#The real power couple is moshang if you think about it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

tossawary · 3 years

Text

2,500 words of the Moshang Forced Marriage AU, in which the PIDW plot is turned off and Tianlang-Jun doesn’t fall, but this only causes even more problems for Mobei-Jun and Shang Qinghua. Written on my phone.

Shang Qinghua stumbled back into his leisure house with a jar of Zui Xian Peak’s best light wine in one hand and a sack of Qian Cao Peak’s tastiest specialty melon seeds in the other. He kicked the door closed, kicked off his shoes, and then kicked back for some quality lounging.

“Ahhh, now this is more like it!” he declared, wiggling into the cushions worthy of a head disciple’s house. “It’s all shoving off my chores onto other people from here on out! Having flatcakes on order with a snap of my fingers! Making some other poor bastard deal with Shen Qingqiu and Liu Qingge - at each other’s throats even at Yue-Shixiong’s nice dinner to celebrate our future ascension, eugh. I’ve really earned this! I’ve suffered enough!”

He dropped the sack of seeds onto the side table and fiddled with the wine, embarrassingly clumsy despite the fact that he was sober. As always, he’d been much too chicken-shit to really indulge around other people. He needed his fast reflexes for ducking and running away when he was out and about! Plus, people would freak the fuck out if a transmigrator started running his mouth, giving everyone existential issues and shit, so him waiting until he was alone to drink was really more of a societal service here than sad.

The Transmigration System had also been a concern before, but not anymore!

Shang Qinghua raised his jar and laughingly declared, “The plot is dead! Long live the free author! Ah, this toast is a little late, but better late than never, huh?”

At long last, this transmigrator had managed to get into the Transmigration System’s settings and turn off the plot! It had honestly been a little infuriating just how easy it had been, once he’d hit on the right combination of things to open the right settings menu. There may or may not have been a lot of outraged shrieking and frustrated crying, after all the sweat, blood, and tears he’d shed to become the head disciple of An Ding Peak. All Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky had needed to do, in the end, was flick a few buttons from “on” to “off”. Outrageous.

“No more missions! No more restrictions! And no more bad endings for anyone! Ah, at least for everyone besides Huan Hua Palace Sect’s old master, that is… but, heh heh, I really think that I and the new Empress Su Xiyan can live with that,” Shang Qinghua muttered, then took a drink, wiggling deeper into his lounging and feeling very good about himself.

He felt as free as a bird! As free as the wind! Why shouldn't he celebrate his newfound freedom and future as a Cang Qiong Peak Lord by doing a little bit of nothing at all?

Shang Qinghua shamelessly did his best to become a lump. As he toasted to the distant happy couple and the bouncy baby protagonist on his way, with wine and melon seeds both, he removed all but one layer of clothing, tossed his belt and his jewelry on top of the pile, and yanked everything out of his hair. He slid from a sitting position to a totally horizontal one without realizing how it had happened, then he let heavy eyes fall closed with the knowledge that everything was going to be so much better now.

A person knew things were good when they could fall asleep just like this.

Then a burst of cold air startled him into looking up at a shadowy figure stepping out of nowhere above him. Shang Qinghua shrieked with terror.

"SHUT UP!” the shadow snarled. “Get up!”

“What- my king?!”

Mobei-Jun didn’t wait and grabbed Shang Qinghua by the front of his robes, hauling him to his feet. The wine sloshed against the floor and the melon seeds scattered around them. Shang Qinghua yelped, choked, and then wheezed and flailed, and then yelped again as his loose robes got a little looser with the rough handling and he slipped in Mobei-Jun's grip.

"What- get dressed!" Mobei-Jun snapped, and then dragged him into the bedroom right away.

"The sight of my naked chest offends you this much, bro?!" Shang Qinghua thought, stumbling along. "There's not enough room in this house for two tits-out outfits?! What the fuck is going on?!"

Mobei-Jun threw Shang Qinghua towards the dresser. He just barely managed to catch himself, taking a hard wooden edge to the gut and stubbing his toe on its base, instead of falling and concussing himself at least. Shit! It still hurt, though!

"Get dressed!" Mobei-Jun snapped again, pointing at the dresser for emphasis. "Now!"

