"You like me. And you're amazing but there's only one of you. Even counting Bob, I don't think Bob actually likes me. I really don't think anyone else does." Like, what, Wet Justice is going to decide they're besties now? As if. He's not likable, Casper is just... he doesn't know, a fluke. They have enough in common that he cheated somehow and he's too selfish to stop doing it. (And anyway, Casper would be sad, and he doesn't want that probably even more than he doesn't want himself to be sad.)
"If I was loyal I wouldn't be a traitor to my sect and like, entire species." Not that he wanted to be Shang Qinghua and do Shang Qinghua things, but still, he did. He could've like, let the System kill him instead. A righteous person would have, would have rather died than live as Shang Qinghua.
"That's not..." He doesn't have a good argument. "Anyone who wasn't the actual worst would want to help you." But also his boyfriend sounds all emotional talking about him and now he feels bad trying to argue about it and he... feels some kind of way about how much Casper cares about him and... he doesn't have words about it. He darts up to kiss Casper, quick and soft, then buries his face back in his neck. "I... I'm glad I could help you, 心爱." He's so, so glad. Even if he doesn't feel like he deserves this.
"Okay, well. First of all - Bob dislikes basically everyone." He looks up at where Bob is perched and pretending to not pay attention to the pair. Ew, gross, affection. Couldn't be him. Casper smiles slightly - he knows Bob is just putting on a tough face. He returns his gaze to his boyfriend, shaking his head a little. Oh, Shang Beida...
"... I know you wouldn't have done something like that if you didn't have to. But you did. And... I know you had your reasons. I don't think you're a bad person. You're... you're a good man. You've had to deal with a lot of things..." He blushes at the kiss and tucks his chin against the top of the older man's head.
He's not sure what the right thing to say here is, so he just holds the other for a few long moments. "I'm here for you, schatzi. You're here for me. That's what's important. As long as we can be there for one another, we can manage to make it through this." He's just afraid of what else the Boat might throw at them, but... they can deal with it together.
“But he’s like… the closest to having your family appro— nevermind.” Shang Beida is not looking up and he’s going to pretend he didn’t just say that.
“I could have refused to be Shang Qinghua and… let the system send me back. A righteous person would have refused to be Shang Qinghua. Zhangmen-shixiong wouldn’t do the things I’ve done for any—well, maybe for Shen Jiu. Not the point. The point is I’ve only done anything to save my own skin for decades, and just let other people die for it.” His own martial siblings, sometimes, as he clung weeping to Mobei-Jun’s thighs. “I had to sabotage every other candidate for Peak Lord of An Ding because Shang Qinghua has to be the Peak Lord. I’m selfish and traitorous and… I’m not a good person, Casper.”
Casper’s arms are so much more comforting than he deserves. “我爱你宝贝. I love you.” He hugs the younger man tightly. If he wasn’t selfish he wouldn’t take from his boyfriend like this, wouldn’t make him try and comfort him. “I’m sorry.”
"Schatzi, you don't want my family's approval. And besides, if he hated you he'd be harassing you and playing tricks on you. Trust me." It's fine. You're raven-approved.
... Sent him back. To die, he means. He doesn't quite understand this 'System' thing but it seems to be some kind of Fate-related thing. He tries to think over what he's going to say, picking his words with care. "... You did what you thought you had to do because you thought you were following what your fate was. What you were prophesized to do. ... While I'm - I mean. Mm. I have mixed feelings about both following and breaking Fate. Either way I can't... I can't condone or condemn what you've done."
He feels... weird about it? Not good, not bad, just... weird. Fate makes him feel weird and strange and he Does Not Like It. He lets out a long breath and shakes his head. "I love you too. You don't have anything to be sorry about. Just live to be yourself. That's all I ask of you. Just try to be you. Don't... don't try to hide yourself, because... because you're beautiful."
"Well, not your parents', no, they suck. But you like Bob. And he's... important." Casper's soul is in him! And he's basically his little brother! Obviously his opinion matters!
"I was... the System was... specific. About what Shang Qinghua needed to do and be. Follow the plot of the book or punishment. Sometimes there were... it didn't stop me, when I almost killed my king with a rock. That would have... it would have changed things. Maybe not everything, though, maybe Linguang-Jun or someone would just have taken his role instead. But I couldn't make myself do it anyway." He doesn't like killing anyone, much less his--what he thought was his ideal man. Bitterly, he continues, "Cucumber-bro unlocked fucking OOC mode after like a month and got to do whatever he wanted. Well, he still had to shove Binghe into the Abyss, but he got to be nice to him before that, instead of treating him like the original goods did." Which apparently just gave Binghe an angry and confused boner, but anyway. "But there's--it was all my fault and my doing anyway, wasn't it? Since I wrote the fucking book. I'm the one who decided all those things should happen."
