Wait Wait Wait. Guys!

happiness in dps (sobbing profusely)

jla/titans (1998) #3 // the kids aren't alright, fall out boy // new teen titans (1984) #19 // tales of the teen titans (1984) #59 // outsiders (2003) #16 // outsiders (2003) #1 // stand by me (1986) // titans/young justice: graduation day (2003) #3 // unknown // dc special: the return of donna troy (2005) #2 // titans (1999) #1 // nightwing (2016) #90 // titans (2016) #15 // ivy, frank ocean // teen titans (1996) #12 // titans (2008) #15 // batman chronicles (1995) #7 // outsiders (2003) #11 // a working list of things i will never tell you, jon sands // flash (1987) #210 // flash (1987) #214 // nightwing secret files and origins (1999) #1 // the firm, john grisham // jla/titans (1998) #3

dick + core titans (donna, garth, roy, wally)

I've talked about it before but we need more beast keeping peak shen yuan au where he is as terrifying as he is sweet.

I want him to take a bunch of juniors on a night hunt and see a little fluffy animal and go "listen up, that's an invasive species! Whenever we see these we have to do this-" and then he traumatizes them by reducing it to a bloody mess.

He sees a hungry cub whining helplessly and goes oh poor thing I'll find you some food... then he returns covered in gore and drops dripping raw meat in front of it. He looks at his fellow disciples and says "what? It's carnivorous."

Older disciples LOVE watching new students follow shen yuan around like lovestruck ducklings when they first join the peak... then they go on a mission together and come back shaking going "what the fuck was that." It's a rite of passage

– 𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒 || 𝐛𝐞𝐧 + 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜!𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐬

SUMMARY: The thing about Klaus Hargeeves and the titles he had was that, for all the bad and bloodied ones he’d accumulated over his weirdly-long-but-should-have-been-shorter lifetime– nothing hurt more than becoming a stranger. PAIRINGS: Klaus x Reader (Platonic), Sparrow!Reader x Sparrow!Ben (Romance), Past!Reader x Umbrella!Ben (Romance), Klaus x Reader x Ben TAGS/WARNINGS: angst ; romance

Klaus Hargeeves had accumulated more than his fair share of titles over the course of his weirdly-long-but-should-have-been-shorter lifetime.

Before the first Apocalypse, he’d been Klaus: Number Four. The Séance. Family fuck-up and resident weirdo.

When he’d ended up smack-dab in the middle of the Vietnam war, the list only grew from there: Private Hargreeves. Soldier. Murderer.

The titles were no less bloody than his first few, and maybe if he’d saved Dave the additions might’ve been an easier pill to swallow.

But Klaus lost Dave anyway and though he wasn’t into the swallowing business nowadays (of pills, that is), the dog tags he wore beneath his torn shirt were a bitter reminder that death and misery would follow him always.

Even after leaving The Umbrella Academy. 

When he and his family failed to save the world the first time (which, according to a very snappish Five, was not technically the first time; very tensed up man-child, mind you)–Klaus, as always, did what he did best.

He accepted the cards he’d been dealt with, and he settled.

And for the most part, things were okay. Delightful, even.

Amongst his Cult, he’d been a Messiah. God. 

As if God wasn’t already fucked up for putting him through all the shit he’d been through, Klaus accepted the monicker with a grain of salt and revelled in the false sense of security it gave him.

So long as he was God, nothing would touch him or his people. 

Because, for all that Klaus was unlucky, for all that he was unfortunate when it came to too-bloody-titles and titles that were false in every way, somehow he’d ended up in 1960 with not only Ben, but with you, too. 

From 1960 to 1962, the years you shared together–you, consoling him first after an argument with Ben before astral projecting yourself between worlds to coax your boyfriend back; Ben, always disagreeing with anything to do with Destiny’s Children until you’d concede sweetly in turn; and him, teasing Ben mercilessly for making him a third-wheel but purposely making him more tangible so his love-struck brother could rest his head above your heart–reminded Klaus of the only good titles he had alongside his name. 

To the world (old and new), Klaus Hargreeves was known as many things.  Weird things. Bloody things. But to Ben, his Benirrino, Klaus was his brother. 

