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mxcottonsocks · 2 years

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Book Order of Late-August Dates in Dracula (for context)

There's a lot of confusion following the 30 August Dracula Daily email about several things:

Is Lucy actually better or is she lying / hiding the truth?

Is Dracula no longer feeding on her? If not, why not?

Has Lucy travelled back to Whitby? If so, why?

Is Arthur's "getting fat" comment caring or mean?

(And this is all in addition to previous confusion about Dr Seward's recent-ish entry where he talked about events which supposedly happen a week later than an event of which actually only happened the night before.)

To have a better idea of understanding what's going on, I think we need to take a step back from the Dracula Daily order, and return to look at the order of events in the book, i.e. the order Stoker actually intended us to experience the events in.

Too Long, Won't Read: All the dates at the beginning of Chapter 9 (late August) are suspect, and many of them are likely to be wrong. Lucy wrote the supposed-30 August letter before leaving Whitby, so she genuinely is getting better at that point because Dracula is all the way down in London. Arthur's comment is highly likely to mean "thank god you're putting some healthy weight back on". Dr Seward's diary entries of 20th August (supposedly) and 23rd August (supposedly) are meant to come nearer the end of the month than their dates indicate, and Lucy's diary entries of 24th August (supposedly) and 25th August (supposedly) immediately follow Dr Seward's and show us exactly where that bat flew off to.

So what's the order of the end of August in the book?

The time period we're looking at spans Chapters 8-9.

Here's the original order of entries:

Chapter 8

(I think this chapter is mostly, if not entirely, fine date-wise. You can pretty much trust these dates, but this is provided for context of what happens before Chapter 9, which is the one with the weird dates.)

Chapter 8 begins at 11pm on 11th August. You may remember that it was later that night that Lucy sleepwalked to the churchyard and was fed on by Dracula for the first time. I won't list all the dates, but the first half of Chapter 8 consists of Mina's diary entries about Dracula trying to get to Lucy to drink her blood (and sometimes succeeding). Then:

17th August: Mina's diary. She writes, "No news from Jonathan, and Lucy seems to be growing weaker [...]"

Also 17th August: The letter from Samuel F. Billington & Sons saying that the boxes will leave Whitby by the 4:30pm train (on the 17th) and arrive in London tomorrow (18th). There are stern instructions to deliver them that night (18th) to Carfax, near Purfleet (East London).

21st August: Confirmation from Carter, Paterson & Co that "Goods are delivered in exact accordance with instructions" (i.e. on the evening of the 18th).

18th August: Mina's diary. A jump back in time, to resume Mina's diary where we left off. We read this entry in the context of firmly knowing that Dracula left Whitby on the afternoon of the 17th. So when Mina says, "Lucy is ever so much better. Last night she slept well all night, and did not disturb me once," and that, "all the morbid reticence seems to have passed from her, "we know it is because Dracula is no longer in Whitby. However, she notes that Lucy "is still sadly pale and wan-looking".

19th August: Mina's diary. "Joy, joy, joy!" Mina has had news of Jonathan and will begin the journey to join him tomorrow morning (20th).

12th August: A jump back in time to Sister Agatha's letter, included in the place it was received by Mina (19th) rather than the date it was written.

ALSO 19th August: Dr Seward's diary. "Strange and sudden change in Renfield last night." Renfield is being uncharacteristically rude to the staff and no longer cares for spiders. 'Last night' was the 18th, the same night where Lucy, up in Whitby, slept undisturbed; the same night we know Dracula and his boxes arrived at their destination. On the night of the 19th, Renfield escapes, and Dr Seward follows him over the wall "which seperates our grounds from the grounds of the deserted house", which we find out in the next paragraph is called Carfax - the same place we know from earlier this chapter the boxes were delivered to. Renfield speaks of/to a "Master", and is restrained and put in a padded room.

So: at the end of Chapter 8, Lucy is still in Whitby, and is returning to normal. It is now Renfield, who Dracula has just moved next door to, who is acting outside of his usual patterns of behaviour (which we've had time to learn over previous chapters).

