[lexadrawsstuff]

For @parkersgeorg

I’ve been absolutely obsessed with their fic Shooting Towards The Sky, it is SO fun oh my gosh.

It’s been spinning in my head nonstop, and the idea of sqh in dark red of the sex peak haunted me so I had to try my hand at getting it out of my head lmao

[sunderwight]

Okay, so the canonically confirmed Cang Qiong peaks are:

Qiong Ding (leader peak, CEO peak, politician/diplomacy peak, admin peak, etc)

Qing Jing (scholar & artists peak, knowledge peak, strategic advisor peak, etc)

Wan Jian (sword guy peak, blacksmith peak, armory peak, etc)

An Ding (logistics peak, servants peak, peak of the cang qiong labor party, delivery guys & messengers peak, supplies & catering peak, etc)

Xian Shu (gender segregation peak: girl flavor)

UNKNOWN

Bai Zhan (shounen anime peak)

Qian Cao (healer peak, pharmacy peak, first responders peak, etc)

Ku Xing (gender segregation peak: boy flavor, ascetic peak)

Zui Xian (alcohol peak)

UNKNOWN

UNKNOWN

So we only have three peaks that are entirely unnamed and unaccounted for. This has pretty good utility if you want to do a transmigration fic where Airplane and Shen Yuan are there as peak lords, but so are OG Shang Qinghua and Shen Qingqiu. You can just give them two of the three mystery peaks, and then there's only one peak remaining for an OC and kapow, you've got all twelve peak lords sorted.

But the question of course, is what should these peaks actually be? What should they specialize in?

Fandom has argued in favor of a Beast Peak, and I actually endorse this idea, although I think specializing in demonic beasts is more of a Bai Zhan and Qing Jing thing. But while we can suppose that between An Ding, Qian Cao, and (probably) Zui Xian the agricultural needs of the sect are being met (or met sufficiently for what they can also supplement through trade), there's no clear existing peak to outsource things like training spirit animals or keeping any livestock that the peak might require. And hey, if there is a Beast Peak, then them also having some expertise in demonic beasts would be interesting.

I think the Beast Peak would slot in most logically between Xian Shu and Bai Zhan.

For the lowest peaks, things get more interesting. While there are obvious roles such as talisman making, barriers, musical cultivation, etc, most of those things seem like they'd either be covered by one of the other peaks (i.e. Qing Jing and musical cultivation) or else would be strange things for the sect to acquire so late, literally after the peak that specializes entirely in brewing.

But, that actually can work out, if we assume that these peaks have taken as specialties things that were previously secondary or tertiary interests to other peaks. Perhaps even owing their origins to particularly capable disciples from the other, more highly ranked peaks who showed such prodigal skill or innovation in that area that they were allowed to establish new peaks focusing on it.

For my money, I'd go with a Barrier Peak, specializing in protective barriers, talismans, and spiritual cultivation that shot off from Qing Jing during some long-prior generation. This peak could also be responsible for guard duties in the sect, basically sending disciples to close off unsafe or prohibited areas, to manage things like access to the various branches of the Lingxi caves, sealing off dangerous items, and (probably) helping to maintain existing barriers, arrays, and other such systems throughout the sect.

I think this peak would be a decent fit for Airplane, as it would once again situate him pretty close to matters of daily sect operations, and put him in position to know a lot of the secrets and goings on beneath the surface of things. So a plausible explanation for his authorial knowledge and insights would simply be, Barrier Peak are the flies on the wall of a lot of high-level matters. If someone breaks into a restricted area, they know about it. If someone wants something hidden, sealed, or disguised, they know about it.

Bonus angst: this would probably mean that the Barrier Peak's head disciple assisted in sealing a young Yue Qi inside the Lingxi Caves with Xuan Su. If that's Airplane, well, that's twisting a knife a bit now isn't it?

Which just leaves peak no.12, which frankly could be any damn thing. After Booze Peak and Girl Peak, the field is wide open. Dance Battle Peak. Transit System Peak. Spiritually Infused Textiles Peak.

My personal favorite, though, is Sex Worker Peak. Not only because that is the most fanfic-y option, but also because it actually kind of makes sense.