He could be overwhelming to a fault, he knew, but Ben–angry, bitter and emo Benny boy– loved him all the same. And Klaus would’ve died a happy bastard knowing he had at least one sibling with him 60 years in the past. 

With you, [N/N], Klaus didn’t quite know why you’d stuck with him after Ben had died in the original timeline. Until the epiphany came to him between nights you sought each other to grieve and days you went looking for a new high that he’d never had a best-friend before.

He might’ve been responsible for half the stress you were constantly under, but you had accepted him anyways and always in the ways that mattered and for that, Klaus would make do with a sappy Ben if it meant having you there with him, too.  

After two glorious years of just being Ben’s playful brother and [Y/N]’s chaotic best-friend, Klaus thought he could well and truly live if he only ever had to answer to these two titles.

And then, Five re-appeared.

The rest of his family, too. 

And suddenly, the world was back on a timer. 

Klaus had to be Number Four again. Had to be The Séance, the Soldier.

If they wanted an edge over the Temps Time Commission, he had to bring out the whole shabam and play into everything Daddy-dearest ever wanted of him in order to do anything and return to a timeline where he was all these shitty titles (some shameful, some not) and then some.  

And while he could’ve done it, could’ve accepted the bitter reality-check like the good little Solider that he was–it became a little harder for Klaus to just settle with the cards he’d been dealt with when Ben dies saving Viktor. 

It becomes even worse when, just as the two of you are almost out, almost back-in-your-original timeline, you decide to shield Allison during a barrage of gunfire. 

Klaus had seen you first amidst the chaos–eyes wide, hands trembling–and had cheered in a moment of drunken stupor before Five called your name.  Had called for you as though he couldn’t see you even though you were standing right there…

He barely manages to process what’s happened and the fact he’s lost his brother and best-friend all in one sweep (He sees Dave in the distance, and blood roars in his ears) before Viktor’s at his side, gently holding onto his hand with the echo of grief in his eyes as Five opens the briefcase. 

The last image he sees of 1962 is the small, sad, smile of your apparition as he falls forward in time and into a world that spits at everything he ever was. 

Because there, in 2019, is Ben. 

Alive. Breathing. Whole. 

“Dad, who are these assholes?” his brother’s voice echoes through the long room, Klaus’ stomach lurching as Ben considers them without a hint of recognition. 

His heart swells and the breaks again because with that question, his brother dies again.

“Come on Ben, play nice…” To the collective surprise and horror mounting amongst his family, your gentle voice cuts through the air as you step out from behind his brother to place a hand on his shoulder. 

Flushed and lively despite being dead only a few moments prior–he’s not the only one disoriented seeing you in front of them. 

“But he does have a point,” you continue onward, uncaring of the sharp breath Allison takes (your blood is still splattered on her face) or the way Diego’s eyes dart between you and Ben; side by side, even in another life.

“Who are you and why are you here?” 

Headcanon that Shen Yuan was hotter than Shen Qingqiu, actually.

Like yeah SQQ being a cultivator gave him a boost to enough attributes + being in a stallion novel where everyone is either unrealistic hot or dog's butt ugly got the Shen Qingqiu body extra points, and he wasn't bad looking to begin with. Plus not being ill is vastly more important to the new Shen Qingqiu than those extra hotness points (Without a Cure notwithstanding). But part of the reason why he's kind of like, meh, at least I'm not hideous or anything, is because Shen Yuan's original body was a knock out.

I also like him as chronically ill, and, as many people know, beauty standards and sustained suffering are not as incompatible as they should be. Shen Yuan was conventionally attractive in part because conventional beauty standards seem to want everyone slowly dying all the time. But even setting that aside, the man had flawless bone structure, an appealing figure, captivating eyes, and the kind of voice that stopped people in their tracks.

All of which was a contributing factor to his antisocial lifestyle, actually. Despite the fact that Shen Yuan does enjoy company and requires a certain baseline of social enrichment for his enclosure, his internalized homophobia and closeting did not play well with overtures from interested parties (regardless of gender). The only way to minimize the odds of him being asked out on dates was to essentially become a shut-in, especially since even Shen Yuan can only make so many excuses before he himself starts to notice that he's going to a lot of effort to avoid specifically that avenue of socialization. Far better to just remove himself from any risk of it, and then vocally lament that oh no he's just too much of a nerd to get anywhere with women!

