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Morbane at AO3, and this year I have requested Black Jewels, the Blending Series, Graceling Realm, Love & Legends, the Neverending Story, and The Seer and the Sword.
General likes/dislikes
Do Not Wants: amnesia, drug abuse & dependency, harm to hands
Canonical forms/instances of amnesia are okay, though I'd prefer they weren't the focus of a story.
Likes: I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love competence and loyalty. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes.
I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place.
For porn, I love telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers.
I love it when authors incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird that thing is.
You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome. I am not opting in to interactive fiction or to a work mostly in poetic forms.
Black Jewels - Anne Bishop
Worldbuilding
From my sign-up: I am delighted to be able to request Worldbuilding for this canon. You're welcome to focus on major canon characters, minor canon characters, or OCs.
Black Jewels has so many rules about protocol and tradition. And in every canon like that, I have thoughts like - okay but what if things didn't go right? What then? Or: how did this rule get developed? Or: how could that rule get challenged and replaced, because people and their needs are always evolving? WHAT IF? What actually happens?
I am fascinated by the castes; by relations between realms; by life in Terreille before Dorothea and after her; by previous witches who were called Witch; by Landen-Blood relations; by the lives of the lighter blood; by mundane uses for and limitations on magic.
More thoughts:I know this is one canon where if you poke at certain aspects of the worldbuilding, it may collapse like a sad soufflé (example: how can there be no language drift besides the Old Tongue, and no language barriers anywhere??). So you are welcome to cheerfully handwave some of the more ridiculous aspects in order to explore the ones that interest you more. But even if you handwaved madly, there'd still be a lot to dig around in. I'd enjoy some really indulgent stories about Blood rituals and Virgin Nights and magical animals; l'd also be happy with complicated or mundane or bittersweet, where the idealised rules meet with the (dragon-)human.
I haven't talked a lot about the nominated cast. I love everyone... but I'm working through the choices Bishop made the characters make in
Queen's Bargain and
Queen's Weapons. Lucivar can stay. DAEMON WHAT ARE YOU DOING. So if you want to write a fic set in that era, I'd appreciate a little extra compassion for Jaenelle Saetien and a little extra questioning of Surreal and Daemon's choices.
More prompts:- The Landen perspective! Bleak awareness of a dystopia is fine, but I'd also be interested in more hopeful stories, or anything in between. And sure, I'd love a Beauty and the Beast style story of a successful friendship or romance between Landen and Blood.
- I am also really fascinated by more stories about people who are caught between the cultures of Landen and Blood! The haunted house plot of Tangled Webs didn't grab me (sorry!), but that's a pity, because otherwise I would have been so into the villain's story. People unexpectedly born Blood in a Landen family. People in a Blood family who are so low-powered that they tentatively reach out to the other community. Yes please.
- I am deeply interested in the post-Witch Storm period in Terreille when people were picking up the pieces and choosing who to be beyond Dorothea. What were the models they drew on? How did they begin again?
- We also know that the Black Widow caste was heavily suppressed during Dorothea's reign. How did they maintain their covens? Tell me about established Black Widows taking risks to secure their legacy, or new Black Widows trying to figure out who they could trust.
- Similarly, I'm interested in the full duties of the Priest and Priestess caste, and the Prince caste. We meet very few Princes who are not also Warrior Princes, and I'm interested in the distinction.
- Another period I'm interested in is early in Dorothea's reign. You're welcome to make her compelling in her ambition. I would love to see her early manouevrings.
- Because of Jaenelle's circle, we get hints about a lot of Territories within Kaeleer. I'd love to see a story set in any of those we don't know much about!
- I really, really want to know about Cassandra's Court. I want to know about any other embodiments of Witch. It seems like all Witches before Jaenelle were extraordinary, but she was truly on another level. I want to know what "the coming of Witch" meant before Jaenelle came.
- What about relations between races, with particular attention to differences in lifespans?
- What about new technologies? What suppresses them and what drives them?
- What does it mean to have 'basic Craft', since that's separate from jewel levels?