The PIDWorld is just chock full of fuck-or-die tropes, which makes there are countless substances, ailments, curses, etc that can only be cured via sex. Not just for cultivators, but also for everyone else in the world. Like imagine you're an NPC magistrate or something just out there managing your district, having only the most tangential connection to the plot, and one day you're going for a walk and you trip and fall and manage to land right in a field full of sex pollen that cropped up like weeds overnight. Because that's just how this shit works, it doesn't wait for the protagonist to exist in order to activate, it's all got to be out there all the time in order to be there when the wife plot happens, and also for various experts to have accumulated all the mandatory exposition points about how it works.

But you're just some normal guy! You don't want to die of Horny, but the best way to clear this up is not just to have sex, but to have sex with a cultivator who is at least moderately good at using the exchange of spiritual energy to purge your body of the sex pollen poison.

Unless you're lucky enough to know someone, you're probably going to be in the market for professional help here, like even apart from all the other reasons people like to hire sex workers. This is a situation that probably happens fairly often and for which "hire someone to fix it and then move on with your life" is probably the ideal solution. As a bonus, a professional sex cultivation expert is probably also going to minimize your risks for unwanted side effect like STDs and pregnancy, too.

So, imagine we have Qian Cao peak struggling under the workload of all these requests for help with dual cultivation. The problem isn't prudery, but that this stuff is so commonplace it eats up time that could also be allocated to things like research and other medical emergencies. Plus, you have political leaders (kings, princes, emperors, etc) always demanding to be sent your "best" disciples to attend to them, when quite frankly their condition is something even an outer disciple could handle in less time than it would take them to travel out to their location, and these fuckers are not-infrequently liable to try and steal your people away into concubinage too.

One day then, much like with Qing Jing and the Barrier Peak, the Qian Cao peak lord of yore gets fucking fed up and is just like, this requires it's own department. Zhangmen-shijie we're starting a new peak. I'm not asking you I'm telling you. It's a medical peak entirely devoted to sex work. My best disciple at sex, who is in the running for Head Disciple status almost entirely because of this shit, is going to be the new Peak Lord. Any time some princess gets her vagina cursed and needs dick badly, the new peak are going to handle it, while I get to finally fucking finish my research into organ transplants.

And the sect leader of that era, knowing what was good for her, was like yes okay rubber stamp that we have twelve peaks now. Twelve's a good number we probably should have done this sooner anyway. What do you mean we don't have that much mountain? Eh, we'll haul some dirt in and make it happen.

Other Sex Worker Peak Thoughts:

Obviously, raising disciples from the age of ten upwards into this kind of work is controversial at best. Depending on tone, a fic author could either accept that grooming children for sex work was a historical practice and examine the fucked-up-ness of it all, or, we could go another direction and make a case that this is generally the peak which takes on older prospective disciples.

After all, dual cultivation is actually good at helping with setbacks and restoring a damaged cultivation base. You could argue for it being the ideal cultivation approach for latecomers. There could even be a precedent for adult disciples from the other peaks transferring to the Twelfth Peak/Sex Worker Peak if they show an aptitude for the work, and for disciples to temporarily join them as part of repairing or preventing damage from qi deviations.

This could also be a contributing factor to Shen Jiu being like, I have to not only be on Qing Jing Peak but also be the absolute boss of Qing Jing Peak with as few people able to gainsay me as possible, because he's terrified of being ordered to pimp himself out.

Not that he would be, though, because I imagine the sexpert cultivators are pretty well aware of how trauma works and who does or doesn't actually have the right temperament for their business, or what jobs within that business. It's their specialty, after all. If someone is going to have a panic attack and qi deviate over doing the job, that someone is not a good candidate for the job, or for these types of treatments overall.

Sometimes Twelfth Peak loses people on account of them falling in love with their clients or deciding to take some king up on his concubinage offers, but it happens less than one might think. After all, it's basically like working for the best brothel in existence. They have rigorous hygiene and healthcare standards, you get access to all the generalized medical care from Qian Cao, travel expenses are covered and you don't have to work out of your home if you don't want to, your food and housing is supplied by the sect, you're trained in cultivation and martial arts, with a shot at achieving immortality, and you don't even have to work every day because the jobs are contingent on what's being requested, not on you making rent money. In addition to physical cultivation, you can also make and sell tons of erotic art or "love tokens" and it will sell for a lot because of the social mystique of sexy cultivators. A pair of twelfth peak lord's panties probably goes for just as much as one of Shen Qingqiu's fancy calligraphy paintings. So unless you really want to live with some dude, switching over to depending on him for your upkeep doesn't seem all that appealing as a prospect.

