#he is a hypocrite in some SAGAU stories

[alitheakorogane]

Freedom's Protection: May the Anemo Archon Protect You

Summary: You were chased out by your beloved characters from Mondstadt who thought that you were the imposter that 'stole' the face of the person you remembered who never even exist in the game files. Meanwhile, their own disguised Archon had done something stupid that could change everything forever.

This is the second part of Mondstadt's storyline for the Reader Protection Squad SAGAU series.

Note: There are instances of grammatical errors, please bear with me. Also, the entire layout was now changed and I placed a title on them so I could not be confused while I write the next chapters. It's still the same story though.

Chapters: 1, 2 (current), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

You were running for your life, literally.

The people of Mondstadt have finally caught you loitering around while looking for food within the nation's borders, and the Knights of Favonius and citizens alike are catching up to you. Even Acting Grand Master Jean and Master Diluc were there, leading the hunt against you. 

You can't believe how Teyvat does Diluc joined forces with the Knights when he was against them since his father's death. They are dedicated to making your life hell, you suppose.  

You did not choose this life, but fate always seems to punch you in the gut. Maybe the gods above wanted to make fun of your misfortune, for they even isekai-ed you to a universe where the characters of your favorite game were willing to tear you to oblivion for something you did not know of. You just wanted a peaceful life, even for one moment, and you didn't get it, unfortunately.

When you got stranded in the world of Teyvat by some mysterious means, you were excited at first. You loved playing Genshin Impact and you could say that it was an escape from your lonely and repetitive life. You wanted to see the fantastical world in your eyes, as you were limited by a screen before, looking at the beautiful scenery of Teyvat in the eyes of the Travelers. You even wanted to meet your favorite characters, especially your main one.

But when you first stepped into the city of Mondstadt, expecting the citizens of the City of Freedom with welcoming smiles on their faces, your beautiful dreams were shattered when they chased you out of the city, throwing some things and rotten fruits at you at every corner, shouting about you being an imposter. The Church of Favonius called you a scum of the continent and the Knights of Favonius have been bat-shit crazy to capture you to be executed. 

The City of Freedom, my ass.

You have no idea what is going on until you see a big statue in the middle of the city as you tried to calm your breathing, the figure is serene with its arms extended to the heavens, probably pointing to Celestia. But as you squinted your eyes at the statue, you noticed that the statue is different.

You had remembered in your experience of playing Genshin that this was supposed to be Lord Barbatos' huge statue, with his serene face plastered unto it. You may even see a similar face on a certain bard in Mondstadt, probably drunk or playing his precious lyre somewhere, who knows. Venti isn't known for being subtle, for an Archon who wants to hide his true identity, he was sure as flashy and dramatic as he was, especially when drunk.

But you were surprised to see that the statue doesn't have Venti's face on it like it was supposed to. Instead, your face was plastered on it, wearing a fancy robe with a serene look on it. Your jaw dropped when you saw the monstrosity and figured out that this could be the reason you were chased by an angry mob. You look like that statue in front of you, and you presumed that whoever this is, they must be the current god of Mondstadt, Teyvat even. What happened to Venti anyway? Was he replaced or wasn't he an Archon, to begin with in this universe?

You may think this is the wrong Genshin Impact you had been sent to. Gods, why have they forsaken you by throwing you in the wrong one!

“(Y/N)!”

As you were now cornered by multiple people, three green-laced arrows were seen flying toward the surprised Knights, and you could see the look of disbelief in Diluc and Jean’s eyes like they couldn’t believe what they saw. Outrider Amber was ready to strike back, her hands were holding the bow as if she was ready to shoot if necessary, and her sharp arrows were laced with her Pyro. The Spindrift Knight was there too, her multicolored heterochromatic eyes glaring at you and the person behind you with burning intensity, even though Eula was technically a Cryo Vision Holder. Lisa was also there, but compared to the people with her, she was just chilling out there and watching the scene unfold.

You then looked back to see who was the one who shot the arrows and thank them, but your eyes widened in shock as you saw the culprit behind the attack.

Venti the Bard had pointed his Elegy of the End bow towards the people of Mondstadt, his own people, with his anemo-infused arrows which were glowing brightly as it was ready to strike anyone who dares to shoot you with anything. He was accompanied by Razor, Fischl, and Bennett, who were also holding their respective weapons as if posing for an attack.

