#caspertheloudassghost

[greentrickster]

@caspertheloudassghost In this universe the old peak lords all ascended right? I imagine the only reason SQH’s vacation lasted this long was due to his officials, finally giving up on understanding SQH’s organized chaos, desperately try to get his Shizun to decode it to not ruin SQH’s first vacation in two millennia. “You re-raised him right? You should know his filing system right? Right?!” (His filing system is entirely based around a version of Microsoft excel that only he can run. He knew this when he left)

XD XD XD Okay, canon on the Microsoft excel idea! But, unfortunately for the Heavenly Officials, they were not brought into being by a particularly lawful god. Meaning that, while they know that their Lord is incarnated somewhere in the world... they have no idea who, where, or even exactly why, because he told them exactly None Of That, specifically so they couldn't interfere.

Not even because they're busybodies or obnoxious coworkers, but because the Heavenly Officials are the original assistants that Airplane made for himself in this world once it got more complicated than he wanted to deal with on his own. As a result, while they're quite good at their jobs (and can manage a very respectable amount of Heaven's filing, just not anything in Airplane's personal system) and very pleasing to look at, they're also a bit clingy. Because they were made by a lonely young man who was mostly ignored by everyone around him in his first life, so who can blame him for wanting to be around people who also wanted to be around him?

Thinking about it, in a way this trip to the mortal world to be Shang Qinghua was probably at least partially for the sake of these original, highest-ranked Heavenly Officials alongside Airplane wanting to take a vacation and experience the Plot firsthand. The celestial equivalent of parents leaving their older kids in charge of the younger kids, the pets, and the house for a week while they go off on a vacation or business trip or what-have-you. A chance to test themselves a little without the person/people in charge on hand, to grow as an individual and an adult. And the Heavenly Official coming down to beg Airplane for help was the equivalent of said teens having to phone their parents five days in because the dog got into something it probably shouldn't have, and it'll probably be fine, but there is also the sudden and very real fear of "Oh gods, what if we accidentally kill the dog?" Basically a chance for them to exert some independence and grow on their own for a little, with an unexpected 'I need an adultier adult' situation popping up a decent way in.

As for SQH's ascended master, you're right, he would probably have been able to help with the filing system at least a little... if anyone had thought to show it to him. As it was, cultivators have been ascending for centuries, the Heavenly Officials have no reason to believe that this latest batch from Cang Qiong know anything more about their vacationing boss than any other human. Heck, the only reason Shang Qinghua gets found is because Shen Qingqiu sees some notes in pinyin during his ten-year check-in as to how he's settling into his new role of God of the Ninth Road (full AU here if you haven't tripped over that segment yet), and he comments on it (on the grounds that he'd been under the impression that it was just some made-up writing system his shidi had invented).

In an amusing twist, the issue that necessitated the Heavenly Officials to crack and call upon Airplane for help? Turning off Binghe's Protagonist Halo. Because the 'story' is over now, so no need for a protagonist, and it's not going to particularly nerf him or anything, just make him less center-of-attention-the-world-literally-revolves-around-me. Long term it's even going to be a good thing, because it'll allow Binghe and Shen Yuan to settle into a life together without having to deal with a new Plot Arc starting every month or two. It's for the best for everyone.

Except all the upper Officials have been through everything over a dozen times, and no one can figure out how to make it stop, Airplane left at least some instructions before he left and all the signs point to it being time to turn off the halo and he forgot to include instructions on how to do that, please don't leave out key information, your excellency-!!!

#svsss #shang qinghua #shen jiu #great god airplane #caspertheloudassghost

[greentrickster]

@caspertheloudassghost How does the original PIDW verse play into this au?

For starters, there's the question of 'is the original PIDW verse real in this setting'? Which is important, because the answer to it lies somewhere between yes and no.

When Airplane first arrived in the space that would become the SVSSS universe, the PIDW universe wasn't real, it was just another story. As to how it became somewhere between real and unreal, well... that, as it happens, was unintentional.