The Blending Series - Sharon Green
Any (Tamrissa, Jovvi, Worldbuilding)
From my sign-up: Any of Jovvi, Tamrissa, and Worldbuilding would be excellent. I'm very fond of both Jovvi - with her combination of caution, poise, and care - and Tamrissa - generous, unquenchable - and I ship them, but would also enjoy seeing them written as platonic allies. And of course just one of them is fine! Background Lorand/Jovvi is fine; however I'd prefer minimal Tamrissa/Vallant. Rion and Naran are welcome.
And so are OCs! I would especially adore original Blending competitors, just to take advantage of the dialled-up-to-the-max tropes: I'd love to see a new group go through the process of forming their relationships and discovering that sex is the key to Blending. But there are so many other things that would be fun! Show me the life of a Middle or High adept who's figured out how most safely to stay within the lines, or who hasn't; give me the real movers and shakers of the empire (how is a Blending's transition supposed to work normally? Has it EVER gone normally?); and of course I am always keen on an exploration on mundane life as shaped by the mere existence of magic.
If you're writing Jovvi and/or Tamrissa, complete canon divergence would be fun (what if their Blending never recovers the throne and they operate as rogues?) or practical problems during their rule, or snapshots of them at various times? (Comfortably aged Jovvi and/or Tamrissa would be lovely.)
More thoughts:So this is an eight-book series set in a fantasy world where having magical affinity for Spirit, Water, Air, Earth, or Fire is common, and where our main setting of Gandistra is traditionally ruled by a matched - or perhaps match-made - set of masters of these elements, because according to prophesy, that's how Gandistra must be ruled or a terrible calamity will result. Also, every twenty-five years, a new set of adepts has to be selected through competitions.
Hopefully we are on the same page about how this set-up is elaborate to the point of absurdity: that is part of its appeal to me, because of course it's become corrupted and of course the practical details are frantically handwaved and of course it's wonderfully ripe for a set of righteous underdogs to come along, overcome their personal hang-ups, and overcome the competition to be The! Best! And! Most! Enlightened! Rulers! Who also have to be a sort-of polycule! Because sex makes their combined magic stronger!
Part of me is laughing in delight at how ridiculous the implications (and sometimes, the plots) get; part of me is really earnestly along for the ride. I love the descriptions of the use of magic at heightened occasions and for mundane tasks; I love the way the series protagonists becomes a tightly-knit team alongside the development of romantic/sexual attractions, not just because of them; I love what's hinted at regarding practical worldbuilding, especially as it relates to governance, and I love the gaps that are left in practical worldbuilding and what scope one has in filling them. What a sandbox!
An original set of characters thrown together in some other competition year would be A+. Another noble group who are meant to play second fiddle to the "correct" group? A selected noble group who actually have consciences? A different underdog group? And such a group negotiating what the sex angle means for them would be fascinating. I do mean negotiating - blissful sex would be welcome, but so would other more complicated reactions that allow for dignity/agency.
But! I enjoyed the canon characters too. I liked Jovvi's deep ingrained distrust of authority, how she approached the ongoing problem of exercising consensual/ethical control over others, and her evolving sense of what it meant to her to
be the authority. I liked Tamrissa's aggressive power that increasingly came from a position of strength rather than fear, and I liked watching her learn to trust others around her. I found Rion's earnestness appealing, found Naran's different introduction to her powers interesting, don't mind Lorand, and was a bit frustrated with some of Vallant's arcs and hang-ups. So if you want to write about canon characters, go for it, please, and I hope I am giving you enough to work with! (Regarding canon ships, I'd prefer minimal Vallant/Tamrissa. Other ships are fine. Jovvi/Tamrissa is also welcome, as are other relationships within the Blending.)
I have only skimmed the last three books, sorry, as Green's prose style has worn on me a little since I first read the initial pentalogy. Although I enjoy the six working in harmony, I like more focus on them being individuals achieving close cooperation than turning into one mind with six parts.
I also enjoy the potential for very dramatic, twisted scenarios, including with sexual coercion, but felt this was a bit heavy-handed in the books, with evil spirit magic users skipping straight to all-out puppetry. More subtle manipulations would be welcome!
More prompts:- Show me what it's like in the normal day-to-day life of a ruling Blending.
- How do adepts train each other in normal circumstances?
