Grisha/Klein as a ship is very precious to me because of the massive potential their dynamics. You have two people who woke up in a ruined world and found themselves forced into a position of power. In both of their hearts, they wanted to save humans and the world. Even when it meant sacrificing themselves.
Klein: I won't lose much, just myself
Grisha: Because God Loves The World
How can I look at these two characters and not want to see them interact together?
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For new readers, Grishaklein sounds like a crack ship. Most don't even know that Grisha is the real name of the Ancient Sun God. It's actually pretty funny to think about it XD
So in this post, I want to explore why this ship actually works! To prove that there is indeed an appeal to it! (In my personal humble opinion)
Five reasons why I ship Grisha/Klein
1. First encounter
When klein divinated the origin of the blood in the sun broch later in the book, he witnessed the ancient sun god walk out of chaos sea, and in return, the ancient sun god recognised his gaze and called out his title as Mysteries.
Personally, I think this single scene can be explored to hell and back to develope their relationship. It's so easy to romanticise a chance encounter between two gods in two different timelines that, in a way, have traversed similar paths in their journey to godhood
Just think about the yearning of these two star crossed lovers they can fit so much angst.
(this was also the scene that inspired my first grisha klein fic, Fool's Notes)
2. The meeting in the cathedral of bones
"We meet again, Mysteries."
Adam, who is revealed to be the ancient sun god, still recognises klein as Lord of the mysteries. He even considers them friends just for belonging to the same era. And he admitted that was it not for amon, he would have supported klein from the beginning.
Even when Amon lost, asg was quick to show his support to klein through other means.
Need I say more about Grisha’s mindset regarding klein?
This also makes me imagine an AU where Klein was not only supported by Evernight in fifth epoch, but also by Adam! Someone needs to write a fic (probably me)
3. Inside the Fool’s dream
The ancient sun god/adam has a role inside the Fool’s dream manifestated as Zhou Mingrui’s childhood friend. I haven't read coi so I don't understand the full workings of this arc, but grisha adam was always supporting the fool through his battel against Celestial worthy. And the choice of taking the role of his childhood friend who he is still in contact with is just heartwarming!
(I took it a step further and wrote an AU where grisha is klein's fiancé inside the dream instead of childhood friend. I'm so guilty.)
4. The parallels between them
Both of klein and grisha were people from the pre epoch who ended up as back up plans to the Celestial worthy and god almighty respectively. Upon waking up in this era, they were forced to ascend as gods. And both of them had one common theme in their journey: Sacrifice.
Klein: I won't lose too much, just myself
Grisha: Because god loves the world.
There's also the inheretent difference in their philosophies. Where despite seeking the same goal, both use different methods. Klein will always want to protect the people under him at the cost of himself, whilst ASG will compromise 'Necessary sacrifices' of his people and even himself for his goal. This creates a delicious conflict of ideologies that can add so much depth to their rivalry
5. The law of attraction
Just as high sequence of the same pathway attract each other, great old ones above the sequence also feel this law of beyonder characteristics attraction.
In my delusional mind, I like to twist this attraction to something more of… seeking balance.
If we think of God almighty as the representative of the physical world, having authorities over the powers of nature, omnipotence and omniscience. Then Lord of the mysteries is the representative of the spiritual world, having authority over abstract powers such as time, space and fate.
They are like yin and yang.
Or, in other terms, our sun and moon due (or the more recent popular ship, the doomed black and white gays)
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[The Ancient Sun God will be killed by the person he loves the most] - and it's Mysteries forced to participate in rose redemption and be the one to drive the cross into Grisha’s heart (who knew all along)
"Klein," Leonard started, voice smooth but tense, his hands fidgeting with his red gloves.
"…Yes?"
"Were you ever going to tell me that your ex-fiancee is the True Creator or was I supposed to find that out from a bunch of mad Aurora Order cultists trying to kidnap you."
"……Grisha is who?"
