Spill the beans on Black Raven! Spill the beans! Spill the beans!
(in regards to this ask game)
You are going for the THROAT, my friend.
Black Raven is the working title for a truly old, deeply teenage angst inspired power fantasy I haven't actively worked on in quite some time. It's based on me and my older sibling. It came to me in a dream. It's so old that I wrote it in German, okay, which should tell you something about how deeply I cringe when I have to go back through the earliest parts.
But it's also... kind of cool?
Explanation of magic system and my fucked up birdgirl of a protagonist under the cut.
First of all, there's the magic system. Creating new spells is a lifetime effort: They're personal things, confined to the bearer. They're also weak, powered only by the emotions and dedications of one person. But - upon the bearer's death they do get passed on. That's when they get stronger.
Noble families have Spells that have been passed on through countless generations. They're powerful and unwieldy and highly regulated. Lesser families might have developed a spell of their own: they can develop spontaneously, but they rarely reach the kind of strength that is cultivated in a family with preparatory studies and passing-on ceremonies.
It is possible - if dangerous - to hold multiple spells at once. They interact with each other in unpredictable ways, and can rip away your humanity as easily as make you stronger. It is therefore highly illegal.
It is also possible - if difficult - to force someone to pass their Spell on to you. If you are the only person present at their death, well. Who else could it go to? It might not work as well as a proper ritual, but it does work.
And there is one surefire way to ensure that setup, isn't there? You just have the one who kills them.
Unsurprisingly, being a Spellripper is even more illegal than just holding multiple spells. Of course, those who make a career out of it tend to do both.
Second, there's my certified little freak of a protagonist. Care's parents died young and she was raised mainly by her sister; until Aria was offered a job for which she had to leave the country. We know Aria only agreed to it because it gave Care the opportunity to go to school. We also know that that did not work out as well as they thought.
Fast forward by ten to fifteen years. Care is a quiet student of thaumaturgy; known to be a commoner whose family came into money late in her life. She rents a room from an old lady outside of Campus, who has decided to give the clearly anxious girl as much family time as she possibly can. When that lady figures out that Care's missing sister is the famous singer Ariadne, she tries to get the sisters to reconnect.
The problems, in order, are these:
Aria feels incredibly guilty about having ever left Care behind, and vows to take her along this time.
Now she feels incredibly guilty about keeping secrets.
This would be because Aria's work as a singer is only a cover. She was actually scouted as a spy all those years ago.
Care is very well aware of this.
Aria doesn't know that Care knows about it though.
She also doesn't know that Care ran away from school as a mere teen, turning instead from petty thievery to serious burglary, to full on Spellripping.
Or that at some point throughout this, Care was actually caught by the city's government, and force pressed into working for them.
Meaning they are now opposite sides,
only one of them knows about it,
and both are being eaten alive by guilt.
And that's that!
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Lena with no friends writing fake pleas for help on notes and tossing them out to sea, only for lonely left-out Webby to find them and follow them back to her-
Lena deciding to leave Magica, just to be reminded that she can’t- being forced to give up the friendship bracelet Webby made for her and laying it gently in the same salt water…
Lena's not at her waterside hideout, the writings she left behind say she was Magica's shadow spy, but Webby doesn't believe that and her friendship bracelet gives Lena a way to come back- for a moment- long enough to prove Webby right
Lena's gone in the nightmare. Magica's here. She's wearing Lena's friendship bracelet, she just pushed Webby out of harm's way; Webby realizes she's actually Lena-
this time she gets to save her. A few tears, a bit of salt water spilled between them, a few carefully woven threads, and the nightmare ends
Lena standing in the middle of a swamp when she stops needing Magica's power to stay with her friends- Webby and Violet's support for her channeled through the bracelets- and now Magica's the one dropped in the stagnant water and left behind
yeah idk where I was going with this. something something parallels ripping apart my heart
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have a little more fencing world champion joe. because it's worlds again and olympics soonish. enjoy
The clock on the nightstand changes from 01:36 to 01:37, and Joe sighs, rolling over to stare up at the ceiling. Nicky, beside him, shifts in his sleep but doesn't wake.
Joe, however, has been awake since at least 12:08, and feels far too restless to sleep. It's almost certainly jet lag: they're in Chicago for a little while, visiting Nile and her family, and largely trying to enjoy the last little bit of free time they have left until training begins again in earnest. Of course, Joe's kit bag is lying open at the foot of the bed, and Nicky's beside it: just because they're not formally training doesn't mean they won't need it at all.
Still, Joe can't sleep. He sighs again, and gives up on trying to do so entirely. Maybe he'll be able to find some time to rest tomorrow, though he doubts it. Nile's got a lot of things she wants to show them, and Joe would ordinarily be thrilled, if he wasn't so tired.
It'll pass, Andy told him, though she doesn't seem to have been affected by it at all. He's almost certain they'll meet her in the morning for breakfast and she'll be exactly as normal, as if they haven't just crossed multiple time zones. Even Nicky, who hadn't struggled nearly as much as Joe had, had begun to slow down some time around midday, but Andy had been fine.
He gets out of bed, careful not to wake Nicky, who's rolled onto his side facing the door. With nothing else to do, Joe makes his way to the little balcony attached to their room, picking up his phone from the nightstand on the way. The sliding door squeals a little when he opens it, but when he looks over at Nicky he hasn't even moved.
