#varice kingsford

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Ok, I was relistening to the Emperor Mage audiobook the other day, and holy cow can we talk about Varice Kingsford for a second. Our girl is immensely consistent from Tempests and Slaughter to Emperor Mage that all she wants is to use her gift to make things pretty and use that to smooth diplomatic paths, and there are the seeds of her being...I don't even know how to describe it properly, under Ozorne's power? Ozorne's lackey? In Ozorne's corner? But when it came to the part in Emperor Mage where Daine is wrecking the palace and runs into Varice, the absolute soul-baring honesty of responding to "Did you betray Numair to Ozorne?" with "No, but I might have if I'd been specifically asked to" just hits so hard.

Varice just wanted to plan parties and play house, and literally none of the men in her life accepted that. They kept pushing and pushing and so she ended up in Ozorne's court, watching one childhood friend murder their mutual childhood friend and her lover. That situation will never not be hideously messed up, but the tragedy is how clearly Varice can see the dynamics in her own relationships.

Just let the kitchen witch do kitchen witchy things that make her happy!!!

[fantastic-rambles]

Title: Paranoia

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Gen

Fandom: Tortall - Tamora Pierce

Relationships: Numair Salmalin & Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe, Varice Kingsford & Numair Salmalín, Varice Kingsford & Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe

Characters: Arram Draper (Numair Salmalín), Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe, Varice Kingsford

Additional Tags: Paranoia, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Poison, Magic, Comfort, Arguing, Verbal Abuse, False Accusations, Threats, Threats of Violence, Crying, Protectiveness, Logic, Anger, Orders, Unhealthy Relationships

Word Count: 659

Summary: As the sole remaining heir to the Carthak throne, Ozorne seems to be growing more unstable by the day, worrying his friends.

Read it on AO3 here!

[naurielrochnur]

WIP tag game

RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything)

I'm going to piggie back off @mihrsuri's tag and drop in a piece of my Tortall fic I'm working on of Arram's early days in Tortall and how he came to be known as Numair Salmalin.

I know I just posted another WIP but I'm very fond of this one and want to share.

“Stop that Arram.” Varice whispered. “Don’t tease. Not now. I can’t stand the thought of you trapped down here.” She—finally—withdrew her hands and crossed her arms, not in a display of anger, but rather the self comforting act of drawing oneself inward, the unconscious instinct to guard the vital organs from an attack. “Will you please reconsider? Not just for your sake, but for Ozorne and all those he may hurt in his rampage. For me.” How easy would it be to just give in? To let go of his mug and reach a hand, still hot and damp from the heat of the tea, to her face and say “Yes, I accept.” To finally be released from this smothering prison and allowed to walk again under the sky, able to truly bask in his Gift again like a flower turning its face to the sun. He kept a hold of his mug. Too hard, was the answer. True, the oppressive weight of this magical prison pulled an unending ache straight through his core and sent it rattling around his bones, but that pain was nothing compared to the agonies of the gilded cage Ozorne held open and waiting for him.  If he were to acquiesce to the Emperor’s whims, sooner or later—probably sooner—the gold would flake away and reveal the harsh barbed iron underneath. Those bars, like vines armed with cruel thorns, would slowly but inexorably wind their way around his entire being, sinking their hooks into his flesh and binding his limbs until he had no choice but to be maneuvered like a puppet on a string. Ozorne’s puppet. Varice couldn’t stand the thought of him being kept down here. Arram couldn’t stand the thought of what being released might entail for his soul.

Again, anyone who wants to be tagged is free to do so!

[six-of-snakes]

Numair/Ozorne/Varice - you will never have my heart again

absolutely! (this turned out more dramatic than I'd planned lol and i definitely took inspiration from your posts on them, but I'm pretty happy with it! thank you for the prompt and happy new year <3)

