Alastor as a "Gift from God" AU part 2
I'll have you know it is very difficult to write from the POV of God so you get Roo instead. I had to look up bible verses for this.
PART 1 here.
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On the day of the first extermination cleanse.
When the first sinner was slain, Roo felt the soul attempt to rise. A fruitless endeavor, for their sinful deeds in life and in death ensured her roots bound the severed pieces of the soul to her.
Foolish angels, in culling the herd and stifling even the thought of rebellion, they only made her stronger. Roo tightened her vines around the soul and attempted to drag it down, down through the 7 rings, and to her.
Attempted, because before she even got past the Pride Ring, a stronger force yanked the soul upwards. Enraged and in disbelief she tightened her hold around the other souls being slaughtered by the dozens, but each and every time they were ripped from her grasp.
At the end of the day, when the exorcists were flying up and away from the slaughter, the portal to Heaven opened and Roo latched onto the connection and demanded an explanation.
"Have you gone back on your word?" her tone was taunting but her desperation and anger festered, "These souls are mine. Their punishment is meant to be eternal!"
Roo did not expect a response, God had not spoken to her since The Beginning, and God had no foothold in hell - usually. Today, apparently, was an exception.
God spoke to her, "My creations all return unto me in The End regardless. You know I cannot bare to be separated forever."
Roo did not buy this, "What ever happened to 'Depart from me, you who are cursed' was that not written?"
"Said by a King, not I." God refuted.
"But within your holy text." Roo sniped, "You reward their sin, their rejection of you, by accepting them back with open arms?"
"If you think that is what will happen to those who reject me twice, you know me not at all." And perversely, Roo felt relieved at this admission. "The righteous will have eternal life, the sinful - upon second death - nothing."
"And keeping them from me was merely a happy coincidence?" Roo felt emboldened, God must see her as a bigger threat than she thought, "To twist the meaning of your eternal punishment to exclude me, why I'd almost call that a quality worthy of a demon."
The portal, which had only been open seconds, pulsed with the force of God's anger.
Roo laughed. "You fear me enough to risk your angels falling into my grasp once again. Do you think this latest stunt of yours will keep me weak forever?"
"My angels have learned to evade you since then."
"Careful there." Roo feigned concern, "Anymore hubris and I'll have to save you a seat in Pride. I could put you next to your favorite child, wouldn't that be nice?"
God ignored the taunt, "I know your roots grow stronger on Earth. More fall to you everyday. Faster than even my best angels can catch them."
Roo smiled at the admission. To have her work acknowledged by the being who created everything, everything that would someday be corrupted and belong wholly to her.
God continued, "It is a testament to your strength that The End may be sooner than I thought."
Roo stopped cold. Her strength came from corrupting the creations of God, but if there was nothing to corrupt...
Ah. She thought. Nothing truly is an eternal punishment.
"Unless," God hedged. "We come to an arrangement?"
Suddenly the reason for God's desire to converse with her made sense. Here she was, weakened from the loss of over a hundred damned souls, from an event that would become a yearly occurrence. Here God was, with the threat of The End poised upon their fingertips, attempting to force her compliance.
And it was working.
But God had shown their hand too early, "How utterly demonic of you! You want to compromise with me? To reason with me?" She used her roots to trip a flailing exorcist trying to remove its spear from a corpse just because, "What can you offer me?"
"I will not hasten The End before its time." God stated, as if the threat of nothing was enough now that she knew God wanted something from her that they could not get themselves.
"You do not want to destroy everything you've created; you want it even less than I do. What is it you desire?"
The last few exorcists were getting ready to return via the portal, their clothes splatted in shade of red and an abundance of gore. They had yet to develop a tolerance to the violence they were perpetuating. Roo knew, just as God did, that many of the angels after slaughtering their first few sinners, had ripped their helmet off and vomited in disgust and despair.
Roo could feel their shock, their inner turmoil, their sense of righteousness, their loyalty to heaven. With time, and more exterminations cleanses, they would learn to enjoy the bloodshed. Or they would break. Such was the way of war.
"I wish to create a gift for Lucifer," God began, "A gift that will challenge him, embolden him, and remain by his side."
Lucifer! Why did it always come back to him? Around them, the corpses of the damned littered her domain never to rise again, God's angels grappled with the weight of their heavenly duty, and her influence weakened for the first time in decades. And yet it was Lucifer that made God lower themselves to speak with her!