"I'm sorry I... that I'm making you deal with me... being like this." Pathetic and needy.
He blushes and hides his face in Casper's shoulder. "I'm not beautiful."
"Like I said, he doesn't dislike you. I promise you that." It would have been made clear by now, honestly. It's not exactly like Bob is a master of subtlety. ... Like owner, like pet - or something like that.
Fate. It's just fucking Fate again. He doesn't know what OOC is but it seems to be something like 'able to go against the rules' and that's enough for him to understand. He sighs and a lot of the cheer suddenly drops from his tone. His boyfriend needs the Serious Voice. It's not exactly commanding - and gods know he's not going to use the literally Commanding Voice on his boyfriend - but it is serious, steady, and calm.
"First of all it is not your fault. How, in any universe, were you to be expected to know that this was what would happen? How were you to know that your book would come to life, that you would be put inside it, that you would be forced to follow along? Please, Shang Beida. Please tell me how you were supposed to know that, because I would be curious to know how." Is he being a little harsh and a little sarcastic? Maybe. But he's trying to make a point.
He pulls away so he can look his boyfriend in the face, tilting his head so that their gazes meet. "Second of all it is not a problem for you to be like this, all right? You are not a burden, you are not a problem, you are not an issue. I love you and I want you to know that you're loved. We both have our own... challenges, but that does not mean that we have to be them. ... I struggle with it too. It's hard. It's very hard. But you're safe. You're loved. You're here with me. Those things matter."
"... And besides. I think you're beautiful." He pulls the other back into his shoulder and presses a kiss to the side of his head.
Casper’s voice shifts, serious in a way he hasn’t heard before, and Shang Beida can’t help tensing a little bit that he hopes his boyfriend doesn’t notice. He’s not scared of Casper. He’s not. He’d never be. There’s just… instinct. But then he calls him Shang Beida, and he shivers, brain jerking onto a different track. He’s not Qinghua in trouble. He’s not Qinghua at all. He’s Beida. He doesn’t have to be Qinghua.
Casper pulls back and… oh, this is a Serious Eye Contact conversation now. Help. And he… oh. His eyes fill and he sniffles as he’s tucked back into his boyfriend’s shoulder. He wraps his arms around him tighter. He’s loved. Somehow.
“I don’t… no, I didn’t know my shitty webnovel would be real. You’re right.” His voice may be a little thick with tears. “I love you and I’m so lucky to have found you and that you love me. I… um. Could you, sometimes… fuck this is both mortifying and how do I explain to a westerner. There’s, um. If you called me— A-Beida. It would be. Um. Like. Affectionate and— intimate? And. Um. It— it’s… nice? Hearing my name? It… reminds me I don’t have to be Qinghua. I’m Beida. I’m not him.”
He can feel that tension and flinches internally. He didn't mean to scare the man, just Be Serious. ... But he can see where that would be scary. His voice softens again and his shoulders relax as he leans into his boyfriend carefully. "Shh, hey. It's all right. I'm sorry if I was too harsh, I just... wanted to make my point. I just wanted you to know that I meant it."
... Also uh. Huh. Okay. He's going to chalk this up to 'Chinese thing I don't understand #368' but he will try. "Um. A-Beida? Like that? Did I say it right? Wh... what's the literal or... equivalent term of that? I just want to know when it's appropriate to say it so I'm not saying something like 'Hey Sweetbutt' or something in front of people."
“No, you’re— it’s fine.” He doesn’t want Casper to feel bad just because he has an instinctive dread of being in trouble. “You weren’t too harsh, you… I know you’re right, I just… it’s hard to… it was just me for fifty years, you know? Before Cucumber-bro transmigrated in. I’ve had… a really long time to stew on… how the whole world… to watch all the things I wrote and to have to do them and…” He shakes his head. “I’m sorry, I know I’m not making sense. And I’m not crying because of that. I’m… just crying because you love me.”
Shang Beida can feel his face flame when Casper says his name. The tones aren’t quite there but it’s more than close enough. “I don’t know if there is like an equivalent. I mean you don’t really do honorifics at all. It’s not like… inappropriate to say in front of other people, it’s not even exclusively romantic, it just denotes like, some kind of close relationship? Like, if I had a sibling I was close with, I might sometimes call them A-Feng or whatever. There’s honestly a lot of crossover between things you call friends and things you call siblings and things you call romantic partners. Like if I had a younger sibling they’d call me Beida-ge, but you could also call me Beida-ge, since I’m older, and it would also be like… intimate… similar to A-Beida. But it’s not like saying hey sweetbutt.”
