Scarlet Lady AU Is Like..honey - Sweet And Bright

Sometimes even a Ghost King needs reassurance 💛

Who knows about Reos? This guy’s name is Hiru

Preaching to the choir, but I love that there's no wrong configuration for Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu. The fact that canon leaves virtually all doors open for pretty much any AU to be valid only helps.

Fully two separate people, separate souls, of separate dimensions with no connection whatsoever? We can work with that.

The same soul, in separate phases of the reincarnation cycle? The same soul in a weird hiccup in the reincarnation cycle so that they are exactly the same person, coexisting as one? Excellent.

They can be parent and child. Which is the parent, which is the child? Whatever you fancy this fine afternoon!

They can be brothers, of course, easy. Which is older? Whichever you want! Twins? Naturally!

Martial shidi? Same peak? Different peaks? Well, now they're kissing.

Guys is this a safe space because lately I've been thinking about nothing but omegaverse role reversal au . Can you imagine it. Possessive jealous alpha binghe and his omega disciple shen yuan who doesn't notice anything odd about his shizuns behaviour because he transmigrated from a world where everyone is a beta

Binghe would constantly insist on "showing shen yuan a sword move" or "fixing his robe" and shen yuan would think nothing of it because surely he needs to learn these things! He has no idea his shizun is touching him everywhere to cover him in his scent when shen yuan mentions he's going to talk to Liu qingge or Yue Qingyuan ..

Oughhhh Binghe would be so normal. He would be So Normal. He definitely doesn't have dreams about shen yuan going into heat every night. (Unfortunately shen yuan uses suppressants because he hates airplane for writing this omegaverse shit)

Also just throwing it out there I think Luo binghe and Liu qingge would fight over who is shen yuan's "provider" like

Liu qingge: shen yuan I caught and killed a wild animal for you. *side eyes Binghe* like an alpha SHOULD

Shen Yuan: oh um thanks...

Binghe: a-yuan, I cooked dinner :) perfectly toasted and spiced

Shen Yuan: oh I can't wait to eat it :D

Binghe to Liu qingge: HA. IM THE ONE WHO PUTS FOOD ON HIS PLATE. IM HIS ALPHA

Qingge: THIS IS BULLSHIT, MAKING CONGEE ISNT HUNTING

shimmer was tasked with stopping a group of melynx from mugging a caravan. needless to say he was an ass as always and scared the daylights out of them by threatening to eat one

Maddie and Caitlyn and Piltover

Probably the most jarring twist of the Act was Maddie and Caitlyn's relationship. It seemed very sudden, until you take a look into the few lines from her in Act 1 and realize they all centered around Caitlyn. That Maddie was the first Piltie to 'dedicate her heart' to Caitlyn with Noxus. Maddie likes Vi because Caitlyn vouched for her and deems her 'one of the good ones' because of Caitlyn.

Let's talk about Maddie: she's an average young Piltie. She's Cait's age, give or take, and feels hurt both by the recent Zaun attacks and Marcus' betrayl. Caitlyn is the first person after all this that is trying to do something to fix the mess. Cait's a Kiramman, an inspiration, a fighter, and kinda sorta pretty. Maddie was starry eyed by Cait and couldn't see any problems with her actions or flaws because of this. When given the option to have Cait lead, she jumps at the chance.

Maddie is something of a trick with her introduction. She doesn't have a personal stake like Vi or Cait, isn't there to look after her new buddy like Loris (until told otherwise he is there just cause he is Vi's old man friend); she believes in combating Jinx. Peacekeeping in Zaun with gas and hextech weapons to go after one person, but oh isn't she so cute? Introduced in a halo of sunlight and being so sweet to Vi?

Maddie is a proud Piltie, who feels betrayed by Marcus and the Undercity, who wants to punish them and rebuild her home in topside. And yes, she feels betrayed by the Undercity, she consider's it a part of Piltover one way or another, and most topsider's are ignorant of why Zaunites are so upset with them. To Maddie, these attacks came out of left field.