"Right away! Right away, my king!" With shaking hands, his heart thundering in his ears, Shang Qinghua pulled out the first set of robes his fingers touched.

"Not those!"

"Aah!"

Shang Qinghua dropped the robes onto the floor. They were the regular everyday robes of an An Ding Peak disciple, plain and sturdy, something that the demon had seen him in many times before.

"Wh- what's wrong with th-these?"

"Too plain!" Mobei-Jun barked, and stalked forward to shove Shang Qinghua aside and go through the dresser himself.

Shang Qinghua stumbled away and took shelter near his bed, quickly retying his current robes to prevent another fucking nip-slip or worse. He watched with wide eyes as Mobei-Jun threw his clothing to the floor as not good enough. The next drawer was yanked open with so much strength that it splintered and tilted crookedly to one side.

"My king, why-?! What's happening?! Are- are we going somewhere?! Who does this servant have to impress?!"

Mobei-Jun finished throwing aside everything in this drawer and tried to shove it back in, but it was too broken to be moved. The demon snarled, yanked the entire drawer from the dresser with another terrible splintering sound, and threw the drawer out of his way. It hit Shang Qinghua in the chest and sent him sprawling back onto his bed.

He lay there and wheezed without shoving it away, just feeling the impact rattle through his ribs. He heard another drawer splinter.

"Ah, so this is how I die?" he thought. "Just as expected: with a bang AND a whimper."

He pushed the drawer to one side and sat up, only to be smacked in the face with the robes thrown at him. They were the nicest robes he owned. The An Ding Peak Lord had ordered them for him for the coming ascension of a new generation of Peak Lords, so they had all sorts of fancy embroidery and several heavy layers, which meant Shang Qinghua fell back against the bed again under their weight when they hit his head. He sat up again and then gawked at these robes he had never worn and wasn't supposed to wear yet-

"Tianlang-Jun."

"Aha, what?" Shang Qinghua looked at the demon lord scowling at him. "My king…? What about Tianlang-Jun…? This- no. What?! My king, you can't mean to take this servant before the Demon Emperor, that would be ridic-"

"Get dressed," Mobei-Jun snapped.

"It's not Tianlang-Jun, right? Why-?! What's really going on here? Are we going somewhere? Are we meeting someone?"

Shang Qinghua got to his feet, but he didn't dare put the fancy robes on, like being nearly naked would save him from being dragged off anywhere else. No amount of nice clothing would ever make the likes of this displaced author impressive to the likes of the OP Demon Emperor, finally sitting on his late sister's throne.

"This servant can't serve his king to the best of his abilities unless he knows what the-"

"My father is dead!"

“...Wh… what?”

Mobei-Jun’s expression was like a thunderstorm. Shadows curled around his clenched fists, as light and heat fled this room that was suddenly even smaller than Shang Qinghua remembered it being.

"My father…" Mobei-Jun repeated, slowly, daring Shang Qinghua not to understand a second time. "...is dead."

Shang Qinghua stared in horror, the robes slipping out of his hands, which itched to count all the years that had just been skipped even though he knew he didn't have enough fingers. Thirty years or so? Definitely more than twenty. His breath came out in a trembling fog as he demanded:

"H-how?!"

"Tianlang-Jun," Mobei-Jun said again, through gritted teeth.

Good point! Good point! Who the fuck else could it be? The real question was why the fuck?! And also what the fuck was Shang Qinghua of all people supposed to do about clashes between OP demon lords?!

Mobei-Jun advances on Shang Qinghua, the shadows in his fists writhing like he's strangling them. "Tianlang-Jun took offense to some of my clan's foolish disrespect towards his human Empress and he made an example of my father. He has threatened to destroy the body unless a suitable gesture is made."

"But… the power of your ancestors…"

Mobei-Jun, looming over him, shoved him down to his knees to pick up the robes he had dropped, and snarled: "Get dressed."

Shang Qinghua snatched up the robes and skittered away to dress himself up for the slaughter. His heart was racing fast, but his mind seemed to be going even faster, almost too fast to actually think and also do things like make sure clothes weren't inside-out as he put them on.

