#bartimaeus au

[fauna-a]

VI The Lovers

¡Reincarnation AU! Who knows me knows I have a soft spot for these two.

Life has its own way to slam doors in your face. You lived for millennia and millennia, dodging death with virtuosity and grace; when your time came, you accepted the Dark Lady’s hand with the same grace, almost looking forward the upcoming rest.[1]

And instead, the universe had found a way to tell me one more time how incomparable and unique was my presence on Earth; and, if that wasn’t enough, had made me human.

Talk about good luck.

It was a very different Earth compared to the one I’d left: no magic, no spirits, no Other Place to my knowledge. In other ways, instead, it was sadly the same, see wars, violence, assorted spite.

In my other life, I had met humans who believed in reincarnation, but no one had ever applied the concept to spirits, maybe because no one thought we had a soul. And instead, look at this: until now, I had met only spirits transmuted (can’t find a better word) in humans.[2] Maybe things  were going like this: in the other world humans went on and beyond, while we had to do all the procedures. Bah.

The gust of wind preceding the metro coming distracted me; the train came, the doors opened, people came out… A girl bumped lightly into me with her shoulder; she had long dark hair gathered in cornrows whose tips were dyed green. That green made something spring in me, a recognition.

Without thinking twice, I turned around and followed her,[3] hoping to not receive some pepper spray (very much justified anyway).

«Excuse me!»

She turned around suddenly, and I recognised her without a doubt. Don’t ask me why or how, but I knew it was her.

«Queezle?»

«Bartimaeus!»

In my other life, I had never been used to hug people; it wasn’t something you did among spirits, that usually don’t have a body. And, well, it’s not I was going around hugging humans.[4]

But Queezle had always been particular, different; and I wasn’t surprised to find her in my arms. She was very thin: I could feel her shoulders’ bones under my hands.

«I was wondering when you’ll show up» she muttered; she had those stupid airpods on her ears, with a cascade of earrings. «You have to tell me everything».

«Nah» I shrugged. «Nothing much to say. Saved the world once or twice, dead, came here. Nothing more».

Her bony arms couldn’t let me go. «Idiot. I’ve missed you».

Hugs, huh. Maybe a thing that humans got right in all the world there was.

[1] Some humans believed there was a place after death, sort of reward (or punishment) because of your conduct during your life. I had never thought about it. But maybe it would be nice getting some rest in company of some old friends… Even if I doubted that spirits humans could end up in the same place, if it even existed.

[2] Yes, I had met Jabor. No, it hadn’t been pleasant. No, I won’t elaborate because we both were in a phase of a life when humans are barely sentient.

[3] I just had to go to work, after all. A human nonsense.

[4] Unless it was a way to stab them in the back.

[nathaniel-underwood-is-an-intj]

You know what Nathaniel Underwood needed?

A three hour session in a rage room.

[whumpster-fire]

Bartimaeus Sequence AU where in Golem's Eye Nathaniel is like "No there is no way I am summoning Bartimaeus again I am not stupid enough to summon a djinni who knows my birth name" but he's desperate to find a competent spirit and then he remembers that Bartimaeus recommended Faquarl's name, and he takes him up on that.

Bonus points if he does summon Bartimaeus but just to confirm that Faquarl was in fact the guy who broke him out of the Tower of London and otherwise fact-check his resume, leaving Bartimaeus torn between not wanting to praise Faquarl or acknowledge his achievements and wanting to get him stuck working with an annoying little twerp.

Double Bonus Points if Faquarl recognizes Nathaniel from the kitchen at Heddleham Hall and figures out what happened, and on one hand thinks the kid will be easier to manipulate than Makepeace, but on the other hand he is not letting Bartimaeus get away with this so he keeps being like: "Oh, well, this sort of thing isn't my area of expertise, but my old associate and worthy adversary Bartimaeus would be perfect for this job." Leading to Nathaniel summoning both of them and the rest of Golem's Eye being a complete disaster of a "buddy" comedy where they bicker the entire time and piss Nathaniel off but he refuses to dismiss either of them because he knows damn well if either one of them wins the "annoy master until he dismisses you first and gets the other one stuck in your service" competition the the other will become even worse.