What's interesting is that Maddie is anti-Ambessa, or at least pro-Caitlyn. You could see this as her being a moderate. She tells Cait that she can withdraw from Zaun and reestablish the council, but ends that statement by reaffirming Caitlyn as their leader, "The Enforcers, Piltover... I follow you". Cait and her military rule makes Maddie feel safe and proud in her city.

Onto Cait. Yeah, Cait's not necessarily using Maddie, but she is utilizing her. She's learned from her percieved mistakes/weaknesses and is keeping her work and personal life seperate. They have sex and talk about the state of the city, but Cait never talks about her feelings with Maddie as she did with Vi. Cait's an emotional person too. She was always quick to express herself to Vi, to Ekko, to her mother and father, to Jayce; but she is hurt and alone and can contribute both of those facts to her emotions (sans Jayce).

Begs the question of why Cait is sleeping with Maddie? But even that is simply her coping. It's her version of Vi drinking and fighting. It's stress relief and a quick way to at least make someone else happy. Cait also likes touch, so it stands to reason she'd find someone in her isolated state (Vi pushed away, father a living ghost, Jayce and Mel magiced away). Also, if Word of God is anything to go by, it's not out of character for Cait to find a pretty girl to fool around with.

Cait's main focus is still Jinx. Her mind is literally shown overlapping with her's. Maddie a tryst for the off hours, and even that's kept to the minimum as Cait would rather work than get any rest.

I do wish we could've gotten a scene of Cait replaying her interactions with Vi (think season 1 shower scene), but instead we have Maddie to contrast their relationship. Maddie is kind of the 'Piltover Approved' Vi; she's a red headed enforcer who loves her city, her council, the noble houses, and Caitlyn. She's safe and she's someone that Caitlyn doesn't have to put any excess energy into. Which must be gratifying for the surface levels of Cait's issues. Vi forces Cait to act better, to look inward and reflect, to consider other people and not just her own hurt (something season one Cait wouldn't have even needed another's help with).

The little detail of Vi not calling Cait a cupcake until episode 6 is also telling. At first it's likely Vi realizing the seriousness of everything, but it could also be that she disapproves of Cait's actions. Cait doesn't have that sweetness in her, or at least isn't allowing herself to act on it. When Vi does call her cupcake again it's not an endearment as it was by the end of season one, but a call out to what Cait has become.

Going forward, what's next? Vi and Cait aren't back together, but are together. They have to fight the Noxians (which was hinted at by Maddie herself) and help with the Arcane.

I kinda want Jinx to be the one to spell everything out to Cait; to tear her a new one. Jinx kept an eye on Vi during her pit fighter era, saw the drunk, broken mess that her sister became; a sister she is now on tentatively good terms with and will likely be a bit protective of after Isha. Something like, "I saw what happened to Vi after you guys split, she destroyed herself like you destroyed the city. I always thought I would be the one to break her, but you did a bang up job! Two of us have that in common, hurting Vi, but I'm trying now. So what does that say about you? None of this was Vi's fault, all she was trying to do was keep you from acting like me, ya know, deranged and violent? Huh, Vi-olent."

So in Act 3, Cait needs to be the one to get a kick in the ass and have that conversation with Vi. She needs to own up to her mistakes. How she was guilting Vi into the enforcers, how Vi was right about her loosing control and almost shooting a kid, maybe even for using Vi's affection for her against her. Vi will forgive her, she's Vi and has the self worth of a pebble, so long as Cait takes accountability and starts acting on any promises to change-again, why a shovel talk from Jinx could help set their relationship in the right direction.

A bath, an aggravating folktale, and the news of a third child by virgo_venus

Summary:

Xie Lian sinks back in the water with a happy sigh. “I’m not stressing, San Lang doesn’t have to worry. You are quite right: they are meaningless things. Still, I wish they praised your wonderful fighting skill rather than concern themselves with something so… intimate.” His hands innately go to his belly, which hasn’t grown much yet.