"Yeah. You're making sense, I just... I just want you to know that I'm serious. That I care. That you're loved and precious tand you deserve so, so much." He presses another kiss to the side of the other's head. "And okay. I just... um. I don't want to embarrass you? Or like... make you feel weird or anything."
He laughs a little bit, pressing his mouth into the other's shoulder gently. "Sorry, I... um. There's like... a Chinatown in the city I grew up in but it's not like we got formal education about that kind of stuff. The only foreign language I've had formal education in rather than more hands on has been French, and I'm awful at it. Je ne parle pas français." Which is about all he can do - he can pronounce words and he knows scattered vocabulary, but trying to speak it fluently? Forget it.
"I guess maybe school just wasn't really a good way for me to learn... ah, sorry. I didn't mean to change the subject." He just... got distracted and started rambling...
Shang Beida sniffles a little and tightens his arms around Casper. "You're not embarrassing me. And I mean it feels weird for someone to love me and be nice to me but that's not like... a weird I want to stop."
"I do not know jackshit about French. We learned some English in school, because like, international accessibility or whatever, and I know uh. A little Japanese because of... watching anime and shit. Not enough to do anything useful with. I mean, how often are the honorifics for royalty going to come up in my life? My first life, I mean. They didn't matter in my second life because no one spoke Japanese because I didn't put any in the book. Um. No, it's fine, we don't need to just... talk about me having a crisis forever. You learn better like, hands on?"
"I mean, we can agree on that feeling. I've got the same issue, schatzi." He boops his head into his boyfriend's before continuing. "I said 'I don't speak French' in French. It's one of the things that most of the Anglophone - er, English-speaking - people that I know can say most consistently. My province is French speaking primarily, though in the city the split's different than it is in say the rural areas. Technically I should have been sent to a French-speaking school. Not sure how my dad got out of it, probably as a result of whatever paperwork he forged to be in the country to begin with."
There's zero way he got in legitimately, but he's a mage. Either he had the ability to do it himself or he had some kind of powerful friend to do it for him, presumably. "I never got into anime - it kind of..." How does he say this without being insulting? "There was enough for me to get teased over, if that makes sense? And a lot of the stuff the guys were into wasn't on basic channels anyway." No cable TV in his house - his dad saw no need for it. "But yes, I learn better hands on. Usually by failing and looking like a dumbass first, then resolving to not do that again."
Shang Beida turns his head to press a soft kiss against Casper's neck. "Love you, baobei. Mm. That seems like uh, sort of a disadvantage to you that he didn't put you in a situation to learn French, if everyone speaks it? Does he... have something against French? Or the French?"
He snorts. "No, I know it's like a nerdy loser thing, it's fine. I am a nerdy loser. I can understand not wanting to be... more of a target. I was like, fine at school, but xianxia is more into like... an apprenticeship sort of structure? I was taught a lot more stuff one-on-one than back in my first life."
"I mean probably. I doubt he was on the front lines, but I'd be surprised if he didn't have something against the French. I mean part of France was under Axis control during World War Two but part of it wasn't. Which makes the idea of someone like him hiding in somewhere that was very much fighting against the Axis Powers at the time ridiculous, which is why it's... a smart idea. Least likely place to look and all. So he probably registered with some kind of history of schooling at an Anglo school which qualified me to go to a non-Francophone school." He's pretty sure that's how it works, at least.
The huff he gives is muffled by him shaking his head against his boyfriend's shoulder. "I mean I was a nerdy loser for different reasons. I did... okay in school - always got told I could do better - but I learn better by being self-directed and tutored than in a big class where I'm more worried about getting picked on than learning the material." Hm. "... What kind of stuff did you learn? Other than like... magic sage stuff."
Right, yeah, weird magic Nazi. His grasp of like... Europe... is not amazing. "So he... hid from people who don't like Nazis... with people who don't like Nazis?" He thinks that was the gist?
"Yeah, I mean, I probably did better at learning cultivation than I ever did in regular school. Though admittedly there was, um. A different kind of... stakes." Like, if he didn't manage to become an immortal cultivator peak lord, the System would kill him. Very motivating. "I mean, like... accounting? And construction, some--we had some, like... sort of civilian contractors... for some things, and once I became Head Disciple I didn't have to do grunt work anymore, and eventually everyone specializes anyway, but you start out learning everything so they can figure out what you're good at. Cooking, laundry, gathering herbs, making alcohol, making cultivation pills, basic medicines though anything complex would be through Qian Cao. And special alcohol would be Ku Xing, but like, low-grade stuff for cleaning or whatever. Honestly we had to learn the basics of what a lot of the other peaks do so we would know how to fix shit when they broke it. Like, I could probably build a forge for blacksmithing, though I couldn't make a spiritual sword or even a particularly good mundane one. Um. I don't know, just... stuff?"