"You will never have my heart again," Varice says. Her makeup is tear-streaked, her hair a rat's nest, but she meets Ozorne's furious gaze steadily. She draws in a shuddering, raggedly breath. "And I will never, never forgive you for what you did to him." Ozorne has the gall to laugh. "To Arram? Varice, darling-" "No," she says. He stares at her. He is adorned in the riches of his empire, and yet a single word silences him. A single word from her. A kitchen witch, she thinks, a worthless girl. She will not, cannot, forget that Ozorne gave her a chance to use her talents, to do what she liked, when no one else would. But she cannot forgive him, and she cannot love him. "I am not your darling, Ozorne. Not anymore." In the distance, a door splinters open, and stone blocks shatter on the floor. "Varice," Ozorne says, and there's real pain in his voice. She wavers, for a moment, a moment long enough to remember the way Numair looked at his execution, the desperate, betrayed look he'd given her before the axe came down. A chandelier crashes to the floor a few rooms away, and the building shakes. "You will never have my heart again," she repeats. Tears prick at her eyes, but she refuses to let them fall. She turns away from him, and maybe it's a bad idea, but he's already killed Numair. Nothing she does will stop him if revenge is what he wants. She starts for the door, and he doesn't stop her, not even when she pushes it open, or steps into the hallway. As the door creaks shut behind her to the cacophony of destruction, she glances back, despite herself. Ozorne watches her, fury and something that might be despair warring in his dark eyes. She draws a breath to say something, anything, to give closure to this tragedy, but the door closes before she can, and it's over. It's over: Ozorne and Numair and sugar-spun dreams of love and years of clinging to a teenage hope and a man who'd chosen again and again to break them. It's over, she thinks, and she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry.

read on ao3

[dr-dendritic-trees]

Take my word, those two treat Ozorne like gold.

NO THEY DO NOT!!

I am very worried about Varice for several reasons:

I'm worried because she's so dramatically mature compared to the boys in general, and because she is bizarrely confident managing her very seriously ill friend. But that could all just be character decisions I don't really vibe with.

But this is weird. This is just totally not a factual statement. And it makes me wonder: if this is what Varice thinks treating someone like gold looks like, what does she think normal or bad treatment is? What was her life like before she came to Carthak? Because I increasingly think it might have, in fact, been bad.

[malkaleh]

I genuinely think if someone who was an authority figure had sat Varice Kingsford down and said ‘it is more than okay to want to be a cook mage who helps people/makes things look pretty and you do not have to be responsible for your friend who is becoming profoundly abusive’ that would have helped a lot.

[isnt-it-pretty]

Lady (Master) Varice Kingsford (Yes I know my mirror is dirty af)

[the-tiktok-rogue]

Arram/Numair Waiting on a miracle (now with updated effects)

[ladylingua]

I’m about halfway through Tempests & Slaughter and I’ll post full thoughts when I’m done but-

I find it funny that in Emperor’s Mage Daine is all in a yank when Varice makes Numair a plate of fancy foods, thinking about how Varice doesn’t know him well enough to understand that he only likes bland stuff after a voyage,

But now we know that Varice “making a plate” for Numair is an old tradition between them, one that Numair associates with love (at least he does still at the point I’m at in the book), even if he was feeling a bit under the weather that night

So that scene wasn’t really Varice overstepping at all, and instead was Daine failing to recognize elements of Numair’s life before he met Daine. In general during Emperor’s Mage, Daine has a bit of a hard time picturing Numair in Carthak and generally assumes he must have been miserable all the time, and now is only truly happy that he’s free in Tortall. But in reality we know that Numair genuinely loved his world there, he loved studying and Varice and Ozorne. I mean obviously things had soured considerably since his youth at the university, but still, it was complicated and not just all bad.

Kinda makes me think about why the Numair/Daine pairing is still always a little ick for me. Like a lot of grown people are jealous sometimes, or make assumptions of course! But there’s definitely something short-sighted and very, well, 15, about the assumptions Daine brings to Numair’s feelings on his past life, and the way she perceives Varice (which is a whole other topic), that only kind of reinforces for me that Daine may have been incredibly mature in many ways, but I still don’t feel right about her dating her 30 year old mentor.

[allxthingsxglxtter]

@foolsentire​ || For Numair

It’d been a busy day for Varice, the heiress and socialite having left her latest social engagement later than she would have liked.  She was the life of any party, but something about them felt..off to her recently.  Like she was missing something.   The feeling had gotten to her tonight, which is why she’d decided to go home to Numair.

Her fiance hadn’t ever enjoyed parties and things like she did, far too dedicated to studying and being brilliant, but it was part of why she loved him.  Varice slipped into his study as soon as she had a chance, slipping her arms around him from behind with a hum.  “Hello darling.  I missed you tonight.”

[annikasafternoonread]

Tempests and Slaughter (by Tamora Pierce)

We’re back to Tamora Pierce again! She writes so much good stuff. I believe this is her most recent book, published in 2018. She’s slowed down a bit from her earlier hectic pace -- between 1994 and 2006, she published at least one new book a year, and from 1998 to 2003 she published TWO a year (that’s nineteen new books in just thirteen years) -- but they’re still coming and they’re still great. 