[scribefindegil]

tfw you have a crossover/au idea where you're like "listen this would never work because the themes and stakes and worldbuilding are all so different in incompatible ways and you can't really map the characters onto each other satisfyingly and there are a zillion other reasons I will never make this an actual thing. HOWEVER that will not stop me from microwaving the concept in my mind for many days."

[nadiajustbe]

Listen

Au, in which Faquarl has a prestigious restaurant where he works as a chef, and Bartimaeus and Nathaniel suddenly come there on a date.

[oleanderandwatermelons]

FOLKS! Do you want to help someone in need? Do you want to get a nice ficlet in exchange?

I, @saint-oleander (here on Ao3)*, am here for you.

Due to a constant increase of requests for help and my current lack of funds, I have decided that for any donation to a fundraiser during the month of September* I will write a ficlet to whomever may request it.

*Sideblog made for management reasons

**Possible extension to be determined based on the influx of requests + whatever happens irl. I'd rather not disappoint anyone and my current work situation offers no assurances (or a decent salary. Sigh.)

To do so, hit my inbox with a proof of your donation and this tiny form:

Fandom: Character(s): Prompt (+ optional backup prompt): Ao3 name*: Link to the campaign**:

*Optional, but since I will archive them on ao3 too, if you want them gifted over there put your user here so I can do that

**Let's promote the campaign of your choice!

RULES:

donation must have been made between September 1st and 30th

proof must have a visible date and campaign name (MIND TO OBSCURE PERSONAL INFORMATION!)

I WON'T WRITE: gore, explicit sexual scenes, mafia!aus, ABO-aus

TIERS (donation + corresponding minimum word count):

5$ - 100 words 10$ - 250 words 15$ - 500 words 25$ - 1000 words

Masterposts of fundraisers I shared on my main blog if you need suggestions (but you can donate to any Palestinian campaign):

PART ONE 🍉 PART TWO 🍉 PART THREE 🍉 PART FOUR

Other campaigns will also be shared on this blog under the fundraiser tag

Share, donate and request away! 🍉🍉🍉

FANDOMS, below the cut:

*List in alphabetical order and subject to updates

911 abc

Bartimaeus Sequence

Good Omens

Haikyuu!! (mainly Karasuno and their orbit)

Koe no Katachi (manga and movie)

Koisenu Futari

Lockwood and Co.

MCU (I stopped watching at Endgame so do not stray further)

One Piece (manga, live action)

Ranma 1/2

Spy x Family

The Hobbit trilogy

The Lord of the Rings

The Umbrella Academy (except for season 4)

The Witcher (Netflix series)

[pompomoo]

Please read from right to left. This is BartNat. 'Bartimaeus attends Nathaniel's funeral after his body is found' This manga was drawn in line with such requests. For me this was a so difficult request, consider this as one possible AU story among many.

The following is my fantasy. I couldn't explain it just within the manga...... Although Bart is sorry for Nat's death, they understood each other perfectly in their parting. Therefore, for Bart, Nat's death is not just sad. I think there is also the joy of having a heart-to-heart with Nat, whom he had hated for so many years. That is why the end of PG is sad but has a somewhat refreshing aftertaste. So Bart often reflects on Nat's death. Not because it is a memory of pain, but because it is a memory of his strong friendship with him. Well, even if that is the case, Bart's split on Nat's death is because he feels ‘that we did everything we could’, so if the possibility that there really was a way to save them both came into Bart's mind, he would feel bitter. I can't think that Bart actually believes that Nathaniel will be reborn (because Ptolemy doesn't come to see Bart after two thousand years), but he can live with the hope that he will see him somewhere down the road. I hope that through Nat, Bart has also healed the memory of his separation from Ptolemy. It would be nice to have a grave for Nathaniel and a grave for John Mandrake, respectively. In Bart's mind, the two are not similar. Even as Bart, he would not want to go near Mandrake's grave, even though Nathaniel's death deserves to be mourned. Probably.

Also, in my mind, the relationship between Bart and Kitty is similar to that of a father and daughter. I think that protecting Kitty, whom Nat wanted to protect, is what Bart can do for Nat. There's too much to write about when I'm trying to describe Nat's death. I hope to draw the same subject again at some point. Thank you for taking a look. PS Not sure if Latin is accurate. If you have a better translation suggestion, please let me know.

