Chocolate Box 2022 Letter!
Jan. 6th, 2022 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sadlikeknivesDear Author,
AO3 user sadlikeknives here, really excited to find out what you're going to write for me! I'm sure it's going to be great. For all of my requested fandoms, I have requested fic only.
Basic likes: I strongly prefer third person prose in fic, including that for canons originally in first person. I like pining, hurt/comfort, people using other people's prejudices and expectations of them to their own advantage, loyalty kink, competence kink, scars, soulbonds and soulmates, sexy-type biting and related bloodplay, size kink (I really like both the bigger guy manhandling the smaller guy and the smaller guy loving it, and the smaller guy bossing the bigger guy around and the bigger guy loving it). You are probably going to notice that I really like werewolves and vampires and generalized urban fantasy-ness.
DNWs:
- bestiality (including sexual content involving shapeshifters in animal form)
- scat or watersports
- cannibalism/vore
- noncon or dubcon
- infidelity/cheating involving requested characters
- omegaverse, aka a/b/o, or any other type of mpreg
- graphic animal harm (for example: mention of a werewolf eating a bunny: fine; graphic description of what happened to the bunny: not great)
- permanent death of requested characters
Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly
Abishag Shaw/Benjamin January, Abishag Shaw/Benjamin January/Rose Vitrac January
You remember waaaaaaaaaay back at the end of A Free Man of Color when Shaw's standing by Ben's table at the Place des Armes Because Society and Ben's like, "Or you could sit the fuck down one of these days?" Gentle Author, I shipped it then, and I ship it still. I just want to shove them together like a couple of really tall Ken dolls and go, "NOW KISS." I love how they navigate their godawful society's expectations and restrictions, how they often communicate via what's not said. I love how tentative Ben has always been to trust Shaw, in the face of evidence that Shaw is All In on Ben, and then how in Murder in July he realizes Shaw would march off to assassinate the Queen of England if he asked him to (although it sort of drives me crazy that then at the end of the book Hannibal and Ben decided they needed to pull a fast one on Shaw just in case he randomly decided to confiscate the papers at the expense of Rose, like that's a thing he would ever do). I love how committed to justice they both are, and how they recognize that's different from the rule of law, and their mutual frustration with society's preference for a tidy resolution over true justice being done. I love how respectful they both are of the other's skills, and how they both use other people's expectations of their behavior. In short, I love them, and I want more of them.
And Rose! I love Rose! She's so practical except when it comes to science, when she is often two seconds away from an explosion, and she and Ben are so good together! And I think she would basically be the boss of Shaw and he would let her.
Quick note: As I said above I'm really not into straight up infidelity/cheating, and Ben, of course, has a wife. So if you don't want to write the poly option, you could set your fic before Ben met Rose, or handwave the whole relationship away/platonic, or have Rose be really open-minded because she's Rose, but please: no straight-up cheating.
Additional note: I think we as a fandom have come to a consensus on this by now but just to be clear: I generally picture Shaw as more, you know, sexy scruffy (like, Hollywood historical scruffy) than with the level of hygiene, if one can even call it that, described in the books, because seriously, he's an intelligent man, he knows what soap is for, why will he not use it?? It's not cute. So, like, if you could steer away from descriptions where he is as unpleasant as in canon, I would greatly appreciate that.
Prompts
1. Possibly Shaw could be pining after Ben. I feel like this makes a lot of narrative sense. Like, he knows it's useless and never gonna happen (but then it DOES?) and probably beats himself up over it, but ooooh that commitment to justice and all that expertise, so sexy. Possibly Rose has known about this for a while and is amazed Ben has been so oblivious.
2. Concept I know I've been banging like a drum for a while now, but that's because I love it so: Abishag 'what is bathing, and also, I can track you through a hurricane' Shaw is a werewolf. Like, just, anything with that. Canon happenings with werewolf Shaw? Rose being absolutely fascinated? Anything.
3. While so much of these books is in the setting, I just really love modern New Orleans. Like a lot. And it's still very atmospheric, no? Picture it: Shaw's still a cop, Ben's a surgeon who moonlights in a jazz band. Rose is a badass chemistry professor at Tulane. Together, they solve crimes. And make out.
4. Shaw realizes that, vis a vis the end of Murder in July, Ben has not yet gotten the memo that he's All In, and his feelings are really hurt, but he's trying to be, like, an adult about it. Things get awkward. Possibly Rose has to knock some heads together.