- Power swap among the protagonist Blending
- The protagonist Blending is prevented much more effectively from winning the competitions - and they turn into rebel leaders
- Tamrissa escapes her husband much earlier than in canon; this changes the protagonist dynamic
- A "normal", lawful-good ruling Blending prepares to hand over power and retire
- Power plays among the nobles to set up the competing noble Blendings
- Another competing Blending group, at another time, comes together and learns to trust each other
- One "different successful Blending" idea: maybe a noble Blending has passed through the competitions and been enthroned. But they're quite weak. So, just in case, to prop them up, a rival common blending was allowed to survive, under Puredan control, and is deployed whenever serious magical power needs to be displayed. But maybe feelings develop between a member of the noble, enthroned Blending, and one of their back-up crew? Or being able to blend allows the actually powerful Blending to throw off Puredan control?
- Tell me about the nobles who try to manipulate the candidates
- Tamrissa and Jovvi get put in an entirely different group for the Competitions
- Tamrissa or Jovvi having their own friendships and collegial relationships outside their own Blending - give them a future that's a little less emotionally claustrophobic
- I don't normally suggest time travel, but Tamrissa, Jovvi, and maybe Naran time-travelling to alter the course of events would be really fun, especially if they don't have the full power of their Blending or have to decide to instigate a temporary Blending with strangers
- Naran's life before joining the blending is really interesting to me. She's very gifted in her aspect, but in book 6 she started to realise that some things had been kept from her. How did her training go? Or explore her relationships with other practitioners of her aspect, or her expectations about meeting Rion?
- Or, as another somewhat cracky original-characters-in-this-world prompt, someone gets invited to an orgy, finds out they're actually being recruited into a Blending? As sinister or as absurd as you like
- Outsider perspective on Tamrissa, Jovvi, or any other adepts.
Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore
Adventure Fox
From my sign-up: This is very spoilery for Winterkeep!
I was very fond of the previous books, and then Winterkeep came along and was an absolute gift to me. I'm asking for Adventure Fox because he's delightful and would be great on his own, but this way I can also suggest either Bitterblue/Giddon or Lovisa too.
So, what if Ad does go to Monsea to figure out a new path for foxkind? Does he take other foxes with him, or is he a special envoy? What does he think of Monsea? How do he and Bitterblue negotiate the ethics of his telepathy and his duties to the rest of foxkind? Does he discover previously unknown telepathic species? I'd love his perspective on Monsea getting used to their queen a) alive again b) being engaged c) maybe/maybe not dismantling the monarchy.
I'd also love to see him visit the Dells and meet Fire. (What if his species evolved from a variant of Dellian monster? How do monsters work on him?) I just love Fire a lot and would love to see her again.
And Lovisa. When we learned that Ad's choice to bond with Ferla was driven by a desire to help Lovisa, my heart broke into pieces. Please feel free to break my heart all over again by showing me a scene of Ad trying to help and being misinterpreted, or maybe even accidentally making things worse. Or maybe they interact in future years - for example if Ad goes to Monsea and then comes back at some point as part of a delegation. Please don't give them a fluffy, perfect reconciliation - I am okay with some sort of reconciliation, but I find all the jagged edges in their relationship really meaningful.
More thoughts:This is the only one of my canons this year I haven't requested before - I hope there's enough to work with even so. After I bought
Winterkeep, it sat in the paper bag from the bookstore for a couple of months because I wanted to save it as a special-occasion treat, and I when I finally got around to reading it, I wasn't disappointed. I love how Cashore combines some very fun, indulgent, fantastical things (benevolent telepathic manatees and loyal companion telepathic foxes! in previous books, cool special abilities and literally irresistible beauty!) with a lot of thoughtful character work.
It seems very plausible at the end of
Winterkeep that Adventure Fox will go to Monsea. I imagine he'd find it a bit of a shock, not just because of culture clash in general but because of the trauma and memory holes he'd encounter in Bitterblue City. If you follow that route, does he make the journey with other foxes, and if so, what are they like, and do their opinions on how foxes should behave on the Royal Continent match up? Or, if it's just Ad, is he travelling as a secret? Or does Ad decide to stay after all, and if so, does he keep an eye on Lovisa, or find another role for himself? Maybe he considers bonding with someone Lovisa knows and it's extremely complicated for Lovisa (like Nev? I'm up for Lovisa/Nev, btw, but mostly Lovisa/stability).