Tempests and Slaughter focuses on the early life of Numair Salmalín (fun fact: for the longest time I thought his name was pronounced and written “Salamín” and didn’t realize I’d transposed letters until I heard an audiobook version), at that time called Arram Draper, who was a major character in the Immortals Quartet with Daine. I don’t know if it exactly qualifies as a “prequel” given that it’s a completely separate series. Tamora Pierce does jump around in time between her series -- but usually she jumps forward, and I think this is the first time she’s taken known characters backwards, since the Beka Cooper books were centuries earlier. 

Anyways, that’s a bit of a sidetrack. Numair -- or Arram -- was born in Tyra and then came to Carthak to study magic at the Imperial University. He was an incredibly powerful mage, and was picked out for special courses and advanced training. Two other young mages were also in these accelerated studies: a girl named Varice Kingsford, and a boy named Ozorne Tasikhe who was part of the Imperial family. The book follows the trio through adventures in education, friendship, romance, betrayal, disagreement, power, leadership, corruption, murder, and more. 

I’ll reveal my hand in advance: I’ve mentioned this before, but part of the reason I’m interested in rereading this book is because I’ve noticed a lot of parallels between Arram Draper and Critical Role’s Caleb Widogast. Both were incredibly powerful magic users, plucked from obscurity for special training. Both formed a friendship trio with a girl and a boy in that program, with romantic relationships also winding through. Both found themselves deeply tied to Imperial forces who were not always kind or honest. Both were ultimately forced to flee their homeland and change their name. To be clear -- I’m not alleging intentional plagiarism or anything, plenty of this is pretty standard tropes that just happened to overlap, and there’s a lot of differences that I just haven’t mentioned yet. But I feel like the comparison will be interesting, to think about how different circumstances -- different role models, different manipulations, different choices -- how those changes affect the characters and the outcomes. 

As for other themes, as usual, I’m interested in dynamics of power and leadership. I’m interested in what makes a good leader and what makes an effective leader (very different), and I’m interested in how power can be wielded and people and stories can be manipulated. Also I’m a nerd so I like stories about super nerdy people who do cool school things. But I’m also interested in how people react to certain expectations placed on them -- whether by following those expectations or refusing them. Those will probably be some of my major foci through this book; there will likely be others, but although this is a reread, I’ve only read it once (as opposed to three or four times like most of my other rereads) so the smaller details are a little less embossed into my brain. 

I thought I was just going to post this and dip, but then I found out that a meeting I thought was tonight had actually been rescheduled to next week and no one bothered to tell me! So I’m irritated but also in need of distraction! So let’s get reading :)

[amarguerite]

Thanks to Libby (if you’re American, I highly recommend it! You can get ebooks and audiobooks from your local library system instantly) I’m listening to an audiobook of Emperor Mage and it has like, a full cast of voice actors. Love the guy who does Numair’s voice, it sounds just like it, but I’m disappointed Daine doesn’t have the extremely heavy Appalachian accent I always imagined she has.  

Also, feeling real bad for poor Varice Kingsford. Your childhood BFF/ first lover comes back after fleeing the country on charges of treason and instead of wanting to reconcile... is very clearly into his 16-year-old student. Like how... do you deal with that. Do you have to completely rethink everything you thought you knew about yourself?? Do you start thinking, “Well I dodged a bigass bullet there???”

[xnightwolfx]

Very true. We start to see Ozorne’s instability and anger creeping up more and more as the book progresses. I think Pierce did a really good job showing his developing facets as they get older, and it will feel really believable when we finally see him snap. It just makes me sad when I think it about it in comparison to the good times they have when they’re younger. LOTS of foreshadowing with all of those lines about what he would ever do without friends like Arram and Varice.

I definitely would like to see some more development from Varice in book 2. I think we’ll start to see more now that she and Numair are romantically involved and she might be lore active in trying to keep them all together as things start to fracture more.

I was SO excited when I realized Musenda was Sarge! I loved all the nods Pierce did for fans of her other Tortall series :)

Oh god young ozorne isn’t a bad guy. It’s like some prince of Egypt stuff. Him wanting to help animals.

