#because I think it'd be Neat and also they could get drunk and bitch about their narcissistic demonic cultivator superiors | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hunxi-after-hours · 2 years

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hunxi my friend hunxi DYING to know what you thought of 《无双》 and the way it elevated what 《千秋》 thought of women who ran rampant in the jianghu. it is so very dear to my heart. also do you think that they'll live past yang guang's reign are they pigheaded enough 😂😞🤔

ANON and here I thought no one noticed my sneaky updates to my to-read list/currently-reading post but you caught me, I might've read 《无双》 over the past few weeks, I just haven't gotten around to uploading a few Choice Quotes from my phone yet

but YES, let's talk about who runs the world jianghu in 《无双》!

I think one thing that really struck me reading 《无双》 was that only five years had gone by since the events of 《千秋》, but all under heaven has changed so much. I mean, obviously there's the new Sui Dynasty in power but like... the shape of the jianghu has shifted and I don't recognize anyone in it anymore. okay fine I'll admit it, I miss 《千秋》 a lot okay

I think the exponential increase in female characters in 《无双》 is, wildly, directly caused by 《千秋》 itself, and I'm not just referring to the fact that Bai Rong was a hit with the readers (to the point where many readers were shipping qiaorong rather than yanshen and Meng Xishi was like "thank you all for your support for Bai Rong, however this is a danmei novel, so don't get too attached to that ship" for which I will never stop laughing, have you ever seen the central ship in a novel get upstaged by a het ship take that sao lao Yan—), but also to the fact that, well, the events of 《千秋》 resulted in a lot of toxic men getting wiped out of the jianghu, and I'm sure Bai Rong's ensuing leadership of Hehuan Zong can only carve out a better place for women in the jianghu regardless of their origins or cultivation paths

but I also think the shift in the setting from 《千秋》 to 《无双》, from jianghu to courtly politics, is also quite significant — "behind every powerful man is an even more powerful woman" suddenly becomes very applicable here because there are now more families involved with the central thread of the plot, particularly royal ones. and so we have ambassadorial figures like Jin Lian, conspiratorial figures like Bing Xian and Qin Miaoyu, and the (gestures frantically) everything of the women of the Yang/Yuwen family, which got messy rip ladies Yuwen

if the archetypal figure of the jianghu is 云游侠客, the wandering xia hero, free of obligation or family ties or roots in a singular place, then the archetypal figure of courtly politics may well be the scheming of spymasters and strategists, and there's nothing to say that the person hiding their knowing smile behind a demure sip of tea can only be of one gender or another, and so we see the emergence of so many more lovingly crafted female characters in 《无双》, particularly well-connected ones who grow up with an awareness and a deftness for leaning on their relationships, just so, to effect the change that will further their personal agendas in these opening years of a new dynasty

ALSO. also. can we talk about the fact that Meng Xishi strongly implied trans Qiao Xian because I swear my jaw dropped when I read that. the exchange between her and Zhangsun Puti... iconic:

(paraphrased for comedic effect and because I can't be bothered to look it up asdlkafjs) Zhangsun Puti: wait, are you male or female? Qiao Xian: (side-eyes him) aren't you a Buddhist monk? Shouldn't you understand that gender is but a manifestation of the material illusions of the profane world, and doesn't actually matter in the eyes of the Buddha? Zhangsun Puti: damn, you right, forget I asked

anyway. (gestures) love everything going on with her, yes I do realize she does at some point betray Cui Buqu, no that does not reduce my love one bit

#I'd also love to see Qin Miaoyu and Bian Yanmei form a support group for competent jianghu underlings #because I think it'd be Neat and also they could get drunk and bitch about their narcissistic demonic cultivator superiors #this is the true 《千秋》 - 《无双》 crossover we deserve #alkdjfalksjd will fengcui survive past Yang Guang's reign? yes because they're both cockroaches #the sheer NUMBER of times either of them should've died........ inspirational #but if they know what's good for them they'll probably get out of the imperial court once a son takes over rip #《无双》 backlog

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gingus-doon · 4 years

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pov u just shot your childhood hero, wdyd

i.e. i ramble about keiji post-shooting; his occupation, what he does, how he copes, how he feels, etc. etc.

just putting this little thing here because the post got quite long and i couldn't split it up because it's all somewhat related. it started out as a rant / informal ramble but then it got serious lololol

