#it's only now developing which is strange
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My thoughts on the announcement of Life is Strange: Double Exposure
I'm going to preface this by saying I am incredibly conflicted about this title.
On the one hand, I am excited beyond belief that a new Life is Strange is coming and that MAX CAULFIELD HERSELF IS COMING BACK. The OG, the protagonist, the hippie photographer, the main character we fell in love with all those years ago. Her return to the franchise is something the fandom has been asking for (with varying degrees of toxicity) ever since Life is Strange 2 was announced back in 2016-2017. In the middle of all the fanart and the fanfiction, we always thought a new Life is Strange with Max and Chloe was an impossibility and that was something we had to come to terms with for years. Past Sordidbask had resigned himself to a timeline where any piece of LiS media featuring Max and Chloe outside of the first game was only possible in fanworks and too troublesome to bring to canon. Not anymore, biatch. I am one of the Bae over Bay supporters but that ending was noticeably lacking in development and felt way too open-ended to give any sense of resolution to a storyline that spanned five chapters and dozens of different choices. As such, seeing her return (even in a brand new unrelated story) is the perfect opportunity to tie up loose ends from the first game and to see how Max has evolved as a CHARACTER given everything she went through in the original and to which exciting new places will Double Exposure take her.
This leads me to my main gripe with this new chapter in Max's life: Deck Nine.
Not gonna lie, when I watched the trailer and saw their logo instead of DONTNOD's, my initial excitement at seeing Max (once again voiced by Hannah Telle, let's go!) died down way too much. Beats me why DONTNOD has given up on their baby franchise but whatever reason it may be, Deck Nine is now at the Life is Strange helm. If it were up to DONTNOD, the franchise would have ended with Life is Strange 2. That said, comparisons are ugly but clearly DONTNOD's titles are superior to Deck Nine's.
Life is Strange 1 and 2 and even Captain Spirit, for all their flaws are more cohesive, well thought out and overall charming stories with more interesting characters than True Colors or Before the Storm (and at least some choices matter at the end of LiS 2, that can't be said for LiS 1, TC or BtS).
And I don't mind Deck Nine doing their own thing in this universe (True Colors) but them taking a fan favourite and a loved by all character from its original creators and from the place we initially met her scares me way too much. I don't mean to say they will ruin Max's character because that would be unfair but Deck Nine's games always seem to follow the same formula, a lackluster murder mystery where our choices ultimately lead up to a binary choice at the end. I guess I am terrified that D9 is hyping up Max's return after so long only to 🤡 us and put her in a lazy, drab, boring or uninteresting place.
To be honest, the most exciting part about that trailer was Max and Hannah. I did not care for this new friend character that gets killed off or any other D9 character for that matter at ALL. That may be unfair but given D9's track record with unremarkable, unimpressive and not bold enough stories, I have come to expect very little of them (other scandals not withstanding).
I can't help but wonder, since Max is going to use her powers again, is this going to be another time-travel story? Does D9 know how to pull those off? DONTNOD showed masterclass storytelling regarding time travel and it's consequences developing the themes brilliantly and with the amount of tragedy, inevitability, heartbreak and acceptance these stories always carry. That was imprinted all over LiS 1 and it's characters, Max's power was an ironic echo of her character flaw, she couldn't move on, she was nostalgic, she lived in the past. Her power is who she was in LiS 1 and I'm very interested to see how will Max using her powers again be handled in Double Exposure character-wise, story-wise and theme-wise.
Regarding Max's design, it's okay. I think people overreacting saying it doesn't look like her and calling her ugly are just trolling. She does resemble Steph more this time around. Deck Nine's style has already worn me out (this game looks too much like True Colors) where I wanted to see an improvement to the engine or even a brand new style, more handcrafted and more akin to the lighting in a bottle style and charm that LiS 1 had.
I believe it all comes down to that, the lighting in a bottle that was LiS 1 and Max with which we fell in love that I'm afraid D9 may not be able to live up to.
Regarding the elephant in the room: Where's Chloe? I'll choose to believe Deck Nine is keeping their cards close to their chest and not showing anything remotely associated with Chloe until the game releases because if they don't fear success, they will find a way to incorporate Chloe into this story in a way that feels essential, important and coherent to Max's character development as well and not just an afterthought or a cameo/mention when looking at an item. All of this taking into account all the theories we're seeing regarding the "parallel timelines", the Double Exposure title and the binary choice at the end of LiS 1.
If they don't mention or include Chloe at all, it would be a gigantic wasted opportunity and personally, a game-killer for me.
All of this makes it seem like I'm just spewing pessimism. But I want to be excited for this title, I love seeing everyone happy and glad Max is back and I love seeing how passionate and loving this community can be (mostly) every time a new chapter is announced for this little franchise that has changed our lives. I love Max, I love Chloe, I love this franchise and these characters.
If D9 is the only reason we are getting new Life is Strange games with our beloved characters in the first place then I am grateful to them but I won't settle for anything less than this franchise and these characters deserve. The bar set by the first game:
A rich, well crafted, engaging and meaningful story with deep and charming characters and themes that resonate in the audience. A memorable installment.
Not another stab which is uninteresting, unremarkable and forgettable but with Max as the MC.
D9 can choose which they want to make but by including Max they sealed their fate and are now forced, OBLIGATED to make the former option. This game may be superior to True Colors, I want it to be so much more than True Colors was and I hope D9 are able to pull it off.
Max and Chloe deserve it.
Thanks for reading.
#life is strange#pricefield#chloe price#max caulfield#max and chloe#life is strange bts#life is strange true colors#life is strange 2#dontnod#deck nine#square enix#life is strange double exposure
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kep report card, month 4! how is he 6 months old already that is absurd.
food (drive, appetite, sensitivity): 🟢 hongry
leash walking: 🟡/🟢 he's gotten pully on the harness, takes a few minutes of stop-start before he remembers to not do that. is good on a collar though.
sleeping: 🟢 - gotten a lot better about sleeping during the day, i think bc it's been hot so he's just too tired to fuss much.
crating: 🟢/🟡 - i THINK he's doing ok about day crating, i need to buy another camera so i can make sure but he doesn't seem nearly as worked up when i get home as he used to. hopefully the hugelarge crate + new position + age has helped.
potty training: 🟢/🔴 great everywhere except. my goddamn living room. i'm going insane about it.
general training: 🟢 honor roll student
manners: 🟡 still countersurfs and jumps on people a lot, we're working on it.
grooming: 🟢/🟡 tolerant of nails, ears, and bathing with a distraction. getting fussy about brushing, which, too fuckin bad my guy.
cars: 🟢 no complaints
outings/socialization: 🟢 loves going on adventures
other dogs: 🟢/🟡 great with stellina, he has finally learned bite inhibition and how to take subtle "not interested" signals. still a little hyper-focused on strange dogs but not unexpected for his breed/age.
other people: 🟢 a strangers just a bestie you haven't met yet
small animals: 🟢 being very good with the kitty, very enthralled by small critters but doesn't seem frantic or aggressive.
*exciting new category* puberty: leaving this one un-graded bc i don't think it's hit him yet lol. i haven't seen him do any marking or any behaviors that would indicate that he's gotten a big dose of testosterone yet, but now is about the time so we shall see.
overall still doing great, some very generic annoyances (e.g. jumping, fussing about brushing, etc) but generally he's easy to live with, as expected. if i could just actually housebreak him i would be sooo happy but that's really the only thing that i think he's behind on.
also have had some other ppl ask if they can use this format for their own puppies: yes by all means please do! i didn't invent using emoji buttons lol and i do think it's helpful for me to look back on and track development.
#he is a very easy puppy (as expected of a companion breed from a good breeder) and i like him A Lot#just need to stay on top of things and hope puberty doesnt hit him like a freight train like it did for stellina#longhaired dogs are great tho bc its like. does he have balls? is he neutered? i'll simply never know#schrodingers balls
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Final one of these. Calem did not have a good trip thru Kalos.
The writing in this game regarding Lysandre was kinda strange. Even in Masters, they still kinda downplay him, and while Lysandre is more willing to watch and wait now, that only came after failing to blow up Pasio (which he came very close to doing), and he says his convictions haven't changed over what he feels must be done to create a beautiful world. (And then there's his "hypothetical speaking" in the Villain Arc where he's smiling as he says Volcanion can blow up whole towns, plus Flare developing yet another weapon. He still feels like a pretty active threat, just one that's lurking on the horizon.)
And a bonus inspired by a friend of mine, Jacq and Sycamore have the worst taste in SOs:
#pokemon xy#pokemon x and y#trainer serena#trainer calem#lysandre#team flare#yveltal#pokemon masters#pokemas#professor jacq#professor sycamore#pokemon raifort#pokemon volo#merchant volo#pokemon legends arceus#pokemon scarlet and violet#pokemon sv#perfectworldshipping#pokemon memes
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Some JPN Twitter reactions to Ch 425 (Todofam things)
So I read through the Toya, Dabi, Shoto, Todofam tags, and the Japanese fandom is as divided as the Western. Many are gearing up for more pain, but also many are happy that Touya is alive and want a conclusion for the family. Shouto's expression at the end tends to be read as there being some hope.
A random selection of comments under the cut.
The Todoroki family… Endepappa's back is so painful... But right now, I'm just glad that Dabi-kun is alive... It was really good There's still hell ahead, but when I see Shoto-kun's face at the end, I think it'll be okay The Todoroki Family's Hope
Is this where the real hell begins for the Todoroki family? Judging by Shoto's expression, there's no need to worry... I'm afraid to read...
[My Hero Academia Magazine] Todoroki, with his bag on his shoulder, is remembering the time when he was going to the hospital to see Rei after the sports festival. Even though it's just one panel, he looks confident and reliable...! I can believe that when he told Deku, "It's okay," he wasn't lying. He has the confidence and moderate tension of a club competition
Endeavor in the visiting room facing a device that seems to contain Dabi is powerfully negative! His back view makes it seem as if Endeavor is on the side of the prisoners! It's a perfect composition of a criminal confessing to a strange god! Even though it's his own fault, it's still brutal to see his own sins taking such an obvious form right before his eyes...!
