Shen Yuan who collects a harem a lot of Luo Binghes-
It's not intentional!! He, well, he's actually happy with his boyfriend. Twenty-something Shen Yuan had a hard time coming out and all, but, hey, Luo Binghe is a wonderful guy. And he loves him. He is his best friend, his favorite person, his most precious, his boyfriend and (he thinks) his future husband.
Then one day a xianxia version of his boyfriend appears at his door? Who calls him Shizun and demands retribution for being mistreated by him in the past? What the hell?
Okay, the resemblance is undeniable. Admittedly, he can only be an out-of-universe version of his boyfriend. With very long hair and xianxia drama robes. And a sword that gives off a lot of bad vibes.
And the Luo Binghe xianxia is here to stay.
This xianxia Binghe and his boyfriend Binghe's relationship is tense. Shen Yuan had to put in a couple of threats here and there to keep them from hitting each other (one is clearly non-human, one is completely human. That alone can lead to ICU visits!!!), and after a few weeks, the dynamic... holds. Hardly.
Xianxia Binghe demands to take Shen Yuan as his wife and empress, and his boyfriend-Binghe cries a little thinking that an orphan like him doesn't have much to offer Shen Yuan, and that he should just accept him. Shen Yuan gets angry with both of them. He's not going to marry any emperor or take control of any kingdom. No thanks! He doesn't even want control of his parents' company shares!
The tension continues, fights, arguments - which literally end one day when, through God knows how, another Luo Binghe appears. But he's adorable! A sweet little fourteen-year-old Xianxia Bunhe full of trauma!
And now, Boyfriend-Binghe and Xianxia-Binghe have a common enemy: Xianxia-Bunhe who clings to Shen Yuan with teary eyes and looks at them maliciously and superiority when Shen Yuan is not in the room. That damn shameless guy!!
Well, at least Shen Yuan is pleased that these two seem to be getting along better now. No matter what the circumstances are.
Other Binghes begin to appear: a Binghe disciple of Bai Zhan without so much trauma but terrible communication problems, a crown prince Binghe spoiled by his father Tianlang-jun (who is easily reduced in a fight against Xianxia-Binghe and Bai-Zhan-Binghe for treating Shen Yuan disrespectfully), a completely Demonic-Binghe, a very Old-Binghe, gray-haired and tired, even a Raised-In-Brothel-Binghe who looks uncomfortable wearing anything but sheer clothing!! Many Binghes, all with their emotional baggage and traumas, giving in to him like little lambs in need of love!!
Shen Yuan doesn't understand anything. He just... Look, he's living with his boyfriend, the original Luo Binghe for him, he WANTS privacy, not to have so many alternate versions of him in his house!! Even if they are adorable, or arrogant, or irritating!! Shen Yuan wants his life back. With his boyfriend!! To do boyfriend things and... That's it!! Is that so hard to understand!?
Then, fuck it. If there are SO MANY Binghes from so many universes... There must be more of himself in their own universes!! Just... They need to take a look!!! Open their eyes! The sword of Xianxia-Binghe can clearly traverse universes, they can search for their own Shen Yuan!!
... But they all confirm that they have not been able to find someone like him in their respective universes. Shen Yuan takes a breath, has a chat with his boyfriend about interdimensional vacations, and says, fuck it. We're going to go to all your universes and find your own other me.
Even if it means going through universes and confronting all their dramatic plots! Shen Yuan will recover his chill life with his boyfriend or perish in the attempt!!
Teenage Liu Qingge time travels to the future. Let’s say The Abyss Years (TM), as any good LiuShen story does. And who does he meet there, SQQ, of course.
Of course, this is SY, and not SJ, but LQG doesn’t know that! He’s amazed at how nice he’s being to him! And SY is just enjoying having a cute baby version of LQG around. SY smiles at him and he gets all red! He’ll never get a girlfriend like that, SY thinks to himself.
LQG goes back to his time with one very important thought- that SJ can be that nice to spend time with if LQG only was able to befriend him! Somehow! Did I say this was LiuShen? I’m sorry, this is LiuJiu!