—

one thing i don't understand is why people hc keiji as still having a job with the police post-shooting? like that just doesn't make sense to me– not only based on his character but like... why would you wanna make him a cop with all the talk of how much the police suck lately? personally i'm a brown bitch so i couldn't be down with thirsting over a cop lol. it's just kinda confusing sjdhd

i've seen the hc of him as a private investigator, though, which i like! it's a very neat way to let him flex his detective skills without being part of a corrupt organization and without forsaking his own personal beliefs and feelings about the police, because i don't think those would change anywhere near easily and i just kinda can't see him going back into the police force because of that.

i have often wondered what keiji would do after the death game, and what he was doing before the death game or after the shooting, because i think he'd definitely quit after the shooting, with all the grief and trauma surrounding the job and his newfound cynicism.

i don't think he'd be doing private investigation before the game, or more specifically, before his character develops into something reminiscent of his old self– as he is at the start of the game, he just doesn't have that faith in protection, so i can't imagine him being an investigator at that point. HOWEVER, in a post death game OR non-death game au where keiji has started to pull himself up from that tar (most likely with the help of others lol) i think that's definitely a plausible option for him and i like it a lot :]

as for other options, though... i really don't know! this is more of a stupid idea but i considered him working in a convenience store like shin lol. i had a whoooole au about him, kai, and shin working in the same convenience store just because they can't hold down any other jobs / don't know what else to do for work. shin is able to actually hold down the job because the last manager was mysteriously taken out of commission (i don't know lol) and they were ridiculously short-staffed already so shin ended up being the "most qualified" for the now vacant position. keiji's had a string of odd jobs since the police and this is just the next one. he's hoping to find something with a better wage but this'll do for now, it's even in walking distance from his apartment. and kai, kai's trying to exercise more independence from the chidouins' after becoming his own person! so he gets what i think would be his first job (well, his first official job, anyway... being an assassin and the chidouins' personal maid were more unofficial gigs lol.) ahh that was a lotta rambling about my dumb little au but i just think it'd be neat, they're three of my favourite characters so having them just vibe with each other at work and become friends sounds nice 2 me :] also Coincidentally i ship literally every combination of those three characters so that may have played a part in my casting decisions lmfao

oh wow that was a really long and uncalled for synopsis but this is just a rambly post so it can't really be uncalled for because this post doesn't have any particular point lol (A/N after writing this— IT HAS A POINT NOW, DISREGARD PAST ME)

SO ANYWAY ! i was just considering what keiji would do right after the shooting. honestly i have noooo idea, it's the beginning of a long road of him burying his trauma in a desperate attempt to avoid facing the pain it brings, and it marks a profound loss of innocence which makes his heart begin to grow cold. it's just hard to see the beginning of the process when where he started and where he ended up are very different places.

obviously, he'd quit his job. i wonder if the hallucinations would start right away? him being naïve in the beginning, i'm sure he'd acknowledge them– cry out apologies and plead for forgiveness until his throat is hoarse. the rule of hallucinations in yttd seems to be that if you acknowledge them, they'll burn themselves into your brain and you'll never be rid of them– implying that keiji has done so, as it's likely been years since the shooting and he's still suffering from the visions despite seeming to ignore them now.

ahh, i'm getting in my feelings about keiji now 😭😭 when i started this, i wanted to be held by him, but now i just wanna hug him like damnnnn

but back to what he'd do after the shooting– this scenario is self indulgent, but wouldn't it be nice if he took some time off and just stayed at his mom's place for a while? help her with chores while she's at work, try to regain a sense of normalcy in his childhood home...

i don't think he'd be able to do this right after the shooting. keiji had shame, once upon a time– the guilt would rack him like nothing else. i can imagine him spending a lot of late nights with alcohol, just wishing it was a dream. his resentment towards megumi slowly building as he feels he's being left in the dark as to why, why he isn't allowed to atone, why she's being so cold towards him about the shooting when he's suffering so heavily from the effects of it.

he wouldn't want to be around his dear mom as a murderer, and as a resentful alcoholic who's coping very poorly with his circumstances.

also (tangent incoming), i kind of wonder about keiji and alcohol a lot. in his fondness events with mishima, he says the following—

the "haven't drank that much in years" part makes me wonder– for how long? did he start to restrain himself before the shooting or after? i would say it's most likely after, considering the "feels like it'll swallow me up" comment he made soon after. and, how he talked about binge drinking when he was still a newbie. perhaps it was fine for him to do so, before the shooting— he'd just get wasted and flirt, have a good time. but after, it morphed into an inefficient coping mechanism which he fell far within the depths of to try and control the worst of his grief and self hatred. after that, heavy drinking couldn't just be for fun anymore.

