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originally pitched 3 june 2021.

…that's right, this pitch came about literally the day after i started playing genshin!!! which, thinking about it, makes it The Oldest Genshin AU Idea nat n i have been holding onto lol.

Rating: Teen

Category: Multi

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: venti/xiao, childe/lumine, venti & lumine

Characters: lumine, venti, xiao, childe, zhongli

Freeform: BOTH ships tagged are central to the plot, alternate universe - canon divergence, alternate universe - red string of fate, romance, mutual pining, soulmates aren't necessarily romantic, i mean technically i don't consider this a soulmate au but that's the closest tag for it, it's more of an exploration in fate and choices, falling in love, denial of feelings, basically it's just stages of grief, oh yeah and btw we integrated the gacha system into the story

so, as it says in the subtitle, this is a chilumi × xiaoven red string of fate au bc we love soulmates and themes of fate!!! at first, it was just a xiaoven pitch, but because we were kind of literally chilumi stans first, genshin players second at the time of first pitching this, we naturally decided there should be a substantial chilumi subplot, which has since become the co-main pairing bc we also realized that there was (and frankly still is) basically 0 overlap between chlm and xv shippers who meet our standards of Understanding™ these ships n characters on a substantive level.

this au is also the origin of our beloved Besti Lumi-Besti Venti dynamic which has since become indispensible to our ideal genshin relationship dynamics, so that's also a key part of this whole experience! :D

anyway, here's how the initial conversation pitch played out:

• xiaoven red string of fate au
• xiao tryna defy fate cuz he doesnt wanna leave liyue
• ohohohoho
• venti who used to be friends with teh god of time be like "itll be a matter of time"
• ohohOHOHOO
• i feel like venti knows quite a bit about fate
• ooo
• just cuz he knew the god of time
• would venti seek out xiao
• or would he just wait and let it happen
• and "winds of change" sorta thing
• he cant force xiao to leave
• obvs
• if theyre not in love yet i can see venti waiting in mond
• but he obvs knows he has a red string
• would he follow it on a whim?
• if they are i can see him hanging out in liyue
• but it depends on whether xiao can see it too
• they can both see it
• i think that would be the funnest

there's quite a lot to cover, considering this has technically been cooking for days now! so i guess let's hop to it lol

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