I can’t. My heart

[malkaleh]

Numair book ot3 regency AU

This will be in bullet point form. Also Regency is not my area so this is mostly inspired by (a) Sorcery & Cecelia and (b) Regency Romance I Have Read 

Lady Varice Kingsford is the only daughter of a father who has only just been elevated to Sir Kingsford. She is very interested in becoming a pastry chef but as she has her own magic and it’s very strong she is sent off to a university on the continent that caters to both sexes (they tried a young ladies with magic finishing school - she may have gotten kicked out)

Arram Draper is the youngest child of cloth merchants from Venice who are (a) Jewish and (b) come by way of what is now Pakistan 

Ozorne is in direct line to the throne of somewhere 

Spoiler alert the biggest centre of magical learning is in Morocco. 

OT3 happens. Also magic, spying, shennaganians, Arram Just Wants To Be A Doctor Here And Also Is A Softie And Loves Babies. 

[lostinthewinterwood]

Chocolate Box Letter 2020

Dear Chocolatier…

  Thank you for writing for me!  I hope you find inspiration, if you need it, somewhere in this letter, but either way, good luck with your writing!

(some of the prompts are… rambly and disjointed; the lengths vary wildly, but dw I love them all.  I hope the rambly ones still make sense; this letter is uhhh almost 3k and my brain is Tired.)

General DNWs:

Rape/non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death*; smut/graphic sex scenes; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; graphic depictions of deliberate and methodical self-harm**; graphic depictions of suicide;  gore; heavy gender dysphoria; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; full setting AUs (canon-divergence, even significant canon-divergence, is fine); graphic eye trauma; graphic and/or permanent hand trauma (unless the setting can provide a more-or-less fully functional prosthetic or equivalent); issuefic.

*exceptions noted below.

**I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. however, something like cutting would not be appreciated.

  General Likes:

I like family/friendship stories, things that play with canon in interesting ways, honestly… a lot of things.  I don’t know. articulating things I like is hard.

I’m an absolute sucker for identity porn/secret/mistaken identity drama, as well as non-sexualized/non-fetishized crossdressing (either direction, and especially if for plot-relevant disguise purposes!) and if you combine them, well, I’ll be a very happy camper.

Other things I like include wriggling into canon and exploring something left unexplored by said canon, what-if stories featuring some sort of canon divergence, and plotty fic, if you want to write something long enough for that to be relevant.

  Order of fandoms:

·        Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

·        Super Powereds – Drew Hayes

·        Tortall – Tamora Pierce

·        Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)

·        The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)

·        Frozen (Disney Movies)

·        Little Women (2019)

·        Original Prompts

·        Crossovers

    Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (Star Wars Sequel Trilogy)

So uh I may be having a slight case of Feels™ over these two, though tbh I’m not entirely sure what those feelings are exactly.  I don’t know what exactly I’d most want, though I’d be interested in explorations of their evolving emotions in relation to each other, especially through Kylo Ren/Ben’s whole death/rebirth thing.  What-ifs are another thing; what if, say, Ben didn’t die?  What happens, then, since they’d have to actually deal with what he’s done?  Feel free to retcon the kiss (which I thought was rather devoid of chemistry; in general their dynamic came across to me more as weirdly sibling-ish, especially after the Death Star duel) to a hug or something, if you want.

If you want to go to a lighter place, I can also see all sorts of shenanigans emerging after they discover their Force-teleportation skills.

Also feel free to retcon Rey’s parentage, if that is where your heart takes you: might she be Luke’s secret child?  Leia’s?  A descendant of Obi-Wan Kenobi and, say, Satine Kryze?

Apart from that I’d prefer no full-setting AUs; canon divergence is fine, and if you go that route you can pick a divergence point as far back as you want.

Feel free to include whatever other characters are necessary for the story you want to tell.

(And also do keep in mind that you can absolutely cut off someone’s hand here, or for the Star Wars crossover farther down; in this franchise it is a goddamn motif.)

    Super Powereds – Drew Hayes

Adam Riley & George Russel | Relentless Steel (Super Powereds)

I’m utterly fascinated by the relationship these two have; the interplay of Adam’s… vendetta, maybe?  I’m not sure what the right word for it is… and the fact that George also serves him as a mentor/almost-parental, in some ways, figure.  And, you know, that Adam (maybe) kills him.  We don’t actually see that; for all we know he made a different choice.

Consider this an exception to my “non-canonical MCD” DNW, since it’s deliberately ambiguous in canon; you can kill George, if that’s where your muse takes you.