And it was because of the systems.

Because the great god Airplane is very powerful and, after doing the job for so long, can even be described as decently wise... but he's not all-knowing, and he's certainly not infallible.

It has been mentioned that he accidentally made his own system on the meaner side.

He also accidentally made Shen Yuan's system a little too powerful (but it had to be that powerful, to call a soul from another world, it had to be-!), with not quite enough detailing into what it could and couldn't do (he loved transmigration stories as a teenager, but that was so long ago, and his memory for anything but the story isn't perfect-). The punishment protocol where Shen Yuan had to endure Shen Qingqiu's torture at the hands of Bingge? Yeah, that should never have happened, the punishment protocols were meant to be spurs and warnings, not actually traumatizing or torturous. Part of that was from the 'coding' being a little too loose, part of that was that no one expected it to be Shen Qingqiu who stepped up to offer his everything in exchange for a chance that the world could be saved.

But intentions are not actions, and what happened has happened. And the result was Shen Yuan's slightly-too-powerful system creating... let's call it a sub-reality, a place where PIDW was just real enough to be used in the punishment.

And the realest part of it all was Bingge. Because Shen Yuan's system was a bit too powerful and because, for all his monstrosities, Bingge has always been the character that Shen Yuan loved best. And it's such a strange, terrifying power, love, especially in such a world as SVSSS. Powerful enough to make the barely real that much realer. Enough to let this almost-but-not-quite real Bingge try to cut his way out, steal himself a kindly Shizun, grab what he desperately wants with both hands in the only way he ever really learned how, only to be forced back to his own loveless, unfulfilling, not-quite-real world.

How horrible must it be, to be trapped in a world, in a life, that you have only just learned is a tragedy, for it lacks the one thing you desire above all else, have always desired above all else? Where nothing even feels quite as real as that other, kinder, most tantalizing of worlds did? How could one stand it for very long, watching insubstantial people and events play out? How long before the dissatisfaction led one, perhaps, to abandon it all, seek out something, everything, anything, so long as it led to somewhere better than this?

And how long then, I wonder, would it take to travel nine roads?

The Heavenly Officials are the highest ranking, most powerful beings in this world, save Airplane himself. And, for all that he is so much younger, for all that he is still so bitter and spiteful, that includes their newest member.

And there is nowhere the systems can go or access that the Officials can't follow.

Lord Luo finds a man who is not the kindly Shizun of the other world, nor quite the cruel Shizun of his own. He's a little taller, face a slightly different shape, he- the differences between this man and the other two Shizuns remind him of nothing so much as the differences between himself and that crybaby Binghe from the other world. And he does not dress as the Peak Lord of Qing Jing, but in fine robes of tatter-coloured grey white, even as he looks over Lord Luo with a familiarly poison-green gaze. And he does not flinch, even at the sword to his throat. He's a Heavenly Official, and he can see the gaps in the reality making up this fury-feared man before him, the places a knowing hand to reach in to twist and unravel.

But he also knows that the ninth road cannot be found by anyone unwilling to pay whatever price it takes to walk it. So he does what has become second nature to him by now.

He offers his hand.

And, as he has learned perhaps a bit of kindness since he began this new life, "Drop your sword. You will not find the Shizun you want but, if you come with me, I will lead you to a place where you will be loved as you wish to be loved, and it will be real."

And, for all his madness, for all his blackened state, at the heart of Bingge there still remains a young boy who wants nothing more than to be truly loved. He can always summon Xin Mo to him again if he really needs to, and he is no longer in the habit of denying himself anything he wants. So why not? Why not reach for what he desires most and grasp it with both hands, as he is so used to doing?

He does not notice the changes at first as they walk. Indeed, the mist amongst the ninth road's bamboo is just beginning to brighten into sunlight when Bingge suddenly realizes that this man-who-is-and-isn't Shen Qingqiu... doesn't he seem so much taller than he had at the beginning of all this? Or- no, he's not taller, it's Bingge who's smaller, younger than he was, weaker than he was-!