Anyway this largely doesn't matter much outside of sheer comedy potential for any situation where SY gets his old body/life back. Like imagine a reveal scenario where the System is going to transport them back to their old lives.

Shang Qinghua: well bro I guess this is gonna be the ultimate test of love, right?

Shen Yuan: what do you mean?

Shang Qinghua: our husbands are gonna see what we looked like back before we were glorious cultivators! they're going to have to track us down in our mundane, kinda shitty pre-transmigration lives! it's gonna be at least a little embarrassing, right?

Shen Yuan: *gets his old body back*

Shang Qinghua, normal human with average looks: ...

Shen Yuan, exemplary 11/10: ?

Shang Qinghua: what. the fuck?? bro what the fuck why are you hot???

Shen Yuan: don't make it weird

Shang Qinghua: make it weird??? why were you sitting at home reading my shitty novel when you could have been out there building your own harem???

Shen Yuan: stop exaggerating

Shang Qinghua: oh my god you've always been like this. this is it, isn't it? it wasn't even brain damage from the transmigration or something--

Shen Yuan: hey

Shang Qinghua: --you've just always been completely unaware, haven't you? every time I wrote a beautiful woman who didn't know her own appeal you'd be jumping down my throat--

Shen Yuan: because that's a stupid trope--!

Shang Qinghua: --JUMPING DOWN MY THROAT EXACTLY LIKE THAT but this whole time THIS WHOLE TIME it wasn't even a glow-up issue, you've just been that, personified, yourself--

Shen Yuan: look I know I'm not ugly but I'm not I'm hardly that good-looking

Shang Qinghua: YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO CRITICIZE THAT TROPE AGAIN! oh my god. how many broken hearts did you leave behind when you died?!

Shen Yuan: none, I wasn't even seeing anyone--

Shang Qinghua: yeah full offense but I am nottt taking your word for that. I bet you had a harem you didn't know about in this lifetime too. I bet you had a fan club, like an anime prince

Shen Yuan: *mumbling*

Shang Qinghua: what was that?

Shen Yuan: I said... only in high school...

Shang Qinghua: oh my god

Shen Yuan: it wasn't a big deal!

Shang Qinghua: *frantically trying to see if he can find any trace of it on the internet now*

The Amnesiac Ghost King Shen Yuan who wakes up in his territory surrounded by bestiaries, shadow demons loyal to him, animal skins, with a fateful feeling of loss and... he has a wife? He knows he has a wife! Well, a man-wife? Just by looking at a couple of his maids he is convinced that his wife cannot be a woman.

He have to find his wife! Husband. Spouse? In fact, he has forgotten almost everything except his own name and the fact that he is dead and is a ghost king, so with the covert help of his servants, he manages to leave and sets out on a quest. He has to find his beloved!!

... It's difficult when he doesn't even know what he's really looking for. He is a little disappointed, but suddenly, he hears disturbances in a forest. There is a fight between a beautiful man and a wild beast. Oh! He sees him, he recognizes him! His wife!!

He claps his hands in the air, stopping the beast's attack; the beast quickly scurries away, afraid that it has disrespected Shen Yuan. The man dressed in noble elegance and a zuiyin on his forehead looks at him, annoyed, but Shen Yuan doesn't even notice him as she hugs him.

"Oh, wife!" Shen Yuan says. He feels him for wounds. He is strong, he knows it! But still, he's irrationally worried. Just because he was strong didn't mean he couldn't be hurt, and that would be horrible!! "It's been a while. This husband of yours asks for forgiveness. Some creature ate his memories, but I have found you. This husband of yours would recognize his wife anywhere, no matter how many memories they take from me. Is my wife safe?"

Shen Yuan misses the chaotic array of emotions on Luo Binghe’s face. Confusion turns to doubt, doubt to shock.

"Husband" he says, the voice a little strangled, and Shen Yuan only squeezes him tighter in his arms.

"There, there," he consoles, dragging Luo Binghe's head down, towards his neck, to hug him and brush his hair there. What a lovely wife of his, letting himself be pampered so well. "Everything will be okay, you've been a good boy in my absence, I can guess that. How would you be anything else? So beautiful. So strong."

