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Player Information
Name: Kes
Age: 31
Contact details:
Other characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Shen Qingqiu (original)
Canon: Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
Canon Point: While Binghe is in the Abyss
AU: In which Shen Qingqiu falls into the Abyss along with Binghe, and also turns into a fox. (this fic)
Age: 32
World Information:
The world of Scum Villain is a (badly written) xianxia fantasy: It's a land ruled by sects teaching martial arts and
This world is also split into two (and a half) realms: The Human Realm and the Demon Realm. Demons can look like anything from pointy-eared humans to monstrous abominations and anything in-between, and are innately more powerful (and destructive) than their human counterparts. Their world is also a barren land following the rule of Kill or Be Killed, and inverts many human realm rules: Rotting human flesh is considered a delicacy for the rich, palaces are underground and mausoleums overground, gold and jewels are worthless, and they follow a bartering system instead, with human realm art/culture being particularly valued, the implication being that demons don't have art of their own.
The half realm would be the Endless Abyss, a rift between the two realms with a deadly enough reputation that it's generally assumed once you fall in there's no coming back out again. Anything that survives the Abyss, therefore, can be assumed to be monstrously powerful to an insane degree. It's never described in detail in canon, but the fic puts it down as a separate space of pure chaos created by the demonic Xinmo Sword, which (following the literal meaning of its name in Chinese) causes people to succumb to obsession.
Personal History:
Once upon a time, there was a pair of young orphans named Shen Jiu and Yue Qi. The two belonged to slave traders along with a bunch of other orphans, and were made to beg for money in the streets until they managed to be sold. This life went on until, at the age of twelve, Shen Jiu injured a rich man's horse to help save one of his companions, only to get sold out by the kid he'd saved and consequently bought by Qiu Jianluo. Beaten and abused by the young master of the Qiu family, pushed against his will to marry the man's sister for selfish reasons, and never seeing Yue Qi return to fulfill his promise of becoming a cultivator and rescuing him, he eventually snapped and killed every man in the house, running off to become the disciple of a wandering cultivator named Wu Yanzi. This cultivator turned out to be a ruthless criminal though, one who only ever taught him how to murder and rob.
Some time afterwards, while looting another bunch of murdered novice cultivators, he came across Yue Qi again. His former brother (now named Yue Qingyuan) had in fact become a successful cultivator, and was now strong enough to even hold his own against Shen Jiu's master in battle. But seeing him like this, and being unable to get an explanation out of him after they killed Wu Yanzi, only cemented the idea that he'd been abandoned and forgotten back at the Qiu manor. While he joined the cultivation sect Yue Qingyuan was a part of, he refused to ever acknowledge him as a brother again, and his by-now twisted personality did nothing to ingratiate him with the other disciples, making him acknowledged at best and actively bullied at worst, despite getting the favor of his new master.
Eventually he became Qingjing Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu, respected and feared by those around him, despised by one or more of his fellow peak lords. Having never been able to get over his jealousy of those who lived better lives than him, he was constantly (but not seriously) threatening to kill Liu Qingge, who was practically perfect in every way, and actively neglected Luo Binghe, his disciple who'd had a loving mother to raise him, great natural talent, and had joined at exactly the right age for cultivation. Because of the way he acted, his few good deeds always went unnoticed or misunderstood; because of how he thought of himself, all praise was treated with distrust and all criticism was taken as an insult. When Liu Qingge died of a qi deviation Shen Qingqiu was suspected of his murder, and when Luo Binghe was pushed into an abyss for revealing that he had demon blood, Shen Qingqiu was still the villain, ultimately captured, disgraced, and slowly tortured to death by the disciple he'd despised.
In this AU, Shen Qingqiu finds himself inside the Abyss himself, turned into a tiny companion fox, and therefore having no choice but to place his life in the hands of a kid who thinks he's been sentenced to death and has lost all will to continue. The adventure also forces him to work on his nurturing skills for once, and he learns to understand Binghe in a way he'd never bothered to before, as well as rediscover himself, his strengths, and the lengths he's willing to go for the loyalties he'd never truly acknowledged.
Personality:
On the surface, Shen Qingqiu gives off the impression of someone intelligent, cold, aloof, whereas his words and actions ultimately lead his world's Luo Binghe to see him as a cruel and petty villain instead. Neither of these descriptions is entirely inaccurate: Intelligent and talented though he is, his unfortunate upbringing has led him to become easily jealous of anyone he perceives to have something he himself may never be able to obtain, particularly those with loving families. Having been constantly beaten down and bullied as a child, he learned to do the same to his own disciples, taking out his frustrations in a way that unintentionally mimicked the people he used to hate so much. His bullying of Luo Binghe in particular was a combination of maliciousness and simple neglect; giving him the wrong cultivation manual in hopes he might get himself crippled or killed, turning a blind eye when the other disciples picked up on his disdain and bullied the boy in turn - keeping to his "cold and aloof" persona as Qingjing Peak Lord, he rarely did any of his bullying in person, instead hiding his thinly-veiled hatred beneath a paper-thin fan, fanning the flames of disaster and letting the rest come on its own.
