#This is kinda complicated especially since present zhongli is different from pre-canon zhongli different from this zhongli

[ceruleanvermillion]

AU Where Zhongli and Dan Heng are brothers (part 3 ?)

Brainstorm session, spoiler warning and all that. There might be leaks but i honestly don't know.

continuation of this

Anyway I just feel like fleshing out their characteristics a bit?

Like obviously Dan Heng and Zhongli won't be exactly like their present day counterparts for various reasons. But not OOC either. I think they'd be incredibly different but also similar in a lot of ways.

i like to think that where Dan Heng is a man of rationality, Zhongli is a man of contradictions.

So Danheng would be someone who acts according to sense and sensibility, much like his present self. Maybe he'd be the quieter one, and I think he enjoys reading and learning about the world through the books and records. He'd be very talented- I think he's the one who learns faster among the two. He'd also be incredibly perceptive, and he could read the atmosphere well. Danheng wouldn't like Not Getting It, he does not like not understanding how things work.

Zhongli is someone who is principled, as the older brother he has to be a pillar, the more steadfast one regardless whether he knows what he's doing or not. However, he is also insightful like his brother, albeit more sentimental and contemplative of the two. He can be unbiased when he needs to be, but will it still affect him later on? yeah. Ironically, he has always struggled in reading his brother, while Danheng has always been good at reading him.

At first glance it seems like Danheng is predictable and Zhongli is unpredictable, but it's actually the opposite- Danheng is astute and flexible, but Zhongli will always act according to his heart and his beliefs. They are duty-bound people- but only he sees this as duty, as responsibility- Danheng sees it as simply a fact of life. The both of them are smart, but it is when put in a corner do their differences begin showing.

When they are separated, maybe Danheng would start acting more like Zhongli, while Zhongli would start acting more like Danheng. Overcompensation? Like Zhongli would become far more calculative and Dan Heng would start becoming more reflective and sentimental?

That's why pre-canon zhongli seems to have his heart closed, relying purely on taking the situation as is- meeting Guizhong and becoming archon will mold his character significantly, too. Pre-canon Zhongli is a very logical person, I think. They'd compliment each other very well, actually, because this time he'd be the more logical thinking one. Later as the present approaches, he'd probably begin to change from acting with logic to acting with his logic- his time with guizhong both teaching him new things and helping him relearning old things.

Dan Heng would start seeing the world in a deeper, more emotionally invested kind of way, which is why // leaks // he ends up doing things that seem entirely un-logical- he'd learn to have more of balanced outlook, approaching canon timeline. Dan Heng experiences memory-loss and all that, but what he learns will be ingrained in the way he acts nonetheless.

Still, Zhongli will always be a man of contradictions, and Dan Heng is always a man of rationality.