5. Shaw stays in Texas instead of Hannibal in Lady of Perdition that's it, that's the prompt. Listen, I just found it hilarious how the book kept hanging a lampshade on how Shaw would have been the better choice to help actually investigate the murder, but it had to be Hannibal who stayed Because Of Reasons.
6. Something with Shaw and his six-shooters because I feel like the day he got them in Lady of Perdition must have been one of the most exciting of his life thus far.
7. Carnival/Mardi Gras shenanigans. "We have got to stop meeting over dead bodies at balls," or some sort of costumery hijinks (possibly Rose crossdresses again) or like...anything involving this period of revelry.
Abishag Shaw & Olympe Corbier
There's a line from the Hidden Legacy books that came to mind when I thought about this team-up, something like: "My job in this family of Care Bears is to provide logical analysis." And I feel like Rose would protest that that's her job, but honestly, Shaw and Olympe are both, in their own ways, a lot more practical and just colder than the rest of Team January. Plus, they met when Shaw arrested Olympe for murder, and as Ben pointed out, he wouldn't have arrested her if he didn't think she really might have done it, so uh, they got off to a great start. I feel like they're never really going to 100% trust each other, especially on Olympe's side (and that Shaw would just be like, "Fair.") but that over time a certain amount of respect may have developed.
Prompts!
1. Shaw has a voodoo problem or just needs to know something about voodoo for a case, and obviously there is only one practitioner in the city he's going to go to about it. Olympe is reluctant but ugh Ben would never forgive her if she didn't help.
2. Olympe has some sort of legal problem and she is reluctant to involve the white legal system but if she has to Shaw's the best option available.
3. Ben thought Marie Laveau was behind that jailhouse poisoning at the end of Murder in July, but I always thought the symptoms sounded like the castor bean from The Shirt On His Back, so like: what if that was Shaw and Olympe working together? What if that? (It would not be the first time Shaw arranged a convenient jailhouse death to protect Ben, after all...)
4. Any other time they teamed up, either behind Ben's back to deal with a problem before he even knew it existed, or just to deal with their own shit.
Abishag Shaw & Livia Levesque
So here's what's amazing: they both clearly hate each other, and I don't think we've ever really seen them interact because LOL as if Livia willingly would, and also that is something Ben is willing to go to great lengths to prevent. Livia is still calling Shaw an animal thirteen books in, and I'm pretty sure Shaw has called Ben's mom 'a real piece of work' at least once, and, I mean, he's not wrong. And they are both very intelligent people who excel at using other people's perceptions against them and figuring out why other people do the things they do, and using that, and so I really want them to have to deal with each other. I don't really have specific prompts here, just a nebulous notion: maybe Livia has a problem and she's like, "Ugh, fine, I guess I'll summon Ben's pet American policeman," or maybe she's (however peripherally) involved in a case Shaw is investigating and he's like, "Fuck me gently with a not-yet-invented chainsaw, I have to interview Ben's mom." And then they are forced by circumstance to work together and/or use and/or respect one another's skill sets and forms of intelligence, and it's kind of horrible for both of them. And maybe one or both of them gains insight into What The Other One Thinks They're Doing Here that rattles the other, because...most people don't see that deep.
Basically, just make them interact.
Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Augustine Montgomery/Connor "Mad" Rogan/Nevada Baylor
I was talking to a friend recently about these books and I was like, "Basically at this point Ilona Andrews could reveal that Augustine and Rogan were actually together romantically and had a really bad breakup when he left for the military, and I feel like no one would be surprised," and just, that's it, that's the vibe. I'm really into the concept of them having broken up messily back in the day and Nevada finding/figuring it out and having to deal with this mess and them still being in love with each other in the present. I feel like the character dynamics of this trio are really interesting because they're all such prickly people, and they all have such clear reasons for friction in their interpersonal relations--Nevada & Augustine's professional dealings, Rogan & Augustine's rocky past, Rogan's whole psychological deal in general--but even when they don't seem to like each other that much they'd still throw down for each other. And my God, what a power trio this would be.
1. I'm thinking soulmates AU? Like, Rogan seems like just the kind of special that he'd have two soulmates. And just the kind of asshole that he'd ditch Augustine and run off to the military anyway, and now it's ten years later and he's got to deal with the mess he made and Nevada's just standing here holding the brain cell.