You were confused as hell when it was revealed that Venti had been willing to fight his people to save you and to prove your innocence, that he was willing to honor his promise to you a while ago.

You remembered your conversation with him a while ago, where he confronted you and honestly told you about your situation. You could even see the sincerity when he told you that he was going to protect you because he was like you, an imposter, who is unlucky enough to share the same face as the Divine Creator of Celestia and Teyvat.

As you remembered, it was not mentioned in the game about the existence of a Divine Creator. Well, the existence of the Primordial One or Phanes in the game lore was closest enough, but you never know that much about the Genshin Impact lore department. 

Thankfully, no one was hurt by the arrows, and you had assumed that it was a warning shot to fend your would-be captors off. Venti was still caring for his people even though he was now against them.

"Put your weapons down or you'll be sorry," Venti threatened the Knights with a dark glare, especially to the two leaders in front of him, who were still looking at the Archon-in-disguise in disbelief. You know that these two knew that Venti is Lord Barbatos in disguise due to the Stormterror incident, and you could imagine how heartbroken Jean would be if she found out about Venti's actions towards you. And she did now, you can hear her beliefs shattered in an instant she saw Venti pointing his arrows at her and the Knights.

"Bard, what is the meaning of this?" Diluc asked the hidden Anemo Archon with a confused look, as he could never understand how Lord Barbatos was defending the imposter. Venti just glared back as he spoke in a scathing tone, "You don't know what your doing, attacking an innocent one for something they never did."

Eula scoffed as she regained her composure, "Innocent? Don't make me laugh, insolent bard. That rodent had committed the greatest crime anyone could do in Teyvat! Posing as the Divine Creator, bearing that face?"

Bennett gathered his courage to snap back at the woman, his green eyes glaring in determination to defend you, " (Y/N) is not an Imposter! They are the Divine Grace, and we saw that in our own two eyes."

Lisa had retorted back at the claim, as many people had gathered around them to listen to their banters, "Oh cutie, what if they brainwashed you to believe them? They could be part of the Abyss Order for all we know."

Eula, the Knights, and some of the citizens had agreed with the purple witch's statement while Jean and Diluc just stood there with a conflicted look, "It's impossible for any divinity to become a human, let alone live and mingle alongside humans like they were not divinity, to begin with! The Divine Grace is perfect in any means, so this scum must be an imposter, and those brainless people who imitated the gods must be punished and torn to oblivion, so vengeance will be served!"

The majority of the people agreed with the bluenette's statement, but some are not sure about it. Jean was still looking at the bard with a conflicted look in her eyes, while Diluc placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

"Imposters like them must be eliminated at all costs, for the protection of everyone. And for the Archons, Celestia, and the Divine Grace themselves. They were the lowest of the low, a scum of Teyvat, a scoundrel that needs to be executed."

The young-looking bard felt like he was offended by that statement and decided to retort back, as he bowed his head down his bangs covering his hurt-filled eyes, "So that's what you thought of imposters? Scum of Teyvat? A scoundrel who just takes advantage of others' identity as if they never had the reason why they did that? Is that it?"

You widened your eyes as you realized what he was about to do.

"Venti, don't do it," you warned him, trying to stop what he is going to imply. He may regret it later, and what he was going to reveal will shatter everything that he ever wanted to do ever since he woke up from his long slumber.

But it was too late, he had already glared back at the people infront of him with tears in his eyes, these same people that his bard friend had sacrificed his life for thousands of years ago, his own people he swore to protect...

Is this how freedom is when it was given to his people and was just taken for granted?

"What if your dear Anemo Archon was also like them, an imposter who also steals someone's face?!"

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I guess that I should stop this here because it's getting too long. I will be posting a continuation someday, that is, if my mind was still chugging some ideas about this angsty SAGAU fic.

Yes, this is Part 2, as Part 1 was the last fic where Venti had a convo with the reader where he confronted them about being an imposter.

So Venti is part of your protection squad in this Imposter AU concept, one of the two Archons who are going to help you. He is usually the mischaracterized character in SAGAU fics, and I wanted to do justice to my boi's character.

After all, he knew the songs of the past, present, and future so he probably knows nearly everything that happened in the timeline. He is also known for taking the form of his friend when he ascended to be the Anemo Archon, so he was also an imposter by any means.