Chapter 9:

This is where I suggest you mainly ignore the dates and pay attention to the order.

24 August (maybe): Mina's letter announcing her and Jonathan's marriage. She seals up Jonathan's journal. We worry about the consequences of locking this knowledge away but:

30 August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date): Lucy's letter to Mina, written from Whitby. So the time of writing the letter, Lucy has not yet left Whitby (i.e. she just hasn't left; it's not that she goes away and then returns later). This letter is almost certainly written after Mina's letter to Lucy, as she makes mention of "[Mina's] husband". While she knew Mina was intending to marry Jonathan abroad, I doubt she would have been confident enough of Jonathan's survival to write about Mina's husband before she knew for sure that he lived long enough. As for Lucy, at some point since Mina left in the morning of 20th August, she has finally been joined by Arthur, as he was always intending to do. When he arrived, Lucy was probably still looking ill following Dracula's departure. However, he's now been up there with her long enough that they've done a whole bunch of activities and she says she is "quite restored" ("quite" here meaning "completely" not "slightly"). She talks about her recovered appetite, her vibrancy, and her quality of sleep and the fact that she hasn't sleepwalked recently. It is immediately after this that she mentions Arthur's "getting fat" comment. She therefore doesn't say this out of the blue; it is yet another symptom of her returning health. Readers know that this is because Dracula is still far away.

20th August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date): Dr Seward's diary saying "For the first week after his attack [Renfield] was perpetually violent". 'One night' (approx 26th) about a week after 19th, Renfield grows quiet for the first time, and remains so until just before dawn. This happened for 3 nights in a row (say 26th-28th). Dr Seward plans to help Renfield escape "tonight" (probably 28th or 29th).

23rd August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date): Dr Seward's diary. This is the one where he initially was hoping Renfield would escape, but he didn't, and then Renfield escaped later in the night (of the 29th?), and they saw a bat heading west "as if it knew where it was bound". What's to the West? Well:

24th August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date - however, it does and should be the next day from Dr Seward's supposed-23rd August entry): Lucy's first diary entry, written from Hillingham, in North London. She talks about "last night" (the same night the bat flew west from Carfax which is in East London; possibly 29th?) when she "seemed to be dreaming again just as I was at Whitby. Perhaps it is the change of the air, or getting home again." So it seems that Lucy only got home yesterday and immediately got preyed on by Dracula again. She is today (probably not the 24th - maybe the 30th?) unhappy and scared, and when Arthur saw her, he immediately clocked that something was wrong. Lucy resolves to try to "sleep in mother's room tonight".

25th August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date - however, it does and should be the next day from Lucy's last entry): Lucy's diary. She was not able to sleep in her mother's room last night and so had "another bad night", where she heard "scratching or flapping at the window" and then had more bad dreams. She wakes up very ill indeed. This entry likely takes place near / at the very end of the month, which brings us to:

31st August

I won't say what happens on 31st August as that's spoilers for Dracula Daily. But I think the 31st August entry definitely follows on a lot better from the supposed-25th August entry than the supposed-30th August entry.

So the beginning of Chapter 9 sees both Mina and Lucy happy, in Buda-Pesth and Whitby respectively. The only person who is majorly unhappy is Renfield, who is aware of Dracula's proximity but can't get near him for a long time. When Lucy returns to London, her health and happiness take a sudden and drastic turn for the worse as she is again preyed upon by Count Dracula.

(I might be wrong, but I think the dates return to being pretty-much reliable from 31st August. Which is good, because a lot happens in September.)

#dracula daily #lucy westenra #renfield #arthur holmwood #count dracula #mrs westernra #whose name I've been spelling wrong but oh well #dr seward #dracula #30 august #except probably not #long post

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grackle-atx · 6 months

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october 31st, 2023

Took me long enough

#Bandcamp #doom metal #noise rock #music #independent music #sludge #dark folk #shoegaze #post rock #except probably not

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manesvoid · 1 year

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wayne Family making me want to draw stupid things

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biggest-gaudiest-patronuses · 6 months

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so glad not to see any Skeleton War nonsense on my dash this year. such a dumb concept. as if the skeletons could ever not win, literally every human is a sleeper agent

