September PSL Finder

[pslfinder]

PSL FINDER
posted the last saturday of each month

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PAIRINGS YOU WANT TO PLAY (required): <b>offering:</b> name and fandom of the character you're wanting to play in the pairing <b>seeking:</b> name and fandom of the character you're looking for someone to play <b>preferences/notes:</b> if there are any specifics you'd like to include here such as potential ideas, your time zone and tagging preferences, your limits, etc. <b>links:</b> (optional) links to open posts, permissions, kinks list, etc. <b>Contact:</b> How you prefer to be contacted.

CHARACTER SPECIFIC ADS (required): <b>offering:</b> name and fandom of the character you're offering <b>seeking:</b> specifics you're looking for here such as a scenario, dynamic, etc. <b>preferences/notes:</b> if there are any specifics you'd like to include here such as potential ideas, psls vs memes, your time zone and tagging preferences, your limits, your tagging speed, etc. <b>links:</b> (optional) links to open posts, permissions, kinks list, etc. <b>Contact:</b> How you prefer to be contacted.

PSL OFFERINGS (required):<b>offering:</b> list of characters you're offering <B>seeking:</b> any specifics you're looking for to include dynamics for characters, memes or psls, etc. <b>preferences/notes:</b> if there are any specifics you'd like to include here such as your time zone and tagging preferences, tagging speed, your limits, etc. <b>Contact:</b> How you prefer to be contacted. <b>links:</b> (optional) links to open posts, permissions, kinks list, etc.

Comments

[kuukokujinjanozenko]

Yeah that makes sense to me, especially if the contact is broken because Shisui gets caught with correspondence and/or it gets too difficult to sneak letters out any more on her end. I'm still gonna keep trying to track down s2 so I can do better matching tone and so on... right now the best I've got is the Mononoke episodes set in a similar Imperial Concubine House scenario. XD

But yeah, Hiroe can produce illusions, among other things... although she needs to let her fox side show through to do it, so she's obviously cautious if it's a "suddenly, powers are unexpectedly needed" situation. If it's planned and/or she can disguise herself in advance, though (e.g. showing up masked as Zenko), she can be pretty flexible with it.

[survivedthewinter]

It'll mostly be the latter situation since Shisui is too much of a planner and has like. a gajillion contingencies in place. Mostly just thinking of it because of the reason Shisui is able to dress as a maid in the first place (that is, a couple of maids wear her makeup— if you look at Loulan's entry into the rear palace, you can see that all her ladies in waiting look exactly alike...and that they look a lot like Loulan herself too. And theres another reason but its a spoiler.)

[kuukokujinjanozenko]

Now that I've seen up through s2e19, I just needed to yell a little about the fox/tanuki comparison brought up around the Scheming Dads, since it's one of my favorite folklore references to lean into with Hiroe. XD Eager to see more about Shenmei besides "absurdly abusive" and how exactly she ties into that.

Also, having seen the harvest festival episode, pondering them having maybe met as children at the shrine, since Hiroe unsurprisingly has a bit of an affinity for fox-affiliated shrines. Especially since foxes + harvest sounds like it's probably based on Inari, and as a Good Fox, default!Zenko is usually a servant/messenger/representative of Inari.

...also, man, now I've gotten more details about the history of the previous emperor, Hiroe'll be quietly bouncing off the walls wishing she could confide fully in Shisui. If only to have someone to vent to about how infuriating humans can be, at once pathetic and grotesque beyond description.

I'll be keeping my eyes peeled, but don't hesitate to poke me if you spot a meme or have an inspiration for another PSL thread with them tho, I'm enjoying them a lot already! <3

[survivedthewinter]

GOD YEAH the fox/tanuki themeing and how they interchange with each other surrounding the Shi Clan in particular is Very Good. Harvest festival is a favourite episode with how much it absolutely punches you in the gut on finishing season 2. Also chock full of meaning. And yeah I agree with the shrine idea! It would make sense, though it would probably have to be when Shisui is a bit older than a child because of childhood details you'll see in coming episodes. Probably when she's eleven/twelve or so. Maybe she had to accompany Shenmei at some business in the village and met Hiroe there and they struck up a friendship during that time.