Shen Yuan keeps showering his wife with pampering, sweet words. He feels that he must say all that! It is necessary! It is necessary for his wife to know!!

His wife - Luo Binghe, provides his mind, and Shen Yuan is pleased to remember that as well - lets himself be hugged and adored. Shen Yuan hugs him and takes care of him until he feels he can detach himself a little to cover his face with tender and sweet kisses. So adorable!

Finally, when the reunion leaves them calmer, Shen Yuan is satisfied to go eat somewhere and then begin the hunt for the monster that ate his memories. He is definitely dying to remember more about his beloved!

... His loving wife doesn't seem to find it all that necessary. Long days of irreverent flirting, wet kisses, and groping in wooded corners pass by. The hunts turn into hot sessions of kisses, moans, a little more desire here and there. Shen Yuan rides his wife with joy and satisfaction. His wife lets him kiss, suck and spoil him as if it were the only thing that gave him happiness in the world.

Neither he nor his wife can keep their hands to themselves. His wild groping ruins the chances of hunting the beast that ate Shen Yuan's memories more than once. In the end, Shen Yuan can't be upset with his anxious wife, though he pushes out his frustration by pushing him against a tree and taking him standing there, making his needy wife cry with pleasure.

When they finally hunt down the beast, before Shen Yuan can regain his memories, his wife is hesitant. He asks Shen Yuan not to be too angry with him. Shen Yuan has no idea why he would be angry. He loves his wife. Nothing would make him angry with his beloved wife.

... The next morning brings back memories for Shen Yuan. It brings back to Shen Yuan not only the memories of the desperate papapa from the previous night, but all of his damn memories. His transmigration. His second death. Becoming a ghost despite everything!! Rising up the ghost food chain to become a ghost king!!! Take over his own territory by raising beasts and creatures! Stand back from Binghe's growing empire so as not to be overthrown!

And now, what the fuck?! Why did he think of the protagonist as his wife?! Why would the mighty Emperor Luo Binghe agree to that?!

Why would he think he doesn't like women anyway?! He's so damn straight!! But all that... papapa with the protagonist... damn...

Luo Binghe enters the inn room without knocking. He has breakfast in his hands and a soft expression on his face. Shen Yuan feels so guilty that his stomach feels twisted.

"My Lord, this humble one is so sorry, I shouldn't have assumed..." he starts.

Luo Binghe blinks at him… confused?

“Who Lord?” he asks, his voice extremely soft. The expression on his face, soon, looks so betrayed that it seems he is going to cry. “Was my husband expecting someone else?”

Shen Yuan blinks once. Twice. What the fuck.

Oh, he suddenly thinks. They must have been careless and now Luo Binghe's memories had been eaten by another beast. Ah, crap. That would make sense, considering that, uh, after killing the beast and releasing those memories, well, uh, the heavenly pillar had been inside of him for a long time, so, uh... distracted. Very distracted.

"Oh no, sweetheart, this husband got confused" Shen Yuan says as quickly as he can. "Come to bed. Are you okay? What's the last thing you remember?"

Luo Binghe blinks his sweet eyes, and walks over to the bed. He carefully puts down the tray before snuggling up next to Shen Yuan, as if he weren’t taller, stronger, and more powerful than him.

"This wife only remembers his husband," Luo Binghe said, sighing. "And he doesn't think there's anything else important to remember."

Shen Yuan strongly disagrees. Luo Binghe, don't you have a huge harem and a fucking empire to run!? Lots of important things to remember there!!

"It's fine," he hums. "We will have breakfast and go hunting. My wife deserves his memories back."

Luo Binghe nods, a happy sound coming from his mouth. Shen Yuan sighs and kisses his cheek, because he's supposed to think he's his wife, and ah, he's not going to treat him badly now, right? And Luo Binghe looks happy and sounds happy and Shen Yuan could enjoy that a little bit more. He'll have his crisis later.

They will hunt down that beast, recover Luo Binghe's memories, and then he will never see him again. Eh. If he survives Luo Binghe's fury for subjecting him to these humiliations. Damn.

...

(In fact, Luo Binghe has not lost any memories.