#also i was gonna say they massively outnumber us #on account of over 100 billion humans have lived and died #but then it occurred to me i have no idea how many of those skeletons are um. intact #so like. they *probably* outnumber us. but probably not by a lot #...except that again. all living humans also have a skeleton inside of them waiting to take over. so yeah they have the numbers

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iwoulddieforienzo · 5 months

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Personally I think percabeth is at its best when Grover is in it. I don’t necessarily mean in a polycule way I just think it’s great when he’s around

#just you and me and me and you just us and our friend Grover :)#he IS a third wheel. however he’s a very appreciated 3rd wheel who is never left out of anything except make out sessions.#he comes on 90% of their dates and would probably come on all of them but he’s Busy :(#and also he exasperatedly tells them that a date should probably include only the people dating. he’s tired of watching them make out okay.#like he’s genuinely happy for them but for the love of PAN. he is RIGHT HERE.#they both smack his ass as they do each others and like to pretend to break up with each other to date him. they flirt with him sometimes.#there are no romantic feelings involved on either side. annabeth and Percy just think they’re hilarious #when they get married they’ll probably end up marrying him too tbh. even just spiritually. he probably lives with them #percabeth #pjo #grover underwood #annabeth chase #Percy Jackson

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corruptimles · 24 days

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nooo venture dont investigate the enigma of amigara fault nooooo

original version:

#if they bring their drill tho theyre probably gonna be fine tbh #art #low quality memeing #I dont have a drawing tag #overwatch #overwatch 2 #venture overwatch #sloan cameron #asked the group chat to pick heroes for the crowd watching and this is a pretty random team comp #except I drew this as Petra which doesnt even have teams so like? dont even look at me man

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lotus-pear · 2 months

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satosugu <33

#tragic yaoi for valentine’s day everyone say ty lotus #NEVER DRAWING GOJOS HAIR AGAIN THAT SHIT HAD ME REELING IN PAIN #i’m sorey satosugu…………………………………….#anyway everyone should be so proud of me for not drawing skk for valentines even tho that’s probably what you guys were expecting right #broke free from my toxic ex except the toxic ex was skk #jujitsu kaisen #jjk #satoru gojo #gojo satoru #geto suguru #suguru geto #satosugu #stsg #lotus draws

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theoldkyokodied · 1 month

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normal guys in a normal relationship (giving you a not very convincing thumbs up). macdennis doodles from this week :)

#macdennis #macden #iasip #dennis reynolds #mac mcdonald #it's always sunny in philadelphia #everytime dennis touches mac in that weird touchy way of his i throw up a lil. gayboy #they are.. looking at skin mags. btw. i didn't draw it completely but there is uh. well.uhm. suggestive things you can zoom in on i guess #drawing charlie in that angle with no beard really got me. like who is that. if he ever shaves i'll probably think they replaced him #i already feel physically ill when i have to forgo mac's beard. they hatecrimed me when they had mac clean shaven tbh #i'm like the biggest deffender of so many decisions made. except for that.#STOP MAKING ME LOOK AT HIS BARE CHEEK?!?! it's like he's naked

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coffeecatcraze · 2 months

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I would just like to say how hard it hits me in the chest to see Charlie masking every time she's onscreen the day before the fight (including what we see on Vox's spy screens of course), except when no one is with her but Vaggie. Even during her emotional speech she tries so damn hard to keep that confidence up and smile on. But we do see her stop masking twice, when the only person watching her is Vaggie.

First:

No one's really paying attention to her, and she's not smiling; she's worried. When Vaggie approaches her, she doesn't put on a happy face. She talks about her mom with the same smile as in the first episode (during a very emotionally vulnerable moment with Vaggie, might I add). It's not happy or confident. It's nostalgic, wistful, and sad, because her mom's absence is something very personal and painful for her. When Vaggie asks if they're ready, Charlie doesn't instantly start to smile or answer with confidence even though she usually would (even within that short beat of time), because her mask is off. She's not confident or optimistic. She's scared. She's not ready.