The power of the Mobei clan rested in the ascension ritual in which the new king "consumed" the body of the old king. Spiritually and… er… possibly also physically? Shang Qinghua had no idea if the System had picked up on those implications or not. Anyway, if Mobei-Jun's father's body was destroyed, then he wouldn't receive that power-up necessary to enforce his rule, which would make him the target of every ambitious cousin and every greedy neighbor. The Mobei clan would probably fall into civil war and the rest of the northern kingdoms would follow them into bloody battle.

Shang Qinghua's favorite character, currently glaring at him for the fancy clothes probably making him look even less fancy by comparison, was sure to die. Mobei-Jun's shitty uncle had probably already picked the poisoned knife with which to stab him in the back.

"My king… what… what gesture is being made here…? This servant… this servant really needs to know how he's supposed to be of service…"

Shang Qinghua also needed to know whether or not he needed to take the first available window to run away. He definitely wasn't above leaping out of literal windows. If Mobei-Jun intended on hanging him over to Tianlang-Jun as a human sacrifice or some shit, then promises of loyalty might expire a lot sooner than originally planned!

At the question, Mobei-Jun's expression only darkened and the room darkened again with it. The cold seemed to spread from Shang Qinghua's skin deep into his twisting chest.

"Marriage," Mobei-Jun said, again through gritted teeth. "Tianlang-Jun has suggested marriage to a human as a worthy gesture."

"M-marriage?"

Mobei-Jun looked so fucking murderous that Shang Qinghua knew he hadn't misheard. He had to have misheard, though, because this was absurd.

"Marriage betw-between me and- and…?"

"Yes."

"And… you?"

"Yes."

Shang Qinghua should have been given an award for not fainting dead away. The System should have given him a million points for every second he managed to stay conscious, except… the System had essentially been turned off. No more points. No more plot.

No more Proud Immortal Demon Way plot, at least.

Ah, was this some kind of warped vacuum effect? A new plot come to take its place?

"There will be great riches."

Shang Qinghua refocused on the demon glaring at him. Riches?! What the fuck did riches have to do with anything right now?!

"Mobei Clan is the second strongest in the Demon Realm," Mobei-Jun informed him, but the demon was kind of scowling like he resented this now, instead of bragging. "You would not have to work again."

It was a really fucking weird day when being told that his Dream Guy wanted him and that he'd never had to work again was somehow bad news. It almost sounded like Mobei-Jun was… was… trying to persuade Shang Qinghua to marry him by offering wealth, power, and a life of indolence. All things that would tempt most people! Especially blindly greedy, thigh-hugging sect traitors like his character!

"Did… did Tianlang-Jun tell you… to just pick any human?" Shang Qinghua asked faintly. "There weren't… there weren't any requirements…?"

Clearly Mobei-Jun didn't want to be tied to Shang Qinghua of all humans!

"He asked - laughingly - if none of us knew any humans. I said that I did."

Okay, Shang Qinghua fully believed that Mobei-Jun didn't know any other humans. Mobei-Jun was on a deadline and didn't have time to go find the most acclaimed matchmaker or anything. By default, Shang Qinghua was the best, most handsome, most skillful, most wellborn, most desirable, and altogether most marriageable human Mobei-Jun knew - and he was not feeling super fucking thrilled by this victory.

"What… what did my king say about me..? What is the Demon Emperor expecting?" Shang Qinghua could only hope expectations had been set on the floor, preferably into the floor or maybe even underground.

"A disciple of Cang Qiong in my service."

"Oh…"

"Fix your robes."

"What? Oh, shit. Right away!"

Shang Qinghua didn't have a lot of experience wearing robes this nice and Mobei-Jun barking at him to look less like shit wasn't helping. The fact that he was sweating from nerves and his fingers were still shaking a little also wasn't helping. He skittered around to add tasteful ornaments and jewelry, some of which got violently rejected by Mobei-Jun as too ugly to show anyone, but looking down at himself, he mostly just felt like he was throwing shiny gold onto a pile of crap. How could this really fool anyone?

"My king, what… what am I supposed to say to the Demon Emperor? Do you want me to lie? To the Demon Emperor?!"

"Do not speak unless spoken to."