In fact, he just wants to convince this beautiful ghost who treats him so well to stay by his side longer. He will do whatever it takes! Hadn't Shen Yuan wanted a wife? He will give him a perfect wife now! A wife so perfect that even with his memories back, he will never want to leave him!!)

out of all the shit hannibal has done to will so far, letting him waltz around with crippling encephalitis is somehow the worst

Disciple Shen Yuan au.

As it's been established before, Shen Jiu is an incredibly traumatized man, who took that cycle of abuse and made it a snowball turned avalanche of abuse.

He made up survival rules that served him well as a child on the streets, but only isolated him as a Peak Lord. He's paranoid, hateful and erratic. He's well aware that he's a bad man, he sees himself as the scorpion asking a frog for a ride, and he can't see that he does not sting because such is his nature, he stings because he believes with such certainty he knows the frog will drown him. And even if he went mad and decided to be good, he wouldn't even know where to start.

We learn by example, and we're well aware of the examples to follow available for him.

On that note, now that he's Peak Lord, he recreates his own trauma as the abuser. It gives him a sense of power, and it makes things fair, because if he couldn't have a kind master, then why should they (his disciples). It would be unjust, to let them have what he didn't, it wouldn't make sense, because now that he's at the top he sees how easy it could be to not do things. He doesn't need to whip these children, to make them kneel under the sun for ours on end. But he does anyways, he doesn't derive amusement from it, but if Qiu Jianluo could just not pay attention to him when he had the choice and did anyway, why would he give his disciples the reprieve he didn't have?

And he knows what is done to cruel masters. He knows that if given the chance, those cowering pathetic creatures will turn on him.

He won't let them.

In the end, he does not regard any of them as his students. And when Luo Binghe arrives, Shen Qingqiu ends up behaving as a less predatory Qiu Jianluo; he places Luo Binghe in the role of Xiao Jiu and Ning Yingying as Qiu Haitang. And, in the back of his mind he feels he can understand Qiu Jianluo for the first time (he's wrong, the monster Qiu Jianluo was and the monster Shen Jiu became are not the same. But Shen Qingqiu always thought he understood people very well, never realizing that what he read on everybody's faces were his own thoughts reflected back at him.) because he just can't not pay attention to that boy. Because Xiao Jiu had not a moment's rest under Qiu Jianluo so why should Luo Binghe ever find relief under Shen Qingqiu? If Xiao Jiu was a thing to be used, then isn't he so kind to make of Luo Binghe a beast instead?

Shen Yuan arrives, perhaps before Luo Binghe does, but it doesn't matter. Shen Qingqiu takes this boy in after being urged by Yue Qingyuan for his lack of showing up at the disciple entrance trial.

And, from the beginning one thing is clear.

Shen Yuan despises Shen Qingqiu.

Every new disciple that reaches his peak seems eager, nervous, desperate to show Shen Qingqiu how good they are. They look at him with awe and tentative hope, as if Shen Qingqiu would ever play their game. As if he'd ever give them what they feel entitled to but do not deserve.

Shen Yuan looks at him like he knows exactly what kind of master Shen Qingqiu is, like he knows exactly what Shen Qingqiu is thinking of, well aware of what the future entails for him.

And as they perform the tea ceremony, Shen Qingqiu looks at this boy and finally understands why Wu Yanzi saw a mistreated slave and decided he was too funny to let go.

Shen Qingqiu takes Shen Yuan as his disciple. He drinks what's clearly a tea brewed to offend, and for the first time on his tenure as a Peak Lord, drinks with the intent to become a teacher.

But we learn by example. The previous Qing Jing Peak Lord might've been his Shizun in name, but in his pathetic life Shen Jiu only ever recognized one teacher.

And Wu Yanzi loved to play games.

Shen Qingqiu smiles kindly, a hint of amusement showing in his eyes. The child looks at him as if he's gone insane, and Shen Qingqiu tilts his head as if he finds it so endearing.