Additional fun with this idea is that it would also potentially be an interesting peak lord role for either Airplane or Shen Yuan to end up in. Airplane would probably be like, well I guess this is karma for putting so much gratuitous smut in my stories, and then actually manage the hell out of the whole peak and enjoy himself by only taking on the jobs he actually cares to. Not a bad gig, especially compared to his previous grind. On the other hand, Shen Yuan's internal freak out and subsequent attempts to somehow be the Sex Peak Lord while not actually having any sex would be a potential comedy/suspense goldmine.

[holybagelsstuff]

Damn I wish we could perceive Luke and Leia as their own people and not as Padmé and Anakin's children only. "Luke got it from his mother/Leia got it from her father" they didn't even raise them???

[rock-kandyshark]

Yeah I'll kick the hornets nest: you should not be making egg jokes about strangers, especially to their face. These kinds of jokes are potentially damaging to closeted trans people, because you don't know someone's situation. Maybe they already know they're trans, but are in an unsafe situation. Maybe they just aren't ready to address it. Maybe they'll start doubting if they actually want to transition or they only think they want to because a bunch of people told them they do. And it's especially bad if, say, you're making a transfem egg joke to a trans man who isn't open about his transness, which could lead to serious dysphoria (and vice versa for trans women). Not to mention how terrible it is to do this to nonbinary people. Do not joke about a nonbinary person being a binary trans egg, it's extremely disrespectful and transphobic to do so. And it's hard not to notice how implying someone is an egg only extends towards binary genders. Imagine someone is doubting their gender, and everyone is telling them they're obviously a trans man egg. They might end up forcing themself into that binary because they think that's what everyone wants.

All of this isn't to say you can't kindly and respectfully say "the things you've been saying sound very similar to the trans experience, I think it's possible you may be trans, but ofc it's up to you to decide whether or not to look into it". I very much encourage that, especially if the person is your friend and seems to be struggling. The thing that's really bad is making jokes at the possible closeted trans person's expense, or thinking of "cracking an egg" as something to brag about and not something to help someone through because you care about them

[shamebats]

Let's Fly

Why the Egg Prime Directive matters

Assigning gender is the tool of our enemy. It is supremacy culture, distilled to a single razor-sharp point of gendered violence. We do not need it.

[rob-by]

The pathologization of anger needs to be talked about. What do you mean my therapist is telling me that there’s something “chemically wrong” with me because I am still angry about my mom DYING OF COVID.

of course I’m still angry? My mom and 1.3 million other Americans are dead and you want me to shoot sunshine out of my ass about it?

[rob-by]

“But It’s been 3 years since she died, you have complex grief” yeah and she was on a ventilator for 11 days and she kept writing “I am scared” and “I don’t want to die” on a notepad over and over again. While you were still going out unmasked and unvaccinated and coughing all over each other, I was living a nightmare I couldn’t fucking wake up from. And every single day I’m reminded of it in the form of “haha wasn’t the pandemic such a wacky time haha” and “I’m not getting a booster you can’t make me 🤪 (nobody asked)” and “it’s not real they made the numbers up!!!”

“You’re not coping” Ok here’s the deal; I’ll stop feeling this anger when we have a national memorial (we don’t) or a cdc equipped to stop it from happening again (we don’t) or a population that takes a deadly disease seriously BEFORE it effects them personally (WE DON’T!)

until then, I’m pretty sure my anger is A COMPLETELY NORMAL HUMAN REACTION given the facts at hand

[junewild]

incredible innovations on the beverage front

[transandrogyny--turtlebug]

I still think pregnancy and childbirth should be degendered. we stopped talking about that and I need us to pick it back up pls

[fagdyke-fckry]

People in the notes arguing that this is about individual comfort and misgendering are missing a major piece of the puzzle, which is that programs made for mothers and pregnant women often by definition exclude anyone whose gender marker is not F on every form they’ve ever filled out.

Insurance agencies use M markers to deny coverage for pregnancy related healthcare. Doctors offices hang up on pregnant people trying to schedule pre- and post-natal appointments for themselves because their voices or their names aren’t feminine enough. And if they manage to make the appointment, they can get harassed out of the waiting rooms or face medical malpractice behind closed doors.