1a. If Nevada and Augustine are also soulmates that could be really interesting and also a real game changer. Like, do they figure it out when he summons her to his office over the Pierce case, or before that? How does Rogan feel about his soulmates unionizing against him, and why is the answer 'turned on?'
2. Until recently, I assumed (even though we've been told they'll fool things like retinal scanners) that Augustine's illusions were visual, but in recent Q&As Ilona Andrews have said things that make them sound like they're also physical--like that Augustine has clothes tailored in different sizes to make things easier on himself. I'm going to be honest, this is sort of bending my brain trying to figure out how the clothes fit without Augustine being an actual shapeshifter, but let's not stress the details of magic and let's just get right to the sexytimes possibilities of Augustine's illusions being that real. And combined with Rogan being a tactile? Nevada is one lucky, lucky girl.
3. Augustine has finally started interviewing for a potential bride and Rogan can't figure out why he's so mad about it and Nevada, standing here holding the brain cell, has to be like, "Why are you both this stupid?"
4. Either Rogan or Nevada has some unskippable social event they're supposed to go to with the other and something comes up that means they can't make it, and need to not be seen not making it, so Augustine impersonates the missing partner. If it's Rogan I feel like he's slightly sarcastic about it all night and Nevada has to keep trying not to laugh. If it's Nevada Rogan is probably weirded out by how good he is at it. And then they all meet back up at home and *cough* debrief.
5. Rogan teaching Nevada how to play 'Spot the Pancakes' at society functions. His illusions are flawless, his impersonations impeccable, but Rogan will find him. (Possibly the forfeits are sexual?)
6. Anything with some bad guy realizing at the worst possible time that the power couple is actually a power trio and now they're screwed. Possibly:
Bad guys: and now we are going to kill you
Nevada and Rogan, bored: Oh no. Please don't.
Augustine: Oops there is an Illusion Prime with a knife in this room.
But it could also be like a business deal situation or literally anything.
7. Maybe an AU where the Rogan-Baylors had the good sense to call in their Illusion Prime bestie for a consult on that disgusting sex tape Victoria Tremaine had made and sent to them, and Augustine gets to hold the brain cell for once: "You are both going to sit down and not do anything rash because here are all the reasons this is a clear fake. I mean they didn't even get your cock right, Connor, it's much nicer than that."
Arabella Baylor/Augustine Montgomery
Yeah, okay, he's way too old for her and there's the whole thing where he held professional power over her family, but Arabella's an adult now, she can make her own decisions, and I feel like this would be a really interesting dynamic. Very Beauty & the Beast, except they can both be either. And Augustine is so tightly wound and closed off, I could totally see our maturing wild child getting him to loosen up a little bit, while I can totally see Arabella being drawn to someone a little bit more reserved and calm.
1. How does this even happen? Like, I have a couple of ideas. Maybe Arabella uses her Beast senses to see through Augustine's illusion at an event (Illusion mages never think of scent, after all), and decides to fuck with him by flirting for a while before he realizes she knows exactly who she's talking to. Maybe they run into each other on vacation and wake up married. Maybe it's somehow a business decision. Maybe they hook up while trapped in a supply closet after assignments they're both working that turn out to intersect go horribly wrong, and then they're like, "...Nevada and Connor must never know." Maybe one of them is minding their own business having a nice day and gets dragged into the other's catastrophe (can't let Connor's sister-in-law or best friend get kidnapped on MY watch, after all).
2. It was supposed to be a one-time fling but now it keeps happening, with increasingly complicated hijinks to keep Arabella's family from finding out.
3. Nevada and Connor (and the rest of the Baylors) Find Out. (Cut to: Catalina somewhat reluctantly wrestling a sniper rifle away from her mother.)
4. Arabella has ideas for sexytimes applications of Augustine's illusion magic that he hadn't even thought of.
5. Something with Arabella getting Augustine to loosen up and have some fun. Probably he's not convinced that whatever activity she has in mind will be fun at first, but she's so enthusiastic. And then he ends up having a great time!
6. Does Augustine know what Arabella's magic is? Like, I feel like he would be desperately trying to find out if he doesn't, and he's smart enough to have put it together after the freeway incident if nothing else, but there's probably some leeway to play around with here as far as whether he knows, she knows he knows, and how any of those scenarios play out.