I'm so happy that Touya-kun is alive..Next time, I wonder if it'll be Hell's Todoroki Family 3
I don't follow the magazine so I only have fragmentary information from tweets, but is there a chance that Touya-kun will make a comeback? But no memory loss or childhood regression, okay? Even if he does resurrect, I hope he comes back to life as a cremated Touya (´･ω･｀)
By the way, a spoiler from the magazine revealed that Shoto-kun is still alive...!! It seems that the hellish Todoroki family's problems have not yet been resolved, but I'm glad that everyone, including my favorite, is alive...
I wonder what will happen to the Todoroki family. No matter how hard they try, I don't think there's a happy future for them.
My Hero Academia has had a lot of bitter developments that can't be called salvation, so I'm worried about the end of Dabi and the Todoroki family...
The crime doesn't go away, and I don't want to see a story of a child forgiving an abusive parent and a wife forgiving domestic violence portrayed as a heroic tale. I think the Todoroki family would prefer an ending where they get divorced after some degree of repair to their relationship, and just keep sending alimony and child support...
The story of the Todoroki family seems like it's going to get pretty gruesome, so I'm really looking forward to seeing
In the Hiroka manga, I wish the Todoroki family wouldn't involve their son any more while Dabi is still alive... It's the father's sole responsibility, so it would have been fine if they'd just commit suicide together.
While the conversation was going on in a fun atmosphere, the Todoroki family suddenly threw me into hell.
I'm grateful that My Hero Academia doesn't end with winning the battle, but also depicts the chaos that occurs after a big battle. First of all, I'll be watching the outcome of the Todoroki family, which has been portrayed as the "Hellish Todoroki Family." It'll be tough, but I'll be watching it through.
The fact that Shoto-kun showed a determined and happy face is my only hope. You are the light of the Todoroki family.
I love the Todoroki boys too and I'm rooting for you (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`
And Todoroki-kun's final "It'll be okay" makes me feel like he's made up his mind again, or rather, he's determined... He looks really cool and has a great expression, but he really has a lot to carry on his shoulders.
Things suddenly got ominous at the end. Even though there was that kind of atmosphere from last week, Todoroki's face has changed a little, or rather, he looks more determined... In contrast to that, his father's back... The Todoroki family story isn't over yet.
Many people are feeling psychologically damaged by the latest episodes... [Book fans] Touya-kun is alive → Should I be happy or sad that it couldn't end? Maybe he and Endeavor will talk about it now → What's the point of talking about it now? I'm scared of the book coming out... I'm scared of finding out the details.
If Touya-kun (Dabi) ○ dies, I'll seriously cry. Absolutely.
To be honest, time cannot be turned back and Touya will never be the person he and his family originally wanted to be, and since he committed a grave sin as an adult and was forced to live longer despite not having much time left, it would be terrible if he were to be forced to take part in a game of atonement with his family, who still have the time, future and lifespan to start over again.
No, can't you just wait for Shoto-kun to come? First, let Touya-kun and Enji be the two of them... Stop asking your kids for a push until the very end when you can't face it yourself, seriously...
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hi! random question for you because i stumbled upon your blog and have a lot of ffxiv character stuff in my head. what do you think about a WoL who is half dragon - do you think this could work? i'm not fully through the story so not sure on all the lore. but i was thinking of making an OC who is half dragon as an AuRa, who ik are NOT half dragon but what if the WoL was an actual half dragon? thanks for any input! have a nice day!
OK, this is one of those "here is the official lore, do with it, or not, what you will" answers. Cuz it's sorta kinda possible, in a way, just not how many other fantasy settings would do it.
Now, you say you're not all the way through story, but I don't know how far that means. So I may be vague about some things and spoil some others. Lore first, and then some options to play with it...
Number 1: FF14 dragons are aliens. It seems hinted at in some ways, but we do learn that for certain in an optional raid quest in Stormblood. They are extraterrestrial, do not originate on the same planet. Hence the strangeness and strength of their abilities, especially among Midgardsormr and his First Brood, from whom all other True Dragons descend.
Number 2: Dragons reproduce asexually. Their mating is more a meeting of the mind and heart (which is why dedicated sibling pairs, like Tiamat and Bahamut, are not a problem). Their development is highly mutable, and dependent on personality and environment. Which is why there are so many kinds of dragons, and why this form of procreation isn't a problem for them.
(They also don't really care about gender, we find out in later game; they use pronouns and gendered language, but it's more like they pick it out of a hat and also I think it's in part how mortals parse their draconic language and identification of each other.)
In the ARR patches, the Ishgardian church's story about the ancient Saint Shiva is "she lay with dragons" and...sorta? Again, not necessarily sex as we primates manage it, but there was a romantic relationship that's one of the central elements of Heavensward's story.
Number 3: Dragons do not turn into people. Not natural born True Dragons, anyway. There is one who uses a simulacrum/homunculus that he controls in order to walk among people, but it's an artificial puppet body created via certain methods.
Heretics can sometimes turn into dragons--sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently (not always their intent). They manage this by drinking dragons' blood (willingly given or not, depending on situation). There's also some plot points in HW where we learn some people in the past partook of a dragon's internal source of power and now it's spread through uncountable descendants--the reason for Dragoon abilities and heretics able to tap into that and become draconic.
Certain characters in certain questlines have noticeable powerful aetheric abilities and dragons can sense the connection--because one of their parents had imbibed dragon blood. There's also a quest where a Dragoon, who by training already has an "inner dragon" awoken and tapped into, is forced to drink dragon's blood and nearly loses her sanity and self, the attempt to transform her into a mindless beast (and the source of some of the Horde's shock troops, the characters realize) an element of the story, and can she overcome it.
(these side quests were part of my inspiration for Aeryn's unexpected backstory "Bearing Sins of the Past")
Number 4: There are dragon legends in the East, but only some have to do with True Dragons descended from the First Brood. We eventually learn Seiryu of the Four Lords is not a dragon, though often is mistaken for or described as one.
There are also throughout the world large flying lizards, dinosaurs, and other big reptilian creatures native to Hydaelyn, but not related to the First Brood. They're usually common animals with no intellect.
(This is because world lore writer Banri Oda just loves dinosaurs)
SO! All that said, what's this mean for making a half-dragon OC? Well, there's options!
To be lore compliant, someone of Coerthan descent and involved with, or from a family involved with, heresy (per the Ishgardian definition) can have draconic features, maybe try to pass themselves off as Au Ra, and/or have the ability to transform, either with a catalyst (blood, alchemy, a spell tapping into their inner dragon/draconic heritage, whatever) or because it's become an inherent part of them. Think draconic-blooded sorcerers from Dungeons & Dragons. They get their inherent magic due to draconic ancestry/influence somewhere in their lineage.
There's also always the mistaken/lying element; maybe the character thinks they are, or something has to do between their family and legends of the auspices and Four Lords. One of the things about FF14's lore is a lot of it is given in world and in characters; some of it is known to be wrong or misrepresented or incomplete etc., to give the devs wiggle room--as well as us as players.
One can partially ignore canon and say yeah, a humanoid parent boffed a draconic parent, in whatever form, and now this unlikely one in a million chance (or not, if we're already throwing away some lore) offspring is around and grown into an adventurer.
I've also seen folks portal in their OC from another fantasy setting where such things are more plausible, such as D&D (Baldur's Gate 3 is the current new hotness) or Warcraft (where it's honestly more assumed, as I can't recall an actual canon half-dragon but that's always a popular RP concept).
So while on the surface, some may say "no, that's not canon because--" there are ways to make it work within lore, if not how one usually thinks of "half-dragon" or "dragon-blooded" (tho kinda in the D&D sorcerer sense, IMO).
Or you throw out canon, and tell folks "I know the lore is X, but for my character's story I'm headcanoning Y instead." And then block any fussy attempts at lore policing.
Or just use the power of crossovers and portal stories/isekai to make it work, and again tell lore police to screw off.
Hope this helps, and happy OC writing!
#final fantasy xiv#dragons#lore#characters#roleplay#writing#dragon blooded#half dragon#lore compliant
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this all being said about the light dragon and how it is definitely the biggest highlight of totk (for me at least), i Do think a lot of the reaction to it Is dependent on botw and zelda's characterisation from that game... a lot of which is kind of lacking in totk because of her more passive role (e.g. you are told about her + see her actions after they have already happened)
like. if you didn't already really like zelda and were sold on her relationship with link (and not even just from a shipping zelink perspective, like. just UNDERSTANDING they have a strong bond from everything they've gone through together) then i'm not sure if any of that stuff in totk would've hit as hard as it did. the game does very little to build on what we already know about them, which i think is both a letdown to new players (which. i am not sure why they are playing the sequel before botw, but that is how totk acts most of the time lmao) and returning ones, and as time goes on it's become harder for me to blame people for not caring for it as much.