Meanwhile, while teenaged LQG was hanging around SY, adult LQG was hanging around teenaged SJ, who does not want to have to entertain the peak lord from the future. Unfortunately, social niceties (and his Shizun) are forcing his hand, so here he is, spending the day with him.
And the adult version of LQG is being so nice to him?? Taking his bitchy comments, bringing up monsters for him to lecture about. He never really cared about monsters like that, but it was kinda nice to have someone actually listen to him for once.
So when teenaged LQG gets back, him and SJ just look at each other and think, “Why can’t you be like the other one?”
Man’s then something something, character development, LQG falling in love with SJ and his character traits and not just the ones he saw in SY, blah blah blah. I like time travel and I like stories that force these two to get along for five minutes lol
Also. Adult LQG, after spending a day with teenaged SJ, spends five minutes with SY and in entirety convinced that this is a new person. Clocks it immediately now that he has a fresh reference. Not that he cares or anything! This version of LQG is in love with SY, not SJ after all.
But he does wish that the other man would confide in him. He spends the next few years trying to ‘subtly’ hint to SY that he already knows his big secret! Go ahead and tell him the truth!
SY spends those years freaking out over what LQG might know.
Silly fic idea for you:
SVSSS AU where Shen Yuan transmigrates as a half-human half-crow-demon Phantom thief character.
He doesn’t want to steal from Bing-ge, but his System makes him, and naturally Bing-ge ends up obsessed. Bing-ge keeps luring him into traps with shiny things he just can’t help but want!!! Stupid crow impulses. (That he kinda wants to see Binghe again is irrelevant, obviously).
This is SUPER silly. Anon, this is so funny, I feel like I simply have to write this now oh my god. The idea that Bing-ge is confused at first, and he then sees this super handsome half bird-half human-demon thing and is like "man I need to get me more shiny things, I want to keep this fucker". ALSO, (I've heard that) crows are quite intelligent and start leaving presents as a response to getting fed or being given shiny things, so it could also be something where Shen Yuan starts having the urge to give Bing-ge things back after receiving all these shiny things (better if he doesn't recognise most of the traps as traps, mistaking Bing-ge for being a generous demon who doesn't need all of the shiny stuff he takes) and starts giving him shit like rocks and plants and the cool parts of beasts he fights... It also can be silly no matter when in the timeline this happens - it could be during the QJ peak arc where Shen Yuan sneaks around because he wants to see the awesome protagonist up close! The first time he steals something from Bing-ge, it's something super dumb like a particularly shiny rock or a coin that the boy left lying around, and Bing-ge's quickly like "??? The fuck just happened?" so he sets up a trap with the axe he uses for chopping wood (kind of rusty but still useable and particularly shiny). After that, it's chaos of trying to keep Shen Yuan the demon hidden while also stopping him from stealing other shiny things (cultivator's swords and such). Liu Qingge finds Shen Yuan trying to steal one of the swords he was gifted after saving a village and is also like "??? Kill?" It can also be after the Endless Abyss, when Bing-ge is like a demon lord and just has shiny stuff lying around. He throws it out occasionally and one day, while doing this, he notices a certain person swooping in and grabbing one of the shiny things. More antics ensue but I don't want to crash my laptop lmao (Which one would you rather me do, anon? Before the Endless Abyss, or after? Or both??) {part one! Part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven!} [This gorgeous fanart from @slurmdog that's making me go insane here] [More awe inducing fanart from @moonlightobsessions that has made me pass out here]
I think the last anon meant if Shen Yuan transmigrated to become literally the Endless Abyss not a resident of it. But literally the Endless Abyss itself. Which is actually an interesting thought. To be transmigrated into the land. Into a concept. Into a realm between realms. Into the very thing that brought Luo Binghe the most pain. Not just the person who pushed him there, but the place itself.