i assume in the "before it got this way" comment, the "way" he's referring to is how he doesn't drink much anymore? or, he could be talking about the depression drinking, but i think the prior makes more sense.

even though i think, given keiji's example of drinking with megumi, that he could have gotten blackout drunk a couple of times purely for fun pre-shooting, i think here he's referring to the painful side of his relationship with alcohol here, the part that took place when he was trying to cope with his trauma. i think he brings up the story of drinking with megumi immediately after, then, to avoid talking about that part of his past. though he doesn't show it much, i think he's deeply ashamed of himself. not only of what he's done, but how he's handled it afterwards.

on a lighter note, though, it's quite funny to think of Lawful Good young keiji shinogi getting drunk off his ass and flirting with every woman he comes across willing to flirt back. like, what's up with that??? he seems like such a serious dork in the flashbacks, but doing well in his police job, he just... lets loose?? no no, honestly i think he hadn't drank much before going out with megumi and he took her insistence on him drinking a little too far, and with his inexperience with alcohol and the successive lack of self restraint that comes with each new drink, you get casanova shinogi, lmao.

BACK TO THE SERIOUS STUFF THOUGH !! i really like the idea of him going to his mom to help him pull himself back together. i think they'd have a solid relationship, fight me! he seems to adore his mom as a child with a good single parent usually does. i'm sure he appreciates her immensely for all the care and love she managed to give him when he was a kid while also working her ass off to support them financially. this very respect for her is what i think would drive him to isolate himself from her after the shooting– as i said above, he's a murderer now. a disappointing human being in general, and an even worse son. to let down his mother who worked so hard to raise him right... how could he? as his condition worsens and his heart grows colder, i'm sure that feeling would fester inside of him. he'd try to ignore it, as he does with everything else, but it's already wrapped its tendrils around his soul. that particular guilt isn't leaving him any time soon.

now that i'm thinking about it, also, i don't think it's likely that he'd quit his job right right away. it'd be more of a slow descent over the span of a few weeks. immediately after the shooting, he may stop showing up to work for a while. he just can't put on that uniform when it's practically caked in the blood of someone he held in such high esteem for so long. eventually, though, he gets a hold on himself– just a bit. he doesn't want to be cooped up in his apartment with his thoughts anymore, and he doesn't want to lose his job. what else would he do?

so, he takes it easy on the first few days back. megumi tries to make it easy for him. paperwork, whatever job he could do that's not on the field. he clings to her like a wounded puppy, hoping that she'll explain why she's covering it up when he doesn't want her to, what he's supposed to do with these feelings around the incident. he's drowning, and she's made herself a big sister figure to him– she's supposed to help him. but, she shrugs him off when he brings it up. she's so harsh about it compared to how she usually speaks to him. perhaps because of her own guilt around the incident, perhaps it's the family's response and how keiji is now, how panicked and sleep deprived the poor kid has looked since that day.

so he continues to spiral with nothing to hold on to. grasps at alcohol in a futile attempt to stop falling, because it's all he can think to fall back on. he's a wreck at work– he's barely living, much less working. but megumi tries her best to keep him from getting fired. she'll get him coffee and breakfast and try to say something encouraging. "hey. hang in there, shinogi." with a touch on the shoulder. but in spite of her efforts, of course, it hits a breaking point. everyone in the job thinks keiji's too damaged to continue, saying he either needs to see a shrink or get the hell out of the way and let everyone else do their job.

and keiji just stops coming into work one day.

the downward spiral ensues.

#your turn to die #keiji shinogi #yttd keiji #kimi ga shine #i really just wrote this much just about keiji like goddamn. calm down @ me #it's not that much tho i checked and it's like not even 2000 words 😔😔#i got sad writing some of the angstier parts of this. like keiji... my darling.... let me hug him #i feel like there's a lot to be said about ~after the shooting~ and the process of him becoming the man he is now #there's lotsa speculation about that here from me specifically lol #i'd kinda kill to read a fic that goes into this stuff! no ship or anything just keiji. and megumi and his mom #i wonder if it exists 👀👀👀 but there are few things without ships that exist....#anyway i love keiji more now somehow #i am super keiji simp trust #i am tired tho lol i think i'll sleep now. maybe #OH ALSO!!! it's very fitting that the last line mentions the downward spiral #because i was thinking of the nin album by that title earlier today #specifically keiji and a certain track. I WILL NOT SAY WHICH TRACK. YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW

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