Thread by @vinaegir

#Zhongchi soulmate bodyswap au where once a person reached the age that their bodies begin to change for adulthood, they begin to swap bodies with their soulmates.

It is always at random times, only somewhat predictable for certain people that learn the signs of a swap over time

The only way to tell when a Swap had occur would be a change of the eyes, the color following the soul to their soulmate's body.

It is mostly humans that experience this phenomenon, but that does not mean other beings are exempt from it, no there are even tells of Gods swapping

their soul with another.

Rex Lapis was never one such God, every story depicting them with the same golden eyes, unchanging as bedrock and glowing like light glinting off mora.

This has been true for over six thousand years, a well known fact.

Until one Rite of Descension.

Until Rex Lapis pauses mid word.

Until he blinks and for the first time in any memory, gold blinks and is replaced by a stark Blue.

Time freezes for a moment as blue took in the hundreds and hundreds of eyes staring at him with shock and confusion.

Time starts once more as Rex Lapis' serpentine body flails midair with a yelp, then a sharp shriek as it crashes into the ground.

Chaos erupts as the sky darkens earthquakes shake in the Earth's answer to their Lord's apparent distress.

The voice of their Archon cries and whines in ways no one had ever heard, words that were distinctly not Liyuen or Common coming out fast and scared.

The large body trembles and flinches away from the approaching guards until the Tianquin pushes them aside, and Ganyu appears.

It takes the combined efforts of the Millelith calming the scared crowds and for the Tianqiun and secretary Ganyu to calm down a panicked dragon, but after a time, peace is restored to a degree.

It doesn't take long for the people of Liyue to understand what has occurred.

Their Archon has a Soulmate at last, making themselves known in the most chaotic and unfortunate way possible.

The Rite is postponed for the duration of the swap, both Tianquin and Ganyu talking to the young soul in a mix common and surprisingly, snezhnayan.

(They find out his name is Ajax, he just turned thirteen last week, he's very truly sorry that he ruined their ceremony. They later sign a contract to never reveal these details to anyone.)

After an hour the dragon suddenly freezes once more, tail in mid-wag

Blue eyes that were staring in awe at an orb of Cyro that Ganyu manifested blinked and replaced by the once ever present Gold. With that, Rex Lapis' first Swap comes to a close.

The Rite of Descension continues once more.

And a plan for retirement starts to become more concrete in a God's mind.

(After all, the old dragon had spent the better part of an hour across the continent, with a very mortal family that was full of warmth and love and a Soulmate, who unknowingly

opened the door to a future Zhongli had never hoped for, simply by existing.

How unpredictable and new and exciting.)

🐉end🦊

Notes:

-Zhongli discovers that they only Swap whenever he is not in his mortal form, apparently his godly forms are closer to his soul.

-He usually takes a month before the Rite to be in his dragon form, hoping that if they Swap beforehand Ajax won't get caught in the middle

Again

-They probably Swapped less than the average person bc of this but after the Abyss, Childe thought it was only natural

-Childe probably twisted it into 'he's my soulmate aka my destiny aka I'll be the one to take his gnosis, it's fate' and is thankful

That Zhongli isn't his soulmate, it's probably not harmful for Childe to hang out with the man, they're not attached and everything is simple like that (lol)

-Childe does go into the Fatui and other agents think they could get the drop on the newest arrogant recruit

By going after their soulmate during a badly timed Swap during a spar but whoops, even with Gold eyes they get their asses handed to them. Truly two monsters that are well matched for each other in their eyes

-These two definitely Swapped immediately after Zhongli handed over the Gnosis and so the traveler, paimon, and Signora have to watch a now blue eyed consultant scowling and arguing with a golden eyes Harbinger, cause of course those two are Soulmates, the Harbingers'

Youngest would be the only one capable of leaving one of the oldest souls of Teyvet to grovel and apologize like a scolded husband trying to appease an angered spouse.

End of notes....

So yea! Some details ironed out, others ignored for the sake of the Show, this is just some ramblings about a scene and au I think is kinda fun to imagine jkabdksg