"Basically? Who would look for him there, I guess was the thinking. Again most of this is guessing - it's not like he ever talked about his past or I ever really asked." The few times he had he'd gotten shut down, so he'd stopped asking.
He listens and turns his head to peer at Shang Beida. "I mean I don't know how to do a lot of that stuff. Cooking and laundry I can do, and I learned some accounting for helping out at the funeral home but that's about it. I learned camping stuff - how to set up a tent, how to find firewood, how to dig a hole deep enough to use as a toilet so animals don't come around - but nothing someone wouldn't learn at like summer camp or something. I can't even. Um." He clears his throat. He doesn't have to be embarrassed by this, but it's still a little... for someone who lived on an island, it's...
"... I can't swim very well. Just barely enough to pass in physical education, and then after getting a metal leg it makes it even harder. The movements are just... off. It's not like it's that heavy it just... doesn't quite bend as fluidly. But it's - it's fine, I can hold my breath and walk along the bottom of a pool or river if I have to." He would prefer to not have to, though.
"I learned like, xianxia-specific camping? There's a lot of like... qiankun pouches and talismans and stuff involved. I mean, you have to make sure you find somewhere where there aren't any unsafe plants or monsters or anything, that's a whole skill. And then you have to set it up so it stays reasonably safe and a Black Rhinocerous Python or whatever doesn't trample you in your sleep. And like the plant thing is really important, some of my shixiongs weren't careful enough one time and didn't see the heart-shaped leaves on the Crimson Smokevine and it uh... well, we did manage to rescue them, but they were very embarrassed." Describing what that plant does to his boyfriend would be embarrassing. He made it up! It's his fault it does that!
As for swimming... "Oh, yeah, it makes sense that your leg would make it harder... I can swim okay, as long as I'm not like, wearing four layers of robes. Wet silk gets heavy and it fouls your limbs and it's just, not a good scene. I'm glad you can hold your breath if you need to, though." No drowning for boyfriend, please.
"If we find camp supplies I can show you some more mundane camping techniques. I mean we had stuff from the Sons of Hephaestus but they only were willing to give us so much, it's not like they were shipping a whole RV from Hawaii to the mainland." ... He has an idea as to where this is going and he doesn't like that, no thank you! "But I can identify stuff like poison ivy and oak and sumac, but that's about it. I guess I could try eating stuff but just because I won't get hurt by ingested poisons doesn't mean I can't get like a rash or something from it going down."
Mm. "I don't like being underwater, though. It... brings back bad memories. Like I can handle baths and stuff, but I would prefer if I could know how to swim better. It's not like the swimming pool on deck works, though. Even if we could get Neuvillette to fill it with whatever water power he's got it's still got a lot of plants and stuff in it right now."
“I never went camping on earth. Never even really went into like… nature. Too hikikomori. An RV is like… one of those car house things, right?” Not exactly a common sight in Beijing. “I’m in favor of you not eating random poisons. I have some antidotes and shit… I wonder if your immunity would extend to aphrodisiacs… would have been a handy ability back in my stupid webnovel… Um. Anyway.”
Shang Beida tilts his head up to press a kiss to Casper’s jaw. “I do still prefer you like, not drowned. So I’m glad you can hold your breath. I guess we could clear out the pool and ask Wet Justice to fill it? It’s probably cracked, but I’ve got sealing talismans. I can swim okay. And I can also… just like… be there for you? If that’s like… reassuring at all.” The idea of his presence being helpful seems absurd, but… it’s Casper. He loves him.
"Yeah, they are. But I - probably? I wouldn't really know. I think if it's magical it might override it but I haven't like... tested it. I've never really wanted to eat random poisons anyway - they probably taste awful." He's guessing 'hikikomori' is some kind of... shut-in? He's not sure.
He shrugs a little. It was just an idea, just... "I don't know if we're going to run into water out there anyway. Didn't the Ship say there was very much not water anywhere? So I don't think it's going to be relevant. But thanks." He reaches up and scratches at the base of the other's skull gently. He's here. He's not going anywhere.
“I absolutely do not want you to have the opportunity to test it. Sorry I just… it’s sort of the perpetual hazard it’s hard to not think about.” Embarrassing to talk about, to reveal that he’s thinking about it, that he wrote the stupid book such that he has to think about it all the time. But he really does not want Casper to ever have to deal with that. His boyfriend has enough issues with… it would be awful. He hates that he’s even thinking about the concept.