Charities and benefits made for pregnant or new mothers don’t accept pregnant/new fathers or non-gendered parents. The WIC fund is called women, infants, and children.

If we degender pregnancy and childbirth (and periods while we’re at it) we open up support for every trans and intersex person who needs it. We normalize pregnant people of other genders and sexes, leaving less room for harassment and malpractice and more accountability for those who decide to be assholes anyway.

It’s not a-fucking-bout comfort. It’s about safety and survival. This can literally be the difference between life and death for some people.

[evil-enby-osoka]

i hate that nonbinary people can't be, like, nonbinary.

whatever we do, we can't win. we can't be seen as actually nonbinary. people binarize us and often mock us or get aggressive or dismiss and ignore our nonbinaryhood or something else.

if we don't medically transition, we are "just cis trenders."

if we do medically transition, we are "just [binary trans] eggs."

we are "technically transmasc or transfem anyways" if we don't use these terms.

we are lumped together with binary trans men and trans women if we do use these terms. our nonbinaryhood is ignored or seen as some kind of "gender-lite."

we are aggressively pressured to disclose if we're AFAB or AMAB, TMA or TME, transmasc or transfem, "boy nonbinary" or "girl nonbinary." and if we refuse to answer, people get double mad at us and pick something for us anyways.

if we show the slightest hint of something that could be interpreted as binary gendered, we are immediately binarised.

if we put a lot of effort into looking the most ambiguous or androgynous or neutral, people still try to find something. and they become aggressive. people often EXPLODE [PT: explode] when they can't gender someone by glance.

our ways of expression are constantly mocked and ignored (like neopronouns, nonbinary-centering labels for gender and orientation, basically all things that are associated with nonbinary people).

but if we choose more typical ways of expression (for example, use "he/him" or "she/her" pronouns), people use it to ignore and dismiss our nonbinaryhood.

we just can't win, and it's upsetting.

[dreamw0rms]

i’m worried i might have an ulcer… i’m having throbbing stomach pain in one spot and a perpetual feeling of painful overfullness that won’t go away even though i haven’t eaten anything in over 24 hours

[ziggystartuff67]

Hello niche community

[corporation-cats]

[theadventuresofmichaelpawlak]

If you just had a clear box, you’d know that Schrodinger’s cat is alive and very confused.

[red-garden]

Bringing back wheel spin

You just transmigrated!! Your system is breathing down your neck already— apparently you didn’t actually die, your original body is just unconscious. You’ve been randomly assigned a character that you, as a no name rogue cultivator with middling skills, have a month to ‘beat’ in a fight. You don’t have to actually win! You only have to challenge this person to a fight in a public place and be declared the winner. If in that month’s time you can convince that person to throw a public match with you (or beat them organically if you think you can!), you will get sent back to your original body/life as though nothing happened. While transmigrated, you cannot tell people about your situation or why you need to win the fight. If you can’t ‘win’, you will stay stuck as a no name rogue cultivator with no way home for the rest of your life. The choice is yours….

Picker Wheel - Spin the Wheel to Decide a Random Choice

Picker Wheel is a wheel spinner for a random picker. Various functions & customization. Enter choices or names, spin the wheel to decide a r

So how do you do? (Explain in notes)

I can beat them organically and go home!

I can convince them to throw the fight and go home!

They trick me and win the fight anyway….

I lose the fight organically…

I don’t challenge anyone! Let me stay here!!!!

A secret third thing

Remaining time: 4 days 6 hours

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

How do Chinese cooks cut vegetables

[lagonegirl]

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/05/what_state_prisoners_get_to_wo.html

OMG 

[pinehutch]

Things that I knew about: that the mass incarceration of people in the USA , particularly black men, has direct ties to/is an extension of slavery. Things I did not know: this specific shit about Louisiana HOLY FUCK this is evil.

[i-hate-you3000]

OH MY GOSH????

'Modern-Day Slavery': Many Southern States Have Prison Inmates Working in Governor's Mansions and Capitol Buildings - Human Trafficking Sear

When activist Sam Sinyangwe was awaiting a meeting with the governor’s office at the Louisiana state capitol building in Baton Rouge, he not

At Least Seven States Have Prison Inmates Working in Governors' Mansions and Capitol Buildings

The 13th Amendment provides a loophole that allows for the legality of unpaid prison labor, which is sometimes called "modern-day slavery."