And, with the story of PIDW being what it is, of course he assumes he's fallen into a trap and starts trying to pull his hand free.

He gets bonked on the head with a folded fan for his troubles. It's not hard enough to even really hurt, but the sheer shock of it, of being scolded likes some- some unruly child when he's Luo Binghe, Emperor of the Combined Realms-!!!

"Stop fussing; if I let go now, you'll unravel entirely."

-...what?

The man (who is still holding his hand) gives an extremely put-upon sigh, then turns to glare down at him. "The world you come from isn't properly formed, and as a result neither are you. Luckily, you were willing to give up everything to come with me, because there isn't enough proper 'reality' in you for a normal fully-grown man, let alone one like you. So now you can either come with me and get what you want, or I can let go of your hand and none of this will be a problem because you'll stop existing all together. Now which one do you want?"

Bingge wants bloody, bloody retribution at the moment, but he's smart enough to know not to screw around too much in between-places like the one they're currently in. And he can be patient when it comes to grudges, if he needs to be.

He continues to follow the God of the Ninth Road.

By the time the bamboo is full of sunlight and the end of the road is in view, Bingge is seething and also quite small, perhaps a little older than he'd been when his mother- (no no, don't think of that, never that) -and, while his demonic side is still unsealed, there's barely a thread left of the great power and cultivation he spent his lifetime gaining. And while his memory is intact, even his thoughts feel more- childish, for want of a better word. Younger. As though his mind has changed shape to match his body.

"Beyond the bamboo there is a house," says the god, who is still holding his hand, "If you want the love you crave, go there and tell the people inside that you arrived by the Ninth Road. When you are of age, go to the nearest sect, and accept the offer of the first peak lord who invites you to be their disciple."

And he lets go, and Bingge is alone, small and powerless in a place he doesn't know.

He can't quite help it.

He goes to the house.

(Five years ago, a demon woman walked the Ninth Road towards happiness and family, and it led to the human man who is now her husband of four years. The happiness they have mostly found in each other, for all that they are physically unable to have children together. It is a happiness that will increase at the knocking of a strange mixed-species child on their door, as will their family they have wanted.)

(And, in the distance, near enough to be the closest, but not enough to see, a god comforts a Heavenly Official in Cang Qiong Mountain Sect...)

#svsss #great god airplane #shen jiu #luo bingge #scum villian self saving system #caspertheloudassghost #fanfiction

[greentrickster]

@caspertheloudassghost: I love this au so much and the first half of this almost made me cry and the second half actually did. I imagine the heavenly officials treat the system and its semi-reality like the feral youngest child trying to sneak in an equally feral pet raccoon.“I don’t know what that is but I am not getting paid enough to deal with it. Just take it outside and someone can deal with it later.”

^U^ Thanks, it's fun to see people enjoying one of my AUs as much as I am! <3

As for the Heavenly Officials, hm. I think you're sort-of right about them and the semi-reality Shen Yuan's system created? They couldn't find Shang Qinghua's system, because if they could then they'd be able to find him, which would be counter-intuitive to Airplane's intentions for them getting some space from him during all this. And the systems are fully under Airplane's jurisdiction, so when Shen Yuan's went a little rogue, they didn't have the knowledge or the authority to fix it, only to cordon it off as best they could until Airplane got home to deal with it.

But naturally none of them expected the man at the heart of this sub-reality to get just real enough to be able to call and find their new feral raccoon of a didi. And with its heart gone, the sub-reality quietly folded in on itself and returned to being simply a story when Shang Qinghua turned the systems off.

For better or for worse, Bingge's a part of this world now, and there's no going back to what or where he was before.

(Also, I'll address your other reply on the main section of this thread, but it was getting long so I decided to do this bit separately. >u>)

#svsss #scum villian self saving system #luo bingge #great god airplane #the system #caspertheloudassghost