I suggested breaking my heart over Ad's attempts to smooth over trouble in the Cavenda household. I'd also be interested in a time when he was successful and thought (for a time) that things were working out, or just any time he was able to relax. His life has not been a relaxing one.
I'm pretty fond of everyone, though maybe would prefer Saf is not a major character. I ship Bitterblue and Giddon, and Giddon's deepening friendship with Hava is delightful to me. I like Katsa and Po but would probably prefer an outsider perspective on them than a story from their perspective. (Though Po interacting with Ad, given their similar abilities, would be fascinating. Do Po's moral rules for himself provide some guidance for how Ad should behave on the Royal Continent?)
More prompts:- Maybe the (soon to be remedied?) lack of airships in Monsea is very disappointing for Adventure Fox, but he gets to do something else cool like ride a glider or a gondola or a zip-line
- So Bitterblue had succession plans in case she died without heirs, and given her involvement with the Council, I got the impression they were fairly radical succession plans involving less monarchy and more democracy. And now she's confirmed alive and planning to marry and have children. What does that mean for the future of Monsea?
- Monsea's natural resources are news to the other kingdoms too. How does that change things with the Council?
- I suggested Ad going to Monsea, or interactions with Lovisa, as an either-or thing, but it occurs to me that Lovisa could also visit Monsea as a diplomat later in life, and this could lead to a meeting - which would probably be rather startling for both parties
- I also wouldn't mind seeing Lovisa get to relax and have fun too. I believe in her capability to improve the world but she should get to lay down her burdens some time.
- Maybe Ad decides he wants to change how humans and foxes live together in Winterkeep.
Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Helena, MC, Witch Queen, Alain
From my sign-up: It's okay with me if you write Helena + two other characters, rather than all four.
Helena just strikes so many notes I love in fictional characters! Powerful, competent, complex, vulnerable, and okay I also enjoy her beauty. I adore the arc of her choosing to trust and throw her support behind the MC, and how that means facing up to her crimes & how terrible her relationship with the Witch Queen really was, all while developing a relationship with someone who wears her tormentor's face. There's so much hope and weight in this very tropey story.
I really enjoy Helena/the MC's romance, and I'd be down for anything in a range from supportive fluff (getting to live a life together! Making each other happy in lovely little ways!) to warning bells (is Helena's rehabilitation really so straightforward? Maybe the MC sees her as more noble than she is, maybe the road to recovery is even rockier). It's okay if the Witch Queen is just a shadow over a story about Helena/the MC rather than appearing in the present.
I would also love something plotty and either triumphant or twisted, involving the Witch Queen - maybe the Witch Queen captures Helena and the MC has to surrender herself to free them both? Or other kinds of mind games? Or play with the idea of the Witch Queen taking partial possession of the MC.
And I was pretty fond of Alain, whose emotional arc is, after all, very similar to Helena's. I loved the bond between Alain and Helena. MC and Helena escape, and rescue Alain later? Or go back to darkness - show me old fucked-up situations between Helena, Alain, and the Witch Queen.
Any sexual threesomes welcome. Even if she's sympathetic, I prefer the Witch Queen remains an antagonist, especially if she's in a sex scene.
More thoughts:Love and Legends is an isekai visual romance novel where the main character lands in a fantasy world and is mistaken for the recently-vanquished Big Bad, a sorcerous queen. I've only really played one route (Helena's) and a smattering of seasons for the other characters. (If you're curious, it's freemium but very slow to play if you don't spend money on it.)
So Helena is the Witch Queen's former favourite apprentice, and they had an intense and abusive relationship where the Witch Queen gave Helena knowledge, skills, and purpose, convinced Helena that she was nothing without the Witch Queen, added sexual sadism into the mix, and required Helena to do terrible things in her name. The Witch Queen is vanquished and our protagonist turns up; during a period in which the Witch Queen's spirit occasionally invades the MC's mind, Helena gradually falls in love with this newer, kinder version of the woman she hated almost as much as she loved.