Then Pentious comes out and she's all smiles again! The mask comes back on when someone other than Vaggie is there.

Second:

Of course, one of our favorite scenes. Charlie's alone when she breaks down, but when Vaggie shows up, she keeps the mask off. She admits how scared she is. When she does smile, it's not the big smile she's been throwing on throughout the day, and it's not strained either. It's soft, gentle, and real. She's not masking. Vaggie is genuinely making her feel better when she's finally letting herself fall apart, just by being there and reminding her that no matter what happens, she's already accomplished so much, and she's so loved.

Charlie is under a lot of stress and pressure. She's scared. She's not as optimistic as she's making herself out to be. She's giving everything she's got out there being a strong, confident, inspirational leader and friend in front of everyone, and it's only with Vaggie that she lets it go. She doesn't have to try to be strong. She doesn't pretend. She lets down her guard, because for her, Vaggie is that one infinitely special person who gets to see every part of her; the one person she can always be her honest self with.

There were plenty of times in other episodes when Charlie didn't mask her negative emotions around people, but that was when she didn't have anyone looking to her as a leader. She's running on adrenaline and the weight of people's expectations as Extermination Day gets closer, and she can't let the mask she's put on slip in public. She has to seem like she's totally ready for what's coming. But Vaggie is different.

The amount of trust and love Charlie has for her is staggering. She's under an insane amount of stress and pressure, and having Vaggie by her side is probably the only thing keeping her from completely falling to pieces. Seeing a relationship so full of deep trust and love is absolutely beautiful. <3

#hazbin hotel #chaggie #charlie morningstar #vaggie #no i am not saying her usual attitude is always a mask #just that when you're known to be a certain kind of person it becomes an automatic mask sometimes #and from these two moments and the situation as a whole it looks like that's what was happening here #she's probably spent the last month trying increasingly hard to keep up a face of confidence and fearlessness #except with the one person who's by her side and not following her #they are PARTNERS and that word means so much

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yuyonyu · 7 months

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Gogol’s unrequited love

#i died when he put fyodor’s arm NEXT TO HIS FACE #it’s kind of sad how nikolai’s feeling is one sided #he’s a widow now #congrats on joining the dead husband club #except that fyodor’s probably not dead💀#skk lived too it’s not soukokover #the old man yaoi made me so miserable #bsd #bungou stray dogs #fyodor dostoevsky #nikolai gogol #gogol #fyolai #fanart #bsd fanart #art #fyodor really went KA BOOM BOOM

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sunderwight · 4 months

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Bingqiu roleswap where disciple Shen Yuan knows he's gay, and figures out that he has a big huge crush on his handsome Shizun, but also concludes nearly at once that he's not going to be drawing Luo Binghe's eye any time soon. Firstly, Luo Binghe is notoriously straight. Secondly, even if he weren't, he wouldn't go for his scrawny untalented nerd of a disciple! Shen Yuan's not bad looking, not before or after transmigrating, but he's neither a beautiful nor a hot manly man, and he assumes if Luo Binghe were into dudes he'd be into the same kinds of twunks that Shen Yuan likes. Guys on his own level, etc etc.

Plus Luo Binghe hated the original disciple Shen, and only started to warm up to the transmigrated version after Shen Yuan got injured in front of him trying to stop the other disciples on the peak from killing a small animal. For some reason, Luo Binghe brought Shen Yuan medicine. He got even nicer after Shen Yuan distracted the skinner demon by trying to convince it to take his skin instead of Luo Binghe's, and then again when Shen Yuan successfully fought off a demon invader -- though initially when Luo Binghe volunteered him for that job, he thought it was an assassination attempt. His heart was in his throat when Luo Binghe nearly took a poisoned blow for him, but luckily he reacted more quickly and got hit by the thorns instead. His heavenly demon blood took care of the poison, and he managed to convince everyone that he narrowly avoided getting cut at all.

Shen Yuan's careful not to read anything into it when Luo Binghe finds out about his, erm, uncomfortable dormitory situation and moves him into the side room, or when he completely messes up trying to make dinner and Luo Binghe takes over cooking and bans him from the kitchen (he swears he's not actually that bad at cooking, he just never had to use a kitchen without a microwave or an electric hot plate before...)

