(back to aus)

this is a fic originally pitched to star when we first started exchanging handwritten letters. the pitch went approximately as follows, although it's a little messy:

OH YEAH this also reminds me of the fact that the other day i was thinking of a ganqing shared diary au or something… like ganyu is at a café or smth (college au?), absently writing or doodling in one of those bullet journals or smth, n she forgets it on the table as she packs up n leaves, n keqing picks it up for whatever reason (classmate who recognizes it maybe?), scribbles smth snippy on a blank page, n returns it to some place she knows ganyu will find it.

or maybe it's one of those cafés that lets you write things in chalk, n they're both regulars to the same table but at different times, n they exchange written letters on the wall bc keqing found whatever ganyu had one day written n decides to respond to it. epistolary fics my BELOVED why are so many of you just POORLY WRITTEN CHATFICS!!!

and then anyway, ofc they meet a couple times in the café n butt heads bc they don't sign their letters n don't realize they're talking to the person they're falling in love w/via chalk wall letters until one day keqing gets tired of all this through-the-wall middleman nonsense n suggests they meet up where they usually exchange letters one of these days, n omg what if they sign their names as their constellations,,, that would be so cute -w-

n anyway, it would be abt how gq think they have really clashing personalities (their irl conflict) but are actually way more similar n compatible than they expected (their letters showing their inner selves) n coming to care for each other like that… probs fall in love w/each other in their irl meetings too but be oblivious/in denial abt it all too lol

anyway yeah fic idea for you~

the pitch ended up changing a bit into a sort of combination reincarnation/modern college au, and the shared diary eventually turned into argumentative essay outlines written on the chalk walls of the café. it's a little elaborate, so here are some pages with more details~