Kate Daniels - Ilona Andrews
Christopher Steed & Hugh d'Ambray, Christopher Steed/Hugh d'Ambray
Okay, so after the part in Magic Triumphs where Christopher tells Kate that A) unlike pretty much everyone else outside the Iron Dogs, he paid enough attention to figure out what Roland was doing to control Hugh pretty early on and B) Hugh took better care of him when he was in the cage than previously thought, and possibly than he was supposed to, considering it's mentioned he fed and talked to him only at night when no one else was around, and Hugh's guilt-flashback re: Christopher in the cage in Iron & Magic and how he thinks about Christopher as the only Legatus he could ever stand, I went back and reread Magic Rises and I realized that maybe Hugh set Kate up to rescue Christopher on purpose with the 'anything in this courtyard' wording (like, maybe not consciously, because of Roland's conditioning and because he really didn't expect to lose that match, but on some level I really think he knew what he was saying there, because Hugh is not wired to withstand someone suffering on his watch like that and he had to fix it somehow).
And now I ship it. Or I at least want to see them interact, even if it's not shippy. It's a whole mess of history and dynamics to dig into and I'm into it. Like: they were horrible men, and they were equals. And then one of them kept the other one in a cage. And now they're both different people in some ways, living in the aftermath of all of that, and it's just...really interesting to me. And yet we never really get to see them interact. There's that one really tense moment in Magic Triumphs, and then their actual conversation takes place offscreen and that's it. I need more.
Note: If you're writing something set during the era of the books, as opposed to the pre-canon Preceptor/Legatus era, please nothing sexual during the period when Christopher was mentally unstable. As far as the canon relationships go, I'm happy for Hugh's marriage to Elara to remain a professional business arrangement, or with some form of polyamory, whatever you want to do there. As far as Christopher's relationship with Barabas, I can't really see Barabas sharing Christopher with Hugh d'Ambray of all people, but, I mean, maybe? Or maybe they didn't get together. However you can make it work!
Prompts!
1. Some kind of FWB arrangement set during their days as Legatus and Preceptor that maybe gets more serious than either of them meant it to, or mutual pining and both of them aware that it's a REALLY BAD IDEA as far as Roland is concerned, and then maybe after everything they meet up again and realize they have a second chance.
2. Or in that same period, something with Christopher and Hugh working together to salvage a situation, possibly one that's gone south thanks to Roland's meddling/not listening to Hugh/maybe even brainwashing Hugh. Like, when Omaha got broken, was that...was that what was supposed to happen? Or were they both pretty sure for about five minutes there that they were super going to die (and then possibly "I can't believe we survived that" sex?)?
3. Something to do with Christopher losing his wing in Magic Triumphs, because I have this notion that Hugh is the healer you call in to deal with the situation when you've got an actual avatar with an extra-crispy appendage, and then you've got Christopher, of course, devastated, and Hugh feeling really guilty about being unable to save the wing and yes good angst.
4. Something set during the preparations to face Neig, with Hugh and Christopher both being weirded out by how easily they fall into a groove of working together again and the Iron Dogs enthusiastically embracing Christopher because it's always nice when someone they used to know A) is alive and B) isn't trying to kill them, and possibly also ragging the hell out of Hugh for having A Type because hahaha wow are there some similarities between Christopher and Elara. Meanwhile I feel like Elara and Christopher would be somewhere between "initially slightly spooked by each other" and this.
5. So oops it turns out Hugh can't marry Elara to seal their alliance because he and Christopher are already married. Maybe they didn't realize that thing they did as a quick way to solve a problem one time was legally binding. Maybe it was entirely on purpose and a secret. Maybe they're trying to get a quickie divorce like in a Hallmark movie and life keeps throwing obstacles in their path. Whatever just run with it.
6. I noticed on reread that Hugh grows throughout the course of the series—something in the range of four to six inches, with his descriptions going from "almost six feet tall" to "almost six and a half feet tall" over time. While I'm pretty sure this is just an authorial inconsistency, it could also be fanwanked as the result of his stint healing in a phoenix egg, so something with Christopher reacting to his new height (and Hugh to Christopher's new shoulders?) could be a thing.
7. Wingkink? Wingkink.
8. Once upon a time there was an ambitious, smart, wildly talented young twink of a necromancer who was bound and determined to climb Roland's warlord like a tree. This is his story.