Never intended to end that way, originally I intended to let the Reader run while Venti had sacrificed himself to his people as a distraction. But as I wrote this story, the angsty side of me suddenly pops up.

[genshinemblem564]

Sagau headcanons

Some of these may be important to future stories and story chapters

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• The Creator of Teyvat has a divine presence so powerful that those who suffer from a curse need only stand in their presence for the curse to be lifted, this also affects spiritual contracts with steep prices, however, this dissolves the contract completely, both positive and negative effects.

• The immortals (archons, familiars, adepti) are all extremely bothered by how often you talk about "When I'm gone..." You apologize profusely telling them you haven't fully processed this information yet.

• Kaveh was the one to design your temple, and he's quite proud of this. You made the request to add a few extra rooms and he obliged, not knowing what you'd do with this space but not daring to ask. To his, and many others', surprise you had invited some of your loyal followers to live with you, these extra rooms were to provide proper work space for everyone.

• Unfortunately for your followers, the more important they were, the less time you could spend with them, as they are almost always busy with something. The only exception to this is Ei, with her Plane of Euthymia and the Shogun bearing the responsibilities, she could spend hours with you. She'd like to spend more time with you, but you also have your role to play.

• After being revealed as the creator, you spend a lot of time talking with Ayaka, as you begin to worry that some people are only being nice to you because of your title, just like her, so you know she's the right person to talk to about this. She can't help but feel a little guilty with how happy this makes her, she hates seeing you suffer, but she loves not only that you're relying on her, but that she's able to relate to you in some way as well.

• Venti is not happy with how he found out your identity. One night the two of you had a chance meeting, you spent a good few hours trading stories and ballads, the ones you shared were from or about other game worlds, and eventually the traveler and Paimon came by. As you spoke, the phrase "Tone-deaf Bard" left your lips, upon realizing what you said everyone there nearly screamed, you included. The only one to use Paimon's ugly nicknames other than Paimon, is the creator.

• Not really a self aware headcanon, but the traveler will always be Aether and the abyss ruler will always be Lumine in my writings,for two reasons, one, this is the choice I made on my account, and two, that is how it is in every trailer and ad I've seen.

• Aether once asked you your opinion on the Abyss Order, hoping to indirectly ask about Lumine. Everyone was shocked and annoyed by this "Why bother their grace with such a pointless question? The Abyss is the enemy of Teyvat so obliviously they despise them just as we do." That's what everyone said. You told them that the Abyss is one of the biggest bunch of hypocrites you've met. Everyone but Aether was confused by this, what made them hypocrites? That's when you revealed the Abyss Order's motives, needless to say everyone was shocked by this.

•More of a theory but I felt like sharing it in this format. It was only a matter of time before this happened. Abyss mages had surrounded you and Aether, not trying to harm you, more forcefully recruit you, and the Abyss princess herself was present. As expected, she "requested" you join her cause, to which you replied " I'm not siding with anyone who can't get their facts straight." Even Aether was confused this time, before Lumine could speak, you asked what she remembers of Khaenri'ah's destruction, she described it exactly as you remembered it except for one thing. You inquired about the strange power used to destroy the nation, because that power was eerily similar to the powers of the unknown god Aether is tracking, the fact that the Irminsul was tampered with only furthered your suspicions. Needless to say Lumine, as well as the present abyss soldiers were absolutely livid.

• The Abyss Order, upon gaining the knowledge you possessed, were quick to apologize and turn over a new lead, leaving everyone shocked and confused, even more so when you told them that a simple heart to heart was all it took. Now the siblings are reunited, hopefully for good this time, and Teyvat has one less major threat to deal with.

• You practically demanded that the anemo gnosis be returned by the Fatui, they thought you wanted all of them returned so they brought all of them to you, which prompted the response "Why did you bring all of them? I only wanted the anemo gnosis returned because it was stolen, the rest were obtained through fair deals and trade, you can keep them." The Fatui soldiers and harbingers were confused, but they weren't going to argue if you're letting them keep the rest of the gnoses.

• When you were first revealed to be the creator, Venti had asked why you drink so little, about one glass of wine a day. You thought you'd be funny and mess with your acolytes a little, leading you to say "Because, last time I got wasted tarantula hawks became a thing." You then proceeded to describe these nightmarish creatures in great detail. You come to regret this sudden outburst of mischief when you noticed Diluc hiding a wine bottle from you.