Also, I do think Luo Binghe would still fall in love with him. I think that after every hard battle and near death Binghe suffered in the Endless Abyss, Shen Yuan’d make sure that Binghe had some magical plant or safe place to rest. He’d argue with the system that Binghe’s the protagonist, therefore it only makes sense that these things would happen to him, it’s not ooc. I think Binghe would keep noticing how this only happens to him and not the other creatures in the Endless Abyss. I think Binghe would figure out that the Endless Abyss had a spirit to it—a consciousness—like a dryad or a land spirit. And that that spirit was on his side and helping him. I think that Binghe would try to figure out a way to get Shen Yuan to have a physical form like a dryad or other nature spirit could have. I think that Binghe is never going to want to leave the Endless Abyss where he is held and surrounded by his love. I think Shen Yuan would be freaking out trying to figure out why Binghe wasn’t trying to leave. I think he’d lead Binghe to where Xin Mo is and tell him how to use it. I think Binghe would be terrified to use it because “What do you mean it cuts a whole through space?! Does that mean it will cut you?!?! I can’t do that!!” And then destroy Xin Mo so no one will ever cut Shen Yuan with it.
I also think that he reached out with his dream powers to try to connect with Shen Yuan’s consciousness and that’s when he became very sure of it all. I think that they went on dream dates (as Binghe would call them. Shen Yuan would just call it hanging with the protagonist and teaching him important things) before Shen Yuan got a physical form.
Oh my god that would be so cute... imagine binghe finding some ancient demonic tree but its willowy branches don't attack him? They just... run across his head like they're stroking his hair? Provide him with a safe place to rest...
Binghe would be so normal about falling in love with the abyss. He's INSIDE his lover... he'd want to treturn to Shen Qingqiu if only to say "thank you for helping me meet my a-yuan" and grin at his shizuns horrified face.
Favorite underappteciated svsss dynamic of mine has to be original Luo Bingge and SQH. Specifically tho, the fact that the second they meet SQH is instantly clocking him as the original goods. No matter how good he is at acting the part of his SVSSS counterpart, he just can't get past the man who created him.
Personal favorite tell to think about is that Bingge refers to (his) SQH as some sort of title, like "advisor." So he meets SQH and the first thing out of his mouth is smthn along the lines of, "ah, the advisor :)" and just. INSTANT dread and oh fuck this is THE Luo Bingge on SQH's end
And thus proceeds the "oh god oh fuck act natural be NORMAL don't let him know you've caught on but also BITCH RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!" struggle.
Luo Bingge realizing he's been found out and being genuinley curious and delighted at what gave him away, bc he even managed to trick SQQ for a while, so how could you tell so quickly...?
In general I just really like thinking ab the possible interactions between the traitorous rat (but now with visible anxiety issues) LB knows and the Original Demon Emperor(tm) and protag who SQH wrote into existence. Theres a lot of potential there and idk I just really love to see it. Just about every direction they can go in rings with some sort of fun
Anyways Im gonna be real, I'm p sure I've read a scene like this in a fic somewhere like. Over a year ago now. But I don't remember what or where, so. But disclaimer!! I am most likely accidentally stealing this from the depths of my own memories
For Scum Villain fandom specifically I have to say that the deciding factor in whether I adopt a headcanon or not is whether I think it's funny.
Do I think Shen Yuan was ill in his first life? Yes, because I think it's extremely funny if he was ill in his first life, got a brand new life with superpowers (cultivation) and boosted health, and then immediately got slapped with another fucking chronic illness (Without-A-Cure.) I think that is the funniest sequence of events and thus the correct one.
Do I think that Shen Yuan was on the very low end of his twenties, barely college-age, when he transmigrated? Yes, because I think it's hilarious if the rest of the Peak Lords have unknowingly been "shixiong"ing a fuckin sophmore
And lastly, do I think that Shen Jiu never went to the brothels for sex and ultimately died a virgin? Yes, because that sets the stage for SY!SQQ to later trip over some kind of virginity-detecting critter or plant (you KNOW the PIDW setting has to have these somewhere, c'mon), not even knowing that it's something he has to think about avoiding, and whoops getting outed as a virgin in front of the entire cultivation world, and that would be hilarious
SV AU where Shen Qingqiu manages to convey to Luo Binghe, before sending him into the Abyss, that he's not rejecting Binghe it's just that his Heavenly Demon heritage means that he absolutely MUST go into the Abyss and do something (not particularly defined) because Binghe is the only person who could possibly do it and it is related to his destiny and the fate of the whole entire world, somehow.