AO3 user sadlikeknives here, really excited to find out what you're going to write for me! I'm sure it's going to be great. For all of my requested fandoms, I have requested fic only.
Basic likes: I strongly prefer third person prose in fic, including that for canons originally in first person. I like pining, hurt/comfort, people using other people's prejudices and expectations of them to their own advantage, loyalty kink, competence kink, scars, soulbonds and soulmates, sexy-type biting and related bloodplay, size kink (I really like both the bigger guy manhandling the smaller guy and the smaller guy loving it, and the smaller guy bossing the bigger guy around and the bigger guy loving it). You are probably going to notice that I really like werewolves and vampires and generalized urban fantasy-ness.
DNWs:
- bestiality (including sexual content involving shapeshifters in animal form)
- scat or watersports
- cannibalism/vore
- noncon or dubcon
- infidelity/cheating involving requested characters
- omegaverse, aka a/b/o, or any other type of mpreg
- graphic animal harm (for example: mention of a werewolf eating a bunny: fine; graphic description of what happened to the bunny: not great)
- permanent death of requested characters
Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly
Abishag Shaw/Benjamin January, Abishag Shaw/Benjamin January/Rose Vitrac January
You remember waaaaaaaaaay back at the end of A Free Man of Color when Shaw's standing by Ben's table at the Place des Armes Because Society and Ben's like, "Or you could sit the fuck down one of these days?" Gentle Author, I shipped it then, and I ship it still. I just want to shove them together like a couple of really tall Ken dolls and go, "NOW KISS." I love how they navigate their godawful society's expectations and restrictions, how they often communicate via what's not said. I love how tentative Ben has always been to trust Shaw, in the face of evidence that Shaw is All In on Ben, and then how in Murder in July he realizes Shaw would march off to assassinate the Queen of England if he asked him to (although it sort of drives me crazy that then at the end of the book Hannibal and Ben decided they needed to pull a fast one on Shaw just in case he randomly decided to confiscate the papers at the expense of Rose, like that's a thing he would ever do). I love how committed to justice they both are, and how they recognize that's different from the rule of law, and their mutual frustration with society's preference for a tidy resolution over true justice being done. I love how respectful they both are of the other's skills, and how they both use other people's expectations of their behavior. In short, I love them, and I want more of them.
And Rose! I love Rose! She's so practical except when it comes to science, when she is often two seconds away from an explosion, and she and Ben are so good together! And I think she would basically be the boss of Shaw and he would let her.
Quick note: As I said above I'm really not into straight up infidelity/cheating, and Ben, of course, has a wife. So if you don't want to write the poly option, you could set your fic before Ben met Rose, or handwave the whole relationship away/platonic, or have Rose be really open-minded because she's Rose, but please: no straight-up cheating.
Additional note: I think we as a fandom have come to a consensus on this by now but just to be clear: I generally picture Shaw as more, you know, sexy scruffy (like, Hollywood historical scruffy) than with the level of hygiene, if one can even call it that, described in the books, because seriously, he's an intelligent man, he knows what soap is for, why will he not use it?? It's not cute. So, like, if you could steer away from descriptions where he is as unpleasant as in canon, I would greatly appreciate that.
Prompts
1. Possibly Shaw could be pining after Ben. I feel like this makes a lot of narrative sense. Like, he knows it's useless and never gonna happen (but then it DOES?) and probably beats himself up over it, but ooooh that commitment to justice and all that expertise, so sexy. Possibly Rose has known about this for a while and is amazed Ben has been so oblivious.
2. Concept I know I've been banging like a drum for a while now, but that's because I love it so: Abishag 'what is bathing, and also, I can track you through a hurricane' Shaw is a werewolf. Like, just, anything with that. Canon happenings with werewolf Shaw? Rose being absolutely fascinated? Anything.
3. While so much of these books is in the setting, I just really love modern New Orleans. Like a lot. And it's still very atmospheric, no? Picture it: Shaw's still a cop, Ben's a surgeon who moonlights in a jazz band. Rose is a badass chemistry professor at Tulane. Together, they solve crimes. And make out.
4. Shaw realizes that, vis a vis the end of Murder in July, Ben has not yet gotten the memo that he's All In, and his feelings are really hurt, but he's trying to be, like, an adult about it. Things get awkward. Possibly Rose has to knock some heads together.