[deliriousraven]

am being eaten alive by my lockwood and co necromancy au rn (think locked tomb). I've always wished Stroud had gotten more into the actual theory of how death works and all ways Marissa has manipulated it (It's basically implied that Sir Rupert has Sight as an adult and no one ever talks about it?), and I think there's just so much potential to explore there. I think necromancy would just make the whole Problem so much spicier, specifically through the lens of spirit magic.

consider the river and the other place as different layers of the same metaphysical realm (think planes in bartimaeus). Marissa is almost a wannabe jod with all her fiddling with death, but consider the consequences of that on a smaller scale: a localized blockage in the river, rather than totally cutting it off. consider the sexy tlt-esque possession mechanics that we barely got with Marissa. consider the parallels between thanergy and psychic energy, and how sudden and violent death, unfinished purposes, etc allow the dead to stay tethered (just like tlt revenants!). what are type threes? what are the conditions for necromancers to be born (after all, they can only be born on the planets jod killed in tlt), and what level of necromancy is possible in this less fucked up universe? I imagine aptitude and talent are distinct, and not mutually inclusive. Spirit magic is obviously more directly related to everything ghost-related, but how do other forms of necromancy affect Visitors and the other side?

[saint-oleander]

Mandrake and Co. masterpost

Bartimaeus Trilogy adventures, in a Lockwood and Co. AU

Hauntings are our business - on the formation of Mandrake and Co.

Chapter one: Strong and Safe (of Nathaniel John Mandrake) Chapter two: Boom! (of Bartimaeus Sakhr) Chapter three: Apocrypha (of Ptolemy Soter) Chapter four: Nightmare (of Kitty Jones)

Like silt in a pond - or, Queezle's life, before and after

Behind the counter - trials and tribulations of Simpkin's minimarket

All the pins inside your fretted head - or, Jakob Hyrnek after the accident

find the whole series here on ao3

Hauntings are our business is also available in Italian on ao3

[rosie-tyler]

Au where Bartimaeus gets called out for his totallynotlove for his humans

[mutopians]

watching howl's moving castle and i am having a VISION for a bartseq au. sophie is kitty, howl is nathaniel, and bartimaeus is calcifer, obviously

[nathaniel-underwood-is-an-intj]

Bartimaeus AU but it's Matilda

So I watched Matilda because I couldn't get the idea of Ms Lutyens = Miss Honey out of my mind; and I think Nathaniel deserves a happy ending with a cottagecore lesbian coded mother, but it actually works surprisingly well??

• Instead of Matilda Wordwood it's Nathaniel Underwood.

• Instead of telekinesis Nathaniel summons Bartimaeus to cause trouble.

• "Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty" -*summons a demon in his bedroom*

• Lavender would probably be Kitty.

• Nathaniel and Ms Lutyens bond over art rather than books but he still reads way above his age and is a very intelligent kid.

• "Arthur Underwood lived in a very nice neighborhood, in a very nice house, but he wasn't a very nice person"

• "Underwood was so wrapped up in his own silly life he barely realised he had a son, had he paid any attention to him at all, he'd have realised he was a rather extraordinary child"

• "The happiest part of the story is that Nathaniel and Ms Lutyens each got what they had always wanted; a loving family."

• "Nathaniel discovered to his great surprise that life could be fun, and he decided to have as much of it as possible- after all he was a very smart kid"

• Instead of Magnus (Miss honey's dad) it's Martha Underwood as Ms Lutyens' mother who died.

• Simon Lovelace instead of Trunchbull, who is Ms Lutyens' Uncle or cousin/brother because they're quite similar in age.

• Lovelace is paranoid about being found out as the murderer of Mrs Underwood.

• Nathaniel uses Bartimaeus to get Ms Lutyens' home back and scare Lovelace away.

• And Arthur Underwood signing the adoption papers over to Ms Lutyens at the end because absolutely everyone needs that to heal their soul.

