Comment on The Guardian Ghost and the Bookish Fairy

  1. Uhei on Chapter 1 Mon 08 Aug 2022 03:49PM UTC

    I COULD KISS YOU OMG thank you this is the concept I so badly wanted to see written but could never do it because I couldn’t make sense of the timeline.

    (If LQG died in the original in Ling Xi Caves, did that mean SJ had to face the demonic invasion immediately after? It didn’t seem that way because SY didn’t expect it. I doubt that anything SY did could really affect the timing of the demon invasion, so it must be that LQG died earlier in OG timeline. Which means either he was qi deviating for a long time enough to wait for SY, somehow surviving until then but not when SJ was in the caves. So it nicely wraps solves that plot hole of the sight of SQQ aggravated LQG enough to speed up the qi deviation, and SY’s lack of heart demons meant he could get over the qi deviation faster.)

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    1. NeonGhostCat on Chapter 1 Mon 08 Aug 2022 07:53PM UTC

      Hahaha - I hope I didn't write a check that couldn't be cashed, but I'm delighted it intrigues you! xD I should probably note in advance that I definitely do cover the Demon Invasion in this story, but it starts deviating from canon pretty quickly. This was originally meant to be a "5 times Ghost!LQG protects Cute!SQQ + one time..." oneshot and it just... My outline was virtually unrecognizable by the third chapter. 😅

      I'm honestly surprised that it's not a common AU, considering it's one of the huge points where divergence would be super interesting to explore!

      The assumptions/memories I'm working off of for the timeline is roughly this:

      - In PIDW, they go into the caves at roughly the same time, but things go wrong pretty immediately when SJ arrives.
      - SJ has his minor deviation trying to save LQG/save himself from him and once he'd had a little freakout, left the caves to report what happened.
      - A few months pass and between LQG's death and YQY's trip off the mountain, the demons are like, "Vulnerable sect! Also, just how many are there hanging out on the mountain right now? Isn't SQQ the only one and he's kind a wimp? Let's go." (Canon definitely says it straight up that YQY leaving the mountain is what prompted them to visit and there's a line in the SVSSS part like, "The peak lords that were away on business continued to do their business, those who were asleep continued to sleep, and those taking a walk continued their walk." to explain why SQQ in both versions of The Story was the only peak lord available.)

      - In SVSSS, SY arrives... perhaps on the same day SJ would have deviated in the caves, if he hadn't collapsed first (perhaps while requesting permission from YQY to retreat? System only had to make SJ's deviation occur a few hours earlier that way). (Not supported by canon, this is just me trying to make sense of the timeline while trying to have the fewest changes to it.)
      - Instead of going directly to the caves, SY figures things out a couple of days/weeks, then has his Skinner Demon mission (a mission PIDW doesn't seem to have had) and shortly after that goes to the caves to train and fully synergize with his powers.
      - As far as The Story is concerned, LQG doesn't start deviating until SQQ is in the caves. (I can't remember if it was in the animation or the novel or maybe I'm just misremembering fic as canon, but I have this recollection of there being a mention of LQG training for awhile with no issue until it went wrong. Though it's thin to say LQG was probably not deviating for more than a few days before SY showed up and got a surprise that he hadn't actually missed this part of the timeline yet, which I've always interpreted as him thinking it happened much earlier.)
      - After they met and SY fixed the deviation, they parted ways and continued peacefully training in different parts of the cave for several months.
      - That would put them at roughly the same time period of the PIDW Demon Invasion, requiring only that YQY leaves the mountain and peak lords be thin on the ground at the time. Even if it's later than canon, the only requirements from The Story are those two + SQQ is not in seclusion. So it's no wonder when SQQ walks out of the cave and thinks, "Hmm, come to think of it, that event should be happening right about --- Oh it is exactly now. Fair enough!"

      Sorry for rambling a LOT, but I am absolutely interested in reading a story with a similar, "OK, but what if LQG did die after all and SY just has to deal with that?" so if it helps at all (even if I don't know canon enough to support it with a lot of hard evidence), I'm hype. ;D If you haven't seen it yet, there's a SVSSS timeline someone made that might also help! I didn't consult it before I rambled though.

      Thank you for the comment (and I hope my TL;DR wasn't too much. 😅 )

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