That being said, his cruelty isn't the only existing aspect of his personality--it's just the aspect which gets the most publicity. Though his abused background and late joining of the sect led him to never form a full golden core (meaning his cultivation abilities are subpar compared to his fellow peak lords), he did still diligently train to get where he is today. His fighting abilities aren't something he could cheat to obtain; his talent in the arts (the specialty of his peak) and his vast knowledge of various aspects of his world are testament to how much of a passion he has for learning. He has his own sense of loyalty as well, as much as he tries to hide it. While he was actively jealous of his sect brother Liu Qingge for a variety of reasons, for example, he still once saved the man's life in battle, and while his actions were ultimately futile, he did try to protect his sect and Yue Qingyuan in his own, emotionally-stunted way. He cared for his disciples, properly teaching them in everything except how to be a good person (which he didn't know how to do himself), and treated women more kindly than he did anyone else, because the only people ever kind to him throughout his life were women. (His dislike of men also led him to spend his nights in brothels as a disciple, rather than staying in the dorms with other boys, giving him a reputation as a pervert.) He's tenacious as well, able to grit his teeth and withstand any torment he may go through--it's entirely plausible to say that his death wasn't due to the torture, but from a broken heart, as he manages to stay alive and sane up until the broken pieces of Yue Qingyuan's shattered sword are laid on the ground before him.
The big failing here, his greatest weakness, can be easily summed up with the words "pride goeth before the fall." He values his pride like a dying man values a puddle in the desert, clinging to it in a way only someone who grew up without it can, envying those with more and hating those who threaten what little he has. It's pride that keeps him from explaining himself when his saving Liu Qingge from a monster's sneak attack is misinterpreted as him attempting a sneak attack himself - that and the pessimistic belief that nobody would believe him regardless. He's the type who would rather lash out with new accusations than admit to his own faults, desperate to cover up for the scum he perceives himself as being; in his own eyes he's someone only capable of doing wrong, someone who can never be truly good like the rest. It's an endless spiral, his self-hatred leading him to do more bad than good, leading others to think he really is more bad than good, meaning that when Liu Qingge dies from a qi deviation he's automatically suspected of having murdered his rival, and when Luo Binghe is pushed into the Endless Abyss, none of his fellow peak lords are willing to believe his explanation that the boy he'd treated so badly was a demon all along. Even his final attempt to save Yue Qingyuan is coated in insults and hate and the silent hope that giving up on him will free his old brother from his fate. Ultimately it's his own fault for having made himself into the "scum villain" everyone sees him as, even if his original intentions weren't always quite so scummy.
Key themes: Envy, trust, and self-confidence. Shen Qingqiu spends the majority of his life envying those who have what he never could; major incidents in his life involve his trust being broken, breaking other people's trust, or simply being mistrusted from the get-go; his pessimistic inability to believe in his own ability and self-worth is part of the reason he consistently fails to improve his cultivation, and is also a big motivator for his acting out and hurting others.
Main Motivation: Gaining enough power to feel truly safe.
Skills:
- Knows martial arts and swordfighting
- Enhanced senses and strength
- Qi/spiritual powers! Used to boost his strength, weaponize objects such as leaves or fans, create little fireballs for light or to scorch people with....
- Can make spiritual arrays that act as shields/alarms/concealers/etc
- Can create/use a variety of talismans, which can do anything from acting as bombs to paralyzing people or blocking off their spiritual energy, as well as make qiankun sleeves (like bags of holding, but sleeves)
- Can transform between fox, human, and fox-eared teen
- Can trap opponents in illusions
- Great at first aid
- Encyclopedic knowledge of his own world's flora/fauna
Item: A small copper mirror
Sample: Shen Qingqiu stalked through the train like a boy with a very serious vendetta, glowering so hard there might have been a whole hurricane brewing on his face.
Somebody on this train had stolen his mirror, and that person was going to pay.
He went through a mental list of possible suspects as he moved, peering suspiciously around for any sign of the missing object--it wasn't even that he cared about the stupid thing, so much as he was offended at the idea of someone robbing him of his property. His only property! Why couldn't he have been brought here with his sword, or at the very least something useful? Like talismans, or medicine, or...or something!
Actually now that he thought about it, whatever force had taken all the rest of his things (and whatever pulled him onto the damn train to begin with) should probably also be on his list.
This downwards spiral of revenge babble was interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps; fox ears perking, he turned abruptly to--quickly school his expression back into something more approachable, failing to smile but managing to at least look aloof at the girl who....appeared to be holding his mirror.
Ah.
"....It's not a problem, but...remember to ask before borrowing next time," was all he could squeeze out as he accepted the item, stuffed it unceremoniously into his sleeve, and turned to leave as nonchalantly as possible, tail drooping for no particular reason whatsoever.
Notes: "Scum Villain Turned Adorable Mascot Fox" is a terrible way to go, huh