I can say this since this isn't a spoiler because the anime cuts this line out but in the light novels, Shisui does call the former emperor an imbecile so Hiroe would definitely find someone willing to commiserate with her. Hiroe will have a lot to say because trust me, it definitely does get worse! unfortunately!

Will do, I'm enjoying their CR as well! :D

[kuukokujinjanozenko]

I'm looking forward to digging into it more!!! My headcanon (and my understanding of the folklore) is that the fox/tanuki dynamic is like a rivalry between fans of fart jokes and dad jokes respectively, with foxes being extra annoyed that tanuki can actually be a match for them, and I'm really curious to see how much of that sort of thing gets played with. I've only seen a little bit of the Shenmei and the Shi patriarch (Shishou, was it? I forget) so I'm not sure what I think of them yet, besides the obvious They're Bad News vibes and suspicions about what exactly they're up to.

Obviously I need to get back to my watching before pondering too much more about backstory things with them... orz But I definitely will circle back to that!

And yeah Hiroe has some very mixed feelings about humans in general, and the previous emperor is like the poster boy for that ambivalence, both a hideous monster and a tragically broken child. ...I'm blanking on the timeline, but I'm wondering if she might have had to take steps to avoid getting his attention, herself, in which case she'd have some personal feelings on the matter, as well.

Another thought--I'm kind of sad we didn't get to see more of Shisui as Loulan. We see her being aloof for a few seconds half a dozen times, but not much more than that, so it's a little hard to gauge how she relates to her ladies-in-waiting. They're obviously in on her deception, but seem to have no idea about her actual intentions, which seems to imply significant loyalty, but the anime at least doesn't really develop that--or at least, it hasn't by the point I'm at right now. Any thoughts or clarification, there, or is that anime spoilers and I need to just shush and watch the next episode? XD

(also I'm not ready for whatever leads to all the Singed-Looking Shisui emotes ;_;)

[survivedthewinter]

It was Shishou, yes! The story does a good job of explaining exactly wtf their deal is in a short amount of time imo but there is definitely room for extrapolation. Timeline wise, I would guess not, because iirc Loulan never goes to the palace-- actually Loulan isn't even born until after the emperor dies/is on the verge of death askdjhfskjhsks. Since the emperor dies/is on the verge of death shortly after Suirei was born and Suirei is a good uh three or so years older than Shisui, so unless Hiroe was at the Imperial Palace before meeting Shisui, I doubt either of them would have met the former emperor. Which frankly, thank god.

God right. I also wish we saw more Shisui as Loulan if only because her act is great and sad at the same time. But there is quite a bit of it in the coming episodes! And why she's so singed in my icons. Well. :D

Re: her ladies in waiting that is an excellent point and I have thought so much about it. My final theory is that only a few handful of them i.e. her extremely inner circle knew that Loulan would sneak off to be a maid because they probably knew when she disguised herself at the main Shi house as well. But that's all they knew because Loulan wanted them to have some level of plausible deniability to keep them safe and they had practically no idea of the rebellion beyond maybe a couple of whispers back at the main house, except for maybe one or two. I think that because she had like 50 of them out of necessity and she obviously couldn't have let everyone in on the issue. Considering I believe Renpu didn't know, I think this is the most likely theory. Coin toss on whether that succeeds or not because of the severity of the crime committed by the Shi clan, but I assume she tried her best with how tied her hands were.

[kuukokujinjanozenko]

...wait, I'm confused. ?_? I thought Lishu was like 14 or 15 in s2, and she'd been sent to the previous emperor (which I might have initially typed as "the pervious emperor" and I blame Hiroe's influence), so I assumed he only died like 5-ish years ago, or even less. I might be getting something mixed up here tho...