[whumpster-fire]

Bartimaeus AU where everything is the same except Clem Hopkins has an invisible chronic pain disorder and within a week of taking over his body Faquarl goes "well this sucks, how do these people even live like this?" and cancels his taking over the world plan, but then has to spend the next two months trying to convince Makepeace that the experiment was a bad idea without revealing that he isn't Hopkins.

[heymacareyna]

twenty questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @brynnmclean! Thank you! This was so fun!! <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

28 on AO3.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

310,970

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, I write Arcane (Caitvi) fanfic almost exclusively.

Previous fandoms/ships have included the following:

Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus (Leyna)

Shugo Chara (Rimahiko)

Miraculous Ladybug (Adrinette)

Mortal Instruments (Malec)

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

say my name and every color illuminates: a multichap Caitvi contemporary soulmates au.

you are the best thing that’s ever been mine: a multichap Caitvi contemporary omegaverse au.

All You Need Is Love and a Cat: a multichap Adrinette shifter au.

All Business: a oneshot Malec tech support au.

pour some sugar on me (in the name of love): a oneshot Caitvi holiday smut piece.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to respond to each comment, but sometimes a few will fall through the cracks, and then the longer it takes, the more awkward I feel about responding...

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I haven't written angst in a long time, and there was never much of it, but the angstiest thing I ever did was probably "Sunshine" (for the Psy-Changeling series), a brief oneshot about one half of a mated pair dying in the other's arms.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

This one's tough because I write a lot of romance, which dictates a happy ending. Probably “All You Need Is Love and a Cat” (an overall happy story) or “Obviously” (a story with some angst but a happy ending).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, not so much. Fandom has been kind to me overall. The weirdest comment I ever got, though, was on a slow-burn Leyna fic, in which the reader suggested I should "think harder about what I'm doing"?? lmao

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do now. (I didn't for a long, long time.) I primarily write FF sex. I might write Leyna or Rimahiko (MF) smut in the future, though. We’ll see what happens.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I’ve written one crossover. It’s not on AO3 because it was absolutely batshit. That’s all I’ll say about that.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not a whole fic, as far as I know. Once I found a single sentence (it was a distinctive sentence!) from one of my Leyna fics copied into another Leyna fic. I contacted the author and asked them to remove it, and they did.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! My Caitvi oneshot pour some sugar on me (in the name of love) was translated into Spanish.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nah, I haven’t. I think it’d be super cool, though!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Now that’s mean. Leyna and Caitvi can battle it out for the rest of time.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I want to finish “you are the best thing that's ever been mine” (Caitvi omegaverse), but at this point I have no idea where I'm going with it, so progress is, uh, unlikely.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue is definitely my strength. I like banter and conversation.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Committing to finishing all the long-form fics I start, lol. And I’m not much for description, unfortunately.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Sheer terror. I wrote bits and pieces of Spanish for my Leyna fics, and I was always afraid of getting hate for it not being realistic enough.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The first fanfic I wrote, ever, was for the movie Cats Don’t Dance. It was backstory for the FMC, Sawyer the cat. Handwritten with illustrations and everything. My first posted fanfic was for the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, in 2008.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

You can’t pay me to pick one. Here’s three.

“A Good Chance”: Rima thinks there's a good chance she might actually lose her scholarship. Nagihiko thinks there's a good chance he might actually lose his mind. College AU.

“Obviously”: Best friends Reyna and Jason rule student government, while best friends Leo and Piper wreak havoc as the campus troublemakers. But when Jason and Piper get together, the four of them begin to spend a lot of "quality time" together—and uncover why the rival university burned to the ground. College AU.

“say my name and every color illuminates”: In a world where people only see color once they make eye contact with their soulmate, Caitlyn and Vi have learned to live in black and white. But a chance encounter at the gym changes everything. Contemporary soulmates AU.

tagging: @korblez @commander-krios @birgdets @sunsetsharkblog @sparatus and whoever else is reading this and would like to!

[nadiajustbe]

I'm just hurting myself.

I also recently came up with an idea for an AU in which Nathaniel survives but never dares to summon Bartimaeus again because of a pang of guilt.