"Excellently brewed, Shen Yuan, this master formally accepts you as his disciple. From now on this one is your Shizun, and you'll refer to him as such. Your Shixiongs and Shijies will become your family, and Qing Jing your home." Shen Yuan has grown pale, defiance turned into fear. But such is not the face of a boy scared as he wanders in the dark, uncertain of what's ahead. That's the face of someone who knows exactly what kind of animal lurks in the shadows from the way its teeth glint under meager moonlight. His mouth's become a tight line, breathing controlled to not hitch. He looks grim, not afraid. He was not expecting this, but knows how to play along. Shen Qingqiu inclines his head in a shallow bow. "Welcome, Disciple Shen, to my Qing Jing Peak."

The boy unclenches his jaw and answers drily, "this one thanks Shizun."

Shen Yuan's voice is flat, like Shen Jiu's when greeted Wu Yanzi. Shen Qingqiu grinned just as Wu Yanzi did.

Shen Qingqiu forgets something though,

He's not Qiu Jianluo, and he's not Wu Yanzi. And he might've been right in another life, with Luo Binghe and a self fulfilling prophecy of cruel masters dying at the hands of ungrateful wretched boys.

But he doesn't know Shen Yuan is not tied to a narrative, that he can recognize a self fulfilling prophecy from a mile away and turn tail the opposite way.

He forgets Shen Yuan is not Shen Jiu.

What Shen Yuan is, is freaking out, shouting "WHATTHEFUCK WHAT. WHAT. THE. FUCK??????" inside his head.

He smells a fucking rat. And he's NOT buying whatever you're selling Shen Qingqiu!!! Ptoo ptoo!! He's going to compare whatever manual you give him with other disciple's!!! from ANOTHER Peaks!!! SYSTEM?? SYSTEM ARE YOU GLITCHING??? IS HE GLITCHING??

[Host may rest in peace knowing Scum Villain Shen Qingqiu is acting perfectly in character ^w^]

(What do you mean rest in peace, are you telling me to R.I.P?? Is he going to kill me??? This is not the two bit scumbag I was promised??? What the FUCK you mean perfectly in character???)

[He is large, he contains multitudes.]

(Is he thinking about killing me or not???)

[This System cannot answer that.]

(Throw me a bone.)

[... Scum Villain Shen Qingqiu will behave differently towards his victim depending on said victim's profile.]

(VICTIM???)

[Whoops uwu. This System meant to say disciple! Every student has different needs! A good teacher knows how to adapt!]

And thus begins Shen Yuan's life at Qing Jing Peak.

Shen Qingqiu does give Shen Yuan a fake manual. Shen Yuan compares it to every manual he can get his hands on, and goes AHA! At the utter bullshit inside the book Shen Qingqiu gave him. End ups stealing one of Qian Cao, glues the cover of a Qing Jing peak manual on it. Glues the Quan Cao manual's cover on the Qing Jing manual lose pages. Takes the fake manual to Shen Qingqiu with the intent to confront him with a gotcha! Shen Qingqiu makes worried sounds. Oh, how could this happen, how dangerous! Is disciple Shen hurt? And burns the manual in front of Shen Yuan's aghast face, effectively getting rid of all evidence. Then apologizes and, smirking, hands him a new manual.

(Cunt.)

Said manual is slightly altered, but only midway, so is more difficult to spot it, yet still managing to damage the reader's cultivation at a crucial point.

Shen Yuan uses the pages to make paper planes and, instead of throwing them, he viciously stomps on them.

(Shang Qinghua shudders at the distance and then glances around to see if Mobei-Jun is sneaking a peak through his portals again. Over a decade Shang Qinghua has been at his service and he still randomly opens a little hole in the fabric of space to check Shang Qinghua is not betraying him! If his King keeps this up he just might! Hmph! ((He won't)))

Shen Qingqiu keeps being his acidic self with everybody else, but by playing mind games with Shen Yuan he accidentally places him on the spot of most favored disciple, outshining Ning Yingying, someone who Shen Qingqiu actually likes, because when Shen Qingqiu likes someone he's not sharp and cutting with them, but with Shen Yuan he looks dotting. It's driving poor Shen Yuan up the wall.

Not only nobody believes him, but the apparent favoritism has isolated him from other disciples who, driven by jealousy, try to sabotage him. Shen Qingqiu notices this and it half amuses him, half makes him feel a strange sort of anger he cannot understand.