While it's certainly quieter than it had been before, the city is nowhere near silent. It's beautiful, though, and Joe takes a picture to send to his sister.
She texts him back immediately. Pretty, but isn't it like the middle of the night for you?
1 am, Joe responds. Jet lag.
His phone lights up with a call then, but not from Amira. He reads the contact name and answers, heart in his throat.
Oof, is Amira's response.
He almost drops his phone when he realises what they're calling him for.
By the time they hang up, his hands are shaking: he stays like that, phone still pressed to his ear even after the call has ended, for at least a few minutes.
Finally, at a loss for what else to do, he lowers his phone and goes back inside. Sits down on the edge of the bed.
The movement is just enough to wake Nicky, who blinks a few times before sliding into awareness all at once, the way he always does. He sits up, leaning against the headboard, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Joe?" he asks, voice still slightly hoarse from sleep. He frowns when Joe doesn't answer straight away. "Is something wrong?"
"No," Joe says. Fidgets with his phone, screen now dark, still in his hands. "Uh. They want me for the Olympic team."
Nicky is silent for all of a split second before his expression breaks into a wide smile. "Yeah?"
"Yeah." Joe can't keep himself from smiling now, either, as Nicky cups the back of Joe's neck with one hand, leans in to press their foreheads together. Joe closes his eyes.
"Of course they do, Joe," Nicky says then. "You're the best in the world right now. You're going to be incredible."
There are times when that doesn't quite feel real, even if it's been a while.
"You'll come with me?" Joe asks.
"Always," Nicky says. Then he pulls back and kisses Joe's cheek, his forehead, the space between his eyes, until Joe laughs.
"I love you," Nicky tells him.
They'd met fencing épée, of all things. Andy had invited the seven of them – they hadn't quite been friends yet, but Joe had known Quynh for a couple years by then, and Andy too, while Nicky had already known Nile – to train with her and Quynh for a while, and Joe couldn't possibly refuse, because Andy was both his friend and one of the best coaches in the world back then. She'd made them all switch to a weapon they didn't usually use, and Joe and Nicky had picked épée: Joe because he figured it would be easier than restricting his target area to the torso only, and Nicky because épée was far closer to foil than sabre. They'd been about evenly matched, and it had been – well, it had been fun.
Joe had left a week later with Nicky's number in his phone and a small, fluttering hope in his chest. And even if they hadn't kept in touch very well those first few months, when the World Championships came around, and Joe had qualified for the second time, Nicky had joined Andy to meet him at the airport, grinning widely when he caught sight of him.
The rest, as they say, is history.
"I love you too," Joe says.
"You want to tell the others?" Nicky asks.
Joe looks at him for a moment. Looks at the clock. "It's 1 am, Nicky. Andy will kill us both."
Nicky snorts. "In the morning, then?"
"In the morning," Joe agrees.
Neither of them end up going back to sleep until 4 am, and they're both exhausted at breakfast the next morning, but. It's worth it.
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You know I wrote out that whole crossover/intersection between the mummy and Indiana Jones once but it just occurred to me there’s another property that would also fit in.
Downton Abbey.
Because as we all know Highclere Castle, the stunning home that serves as Downton in the show is/was owned by descendants of Lord Carnarvon, who, in addition to being one of the primary financiers of Howard Carter’s expedition into Egypt whence the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, was also one of the primary inspirations for Evy and Jonathan Carnahan’s father (and in fact in earlier drafts of the script to the Mummy, their surname was Carnarvon).
So like, imagine it. Jonathan’s quite some years older than Evy, old enough that he’d have been Of Age in 1912 when the Titanic sank, and he’s been off in Egypt with his father and stepmother and baby sister but his father’s recently died, and then gets the letter from a distant cousin, a Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, that he’s now the heir to the estate.
And besides I think Evy and Sybil would get along splendidly
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So for no reason at all I'm thinking about this:
Sora was not chosen by a Keyblade Master to be a Keyblade wielder, but he becomes a Keyblade wielder before anyone else in the Destiny Trio (yes, I know, Riku's Keyblade--the Kingdom Key--had shown up on the Destiny Islands for Riku, but when Riku chose darkness over light, it opted to go with Sora instead: and there it would ultimately stay and Riku would get a different Keyblade later).
Riku was chosen by a Master to be a Keyblade wielder, and he's the third of the Destiny Trio to get his Keyblade, though still treated so much better than Kairi is, and truly gets to use his Keyblade before her (in having big adventures where he gets to use it, and whatnot): as I'm sure no one is really counting the three Heartless that Kairi killed with hers in KHII.
Kairi was accidentally chosen to be a wielder by a Keyblade Master (Aqua triggered the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony with her by accident, that is), and this actually happens before the scene where Terra chooses Riku. But it's an accidental thing, which definitely stings a bit. And Kairi is the second of the Destiny Trio to get her Keyblade... though in a lot of ways, you wouldn't guess that.
Edit: I'm wrong. Riku gets his Keyblade second, and Kairi gets hers third, as Riku has his Keyblade when he protects Kairi and Naminé from Saïx. I, and another user on her at what point, just got confused because of Riku (if you talk to him as Sora when you beat Luxord) mentioning how he doesn't think Sora needs the power of darkness or his Soul Eater yet, which almost sounds like he still has Soul Eater at the time, when he doesn't. What a weird line just overall. -shrugs-
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