5. Shaw stays in Texas instead of Hannibal in Lady of Perdition that's it, that's the prompt. Listen, I just found it hilarious how the book kept hanging a lampshade on how Shaw would have been the better choice to help actually investigate the murder, but it had to be Hannibal who stayed Because Of Reasons.
6. Something with Shaw and his six-shooters because I feel like the day he got them in Lady of Perdition must have been one of the most exciting of his life thus far.
7. Carnival/Mardi Gras shenanigans. "We have got to stop meeting over dead bodies at balls," or some sort of costumery hijinks (possibly Rose crossdresses again) or like...anything involving this period of revelry.
Abishag Shaw & Olympe Corbier
There's a line from the Hidden Legacy books that came to mind when I thought about this team-up, something like: "My job in this family of Care Bears is to provide logical analysis." And I feel like Rose would protest that that's her job, but honestly, Shaw and Olympe are both, in their own ways, a lot more practical and just colder than the rest of Team January. Plus, they met when Shaw arrested Olympe for murder, and as Ben pointed out, he wouldn't have arrested her if he didn't think she really might have done it, so uh, they got off to a great start. I feel like they're never really going to 100% trust each other, especially on Olympe's side (and that Shaw would just be like, "Fair.") but that over time a certain amount of respect may have developed.
Prompts!
1. Shaw has a voodoo problem or just needs to know something about voodoo for a case, and obviously there is only one practitioner in the city he's going to go to about it. Olympe is reluctant but ugh Ben would never forgive her if she didn't help.
2. Olympe has some sort of legal problem and she is reluctant to involve the white legal system but if she has to Shaw's the best option available.
3. Ben thought Marie Laveau was behind that jailhouse poisoning at the end of Murder in July, but I always thought the symptoms sounded like the castor bean from The Shirt On His Back, so like: what if that was Shaw and Olympe working together? What if that? (It would not be the first time Shaw arranged a convenient jailhouse death to protect Ben, after all...)
4. Any other time they teamed up, either behind Ben's back to deal with a problem before he even knew it existed, or just to deal with their own shit.
Abishag Shaw & Livia Levesque
So here's what's amazing: they both clearly hate each other, and I don't think we've ever really seen them interact because LOL as if Livia willingly would, and also that is something Ben is willing to go to great lengths to prevent. Livia is still calling Shaw an animal thirteen books in, and I'm pretty sure Shaw has called Ben's mom 'a real piece of work' at least once, and, I mean, he's not wrong. And they are both very intelligent people who excel at using other people's perceptions against them and figuring out why other people do the things they do, and using that, and so I really want them to have to deal with each other. I don't really have specific prompts here, just a nebulous notion: maybe Livia has a problem and she's like, "Ugh, fine, I guess I'll summon Ben's pet American policeman," or maybe she's (however peripherally) involved in a case Shaw is investigating and he's like, "Fuck me gently with a not-yet-invented chainsaw, I have to interview Ben's mom." And then they are forced by circumstance to work together and/or use and/or respect one another's skill sets and forms of intelligence, and it's kind of horrible for both of them. And maybe one or both of them gains insight into What The Other One Thinks They're Doing Here that rattles the other, because...most people don't see that deep.
Basically, just make them interact.
Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Augustine Montgomery/Connor "Mad" Rogan/Nevada Baylor
I was talking to a friend recently about these books and I was like, "Basically at this point Ilona Andrews could reveal that Augustine and Rogan were actually together romantically and had a really bad breakup when he left for the military, and I feel like no one would be surprised," and just, that's it, that's the vibe. I'm really into the concept of them having broken up messily back in the day and Nevada finding/figuring it out and having to deal with this mess and them still being in love with each other in the present. I feel like the character dynamics of this trio are really interesting because they're all such prickly people, and they all have such clear reasons for friction in their interpersonal relations--Nevada & Augustine's professional dealings, Rogan & Augustine's rocky past, Rogan's whole psychological deal in general--but even when they don't seem to like each other that much they'd still throw down for each other. And my God, what a power trio this would be.
1. I'm thinking soulmates AU? Like, Rogan seems like just the kind of special that he'd have two soulmates. And just the kind of asshole that he'd ditch Augustine and run off to the military anyway, and now it's ten years later and he's got to deal with the mess he made and Nevada's just standing here holding the brain cell.
