Thinking About “Dying Together” Also Included A “together.” And The Fact That Qijiu Didn't Even

One thing that kinda frustrates me about Shen Jiu fics is that they so often try to sanitize him. Make him nicer/more misunderstood than he actually is.

Like, he was definitely very misunderstood in source material, but he also was straight up a terrible person too, y'know? Both things can be true at once.

The biggest thing is his treatment of Luo Binghe, playing on the idea that it wasn't *as* bad as the characters thought it was. Now, this is just plain wrong cause we know from the extras that SJ gave Binghe the fake cultivation manual with the intent that it would literally explode him. He really wanted to murder that kid, yall. Loony toonz ass villain. Keep this man away from children

And he was definitely a total asshole to all his coworkers, even during disciple days. The other Peak Lords are under no expectation to like him nor tolerate his behavior, especially since they (except Yue Qingyuan) don't know about his backstory (very intentional on SJs part)! SJ very deliberately ostracized himself. His nasty reputation didn't just spring up out of nowhere. He has agency even in other people's opinions of him.

This is particularly notable in his interactions with Liu Qingge. It wasn't "LQG bullies poor SJ and spreads nasty rumors about him." It was a rivalry, a give and take between the both of them. They were both assholes to each other, but clearly, despite the animosity, there was some deeper feeling (SJ being so affected after LQG's murder accusations and then later death). Again, agency is key here.

He's also completely unrepentant until the very end! He will never apologize ever, so no sudden "oh god, what have I done?" heel-turns for him, buddy. If it was that easy, then he wouldn't have gotten human sticked in the first place.

SJ is tragic and sympathetic. SJ is also an awful person and a complete asshole. He's allowed to be both, and both of these sides of him are what makes him an interesting and engaging character.

Edit: holy shit stop interacting with this post everytime I open my notifications I think I’m getting reactions to my more recent shit and instead it’s just this bs. Anyways thanks for 1k notes

love qijiu bc yqy is the only character as obsessed with shen jiu as i am

I'd animate yqy slower but I'm battling against a severe art block so pardon this one aaKAKAKA.

please dont bother Peak Lord Shen he's having a moment right now.

Do you know angel engine?

Commissions open !

Yue Qingyuan didn't value his soul like one who possesses their soul does, because his soul belonged to Shen Jiu. In the same way, Shen Jiu swore his life to Yue Qingyuan, and so unlike a man who possesses his life, Shen Jiu did not enjoy it. In the end, neither of them got to keep their life, or soul.

Something about both of them entering Wan Jian's swordhalls for the other, Yue Qingyuan to claim a sword, to put a claim to strength, strength enough to rescue Shen Jiu. Shen Jiu, entering Wan Jian to grasp a physical symbol of what he has carried. The physical bond of his loyalty he cannot abandon, the devotion he cannot sever from himself.

(Something about a sword from Wan Jian tying one to Cang Qiong, so even if Shen Jiu could not belong with Yue Qingyuan, if he belonged to Cang Qiong, and Cang Qiong belonged to Yue Qingyuan...)

Them both bearing the physical symbols of their devotion, loyalty, and desire, affixing those symbols to their waists daily, for years, and in that same day, walking past one another, and feeling only heartache.

Miscommunication is Qijiu’s favorite pastime, you see, because to Shen Jiu, Xuan Su has a bitter meaning: A symbol of how Yue Qingyuan had truly moved past him. How he ascended, abandoning Shen Jiu to a mortal fate, an untouchable immortal cultivator.

Xiu Ya, to Yue Qingyuan. Yue Qi.

A reminder. A symbol of his greatest peace, a monument to his greatest failure. For Shen Jiu could master a sword when Yue Qingyuan could not. Yet, how could Yue Qi not feel comforted by his dearest person’s glorious triumph? To each of them, the other’s sword as a reminder of their greatest pain.

Poetically, PIDW!Shen Qingqiu consuming the shards of Xuan Su. The shards of Xuan Su, Yue Qingyuan’s soul, his broken ascendancy. Shen Jiu consuming that, subsuming it to himself, tying Yue Qingyuan to him, in a way that SVSSS!Shen Jiu did not get a chance to.