As a favored disciple, Shen Yuan starts to accompany him in what used to be solo hunts, and in one of every three night hunts Shen Qingqiu sets Shen Yuan up for failure, grave injury, or death if he's been too annoying.

After some time being tossed around like a mouse by his evil cat of a Shizun, Shen Yuan starts to play along. He works himself to the ground to excel in every subject Shen Qingqiu tried to sabotage him in, and aided by his knowledge as a transmigrator, he succeeds. He follows Shen Qingqiu around like a shadow, delighting in the stressed twitch of his eyebrows. Gets too into it and starts playing it up as a good little henchman. He basically goes "good one boss!" To everything Shen Qingqiu says.

"Qi Shimei claims to be uninterested in this Shixiong's affairs, yet she's up to date on every single drop of gossip surrounding him."

And before Qi Qingqi can snap at him, Shen Yuan peaks from behind Shen Qingqiu's back and chirps:

"Qi-Shigu should be too mature to try to attract Shizun's attention with such ploys! She ought to send this disciple a letter and he will make sure to arrange a private meeting for both of you!"

Shen Qingqiu hates it. But he's nothing if not adaptable.

"If Mu-Shidi is done, this master has matters to attend to."

"Shixiong, this one is worried, your constitution has been worsening these past few years and, not only as your doctor, but as a—"

"As a what, Shidi? Sect brother? Friend?" sneers Shen Qingqiu.

"As a mother?" Pipes Shen Yuan, "is Mu-shishu Shizun's mother?"

"Ah, Shizi—?"

"Such nagging can only come from a mother's mouth!"

"Shidi is not this one's mother and should mind his place,"

"Shishu should shave that moustache, too."

Sometimes Shen Qingqiu finds him funny, sometimes he needs to hurt him.

He makes Shen Yuan use his qi to strengthen his hands as he makes him submerge them inside a pot of boiling water, as "training". After a few private training sessions, Shen Yuan starts to succeed in keeping them from burning. Shen Qingqiu surprises him with a pot of boiling oil. Shen Yuan stubbornly complies and succeeds. Hands red and stinging, but the skin remains intact, if tender

Shen Qingqiu is both disappointed, and a little bit relieved. But more than anything, he's angry. Had it been him, at Shen Yuan's age, the oil would've melted the flesh off his bones.

No matter what he throws at Shen Yuan, the boy comes up top, and even if he doesn't, he heals so quickly (he doesn't know about the Qian Cao manual), and it is as if he never failed in the first place.

Shen Qingqiu ends up losing patience and whips him three years into this game. Shen Yuan is fifteen. And as he is lowered down he glances back at Shen Qingqiu from his shoulder and says, pale and shaking, "I win," and throws up.

Shen Qingqiu qi deviates.

Shen Yuan looks at him, as he bleeds and convulses and thinks about letting him die.

He crawls towards him and, with the healing knowledge he's gathered through the years, stops the qi deviation before it turns lethal.

Then he passes out.

Ming Fan finds them and runs for help.

The rumor of the Qing Jing peak lord qi deviating after whipping his beloved disciple out of sheer horror and grief spreads like wildfire. Shen Qingqiu and Shen Yuan avoid each other for a month.

What does Luo Binghe think of all this?

At first, he admired Shen Yuan, favored disciple as he was. Then he envied him, for he was the only one Shen Qingqiu never hurt.

Then he felt ashamed, for Shen Yuan was kind and worked so, so hard, he deserved to be favored. Luo Binghe saw how the others treated him, and that only made him admire him more. Shen Yuan rose above his circumstances even when others attempted to bring him down.

Shen Yuan cross referenced an older Qing Jing disciple's manual with a Qiong Ding and a An Ding peak one, and his own Qian Cao manual, and wrote Luo Binghe a personalized manual (he also learned Shen Qingqiu kept faulty manuals around?? And sometimes gave them away?? WHY???? ((Shen Jiu confiscated them during his tenure as head disciple and never got rid of them. He did give one away accidentally, but Luo Binghe's and Shen Yuan's he gave on purpose)). Luo Binghe cries and hugs his kind, beautiful Shixiong. His cultivation improves immensely after that.

Shen Qingqiu notices this, notices the new manual and Shen Yuan's, who's become his Head Disciple, handwriting. He summons Shen Yuan to the bamboo house and berates him.