Sure, Shang Qinghua could do that, but was he really supposed to leave the talking to Mobei-Jun?! To Mobei-Jun?! The protagonist's right-hand man had not been known for his silver tongue! Did he think people weren't going to have questions? Like, "How the fuck do you know some random human?" Or, "Holy shit, you're really going to marry THAT one?"

"Isn't… my king, isn't Tianlang-Jun well known for his interest in humans and human stories… though...?"

Love stories! Shang Qinghua was pretty sure that the man loved a good love story! How the fuck were he and Mobei-Jun supposed to pull off a love story? And make it a love story compelling enough to convince a pissed-off Tianlang-Jun to grant the Mobei Clan mercy? Shang Qinghua wasn’t totally sure he was going to be able to do anything besides break down sobbing and curl up into a pathetic ball on the floor.

Mobei-Jun's face twisted slightly, in the way of an angry demon who didn't want to admit that his lowly human servant actually had a super great point. Tianlang-Jun had already proven himself a man who liked to play with his food a little.

"Do not tell some story," Mobei-Jun snarled finally. "Do not speak unless spoken to. Do not lie."

"Of course! Of course! Very wise not to lie to him!” Shang Qinghua told himself to focus on the logistics here; he was the logistics man; it was what he did. If he just kept focusing on the details, he didn’t have to think about the bigger picture. “This servant will remain silent until called upon, which… when… my king, when will that be? Tomorrow morning? I have to tell-"

"Now."

"-my martial sib- what?!"

"Now," Mobei-Jun repeated. "He is waiting."

#moshang forced marriage au #tossawary updates #tossawary svsss #moshang #mobei jun #shang qinghua #svsss

396 notes · View notes

spockandawe · 3 years

Text

ALSO! New webnovel rec, because I am incapable of reading the quality fanfiction my dear friend harvests and brings back home to feed our family, but am apparently perfectly capable of reading whole novels’ worth of possibly-garbage looking for something edible.

And this wasn’t garbage! I’ve been craving books that scratch the same itch as svsss basically since I finished svsss, but haven’t had much luck tracking down good stuff. Transmigration books aren’t that hard to find, or ones where the transmigrator enters a villain’s body, but I’m really a sucker for that stallion-novel-(straight)-sex-drive-turns-into-single-target-(gay)-sexuality, and finding someone who can execute that in a cute+funny way, but still with moving moments and serious emotional depth... it’s harder. And I do want something distinct from svsss. So in general, I’m still/always on the lookout, but this is the first real success I’ve found, and I like it a lot.

It’s called How To Survive As A Villain, and the premise is that a current-day mild-mannered young ceo type.... gets terminal cancer, and eventually, kills himself. Towards the end, he was reading a webnovel about a stallion novel protagonist who had been a prince, until his kingdom was attacked, his family was killed, and he was captured by the emperor of the attacking kingdom. From there, he endures lots of hardship and torture, falls in love with the emperor’s little sister, eventually escapes and returns to his kingdom, comes back up north with an army, kills the emperor, etc. Eventually he collects a huge-ass harem and unites all the kingdoms under his rule.

WELL, that emperor... is who the main character (Xiao Yu’an) becomes. And the original emperor had been young, new to the throne, hedonistic, openly gay, and..... predatory doesn’t exactly feel like the right word, but it’s not WRONG, and saying No to the emperor is a terrible idea. He’s got a whole wing of gay concubines, some of whom are much more willing to be there than others. Xiao Yu’an is not interested in using the harem in the same way as the original goods, but they’re there, and his tastes are well known, so he’s a little bit stuck with them.

The stallion novel male lead (Yan Heqing) is imprisoned, and is busy suffering away. Xiao Yu’an is a genuinely good egg, and tries to act in as much good faith as possible with everyone around him, which includes trying to do decently by Yan Heqing. However... the northern kingdom is kind of responsible for crushing the southern kingdom and the deaths of Yan Heqing’s whole family, and he is not willing to put that behind him. First notable point of compare and contrast with svsss: Yan Heqing is NOT willing to forgive mistreatment in the same way that Luo Binghe is, and... I love the svsss plot, but this kind of determined resentment was also very tasty.