• If you're like me, then you tend to ramble about the games you enjoy, leading the younger followers to gather as you tell other worldly tales of heroism.

• Yanfei was impressed with you before you even arrived in Teyvat. In fact, you had her respect soon after you first met, looking for the smaragdus jadeite, the moment you learned that the jadeite was made into earrings you immediately guessed that either they were fake or that the man who rented them out didn't care about customer safety. While she had deduced as such just as fast, the same can't be true of other people, the traveler and Paimon are proof of this, so the fact that you can so easily keep up with her is rather impressive.

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I'm sorry about the two exceptions to the headcanon topic, I just really felt like this format fit them and I couldn't think of enough details for them to warrant their own post, but I hope you enjoyed this. Also, feel free to use any of these, generally make posts like these when I can't flesh an idea out properly, so these are free game.

[sagau-my-beloved]

OK OK OK HAHAHAHA this is gonna be terrible and I don’t even know if you’ve done this before but I have two ideas. Ei and Venti related ofc

Idea one: Yk how Venti has beef with Ei/Raiden? Imagine his S.O takes the role of electro archon. Like…. Thoughts?

Idea two: An archon(Like Ei cause of slight beef) steaks Venti’s S.O away. Literally snatches them while he’s away, and has hidden them away.

I feel like I can make the first one wholesome gimme a minute

So like, for starters, I would say that he doesn't have any problem with the role itself, it would make him a hypocrite if he just had a problem with Archons, it's more him and Ei have completely different views about how to rule a nation, so it's personal, and there's absolutely nothing saying you have to rule that nation as she did

I guess there could be a variety of situations which would kind of hinge on why the reader is taking over the role of electro archon, and you could also change it up based on if Venti knew the reader before that, or if their cause of meeting is because there is a new archon, i.e. you

Assuming you're taking over the role because Ei dies he'd probably have mixed feelings on the whole thing, like sure, they weren't the closest and they certainly had their differences, but that was someone he had known a very long time, she was around almost as long as him

If she's simply choosing to step down he's probably a bit more hopeful about the entire thing, a new face, a new way of ruling that has the potential of being better than what she did, only time will tell

He probably wouldn't pay a whole lot of attention on who takes over the position at first because his status as an active Archon is debatable at best, but maybe if you sought him out to say hi he'd take matters into his own hands, only after realising you're much easier to get along with that is

More likely to feel comfortable getting close to you considering you have a similar life spans, of course he would still be significantly older than you so you gotta deal with him hanging that over your head

Now if you already knew and were involved with each other before that, and by some weird turn of events you just happened to ascend (or descend? depending on if it's sagau ig), that would be a slightly different story

Once again you could split this into two main different things, either you were human before and have now suddenly become a god, in that case he's going to be absolutely stoked, now he doesn't have to worry about losing you nearly as quickly as before (human lifespan and all)

Realistically he was already probably looking for an excuse to grant you some sort of immortality, but this is just way more convenient—

Or so he thinks, until he realizes that you're not opting to take his 'hands off' ruling approach, and actually now have, you know, work to do

If you were some sort of immortal being beforehand, he probably considers this a downgrade, because nothing has changed except now you're forced to be away from him for significant periods of time, ruling a nation and all

Luckily, due to his specific circumstance, he's allowed to abandon his nation to bug you for as long as he wants, Inazuma just gained its newest resident (Thoma finally has another person from Mondstadt to talk to thank god-)

Of course he's going to use the excuse that he has way more experience being an Archon, and it would just be incredibly rude not to help you along, at least in the beginning, do him a favor and overlook the fact that he hasn't acted like an Archon in a few centuries-

But yeah, a lot of mixed feelings there, he really doesn't want that kind of responsibility on someone he loves so dearly, he would encourage you heavily to be a very different leader than she was so you don't have to deal with as much responsibility (but he also secretly likes taking care of that stuff for you, there's probably a part of him that likes acting like an Archon, so to spend time helping you help people is kind of refreshing)

Now onto the other one

This is certainly a can of worms, you have to know that action is an active threat against his entire nation btw

Like, it's basically a declaration of war, and he's not gonna drag Mondstadt or the Knights into it, but someone doing something to hurt the person he loves as a direct attack against him is just simply unforgivable