It is either the shards of Xuan Su, or a broken red string.

Someone said that Yue Qingyuan is never on time.

To which I thought, and perhaps, this could be true, Shen Jiu is always too early.

Qijiu seems eternally meant to pass each other, never meant to meet.

Shen Jiu, leaving the inferno of Qiu Manor, too early. Yue Qingyuan, finding cold ashes, too late.

Shen Jiu, dying before his time, or at least, his soul departing, too early. Yue Qingyuan, speaking painful truth instead of remonstrating his own folly, too late.

We don’t know what Yue Qingyuan and SVSSS!Shen Jiu’s last words were to each other.

Ashes and tears to go around!

Ten thousand arrows and a broken sword.

Imagine you're in high-school and you have a huge crush on a teacher and you realize you're gay and you ask "do you think all gay people are terrible..?" And he smiles and says "there's bad straight people and good straight people, so why would I think all gay people are bad?"

Then you're outed against your will and he tells you you're disgusting. You go "but you said you didn't hate them!" And he says but it's different for YOU and kicks you out of school

Then you return to your high-school after graduating from college to show him see I ended up being a good educated person! You hate him for being so cruel but also want him to give you another chance... then you realize the trophy case has your picture and everyone says "you didn't know?? When you left he was so sad he fell into depression and he'd come stand in the hallway and stare at this pathetic shrine he made for you"

You try to talk to him but he runs away from you. Clearly he doesn't want to associate with a gay person like you - is what you'd think, except he's hanging out with your FLAMING father!!!!?

Anyway that's svsss from binghes pov but instead of gay it's his demon heritage

Shen Jiu (I will not degrade myself by explaining what happened) 🤝 Yue Qingyuan (I will not degrade you by explaining what happened)

One’s mindset is “I won’t defend myself since I’m unrepentantly evil anyway” and the other’s is “I won’t make excuses for myself since I failed you anyway”

They are made for each other in the worst way possible. I want to grind their heads together; it will not help one bit, since what they need is top-notch therapy/counselling, but wow the urge haunts me

Qijiu in the Stardew Valley Universe

okay so my brain is ROTTING with qijiu i cannot think of anything other than qijiu, so heres a draft i wrote while i was on my morning walk and taking a break cause each day and second i think of qijiu im not exaggerating so theres gonna be some random yapping in it bear with me