It's only then that he realizes how much he hadn't imagined his life without Bartimaeus in at least some part of it. Yes, there were moments, a year, two years, a month, when they were cut off from each other because it was a rule, because it was necessary, but the notion that he could see the djinni in front of him at any second by simply saying the right words hung in the air and (before he could never admit it) was reassuring to realize this. Now he is looking at the level of the pentacle line, just looking, not even summoning anyone, and he realizes that he simply cannot, that he will not, that he will not allow himself to see Bartimaeus even once.

Although the possibility seems to be so close, literally at arm's length, his throat tightens with a spasm, so that he is unable to make a sound, and his heart seems to be getting heavier, pounding madly somewhere far inside his body. Thousands of unwanted images float before his eyes — a half-dead frog sprawled across the floor, a pyramid of slime, a barely noticeable stream of smoke...All that Nathaniel had seen, all that he had known when he and Bartimeus were one, all that pain, disgust, contempt, unrealized hope - he closes his eyes at this thought every time - hate.

And he realizes that he will never be John Mandrake again. He will never be that selfish again. His ideas and feelings don't matter in this situation, it's better to leave everything as it should be. Or have should been.

Only then does he leave the circle.

He leaves, thinking that he will never come back here again, not in this state, but every damn time he finds himself here, on the cold floor, looking at the painted runes, clutching his hands.

And Kitty asks him every time if he is okay, absolutely honestly and sincerely worried about her friend, and he realizes that he has to lie to her again, because he will never be "okay" again. Because he feels that a piece of his being, maybe even his heart, has been taken away from him, and that Bartimeus was that piece.

But only for him.

Because to even consider him a part of himself, something connected to him even for a drop is already stupidity and the very selfishness that he so shuns inside himself.

Because Bartimaeus exists and will continue to exist independently of him, as a personality, as something alive and special.

This is exactly how it should have been and how it was not.

But Kitty doesn't need to know this.

So he squeezes out a slight smile and says, "Yes, everything is fine," that he is slowly but surely getting better.

And then he thinks that maybe he should have shared this when he opens the door of the empty, nighttime office with almost trembling hands.

Why has the wound from the blow never hurt like this?

At that moment, he mentally promises both her and himself that one day he will tell her absolutely everything.

He does this over and over again, as if in a cursed circle, betraying his promises.

[resinfossil]

I keep tossing around this idea in my head for an AU where instead of getting killed Ptolemy gets sealed away or sent to the future somehow and ends up as Mr. Button's apprentice sometime between GE and PG

I haven't worked out all the details but roughly what I'm imagining is this:

Ptolemy's cousin is paranoid that he might have found a way to cheat death, so instead of having Ptolemy killed, he orders the Roman magicians to seal him away

Due to Ptolemy's trip to the Other Place, this actually works

2128-2129 years pass

Kitty has started learning magic from Mr. Button and is trying to find more information on Bart's masters

Mr. Button buys a bottle or similar item that is believed to have a spirit trapped inside with the intent of asking the spirit some questions

Surprise! It's not a spirit at all, it's Ptolemy!

Kitty immediately sees the resemblance to Bartimaeus's favorite form and knows that if she can get Ptolemy on her side then Bartimaeus will be that much more willing to help her succeed at getting commoners and spirits to work together

(Of course there is a language barrier between Kitty and Ptolemy, and this isn't exactly something she can ask for Mr. Button's help with, so that part may take a while, but she's determined to make it work)

Not sure where the main plot would go from there, but I kinda want a version of the succubus scene where everything starts out pretty much the same except Ptolemy is also there, but when the succubus shows her true form the expression on Ptolemy's face morphs from polite interest to unfettered glee. He starts peppering her with a million questions that just came to his mind about the connections between a djinni's true form and their powers, why djinn almost never show their true forms on planes visible to magicians, etc.

This throws the succubus off long enough for Kitty to recover and give her her orders, by which point the succubus has decided that maybe this particular summoning won't be too awful and she's better off not being suicidally reckless this time.

Idk for some reason I just want Ptolemy to befriend the succubus (it would be completely platonic, just to be clear. Sooner or later Ptolemy would start summoning her without the magical safeguards like he did with Bartimaeus and his other djinn, which Mr. Button would not be pleased about when he finds out, and she'd just start hanging out in the house sometimes)