[joy-haver]

Grew up next to Angola. It’s much worse than you think

[sisterreisaid]

I wonder how many people are imprisoned for weed

[kaccvcate]

I’m from Mississippi and it’s like this in my home town. Enslaved prisoners clean roadways, pick cotton, everything they’ve done since before slavery was supposedly ended. What they teach in schools is nothing but propaganda.

[hannahlockillustration]

Open for commissions!

I have five slots available for late August! Email me at [email protected] with what you’d like and I’ll get a quote to you.

[phoenixyfriend]

Why are so many weed smokers in denial about Actual Negative effects

It's like they heard "the damage of marijuana was vastly overstated by paranoid tee-totallers who hated any kind of fun" and decided that meant "it is completely harmless and nothing you hear about it doing damage is true"

"There was fear-mongering" does not mean "it's ALL fear-mongering"

I feel like a lot of weed smokers go into any and all conversations with a defensive attitude of "any criticism is going to be overblown and exaggerated" and so actual concerns of "a lot of people get migraines if they smell weed smoke" or "this can cause allergy/asthma attacks" are dismissed as fake.

But like. No. Maybe step back and recognize that you are selfishly hurting other people and that maybe they have reason to ask you to change out your delivery methods to something that doesn't result in secondhand inhalation.

[neurodivergentnacho]

Oh, I remember being 15, hearing that cannabis can reduce tics (I have Tourette’s), giving it a shot, and IMMEDIATELY jumping to that “Oh, I guess they were lying then, you can’t even become physically addicted to weed, I guess it’s COMPLETELY harmless!” conclusion. And honestly, I’m glad that the very first stoner I met had completely messed up his sleep schedule and quality by smoking too much too often, and flat out told me “I think I’m both addicted psychologically AND physically.”

15 year old me was stunned and wanted to argue back (“Bullshit, what do you mean, it’s harmless!”), but I could see harm caused by cannabis right in front of me with my own two eyes.

And so what happened was that I, becoming friends with a lot of “bad influence”, made it my goal to be the well-informed harm reduction friend. I was a trip sitter more times than I can count, watching people on all kinds of drugs to make sure they don’t do stupid things or to calm them in panic attacks / “horror trips”.

And you guys, I have seen people on bad horror trips caused by cannabis only. I have seen drug induced psychosis when the only drug was weed. So yeah, it might not happen often, but it happens and you’ll not know it unless you know yourself VERY well and you know the people around you, who are exposed to the smoke, well too.

If you meet a bunch of stoners, want to try it yourself, and they want you to hit a blunt or bong or try edibles while knowing you’ve never consumed anything with THC before—RUN! What you do with curious “I think it’s cool” people is asking for a history of migraines, psychoses, etc., (even in the family), telling them what to expect in a first use, and then you GO SLOW! You treat it like party drugs—inhale once and wait. See what happens. Even if they’re not one of those who react negatively in a medical sense, they still could get overly emotional all of a sudden and spend the next 3 hours thinking about bad memories. It happens.

What I especially don’t get is people dismissing “This can cause asthma attacks”. Any kind of smoke can trigger someone’s asthma, hell, deodorant can trigger asthma—RUNNING can trigger asthma!

When I was among people who use all kinds of illegal drugs recreationally, there always was some kind of “This is a substance that changes things in my body and my perception; it is important to be mindful of what changes to what degree” mindset. That’s extremely important. And I considered that “common sense” for a while.

And then, suddenly, there were stoners who only ever drank alcohol if at all, then smoked weed for the first time and realised “Oh, no hangover! I smoked so much I fell asleep, but today I wake up and I feel absolutely normal! Slept wonderful, even!”—and not only are they not mindful about what happens in their body and mind, they also aren’t mindful about other people as a result.

After constantly being told “All drugs are evil”, it’s extremely easy to adopt an “It wasn’t bad at all, strange. I guess it’s harmless, then, they all lied to us, and everyone who complains simply still buys into the lies” mindset. That’s a trap. Don’t fall into that trap.

[gaynfl-moved]

what's your "if I won the lottery I wouldn't tell anyone but there would be signs" thing? mine is getting a fully green kitchen

[gaynfl-moved]