa-fa is still under the impression that Hua Mei is just a weird human, despite seeing them eat a person before. Shen Jiu was wary of them being a danger to his family for a long time, but was eventually been won over. Hua Mei’s personality is based on Garak from Star Trek DS9 and Hana from Tokyo Godfathers.

Hua Mei and Bei Chenghua have a long term queer platonic freinds with benefits thing going, started being Hua Mei can do sexy plant demon things like have tentacles and lay eggs, and Bei Chenghua is a pervert. They flirt with each other very openly, and Hua Mei also produces the drugs Bei Chenghua likes to indulge in.

Yun Xiuying has a crush on Guan Yueji, which Guan Yueji is very aware of. She has mixed feelings— obviously Yun Xiuying is an autonomous person who should be able to pursue her interests, but Guan Yueji feels that indulging her crush would necessarily mean taking advantage of her. They’ve come close to sleeping together many times, but Guan Yueji always puts her foot down in the end.