2k words of parents Hualian because well. six people asked for it

One day a strange rumor had spread among the peak lords about a mysterious herbalist who lived in the mountains.

No one knew anything specifically about him, except that he seemed to possess boundless knowledge about plants and monsters of the places. For every answer, he had it. Every ingredient, he knew where to get it.

No one had ever seen him and no one had been able to get an audience with him. He was an extremely reserved person who did not dare to come down from the mountains where he lived for any reason in the world. Needless to say, everyone was very curious about such a peculiar personality who had left not a single clue about himself. No one knew whether he was an enemy or a friend, whether he was dangerous, or completely harmless. They only knew that he had never bothered anyone and had never wanted to get in the way of any of the affairs of the martial arts schools in the area. He had merely lived in seclusion in a cave that no cultivator had yet discovered where exactly it was. There were rumors circulating among the disciples that the mysterious herbalist was constantly moving around and that was why no one had ever found out where his home actually was.

What was most strange to the peak lords about this mysterious personality, however, was the name.

Everyone called him Shen Yuan, and the lords had assumed that he had some kind of relationship with the peak master Shen Qingqiu who, however, assured that he did not know anyone named Shen Yuan and that he had no mysterious relative of whom he had never spoken.

The peak lords had thought it might be a distant relative that Shen Qingqiu perhaps did not know, but the shizun of peak Qing Jing had assured them repeatedly and confidently that he had no idea who this person was.

It was just a weird coincidence.

However, it could not be said that they were not all curious to find out who the herbalist who sent letters to all of them from time to time answering questions they could not find answers to was.

How did that weirdo know what they needed? Why didn't he show his face around? What was he afraid of? Was it really necessary to hide in the mountains when no one had ever shown hostility toward him? For what reason was he hiding like that?

These were all reasonable questions to which there were no answers, though. Shen Yuan had sent several letters over time to the peak lords, but he had never once shown himself and had not left the slightest clue as to how to find him or how to reach him. Every time they thought they had an answer on their hands, they faced a dead end and had to start their assumptions all over again. How was it possible that a rookie who appeared from who knows where could fool them like that?

One day, Shen Qingqiu determined to discover the identity of this mysterious “surname thief” had sent Binghe to do some research on his own in the mountains. His task was to find the herbalist and bring him to him alive so that he could ask him some questions and figure out where he had come from and what he wanted.

At the end of the day, no matter how confident he was that there were no family members unknown to him, one could never know the truth and he wanted to see for himself the mysterious prodigy who had more than once volunteered to lend a helping hand to those in need of answers, always only through mysterious letters that the peak lords had kept as possible clues that might lead them to him.

Binghe, who was still a careful and obedient disciple in those days, had searched far and wide all over the mountain, yet finding no clue to this mysterious Shen Yuan. He must have been a really very reserved and careful person for his own safety, because no matter how persistent the boy was, he could find nothing but animal footprints, bunnies running away from him as soon as he tried to get close or traps of all kinds, which certainly served to ward off the curious. Binghe was certain he was on the right path, but he could not understand why every time he felt he was close, he eventually found himself in a dead end that forced him to turn back.

He certainly could not let the matter drop, because if he did, his shizun certainly would not have forgiven him and would have sent him back without food or water to find the herbalist whom he so desperately wanted to question in order to understand who he was and what he was trying to accomplish by sending his help to the lords who had never even asked for it. Could it have been just kindness? Or did he want something from them? And if so, what was that something? Binghe had to be able to find out, or he should not waste his time coming back.

But the boy was tired. He had traveled far and wide for a whole day, falling into all sorts of traps. To look at him, he looked like he had been in a fight with a bear, and the bear had won, the state he was in. He had really done wrong not to take more supplies with him, but he had really underestimated how ingenious those traps could be. He had gotten caught in the sack more than once, and the shame that had seized him was such that he longed to get his hands on that mysterious Shen Yuan just to make him pay for everything he had put him through in that time. And yes, he would have done it, had it been the last thing he would have done that day. He was not going to let him get away! Besides, he too was very curious to see what kind of a mastermind he was to protect his home like that and be able to keep everyone away from his abode.

