#lqg gets a major downgrade explicitly because sy wants lbh to win SO BADLY

[thegoldenavenger]

Here's a quick. Thing. They're All God's (except LBH) AU. This is like, the ending. no i dont explain anything. i just wanted lqg to get melted down and rebuilt. you know, as gods do. this does have an open/unsatisfactory endind just fyi haha

When he loses the first time, Liu Qingge refuses to acknowledge it. It doesn't matter, after all, as long as he tries again he can change something. He returns the second, third, fourth, fifth times.

He has lost count when he realizes that the something he has changed is in him. With the same heaving blood soaked breaths he coughs up at Luo Binghe's figure, something has been changed in him.

Of course. He cannot be the God of Breakthroughs if he cannot break through.

He keeps losing.

Each battle he marches into is another dig at his once spotless reputation. He feels his divinity and grace slough away from him like dried mud. Still he faces Luo Binghe every day.

It forges him into something else.

When Shen Yuan reawakens, not dead but Ascended, Liu Qingge stops his fruitless battles. 

Shen Jiu is with him. At some point the God had shed the title of Qingqiu as trees lose their autumn leaves. Still the God of Bitter Fall and Uneven Ground, of Unfair Advantages, but now also of Cunning Thought and Persistence. He hasn't changed, Liu Qingge realizes. He's just revealed more of who he is.

Shen Yuan is, as always, Shen Jiu's compliment: God of Bountiful Harvest and Smooth Travels, and of Cutting Words and Sloth.

Shen Yuan has, thoroughly, molded himself into the perfect God for his precious demonic pet. Luo Binghe will never want for a single thing ever again with the God of Easy Living walking by his side.

Liu Qingge wants to avoid them both. Everyone else is already aware, but from these two he wishes to hide his failures for just a little longer. However, the core of him is settled in such a way that he cannot find it in himself to pull away.

They want to see him.

It's no surprise that when Yue Qingyuan invites him to a banquet, Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan are there as well. As ever, Yue Qingyuan's bias shines through.

"What did you do?" Shen Jiu snarls from across the banquet hall.

"Who— oh Qingge!" Shen Yuan turns and catches sight of him as well.

Tension rises in Liu Qingge's body but—they've already seen. And if, somehow, they are too dense to understand, any one of their God siblings will explain it. Poorly. So Liu Qingge stays.

Shen Jiu is, of course disgusted. Shen Yuan intrigued.

"I thought once gods Ascend they do not change." He comments curiously.

"They don't." Shen Jiu hisses. "They can adapt perhaps. Split. Acquire or shed new epithets or old ones as we have. But they do not change. If they stop being what they are, then that God simply ceases to be."

"It's as it is." Liu Qingge shrugs. "I'm still a God—"

"Of cycles." Shen Jiu accuses.

"Reliability!" Shen Yuan insists. "Qingge is always dependable."

"It is no great thing if you can only depend on him to lose." Shen Jiu's dark gaze is calculating and Liu Qingge understands that, somehow, Shen Jiu knows the whole story already. That he simply needed to see Liu Qingge to fit the pieces together.

"He doesn't lose!" Shen Yuan defends, loyally. "Qingge has always been there when we needed him!"

Silence descends on the banquet hall like an awkward blanket.

"What, did—have I missed something?" Shen Yuan asks, glancing sharply around.

Yue Qingyuan, belatedly, ushers the rest of his guests out. Liu Qingge supposes he must be grateful that Luo Binghe isn't here to enjoy rubbing Liu Qingge's nose in it. Shen Jiu will, assuredly, have no problems doing it instead.

"It's exactly as Shen Jiu says." Liu Qingge starts. "Fighting Luo Binghe has irrevocably changed me." He says.

What he doesn't say: I cannot win against him now even if he deigned to throw the fight.

Perhaps, to Shen Yuan, the change isn't so dramatic. Shen Yuan had never wanted Liu Qingge to win that battle anyway, and Liu Qingge has ever been Shen Yuan's most reliable God-Brother.

Once upon a time, Liu Qingge was a War God. There were and still are many gods of war: strategy and prowess, blood and conquering, weapons and trade.

Liu Qingge was the breakthrough. The final push. The turning of tides. The culmination. He had never failed to turn a lost cause into victory, there had never been a battle lost to him if he meant to win it.

But then Shen Qingqiu became two, and then Luo Binghe built a shrine and Shen Yuan wasn't prepared for his tribulations and then—

Well.

Liu Qingge is a War God. Of Cycles, Shen Jiu says. Of Reliability, Shen Yuan insists. He is the God of forlorn hope, of having only one spear and one sword, of hunting phoenixes in mirrors. The same battle retread for the same reasons.

#kamaeteWRITES #svsss #i have so many thoughts for this au but i dont actually want to write it haha #lqg gets a major downgrade explicitly because sy wants lbh to win SO BADLY #sj is PISSED btw #lqg's new status does not affect sy AT ALL because sy is like 'oh lqg is never defeated uwu so of course he will win (unless it's v lbh)' #and the universe is like 'yeah sounds right' #so sy never sees an appreciable difference #SJ on the otherhand instantly recognizes the drawbacks of this #sj knows the moment lqg gets in a battle where someone needs him to lose badly enough that their prayer can impact the threads of reality #lqg will lose #since he's lost his 'i am literally the god of winning' halo #knowing this of course means sj (also as a god) (who can impact reality) is ACTIVELY making it worse!!!! because he cant stop worrying abou #lqg losing. #lqg is doing his best to NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANYTHING #it's up to yqy and everyone else to stop him from getting into anymore echo-battles that will reinforce an untoward reputation #lqg Hate This more than anything #he wants to fight and win against lbh SO BADLY but the universe literally wont allow it now #lbh could let lqg push him off a cliff and the universe will conspire to also drop lqg to cushion lbh's fall #literally unless the GOD OF LIVING WELL (best revenge btw) stops backing lbh's ridiculous protagonist halo lqg cant win #that's the actual story btw! shen yuan actually realizing how broadly he impacted lqg's fate specifically #yeah he was going to die originally because The God of Winning can't lose which means he just Died instead #but now sy has to grapple with how affected lqg is with his new god domain #half the story would be sy realising that and the other half is sj trying to alternatively strangle lqg to try and get that to echo #that is sj wants to also become one of those people lqg is just destined to lose to #(will never happen—sj is too used to lqg winning against him. it's what sqq used to rely on #so that he never Fell like any of the other demons. lqg simply would Not Allow him to.) #and also putting in the work to get lqg's reputation as spotless shiny as it used to be so he can still basically function as their spear #anyways. like sure only having one spear and one horse is difficult #but if it's lqg's spear and horse there's nothing to worry about.