Roo reigned in her rage, "And what does that have to do with me?"
"I am creating something unlike anything I've ever created before." God directed her attention back to the weak angel who'd finally pulled their spear from a corpse, "Immune to angelic destruction. Stronger than a thousand sinners, with the potential to stand against my Archangels, capable of vengeance and retribution."
Roo salivated. "And you're sending it here." Roo let the last of the shattered souls in her grasp go, not even paying attention as it shot upwards and away. "You'd create such a thing and put in my hands the instrument of your demise?"
"Which is why I appear before you. You know sin more intimately than I. So I implore you to cast off a piece of yourself for this gift and I shall do the same."
"And what is this gift?" The exorcist was attempting to clean the gore from the spear and failing. "And why should I give you anymore of myself when you've already taken so much?"
"A human soul."
"You intend to create a soul destined to hell before its first sin and gift it to the being who prizes free will above all else. Do you imagine he will thank you?" Roo didn't care about Lucifer's feelings regarding this gift, she couldn't wait to see the fallout actually, but she couldn't help but point out the obvious.
"No," God said, "he will not. As for you, this soul will bring a new age upon your realm. They will be The Avenger of the worthy. And a nightmare to everyone else."
"Do not repay anyone evil for evil," Roo quoted. "Is that why you need me? You want to avoid going against your own words, so you seek to blame me instead."
She did not give God time to respond, "But you still haven't told me what I gain. What do I care for this promised 'new age' or so-called Avenger when I am still trapped?"
"And that is my bargain," God attempted to comfort one of the angels weeping over a small sinner's corpse but their touch fell short. Seems they did not have power over anything in her realm but exorcised souls, she mused.
"With a piece of us both, this soul will have a direct link to us in a way no fully mortal being has before."
Roo would've gasped if she was capable of breathing, "Speak plainly!"
"They could free you."
"What's the catch? Why would you give them this power?" She could hardly believe it. It was too good to be true.
"You have the chance to be free. But you must convince this soul to do so of their own free will, knowing fully the consequences of your freedom." Roo dismissed this, she was The Root of Sin for a reason, and this soul was destined for her realm anyway.
"You are forbidden from interfering with their life before hell. And you must find this soul yourself once they fall."
A minor setback, but the call of freedom was strong. Still, she was not so blinded by this opportunity that she wouldn't ask, "And what, do you, The Almighty God, gain from this bargain?"
"A hellborn will become your greatest adversary, they will attempt to redeem sinners and remove them from your grasp." The portal to Heaven began to close.
"And should they succeed, your chance to convince The Avenger will begin to close. And you will never know freedom."
"A time limit!" She should've known they wouldn't play fair, "How long?"
They turned her attention to the newly built Tower in the center of the Pentagram. The timer below flipped through the numbers at record speed until it hit 365. "Seven full moons after the clock strikes zero for the last time. Do we have an agreement?"
God's voice was strong as ever, but the portal was now only the size of a quarter. Roo knew manipulation and this reeked of it, how clever of God to wait until the last moment to share all the details when she had so little time to think of it.
"When in hell, you use the proper term." Roo pretended to scold them. She reached out to the fading tendrils of God and sunk her thorns in as deep into the connection as she could.
"We have a deal."
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Please infodump about the silly little bards please (only if you want to ofc)
TAKES A DEEP BREATH . OKAY !!!!
(apologies this got a little long so it’s going under the cut And i also. put a miniature train on a track and watched it race off, so the thoughts !! Might be !! a little scrambled, and jump around a lot ,,,)
okay sorry we are starting off a little bittersweetly because . god ghost bard makes me ill in so many ways. it is one of the more …. happier endings, for him, i feel he would kinda like being a ghost. at first. there is a certain freedom to it—he can go anywhere !!! he can explore the world like he had planned to do, and he can still do it with his dearest friend !!!!! there’s no time limit, like if he were a human, and he can Fly Now, on his own, for another. can slink into the shadows and have others take the shining light—he’s a bard, he is here to listen and tell tales of others! pay no attention to the light flickering.
but it’s.