After all, it's not like Luo Binghe is cooking for him, he's just making food he likes and letting Shen Yuan eat it too! Because he's nice! He's way nicer than the book gave him credit for being, see, clearly Shen Yuan was correct in signing up for his defense squad, "top ten worst villains of all time" his ass that poll was nonsense...

Unfortunately, though, the plot's still gotta plot. Shen Yuan is heartbroken when the Immortal Alliance Conference rolls around and his shizun stabs him and throws him down into the Endless Abyss. Heartbroken, but not surprised. After all, it was always going to go this way, wasn't it?

But at least, now that it's done, he has some agency in how he reacts to it. He's changed the story enough that he doesn't need to go get revenge. Maybe Luo Binghe's still the villain of his story, maybe that was inevitable, but some heroes let the villains get away. Don't they? It's all part of that noble, breaking the cycle of abuse type stuff. He can be that kind of hero. He can let it go. As long as he avoids Luo Binghe altogether, it should be fine, right? It's not like he's obligated to turn people into human sticks. He asked the system, he's definitely not!

Technically he's not even required to conquer the demon realms. He just has to get out of the Abyss and the be sufficiently cool and/or tragic. Conquest is just one means of doing that, and not even Shen Yuan's preferred, since he doesn't exactly want to rule over anybody. Going around the demon realms beating up some jackasses and rescuing some damsels in distress and becoming sworn brothers with Shang Qinghua, one of the current demon kings, is suitable. He definitely doesn't want to marry any of the damsels he encounters (thank fuck the system lets him off the hook for that!)

But eventually he has to go back to the human world. Not only is it mandated by the system, but he also misses living there. The demonic realms are in many ways better than expected, plus a lot of the monsters are really cool, but he misses the weather and plants and the people he's more accustomed to being around.

He misses Qing Jing Peak, if he's being honest with himself. Shizun's cooking and the bamboo forest and the crisp mountain breezes, the comforts of home.

Not that he can actually go back there in specific. Of course not. If he did that, Luo Binghe would try to kill him, or else the system would try and make him kill Luo Binghe. Bad ideas all around. No, he can't go back to Qing Jing Peak, but he can go find someplace nicer than the demon realms at least. He just has to keep a low profile, which shouldn't be hard since the original goods did that even while actively scheming to kill his former master!

Except.

Everywhere he goes, suddenly Luo Binghe is also there?!

Good thing Shen Yuan thought to take a page out of the book of Luo Binghe's actual love interest, Liu Mingyan, and start wearing a veil. He just didn't want any randos who might have seen him at the Immortal Alliance Conference or on any of the other missions his shizun sent him on to recognize him. But one minute he's investigating a strange case in Jinlan City, and the next the streets are full of Huan Hua cultivators (Shen Yuan has no intention of joining them, that's the path the original took to getting revenge! He doesn't want revenge!), and then Luo Binghe and Sect Leader MBJ and Peak Lord SHL show up, and SY is ducking down alleys and hiding behind columns, just trying to stay out of the way until the lockdown on Jinlan lifts and he can leave.

Except...

Luo Binghe really isn't acting like himself?

He looks like he hasn't been eating or sleeping well. There are dark circles around his eyes, and something almost melancholy in his countenance. And he's dressed entirely in white, none of the usual Qing Jing greens and blues anywhere to be seen. Of even greater concern, he's being reckless. Shen Yuan can't stop himself from rushing out when he sees his former shizun get infected by a sower demon.

Luckily, it's been some years since the last time they saw one another. Shen Yuan's gained a few inches in height, so he's almost at eye-level with his old master now, and though he's still more slender than bulky he's picked up some totally new styles from training the demon realms. He doesn't move the same way he used to. With that, plus the veil, it's enough for him to quickly swallow back his words as he grabs Luo Binghe and quickly administers a cure for the sower infection.

Well, he has one of course. He wouldn't need it himself, heavenly demon blood and all, but his time running around playing hero in the demon realms meant he rescued a lot of humans from such fates. Which is hard to do if you don't have a cure to their afflictions, but between him and Shang Qinghua, sourcing such things was almost easy.