And the first point of general plot divergence that I hadn’t expected! Yan Heqing tries to kill Xiao Yu’an, and Xiao Yu’an is like STOP STOP STOP, I’M NOT THE EMPEROR, I’M REALLY NOT. And Yan Heqing does not want to believe that, but Xiao Yu’an stops his guards from bursting in on this attempted murder, and is finally like ‘whatever!!!! I already died once, I don’t care anymore!! Screw it, I’m going to bed!!!!!!!!!!’

So that is the turning point for the Yan Heqing to start catching Feelings, and it seems for a while like things will be able to progress happily. But everyone knows that Yan Heqing is the imprisoned prince of an enemy country, and a lot of powerful people are VERY eager to beat him down and/or just eliminate him, and eventually, it becomes clear that he can’t stay, and Xiao Yu’an takes back the intimacy between them (’instead of calling me by name, you should call me ‘your majesty’.’) and sends him back to his home, and settles in to try to take care of his kingdom.

But the book plot presses on, and their kingdom is destined to be defeated in the end. And it was surprisingly sad to read, because a lot of good people try really hard to make things work. And in the end, Xiao Yu’an goes to surrender himself to the approaching army. And oh my god, the MISUNDERSTANDINGS in this book. I do sometimes get impatient with misunderstandings as a plot point, because ‘just! talk!!!!!!!!’ but this book has done a LOVELY job with continually adding new inputs that change the situation without allowing them to sort things out. Both of them think the other one despises him (Xiao Yu’an: of course he hates the ruler of the nation that crushed his home) (Yan Heqing: of course he hates the leader of the army in the process of crushing his home) and Xiao Yu’an eventually makes his escape to a quiet mountain town to live a quiet mountain life while thinking that if Yan Heqing sees him again, he’s definitely going to be killed horribly :’)

The translation isn’t done yet, and I’m wrestling with whether or not I’m desperate enough for mtl or not. The main character is really funny at times, and makes jokes about marxism and management and things that I doubt the mtl has any hope of translating well, but also........... the two leads have just been reunited after a long separation, there is a LOT of heartsickness and pining, fresh misunderstandings, and SO MUCH HEARTSICKNESS! The novelupdates summary was like ‘A takes care of B, and then B takes care of A’, and I’m so impatient for Yan Heqing to start taking care of and protecting Xiao Yu’an. He wants to dote on him so BADLY, and was COMPLETELY rattled the first time he realized he’d been reunited with Xiao Yu’an again.

And also........ I love mxtx, don’t love the way that she is like ‘yeah, only the two leads are gay, everyone else is str8, except for moshang’, and this book is DEFINITELY not doing that same thing. There are pair of EXCELLENT girlfriends who just got married, and I am definitely shaming the boys for not being even a FRACTION as competent as these ladies are. There’s another side couple that genuinely made me gasp with how sweet they are. And the main character is oblivious when it comes to his own self (though it is established in that in his previous life, he was never able to pin down his own sexuality), but he’s so supportive of everyone else. He falls into very sqq-esque traps of ‘oh, this girl is for the male lead, and nobody else’ and misses the way she’s clearly pining for a lady, but once he does catch a clue, he’s so good!

About half the book is done, and there are some INTERESTING dangling plot threads that I have to assume will come up again, but I have no idea in what capacity. At this point in the original canon, the main character’s First True Love had died, and he kinda fell apart and threw himself into harem-building shenanigans, but we’re past that point in the story now and while the PLOT-plot is moving in approximately the same direction, the emotional plot is completely different. And Yan Heqing has... pretty much made his smooching intentions clear, though we still have to see Xiao Yu’an is going to stop to process that, or if he’s still going to be stuck in panic mode that Yan Heqing wants to torture him. He’s got valid reasons for those worries, even outside just ‘ummm, i read the book’, but Yan Heqing is DESPERATELY devoted now, and I need the translator to translate more, right away, blease, I’m desperate ;u;

#how to survive as a villain #i don't want to *just* compare it to svsss #because it's a very different beast in the end #but i arrived here because of svsss cravings #which makes it a very convenient way to talk about the book #and it goes down so smooth and easy #i love it a lot #suicide mention/

16 notes · View notes