“It is definitely extremely dry out there. I wonder where all the water went? Like I dunno this isn’t earth maybe it didn’t even have oceans—no wait this is a cruise ship obviously they had oceans. So did they like… boil off? There was a storm, there’s water somewhere. Is it all in the atmosphere now? Is that even a thing that can happen? Would we even be able to see stars if there was an entire ocean of water in the atmosphere? I don’t know I’m not a fucking scientist. Um. I got off track.”
The scratching is… it feels extremely very nice and Shang Beida melts into the touch. Both from sheer touch starvation and from the affection it represents. “I love you,” he mumbles into Casper’s neck. Boyfriend is amazing. Love boyfriend. Boyfriend forever.
"... Right." He has to stop himself from chuckling. It's not very easy to do so. "Right, porn book. Or not - sorry, I didn't mean to reduce it like that, but just... there's. Porn in it." There's a difference between literary erotica and straight up porn and he's not sure where Shang Beida's writing fits.
Where the water went is a mystery... "I think... ah, shit I'm not really a space guy but I think maybe something like Mars where the atmosphere is... weird? Um, something about the ozone layer maybe? But then there wouldn't be rain... maybe we can ask later."
He chuckles and curls around his boyfriend protectively. He's got the other's back. "Love you too. I'm here. I'm not going away. ... Are you feeling any better now?"
Shang Beida sighs. This is so undignified. “Porn and dramatic battles with villains and monsters, mostly. I had a deeper plot planned, it just… people wanted to pay for papapa and I needed to make rent. I don’t even know how many wives and concubines Binghe ended up with, I stopped counting. And I had to keep coming up with excuses for them to have to er. Have sex.” And then he had to live in a world filled with those excuses.
“And the storm… where did it come from and where did it go? Did all the water that fell outside the ship just evaporate again? …and why and how the fuck was it apparently angry? Is there some kind of furious water elemental out there that stole the oceans and is trying to drown the boat? I mean shit here seems pretty sci-fi in the main but like… I don’t know.”
Shang Beida takes a deep breath and snuggles closer. “Yeah. I’m okay. Sorry I had a whole… fuckin episode or whatever.”
"I know, dear." He presses a kiss to the other's forehead. "You don't have to excuse yourself to me. At least you can write things well enough that people will pay for them." Not him, his essays are miserable. And yet he won an essay contest and that's how this all started, didn't it?
"We do have a person whom we could ask who's a water expert. He might have figured something out by now." Anyway. He shakes his head a little bit. "You don't have to apologize. You're doing just fine. I love you and I want you to be able to express all of your emotions to me, even the negative ones. They're still part of you."
Oh... kiss. He blushes a little and nuzzles into Casper's neck. "I just... it's not very like... respectable. And it's embarrassing. Cucumber-bro isn't wrong that I'm a hack." PIDW was not a good novel.
"Oh... yeah, I guess. He... I guess he doesn't seem very like... mean." He's a little less intimidated by Wet Justice since the Cornfield Incident. "I can't believe he drank rice paddy. If there's anything to learn about the water, he does probably know it."
"You're too nice to me," he protests mostly automatically. "But I... okay. I... you're safe." That's the best way he can think of to phrase it. Casper makes him feel safe. And he hadn't felt safe since he woke up as the baby who would become Shang Qinghua, so the relief of that weight is astonishing.
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chiming
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Date: 2024-06-06 12:09 am (UTC)From:"If I was loyal I wouldn't be a traitor to my sect and like, entire species." Not that he wanted to be Shang Qinghua and do Shang Qinghua things, but still, he did. He could've like, let the System kill him instead. A righteous person would have, would have rather died than live as Shang Qinghua.
"That's not..." He doesn't have a good argument. "Anyone who wasn't the actual worst would want to help you." But also his boyfriend sounds all emotional talking about him and now he feels bad trying to argue about it and he... feels some kind of way about how much Casper cares about him and... he doesn't have words about it. He darts up to kiss Casper, quick and soft, then buries his face back in his neck. "I... I'm glad I could help you, 心爱." He's so, so glad. Even if he doesn't feel like he deserves this.
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Date: 2024-06-06 01:50 pm (UTC)From:"... I know you wouldn't have done something like that if you didn't have to. But you did. And... I know you had your reasons. I don't think you're a bad person. You're... you're a good man. You've had to deal with a lot of things..." He blushes at the kiss and tucks his chin against the top of the older man's head.
He's not sure what the right thing to say here is, so he just holds the other for a few long moments. "I'm here for you, schatzi. You're here for me. That's what's important. As long as we can be there for one another, we can manage to make it through this." He's just afraid of what else the Boat might throw at them, but... they can deal with it together.