Helena and the MC are adorable together; I love Helena's wonder at finding a happy relationship after she'd convinced herself she never could, and finding someone worthy of protection who feels just as fiercely loyal towards her. Emotional hurt/comfort that echoes canon tone would be welcome, and I also would love to see scenes of Helena exploring new aspects of her magic, with the MC helping - I love magic worldbuilding, and magic used for mundane purposes! For smut, honour bondage would be particularly nice, and also sexual or non-sexual affection and care such as bathing each other, hair brushing, massages etc.
I also love the twisty aspects! Canon takes a fairly straightforward and sanitised route with Helena's redemption arc, but you're welcome to complicate that, with an MC who maybe
sees Helena as more intrinsically good (because she needs to) than Helena is, or a Helena whose troubled past makes her unpredictable, withdrawn, or otherwise difficult at times. Dig into just how messed up it could be for Helena to be in love with the person whose face haunts her worst memories.
The Witch Queen is welcome either as an on-stage presence, or just as someone who is never far from Helena and the MC's thoughts. Similarly, a scene between the Witch Queen and Helena in which the MC does not have lines or appear is fine, even if it's pre-canon and the MC hasn't turned up yet - evil sorceresses and their willing or unwilling pupils are a dynamic I love across many canons.
I'd enjoy seeing Alain either as part of a messed-up sexual dynamic involving Alain/Helena/Witch Queen, or during canon, won over to the MC's side, and involved with Helena and the MC either platonically or romantically/sexually.
All kinds of canon divergence would be fun.
Please no readerfic, but other second person styles are fine.
More prompts:- The MC, Helena, and maybe Alain travelling the realm together when peace is achieved
- Cooking and potions!
- Shenanigans land MC in the fantasy world as if at the start of one of the good side/ retainer routes, but with the memories of several seasons' worth of Helena's route; she schemes to win Helena, Alain, or both of them over to the side of good
- More mental influence by the Witch Queen of the MC - or Helena
- The MC learns that she can invade the Witch Queen's mind in return; among the ethical issues, this leads her to unpleasant memories
- The Witch Queen spies on Helena & the MC and makes plans
- The Witch Queen gains the upper hand and takes both Helena/Alain and the MC captive again
- Circumstances require the MC to pretend to be the Witch Queen for a mission, with Helena or Alain along for the ride
- The MC enlists the help of one of the retainers to make a surprise gift for Helena or Alain
- Ritual sex is required for healing magic, either with Helena/MC or Helena/MC/Alain
- During the period where the MC is still pretending to be the Witch Queen: Helena, Alain and the Witch Queen work out a complicated plan for defecting to Reiner's side that requires Helena or Alain to get captured by Reiner and for the other two to charge off to "get them back"
- Alain sacrifices himself for the MC or Helena, and the MC and Helena time-travel to save him in return.
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
(no characters nominated)
From my sign-up: It's been an entire year since I last asked for this canon, and I felt incoherent then and have not managed to cohere my thoughts any further - I love this book so much. I want more of its thoughtfulness and absurdity and starry-eyed wonder and humour. I just want to spend more time in this world.
Any of the "stories to be told another time" are a great starting point. I'd truly love exploration of any of them. Or springboard off any other character who appeared (or got a throwaway mention) and tell a continuation of their story. Or: find a way to tell a story that was told in the book as if it was a different story (canon divergence, different perspective) and now is its time.
I admit most of my ideas are for something set in Fantastica, but I'd be interested in BBB's and CCC's future lives as well.
I'm really intrigued by Gaya and Gmork, by lost landscapes, and by different ways to become the hero of your own story.
More thoughts:Last year I talked a lot about the characters who can move willingly or unwillingly between Fantastica and our world, and these are still ideas that interest me! This time around I've been reflecting how how a visitor to Fantastica is explicitly entering into a story in which they are the hero, and how, when we do this in the real world, we sometimes distort other people into the roles of villains or think of them in terms of their role in our story rather than in terms of their role in their own. (I hope that made sense.) Atreyu, of course, was Bastian's friend as well as a hero in his own right, and those two roles sometimes conflicted. I'd also be interested in a new visitor creating a specific, dark, powerful enemy to defeat, and then either becoming fascinated by that enemy, or becoming reluctant to defeat them and then moving on to the next chapter of their story, or causing havoc in Fantastica through needing that enemy to be The Most Terrible Ever. Some of that happened with Xayide, but a more self-aware take on the rise of an enemy might be interesting.
