#zorian is getting ghosted

[mage-witha-glock]

[lostinthewinterwood]

Gen Freeform Exchange 2020

Hey friend!

I’m looking forward to whatever you’re going to make for me—if you want to take what was in my sign-up and run with it, go right ahead!  But if you’re looking for more inspiration/ideas, keep right on reading.

If you’re not my assigned person, and are instead a generous person looking at this letter for treating purposes, I’d be happy to get treats in any medium.

General DNW

Rape/non/dub-con; non-canonical major character death; heavy angst; hurt no comfort; graphic depictions of deliberate and methodical self-harm*; graphic depictions of suicide; anything E rated; gore; heavy gender dysphoria; grimdark; complete downer endings; character bashing; incest; cringe comedy; a/b/o; mpreg; full setting AUs (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; unrequested identity headcanons.

*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 really like plotty fics

– Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better.

– Crossdressing for whatever reason and gender disguises, also for whatever reason.

– Time travel and time loops are always fun, especially as a fix-it.  I have a general preference for Peggy Sue style (aka, an older character getting put back in their younger body at an earlier point in the timeline) over the character’s physical body stepping back in time, but either one is good.

– A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together

– Found family; families of choice

– Character studies

– Worldbuilding

All of my requests have way too many tags to relist them here, but if you’re at a loss for what to do, anything in a given request’s tags is obviously fair game; don’t feel bound by them either, since I’m definitely interested in more things than just those which appear in the tag requests.

 Fandom-specific prompts and DNWs

 Mother of Learning

Fandom-specific DNW: physical parental abuse within the Kazinski family, significant exaggeration of canonical emotional neglect/abuse/general family dysfunction, any implication or presence of romantic and/or sexual Zach/Zorian, either Raynie or the rest of her tribe being portrayed as Absolutely Right And Entirely Justified in all of their actions

 Neoluma-Manu Iljatir & Zach Noveda

Solo: Zach Noveda

Zach Noveda & Zorian Kazinski

Fanfiction

I’d generally prefer something set at least in part after the time loop begins, but beyond that I don’t have a strong preference for where in the timeline this might be set.  Maybe something from before Zorian got looped in—maybe one of the iterations where Zach and Neolu just went off across the country having fun the whole month? Zach doing whatever, possibly very early on, or maybe him freaking out a little because what the hell, time travel is supposed to be impossible, and yet—what did he do in the start? Some canon-type shenanigans with Zach and Zorian together because there aren’t lasting consequences to their actions?

Or for post-canon, I’d really like an exploration of Zach, who’s got the lived-time of a middle-aged man and the body of a teenager—how does he relate to his classmates/other people in the real world, where everyone’s growing again?  Maybe something about his lawsuit against his caretaker, or just a little thing with him, Zorian, and How Do You Live Normally, Again?  This Is Hard, or some such thing.

One tag I like especially—though obviously if you didn’t match on it you needn’t include it—is “Character expected to die but didn’t and now has no idea how to live anymore,” since Zach definitely didn’t fully expect he would get a chance to live through the rest of his adolescence/adulthood, and something delving into that would be really interesting!

 Raynie & Raynie’s Tribe

Raynie & Kiana

Fanfiction, Podfic

I love Raynie, and I love the little glimpses we get into her character and her past in canon!

For her I was thinking maybe something after the invasion, maybe her going home again.  I’d love to see a reconciliation between her and her tribe, and a settling of the issues and problems that led to her being sent away.

If I’ve got my timeline right, her brother should be old enough to have reasonable interactions with; I’d really enjoy something dealing with the tension between them, letting them reconcile and build a better sibling relationship.

Alternatively, if we’re going for pre-canon, I’d really enjoy something dealing with her initial arrival in Cyoria and befriending Kiana.

 Cikan Kazinski & Kirielle Kazinski

Solo: Kirielle Kazinski

Nochka Sashal & Kirielle Kazinski

Zorian Kazinski & Kirielle Kazinski

Fanfiction

I’d really like something focusing on Kirielle here—she is, after all, the uniting factor in this set of requests.