1a. If Nevada and Augustine are also soulmates that could be really interesting and also a real game changer. Like, do they figure it out when he summons her to his office over the Pierce case, or before that? How does Rogan feel about his soulmates unionizing against him, and why is the answer 'turned on?'
2. Until recently, I assumed (even though we've been told they'll fool things like retinal scanners) that Augustine's illusions were visual, but in recent Q&As Ilona Andrews have said things that make them sound like they're also physical--like that Augustine has clothes tailored in different sizes to make things easier on himself. I'm going to be honest, this is sort of bending my brain trying to figure out how the clothes fit without Augustine being an actual shapeshifter, but let's not stress the details of magic and let's just get right to the sexytimes possibilities of Augustine's illusions being that real. And combined with Rogan being a tactile? Nevada is one lucky, lucky girl.
3. Augustine has finally started interviewing for a potential bride and Rogan can't figure out why he's so mad about it and Nevada, standing here holding the brain cell, has to be like, "Why are you both this stupid?"
4. Either Rogan or Nevada has some unskippable social event they're supposed to go to with the other and something comes up that means they can't make it, and need to not be seen not making it, so Augustine impersonates the missing partner. If it's Rogan I feel like he's slightly sarcastic about it all night and Nevada has to keep trying not to laugh. If it's Nevada Rogan is probably weirded out by how good he is at it. And then they all meet back up at home and *cough* debrief.
5. Rogan teaching Nevada how to play 'Spot the Pancakes' at society functions. His illusions are flawless, his impersonations impeccable, but Rogan will find him. (Possibly the forfeits are sexual?)
6. Anything with some bad guy realizing at the worst possible time that the power couple is actually a power trio and now they're screwed. Possibly:
Bad guys: and now we are going to kill you
Nevada and Rogan, bored: Oh no. Please don't.
Augustine: Oops there is an Illusion Prime with a knife in this room.
But it could also be like a business deal situation or literally anything.
7. Maybe an AU where the Rogan-Baylors had the good sense to call in their Illusion Prime bestie for a consult on that disgusting sex tape Victoria Tremaine had made and sent to them, and Augustine gets to hold the brain cell for once: "You are both going to sit down and not do anything rash because here are all the reasons this is a clear fake. I mean they didn't even get your cock right, Connor, it's much nicer than that."
Arabella Baylor/Augustine Montgomery
Yeah, okay, he's way too old for her and there's the whole thing where he held professional power over her family, but Arabella's an adult now, she can make her own decisions, and I feel like this would be a really interesting dynamic. Very Beauty & the Beast, except they can both be either. And Augustine is so tightly wound and closed off, I could totally see our maturing wild child getting him to loosen up a little bit, while I can totally see Arabella being drawn to someone a little bit more reserved and calm.
1. How does this even happen? Like, I have a couple of ideas. Maybe Arabella uses her Beast senses to see through Augustine's illusion at an event (Illusion mages never think of scent, after all), and decides to fuck with him by flirting for a while before he realizes she knows exactly who she's talking to. Maybe they run into each other on vacation and wake up married. Maybe it's somehow a business decision. Maybe they hook up while trapped in a supply closet after assignments they're both working that turn out to intersect go horribly wrong, and then they're like, "...Nevada and Connor must never know." Maybe one of them is minding their own business having a nice day and gets dragged into the other's catastrophe (can't let Connor's sister-in-law or best friend get kidnapped on MY watch, after all).
2. It was supposed to be a one-time fling but now it keeps happening, with increasingly complicated hijinks to keep Arabella's family from finding out.
3. Nevada and Connor (and the rest of the Baylors) Find Out. (Cut to: Catalina somewhat reluctantly wrestling a sniper rifle away from her mother.)
4. Arabella has ideas for sexytimes applications of Augustine's illusion magic that he hadn't even thought of.
5. Something with Arabella getting Augustine to loosen up and have some fun. Probably he's not convinced that whatever activity she has in mind will be fun at first, but she's so enthusiastic. And then he ends up having a great time!
6. Does Augustine know what Arabella's magic is? Like, I feel like he would be desperately trying to find out if he doesn't, and he's smart enough to have put it together after the freeway incident if nothing else, but there's probably some leeway to play around with here as far as whether he knows, she knows he knows, and how any of those scenarios play out.
