THE VOICES HAVE COMPELLED ME (your replant au has a chokehold on me)
So I sketched some character designs for Shangshen and Yishan uwu
Some close ups
Will color later cause i need to work on my art fight stuff ✨️UwU✨️
@fantasy-angelo Character designs??? For Yue’s parents???? You’re designing Yue’s entire family with your own hands omg. And you made Sangshen so pretty! I can see some subtle Macaque in some of her features. I see that she glamoured away her six ears like he usually does too! Also, Yishan - FFM’s rancid monkey who loves his wife. You made him so handsome and cold, just as I imagined him! The designs of his facial markings are on point too! And lol him simping over his wife at the corner. Yue certainly got her looks from her bio parents!
The details in their hairstyles and clothing are amazing! I don’t know how you manage to do this every time! Thanks for drawing this out in the midst of your art fight!
Summary: To Yishan, Sangshen is everything. So, when the doctor said that the winter weather of LoES would weaken his beloved and make her pregnancy harder than it should be, he packed his bags, left behind his title as Clan Heir, and moved somewhere warmer. It ends up being FFM.
Or: Yishan moves out of his parents' house and gets a job. Sangshen lives and reunites with her long-lost brother. Yue ends up with five parents and one annoying guy who loves her Mama very much.
Some things about this AU:
Just to preface: Yishan has little to no character development. He remains his wife-obsessed asshole self throughout the entire AU. He has no paternal bone in his body and never develops one.
Moving to the exact island where Sangshen's little brother lived was by complete accident. Yishan just wanted to take her there since he heard it was paradise.
The entire reunion was tearjerking. Macaque has a family who never stopped loving him and Sangshen got her brother back.
Wukong and Macaque were there at Yue's birth and were one of the first people to hold her (Yishan wasn't interested.) They adored her immediately and Macaque cried when he's told she was named after him.
Yishan got to have an official wedding with Sangshen and make her his legal wife like he's always wanted. She made a beautiful bride.
As a citizen of FFM and not Clan Heir, Yishan needed to pull his own weight to provide for his family. Thankfully, because he was Clan Heir, he had skills that put him under Liu's command.
Surprisingly enough, Liu manages to get through Yishan's difficult personality and becomes his first and only friend. (No, in-laws and their not-yet-lover/king don't count.) They have this bromance thing going on, though Sangshen still lingers in 90% of Yishan's thoughts. But Liu has the honor of having a consistent 5%.
Yishan eventually chills enough to form healthy(?) relationships outside of his wife. He also provides for his daughter. Just not emotionally, which is fine since Yue is loved enough already by literally everyone else.
Yishan and Beng butt heads a lot. Actually, Yishan gets under almost everyone's skin because his personality is terrible to everyone except Sangshen. FFM eventually just accepts Yishan having a rancid personality. That's Yishan.
To the shock of everyone, Yishan was the one to get Shadowpeach together. And then, everyone ended up not being as surprised when it turned out that his agenda was to have Wukong and Macaque distract each other to cut down on time his wife's attention is away from him. Yishan is well known for getting the impossible done for the sake of his wife's time and love.
Trade agreements, alliances, battles - all end up successful when placed in Yishan's hands as long as it has something to do with his wife. He makes it happen.
Yishan can also be charismatic and friendly to outsiders and/or enemies in order to manipulate them. Does it often while he's on the job. FFM as a whole was thrown in a loop the first time it happened. They were all like: who??? r u????? Where's our rancid wife-obsessed monkey????
Yishan hates Azure. Yishan knows himself. He embraces it. But another person like him? In HIS slice of heaven? Threatening HIS wife’s little brother’s love life? Hahaha, no. Sangshen already planned out the wedding gifts and is making the wedding veil. No way.
Yishan has HUGE beef with Peng, which started after they accused Macaque of begetting a child with Yishan (The Brotherhood hadn’t met Sangshen yet and believes she’s fake lol). How DARE they accuse him of sleeping with anyone other than his wife?!?
Shanzha is still sent over as a bride at some point. Heaven express-shipped Yishan's little sister. She isn't received with suspicion. Instead, it's with pity since they knew how much LoES messed Yishan up by then. Sangshen is happy to see her again. Yishan wants the gift receipt to return her but reconsiders when he realizes that she can be another babysitter (more undisturbed time with wife).
The one and only time Yishan does the impossible for anyone other than his wife is for Liu. He somehow manages to pull RinRin from Diyu by employing the help of the Red-Buttocked Baboon (and the Long-Armed Gibbon is there too). Whoops, accidentally acquired a girlfriend for his sister. Well, at least she's distracted now too. And Yue gets another babysitter.
