I have this fic idea where a young Shang Qinghua loses his memories. Like there’s a glitch and the system goes down and so does everything that he remembered from his past life with it. Like, if he didn’t have the system he’d basically be dead—instead the system went offline.
But!
It happens while he’s in the Northern Palace, and so Mobei Jun witnesses it.
Maybe SQH is poisoned or something. Like, he risked himself for MBJ’s life or whatever. So MBJ feels responsible for him.
SQH wakes up after this attack with no memories and sees MBJ sitting by his bedside and asks him some questions about what happened and etc. MBJ says something that sparks in SQH’s mind and he instantly latches onto the idea that they’re married.
And MBJ doesn’t correct him. After all, his spy is compromised. There’s nowhere safer for SQH than by MBJ’s side.
And when I say they’re young, I mean barely 21. They’re new to adulthood but have known each other for, like, 7 or so years now.
Anyway, fast forward a few weeks and they’re at one of SQH’s safe houses, for reasons SQH doesn’t 100% understand, but he knows it’s to keep him safe. His in-laws are a big bag of dicks and he loves being away from the freezing temperatures for a little bit.
So he goes on a walk one of these days—alone, because his alleged-husband had business to deal with.
Being (fake) married to MBJ is great. He’s a gentleman and obviously cares about SQH a lot. The only thing is that they haven’t been…intimate. They haven’t even kissed! MBJ says he refuses to take advantage and is waiting for SQH’s memories back. It’s annoying. And SQH is coming up with a plan to seduce MBJ when he stumbles across the Luo River and…incidentally…a new born in a basket that’s washed up to shore.
With no system to tell him otherwise, SQH takes the baby home. Names him Shang Binghe and is instantly enamored. He hires an old washer woman from a nearby town to help him. MBJ was not expecting to come back to his fake husband adopting a baby. Especially not a half-demon. (And…wasn’t there a rumor about a heavenly demon and a senior disciple having a tragic romance?) (MBJ did not sign up for this.)
During all of this SQH’s martial family are searching for him, because he’d gone on a diplomatic mission and then…never returned. Which was odd considering how serious SQH was about becoming a Peak Lord.
Meanwhile SQH and MBJ have been playing house with baby LBH and they’re actually happy.
A year later the system comes back online.
The most frustrating experience as a writer is having a clear vision in your mind of the story you want to tell but being too afraid to put pen to paper for fear of failing to do the story justice. I’m so scared that my actual execution will fail to meet my expectations that I’m paralysed to even start.
Somebody on my TikTok asked about ways to make a villain who is technically unintelligent (i.e. probably not smart enough to play 3D chess with or come up with insane plots to trap your protag) unsettling and it really gave me something to think about!
1.) They have an unrelenting persistence: Without the intelligence to know when to quit, they'll keep firing at something until it gives way. This can create a sense of dread, because they will always keep coming, no matter what happens.
2.) They're completely detached: Because they're too unintelligent to have a sense of empathy or morality, they might cause harm without realizing the gravity of their actions, and they'll never understand why what they did was bad...because they quite literally can't!
3.) Lacking logic = no chance of reasoning: If they're technically too low IQ to understand basic logic, then good luck reasoning, bargaining with, or manipulating them. They might be stupid, but that stupidity could protect them from potentially being influenced by their foes, thus potentially making them much more dangerous.
4.) No sense of emotional regulation: Without the intelligence to regulate how they feel, your villain could be prone to flip-flopping emotions with very little warning. They could go from joyous, to forlorn, to violent in one fell swoop, with very little provocation, and their foes might never see it coming.
5.) Or, maybe they're REALLY in touch with their emotions: Without intelligence to worry about, you can use that space to toy with their emotional core, and how they process their own and other's feelings. They might be so in touch with the idea of emotions that they can use those of their foes against them. Or, they consciously use their own as fuel for their actions.
6.) Weaponized innocence: Why have an dumb angry brute as a big bad when you can have one that's far more innocent-minded? With a childlike approach to everything they do, from their actions to their goals, a villain can become much more unsettling when characters (and readers) realize that nothing they're doing is inherently malicious; they just don't know better.
7.) They have goals that change with the tide: Because your villain might not have the intellect to really understand the concept of objectives, any goals they might have could seemingly change at any moment, which can leave their foes scrambling to pin down their next move.
8.) Most of the destruction they cause is accidental: Because they might not be intelligent enough to regulate themselves physically, whether that's through their raw power or something of a more magical nature, the might attempt to approach things from a logical, more refined angle...only to leave a trail of unintended destruction in their wake.
9.) Put your characters in a moral dilemma in your villain's regard: If your villain is too dumb to really comprehend the gravity of what they're doing, is it fair to harm them? Giving your villain's foes a chance to answer that question, perhaps as your villain is laying waste to the countryside, can build on just how horrifying your villain actually is.
10.) Harmless now, dangerous later: It might be interesting to build into their unsettling factor by starting them off as a pitiable, almost pathetic presence in the story before it becomes increasingly clear that despite not having many lights on upstairs, a mix of some of the previously mentioned traits come out to make it clear that they are indeed a threat.
As always, happy writing <3
Writing prompt: Everytime someone’s heart stops and starts back up again, they have transmigrated to another world. In a parallel universe where that same person died and their heart didn’t beat again, then THEY transmigrate into the other body
And without further ado let’s get into today’s sponsor!
ok but legitimately i think the reason why kids aren’t taking internet safety seriously is because the people who are telling us not to put our personal information out seem so out of touch. no one acknowledges the possibility of meeting very real teenaged friends online, they always say that everyone you meet is a 40 year old white man in disguise. because they aren’t acknowledging things we know are true, it becomes a lot easier to dismiss the rest of what they’re saying as well. internet safety lessons absolutely must keep up with the times and acknowledge the internet’s capacity for good if you want kids to take to heart warnings about its capacity for bad.
I go to a school district where all of the adults still act like children
“It’s not fair!”
Life’s not fair, grow up please you are in your forties, and someone who is like half your age is more mature than you.
Chai tea bag + lil but of brown sugar + apple cider packet + 16 oz. mug of hot but not quite boiling water
it will not Fix You but like. maybe. maybe.
I HAVE THREE TUTUS LETS FUCKING GOOOO
My dump of thing where I put all of my aus, crack, headcanons, and random things that I will forget.
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