I’ve got a few ideas for what could come of this!

-- Kirielle and her mother.  For this one, I’d rather it not be anything where Cikan can be described as “winning” a confrontation—I’d much rather have it be a confrontation where it either ends neutrally or in Kiri’s favor, or a reconciliation when Kiri’s a bit older, coming to understand each other better.  I’d be down for Cikan realizing that Kiri is her own person, and can forge her own way in life, if you can get a story there, but I’m not sure if there’s an in-character way to do so, given how she still relates to Daimen, a successful adult in his own right.

-- Kirielle and Nochka.  They’re adorable and I’d love a further development of their friendship, especially getting to see it grow and develop over the months and years after the invasion.

-- Kirielle and Zorian.  I love their dynamic!  And again here I’d really enjoy seeing their relationship developing in real time, rather than a constantly looping world.  I think it would be great to see either of them defending the other to their parents—and maybe Zorian ends up with custody of Kiri, there’s definitely things to explore there.

-- Kirielle.  I’d be here for any sort of character study of Kiri, really, but I’m gonna prompt a few specific things anyway.

---- She grows up a little, and becomes a student mage—what’s that like for her, especially having received Zorian’s tutelage?

---- She grows up a little, and doesn’t seriously pursue magic—does she devote herself more seriously to art?  Do something else?  Get away from her parents, and get to just be a kid for a little longer than her siblings?

---- By some mechanism, Kirielle gets pulled into the time loop, whether with Zorian, instead of him, or in some utterly unrelated incident. What’s it like to grow older and older in life experience while your body remains stubbornly nine?  How does this change the story?  If you go this route I’d rather looper!Kiri not be erased in the timeline of the fic—ending the fic before it becomes an issue or letting her escape back to the real world are what I’d rather see.

---- For some reason—there’s actually a fair amount that’d have to change here, but shhh this is my ridiculous self-indulgent prompt—Kirielle is the Controller.  How does she react to being in a looping world, with no one else looping she can possibly compare notes with?  What does she do with her time?  Why did the angels choose her?  How does this impact canon—is Jornak even a problem, does the whole Sovereign Gate affair pass much as it was meant to rather than the debacle that became of it in canon?

 Solo: The Ghost Serpent

Solo: Quatach-Ichl

Fanfiction, Podfic

So, these two are just… they’re old.  They’re very old; QI, the younger, is still a thousand years old, and they’ve just seen so much??  I’d love some sort of exploration of the world’s history through either of their eyes.

For the Ghost Serpent, I’d be very interested in what it saw the other Branded Ones do that put it off of them so badly.

For QI, I’m interested both in the world history around him and also how he became what he is—why/how did he become a lich in the first place?  Who was he before?  Why did he get a divine blessing?  What did he think of the gods falling silent?  What was the Necromancer’s War like?

For this prompt, I’d be down for an in-universe document or legend/folktale/fairytale about them, rather than an ordinary narrative. I’d also definitely be down for something like an epic poem or story-song, if you feel so inclined.

  Star Wars Rebels

Alexsandr Kallus & Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios

Fanfiction

I’m a total sucker for the enemies-to-allies redemption arc that Kallus and Zeb have going and really, anything exploring that dynamic I’d be down for.  Post-Honorable Ones is probably better—there’s a bit more to work with there—but mutual respect/grudging acknowledgement from before that point would be great too.

That being said, I would also be super down for one or both of them mentally travelling back in time and whatever ridiculous shenanigans emerge from that—honestly most of my tags can be interpreted as prompts for that, if you squint at least.

  Star Wars Rebels: Servants of the Empire

 Solo: Zare Leonis

Solo: Dhara Leonis

Zare Leonis & Dhara Leonis

Fanfiction

These poor kids, god.  I love them and I love their siblingship and I just, I want more. A lot of the freeforms I’m asking for are geared towards the aftermath of Secret Academy, and Dhara’s recovery and her relationship with Zare throughout that.  Do feel free to bring in their parents, too, though it’s by no means necessary.