So naturally Luo Binghe takes this to mean that there is an Extremely Important Mission that he must accomplish in the Abyss, and that he can't come back until he figures out what it is and does it.
It can't just be Binghe's own trial-by-fire training, because how could that be important to the fate of the rest of the world? (Binghe does not know he is the protagonist of a novel.) So it also can't just be making it to Xin Mo and then getting back out again, even though leaving and going home is what Binghe personally desires most, because how could there be any purpose to him going if he just rushes through and does nothing except try to leave?
End result: Binghe takes longer to leave the Abyss because he concludes that his reason for being there is to end the eternal suffering of its inhabitants by changing the nature of the domain to be less rampantly hostile. Which, it turns out, is harder than just escaping.
I had the most hilarious thought!
A reverse transmigration AU, only it’s Bingge’s wives that keep popping into the modern world.
Shen Yuan is house sitting at his parents’ place while they’re on an extended trip. A few days in he discovers Ning Yingying wandering around the place, in her full Xianxia wife-of-the-emperor garbed glory!
She’s confused, Shen Yuan is confused, and they haven’t a clue how or why she’s there.
A display of spiritual powers manages to convince Shen Yuan she’s not just some insane cosplayer, so he does his best to be a polite host and accommodate his sudden guest. Surely Binghe will show up to ‘save’ her eventually so Shen Yuan wants to ingratiate himself, but in a polite, platonic way, so he doesn’t get himself killed as a kidnapper or for seducing Binghe’s wife.
Then the next day, Liu Mingyan shows up. A few days later, Sha Hualing is there. Then Qin Wanyue. Then the little Palace Mistress. Etc.
This is going to be a problem!
Is there some sort of dimensional leak in PIDW’s inner palace? Why do all of Binghe’s wives keep showing up??? How is Shen Yuan supposed to entertain all these people and keep them from wreaking havoc on the city and/or destroying his parents’ house? He’s just a regular guy!
Thank god his parents' staff are on vacation, and they have guest rooms to spare, but still. The food delivery services are giving him weird looks, and surely his parents will eventually review his credit card statements and notice all his sudden odd purchases of women’s clothing.
I’m not sure what all the modern interests of the wives would be, and where Shen Yuan would take them on outings, but he’s for sure a much better host then he realizes. He ends up encouraging them all to expand their horizons in ways they never would have while stuck in the harem with its expectations and politicking. (For two I have thought of: Liu Mingyan definitely finds meimei’s danmei stash in her old room at some point, and it would be hilarious if Sha Hualing was introduced to online PVP games and became the queen of epic gaming trash talk).
Bingge does show up eventually, and it turns out he had been trying to break into Shen Yuan’s world himself the whole time, only some type of misfire or portal issue kept nabbing the various wives instead.
Pretty much all the wives stuck in the modern world adore Shen Yuan by that point, so of course they’re all fine with Binghe bringing him back to join the harem. He’s great! Binghe had better treat him well though, or else.
Sorry I'm still obsessed with Sirius being the mature friend of the group. The "you guys don't understand the extent some of these supremacists will go!" guy. And also the, "Stop drinking like you're a teenager. Drink like civilized people!" guy. All of this is to James and Lily who are throwing themselves thoughtlessly into battle and then getting absolutely hammered on the expensive booze Sirius shares with them.
It's advice that James and Lily take very seriously. The next time they see him, they admit that he's right and tell him they're going to have a baby.
And Sirius is like "THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT."
AU where Shen Yuan was originally an AI. Not a futuristic sci-fi self-aware one either, one of our current fancy auto-complete word generators, trained on internet comments and sent out by someone with too much time and money to mess with people. When the building the servers holding the neural network are in floods, the AI ‘dies’ — only for a System, only looking at the comments to try and find a replacement for a villain it didn’t expect to die so early, to grab it and stuff it into a human brain. This takes some time to get used to.