A/N:
Klein: I can explain- (‘◉⌓◉’)
Leonard: Are you sure this explanation won't make things worse?
Klein: … I can no longer explain ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄
----------
FIRST CHAPTER DONE LESSGOO
sigh, over 1.4k words, but I also deleted like 5k worth of content because of the damn confession scene so really I don't know if this is gud or bad.... Anyways first chapter below<3
Elder Lovia coughed out a bit of flesh, the words freshly imprinted onto her memory rang.
Puzzled, the Elder in purple robes tilted her head, "The Fool who doesn't belong in this era?"
…
Somewhere, in a place with red skies that loomed above like a cave of dark red flesh; a man was hung upside by chains upon a resplendent cross.
Feathers fell softly in the seemingly endless place. It was a serene and beautiful image, it was a grotesque and horrifying image, the sight that remained unchanged stuttered for the first time in a long time.
The man, known by many as the True Creator, rattled in 'His' bindings.
'His' gaze fixated on an "imprint" that left the faint presence of fog and squirming maggots for an indiscernible amount of time.
It was almost ironic, had 'He' been just a smidge weaker, had the presence behind the interference inject just a smidge less spirituality, had a single change during the encounter between the boy in the Forsaken Land of Gods this would not have had happened.
Softly and quietly, the "image" of fog and worms and whispered secrets behind a resplendent castle dispersed as though it had never been there at all.
Not a single speck of the Divine Realm was altered, black feathers still fell faithfully from the skies, blood, thick and dense still clung onto the Hanged man's frame.
But the ever present razings within shifted just slightly.
It didn't stop, the crazed murmurs never did.
It simply…
Condensed; The previously chaotic backdrop of forbidden knowledge, the loud vengeful promises of a betrayal oh so blasphemous, and the soft, almost sweet yearning for a past forgotten to time.
Quieted towards a specific obsession; the anchor of worship by a man who once commanded thousands and still does.
A worship aimed at a being who the grand machinations of epochs was devoutly presented towards, a being who received love letters in the form of whole epochs.
The anchor remained an ever present hum in the back of 'His' mind, twisted and deformed as it was the once pure 'love' remained, similarly twisted by isolation by time.
The man rattled in 'His' chains binding 'Him' to a cross hanging above the sky again and again.
'He' leaned towards the 'position' where the conjured "image" dissipated, 'His' eye widened, the movement had skin cracking bits of dried blood with its shift.
The man who's name was forgotten against the bearing of divinity uttered a name that 'He', 'Himself' refused to forget.
"…Mingrui?" The name had been an ever present echo in 'His' divine kingdom, yet for the first time in a long time the underlying tone was not somber and grieving but hopeful instead.
The scent of disinfectant lingers around the sterile lab, the smell faintly pressing against the entirety of the building in differing quantities.
Two overworked young men stayed in overtime, an occasional leaving to fetch coffee from down the hall here and there.
Two cups, one sweetened, another stayed dark.
It was a mundane ritual between the two.
One of the men, Zhou Mingrui was a software engineer, small curses murmured during a particular time where the code refused to work stopped midway as a warm cup of coffee lightly tapped his cheek, soft as a kiss.
"Hm? I might not be fluent in Mandarin but even I can sense that the fairy's not happy." The sentence in english was spoken by the other man.
The word 'fairy' was an ongoing joke between them about a variety of linguistic humour.
Zhou Mingrui sighed in defeat.
His hand went to grab the cup from the blond's hands before the man suddenly placed down the 2 cups of coffee down on the desk table.
Peeking at the containers, he found out that one was slightly… Different.
They both appeared to be similar shades of wet dirt (as was all cheap coffee found in office lounges of course.)
—However one had a green hand-cover decorated by watercolour leaves and smelled sweet almost like… Honey?
"…Grisha?"
"Mhm."
"Did you buy this from the cafe I told you about?"
"Hmmm…" The blond pretended to seriously ponder the question.