not really. living (irony included.) he’s stagnant. the world changes around him, he watches everyone venture forward on their paths, do greater things, be greater people—and he’s. still. here, as he was, a perfectly still moment of the best and worst part of his life. every time his friend turns to look at him he can always see a flash of pain in their eyes. but (reusing what i said in tags) he doesn’t … want to leave, i feel. yes, he doesn’t age. yes, he mimes breathing even when his lungs have stopped. yes, he wishes he could truly feel what his friend’s palms feel under his own, when they try to interlace hands; that’s the reason, though. venti is an immortal. venti outlives nearly everyone he meets. venti has lost their friends, their once was life and thrust into a completely new one. he has to stay. he has to, he has to, because he can’t stand venti being on their lonesome, when all they knew before this was warmth.
so . my friend, if you will allow me, let me be by your side. let me be what you were for me, all those years.
when ragnvindr leaves. when gunnhildr dies. when venti deems this city okay to walk on their own. he follows his wisp and sits close enough that venti’s wings shiver from cold. i’ve got you. (there is also . so many ways you can take this au: angst, majorly, but they should be happy and smiling whenever the opportunity arrives so canon to me that venti knows the bard is there and whenever he can be leans over and knocks his shoulder against the bard’s. love you. love you too.)(also the idea of mondstadt having one (1) ghost but it’s just your friendly neighbor bard checking in. they’re co-parenting mondstadt.)(ALSO ALSO here’s how bard getting to know og gunnhildr even more and meeting vennessa can win—)(potentially also the og7……)
(also also also This Bard has more than likely seen everything that has happened to venti :3c if we’re doomed, my song, let’s be doomed together.)
OKAY . ANYWAYS
waves my hands high . THEIR LOVE !!!!!!!!
they are both so “in every life, i would search for you,” because there is NO WAY that they, whose relationship was so important To The Story As A WHOLE, where venti would be a completely different character had he not met the bard (case in point: His Entire Design), where mondstadt as it is now is still being affected by those dreams and hopes of the past !!!!!!!!!!—that could not have been a one off, one lifetime thing. venti is following bard in the next life and the bard is running around with hands cupped around his mouth and shouting “dearest beloved where are you :(” until they reunite and hug. i refuse to be convinced otherwise. no one can stop them from reaching out and hoping the other’s hand grazes, then latches on. they are a PACKAGE DEAL ‼️
like gestures to Several Lines from the game ???:
(sorry that’s fully the wiki for the windblume ode i don’t have it 😔) godbless 🙏 venti has a lot on his mind and i am full belief that the nameless bard is a good 45% at the forefront of it (the fact. that. it’s very very possible that venti looks through things through a lens of: what would be good for the people, and, would this have made him happy…. Makes Me want to start chewing at the walls.) (<- im so genuinely surprised there aren’t more people who go buckwild over the bard the two of them are so intricately interlinked ????? if you removed one the whole thing would fall apart ????)(tbh that could be said for the old mond crew as a whole.)
it’s about the devotion. it’s about the adoration. it’s about a god worshipping a mortal and refusing to miss even one singular prayer.
also wings of azure wind remind me both of the traveler and nameless bard. like be so genuine right now genshin, someone going on an adventure, a journey, and the breeze that follows turns into a person at the end ??? and accompanies that person across the lands ???????
ALSO HEY HI . HERES MY AGENDA TO CECILIAS BEING VENTI’S FAVORITE FLOWER EVER AND IT’S PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE NAMELESS BARD:
like ofc there’s the fact that cecilias seemed to have been the windblume for the rebellion, see: the flower is on the flag, the flower being pinned to nameless bard’s scarf.
but also.
because. it probably took a solid minute for the other flowers to bloom (the entire land was Ice Cold there had to have been repercussions from andrius lifting that all suddenly !!), i imagine that cecilias were one of the few flowers old mond saw on a regular, until what light breezes had them start to wilt. and. Well.
an “unbound soul” you say, huh, genshin ……
venti and nameless bard would’ve fully switched cecilias if the bard had lived that headcanon lives rent free in my brain.
anyways looks at this and squints. what in the world is going on with cecilias:
what else. what else. OH .
Venti . would trust the bard inexplicably with his wings source: trust me. venti would trust the bard inexplicably with so much. venti could hand the bard his heart on a silver platter and smile, because the bard would cherish it something precious. i await the day when it is ever . ever made canon that bard and wispti had a home together and slept cuddled or just by one another in general. there has to be a reason why venti says i haven’t seen this view in a while When He Is Sitting on his Statue’s HANDS. if the bard were to have ever have a social media account he 100% would’ve done “showing my wisp places they’ve never seen before” trend while holding wispti like a hamburger.
i. May be running out of steam. qpr bardven canon
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