#warlord shanzha au

[centuryberry]

Queen of the Mountain AUs

With Act I of "Queen of the Mountain" coming to a close soon, I'd like to share little AUs and ideas I have of this fic that I'm considering writing. The first two are directly connected to Queen of the Mountain while the other two are AUs with more mature themes.

Unforgivable AU: In which, the Hot Springs Incident never happens and Shanzha is sent over to FFM as Wukong's bride like in canon. Despite RinRin and Yue's efforts to escape the clan's clutches and reach FFM, they were unable to save Shanzha, who had haplessly triggered her own route (platonic) and was killed by Macaque. While RinRin was eventually able to bring Shanzha back to life, the act was done and Yue has no desire to form a connection with Macaque - uncle or not. The three leave FFM and live their lives. Centuries later in the LMK era, a grown Yue reunites with Macaque and Wukong. (Angst/Eventual Forgiveness/Modern)

Warlord Shanzha AU: After the end of RinRin's Route, Wukong and RinRin renew their marriage, and Macaque and Shanzha (heartbroken) decide to focus on retrieving Yue from the Zodiac Monkey Clan's clutches. When the dust settles, Shanzha reluctantly becomes Clan Head and Warlord of the Land of Eternal Snow. Macaque becomes her advisor and trophy husband, and the pair end up being a platonic power couple. Wukong and RinRin reunite with them later during the JTTW era and old feelings reemerge. Yue may or may not be working behind the scenes to help set them up since the pining is ridiculous. (Humor/Second Chance/Parent Trap)

Fae AU: Faelord Wukong catches sight of Macaque hiking in his forest with his family (Shanzha and Yue) and falls in love with him at first sight. So he lures Macaque into a fairy ring and whisks him away. Macaque desperately tries to find a way back home while trying to resist Wukong's advances. This is made even more difficult when Wukong's wife and fellow Faelord, RinRin, decides to do the same with Shanzha. Or, as I'd like to think of it, two cringefail supernatural beings try to seduce a hot pair of mortals into staying with them forever while these two desperately try to get back to their daughter. (Mature, Dark Themes, Supernatural, Kidnapping, Eventual Poly)

A/B/O AU: In which, Wukong and RinRin (both Alphas) are longtime rulers of FFM whose lives and perception of themselves are turned on their heads when they offer sanctuary to a pair of traveling mated Omegas (Macaque and Shanzha) who are expecting their child. It's mostly an introspection on the gender norms for both primary and secondary genders, established unconventional pairings and how they make it work, self-repression due to societal pressures, eventual self-acceptance, and how inherently and gloriously queer the poly is no matter how you shake them and look at them. (Mature, Unconventional A/B/O dynamics, Eventual Poly)

I'm open to expanding on any of these AUs! Of course, my main focus is on the main fic, but it's nice to dabble in different ideas!

[centuryberry]

Queen of the Mountain Universe

So, after watching Season 5 (which has devastated me, by the way - completely and utterly destroyed me), I was inspired to incorporate a certain character into the Queen of the Mountain Universe and tie together the AUs tied to the games. (Excluding the A/B/O AU, Fae AU, and the Imperial Harem AU.)

This technically isn't a fic spoiler since I won't be adding any of this into the main fic itself, mind you. I already have too much planned in Acts II and III to include the new revelations, but I'm writing my ideas here. (May consider writing some oneshots set post-QotM.)

Warning: Spoilers for LMK Season 5 below!

We all knew it was Xiangliu. This snake man has a grip on me that only happened once before when Season 1 Macaque sashayed into my life. Holy hell, he's the definition of chaotic neutral. Also, the hints of lore he dropped before casually moving on because he thought it wasn't important? Drove me insane. What do you mean you and Wukong used to be friends? What do you mean Macaque made a deal? What do you mean be "he's winning"?! Who's he?!

I have no idea what LMK has planned for him (or if he's even going to come back in the future seasons), but I know what plans I have for him now.

To be honest, Xiangliu (the Nine-Headed Demon who nearly scammed Ao Guang and his ilk in Chapter 16) wasn't supposed to be significant in the Queen of the Mountain universe. But with how Season 5 ended up, I made him into a more important player.

Just like the LMK world, I'd like to think that the QotM world also experiences a similar "cycle" in the form of "resets." It would make sense, right? As In the Sun's Embrace and Sunchaser are games that encourages reloads and resets to explore different routes, it's not too far-fetched to think that the world itself experiences something similar.

I've always had a fondness of Time Loops in stories, especially with at least one person remembering every loop. Xiangliu would be that person in this case. Somehow, he became aware of what was happening and yearned for an escape from this constant resetting of the world.

(He must've gone insane gaining and losing friends, lovers, and enemies, doomed to repeat the same song and dance again except his bonds would never be the same since he's always changing and always growing while everyone else regresses every time.)

Eventually, he removed himself from the living world all together and replaced one of the Ten Kings of the Underworld to find a way out. Still, he'd pop up here and then to maybe make some interventions or watch when something new played out.

While a lot of the diverging AUs are mostly due to the different choices made by individuals, I'd like to think that Xiangliu made some of them possible. Notably, Warlord Shanzha AU, Withered Grave Flowers AU, Detoxify AU, and Extra Pilgrim AU.