what a truly odd game
#which also makes it bizarre that totk treats itself like its Not a sequel. even though it is at the same time#ugh the names are escaping me but i am pretty sure this is a thing thats happened in other Sequel games too#just acting like the first one never happened or only when its convenient. stuff like that#i would loveeee to know how bad covid hit totks plot development or whatever. if anything. else they may have been planning#theyve gone on record saying that apparently the plan was for zelda to Always have turned into a dragon#and assumedly the beginning/ending parallel as well (eg hands and link catching her)#but i have to assume or at least HOPE that the buildup may have been stronger. idk man its so strange truly#ANYWAY SORRY FOR RAMBLING but i do find this discussion intriguing. and i LIKED totk even despite my criticisms#its genuinely some of the most fun ive had in a video game ever and creating content for it and talking about it has made me very happy#this being said. there are some choices that were made and i do not and likely will not ever understand them#because they said nah we're done now. bye <3#like oh okay. thank you aonuma. can i at least have wind waker on switch now please#personal.txt
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The more I think about it the more I really feel like the recently coined term mesosex might fit me and it's been shared by several intersex education/advocacy blogs I follow now so I know there's support for the term but I'm still like. Scared I would be Intruding™ on intersex issues if I started using it. Like I mean. I'm an afab & (afaik) perisex person with a reproductive disorder that's likely caused by a (non-intersex) hormone imbalance which I'm now essentially having to take feminizing HRT to fix, and as a result I'm now growing tits and undergoing female-pattern fat redistribution at the age of 25 after years of having little to no secondary sex characteristics. I've always identified with intersex issues but now that I'm essentially having to undergo HRT to make my body match my asab that connection to intersex issues feels even stronger. And like that's what the term is for. But my anxiety is still like "but what if you're intruding tho" lol 🙃
#rambling#for the curious the specific disorder is endometriosis and recent research has shown that endo is most likely linked to#estrogen dominance which is where either your body makes too much estrogen OR not enough other hormones (progesterone & testosterone)#and given that the only thing that has helped me at all has been going on full progestin-only treatments#and the fact that everything ive researched about estrogen dominance and low progesterone matches up with my symptoms#it definitely seems like low/no progesterone is the issue for me#(although the docs didnt test my levels beforehand and now i cant get them tested unless i want to go off treatments 🥲)#and like. this progestin treatment has changed my fucking life. legitimately#like it didnt just stop my (pretty severe) endo it also fixed like. all of my physical health issues. stuff i didnt even know was related#dont wanna get off topic talking about my other health issues but. going on progestin has easily been the best health thing to happen to me#but it also feels so fucking weird to be going through the same type of changes that like transfems go through on hrt essentially#as an afab perisex person. its not a bad weird but like its just a strange phenomenon and it would be nice to put words to it i guess?#like im a person who has lived the last 10+ years disabled by a reproductive disorder that prevented my body from developing 'normally'#and now im going through feminizing hrt at the age of 25 to fix my reproductive disorder#thats not exactly like. the normal perisex afab experience lol. but at the same time my specific reproductive disorder and hormone imbalance#dont classify me as intersex (no hyperandrogenism just some mix of too much estrogen/not enough progesterone or testosterone#typical anatomy (afaik) aside from the uterine abnormalities resulting from endometriosis)#and its just. such a weird position to be in. i share a lot of common ground with intersex issues but im not intersex myself#and the whole purpose of mesosex was to create a word for people who arent quite either. 'people who identify with but not as intersex'#and i think that describes me. but also like.... do i count?? 😭#tmi#request to tag
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honestly with watching the Kingdom Hearts III cut scenes all at once I have been doing some skipping around bc ten hours is a LOT
and I am v consistently skipping the Maleficent scenes. girl, you haven't been relevant since the first game, just give up.
#I also skipped almost all of the Frozen world bc damn it was boring af#I really enjoyed the Tangled and Toy Story worlds#and I fucking LOVED Sora's monster form holy shit he was so goofy and adorable#(I did realize that of the main plot worlds the only one based on a cartoon was Olympus#and....that makes me feel a bit weird in a way I can't quite articulate)#(also the worlds based on CGI animation look SO MUCH like the movies they're based on#and it wigs me out just a bit#like Rapunzel looks SO CLOSE to how she is in the movie but they fuck up on the hair a tad#which makes sense bc they had to do serious computer magic to animate her hair in the movie#but anyways the worlds based on cartoon or live action look accurate but not like almost SPOT ON as the CGI ones#and idk it just is strange bc I feel like I'm watching the movie but then there's a small something that makes me realize I'm not#....also there isn't a giant talking duck in Frozen. but maybe there should be.)#oh and the biggest development of watching KH3 cut scenes#......I kinda ship Soriku now?#I don't really ship much of anyone in Kingdom Hearts#(except maybe Isa and Lea)#but I def wasn't a Soriku fan#now....I might be changing my mind#idk some of their interactions are v ''hmm interesting'' to me#speecher speaks#(yes I am putting most of my thoughts in the tags I didn't want to put it all in the post proper#leave me alone IT IS MY BLOG and also I'm kinda sick so be nice to me)
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In honour of his passing, posting Steve Albini's legendary polemic against the music industry.
Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.
Nobody can see what’s printed on the contract. It’s too far away, and besides, the shit stench is making everybody’s eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract. Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there’s only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey says, “Actually, I think you need a little more development. Swim it again, please. Backstroke.”
And he does, of course.
[...]
THE BALANCE SHEET
This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.
Record company: $710,000
Producer: $90,000
Manager: $51,000
Studio: $52,500
Previous label: $50,000
Agent: $7,500
Lawyer: $12,000
Band member net income each: $4,031.25
The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month.
The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never “recouped,” the band will have no leverage, and will oblige.
The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won’t have earned any royalties from their t-shirts yet. Maybe the t-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys.
Some of your friends are probably already this fucked.
The worst thing is, as bad as it was back in 1993, it's a thousand times worse for musicians in 2024. 1993 was before "Pay-to-Play" venues were as ubiquitous, and before some venues started taking a cut of the merchandise sales. 1993 was before CD sales collapsed, before file sharing, before Spotify ruined things further with its dismal royalty payments, its algorithmically driven discovery mechanism which is biased against the experimental, the daring, and the difficult (and women for that matter), and its proliferation of fake artists. It is not a good time to be a musician.
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crows use tools and like to slide down snowy hills. today we saw a goose with a hurt foot who was kept safe by his flock - before taking off, they waited for him to catch up. there are colors only butterflies see. reindeer are matriarchical. cows have best friends and 4 stomachs and like jazz music. i watched a video recently of an octopus making himself a door out of a coconut shell.
i am a little soft, okay. but sometimes i can't talk either. the world is like fractal light to me, and passes through my skin in tendrils. i feel certain small things like a catapult; i skirt around the big things and somehow arrive in crisis without ever realizing i'm in pain.
in 5th grade we read The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-time, which is about a young autistic boy. it is how they introduced us to empathy about neurotypes, which was well-timed: around 10 years old was when i started having my life fully ruined by symptoms. people started noticing.
i wonder if birds can tell if another bird is odd. like the phrase odd duck. i have to believe that all odd ducks are still very much loved by the other normal ducks. i have to believe that, or i will cry.
i remember my 5th grade teacher holding the curious incident up, dazzled by the language written by someone who is neurotypical. my teacher said: "sometimes i want to cut open their mind to know exactly how autistics are thinking. it's just so different! they must see the world so strangely!" later, at 22, in my education classes, we were taught to say a person with autism or a person on the spectrum or neurodivergent. i actually personally kind of like person-first language - it implies the other person is trying to protect me from myself. i know they had to teach themselves that pattern of speech, is all, and it shows they're at least trying. and i was a person first, even if i wasn't good at it.
plants learn information. they must encode data somehow, but where would they store it? when you cut open a sapling, you cannot find the how they think - if they "think" at all. they learn, but do not think. i want to paint that process - i think it would be mostly purple and blue.
the book was not about me, it was about a young boy. his life was patterned into a different set of categories. he did not cry about the tag on his shirt. i remember reading it and saying to myself: i am wrong, and broken, but it isn't in this way. something else is wrong with me instead. later, in that same person-first education class, my teacher would bring up the curious incident and mention that it is now widely panned as being inaccurate and stereotypical. she frowned and said we might not know how a person with autism thinks, but it is unlikely to be expressed in that way. this book was written with the best intentions by a special-ed teacher, but there's some debate as to if somebody who was on the spectrum would be even able to write something like this.
we might not understand it, but crows and ravens have developed their own language. this is also true of whales, dolphins, and many other species. i do not know how a crow thinks, but we do know they can problem solve. (is "thinking" equal to "problem solving"? or is "thinking" data processing? data management?) i do not know how my dog thinks, either, but we "talk" all the same - i know what he is asking for, even if he only asks once.
i am not a dolphin or reindeer or a dog in the nighttime, but i am an odd duck. in the ugly duckling, she grows up and comes home and is beautiful and finds her soulmate. all that ugliness she experienced lives in downy feathers inside of her, staining everything a muted grey. she is beautiful eventually, though, so she is loved. they do not want to cut her open to see how she thinks.
a while ago i got into an argument with a classmate about that weird sia music video about autism. my classmate said she thought it was good to raise awareness. i told her they should have just hired someone else to do it. she said it's not fair to an autistic person to expect them to be able to handle that kind of a thing.
today i saw a goose, and he was limping. i want to be loved like a flock loves a wounded creature: the phrase taken under a wing. which is to say i have always known i am not normal. desperate, mewling - i want to be loved beyond words.
loved beyond thinking.
#spilled ink#writeblr#personal#please don't ask me to talk on my experience on the spectrum lol. i hate how ppl talk to me about it#i really try not to write so specifically about it#bc inevitably someone talks to me like im a child#i think this is the first time i've ever openly identified with it but i've been hinting for years#i might delete this. feels big.#the thing is that being on the spectrum actually IS a spectrum#and if u say ur autistic#inevitably someone makes an assumption about ur needs/symptoms#please do not treat me differently than u usually would. like.... we can tell when you do#and like i mention. i do appreciate the effort. i do truly appreciate the effort.#but it still feels like...#when i was blind. sometimes people kind of did the same-ish thing.#they'd find out i was blind and start talking really loudly?#and while i KNOW they're just trying to help. it would be like. i'd be trying to find#the right way into a building (sometimes only 1 door is unlocked and i couldn't see the signs posted about where to go)#and ppl would be like ''OH UR BLIND? YES SO THIS IS A DOOR. IT OPENS INTO THE BUILDING. IT IS LOCKED NOW."#''A DOOR CAN BE FOUND IN MANY LOCATIONS.''#and it feels like. when i admit to being autistic#someone comes screeching into my life being like THIS IS A DOOR.
