#that's. that's the fanfiction tag everyone. be glad it isn't just hashtag fanfiction

[jestiamy]

for context (separate links) / tagging @p1nkp0nkk since they are the one that. made me post this so like in this hypothetical au canon needs to be. canon ish. since the premise is "okay but what would V do in a canon timeline." ; but also with the general end goal of "become an antagonist, probably."

I don't really talk about it but my ocs actually do a lot in the background of canon. specifically in the tang dynasty and before (jttw era). to fix all of that meddling to make an au closer to canon we get ;

Ch'en, Gongdai, and Hong are all not around.

maybe they're dead, maybe they chose a difference form, maybe they never existed - none of that matters. as long as 'ch'en'/'gongdai'/'hong' are gone, this timeline can be achieved

This comic goes a lot less "entire comic+ after this everyone screamed" and more "V was just people watching -no form stuff intended since. they don't know they're meant to do that. they accidentally make eye contact. they're both really confused and also v is in a lot of sudden and confusing pain and freaking out really bad + after this V hides right away as every memory up until that moment macaque has ever had starts flooding over into their brain and instinct is all like. dude what the fuck you're gonna die!!! leave!!! hide!!! go away!!!"

Macaque dies, V takes a long long long long time to settle into their skin as a person that is distinctly Not Macaque without their shapeshifter seniors around to explain how it's meant to work. It's a lot of shock and hiding in caves. They come to accept that yeah, my best friend who I also don't know at all tried to kill me except I wasn't me I was someone else until I saw me and then I became me? But not. because I'm dead. They eventually work out a name (Venera) but it took a few hundred years more then it would otherwise and they're definitely a lot more macaque then they would have been if they knew what was happening

macaque comes to life and while he's gaining back his former strength and distinctly not doing whatever it is that weird bone lady wanted, he tries to find out if that person he saw before dying was like. actually a person. and not a hallucination. good side quest, very achievable, and definitely not a subconscious way to avoid confronting his issues by going on a fools errand.

he somehow actually finds the person. they both scream. great introduction

they work out some stuff. hey you're like, sort of me. yeah I guess. talk out their feelings. get eachother in loop on what their revenge scheme is if there is any at all. that stuff. after the conversation tapers off they go their other ways though, mostly because they both think the other is kind of weird. not like, a bad weird, but not really a good weird either.

they keep in brief contact. sort of. macaque just wonders back sometimes, and v doesn't really have anywhere else to go. the instinct of "hide like your life depends on it" was definitely one they didn't kick after the first time it showed up. so they kind of just hang out. in the same cave. forever.

macaque keeps coming back mostly because it's. kind of sad. like huh, if I managed to escape this is what I'd be. mostly just sees young macaque in v, takes pity on that, and comes back to try and be a friend when he has the time. he isn't exactly good at the friendship thing, but he hasn't tried to kill them yet, and that's better then v's last friend right ???

from there I have no idea but I'd imagine v's kind of like. this is My Friend, and macaque is the kind of guy to see no ethical or moral issues in asking his highly secluded friend who has no one else but him to help him out with evil stuff (he is slow and does not realize that is how it is framed) and so if given time and macaque thinking he should enough, they'd probably become macaque's like. in reserve evil henchman. highly in reserve though. he's no lady bone demon okay, he does not vibe well with "menacing person following me around as I do evil."

and so the au from there depends on how bad of a person I let macaque be because. v here is very loyal and macaque is the only person alive with that loyalty. this could go literally so many different ways depending on macaque's general reaction/feelings/plans regarding V