Kate Daniels - Ilona Andrews
Christopher Steed & Hugh d'Ambray, Christopher Steed/Hugh d'Ambray
Okay, so after the part in Magic Triumphs where Christopher tells Kate that A) unlike pretty much everyone else outside the Iron Dogs, he paid enough attention to figure out what Roland was doing to control Hugh pretty early on and B) Hugh took better care of him when he was in the cage than previously thought, and possibly than he was supposed to, considering it's mentioned he fed and talked to him only at night when no one else was around, and Hugh's guilt-flashback re: Christopher in the cage in Iron & Magic and how he thinks about Christopher as the only Legatus he could ever stand, I went back and reread Magic Rises and I realized that maybe Hugh set Kate up to rescue Christopher on purpose with the 'anything in this courtyard' wording (like, maybe not consciously, because of Roland's conditioning and because he really didn't expect to lose that match, but on some level I really think he knew what he was saying there, because Hugh is not wired to withstand someone suffering on his watch like that and he had to fix it somehow).
And now I ship it. Or I at least want to see them interact, even if it's not shippy. It's a whole mess of history and dynamics to dig into and I'm into it. Like: they were horrible men, and they were equals. And then one of them kept the other one in a cage. And now they're both different people in some ways, living in the aftermath of all of that, and it's just...really interesting to me. And yet we never really get to see them interact. There's that one really tense moment in Magic Triumphs, and then their actual conversation takes place offscreen and that's it. I need more.
Note: If you're writing something set during the era of the books, as opposed to the pre-canon Preceptor/Legatus era, please nothing sexual during the period when Christopher was mentally unstable. As far as the canon relationships go, I'm happy for Hugh's marriage to Elara to remain a professional business arrangement, or with some form of polyamory, whatever you want to do there. As far as Christopher's relationship with Barabas, I can't really see Barabas sharing Christopher with Hugh d'Ambray of all people, but, I mean, maybe? Or maybe they didn't get together. However you can make it work!
Prompts!
1. Some kind of FWB arrangement set during their days as Legatus and Preceptor that maybe gets more serious than either of them meant it to, or mutual pining and both of them aware that it's a REALLY BAD IDEA as far as Roland is concerned, and then maybe after everything they meet up again and realize they have a second chance.
2. Or in that same period, something with Christopher and Hugh working together to salvage a situation, possibly one that's gone south thanks to Roland's meddling/not listening to Hugh/maybe even brainwashing Hugh. Like, when Omaha got broken, was that...was that what was supposed to happen? Or were they both pretty sure for about five minutes there that they were super going to die (and then possibly "I can't believe we survived that" sex?)?
3. Something to do with Christopher losing his wing in Magic Triumphs, because I have this notion that Hugh is the healer you call in to deal with the situation when you've got an actual avatar with an extra-crispy appendage, and then you've got Christopher, of course, devastated, and Hugh feeling really guilty about being unable to save the wing and yes good angst.
4. Something set during the preparations to face Neig, with Hugh and Christopher both being weirded out by how easily they fall into a groove of working together again and the Iron Dogs enthusiastically embracing Christopher because it's always nice when someone they used to know A) is alive and B) isn't trying to kill them, and possibly also ragging the hell out of Hugh for having A Type because hahaha wow are there some similarities between Christopher and Elara. Meanwhile I feel like Elara and Christopher would be somewhere between "initially slightly spooked by each other" and this.
5. So oops it turns out Hugh can't marry Elara to seal their alliance because he and Christopher are already married. Maybe they didn't realize that thing they did as a quick way to solve a problem one time was legally binding. Maybe it was entirely on purpose and a secret. Maybe they're trying to get a quickie divorce like in a Hallmark movie and life keeps throwing obstacles in their path. Whatever just run with it.
6. I noticed on reread that Hugh grows throughout the course of the series—something in the range of four to six inches, with his descriptions going from "almost six feet tall" to "almost six and a half feet tall" over time. While I'm pretty sure this is just an authorial inconsistency, it could also be fanwanked as the result of his stint healing in a phoenix egg, so something with Christopher reacting to his new height (and Hugh to Christopher's new shoulders?) could be a thing.
7. Wingkink? Wingkink.
8. Once upon a time there was an ambitious, smart, wildly talented young twink of a necromancer who was bound and determined to climb Roland's warlord like a tree. This is his story.