Qijiu.. muah muah (yes this was the title) Kay so what the fuck is the prompt uh Domestic qijiu. Yk what fuck it stadew vlaye qiji OH MY GOD I'M A GENIOUS WAIT SHEN JIU MOVING IN FIRST AND THEN MEETING ELLIOT WHOR EMINDS HIM OF QIGE AND ALMOST DATING HIM BUT THEN YUE QINGYAUN IS FARMER AND HUAA THE MISUNDERSTANDING (poor Elliot aw my poor bby) okay so I got that one done OH WAIT AWHH I GOT MY KEYBOARD CHANGED TK BJNGQIU AND WHEN I START TYPING THEY POP OUT THE KEYBOARD AND BE DOMESTIC AHW SO SWEET anw back to qijiu! shen jiu running away from qiu jiankuo after the qiu househol it's the same anw and getting on a carriage and somehow finding a bus (he doesn't know what the fuck that is but brought a cutter just in case) and suddenly arriving at stardew valley and he sneaky sneaky nobody knew he was there but then the bus broke down and he was like what the fuck he's forced to be there anw so yeah he kinda becomes homeless for a season or two until he passed out on the beach Elliot helped him out n got him to Harvey and he woke up and like what the FUCK WHY AK I SURROUNDED BY MEN then saw haru as a nurse and relaxed a little bit not enough to relax the furrow on his brows ana yeah it was summer so Harvey said y had a heat stroke r u homeless or whether who the fuck are you and shen jiu wasn't allowed to leave til he answers so he did and mayor lewis got him a lil hut near leahs cus that's the only place left and he was like… what, what do you guys want from me you couldn't possibly be doing this without any reason or wanna benefit from me.. OH WAITTWHAT THE FUCK I GOT ANOTHER IDEA not a bad shen Jiu idea tho anw idk if I wanna place the ancient china shen Jiu or modern shen jiu but I like the idea of him accidentally time traveling and Elliot/penny found out abt him due to a scripted record of Yue qingyuan trying to find shen jiu and somebody painted shen jiu trying to help Yue qingyuan find him but then Yue qingyuan suddenly disappeared (and also the script record thingy only addressed him as head disciple of qiong ding peak and referred him as xiao-zhangmen gongzi yk shi the villgaers cant understand cus i want his name reveal to be later) and it was also wrote down ig idk Penny approached him first and then Elliot then oh wait fuck I'm gonna continue shen jius thingy first before this Anw yeah he was so doubtful and like what… and Harvey was like yeah no this boy is fucking traumatized and he tried patting shen Jiu for comfort but shen jiu subtly flinched and Visibly hissed so Harvey was like oh yeah no shit he's sexually traimayziee oh nawh in his head so shen jiu was escorted by haru to his lil hut and he didn't know what to do but Robin gave jim a lil tools like axe they gave him axe cus she's pretty kind and he needed smth to make a living out of anw so yeah he chops wod then greeted by Leah (he didn't know his ndighboir was a girl so he has been glaring st the house beside him for a while till now) and she asked for some wood, he really wanted to say no, considering everything, he doesn't know anybody here but strategically he's got no reason to refuse and it'll stunt his relationship with neihbours and he won't be able to.. do activities much!! actually no lmao he's just kind of letting his trust issue melt and trying to hold onto hope that therd be kind popel who likes to handg out with hihm so he does give her the wood andd she invits him to help her carve wood and she was like ykwhat have u tried scultikg before and he was like.. no… and then she showed an example and ahen jiu OF COURSE having the talent of qing jing peak Lord in his other lives replicates it perfectly and she was like holy shit r u sure j didn't have experience.. and shenwjih was like I had experience carving people's eye out (he said it in his head) he just stayed silent while she was woahh cool Yahoo!! then she sold it got good profit then gave some to sj since he's sorta her inspiration and he was like.. what? HUH? WHY R U GIVING ME THIS YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO EXPLOIT ME and she turns genuinely concerned for him

Would you draw Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan sitting together discussing something academic, or maybe a trashy novel?

It might be a bit strange discussing a trashy novel when it’s a trashy novel that you’re from, but I think Shen Qingqiu manages his existentialism pretty well. Unlike Shen Yuan, who has a tendency not to handle things well…

TY for the request!

One thing that kinda frustrates me about Shen Jiu fics is that they so often try to sanitize him. Make him nicer/more misunderstood than he actually is.

Like, he was definitely very misunderstood in source material, but he also was straight up a terrible person too, y'know? Both things can be true at once.

The biggest thing is his treatment of Luo Binghe, playing on the idea that it wasn't *as* bad as the characters thought it was. Now, this is just plain wrong cause we know from the extras that SJ gave Binghe the fake cultivation manual with the intent that it would literally explode him. He really wanted to murder that kid, yall. Loony toonz ass villain. Keep this man away from children

And he was definitely a total asshole to all his coworkers, even during disciple days. The other Peak Lords are under no expectation to like him nor tolerate his behavior, especially since they (except Yue Qingyuan) don't know about his backstory (very intentional on SJs part)! SJ very deliberately ostracized himself. His nasty reputation didn't just spring up out of nowhere. He has agency even in other people's opinions of him.

This is particularly notable in his interactions with Liu Qingge. It wasn't "LQG bullies poor SJ and spreads nasty rumors about him." It was a rivalry, a give and take between the both of them. They were both assholes to each other, but clearly, despite the animosity, there was some deeper feeling (SJ being so affected after LQG's murder accusations and then later death). Again, agency is key here.

He's also completely unrepentant until the very end! He will never apologize ever, so no sudden "oh god, what have I done?" heel-turns for him, buddy. If it was that easy, then he wouldn't have gotten human sticked in the first place.

SJ is tragic and sympathetic. SJ is also an awful person and a complete asshole. He's allowed to be both, and both of these sides of him are what makes him an interesting and engaging character.

Edit: holy shit stop interacting with this post everytime I open my notifications I think I’m getting reactions to my more recent shit and instead it’s just this bs. Anyways thanks for 1k notes