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Date: 2024-06-06 06:09 pm (UTC)From:“I could have refused to be Shang Qinghua and… let the system send me back. A righteous person would have refused to be Shang Qinghua. Zhangmen-shixiong wouldn’t do the things I’ve done for any—well, maybe for Shen Jiu. Not the point. The point is I’ve only done anything to save my own skin for decades, and just let other people die for it.” His own martial siblings, sometimes, as he clung weeping to Mobei-Jun’s thighs. “I had to sabotage every other candidate for Peak Lord of An Ding because Shang Qinghua has to be the Peak Lord. I’m selfish and traitorous and… I’m not a good person, Casper.”
Casper’s arms are so much more comforting than he deserves. “我爱你宝贝. I love you.” He hugs the younger man tightly. If he wasn’t selfish he wouldn’t take from his boyfriend like this, wouldn’t make him try and comfort him. “I’m sorry.”
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Date: 2024-06-07 01:31 am (UTC)From:... Sent him back. To die, he means. He doesn't quite understand this 'System' thing but it seems to be some kind of Fate-related thing. He tries to think over what he's going to say, picking his words with care. "... You did what you thought you had to do because you thought you were following what your fate was. What you were prophesized to do. ... While I'm - I mean. Mm. I have mixed feelings about both following and breaking Fate. Either way I can't... I can't condone or condemn what you've done."
He feels... weird about it? Not good, not bad, just... weird. Fate makes him feel weird and strange and he Does Not Like It. He lets out a long breath and shakes his head. "I love you too. You don't have anything to be sorry about. Just live to be yourself. That's all I ask of you. Just try to be you. Don't... don't try to hide yourself, because... because you're beautiful."
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Date: 2024-06-07 02:26 am (UTC)From:"I was... the System was... specific. About what Shang Qinghua needed to do and be. Follow the plot of the book or punishment. Sometimes there were... it didn't stop me, when I almost killed my king with a rock. That would have... it would have changed things. Maybe not everything, though, maybe Linguang-Jun or someone would just have taken his role instead. But I couldn't make myself do it anyway." He doesn't like killing anyone, much less his--what he thought was his ideal man. Bitterly, he continues, "Cucumber-bro unlocked fucking OOC mode after like a month and got to do whatever he wanted. Well, he still had to shove Binghe into the Abyss, but he got to be nice to him before that, instead of treating him like the original goods did." Which apparently just gave Binghe an angry and confused boner, but anyway. "But there's--it was all my fault and my doing anyway, wasn't it? Since I wrote the fucking book. I'm the one who decided all those things should happen."
"I'm sorry I... that I'm making you deal with me... being like this." Pathetic and needy.
He blushes and hides his face in Casper's shoulder. "I'm not beautiful."
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Date: 2024-06-08 01:21 am (UTC)From:Fate. It's just fucking Fate again. He doesn't know what OOC is but it seems to be something like 'able to go against the rules' and that's enough for him to understand. He sighs and a lot of the cheer suddenly drops from his tone. His boyfriend needs the Serious Voice. It's not exactly commanding - and gods know he's not going to use the literally Commanding Voice on his boyfriend - but it is serious, steady, and calm.
"First of all it is not your fault. How, in any universe, were you to be expected to know that this was what would happen? How were you to know that your book would come to life, that you would be put inside it, that you would be forced to follow along? Please, Shang Beida. Please tell me how you were supposed to know that, because I would be curious to know how." Is he being a little harsh and a little sarcastic? Maybe. But he's trying to make a point.
He pulls away so he can look his boyfriend in the face, tilting his head so that their gazes meet. "Second of all it is not a problem for you to be like this, all right? You are not a burden, you are not a problem, you are not an issue. I love you and I want you to know that you're loved. We both have our own... challenges, but that does not mean that we have to be them. ... I struggle with it too. It's hard. It's very hard. But you're safe. You're loved. You're here with me. Those things matter."
"... And besides. I think you're beautiful." He pulls the other back into his shoulder and presses a kiss to the side of his head.
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Date: 2024-06-08 01:45 pm (UTC)From:Casper pulls back and… oh, this is a Serious Eye Contact conversation now. Help. And he… oh. His eyes fill and he sniffles as he’s tucked back into his boyfriend’s shoulder. He wraps his arms around him tighter. He’s loved. Somehow.
“I don’t… no, I didn’t know my shitty webnovel would be real. You’re right.” His voice may be a little thick with tears. “I love you and I’m so lucky to have found you and that you love me. I… um. Could you, sometimes… fuck this is both mortifying and how do I explain to a westerner. There’s, um. If you called me— A-Beida. It would be. Um. Like. Affectionate and— intimate? And. Um. It— it’s… nice? Hearing my name? It… reminds me I don’t have to be Qinghua. I’m Beida. I’m not him.”