Immediately whatever ties he had with that particular Archon are completely severed, that's a relationship killer, and I'm talking all the way down to passive diplomacy, not a single person in the government scene from that nation is allowed to step foot in his any longer after this is all settled, and he is going to make sure of that through the Knights

It's kind of funny, but it seems like Venti doesn't really get along with any of the other Archons, I want to say he's probably closest with Zhongli and they share a causal love/hate friendship where they just completely bash each other's names but might occasionally stare out a window wistfully thinking of the old times

He and Ei have a pretty mutual distaste, acquaintances might be a bit of a stretch, they don't agree with each other on much of anything, and obviously his relationship with our dear Tsaritsa is pretty much shot, then he's voiced his open distaste about Murata, or the Pyro Archon, multiple times—

Idk about the Hydro or past or present Dendro ones, so I'll take the liberty of just assuming neutral, but for that whole 'stealing reader away thing', the blame really could realistically be placed on quite a few of them

Anyway, Venti doesn't have a whole lot of self control, so he's probably singlehandedly charging right in to that nation as soon as he realises—

Now he might, might, go out of his way to ask for Zhongli's help, because, let's face it, I really just don't think he could hold up in a one on one between pretty much any other Archon

Sure, if anyone other than a literal God took his beloved they'd be wiped off the face of the earth pretty quickly, but a simple 'sneak in sneak out' recon mission might be an order for this specific situation, and of course he would want to keep his nation out of it because let's face it, Mondstadt is kinda tiny, it's not exactly some big military power like some of those others

Assuming all goes smoothly, you're not leaving his sight for a good long time

The first couple of weeks to months after he's going to be on high alert 24/7, after that he might ease up a little but he's still practically attached to you at the hip, and will continue to be for a while

If you're mortal, that kind of increase is the whole tons of fears about you dying, because there were like a million different instances in that entire scenario where you could have died, so it's kind of a wake up call about how fragile you actually are and how there's always going to be other forces that try to get to him through you

He's gonna harbor a pretty strong sense of guilt about the entire thing for a while, like it was basically his fault, he should have noticed immediately when you were taken and you wouldn't have been taken at all if it wasn't for your association with him etc etc, the impact of that is simply he's just way more likely to give in to whatever you want of him as some convoluted form of making it up to you

If that nation is foolish enough to make another attack he's completely ready for it, he is not letting you get taken from him again and that's a promise

[alitheakorogane]

Please make a part 3 omg, we almost never get venti being woth us in imposter au and i love this so much!! He is my favorite character and it hurts when people make him hunt us down for having the same face as the creator when he has hus friends face. So thank you so much for making something more real!♡♡♡

Don't worry, as of the time of this post, the third part of my Reader Protection Squad is on the works!

Venti is my favorite character in the game (along with Barbara). As much as I love the angst on SAGAU Imposter and Cult AU stories, I can't help but cringe whenever Venti does some bat-shit yandere while hunting the Imposter when he is also classified as an imposter himself by taking the form of his friend.

He is also the God of Freedom for Archon's sake. Why would he restrict the freedom of a simple human being without any hesitation just because they look like the Creator? Does it violate his principles of enforcing his ideals to his people?

It was screaming "hypocrite" to me.

He is usually mischaracterized, along with some of the characters in SAGAU fics to drive the plot forward or to just simply emphasize other characters. The Archons were the victims of these mischaracterizations in SAGAU Imposter AU fics, putting them in a bad light because they are the higher authority besides Celestia in the game.

But honestly, Zhongli and Ei are reasonable because of their aura and personality as the Archons and how they rule their respective nations based on their ideals, but Venti? The sweet and mischievous bard who is friendly and welcoming to anyone he came across? The literal god of freedom?

It could apply if it was Corrupted!Venti or Evil!Venti fics, but seriously.

No offense to those authors (I love your works, honestly), but Archons... you should have told us the logical reason why they are obsessive and acting out of character like it was caused by a bug in the system or something else. Maybe how the existence of a Divine Creator actually affects the beliefs of the people of Teyvat? Is Celestia pulling the strings? Or maybe it is explained by how they are actually acting in real-life Teyvat or when nobody is looking.

This idea was born because of all of this. I wanted to give my boi justice in SAGAU fics for once by testing how the story goes if he still has his canon personality in the world where the Reader was treated as shit because of mistaken identity.