Other things I’d be interested in include various types of role reversals and how that changes things—maybe it’s Zare who’s older, with a Force-sensitive little sister in Dhara, or the ages are the same and the Force sensitivity is flipped, or maybe Zare’s Force sensitive as well as Dhara, or the ages and Force sensitivity are flipped, making Zare Force sensitive and older and Dhara not force sensitive as well as being younger.

Another interesting thing would be exploring Zare readjusting to a civilian life; he’s quite conditioned into being so careful and military in his dress and his living space—does he keep that going? Let it fade?  Deliberately reject it?

 Solo: Lieutenant Chiron

Zare Leonis & Lieutenant Chiron

Fanfiction, Podfic

I love Chiron, he’s such an interesting character, and I am Big Sad that he doesn’t appear in any fics on ao3 as of yet.  He strikes me very much as a good man who doesn’t really know most of the bad things his government is doing; he cares about Zare and he cares that there’s abuses of power and murder going on at the academy; he truly, genuinely wants to make the galaxy a better place.

I would love to see a story where he lives through the climax of Secret Academy and, however that happens, is thus forced to question his government from that, since I’m also Big Sad that he died before he had that chance; failing that it would be interesting to have a fic exploring his past and how he came to be part of the imperial war machine, I think.

For him and Zare post-canon, assuming an AU where they both survive, I’d be down to see them rebuilding the relationship they had before and regaining some sort of trust/regard for each other.

  Original Works

Fandom-specific DNW: the word “queerplatonic” being used to describe relationships (writing something that you’d normally consider it is fine!  I just don’t really like the term), fics that are All About Being Trans And/Or Disabled, neopronouns, nondysphoric trans characters.

 Archmage & Apprentice

Failed Chosen One & New Chosen One

Girl Who Killed The Dark Lord & Her New Inherited Minions Who She Would Like To Be Less Scared

Fanfiction

I love fantasy, including space fantasy, and so many of its associated tropes: magic, destiny and fate and the subversion thereof, people being fundamentally human whilst caught up in something far beyond them…

This one’s a bit harder to prompt for, but looking through the tags I asked for should give you a decent idea for what I like; see also the general likes section above.

Thank you for creating for me!! I’m sure whatever you make will be lovely, and I’m looking forward to seeing it :D

[necer0s]

So I just reread all of Mother of Learning in preparation for the big finale, and boy do I have a lot of Thoughts.  So I put them all in one post so as not to spam everyone.  

The summer festival planar alignment being an excuse for a huge political/social/academic party makes a lot of sense when you consider that this particular planar alignment is essentially the anniversary of the Ikosian Empire.

Can I just say that the Splinter Wars and everything that goes into them is an absolutely masterful piece of worldbuilding craft? Those combined events set the stage technologically, socially, and politically, at scales large and small.

I really enjoy the Northern Frontier chapters. Whenever I think about an epilogue, I always imagine that eventually Zach and Zorian will move north to settle some patch of land with their incredible skills. I feel that Zach wouldn’t be happy without the adventure, and Zorian would enjoy the relative isolation.

I also really like the mind magic in this series. It has a great set of abilities and limitations. Watching Zorian master those abilities and push those limitations is what makes his progress in the field so enjoyable.

Aranean culture is also fascinating. It’s kind of interesting that we explore a number of different web cultures before we really start exploring the different human cultures.

The foreshadowing in this story really is quite remarkable. Nochka and Raynie, two totally separate people with nothing in common other than being shifters, are both introduced to us in the very first chapter, however passingly. Eventually, Zorian is given completely different reasons to get to know both of them. And by the end, getting their respective stories is not only crucial to understanding the invaders’ plans, but essential to stopping them entirely.

The more I reread, the more I wish I’d read the conversation with the angel a few more times. I still don’t really understand why the angels chose Zach of all people to be at the center of the time loop. If it’s a matter of character, surely his Tragic Backstory should have made him look like a potential danger? With his history, there was always a danger that Zach would decide not to care about Cyoria or something.