I love thinking about the idea of following one's heart's desire as a sort of sacred charge, as Grograman discussed with Bastian. I love thinking about Gmork's speech to Atreyu about Fantasticans becoming lies.
I'm also interested in how Fantastica is always changing and always retaining its status quo. I'm interested in taking a closer look at how there are things and patterns in Fantastica that are true for almost all time, and yet Fantastica is entirely reborn and rebuilt in the book - and, it is implied, as been reborn and rebuilt in this way before. Somehow it's possible for the Childlike Empress to assure Atreyu that all the humans who have come to Fantastica and helped it have brought something enriching back to our world, and it's also possible for the City of Old Emperors to exist. Fantastica contains beautiful, ugly, evil, and good things, and I am appreciating anew the ways in which the book allows logical or emotional tension to exist, sitting with it for a spell. I don't know if that's helpful - please ignore if not. On the other hand, I loved so many Fantastican landscapes that could not be appreciated by people other than Bastian, or were destroyed - a way to cheat and preserve them in some way would be welcome.
Stories that play Fantastica "straight" would be welcome - concentrating on a visitor's heroic quest, continuing an unfinished story, or taking literally some other statement of canon fact about how Fantastica and its relation with other world(s) operates. So would something a bit more meta. Maybe someone arrives by portal and is incorporated into a journey (or recruited by Gmork's shadowy masters, or similar)? What about a hero quest gone wrong, where the visitor's desire is not simply to be the hero of their own story, but something darker - a darkness that the Childlike Empress, with her famed neutrality, allows? How would that end?
More prompts:- Continue one of the stories that shall be told another time
- Two friends visit Fantastica at once. Or one person from our world follows another there to rescue them
- More intricate and wondrous monsters, geographies, peoples, and cultural traditions!
- Involve the sphinxes again somehow
- "Nothing is lost," she said. "Everything is transformed."
- Ways for Fantasticans to make their own stories (by living them rather than telling them?)
- Trading something other than memories for wishes
- Other Fantasticans' once-in-a-lifetime audience with the Childlike Empress
- If something's a lie in Fantastica, what is it in our world?
- Use different fantasy tropes - for example, make a Fantastican visitor spend most of their time in a paranormal romance/urban fantasy-based city
- I'd also be interested in a subversion of the idea of a foreign visitor arriving in a world to save it through their enlightenment.
Seer and Sword - Victoria Hanley
Landen, Torina, Dahmis
From my sign-up: OT3 plz plz plz plz PLEASE. We already have so many tropes for these three characters. Secret identities! Loyalty kink! Bandit with a heart of gold! Veiled seer! True King! Exiled heirs! Also they all adore each other so much and I just want them to be happy.
The pining is off the charts, and it's already pretty great. So yeah, if you can't quite see a way to make the three-way relationship happen, two of them together while the other is a significant part of the story would also be good! Canon delivered beautifully on pining, loyalty, and heroic deeds and sacrifices. Anything along those lines would be great, whether it involves canon divergence or not.
Maybe Landen and Torina reconnect way, way earlier over the quest to deliver the Sword to Dahmis, and they bond over caring about Dahmis just as much as they reconnect through their past history? Maybe we revisit Landen and Torina several years after the book's end, where, as rulers of Archeld and Bellandra, they are negotiating with Dahmis, but realize they want a lot more than a professional relationship? Anything involving a dramatic peril that one or two characters is in, and the remaining character(s) must save them from, would be so good. Please indulge me in my feelings..
More thoughts:This is a short middle-grade fantasy novel, part of a trio but effectively standing alone. (I read
Healer's Keep a long time ago and have little recollection of it;
Light of the Oracle is barely connected.) The plots and characterisation here are not complicated, but I love this book for its absolutely giant helpings of secret identities, pining, and dramatic reveals.
In canon, there's something satisfying about Dahmis' admiration for Torina and how, lacking any indication of reciprocal interest, he doesn't court her. I also like that Torina gets a chance to live and reflect apart from the court, and Landen spends the intervening years honing his skills as a leader. And I love that both Torina and Landen take action to ally themselves with Dahmis - but Torina moves first!