At first, Shen Yuan believes Shen Qingqiu is shouting at him (he lost his patience!! Shen Yuan 2, Shizun 0!) for not letting him kill Luo Binghe. Then he thinks it's actually for defying his authority.

Then, it dawns on him.

Shen Yuan had told him Luo Binghe had enough talent to surpass him and he shouldn't stifle it. Shen Qingqiu hissed an incredulous: "Then how will you fight him off when he turns on you?!"

Shen Qingqiu was going purple on the face over the thought of Shen Yuan giving Luo Binghe the tools to eventually hurt him

At first, Shen Yuan had been offended on Luo Binghe's behalf. Then, because was Shen Qingqiu trying to sow discord between them or something?

Then he remembered that in PIDW Shen Qingqiu gave Luo Binghe a faulty manual too, that he poured tea on him after Luo Binghe earnestly told him about his mother. Remembered how when he first began his good one boss! routine, Shen Qingqiu tensed imperceptibly when Shen Yuan trailed after him. How he's come to know this man, the way his eyes glint when he is satisfied and how his hands shake when there's a qi deviation incoming. How his lips twist when displeased, and how his breathing hitches when he is in danger. He's come to know his paranoia. He's learnt to recognize the way this man wears fear and realizes that that's what he's seeing now.

Shen Qingqiu is scared.

And when Shen Yuan looks back to what he knows of his Shizun, the things he's done in this life and the other. Many behaviors who seemed erratic and unpredictable, suddenly make sense when framed by fear.

And now he realizes that Shen Qingqiu is not only afraid of Luo Binghe, but he is also afraid of Shen Yuan.

But more than that, he's afraid for Shen Yuan.

Suddenly this game they play is not so fun anymore.

It never should've been.

(It might've never been, but Shen Yuan can be just as blind as his Shizun when he doesn't want to face the cruel reality he was reborn in.)

Mayhaps you've already taken a shot at answering this. Why do you think people in fandom get Dick Grayson so wrong?

to be totally honest i don’t know? like, i’d say a significant part of it is because the two icebreaker comics people seem to read when they’re getting into dc are red robin and under the red hood.

rr2009 is about a complex grief spiral that challenges dick and tims relationship before they ultimately reconcile, but if ur not interested w engaging w the story it’s very easy to villianise dick (and damian) for tim whump.

utrh also relies on a lot of context from other comics at the time, and i think a lot of people conflate bruce’s actions to dick, particularly with the movie, to make jason the victim rather than actually considering the actions he takes. idk. we fear complexity, ig

it’s weird because many of dicks most important and foundational traits — community, his relationships with his neighbours, his status as a big brother and mentor to young heroes, his kindness, his abrasive but ultimately loving relationship w bruce, his propensity to pick arguments, and his role as a beacon of light in gotham — evidently are popular because they’re consistently lifted to give to other characters. in return, dick is flattened to either an absolute enabling asshole or a total idiot with no friends who can’t even defend himself. it sucks

even in regards to angst…. a lot of what people write fic about has happened to dick rather than other characters. in modern canon he was fired during an argument with bruce. he was homeless and isolated during the latter half of grayson’s 96 run. he’s consistently hurt by bruce and his other family members when they throw hands at him outside of combat. like…… *smacks him* this bad boy can fit every fanon trope in him np

itd be nice for people to engage more with his character, but same with damian or cass it would require that other characters not be trapped in permanent victimhood or actually meet dick on his level. dick is the most emotionally intelligent person in that family and uses his powers to say the most heinous things imaginable. he’s the second best detective. after cass he’s probably the most dangerous physical combatant. he doesn’t need tim drake to show him how to reset his wifi password

probably for the best that we don't get any sort of openly public system/identity reveals postcanon bc beyond all the tense interpersonal drama do you have any clue how insane liu mingyan would become. A Man In Another World Loved Luo Binghe So Intensely He Was Plucked From There And Brought To This World, Where He Became Luo Binghe’s Star-Crossed Lover, And Now They're Still Together Beyond All Odds Of Fate That Sought To Tear Them Apart. soulmate freak shit novel ft. a million words of porn would've hit xianxia chinese bookshelves within the week.