  Alice Adair | Legacy & Vince Reynolds | Jack of All (Super Powereds)

Their friendship/cousin relationship is Wholesome and I love it.  Any point in the timeline, post-canon, all of it is Good and Welcome.  Do they form a legacy children/villains’ kids club? They’re secret cousins; untangling the mess that is the past; so much juicy juicy stuff to work with!!

  Phillip Adair | Globe & Charles Adair | Alchemist (Super Powereds)

Brother vs brother! O the drama! But also, they grew up together; they were once best friends; and Charles grew hard and it all fell apart—give me their childhood, maybe, or HCP years or young heroes before Shelby’s powers grew too much for her, or lean into the tragedy of what comes later…

    Tortall – Tamora Pierce

Numair Salmalín | Arram Draper & Varice Kingsford (Tortall)

Numair Salmalín | Arram Draper & Varice Kingsford & Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe (Tortall)

Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe & Numair Salmalín | Arram Draper (Tortall)

Varice Kingsford & Ozorne Muhassin Tasikhe (Tortall)

I love these kids, okay?  And I wish they could all just… be okay.  But of course they won’t be; we already know what becomes of them, after all.

There’s a lot to explore here, with these three in their varying combinations of course.  Right now I’m most interested in the pre-Wild Magic timeline—what was Varice and Ozorne’s dynamic before Arram came along? what little snippets of things happen offscreen during the timeline of Tempests and Slaughter? how does Arram gain his black robe; how does Ozorne feel about that? Varice? how does Numair end up in exile, and how do the others feel about that whole affair?—but really I’d also be interested in something set during or around the time of Emperor Mage, from any of their POVs.  We get all the story there from Daine, who is great! but she doesn’t know the history between the three of them, not intimately as they do, and I’d love any of their emotional reactions to being together again under such strained circumstances, so many years after everything fell apart.

  Numair Salmalín & Myles of Olau (Tortall)

He was on a mission, was he not, when he became that hawk at the beginning of Wild Magic?  (please ignore if I am Wrong there.)  So how did they meet?  Why did Numair become an agent?  All sorts of questions, here…

  Prince Stiloit Tasikhe & Varice Kingsford (Tortall - Pierce)

Stiloit seems so… calm, and level-headed, especially when compared with Ozorne who is not.  And he clearly finds Varice interesting, and her company valuable.  So maybe tell me something about that—what does he think of her?  She of him?  What if, perhaps, he didn’t die when he does?

  Keladry of Mindelan & Nealan of Queenscove (Tortall)

They have a BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP and also ye gods when I reread First Test at like 19 (having first read it at 10) I was struck by how very, very fifteen Neal is in that book and it’s hilarious.  But more seriously—Neal’s PoV on things would be fantastic, since we only see him through Kel’s eyes and he doesn’t let her see everything about himself.

  Keladry of Mindelan & Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak (Tortall - Pierce)

What a beautiful mentorship relationship, I love them.  Also, how does Raoul feel about this open girl page?  Who’s so determined, and has such potential in how she could become more, in an area he knows about (that being military command)—how does he feel about her, living her best life; how does he contextualize it in his intimate knowledge that Alanna could not do what she is doing—and yet it was Alanna, with her deception, who allowed this to be.

  Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau & Numair Salmalín

The renowned lady knight-healer-mage and the black robe on the run from Carthak! How did they meet, anyway?  They’re something like the same age, I think, or at least he’s no more than ten years her junior.

  Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau & Thom of Trebond (Tortall - Pierce)

My poor Important Destiny Twins… Look I just, I want some content with poor Thom, right?  I’d rather here that we set the story before his death, or that we make it an AU where he gets to live.

    Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)

Shadowsan & Hideo (Carmen Sandiego 2019)

There’s… so little of this stated or shown overtly, really, but I’m fascinated.  I can’t get over it.  Just tell me about the brothers, please.

    The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)

Runaan/Ethari & Rayla (The Dragon Prince)

Family fluff!  Or angst!  Or turn round and give them a reunion!  All depends on where in the timeline you pick, really.

(there’s a fic on ao3 with the tag “this fanfiction written by the ETHARI LOOK IN THE FUCKING WATER gang” and honestly that is just such a mood.)

  Amaya & Sarai (The Dragon Prince)

…I don’t have much to say here really, just that I love me some sibling dynamics.