Luo Binghe looks at him like he's just seen a ghost. The other Cang Qiong sect members are alarmed by SY suddenly accosting one of their own and of course find him suspicious, so he runs away right after, and then he has to lose Sha Hualing's pursuit in the city.

But what else could he do? He manages to evade the system's attempts to railroad him into meeting Gongyi Xiao, avoids the rest of the Cang Qiong crowd, and drops some of the cure through the current Qian Cao peak lord's window to get the incident sorted out. Then he flees and puts a good amount of distance between himself, Jinlan City, and every righteous sect he can think of.

The only problem is that after this point, Luo Binghe is everywhere.

Any time Shen Yuan stays in one place for longer than a few days, Qing Jing disciples start turning up. Any time he takes a job hunting some cool-sounding monster or pursuing some interesting tome of knowledge, the better to satisfy the system, it seems like Luo Binghe has selected and gone after the exact same target! Which is especially annoying because back when SY was a disciple, Luo Binghe was always assigning him to do this stuff. Since when does his chronic homebody master have an interesting in six-tailed scorpion lemurs or ancient spiritual kilns?

What's weirder, though, are the rumors.

It seems like any time SY stops at some well-populated place and asks for the latest gossip, he has to hear about how the Qing Jing peak lord lost his beloved disciple during the Immortal Alliance Conference, and mourned like a widow, and now wanders the earth in search of solace for his grief. Seeking something, possibly even the ghost of his dear disciple.

What nonsense! Luo Binghe threw SY into the Abyss himself. He had to do it, it was the plot! And also his obligation as a righteous cultivator, confronted with a "dangerous" half-demon. Does it sting? Yes it stings! That's why SY wouldn't just forget it! Despite logically knowing it's pointless, is there some part of him that wishes his master would have chosen differently? That thinks he should have known that no matter what kind of power Shen Yuan had, he would never use it to hurt people recklessly, or harm innocents, or especially not harm... well. It's pointless, his blood condemned him, and if there is some part of Luo Binghe which regrets what happened, it's doubtless just that he unwittingly harbored a monster for so long.

Which is fine and Shen Yuan would leave it at that, if the guy would just let him!

But no. Instead he has to deal with Luo Binghe turning up and asking him questions, trying to get him to talk (SY has no hope of disguising his voice, if he says anything he's not even sure it won't crack as he comes perilously close to tears instead, so he just stays silent), and then asking for his name, asking if he's mute, asking about his background, his sect, his kin. Is his a righteous cultivator? Where did he get that sword? (NOT Xin Mo, thanks, he used that thing once and then tossed it back into the Abyss before the portal finished closing behind him -- he knows a poisoned chalice when he sees one, although knowing the plot twist about that sword from the novel sure helped.) Where did he learn those forms? Is he... does he have a safe place to go home to? Someone to tend his injuries? Make sure he eats his meals?

SY, of course, stays silent. But it's difficult. Not only because Luo Binghe asks, but because he still looks... bad. Sunken, sorrowful, desperate almost. Shen Yuan can't figure out if he knows or not. Maybe he's unsure, maybe he's looking for SY to give him a sign, so that he can figure him out and then flip a switch and try to finish the job he started.

That can't happen. If they fight, SY will win, and he doesn't want to hurt Luo Binghe.

But even if Luo Binghe's not a heavenly demon, he is a highly accomplished cultivator, and it seems he's got his own breaking points to reach. Eventually he corners SY and gets a hand on his veil, and for a moment SY is sure he's going to rip it off, see his face, and confront him all "I knew it was you, you twisted evil demon, you won't escape justice a second time" and he feels a deep, icy terror close around his lungs--

Luo Binghe lets go of the veil before he can lift it.

But then something even worse happens. Because Shen Yuan's handsome, peerless, noble master breaks down. He falls to his knees, begging forgiveness, sobbing, clutching at his head like he's being driven to madness.