A look of serious concentration that,—although not entirely out of place in the Nuclear research center, a collaboration between China and Ukraine in 2015.— was quite exaggerated for the question.
Zhou Mingrui stared flatly at Grisha; Grisha stroked an imaginary long beard evident by how his fingers were grasping at the air.
"Perhaps…" A somber baritone prompted.
Zhou Mingrui quirked an eyebrow, irritating and nonworking code forgotten in the shared moment between 2 men.
"…I might've gone in the morning, it might've been kind of foggy by the way, And! I might've nearly got lost!" Grisha nods as if saying 'could you believe it?'
Zhou Mingrui snorted, taking a sip from the store-bought coffee.
Pretty good… sigh, had I been a woman, I would've assumed Grisha was in love with me! Zhou Lampooned, sighing about the taller man's antics.
Mingrui set the cup down and looked back onto the laptop, he was purposely not looking at Grisha's face for this.
…
The room felt quieter, a tension that didn't have a name (or maybe did) still lingers.
…
Mingrui continued working on the code, albeit less frustrated. Grisha was typing something on the laptop on the desk next to Zhou Mingrui.
The room was silent save for the tapping of keys and rustle of papers.
An interjection was spoken here or there, but otherwise the two stayed focused.
After all they both wanted to go home.
Mingrui took another sip of his coffee, rubbing the space between his eyes when the code started to look like swirls in an unknown language.
"Hey," Mingrui began, voice cutting through a thick atmosphere he didn't want to think about.
Grisha nodded, a silent gesture for him to continue.
"…"
Zhou tapped his index finger against the nail on his thumb habitually.
"…That cafe I told you about,— the one you went to this morning.—"
"—The one I might've gone to." Grisha cuts off the sentence, rolling his chair sideways to face Zhou and pointing a finger at the sky.
Mingrui took a breath, This conversation is going nowhere. "Yes, yes the one you might've gone too. The point is I checked their website, and they're having a new product. It's some type of meat pie?"
"—And," Zhou Mingrui continued, "I wanted to ask if you'd go there with me to try it out… but since you might've already went…"
He let the silence stretch.
…Perhaps letting the conversation go nowhere was better than this, I joked about Grisha acting almost like a smitten school girl with the gifts but I myself am acting like some clingy lover.As Zhou began regretting, the air stuttered as a voice spoke.
"And if we are?" Grisha had a faint blush on his ears.
His hands laid awkwardly half hovering over objects. The hum of the machines felt quieter and louder at the same time.
It felt like the building became a fragile backdrop for the 2 men.
"If I… were truly smittened, and if you, we were a pair of clingy lovers like you said…" I said that out loud?!— "Would it be that bad?"
Soulmate AU! In which the name of your Soulmate is written in your body...
Except, both Grisha and Klein never get to meet each other in pre epoch because, well, Grisha is a Soviet Union researcher who died in Chernobyl 1986, and Zhou mingrui is a Chinese IT engineer who committed suicide 2015
Grisha knew his Soulmate is Chinese because of the name, but back in the 80s, with no Internet and documentation wasn't the best, he didn't have the chance to go look for his significance other. Instead he choose to focus on his career in Chernobyl. (The disaster that occurred in there was known to the whole world as a nuclear radiator explosion. In reality, it was something science couldn't explain.)
Grisha falls into chaos sea and wakes up in the second epoch. At the moment when he brought up the sun, he felt someone's gaze on him.
"Mysteries" - his Soulmate is here
__________
On Zhou Mingrui part...
He's living the age of the internet, there has long since been a system to connect Soulmates all acroos the world. So imagine his surprise when he finds out his Soulmate is one of the researchers who died in the Chernobyl Reactor explosion accident almost 40 years ago.
This made him someone who didn't pursue any kind of romantic relationships, having long since accepted he will be alone for the rest of his life. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why he tries the luck enhancement ritual...
