cowherd and weaver girl
originally pitched 26 december 2021.
so i presume you're familiar with the chinese legend of the cowherd and weaver girl, but i'll retell it anyway:
basically, weaver girl was an immortal, while cowherd was just some guy. they fell in love, but the gods didn't really like it, so they were put on opposite sides of the sky, separated by the milky way. once a year on 7/7 (lucky double seven, they say), magpies build a bridge btwn the two of them in the sky, and the clouds will hide the earth from sight of the heavens, and the lovers can be reunited for one night of the year.
anyway, so i was thinking abt that legend on a plane ride one day, n ended up scribbling out this ganqing pitch, which has been included on the aus page at the insistence of my friend star:
the setting is probably more of ancient china/liyue in this one.
keqing has never really thought much of the adepti, immortals, n divinity in general until one night, she heads out to bathe, n she sees a qilin seemingly spun from frost descend from the heavens n transform into the most beautiful girl shes seen in her life.
their eyes meet n keqing's breath catches, qilin girl gracefully, delicately approaches, blah blah blah [ sic]
kq stands her ground (weird around obvious divinity) and ganyu introduces herself: she's an immortal, mostly, who spends her days spinning the threads of fate for the actual god of fate to weave into lives n destinies
and perhaps kq scoffs at this idea, bc surely immortals have better things to do w/their time than sit n spin all day
idk smth smth ganyu comes to appreciate the wonders of humanity (their creativity, resilience, etc.) while keqing comes to appreciate the work of the divine.
they fall in love n live happily for a few years before celestia takes notice of ganyu's absence, since a day in celestia is a year in teyvat sort of thing, n command her to return. ganyu tells kq the news, keqing gets protective of her love n vows to find her in celestia even if it takes her whole life.
however, in order to do that, she needs a vision, which kq thinks is dumb bc why must humans prove themselves before the gods will listen to them, their own subjects?
in the end if anything, it really is a showcase of the power of humanity– she's done smth w/her own strength so incredibly powerful, it was impossible to ignore, basically forcing the gods to notice a mere mortal. she still scorns the concept, but must buy into the system in order to get her wife back.
anyway, so keqing earns her vision (which is delivered personally by ganyu for a brief moment of reunion), n keqing fights her way up to celestia to demand the gods either stop lording themselves over humanity or do something for once!! and also let her wife live as she chooses, dammit!!!!
blah blah blah stuff goes awry, keqing gets kicked out of celestia, but ganyu grabs her hand as she falls, n the two tumble down to earth together as shooting stars. in their landing, they lose their visions, and ganyu is made mortal, but at least they are reunited and know they have the power within themselves to change the world whenever they're ready to take it on again.
and they both live happily ever after the end.
and yeah, that's basically it! i've been meaning to write this as a cool 10k-ish oneshot ever since, but alas… never any time c':