CucumberPlane’s Adventures in an Extended Existential Crisis
is a Crossover between Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi and The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong written by qurbat.
When they left their world behind, Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua did so with the understanding that their roles in the story were over; they were now free to live life as they desired: free from the System, free from inevitability, free from the disasterous plotline which Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky had created.
Now, after so many years of avoidance, they were finally coming to understand: lives can’t be discarded quite so easily.
(Wei Wuxian’s new fathers are weird, chaotic and prone to speaking absolute gibberish, but he still adores them.
Meanwhile, Luo Binghe and Mobei-jun, demon lords extraordinaire, just want their husbands to come home, please.)
The work has been deleted by the author.
Tropes in Cucumberplane's Adventures in an Extended Existential Crisis:
- The Ageless: All of the The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System cast are this due to either being demons, half demons, or being immortal humans.
- All for Nothing: Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe practically fought a war to get their hands on Shen Qingqiu's corpse, only for the conflict to be rendered meaningless when the body is destroyed in a fire.
- Berserk Button: Don't ever insult Shen Qingqiu. Especially, not in Luo Binghe's presence. It'll be the last thing you ever do. The Original Luo Binghe learned that soon enough the hard way.
- De-power: This can be seen clearly in Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua from the get-go. Despite being them being ancient, immortal humans without their flying swords, their quite powerless. Due to this, it's mentioned both of them grew serious leg muscles and invented creative cultivation methods. Shen Qingqiu, in particular, developed a love and interest in making talisman and explosions.
- Drowning Their Sorrows: A drunk Shang Qinghua laments the turnout of his writing career, that his dreams of properly developing the plot and characters of Proud Immortal Demon Way having to go unfulfilled.
- Faking the Dead: In fear for their lives, Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua ran away together and faked their deaths.
- Happily Adopted: Played straight as seen by Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua adopted Wei Ying from the streets after saving him from some wild dogs. Fast forward to the future and you'll see Wei Ying happy and very content living with them.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: A noblewoman who attempted to court Shen Qingqiu, has Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua thrown in prison and tries to have them executed when she mistook the latter two for lovers.
- In Spite of a Nail: Wei Ying is still goes to Cloud Recesses despite being raised by Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua because of his close ties to the Nie Sect and more particularly Huaisang.
- Innocent Swearing: Quite comical in this situation as this was the very moment where it dawned on both Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua who was realizing, at the time, what they were getting themselves into with raising Wei Ying a child.Shang Qingqiu: "We're immortals, we're old as fuck."Wei Ying: "What's fuck?"Shang Qingqiu: "..."Shang Qinghua: "Hahahahha, look at the time! We really must be going, right?”
- Instant Sedation: Played Straight when Shang Qinghua ends up doing this to Shang Qingqiu and drugging his tea in order to make sure he gets a good night of sleep when he's clearly over tired.
- Mad Scientist: If Wei Wuxian wasn't this before in canon then he definitely can be considered this now. You can thank his... unusual upbringing and adoptive fathers for that. Shows you exactly what happens when your raised by decent people who actually encourage his mad science. It doesn't hurt that Shen Qingqiu himself is a different breed of mad scientist.
- One good example is when while fighting the Waterborne Abyss, Wei Wuxian used an experimental talisman he created himself and faced it head on. The talisman was successful alright in defeating it. It was so successful in fact, it lit up from the inside and tore itself from the seams. A creature that was thought to be impossible to kill- Wei Wuxian's only thought was on the matter, was to fix the energy output on the talisman to make it more efficient to use.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Shen Qingqiu, a teacher beloved by the disciples of Qing Jing Peak, committed suicide. His death moves all his disciples, particularly Luo Binghe to their core. Luo Binghe spends the rest of his tenure as Head of Hua Hua Palace trying to purge the corruption and make up for his misdeeds. Shen Qingqiu is astounded that he goes from scum villain to beloved mentor.
- Mistaken for Romance: Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua have such a close relationship that strangers frequently mistake them for being a couple. While it's true they're not in a romantic relationship with each other, it really doesn't help their case they're not when they live together, sleep in the same bed (due to financial reasons), and raise a child together. It's no ones surprise this quickly turns into a Running Gag.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: After their "deaths," Cang Qiong respect the memory of Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua by denouncing the rumors of Shen Qingqiu abusing his students and Shang Qinghua working with demons.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Back in Cang Qiong, Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua are two of twelve Peak Lords, amongst the various sects wheres in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, they are only publicly active cultivators to truly have immortality. The only other person that can compare to them is Baoshan Sanren, who is much less active.
- Not Me This Time: When they realize the Southern lands they traveled to is the world of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi, Shen Qingqiu's first reaction is accuse Shang Qinghua of plagiarizing. It was the actually the System who made the extended world of other xianxia stories.
- Papa Wolf: Both Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua are good examples of this toward Wei Wuxian and are seen by people around them as "overprotective mother-hens". But Shen Qingqiu stands out due to his very colorful threats towords those who mean him harm. Here are just a couple examples of this:Shang Qingqiu: “I don’t care how good he is. “But if {Lan Wangji} tries to fuck my son without lube, I will personally cut his dick off.”Shang Qingqiu: “If that creep Wen Chao lays a single hand on my child then I will personally cut off that hand and shove it so far up his asshole that he’ll feel his fingers come out of his mouth.”
- Platonic Co-Parenting: Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua raise Wei Wuxian as their own.
- Platonic Life-Partners: While Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua are attracted to men, they're not attracted to each other. In spite of that, they spent all their time with each other and even raise a child together.
- Properly Paranoid: When Shang Qinghua joins Shen Qingqiu in faking their deaths, he made sure to destroy their original bodies to avoid their souls getting summoned back into the conflict they escaped.
- Shipper on Deck: As it turns out because Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua read the original story of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi they're both hardcore shippers of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, believing them both to be soulmates. As such they're both very supportive of their budding future relationship and helping them along that path.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Shen Qingqiu is 150 percent this. He might be polite with strangers or a few other people but don't be fooled. He has one of the most memorable sharp-tongued verbal lashings and retorts in this story and his swears only add to that. After deciding to raise Wei Ying, he refused to even consider quitting swearing.
- Unwanted Harem: Parodied in Shen Qingqiu's sake. It seems that he's still as Oblivious to Love and attracts harems of men even outside the story of the "Proud Immortal Demon Way" much to Shang Qinghua's aggravation. Right now, besides the original cast, you can include Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue to his ranks of people wanting to court him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua's entire relationship is built on this. These two can't seem to stop bickering and sniping at each other. Whenever lives are endangered or their being threatened, they can't seem to stop sending each other insults. This is seen in Shen Qingqiu's case where he'll never miss a chance to insult Shang Qinghua's writing.
- Walking the Earth: Both Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua do this after faking their deaths for quite some time. At least, until they finally settle down when they agree to raise Wei Ying together.