It all spills out of him, then. How he pushed his own dearest disciple into the Abyss, which obviously SY already knew, but also how he was apparently qi-deviating the whole time, and his senses could not differentiate between one kind of demonic "threat" and another. How he realized what he'd done only after he regained his senses hours later, and rushed back to the place where the tear to the Abyss had opened, but could not find a way in after the one he lost. How he had betrayed and thrown away the only person who cared about him, and couldn't even explain that he hadn't intended to. How he would accept anything, any punishment, hatred, penance, or revenge, if only he could see his disciple's face once more.

SY is stunned.

Apparently, Luo Binghe hadn't rejected him for his demon blood?

Not only that, but beforehand, he seemed to have valued Shen Yuan a lot more than Shen Yuan would have credited.

Is it a trick? Is he lying? SY would have guessed so, would have assumed that Luo Binghe's plan was to lull him into complacency only to turn on him once he finally had confirmation. But somehow, he just... doesn't think this is an insincere display. His old master is too cool for this stuff! He has too much dignity to just throw it away on a scheme! There are other ways to get what he wants.

Even if it is a lie, Shen Yuan is tired of running. He's the hero. He won't actually lose, and if it comes to it, it's still in his hands to decide if he wants to spare Luo Binghe or not (he does, of course he does, even if this whole spiel is an act). Plus he's got a backup plant body in one of Shang Qinghua's greenhouses if all goes to shit.

He takes the veil off himself.

Luo Binghe, teary-eyed, stares at him as if his face is the most beautiful he's ever seen.

Shen Yuan nearly puts the veil back on. His cheeks heat up. Dear Shizun, aren't you an immortal master? A noble peak lord? Isn't it your calling to vanquish demons? Get up off the dirty ground right this minute! Where did your dignity go? Shen Yuan did not spend all those nights doing the laundry to watch his teacher dirty his knees for no good reason!

There's a quaver in Luo Binghe's voice as he points out that Shen Yuan was terrible at doing laundry. Luo Binghe had to redo it the day after, all the time.

Shen Yuan chides at him that he should have made one of the other disciples do it then.

Luo Binghe just laughs, and stays on the ground, until finally Shen Yuan has to physically pull him up. Muttering about how he's being ridiculous, what's he crying for, why's he been moping so much, doesn't he know that handsome face should never look so bereft? Then he realizes what he's saying and shuts his mouth, but Luo Binghe just looks happy for the first time in years. Since the Abyss. How is it possible that SY, who actually had to slog through that awful place, can still smile more than Luo Binghe, who didn't?

They're standing so close. Holding on to one another. Almost as if... as if the scene's tone is... well...

Oh what the hell!

Shen Yuan closes the last little bit of distance between them, and kisses Luo Binghe.

#svsss #scum villain's self saving system #bingqiu #long post #of course the plot probably interferes further then #turns out that while luo binghe was desperately trying to get sy back he accidentally woke up sy's father #who for this au let's say is sj instead of tlj #sj does NOT approve of this match and also hates all the righteous cultivators (and demons... and everyone mostly...)#but he is also busy trying to resurrect yqy or something #kidnaps sy like well I missed the chance to raise you and actually that's probably for the best but now I need your blood #for Reasons #luo binghe is not a fan of this turn of events #reverse holy mausoleum arc when SY is mostly unconscious except to sometimes throw out advice and LBH is dodging traps and villains #the pining-over-the-dead-shizun arc is probably AFTER the holy mausoleum and lbh self-destructs to rescue sy from sj's plans #sy refuses to accept this outcome he decided luo binghe was NOT to die he didn't need a redemption arc he was FINE sy DECIDED #but luckily they're in the holy mausoleum so sy grabs a resurrection artifact of some kind #has to spend a few years restoring and maintaining lbh's corpse before he can get the to actually work but it's fine #he's fine everything's fine he's GOING to get lbh back lbh is NOT ALLOWED TO DIE #luckily unhinged sy results in way less collateral damage than unhinged lbh #so mostly he just fights off mbj's attempts to honorably recover his shidi's body and offer him a proper burial #while camping out in the holy mausoleum and arguing with sj's detached body parts #y'know normal healthy behavior

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