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TVs and monitors are separate species with common features, but which features these are have drastically changed over time. the two used to be similar sizes with very similar behaviour, and were differentiated primarily by which connection ports they had.
over time, their courses of evolution brought them closer together in that regard, with both species' survival becoming contingent on how well they could digest HDMI. as their analogue prey, such as VGA and Component, died out, the two display species were faced with the same choice: adapt, or die.
despite this newfound similarity, though, the two species still fill different ecological niches, and the way they adapted to these new environmental situations resulted in further physical distinction in other areas. for example, it is now almost impossible to find a modern TV that is a comparable size to a monitor; while the modern monitor is still limited in dimensions by the desktops where it prefers to nest, the modern TV has an almost unbounded adult size.
another strange new differentiation is that the TV seems to have developed a dependence on internet connectivity and software updates. while this benefits them in the short term, having more selling points than a monitor at first glance, it is working against them in the long-term, with each one's effective lifespan being cut dramatically.
the "dumb TV" that, quite intelligently, does not have any big software features, is nearing extinction, with very few members still producing offspring. and while we may feel sorrow for these displays, it is only natural that they are dying off - they are simply being outcompeted by the once-humble monitor. at the same size, and without the advantage of a wider variety of ports, the dumb TV cannot keep up with the monitor's much more refined adaptations for the same niche.
however, one mystery remains: why did the dumb TV never grow to the same impressive dimensions as its smart siblings? some observations suggests that the larger smart TVs have become overly territorial as a result of their decreased longevity, to the point that they will kill an infant dumb TV if they feel that it could grow to compete with them. it seems cruel to us, but in the wild, it's all a matter of survival. if you win the evolutionary race - you fight to keep first place.
#this is a long way of saying “if you want a small dumb TV and don't need analogue connections you can just buy a monitor of the same size”#finding a good modern dumb TV? nigh-impossible. finding a good monitor? pretty easy actually! dunno how i didn't realise this sooner.
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18+ / mdi
content: loser!wonwoo, nerdy!wonwoo, sub!wonwoo, subdom!reader, mentions of sfw pics being taken behind your back, corruption, wonwoo's first time, dry humping, handjob, penetrative sex, etc.
part 1, part 2
wc: 2599
a/n: thank u to anon who inspired this ur a real one
masterlist
in this day and age, you knew that a mere college degree would likely not be enough for you to find a job within your field.
you were a creative, hoping to one day work as a photographer or maybe get into the creative design field upon graduating. however, you'd heard the horror stories of fellow graduates entering the terrifying world that came after college, with many unable to land a solid gig after graduating.
that's how you landed yourself a spot in the yearbook committee, becoming both a photographer and editor throughout these past few months.
that was also how you came to meet jeon wonwoo, the enigmatic boy who had become your partner any time you'd be assigned to photograph at school events.
despite spending quite a bit of time with wonwoo, attending every school event with him, you were yet to really get to know him. wonwoo was likely the shyest guy you'd met in all the years you'd spent at college so far. it was extremely hard to get to know him, as he would be only mumble and shy away any time you tried to make conversation with him. so far, all you knew about him was that he was a photography major (an extremely talented one at that), he was part of the gaming club (information you got from your friend vernon), and that he was generally very into stereotypically nerdy stuff.
none of this information was too groundbreaking, which only made you even more curious about wonwoo. it seemed like he'd specifically go out of his way to avoid you, stuttering like crazy when you'd try and make conversation and attempting to work separately any time you were assigned to photograph at the same locations.
all this only made your current situation all the more interesting, as you now found yourself at wonwoo's door, pondering on whether to knock on the door or not.
for some backstory, it was finally the end of your junior year of college, meaning that most of the work necessary for the production of the yearbook had been completed. all that needed to be done now solely consisted of editorial stuff as you finessed the final product.
this meant that you'd have to meet up with wonwoo to collaborate on the overlay of the yearbook, with the two of you being assigned the duty due to having worked together for most of the past two semesters.
you had jumped at this opportunity, entirely too interested in the shy, glass-clad boy. as embarrassed as you were to admit it, you had developed a bit of a crush on wonwoo. his constant stuttering and nerves around you gave you a strange thrill you had never experienced before. maybe you had a thing for losers, who knew.
and so you decided that now that you had this opportunity to visit wonwoo, being able to get him alone, you'd have a little fun.
yeah, maybe you had put on the tiniest clothes you could get away with wearing out in public. and yes, maybe you had worn that lipgloss you had once seen wonwoo eyeing on you. but could you be blamed? the thought of breaking him excited you too badly, completely sure but now that he must've held a bit of a crush on you (at least based on his constant nerves around you).
finally knocking on the door, you waited a few moments before a messy-haired wonwoo opened the door, giving you a sheepish smile as he welcomed you in.
his apartment was clean, but you could still tell that this had been a rushed effort, being able to spot some clothing misplaced and a few bowls scattered on some pieces of furniture. other than that, it seemed like wonwoo was likely cleaner than the average male college student.
after quietly looking around, you finally turned to wonwoo, who had been watching you quietly as his hands anxiously played with the oversized sleeves of the cardigan he was wearing.
"do you wanna work in your room or on the couch?", you asked.
somehow, you had caught him off guard, making him stumble over his words before muttering that his bed would be better, as it was bigger.
entering his room, you couldn't help a silent giggle at how predictable it looked, filled with star wars and marvel posters on the wall, along with some figurines. the room also included a clearly expensive pc and a few gaming consoles, obviously accompanied by a gaming chair.
liberally taking a seat in the middle of his bed, you allowed your skirt to flow highly enough for your legs to become exposed. you grinned to yourself when wonwoo took a seat beside you, gulping at the sight before opening his macbook on his lap.
once again, without any invitation, you scoot closer to him to get a better view, enjoying the intake of breath you heard from the boy.
after that, you actually worked together for a while, quietly discussing what content you'd leave in and what you'd take out. it was quite enjoyable, actually. you had known wonwoo to have a great creative eye, having seen his photography before, but it surprised you that he was just as good at graphic design.
you voiced this praise to him, making him chuckle awkwardly as he shook his head in denial.
"no, i'm serious, wonwoo. you're so good at this," you repeated.
"ah, n-no, it's just- i'm not that good," he muttered, lowering his head a bit and keeping his eyes on the screen to avoid looking at you.
no, this just wouldn't do.
going on a leap, you scoot even closer, now with your side completely pressed up against his own. bringing your hand up to his chin, you made him face you, smiling at the clear panic in his face.
"wonwoo ... why can't you take my compliment? hmm? you don't believe me?", you murmured, keeping your distance far too small as you awaited his answer.
"i-it's not that, it's just that-"
cutting off his muttering, you continued, "want me to show you? show you that i mean it?", your eyes lowered to his lips before going back to his eyes, hoping that that was enough of a hint for him to know what you meant.
gulping again, his eyes looked to your lips too, looking back up before parting his lips, attempting to make some sort of sound but failing, simply whimpering pathetically.
his whimper was enough to ruin you, making you close the gap between you with a soft kiss.
pathetically, he whined against you as you did all the work, leaving soft kisses against his lips up until your tongue made use of the small gap of his lips, sneaking in and encouraging him to follow along in your movements.
you sighed softly against his lips, wanting nothing more than to encourage his kisses. when he finally began kissing back, you repositioned yourself on the bed, pushing off the laptop and kneeling in front of him without ever breaking the kiss. like a good boy, he followed you in your movements, allowing you to lay him down on the bed as you climbed over him.
pulling away, you chuckled against his lips as he pathetically followed your lips with a whine, hands uncharacteristically holding onto your hips as he held you against him.
"wonwoo," you breathed out against his lips, "is it okay if i take off my clothes, baby?"
"y-yes, fuck. please. i- i mean, you don't have to, but, fuck, i-"
"shhh. it's okay, baby. i'll take them off, yeah? then it's your turn," you reassured, throwing off your skimpy summer dress before snapping off your bra and struggling your way out of your panties before sitting back on him.
the sight of the nerdy boy under you as he salivated over every new inch of skin you exposed to as laughable. his eyebrows were furrowed in the a manner that made it look like he was in pain. his breathy gasps at the revelation of your breasts had given you a huge ego boost, making you play with them for a bit for his viewing satisfaction. after that you leaned down again, going back to what had first started all this.
"you're so pretty, wonwoo ... so talented and nice and pretty. my pretty nonu," you breathed into his lips, giving him no chance to respond.
he still did his best, shaking his head, insisting that you were the pretty one. that you were the prettiest girl he had ever seen.
"n-no, you ... you're so pretty fuck, i- i've always wanted you ... fuck, is that, is that okay? always thought you were the prettiest girl ... get so nervous around you," he confessed, sighing when your arms went under his shirt, toying at his nipples before helping him remove his cardigan and shirt.
now shirtless, you practically salivated over his body, feeling him up like you were entirely depraved of touch. he was far more buff and delicious than you had ever imagined. wonwoo seemed to enjoy it just as much, letting out desperate breaths as you felt him up. before long, his sounds became even higher and whinier, as your hands made their way to his pants, pushing them down as best as you could before getting a hold of his already hardened cock.
"a-ah, t-that's ... fuck, a-are you sure?", gasped wonwoo, squirming under you like the pretty little nerd you'd been wanting for so long.
"yes, nonu. is it okay? is it okay when i play with your pretty cock like this?", your hand wrapped tighter around him, bringing his member out of his boxers and jerking him faster as he nodded desperately in approval.
"it's so good, fuck ... feels so ... so nice. please ..."
he was already such a whimpering mess and you hadn't even started working on his pleasure. unknowingly, wonwoo was slowly corrupting your mind, making you feel a monstrous need to do every nasty thing imaginable to the pretty boy moaning under you.
with a groan, you repositioned yourself, leaning back a little so you could drag your pussy against his cock. the thought alone made your eyes roll back. and the execution? the execution had you whimpering at the sudden stimulation, falling in love with the hardness of wonwoo's cock.
in the meantime wonwoo had lost all ability to produce any sort of sound, letting out breathless whimpers at the feeling of your cunt dragging against him, glasses fogged up and hands digging into your hips to unknowingly try and guide you against his dick.