  Callum & Ezran (The Dragon Prince)

A king by birthright, a prince only by adoption, who by age/maturity would probably be better-suited to ruling… look idk just, bros okay???

Maybe something when they were younger, or canon-era, or… idk I love them.

  Callum & Ezran & Rayla (The Dragon Prince)

Friendship! Angst! The gang’s all here!  If you want you can include rayllum but for this prompt at least I’d rather it be lowkey.

  Claudia & Soren (The Dragon Prince)

I am heartbroken over these kids and just—I need more content with them.  Even if it makes me sad.

  Callum & King Harrow (The Dragon Prince)

There are a lot of complicated feelings I have about them—how clearly Harrow loves his stepson, and how even after more than a decade, Callum still isn’t quite comfortable with his stepfather.

    Frozen (Disney Movies)

Agnarr/Iduna (Frozen)

How did they get together?  Why does Iduna stay with Agnarr; why doesn’t she just go home?  How does that revelation conversation go—when does it happen?  How do they come to decide to block Elsa’s powers; when/how do they decide to sail for Ahtohallan?

  Kristoff & Ryder Nattura (Frozen)

Reindeer bros!!  What did Kristoff do while Anna and Elsa were off doing the plot stuff?  Does he go with the Northuldra?  I love the dynamic between these two; it’s adorable and there’s so painfully little of it.

  Yelena & Mattias (Frozen)

So clearly they know each other, right? It’s been thirty-four years, and they clearly have some sort of sniping thing going on but they don’t seem to be actively antagonistic towards each other.  How do they feel about each other, really? How have they interacted in the past?  Is there anything there?  What about after Mattias goes back to Arendelle?

  Anna & Elsa (Frozen)

There is just.  There’s a profound tragedy here—they’re best of friends till they’re five and eight or so, then they don’t interact for thirteen years, they have three years together, and then they go off together to the Enchanted Forest and Elsa doesn’t come back to live in Arendelle, while Anna must return… I don’t know.  Tell me about that, maybe.  Or give me sweet fluff about them as children.  Or something.

  Anna/Kristoff (Frozen)

They’re adorable and I love them and I really just want more.  Maybe something from between the movies—how do they navigate forming a relationship, when he was raised by trolls and she’s been so isolated?

    Little Women (2019)

Amy March/Theodore Laurence (Little Women 2019)

…I don’t know, they’re cute, Laurie is a disaster, I love seeing Amy grow up, I hunger for moar content with them.

  Beth March & Mr. Laurence (Little Women 2019)

This has a lot of potential for cute/sad father/daughter dynamics, I think!  And I’d love more of it.

  Friedrich Bhaer & Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

Friedrich Bhaer/Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

I just want cute content with Jo and her dynamic with this man who actually respects her and her writing okay?  Maybe something like, I don’t know, navigation of boundaries around Jo’s writing and his criticism thereof… I don’t know.  Have fun with them.  And I really don’t care if it’s shipfic or not.

  Theodore "Laurie" Laurence & Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

Theodore Laurence & Josephine March (Little Women 2019)

Laurie is still a disaster but I love him anyway, and their friendship is sweet, and I need more content™.

    Original Prompts

In general: I’m not super picky about how shippy the shipfic gets; most of the ship prompts here would, I think, work as well for gen, excepting the suitor and the princess (which is not to say I’m asking that it be gen, obviously I’m not, but if your muse takes you that direction then go for it).  Likes I put up top still apply down here.

In terms of settings, I especially like high fantasy, space fantasy, or, if relevant, Classic Superhero City Setting, but I’m open to just about anything.

I’m also not tremendously picky about the genders of the characters involved; if it isn’t stated within the prompt, go wild, but please do stick to standard English pronouns; I have a lot of difficulty reading things with neopronouns.

Most of these pairings are prompts in and of themselves, but I’ll add in some bits of commentary for each one.

  Disgraced Vampire Queen Moonlighting As A Barista/Exhausted Vampire Hunter In Search Of Caffeine

Okay, so I just think this has great potential for absolute hilarity, and identity shenanigans aplenty.

  Dragon & Human Child (Original Work)

I love dragons.  I love playing with dragon-lore, though here I’d appreciate it being a relationship wherein the dragon is not evil, at least not to the child.

  Female Crossdressing General/Female Crossdressing Enemy General (Original Work)

So uh from my general likes, it should be… fairly obvious what called to me here lmao.  But there’s such potential here!  The drama!  Do they know each others’ real gender?  Do they know that they’re on opposing sides?  How does this romance across the battlefield work?  Is it even across the battlefield—are they at war, or just generally enemies?