But I'd also love canon divergence, especially if you can include different permutations of the secret identities, foiling of treachery, and dramatic rescues that canon contains. Maybe Landen saves Dahmis' life, or Torina foretells that Vesputo will use the Sword and arranges for Landen to steal it for Dahmis herself. Maybe, at the end of canon events, Landen's name is still not cleared, or something requires Torina to remain in exile for now. Anything that involves bravery or dramatic reveals would be A+.
Dahmis is so charmed by Landen! Landen carries out a dangerous mission for Dahmis and requests only his friendship as a price! Landen wants to literally lean on Dahmis when they're discussing how to hold off an invading army! I can't even. Meanwhile, of course, Dahmis can't think of Torina without admiring her self-possession and her beauty, and Torina and Landen's mutual adoration started from when Landen was given to Torina as a slave and she instantly set him free. Normally I'm not keen on misunderstandings, but here I would be totally keen on "he/she doesn't love me, they love each other,"-type misunderstandings as long as they're resolved. Smut also very welcome, whether it has plot around it or not.
And worldbuilding following on from the end of canon as it stands would also be neat. As I said, I'm very rusty on
Healer's Keep, so you're welcome to incorporate that or completely ignore it. Bellandra has been under Archeld's control so long - what's involved in its restoration? How does Torina settle into the role of queen? What other challenges face Dahmis? (I acknowledge a story about Bellandra's restoration may touch on dark/serious decolonisation themes - like Black Jewels, this is another canon where it's a little tricky to poke too hard at the worldbuilding - that's fine as long as there is optimism for the future.)
(Tangent: There's very little information on the political structure of the kingdoms and why High King Dahmis is High King. However, we do know that Dahmis' efforts to unite other kingdoms are an innovation. I wonder if other countries made an agreement with Glavenrell that it would essentially hold off Kareed, since the story begins near the end of a long period of Kareed attempting to expand his rule.)
More prompts:- Torina and Dahmis wrote letters to each other before Vesputo's betrayal; Dahmis has no idea that Vineda is his former correspondent
- Dahmis has his own secret identity shenanigans
- Dahmis, with Landen on his mind, disguises himself (maybe with a magic disguise?) to seek out anonymous sex; he runs into Landen, who is acting on the same impulse
- Established relationship; any two of them in bed together with the third absent but the present two talking about their fantasies for the third
- Landen and Torina decide that if Bellandra's independence is to be restored, they cannot marry. While for most of my prompts, I'd prefer happy endings, you can pile on all the angst here
- Landen and Torina marry, but cherish the occasions on which all of Torina, Landen, and Dahmis can be in the same place and enjoy each other's company
- I'm usually neutral on baby plots, but in this case, something incredibly tropy about Torina carrying either Landen's or Dahmis' child and both of them doting on her would be welcome
- Mid-canon: Torina risks herself to carry some warning to Dahmis or Landen, and Vesputo captures her. Landen and Dahmis have to rescue her.
- Perhaps, instead of turning from Dahmis when she learns of his alliance with Vesputo, Torina instead plans to drive a wedge between them. What if Bellanes' identity is revealed while Torina's remains obscured?
- I would also be up for a Prophecy Makes Them Do It threesome whereby a mysterious (but convincing) omen requires them to fuck, say, for the sake of harmony between nations, and there's angst about unrevealed feelings until they sort out that they all actually do want to be there and the other parties are also okay with it.
- I love the idea for these characters of secret trysts where both parties involved are pining after the other and manage to have romantic encounters without being sure of the other's identity. Maybe another magic macguffin can accomplish this!
Previous Black Jewels prompts:
Yuletide 2012,
Worldbuilding Ex 2017,
fffx 2020Previous Blending Series prompts:
fffx 2020,
Yuletide 2020Previous Love & Legends prompts:
Chocolate Box 2019,
Yuletide 2020Previous Neverending Story prompts:
Worldbuilding 2017,
Yuletide 2020Previous Seer & Sword prompts:
Yuletide 2019,
fffx 2020,
Yuletide 2020
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ambyr.
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