I think we're on the same page about Shisui's ladies in waiting, that her closest handful (probably her head lady and her regular 6/7 body doubles) probably had to know about her sneaking around if only so they could be organized in doing whatever she needed for cover, but were probably nearly or totally in the dark otherwise, and the rest I'm assuming were basically another layer of concealment. Since I don't remember any indications of anyone at the Garnet Pavilion taking part in any of the really shady nonsense Suiren and that one physician got up to, I'm inclined to presume they weren't in the loop about any of that at all, and most likely thought their lady's machinations were just limited to being weird and sneaking off to play with bugs.

What I really wonder about are the implications for her relationship to her staff. We see so little of the inside of the Garnet Pavilion absent watchful eyes compared to what we get to see of the others. I imagine they must be pretty exceptionally loyal in their own way if they can work together so seamlessly to take part in what's got to be a legally very risky deceit with no apparent reason besides their lady wanting to. Even if they think it's totally harmless, they seemed to recognize right away how much trouble they might be in, and I assume impersonating an imperial consort with the intention to deceive the emperor must be illegal, since it has so much potential for unauthorized tampering with the royal bloodline, and that's usually at least treason-flavored.

BUT... what kind of loyality is it that unites the Garnet Pavilion in a way none of the others seem to be united? Is it a personal loyalty because they know her as Shisui and she treats them very well? Regional loyalty because they share a Western Region (I forget if they gave a name for it already) attitude toward the capital and/or emperor? Family loyalty because Shisui's mother brainwashed them personally? ?_? IDK maybe this will be answered in the next 5 minutes I watch, but I'm really curious. XD ...also it seems relevant to the PSL, since Hiroe would have to be (or quickly become) intimately familiar with the inner workings of the Garnet Pavilion if she's serving as Shisui's head lady-in-waiting.

Oh, and since we're RP Yelling, would you like to carry that over to plurk/discord or something? XD

[survivedthewinter]

opens mouth. closes it. nevermind I think I need to look at the timeline again the ages are confusing me. Lishu is I think 13-14 at the start of the series and Shisui is 17 or nearly seventeen when she debuts (I put her birthday as somewhere in February/March because iirc Maomao was a later months baby though I'll have to recheck and the author has stated that Shisui is the youngest out of Maomao, Suirei and Jinshi. So depending on how the timeline falls she should either be 17 or just turning 17 and I lean towards the latter because of Maomao's age that I'll source later lmao.) Anyway I think its pretty unlikely for Shisui or Hiroe to have met the former emperor either way because around the time Suirei was born, he was already pretty sick and withering and iirc he locked himself away in those years? It's confusing and I'll have to double check lmao.

Great questions all of which are....unfortunately not answered! Shisui's ladies in waiting unfortunately fall into that teensy bit of cracks in an otherwise watertight mystery lmao its a shame really. I think it was both fear of punishment/inability to disobey their masters + some weird kind of loyalty Shisui is capable of inspiring. I think for the ones in the know, its because they've known her since a child and maybe feel pity for something for her? Idk it's up in the air really.

Oh yeah hold on I'll journal PM you if thats okay? It's probably getting too long here lmao xD

[kuukokujinjanozenko]

Whatever avenue of communication works best in your end is fine with me, so no worries if you'd prefer thread or journal PM, or whatever else! o7

I do remember the prior emperor was already pretty decrepit even many years ago in Jinshi's memory of him, that's right, and at least partially self-isolating. And I think I remember reading that the present emperor arranged to keep Lishu away from him. So it makes sense that while he was probably still alive, and Lishu's father might have intended to give her away to him, he was in no condition for anyone to meet him without really going out of their way.

I'm sure I'll pick up more vibes at least as I keep watching, but yeah that's kinda what I thought. No worries, we can always headcanon our way through! o/