  Female Failed Chosen One & Female New Chosen One

Such delicious depths to delve here… why did the first one fail?  What’s her relationship with her successor?  What have they been chosen for?  The setup of this makes me think that the failed chosen one is an adult of some age that’s distinctly older than the new one, who I’ve been imagining as an older child or young adult, but you should follow your muse there.

  Female Ship's Captain & Grumpy Stowaway Orphan Rebel

What kind of ship are they on, anyway?  Sailing ship?  Spaceship?  What’s the orphan rebelling against—an Evil Empire?  The Man?  Something else?

  Female Suitor Sent As An Insult To Ruling Monarchs/Princess Uninterested In Male Suitors

This seems like… I don’t know, there’s just such potential for dancing around each other and Misunderstandings™ about what’s going on.  Is this the princess’s Gay Awakening?  Has she known for a while why she’s not into the male suitors?  Why was this female suitor selected for the insult?

  Injured Male Superhero/Male Supervillain Who Saves His Life

I love superhero identity shenanigans, and ambiguous morals, and I’d love to dive into the emotional turmoil that results from this rescue decision—why does the supervillain do it?  How does the hero feel about being saved by his enemy?

  Musician/Dancer with magical powers (Original Work)

Another trope I love that I didn’t mention before is magic music and magical arts in general, so this here is right up my alley.

  Portal Fantasy Protagonist & Their Mentor In A Trade Useful In Both Worlds (Original Work)

…Look, idk man this is just sweet and wholesome and I Want.

  Retired Male Superhero/Male Supervillain Who Keeps Seeking Him Out Because He Misses Him

Is this not just the plot of Megamind?  In all seriousness, though, I feel about the same here as I do in the injury situation; I love me some hero/villain dynamics in general.

  Witch & Witch's Apprentice

Mentor and student!  Always a fun time.  I’m picturing this as some pseudo-historical or straight alternate-world setting more than modern, but follow your muse here.

  Wounded Werewolf/Female Apprentice Witch who Begrudgingly Rescues him (OW)

Honestly I feel like the dynamic here will probably scratch the same itch that the hero/villain pairings do.  Clearly I have a Type.

    Crossovers

Oliver Queen (DC's Arrowverse) & Matt Murdock (Daredevil(TV))

Local Vigilante Man With Many Issues Meets Counterpart From Another Universe would be the headline here, probably.  I don’t know.  I think they’d be fun to bounce off each other.

For reference though I haven’t watched all of either show: I’ve seen the first four seasons of Arrow in their entirety and some of what comes later, and I’ve seen the first two seasons of Daredevil.  You can reference later events, I’m not currently really following either show and am not particularly worried about spoilers, but without some degree of context I’ll be fairly lost.

  Shmi Skywalker (SWPT) & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (SWST)

How do these two meet?  Is it time travel nonsense?  Shmi as a Force ghost?  Both of them in the afterlife?  And if it’s before Ben’s redemption but after his Fall, I do rather hope she’s Disappointed™ in him.

  Vince Reynolds | Jack of All (Super Powereds) & Midoriya Izuku (My Hero Academia)

Look.  Look.  All I have ever wanted since I started watching My Hero Academia (which… I haven’t seen much of, but don’t worry about spoilers I legitimately do not care) is to see Vince meet with the character who I immediately internally dubbed tiny green Vince.  How did this happen? Frankly I neither know nor care.  I just want to see it happen.

Thank you for writing me fic!!

[malkaleh]

My main AU!Varice thing is that she gets to go to Tortall and be valued for who she is and what she wants to do - rather than being so pressured to live up to all these expectations and manage someone’s emotional stability.

Like she’s the royal baker - I like to think she has a shop as well - she uses her magic to make some absolutely gorgeous creations and also some just beautiful everyday baked goods. And no one is pressuring her!

(G-d she and Lalasa bonding would be absolutely beautiful as would her and Thayets friendship)

I absolutely also believe she’s the one who gets work first - because no one thinks to look for Varice Kingsford working in a bakery.

Really really really with the Venn Diagram of Melissa Caruso fans and Tamora Pierce fans wasn't literally just, my blog.

Because my AUs are eating my brain without ever actually coming together.

@mihrsuri I specifically feel like your Varice opinions on AU would be more interesting than mine.