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Date: 2024-06-08 03:32 pm (UTC)From:... Also uh. Huh. Okay. He's going to chalk this up to 'Chinese thing I don't understand #368' but he will try. "Um. A-Beida? Like that? Did I say it right? Wh... what's the literal or... equivalent term of that? I just want to know when it's appropriate to say it so I'm not saying something like 'Hey Sweetbutt' or something in front of people."
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Date: 2024-06-08 03:55 pm (UTC)From:Shang Beida can feel his face flame when Casper says his name. The tones aren’t quite there but it’s more than close enough. “I don’t know if there is like an equivalent. I mean you don’t really do honorifics at all. It’s not like… inappropriate to say in front of other people, it’s not even exclusively romantic, it just denotes like, some kind of close relationship? Like, if I had a sibling I was close with, I might sometimes call them A-Feng or whatever. There’s honestly a lot of crossover between things you call friends and things you call siblings and things you call romantic partners. Like if I had a younger sibling they’d call me Beida-ge, but you could also call me Beida-ge, since I’m older, and it would also be like… intimate… similar to A-Beida. But it’s not like saying hey sweetbutt.”
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Date: 2024-06-12 03:02 pm (UTC)From:He laughs a little bit, pressing his mouth into the other's shoulder gently. "Sorry, I... um. There's like... a Chinatown in the city I grew up in but it's not like we got formal education about that kind of stuff. The only foreign language I've had formal education in rather than more hands on has been French, and I'm awful at it. Je ne parle pas français." Which is about all he can do - he can pronounce words and he knows scattered vocabulary, but trying to speak it fluently? Forget it.
"I guess maybe school just wasn't really a good way for me to learn... ah, sorry. I didn't mean to change the subject." He just... got distracted and started rambling...
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Date: 2024-06-13 03:02 pm (UTC)From:"I do not know jackshit about French. We learned some English in school, because like, international accessibility or whatever, and I know uh. A little Japanese because of... watching anime and shit. Not enough to do anything useful with. I mean, how often are the honorifics for royalty going to come up in my life? My first life, I mean. They didn't matter in my second life because no one spoke Japanese because I didn't put any in the book. Um. No, it's fine, we don't need to just... talk about me having a crisis forever. You learn better like, hands on?"
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Date: 2024-06-13 03:22 pm (UTC)From:There's zero way he got in legitimately, but he's a mage. Either he had the ability to do it himself or he had some kind of powerful friend to do it for him, presumably. "I never got into anime - it kind of..." How does he say this without being insulting? "There was enough for me to get teased over, if that makes sense? And a lot of the stuff the guys were into wasn't on basic channels anyway." No cable TV in his house - his dad saw no need for it. "But yes, I learn better hands on. Usually by failing and looking like a dumbass first, then resolving to not do that again."
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Date: 2024-06-13 03:32 pm (UTC)From:He snorts. "No, I know it's like a nerdy loser thing, it's fine. I am a nerdy loser. I can understand not wanting to be... more of a target. I was like, fine at school, but xianxia is more into like... an apprenticeship sort of structure? I was taught a lot more stuff one-on-one than back in my first life."
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Date: 2024-06-13 03:40 pm (UTC)From:The huff he gives is muffled by him shaking his head against his boyfriend's shoulder. "I mean I was a nerdy loser for different reasons. I did... okay in school - always got told I could do better - but I learn better by being self-directed and tutored than in a big class where I'm more worried about getting picked on than learning the material." Hm. "... What kind of stuff did you learn? Other than like... magic sage stuff."
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Date: 2024-06-13 03:59 pm (UTC)From:"Yeah, I mean, I probably did better at learning cultivation than I ever did in regular school. Though admittedly there was, um. A different kind of... stakes." Like, if he didn't manage to become an immortal cultivator peak lord, the System would kill him. Very motivating. "I mean, like... accounting? And construction, some--we had some, like... sort of civilian contractors... for some things, and once I became Head Disciple I didn't have to do grunt work anymore, and eventually everyone specializes anyway, but you start out learning everything so they can figure out what you're good at. Cooking, laundry, gathering herbs, making alcohol, making cultivation pills, basic medicines though anything complex would be through Qian Cao. And special alcohol would be Ku Xing, but like, low-grade stuff for cleaning or whatever. Honestly we had to learn the basics of what a lot of the other peaks do so we would know how to fix shit when they broke it. Like, I could probably build a forge for blacksmithing, though I couldn't make a spiritual sword or even a particularly good mundane one. Um. I don't know, just... stuff?"
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Date: 2024-06-13 04:13 pm (UTC)From:He listens and turns his head to peer at Shang Beida. "I mean I don't know how to do a lot of that stuff. Cooking and laundry I can do, and I learned some accounting for helping out at the funeral home but that's about it. I learned camping stuff - how to set up a tent, how to find firewood, how to dig a hole deep enough to use as a toilet so animals don't come around - but nothing someone wouldn't learn at like summer camp or something. I can't even. Um." He clears his throat. He doesn't have to be embarrassed by this, but it's still a little... for someone who lived on an island, it's...