"y/n ... oh, fuck ... p-please ... need- need more, oh, please ..."
dry humping could only go so long, but you wanted to drag it as much as you could. the sight and sound of wonwoo begging for you had you on cloud nine. he was so handsome and well built that you couldn't help but become hypnotized to the sight under you as you humped him with no shame.
the pretty mess under you continued to beg, strong arms even coming to stop your movements when the pleasure got too much, pleading at you to please let him have your cunt.
"g-give it to me. please. need to feel it, i- i've never had it before. need t-to know. need it to be you, fuck, please ..."
oh? was the pretty boy a virgin? were you about to deflower the mess under you?
wonwoo should've never let you in on this information, as it immediately drove you crazy with desire. you needed to claim him, mark him as yours and keep him all to yourself forever.
without hesitating any longer, you lowered yourself on him, groaning out at the stretch while wonwoo let out the prettiest high-pitched moan you had ever heard. it was pathetic how his deep voice fell to mere whimpers at the simple touch of a woman. yet it made you tighten around him all the tighter.
your hips bounced on his thin thighs, hand dipping in so you could play with your clit. maybe one day you'd teach him how to give you pleasure in such a way, but for now you just wanted to ruin him.
"gonna cum ... i- fuck, im gonna cum. c-can i? please?", he pleaded, eyes shut closed in pleasure.
it took you a few moments to answer, not wanting to leave him waiting for too long during his first time, but needing to get yourself to the edge in order to cum with him. within a few seconds he repeated his pleas, this time even more pathetically than before. this was what broke you, making you nod and whimper in affirmation as your own orgasm took over.
"such a g-good boy for me, nonu," you leaned down to kiss him, wanting to give him as much intimacy as you could for his first time.
kissing you back, he wrapped his arms around you, consistently crying praises against your lips. he let you know how badly he loved your cunt, how much he'd fantasized about this. the rest got muddled in the endless whimpers he let out.
after riding your high, you laid against his him, ear against his chest as you caught your breaths. his skin was clammy and his heartbeat fast. you loved being the cause of both things.
"does ... does this mean you like me back?" he murmured.
nodding against his chest, you left a few kisses against the skin, "yes, wonwoo. i've liked you for a while."
he exhaled in relief, "fuck, thank god."
your let yourself roll over from on top of him and lay on his side, finding a more comfortable position to cuddle with him.
then you suddenly remembered.
"shit, we gotta finish the yearbook."
it was his turn to chuckle, "let's nap for a while first. i'll wake up and get the final details later. promise."
you took his promise in the form of the union of pinkies, taking his advice of taking a nap as the surprisingly buff boy held you in his arms, falling into slumber quickly after.
~
ironically, you woke up before he did, approximately two hours after having fallen asleep in his arms. spotting the laptop on the floor, you decided to do him the favor of doing the final touches yourself, deciding that this would somehow be some form of aftercare as he regained his energy by sleeping.
shockingly enough, having the initiative to work on the unfinished yearbook spread as wonwoo continued to sleep next to you proved quite interesting as you finally got hold of the computer.
you hadn't meant to snoop, but a folder hidden on the corner immediately caught your attention. you hadn't noticed it earlier, as wonwoo had the computer on his own lap the entire time, but its title consisted of your initials, making you entirely too curious about it.
opening it, you had to hold in your gasp upon finding about twenty pictures of you out and about at each of the events you'd attended with wonwoo to photograph for the yearbook. for candids, they were quite beautiful.
in any other situation, you wouldve been rightfully freaked out. but the thought of shy little wonwoo fantasizing about you as he took pictures of you to look at later only made you want to claim him even more.
looking to the pretty boy softly snoring next to you, you were already planning all the ways in which you'd mock and berate him over it, all while you ruined him under you yet again.
#seventeen fanfic#seventeen x reader#svt fanfic#svt x reader#seventeen imagine#seventeen#svt#seventeen oneshot#seventeen smut#svt smut#wonwoo scenarios#wonwoo imagines#wonwoo x reader#wonwoo oneshot#wonwoo smut
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SV fic where Shen Yuan's status as a body-snatching entity is revealed before the Immortal Alliance Conference can happen.
Maybe the system suffers a glitch while some unforeseen side quest is active, and suddenly Shen Yuan's status is revealed and some of the other peak lords he's with seize the opportunity to exorcise his spirit and put Shen Jiu back in his place.
Shen Yuan has mixed feelings about this development, needless to say. On the one hand, it's kind of not actually that bad? He got caught out like a week away from the IAC and the necessary Abyss plotline, so at least like this, he's managed to give Luo Binghe a slightly better time on Qing Jing for the past few years and equip him more capably to survive the Abyss, but he also doesn't have to personally throw him down there. That's the silver lining.
On the other hand, everything else about this situation sucks! He got attached to his life as Shen Qingqiu, dammit! And now he's been revealed and branded as some kind of horrible demonic spirit thing, and he was rather painfully expelled (even though he wasn't even there willingly in the first place), and so he's been reduced to some a kind of sparkly ghost light hovering on the fringes of existence, highly susceptible to being harmed if any more righteous cultivators get it in their heads to disperse him!
Which is better than just being catapulted back into his rotting corpse in the other world, but not by as big of a margin as he'd like.
Basically, in terms of his ability to influence the world Shen Yuan has been downgraded back to "read only" status. He finds that he can manifest himself in places that he's already been, or around people he has a particular affinity towards, but they can't perceive him and he can't communicate or even do much more than some minor poltergeist type activity. Which he is cautious about anyway, because if he gets caught around Shen Jiu, Shen Jiu is going to disperse him with extra prejudice.
Unfortunately, nearly everything Shen Yuan cares about is in Shen Jiu's orbit.
So he can only watch, metaphorically gritting his teeth as the newly-restored Shen Qingqiu kicks Luo Binghe out of the bamboo house, burns all the bridges that Shen Yuan painstakingly rebuilt for him, refuses point blank to let Liu Qingge help with Without-a-Cure, resumes and even begins taking more frequent trips to the nearest brothels, and neglects his duties to turn into a paranoid wreck as if he half-expects Shen Yuan to steal his body back from him the next time he lets his guard down. Corporal punishment spikes back up on Qing Jing Peak.
Shen Yuan is surprised to hear the whispers of dissent, even so. A spirit possessing a righteous cultivator is a pretty damning incident, and there's no way that he could come out of it smelling like roses. And yet, even though his -- Shen Qingqiu's disciples know enough to be circumspect about saying anything of the sort, there are still murmurs and rumblings about how things used to run, not too long ago.
Ming Fan quiets any such talk as soon as he hears it. Ning Yingying scarcely seems to know how to respond to the situation, except to sometimes plaintively insist that she hadn't even noticed much change between Shen Qingqiu's at all. But Luo Binghe...
Well.
Whenever there are mutterings, it often seems as though Binghe is there. Nodding. Whispering. Carefully putting forth suggestions that others barely seem to recognize as suggestions. Shen Yuan only notices because he knows what Binghe's capable of when he decides to be manipulative, and even he finds himself wondering if it's not just a coincidence, something he's imagining, because Luo Binghe hasn't even blackened through his Abyss arc yet.
Even so, there he is, musing carefully on how strange it was that he's heard that Hong Jing hadn't identified any untoward presence in Shen Qingqiu before, how Shizun had never done anything bad to the peak despite all the claims that he'd supposedly been possessed by a malicious entity for years, and wasn't this new Shen Qingqiu acting much more suspicious? Much more malicious? Isn't is the new Shizun who jumps at shadows and talks to people who aren't there, and seems so uneasy in his own skin?
If one had to guess which version was an unstable monster possessing a human's body, and which was the righteous and noble peak lord... ah, well. It's just surprising, isn't it? Luo Binghe would of course never suggest that this new Shen Qingqiu was in actuality the being that had stolen someone else's place. He's surely never second guess the judgment of the peak lords, who claim to have let an interloper among them for YEARS in total ignorance. It's just something to think about.
Alas for Binghe, though a lot of the peak seems inclined to agree with him, he can't win over enough to inspire anything worse than discontent. The "new" Shen Qingqiu does behave a lot more like the one that most of the Qing Jing knew prior to his qi deviation, after all, and it's no mystery why Luo Binghe -- spurned former favorite, now back to being at the bottom of the pecking order -- would be unhappy with the change. Shen Yuan appreciates that this is at least doing a good job of setting up Luo Binghe's altered opinion on his shizun, and he's touched that he made a good enough impression for Binghe to be mad about the sudden regression, but he wishes he could tell Binghe that there's simply nothing to be done about it. That is the real Shen Qingqiu, and Binghe ought to concern himself more with the upcoming conference!
At least, despite being kicked out of the bamboo house, Luo Binghe managed to farm enough good opinion with some of the other disciples during his tenure as Favorite that he doesn't go back to sleeping in the woodshed. Without Shen Qingqiu expressly demanding it, no one would dare, just in case Luo Binghe might regain his status one day. There seems to be an awareness that "evil" Shizun would have made them run laps, but "good" Shizun would now probably whip them half to death in a fit of temper. No one wants to take chances.
Finally, the Immortal Alliance Conference rolls around. Shen Yuan can only watch and cheer Binghe on as best as he's able to, even knowing the probable outcome. And Binghe does so well! He fights bravely but also smartly. When Shen Qingqiu arrives, Binghe doesn't lose an ounce of his caution, though he does still nobly defend his master even though the good feelings between them have dried up. He correctly identifies Without-a-Cure's flare up and silently helps compensate for Shen Jiu's weakness, and sticks by him even though the Original Goods is hardly appreciative.
When the Abyss opens up, and Luo Binghe's demonic seal is broken, Shen Qingqiu seems almost relieved to have this information brought to light. He accuses Luo Binghe not only of orchestrating the invasion of demons at the conference, but of arranging fro Shen Jiu to be replaced too.