Honestly, Yishan makes a happy ending happen with his own hands soley so everyone would leave him and his wife alone to spend together. That's it. That's the plot.
Extra Fun Fact: Yishan spends every Spring Season wooing Sangshen as if they were unmated monkeys. Say what you want about him, but this man loves his wife.
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.
I was thinking about the Azure poisoning (as one does), and while I know that it wouldn’t happen in the replanted au, I’m interested in a version of it so to speak
well, more of Sangshen and Yishan’s reaction if Yue accidentally (or not) got poisoned, especially after years of relative comfort and safety in FFM. We all know how Yue’s other parents reacted lol, now we just need to know about the other two
Sangshen would be distraught. She'd be screaming and crying as she saw her little girl choking in front of her. Afterward, even if Yue was saved, she would never forgive Azure. She's slow to anger and rarely hates, but the lion crossed a line. Yishan would be enraged. Not in a "you hurt my daughter" sort of way, but in a "you dare bring that poison into our house and onto our table?" In LoES, this blatant poisoning/drugging is like a taunt or an insult. And that kind of insult warrants only one reaction: killing. Yishan would kill Azure because if he didn't, what sort of message would that send to everyone else about FFM - about his home?
"Yishan was the one to get Shadowpeach together." you cant just say that and not elaborate. Was he blunt "you two are in love" or used his diplomatic skill/subtle manipulation
Yishan: I don't understand you, Wukong. How are you taking so long to court my brother in law? That man is gorgeous I'm surprised he hasn't been snatched up already. I certainly had to make my wife off limits as quick and clear as possible back in my clan.
Wukong: (splutters) You-! I-! We’re just-!
Yishan: (shrugs and starts inspecting his nails) It’s none of my business in the end, though I’m a bit worried about the love potioning attempts that might come his way without a strong suitor’s claim to deter them.
Wukong:
Wukong: 👀 💢 The. What.
Yishan: (gleefully spills all the ways Macaque’s hypothetical line of suitors would try to get his attention - they’re all horrifyingly true, he had to block many attempts from reaching Sangshen)
And, lo and behold, Shadowpeach is suddenly canon only three days later. Sangshen is over the moon and Yishan happily spends more time with his wife now that the pests, ahem, his in-laws are too busy with each other to visit.
I know Shanzha would be THRILLED to be an aunt to the twins; her beloved baby brother and beloved brother in law + her sweet sister-in-law and her wife having kids?? She’s over the moon!
It’s only enhanced by her sweet baby Yue getting to be a big sister, and a excellent one at that
I'm guessing that you meant Sangshen, but yes, she would be over the moon about the twins. They're so cute! And, along with Liu, she'd be a wonderful babysitter (much to Yishan's dismay lol).
Louhou and Jidu would go to her for some cuddles and spoiling and snacks. She always asks Yishan and Liu to come back with some gifts for them whenever they go out for work. The twins are Yishan's reckoning for trying to use Shadowpeach and Iceflower for his "wife time" ends.
Yishan has a hilarious rivalry over Sangshen's attention. She makes sure it doesn't get too serious when she catches on. No need for Yishan to outright despise the twins to the point it gets dangerous (like it did for Yue in canon).
I’m sure this is a throwback to the past lol, but I was rereading QOTM and remembered the replanted au, so it sparked some curiosity
If, say, the LBD possession of Yue ever came to pass like it might in QOTM, how would Sangshen and Yishan react to that? (Badly, I’m sure, in the case of Sangshen)
Gosh, Sangshen would be devastated and worried about Yue’s well being. She’d despise LBD for taking advantage of her little girl. She’d just want her daughter back and safe.
And since his wife his upset, Yishan is upset. He might not being father material, but he’d at least be fond(?) enough of Yue to be offended for her sake too (though wifey’s tears take priority in his mind lol.) True to pattern, Yishan once again does the impossible and rips the bone demoness out of Yue’s body.
He curb stomps the Mayor too with the help of Shanzha. It’s truly a sibling bonding moment. But that’s another story.
I think I found a loophole for Sangshen to use lol
Shangshen: “It would make me happy if you watched Yue for me for just a bit. It would make me even happier if you held her”
Yishan: begrudgingly holds Yue at arms length in silence until Sangshen returns
This would be the overall mood of the exchanges between Yishan and baby Yue. He’d do it reluctantly since it makes his wife happy, but he never bonds with her. She’s more of a chore.
But when she grows up and becomes her own person? Yishan doesn’t mind getting to know her and have a positive relationship with her. Just not the father-daughter kind she has with Wukong.