"... I can't swim very well. Just barely enough to pass in physical education, and then after getting a metal leg it makes it even harder. The movements are just... off. It's not like it's that heavy it just... doesn't quite bend as fluidly. But it's - it's fine, I can hold my breath and walk along the bottom of a pool or river if I have to." He would prefer to not have to, though.
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Date: 2024-06-13 04:23 pm (UTC)From:As for swimming... "Oh, yeah, it makes sense that your leg would make it harder... I can swim okay, as long as I'm not like, wearing four layers of robes. Wet silk gets heavy and it fouls your limbs and it's just, not a good scene. I'm glad you can hold your breath if you need to, though." No drowning for boyfriend, please.
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Date: 2024-06-13 04:33 pm (UTC)From:Mm. "I don't like being underwater, though. It... brings back bad memories. Like I can handle baths and stuff, but I would prefer if I could know how to swim better. It's not like the swimming pool on deck works, though. Even if we could get Neuvillette to fill it with whatever water power he's got it's still got a lot of plants and stuff in it right now."
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Date: 2024-06-16 07:55 pm (UTC)From:Shang Beida tilts his head up to press a kiss to Casper’s jaw. “I do still prefer you like, not drowned. So I’m glad you can hold your breath. I guess we could clear out the pool and ask Wet Justice to fill it? It’s probably cracked, but I’ve got sealing talismans. I can swim okay. And I can also… just like… be there for you? If that’s like… reassuring at all.” The idea of his presence being helpful seems absurd, but… it’s Casper. He loves him.
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Date: 2024-06-16 08:06 pm (UTC)From:He shrugs a little. It was just an idea, just... "I don't know if we're going to run into water out there anyway. Didn't the Ship say there was very much not water anywhere? So I don't think it's going to be relevant. But thanks." He reaches up and scratches at the base of the other's skull gently. He's here. He's not going anywhere.
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Date: 2024-06-16 08:28 pm (UTC)From:“It is definitely extremely dry out there. I wonder where all the water went? Like I dunno this isn’t earth maybe it didn’t even have oceans—no wait this is a cruise ship obviously they had oceans. So did they like… boil off? There was a storm, there’s water somewhere. Is it all in the atmosphere now? Is that even a thing that can happen? Would we even be able to see stars if there was an entire ocean of water in the atmosphere? I don’t know I’m not a fucking scientist. Um. I got off track.”
The scratching is… it feels extremely very nice and Shang Beida melts into the touch. Both from sheer touch starvation and from the affection it represents. “I love you,” he mumbles into Casper’s neck. Boyfriend is amazing. Love boyfriend. Boyfriend forever.
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Date: 2024-06-16 08:35 pm (UTC)From:Where the water went is a mystery... "I think... ah, shit I'm not really a space guy but I think maybe something like Mars where the atmosphere is... weird? Um, something about the ozone layer maybe? But then there wouldn't be rain... maybe we can ask later."
He chuckles and curls around his boyfriend protectively. He's got the other's back. "Love you too. I'm here. I'm not going away. ... Are you feeling any better now?"
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Date: 2024-06-16 08:44 pm (UTC)From:“And the storm… where did it come from and where did it go? Did all the water that fell outside the ship just evaporate again? …and why and how the fuck was it apparently angry? Is there some kind of furious water elemental out there that stole the oceans and is trying to drown the boat? I mean shit here seems pretty sci-fi in the main but like… I don’t know.”
Shang Beida takes a deep breath and snuggles closer. “Yeah. I’m okay. Sorry I had a whole… fuckin episode or whatever.”
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Date: 2024-06-16 10:46 pm (UTC)From:"We do have a person whom we could ask who's a water expert. He might have figured something out by now." Anyway. He shakes his head a little bit. "You don't have to apologize. You're doing just fine. I love you and I want you to be able to express all of your emotions to me, even the negative ones. They're still part of you."
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Date: 2024-06-17 12:11 am (UTC)From:"Oh... yeah, I guess. He... I guess he doesn't seem very like... mean." He's a little less intimidated by Wet Justice since the Cornfield Incident. "I can't believe he drank rice paddy. If there's anything to learn about the water, he does probably know it."
"You're too nice to me," he protests mostly automatically. "But I... okay. I... you're safe." That's the best way he can think of to phrase it. Casper makes him feel safe. And he hadn't felt safe since he woke up as the baby who would become Shang Qinghua, so the relief of that weight is astonishing.
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