"Of course, for a demon like you, summoning some wicked force into this master's body would be easy!" he spits.
Luo Binghe looks bowled over by the accusation. But rather than defending himself, he latches onto it as if it might be some kind of lifeline.
"For a demon like this one... it would be possible?" he echoes.
Shen Jiu hurls more accusations. Of course it is. Luo Binghe is not just any demon, but the most powerful, dangerous, and destructive sort there is. Little is beyond the scope of a Heavenly Demon's power, or wretchedness. Luo Binghe must have uncovered his heritage and seen a convenient means of ridding himself of an inconvenient master. Wherever that horrid spirit is now, it's probably just waiting for the next chance to leap back in at Luo Binghe's call!
"Shizun's spirit... that spirit from before, it still exists?" Luo Binghe catches.
"As if you don't know. Beast. Even the sect leader could not destroy your minion completely," Shen Jiu sneers.
"And it would be within my abilities to put it back in your body. Instead of you."
"You won't get the chance."
Shen Jiu stabs Luo Binghe before throwing him into the Abyss. Binghe fights back, but he seems reluctant to injure his shizun, even now.
Shen Yuan supposes that such reluctance won't survive the Abyss. Still, it's emotional for him. That such a little kindness could cause Luo Binghe to hesitate, even at this point, it really speaks to the resilience of hope in Binghe's heart.
Shen Yuan's little ghost light almost follows him down. But the Abyss would be too dangerous for him, even as he is now. He'd be a little mote of spiritual energy, easily gobbled up by any number of creatures in that place, if he wasn't just swept up by the chaotic ambient energies themselves. So he can only stay behind and think some very colorful swear words in Shen Jiu's general direction, until the rift closes and leaves no trace of Luo Binghe behind, except for the shards of Zheng Yang.
The shards are left behind. Shen Yuan finds that he has a little bit of spiritual storage space. Just enough to maybe fit all of them, so he goes and painstakingly uses his limited powers to lift up each piece and drop it in. It takes him hours and hours, but luckily the clean-up of the whole disaster is something that will take months. No one seems inclined to go reclaim Luo Binghe's shattered blade or risk getting too close to the remnants of the rift, even closed. So, Shen Yuan manages.
The next few years prove difficult. Shen Yuan finds that it's hard to retain his presence in the world. His little spirit has dampened considerably, and few things seem to perk him back up. He has more troubles following anyone who isn't Shen Jiu now that Binghe is in the Abyss, and Shen Jiu is depressing as hell to spend time around. He's rotten with kids, sucks at teaching, he has no friends, his health is deteriorating, and Shen Yuan has no interest in seeing what he gets up to in the brothels.
But Binghe is definitely coming back, and Shen Yuan wants to see him again.
His patience is rewarded the first time he finds his consciousness drifting, only to snap back to awareness in a place that's not Qing Jing Peak. He instead finds that he's in an unfamiliar patch of wilderness along a river, watching as Luo Binghe fights a small pack of demonic beasts.
It's definitely not the Endless Abyss. Has it been five years already...? Shen Yuan hadn't thought so, but then again, he's not the best at keeping track of time in this state.
Luo Binghe defeats the beasts, but they land more hits and wound him worse than Shen Yuan would have anticipated. The wounds aren't healing as quick as they should either. Was Binghe poisoned? Or is this a remnant of Shen Yuan's own poor teaching, the clumsiness in sword practice he never totally managed to correct leading somehow to this?
He gets it when Qin Wanyue and several other Huan Hua cultivators show up, however, and Luo Binghe manages to play the righteous cultivator who just survived a harrowing battle role to the hilt. It takes him very little effort to get the Huan Hua disciples to take him back with them and help "patch him up", and soon enough Shen Yuan has front row seats to watch as Binghe ingratiates himself with the sect.
Mostly, Shen Yuan is just relieved to confirm that Binghe did indeed survive, and glad that he's out of the horrible Abyss and in a place where he can rest and eat decent meals and be fawned over by his well-deserved admirers. Though Luo Binghe seems colder even than Shen Yuan expected, especially in some places where a bit of charm would serve him better. He declines outright to address the Palace Master as "shizun", even though he accepts the offer to stay as a guest disciple at Huan Hua Palace, and he is abrupt and aloof towards both Qin Wanyue and the Little Palace Mistress, despite their obvious interest in him.
Binghe doesn't seem to sleep as soundly as he should either. At night he often brings out a dream stone, which Shen Yuan recognizes as an amplification tool from the novel, but it seems that whatever Binghe is trying to search for with it is beyond his reach. Sometimes Shen Yuan imagines he can hear his disciple's voice calling Shizun at night. But always, Binghe is asleep, and there's no one in Huan Hua Palace he has deigned to address like that anyway. It's a trick of his own imagination, missing the days when Luo Binghe could call out and he himself could answer.
Things go mostly according to the plot, with a few disruptions here and there. Luo Binghe seems to be lagging behind on the romantic subplots, but rushing ahead on the vendetta against his old teacher. The Trial of Shen Qingqiu takes place at Jinlan City, with demon instigators who work for Luo Binghe accusing the peak lord of colluding with demons and setting him up to seem like he was involved in the sower attack. Shen Yuan knows, from watching Binghe, that the sower thing was mostly taking advantage of an existing situation to frame Shen Qingqiu. Binghe himself didn't have anything to do with Jinlan's suffering, but is obviously not above using it to his advantage.
Combined with Qiu Haitang's testimony, Shen Qingqiu is arrested and locked up where Luo Binghe can torture and dismember him at will.
However, Binghe... doesn't do that?
Instead he swiftly relocates Shen Qingqiu to a prison in the demon realms, and seems to abandon his concerns with Huan Hua Palace and the righteous cultivation sects altogether. He just leaves them to fight it out amongst themselves, as if he's got no concern with who comes out on top, and in the meanwhile he keeps Shen Qingqiu locked up but surprisingly well-treated?
Despite Shen Qingqiu's obvious terror and vitriol towards him, Luo Binghe forces him to eat nutritious meals, and attends to his health problems, and makes no move to injure him at all. He has nothing good to say to Shen Jiu, but he doesn't hurt him. Yet there is something distinctly weird about the whole dynamic, not at all like someone who has decided to keep a prisoner under ethical conditions for moral reasons or something like that.
Shen Yuan's not sure what to make of it.
In the end, Shen Jiu himself illuminates the situation.
It happens after Shen Jiu has rejected food. Luo Binghe tuts and asks if Shen Jiu suspects it would be poisoned. Shen Jiu sneers at him.
"I know it isn't," he says. "You wouldn't poison this body. I know what you're after."
"Oh? Wise Master Shen figured out this much?" Binghe replies, dry as the fucking desert.
"You're keeping me in this condition because you want to put that thing back in my body!" Shen Jiu accuses.
It takes Shen Yuan a moment to realize that Shen Jiu is referring to him. That he thinks Luo Binghe is keeping him fit and healthy for Shen Yuan's sake.
Wouldn't that be going too far just for some old teacher who was nice?! Yes, he knows that he made an impact on Luo Binghe, but it wasn't hard! Shen Jiu set the bar at the earth's crust, clearing it hardly required the kind of effort or devotion that would inspire an entire elaborate scheme purely on Shen Yuan's behalf!
He can't believe it.
But, Binghe doesn't deny it.
In fact he smiles, his expression somehow conveying that Shen Jiu guessed perfectly correct, but also that there's no good it can do him. Binghe has never looked so much like a piece of PIDW fanart before, with some dark and potent rage simmering just beneath the veneer of his placid smile.
"Shizun should not be referred to so impolitely," Luo Binghe counters. "If anyone in this room is a thing, it is this usurper in front of me."
"Usurper?! In my own body? You're mad."
Binghe tuts.
Master Shen should understand that his claim is contested. After all, if one woman gives birth to a child but then casts it into a river to die, but another fishes the babe out and cradles it to her breast -- which woman deserves to be called that child's mother? Just because Shen Jiu was born into that body, doesn't mean he deserves it more than anyone else.
But even if he did, Luo Binghe wouldn't care. He would kill to get his Shizun back. This isn't really so different from that, is it? And there is no love lost between him and Shen Jiu to make him hesitate. If his Shizun disagrees, he may disciple Binghe as he sees fit once he returns.
Shen Jiu points out that Luo Binghe's machinations have ruined his reputation. Even if he gets that creature to possess his body again, there's no way that they could infiltrate Cang Qiong Sect a second time.
But Binghe waves off his concerns. He clearly has thought of this, and has plans for it, but is also not about to be stupid enough to monologue any more at Shen Jiu. Once he leaves, Shen Yuan lingers for a little while, and notices that Shen Jiu actually seems genuinely concerned about what might happen to the sect if Luo Binghe succeeds and gets Shen Yuan put back on Qing Jing Peak.
Of course, Shen Yuan knows he wouldn't actually do anything to harm Cang Qiong, but Shen Jiu doesn't. This is the first time Shen Yuan has seen him actually reveal shades of what might be called a noble impulse.
It's not much, but... sigh.
The thing is, Shen Yuan doesn't really want to steal anybody's body! No one consulted with him the first time it happened! And they sure aren't consulting with him now, either, although to be fair they can't. But he might just have enough ability as a little ghost light to stave off some of this whole process, and he's got to decide if he wants to try. Or if he'll let Binghe have his way, and succeed in pushing Shen Jiu back out and giving Shen Yuan his life again.
Because Binghe will definitely succeed if he really does try. That's how the world works.
And if he did... that might be the only way for Shen Yuan to get his life as Shen Qingqiu back. Which he does want, desperately! He misses it. He misses it both in the general sense of having a body at all, but also in the particular sense of all the things he managed to attain as Qing Jing Peak Lord. As Shen Qingqiu.