You know, during this period where Zach is waiting for Zorian to show up... I wonder what’s going on in his mind? I mean, apparently Zach knows all this time that only one of the two of them can survive. But by the time they meet up again, he seems... antagonistic, maybe, but he’s also determined to get Zorian out of the loop pretty soon after talking to him. Is he hoping that they’ll find a way for both of them to live? Or has he already given up on life at that point?

Seeing the “original” version of the invasion is making me think about how Z&Z will defeat the real invasion. I suspect they might have warded most of the artillery magic targets, for a start... and of course, Zorian’s city-wide mind magic will be devastating.

I really do like Xvim. He’s just such a strong character. And yet we know so little about him! I really hope he doesn’t die at the end of the story.

I have to say, I much prefer when Zorian starts becoming exceptional, rather than merely competent. The basics are fun and all, but it’s undeniably more fun to watch him master more advanced skills like mind magic and dimensionalism.

Zach is such a wonderfully fascinating character. That was true even without the contract reveal, and with that information... he seems so carefree and happy most of the time, but he has such delightful hidden depths. The depression and rage were always sort of there, but it’s only with this new insight that I can see just how good a liar Zach can be. It’s not something you’d expect from him.

Random theory: is the Ghost Serpent a former god? He says that a past Branded One made him “fall”, and if anyone could cause the gods to lose their power and be thus diminished, it would be someone who had been through the full time loop.

I will never stop loving the reveal of how the time loop really works. It’s such a masterful culmination of foreshadowing and worldbuilding. “Time travel is impossible”, “blueprint conjuration”, “Black Room-style time acceleration”... the list goes on. Dozens of little hints and facts and observations all add up to this one revelation.

Zach’s determination to get both of them out of the loop is so bittersweet with the contract revelation. What is he thinking in this moment? Is he resolved to die if it gives them a better chance to save Cyoria? Is he quietly (desperately) hoping that if he saves Zorian, Zorian will somehow save him? It’s honestly heartbreaking.

You know, I’ve thought this before, but I really want Kirielle to end up learning from Silverlake in the epilogue.

Oh yeah, the Sovereign Gate belonged to House Noveda in the past... I wonder if the same is true of the Dagger? Even if it’s only the Gate, it does sort of imply that Zach is a distant descendant of the original Ikosian kings. Which might account for why he was chosen for the time loop...

I know that the story is supposed to be divided to into three Acts, but seeing Act 2 end at chapter 54 when the maybe-final chapter is going to be 101 really makes me think that it’s really a four-act story (partly thanks to later chapters being either longer or more plot-dense than early chapters). Maybe Act 3 should end when Silverlake leaves the time loop? There’s a certain symmetry in having each act end with the revelation that someone has left the loop.

So the gate has sufficient power for a thousand iterations even under the suboptimal conditions of this early activation. That’s... over eighty years. Easily a lifetime. At full power... would you expect to see two lifetimes? Five? Ten? That’s incredible power. And yet, for as relatively little time as they’ve had, Zach and Zorian have sure come a long way. By the end of the time loop, even counting Black Box time, Zach has had just about 40 years, and Zorian has had about... 15? Even with all the advantages of the time loop, it speaks to their talent that they both leave the loop as powerful as they do. For them to be as close behind Quatach-Ichl as they are, when he has almost a thousand years on them... it’s impressive.

I love it when Zach and Zorian start bantering. It’s a lot of fun, of course, but it’s also just... so good for them. It’s the kind of thing that just seems really healthy for both of them after how long they’ve been effectively isolated.

Have I mentioned recently that I love Xvim? He’s so totally down with Zorian being a powerful mind mage.

The reveal that Quatach-Ichl is wearing the Crown is such a delightfully sadistic moment. Like, you knew that gathering the Key was never going to be easy, but they went ahead and put the single greatest possible obstacle right at the start.

The Dragon Cult being worried that QI might try to betray them if he knew they were trying to control the primordial seems a lot like foreshadowing... as does Alanic saying that knowing the simulacrum spell is half of what you need to be a lich.