Binghe was about to decide to give up for a moment and sit down to rest, when he suddenly placed his foot on yet another trap of the day, ending up right in a net, hanging from a very tall tree. The net was strong, and he had lost his sword, which had slipped off and fallen to the ground the moment he was trapped. He was doomed to stay there until someone came to pull him down. Unless he could free himself with his bare hands, it was going to be hard to escape from there. Damn Shen Yuan, he had tricked him again this time!

He was about to curse, when finally, he seemed to hear what he had been searching for so fervently all day.

“So you're the one who ruined all my traps, I finally caught you little thug!!”

Finally Binghe had a chance to see it.

The boy was between fifteen and twenty years old, looked very frail, and seemed as if a gust of wind could take him away at any moment. But he could not help noticing, how handsome that face was, with his eyebrows furrowed and his lips twisted into a kind of pout. He was probably insulting young Binghe in every language, but the disciple was nevertheless thunderstruck.

He had nothing in common with his shizun except his surname. Maybe he wasn't even as elegant and perfect as he was, but for Binghe he was fine even if he kept yelling at him for ruining his precious traps. Perhaps he didn't even care that he was scolding him, for Binghe the important thing was that the boy spoke to him. Shen Yuan, muttering and cursing half-heartedly, climbed the tree with surprising ease for someone who didn't seem to have the physical abilities to do so. With a particularly sharp knife, he took care to cut the knot that tightened the net, not bothering about the fact that once Binghe was freed, he would fall to the ground. Which in any case did not happen, because Binghe leapt to the ground with ease. Shen Yuan did not seem at all surprised by this and merely checked the damage to his precious net.

He sighed, realising he could not fix it, but simply shrugged. He would build another one and move on again; he could not allow the peak lords to find him.

Binghe had many questions for this mysterious man. But suddenly the words had died in his mouth and he didn't quite know how to start the conversation. How could he tell him that his shizun wanted to question him without alerting him and making him run away? He was curious but had a feeling that Shen Yuan would not answer any of his questions. To do that, he would have to trick him somehow. But he seemed too smart to fool him as an ordinary person. Binghe decided he would opt for the truth.

"Are you Shen Yuan?"

Binghe then asked, as if he wasn't already sure of the answer. After all, he had admitted it himself that he was the creator of those traps, and who could it be if not the mysterious herbalist who had kept all the lords away until then? If Shen Yuan was smart, Binghe certainly didn't think he was any less so.

"What if I am?"

Asked the boy, giving him a hostile look. He did not seem to be intent on attacking him, but Binghe certainly had no intention of letting down his guard. He didn't want to hurt him, but he understood why the boy was so suspicious of him.

"My shizun wants to talk to you."

He only reported, watching the other boy laugh. It was obvious that he didn't intend to see anyone, he had been kind enough to show himself to him.

"What if I say no?"

Binghe had a feeling he would answer something like this. But surrendering was out of the question. At least he had achieved one thing. He knew for a fact that that young man was Shen Yuan and had found out where he lived. Something the Peak Lords hadn't been able to find out! He had also discovered that he did not appear to be a bad person. After all, he had saved him from the traps and had certainly not hurt him!

"Well that would be a problem because I would have to take you with the force."

Shen Yuan swallowed hard. He seemed to know that the boy was perfectly capable of doing what he had said. But he was trying to show composure and not let on that he somehow felt threatened by that realisation. Coughing a couple of times, he put on the best facade he was capable of and squinted his eyes.

"You should be able to catch me first."

And having said that... before Binghe could even respond, Shen Yuan fled with surprising speed. Binghe would never have predicted that move of his, he had been too quick.

Binghe could not help but mentally curse himself, because he had been stupid and allowed him to escape. He could not hold back his amused laughter when he realised the way that boy had fooled him.

He would come back.

He would come back and show him that he could bring him down the mountain.