Shen Jiu, also, makes a very tempting sacrifice in all this. Shen Yuan frankly hates his guts. Maybe it could have been different, but the fact that Shen Yuan worked so hard to try and make that life better, only for Shen Jiu to just go right back to being an intractable asshole who, frankly, should never be in charge of children ever, rankles! He went right back to mistreating Luo Binghe as well, and threw him into the Abyss, and if Binghe's plan was to violently kill him again as revenge for that then Shen Yuan wouldn't fault him. He didn't fault him the first time. He wasn't going to fault him even when it seemed like he would be the one Binghe was destined to rip apart in justified vengeance.
This is different, though. Shen Yuan wants to fight for the life he longs to be living, especially now when the axe of the Abyss is no longer hanging over him.
But is he willing to actually become the thing everyone else decided he was in order to get it? A body-snatching, malicious spirit?
Shen Jiu is horribly unsuited to his life as Shen Qingqiu. But, it is still his life. Shen Yuan really just managed to borrow it for a while.
Deep down he knows that, even if he would like to ignore it.
So when Binghe finally sets up the ceremony, and Shen Yuan's soul is called back into Shen Qingqiu's body, he hesitates. Shen Jiu is poised like a snarling, wounded animal within the confines of his own body. Even the gentlest tap would knock him back out again. Shen Yuan gets the sense that the system is also there, just waiting and even eager for him to do it. Take back the body, resume whatever quests or directives are waiting for him there.
Shen Yuan, even as fragile as his own spirit is, could crush Shen Jiu's battered soul to dust.
Instead he withdraws.
Binghe tries the ritual again, and again, and each time Shen Yuan feels stronger. But it doesn't matter, because he doesn't want to be an evil body-stealing parasite! He wishes he could just tell Binghe to stop wasting valuable resources on this, especially when Binghe could be focusing on other, more important things! Like building up happy relationships or consolidating his rule of the demon realms or establishing an actual strong foothold in the human world, or something!
Somehow, Shen Jiu figures this out before Luo Binghe does. Of course, he conveys the information in the worst way possible, snidely wondering what Luo Binghe did to alienate "that creature" he's trying so hard to resurrect so badly that it will refuse even the open, glowing invitation he keeps writing for it!
Excuse you, you miserable old man, Shen Yuan isn't avoiding Binghe! He is facing a very difficult moral dilemma and handling it LIKE A CHAMP! Fuck you!
Unfortunately, even though Shen Jiu has decided that Luo Binghe and Shen Yuan were in cahoots about the first body snatch, Luo Binghe knows that they weren't. He also doesn't know that his old Shizun knew full well that he was a Heavenly Demon the whole time. So now he has a lot of doubts to wrestle with, especially give that, despite the consensus of the rest of the world, Luo Binghe is not convinced that Shen Yuan actually is some kind of demonic spirit.
Maybe he's a good spirit that has rejected Binghe for his wretched blood?
But Shizun always said that things like that didn't matter!
So... maybe it's not his blood. Maybe Binghe's actions are what has caused Shizun to forsake him. All the terrible things he did to survive the Abyss, and the machinations afterwards, framing Shen Qingqiu and imprisoning him, setting himself up as a demonic ruler... all of that.
Binghe entreats his Shizun to forgive him. Or even if he won't forgive him, to still come back. Binghe will... stay away, if that's what Shizun wants. Just so long as Shizun is alive, is somewhere in the world, safe and happy, then... then...
He can't quite get through lying to claim that it would be enough. But it would be better than the current situation, so he tries.
Shen Yuan, luckily, has been juiced up enough from all the failed summoning rituals that later that night, he finally recognizes the little whisper-calls as echoes of Luo Binghe's dreams. And he's strong enough to follow the invitations! He goes to visit Binghe in his dreams, and reassures him that he's not trying to reject him at all. He's very proud of Binghe, and wants him to be happy and successful. Binghe could rule the world and Shizun would just cheer him on!
It's just that Shen Yuan never willingly possessed Shen Qingqiu in the first place. He misses his life, but given the choice, he doesn't want to be that kind of entity.
So, new plan -- if Shen Yuan won't take a body off of an undeserving asshole, then Binghe will make him a new body! Luckily, Shen Yuan knows a way to grow one. They "borrow" some genetic materials from Shen Jiu to aid the process, and then Luo Binghe, surprisingly indifferent about the whole thing, cuts Shen Jiu loose at the border.
Shen Yuan is surprised. Binghe really doesn't care about that? Turns out no, not so much. Shen Jiu is awful, but he's nothing to Binghe in the long run. (Also it's a long shot but if nothing else does work Binghe might have to force Shen Yuan to take Shen Qingqiu's body back, though of course he's not about to say so, and anyway Shen Jiu is still going to have a hell of a time waiting for him back in the cultivation world. Luo Binghe wishes him luck and every pleasure of trying to clear his ruined name, living a life on the lamb with an insidious poison constantly eating away at him, or the full enjoyment of a second visit to the water prison, whichever ends up happening.)
With the help of Luo Binghe's blood parasites, the Sun and Moon Dew whatever mushroom body grows in record time. A summoning ritual isn't even required, Shen Yuan just scoots right in as soon as the body is ready and blinks his eyes open to see his anxious disciple's face peering back at him.
Happily ever after!
#bingqiu#svsss#scum villain's self saving system#scum villain#long post#and I'm sure that nothing else subsequently goes awry or drags anyone into further dramatic plots#shen jiu absolutely got the system by the way#it's in that body#he was SO confused#but didn't want anyone to think he was still possessed or anything either so he didn't tell anyone about it#lbh downplays it but he is REALLY BIG MAD about how that whole possession plot/reveal went down#oh so everyone's just going to assume the spirit possessing the asshole peak lord was malicious?#yeah luo binghe's not letting that go any time soon
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DPXDC prompt. Ghost King uses Uno Reverse Card
Ghosts are not a race of evil creatures that most people think they are. And Danny was really happy when the Infinite Realms were able to make peace treaties with most countries of the human world. Ghosts, however, are a very vindictive race. At least that’s how young Phantom explained himself to Batman afterwards.
It just so happens that a couple of hours before the event aimed at expanding intergalactic unions most of the JLeague members due to an emergency call went on a mission. Which means people who had any authority in Phantom’s eyes became unavailable for a while.
So Shazam and Phantom as the most known outside the Earth were assigned to greet the guests and most importantly to entertain the visitors until the founders of JL return.
According to Phantom, Batman, being such a good detective with a bunch of backup plans, should have known that Danny’s favorite cereal ran out this morning, that he was late for first class, and that after school he had a fight with his parents. No, seriously, aren’t so-called scientists supposed to be able to admit mistakes in their own judgment? Danny got tired of being constantly ashamed of their behavior near other ghosts. It's bad enough that his authority as a ruler is sustained only by the support of those Ancients with whom he maintains friendly relations. Average citizens still doubt that he is a is sufficient to claim the throne. He’s had enough of being accused of not being a full-fledged ghost. He’s not ready to hear rumors that he supports his parents' racist judgments too. In short, his day sucked. And all his ghostly nature now wanted to do something nasty to his neighbors to get rid of the tension.
Alien leader stretched out a hand to Phantom and Shazam. “Your Majesty Phantom, Champion of Magic. It’s an honor to meet you. I hope I learned the proper greeting gesture of the local intelligent race.”
And with that Danny’s reserve of conscience ran out. It’s a perfect moment to feed his need to be a little shit.
“The local intelligent race?’ Danny had this extreme bewilderment on his face. “Which one do you think..? Earth was the home of the Gods and of various inhabitants of the galaxy but it was a long time ago.”
Woman is clearly confused. Great. “E-Earthers. I think they’re called that.”
“Earthlings, intelligent race? You must be mistaken.” Danny faked a giggle. “Who told you that crap?”
“Phantom, what are you doing?” Batman hissed at him from an earpiece. Danny turned the sound off with a clear conscience. “I mean, seriously, there’s not a single serious study in the science library in this galaxy or any other galaxy that says humans are intelligent. Shazam, do you think they’re..?”
For some reason, Billy immediately remembered watching a man spend his entire salary on lottery tickets last week. And of course he was careless enough to shake his head and snort. That was all Phantom needed.
“Exactly. Earthlings don’t have to be intelligent to mimic the behavior of more evolved species. Surely you are well aware that Martians and Kryptonians, and many others have visited Earth at different stages of human development. My supervisor Clockwork and I have long been observing this strange species. In many ways, their behavior resembles a mixture of instinctive reactions of specimens from the 126 sectors of the nearest SBc Galaxy and several other creatures from planets of the galaxy KV59. However, even I, as an anthropologist with extensive experience of observing human species in their natural habitat, still have to explore and discover many of their secrets.”
“I do not understand. According to the documents among the delegation that greets us there are Earthlings. I mean I don’t question the scientific evidence of a respected Chronos or you, but why then..”
“Of course you don’t! It’s really quite simple. For the purity of the clinical experiment, which we are conducting now, it is necessary that Earthlings feel themselves ostensibly full participants of the «society» consisting of members with developed intelligence.”
“So, any luck, colleague?” Shazam, who realized that Batman would now skin them anyway, decided to at least participate in this theater so that the punishment would be at least deserved.
“Well, we’ve certainly come up with some interesting preliminary insights about the adaptive capacity of the human brain in limited contact with Martians. Of course, humans do not have real emotions to be full participants in communication, but their attempts and zeal are very inspiring.”
~~~~~
Meanwhile, Fentons watching a live broadcast of what was supposed to be an interplanetary friendship encounter are beginning to realize that if trying to punish a rebellious human teenager has always been difficult for them, the attempt to control the behavior of the 14 y/o half-ghost may become a nightmare not only for them.
Jack: Honey, I think Danny’s still a little upset about our old theories about the ability of ghosts to feel or think.
Jazz, sitting between them with the face of a man resigned to the chaos around her, could not restrain the sarcasm: Really? Why would you think that?
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I decided to make adult designs and "where are they now" stories for all the child tieflings who are confirmed to survive to Act 3.