Daimen and Zorian meeting each other for the first time in so long is another one of those moments that makes me wish we could get Zach’s viewpoint on all this. Partly because I’d love a neutral perspective on their interactions, and partly because... what must he be feeling, as someone who lost all his family so long ago?

The wraith bombs are such a wonderfully horrible development. Not only are they about the most disturbing weapon imaginable, they make horrifically perfect sense in this setting. The perfect fantasy nuke.

The fact that the invasion is actually cancelled after the Ibasan Gate is stolen seems like a fairly significant point to me. (Especially since it happens before Silverlake joined the team, meaning she may not know about it.) If one of the first moves in the counter-assault is to shut down the Gate somehow (a sensible option anyway, as it would cut access to Iasku Mansion), there’s an increased chance of Quatach-Ichl deciding to retreat.

...I wonder if Zorian could dominate a couple soulseizer chrysanthemums and use them to fight Quatach-Ichl? They do seem like kind of the perfect option for something like that... I’m just imagining Zorian luring him into a seemingly undefended Noveda garden and then suddenly half a dozen tiny flowers pop out of the ground and try to eat his soul.

With the knowledge that Jornak is Red Robe, it strikes me as important to wonder who exactly it was that screwed him out of his inheritance.

Zorian is such an annoying little brother. I can’t blame him— it’s obviously self-defense against his asshole older brothers— but it is definitely funny.

Boy, every time Zach talks about his future instantly becomes sad when you consider the contract, huh?

Silverlake’s study of the primordials and their prisons is really worrying now that she’s working for the other side. Does she even need the shifter children to release Panaxeth?

You know, Silverlake suggests tracking Quatach-Ichl’s movements to try and find his phylactery, and Alanic agrees, but I don’t remember them ever actually doing that? That’s going to become extremely important by the end of the story. If they could just place the ring’s tracking marker on him, then send him back to his phylactery...

I really do love that dealing with both Quatach-Ichl and Silverlake has serious consequences. Powerful and ancient mages shouldn’t be completely at the mercy of anyone with a time loop, and these two certainly aren’t.

...so the Sovereign Gate can be used as a replacement for the shifter children, right? But the question is— is that true in the outside world as well, or only while it’s “attached” to him to create the time loop? The answer to that question will have a big effect on the final battle. (Could the angels possibly re-attune the Gate to a different primordial? Can the Guardian of the Threshold push Panaxeth back?)

You know, even having seen most of what’s coming, I can’t keep from imagining foreshadowing in everything that happens in this early part after leaving the loop. Like, is Bryn a spy for Jornak? That kind of thing.

Zorian says he has “that one trump card that no one but him knows about”. Boy, what a tantalizing line. Is he talking about bypassing mind blank? Being a lich? A secret spell formula weapon? We just don’t know.

Okay, here’s a thought: how does the contract kill Zach? Is there any way he could survive, like by becoming a lich? Or would it just... erase his soul?

I love that one of the necessary characteristics for the angels choosing Zach is him being dumb enough to agree to a mysterious contract presented by beings in a dream.  He’s Stupid Good by design.

You know, most of the angels’ concerns and precautions make sense to me.  Zach needs to be good, he needs to be willing (however dubiously), he needs to keep Panaxeth from escaping... but why is it such a big deal to them that no one knows about the time loop?  The Sovereign Gate can realistically only be activated by them, and if I understand its function correctly, once Zach went in, no one else was going to be able to use it for another 400 years.  

...oh shit, Zorian is going to put the grey Hunter in a box and send it at someone. Silverlake, probably— he knows for a fact that she can’t defeat it, after all.

It’s sort of ironic that Zorian is the one who will probably end up using the most monsters in the final battle, given how heavily the invaders rely on the monsters.

Ah, okay. The Sovereign Gate can’t serve as an alternate key to Panaxeth’s prison. That’s made explicitly clear. So no shifter children... no Panaxeth. (Except now that I’m thinking about it... what about Silverlake and Jornak themselves? They have a pact with Panaxeth and he literally created their bodies... that’s the kind of thing that could easily work.