Well, you noticed how LBD seems to be absent in those AUs, right? How Yue magically comes out of things alive and unpossessed by her into the modern era? Well, the answer in Xiangliu. He doesn't do this in every cycle, but he sometimes has the heart to spare Yue from her canon fate. Making her fate better always seems to give happier endings to all of the celestial monkeys. Not perfect, but happier.

(And, because it would be so funny to me, I'd like to think he at least hooked up with every member of the celestial monkey poly occasionally in between cycles. So he has a history with all of them which I may expand on in another post if anyone's interested.)

So, there you have it. A way for all of these AUs to technically be canon. (Thank you, Season 5.)

As for what Xiangliu is doing during Queen of the Mountain, he's doing nothing. For the first time, he didn't have to do anything to make a drastic change to the usual script. For the first time, he's interested to see how things turn out. Because of a certain six-eared baby monkey yaoguai who ended up in the palanquin.

[centuryberry]

Warlord Shanzha AU is the end of the rinrin route.

Withered gray flower AU is the end of the Shanzha route.

Is king snow macaque AU Azure lion route ending you know the AU that macaque has a hot girl summer and works through all his issues by ranting his issues to his subjects. because I realize Azure lion route ending doesn't have one that goes to the modern day like the other two.

No, Snow/Winter Macaque King AU is more tied to Canon Macaque being thrown into LoES post revival. If Macaque had been revived post Brotherhood route, his feelings towards Wukong would be extreme concern instead of bitterness since he believed until his very last breath that this was not like Wukong.

But an AU post Brotherhood route. Interesting.

[centuryberry]

Warlord shanzha poly meets the king queen and warrior poly. The latter are inches from scooting away

QK&W!RinRin, pointing at their AU versions: See what I've done for all of you ungrateful idiots? (Not you, Shanzha darling, we're happy that you're here.)

[centuryberry]

First wow warlock is dysfunctional as hell. Second you described every dynamic except shadowflower. It could be bc you forgot since there were so many combinations, but putting in the possibility they don't have much of a relationship since rinrin still feels guilty about stealing wukong from him. Guilt overtakes her budding crush on him, meanwhile rinrin remains macaques type so he also has a guilty budding crush but it's tainted with bitterness at wukong choosing her of the two

Oh my god how embarrassing, I must've forgotten to add them in since there was so much!

This is a continuation of this post.

So, about Shadowflower:

While RinRin and Macaque usually kept in their own lanes, their paths would inevitably cross with Yue involved. While her homeland is in the Land of Eternal Snow, Macaque wanted her to experience FFM and its fruits and warmth. They would initially be short and extremely formal with each other because of a cocktail of complicated feelings for each other.

Then, by a twist of fate, they encounter each other after an argument with Wukong - separate arguments, mind you. They decide to get drunk together and vent and shit-talk about Wukong before inevitably breaking down and crying. They open up and confess their insecurities. They end up understanding each other really well since they are, in a way, reflections of each other. After this, they're more friendly with each other. They become drinking buddies. Who makes out sometimes and never acknowledge it when they're sober.

[centuryberry]

We met and talked about several Yues that weren't Yue from queen of the mountain. Are all those Yues also reincarnated humans, or was OG Yue always really similar to reincarnated Yue

Warlord Shanzha AU, Withered Graveflowers AU, Extra Pilgrim AU, and Detoxify AU are set in the QotM universe but in different cycles so those Yue’s are the OG Yue. Fae AU Yue is also a Yue of her own. The rest are reincarnated humans (Unpaid Babysitter, Unforgiveable AU, Omegaverse AU, etc.)

And yes, the OG Yue is similar to reincarnated Yue. Just a little less confident and not as precocious.

[centuryberry]

You didn't put eventual poly in the fae au like you did for a/b/o but assuming peachflower remain married, I still count it as poly even without shadowflower, icepeach, or iceshadow. In between the toxic essence of warlock poly, and the healthiness of kqw poly, where does fae poly and abo poly fall in

Okay, I'm going to be real with you:

Fae AU is an endgame poly. I purposefully kept it ambiguous in my summarization of the AU since I wasn't sure how people would react to ships outside of Shadowpeach and Iceflower. Count me pleasantly surprised by how everyone likes the Celestial Monkey poly.

Macaque and Shanzha were happily married pre-kidnapping and are proud (adopted) parents of Yue. Macaque's love for his wife and child is what drives his determination to return home. RinRin (a total wingwoman and a supportive wife) decides to take out the competition (Shanzha) and bring over the child (Yue) so Macaque could stay forever.

RinRin sneaks into the mortal realm and the loser ends up falling in love with her target. Cue slowly wooing the mortal disguised as another mortal before luring her into a fairy ring.

I'd have to say that the Warlord AU is messy, but it isn't toxic. At least not compared to the Fae AU, which gets really toxic if Shadowpeach's beginning wasn't a sign enough. Fae don't play nice or fair. While Wukong is head-over-heels for Macaque, he's also selfish and possessive. RinRin shares his traits. They're not kind and their sense of morality is VERY different from mortals. This AU doesn't have a happy ending (for the mortals). The Fae Lords, on the other hand, are very happy.