Unbeknownst to her, Arabella was a latent sorcerer with a natural connection to the Weave. Her powers likely would've manifested at puberty, but touching the idol of Silvanus imbued her with wild druid magic, multiclassing her prematurely. This caused an internal struggle between the two powers, which threatened to rip her and anyone around her apart. Fortunately, with Withers' guidance, she set out to follow the Weave and found balance in her new, strange abilities. For years she traveled Faerûn alone, honing her skills and making peace with her past. Eventually, she became known as the "Wondering Storm", so attuned to nature some would mistake her for Silvanus' Chosen. Those who crossed her, however, would swear she was Jergal's Chosen; able to end a life with a single stare. Though not unkind, Arabella became feared by many for her stoic personality, mysterious presence, and peculiar command of the Weave. It seemed that wherever she was needed, she would inexplicably be.
Though Raphael went silent, Mol continued to enjoy, and perhaps abuse, the gifts from her patron. With the Absolute defeated, she quickly clawed her way up the ranks of the Guild, eventually becoming a pseudo ward to Nine-Fingers Keene. For years she would sharpen her skills, mentored by Keene and her most trusted associates, until she challenged the notorious crime lord to a duel for leadership. Much to her surprise, Keene lost, and was therefore forced to relinquish command to the young tiefling. Seeing the move as a betrayal, however, the Guild's loyalty was split, causing the criminal powerhouse to fracture. This led to a dark time for the Guild, with many in Baldur's Gate referring to it as the "Outlaw Civil War". Much blood was shed during this conflict, but eventually Mol turned the tides in her favour, running Keene and those still loyal to her out of the city. She would go on to rebuild the Guild in her image, successfully and more fearsome than ever; though, when she approached her old colleagues with an invitation to join, they all declined.
Once he managed to enter the city, Mattis tried to find his companions from the Grove, but he ultimately turned his sights to conning rich families with "panaceas from the hells". For a while, he flourished under this racket, until his scheme was exposed by jealous competition. This led to him being violently assaulted by angry customers, nearly ending his life—he only survived by rolling into a rapid canal. After being saved by a kind, impoverished couple who fished him out of the water, he spent nearly three months confined to a bed. His recovery was slow and agonizing, but hardly discouraging. Instead of succumbing to his misery, he took the time to plot his revenge. With the couple's help, he learned the laws of the land and revived his strength. Then, when able, he cut his hair, disguised his face, spied on the man who wronged him, and subsequently tricked him into signing his business over to the couple. Together, they turned the questionable business into something respectable. Mostly. Mattis' silver tongue finally became an asset, rather than a survival tactic, though he was never above a good swindle.
Ide and Umi took up arms during the Absolute's attack on the city, each of them basking in the action. Realising that Umi had developed an insatiable bloodlust, and itching for more battles herself, Ide suggested they enlist into the army. Though technically too young, the new General—appointed by High Duke Ravengard after the fall of the Absolute—accepted them as apprentices until they came of age.
Though their time with the Flaming Fist was imperative to their training and survival, they found the rules and hypocrisy of the troop disheartening, and even more so when the General died. Eventually they deserted, leaving Baldur's Gate entirely and starting a small band of vigilantes. To some, they were a menace. To others, they became heroes of the Sword Coast. No matter the case, Ide and Umi were inseparable, never seen apart.
Inspired by his saviours, Mirkon continued to write stories about his time in the Grove and his rescue from the harpies. He never found his parents, but he refused to live in the slum's orphanage. Life was hard for the young tiefling, often forcing him to grovel for food and coin. On the worst days, he found comfort turning his stories into songs, which he slowly morphed into a semi-profitable street act. This eventually caught the attention of Alfira, who one day happened to be passing by. Recognising his talent, and overjoyed to be reunited, she took him in and taught him how to play the violin. Together, they created a lucrative show that expanded well beyond the Elfsong Tavern, which aided Alfira in opening her dream college. She and Lakrissa would soon adopt Mirkon, and he would later become one of the most beloved and celebrated instructors at the college.
Though working as a hawker for the Baldur's Mouth kept Silfy fed and relatively sheltered, she grew listless. Dealing with rude and racist customers hardened her enough to snap back, resulting in her termination. With nowhere to go, she found herself wandering into Ramazith's Tower, where she implored Rolan for a job. Feeling for her plight, Rolan put her to work stocking shelves and filling orders. It wasn't exciting work, but she was safe and satisfied, until one day a customer's tome exploded, causing a flurry of rainbow flames that whirled into the shape of a unicorn. This event, though frightening, would inspire Silfy to start reading the books in the shop, with the help of Tolna and Rolan. To everyone's surprise, she proved to have an impressive aptitude for magic, and she soon found herself enthralled. Within just a few years, Silfy would be accepted into Blackstaff Academy, where she would excel in her studies and catch the eye of the great Vajra Safahr. She would offer Silfy a position in the school, as well as a mentorship, but Silfy would politely decline, graduate, and return to Bauldr's Gate. Her true home.
#bg3#baldur's gate 3#tieflings#arabella#mol#mattis#ide#umi#mirkon#silfy#bg3 rolan#alfira#lakrissa#Vajra Safahr
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a hybrid’s instincts
◇ characters ◇ zhongli, gorou, tighnari, (bonus) platonic!diona
◇ tags ◇ pregnancy, afab!reader, dragon!zhongli
◇ a/n ◇ what's that? will i ever stop pushing the dragon!zhongli agenda? hahahahahahahhahahhaha hhahaha ha ha- no.
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ⬙ 𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡
oh? what's this? it seems like your pregnancy triggered something in these men. their more… "animal side", perhaps?
ever since baizhu’s confirmation - actually, even weeks before that - zhongli has been very reluctant to let you wander out of the house. or even out of his sight, in general (which is quite strange since with his enhanced dragon senses you know he’s able to locate you within the house with no problems at all).
at night, you sometimes wake up to him in his dragon form. sometimes it’s his compact form nuzzling and he's purring near your stomach, sometimes it’s his half-dragon form where he’ll place his head beside your stomach with his tail curling around you protectively. it doesn’t matter whether you’re already showing or not; your heartbeat and the little hatchling’s brings him a sense of comfort that he needs, lest he becomes restless.
his nesting behavior is out of control. he’ll bring you all the pillows and blankets, surround you with the nicest smelling flowers, make you always wear his shirt, and he’ll bring anything you want to the bed so you don’t have to leave the nest. the further you are into your pregnancy, the more reluctant he is to leave you alone. he ends up taking that paternal leave hu tao has been telling him to get. bless her.
gorou is just as excited as he’s alerted. kokomi will have to force her best general to take a temporary leave from the army throughout your pregnancy because he’s so jumpy and sensitive to literally everything and his behavior is making all of the soldiers anxious.
gorou insists that you take a walk with him every day; just something light around the block to keep you from feeling lethargic. he’s also developed a habit to sniff everything that will touch your hand. yes, that includes your supposedly harmless change of clothes. it’s not ridiculous in his opinion! it’s a necessary precaution!!
will snarl when a stranger approaches you and tries to touch you in any way, even if it’s just a friendly gesture. he would be so embarrassed and apologetic about it afterward, but only once you’re at the safe haven of your house.
are you a forest ranger? an adventurer? does your profession require you to venture into the wilderness? welp, say goodbye to your job for the time being, because there is no way in any cycles of samsara tighnari would let you go into the dangers outside while you’re carrying his pups.
walking arm-in-arm whenever you're out and about is a must these days. whenever a villager congratulates you, you can sense his hold tightening despite the polite smile on his lips. if it was up to his instinct, he wouldn’t have let you get out of the house, but rationally he knows you need to move around and breathe in the fresh air.
though you still won’t be exempt from your beloved’s sassiness (”you want me to get you coffee…? do you think i’m an idiot?”) as long as what you ask for doesn’t harm you, he’s at your every beck and calls now, no question asked. you’re craving for collei’s specialized pita pockets? he’ll learn the damn recipe from collei herself and serve it on your favorite plate the next day. you want to be carried everywhere? good thing he’s got the physique fitting for the head of the forest rangers. you want ten kisses a day? say no more; he’ll give you thirty.
[bonus - platonic]
at first, diona seems super indifferent about it, only reacting with a ‘hmph… congrats, i guess’, but her actions speak louder than words. you know how cats tend to hover around pregnant women and even lay themselves near their bulging bellies? that's right.
no, you will not be having alcohol. no, your spouse will not be having alcohol. no, all the people within five hundred meters radius from you will not be having any single drop of alcohol. she won't allow those boozehounds to get close to you.
she’s so amazed at how your stomach keeps growing bigger every time you visit her. when you give her your permission, she’ll curiously poke and stare at your bump. her hand will gently pat your tummy as she unconsciously smiles. she starts to seek you out more often after that, telling you that she’s just there in case you need help, but you know she’s just worried about you. she would be such a good big sister to your baby!
© zhongrin | 2022 ◆ no repost. reblogs much appreciated. feel free to reach out to submit suggestions, feedback, comments, or if you just want to talk!
◇ taglist ◇ @thestarsofenkanomiya | @genshinparty | @abyssmal-skies | @hamdehlesmis | @depressivecomforts | @sophiethewitch1 | @why-am-i-here-someone-save-me | @sunnshineflxwer | @heartonthemoon | @yuutasbabe | @percyval-archives | @carbs-need-more-love | @rebeccka | @queen-belial | @stygianoir | @niverine | @silentmoths | @niktwazny303 | @dustofthedailylife | @herdrops | @clovcly | @marina-and-the-memes | @angryhope | @mixed-kester | @shuangxo | @fiannee | @lordbugs | @anonymousficreader | @shizunxie | @ladylofspades
#genshin impact#genshin x reader#genshin impact x reader#zhongli#zhongli x reader#gorou#gorou x reader#tighnari#tighnari x reader#diona#platonic!diona#rin writes#cw.pregnancy#tw.pregnancy#afab!reader
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