incandescens: (Kanzeon Bosatsu)
Title: suitable company
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] summer_queen
Series: Amber / Onmyouji
Requested Topic: Mmm, Mandor and Abe no Seimei, whatever you'd like to do with them....
Due to: http://incandescens.livejournal.com/1201511.html


It was a meeting which involved such delicate suggestions, such elusive hints, and such complicated references, that at the end of it both gentlemen involved were not exactly certain what had been said or committed to.

But they both agreed that in terms of style and elegance (one in black, one in white, beside a convenient reflective pool, with flute music and attentive servants) it had been entirely worthwhile.

“I really must bring my little brother along next time,” Mandor said.

“How very kind,” Seimei said. “He can keep my Hiromasa company while we talk.”

“Actually,” Mandor said, “I was thinking more that he could keep your butterfly company. But whatever makes them happy.”
incandescens: (Kanzeon Bosatsu)
Title: the first step up the mountain
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] vincentursus
Series: Amber / Exalted
Requested Topic: Someone looking for tips in swordmanship
Due to: http://incandescens.livejournal.com/1201511.html


“I have been through the most refined training in all Shadow,” Merlin said smugly. He sipped his tea, little finger delicately extended. “Falling Blossom style, Five Dragon style, Fivefold Shadow Hand style, Golden Janissary style, Orgiastic Fugitive style, Righteous Devil style, Unconquerable Hero style, Celestial Monkey style, Ebon Shadow style, Hungry Ghost style, Dreaming Pearl Courtesan style, I am now master of all of them . . . gah!”

“Merlin!” Jurt cursed, readying his blade for another thrust. “Back from Shadow in time to meet your death!”

“And yet, the style of Looking Behind You seems to elude you,” Mandor murmured, pouring more tea.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: Letter: it'll be on the Eurovision Song Contest next
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] shirogiku
Series: Amber
Requested Characters: Eric, Corwin
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/1022754.html


Corwin,

As everyone knows (and you constantly inform them) you are the musical genius in the family. And I have no talent.

So I have no idea who could possibly have got the castle band to play The Ballad of the Water Tossers (terribly sorry, Water Crossers) under your window this morning.

Or last night.

Or in every sordid tavern you’ve been to for the last week and a half.

Do have fun listening to your favourite tune.

Eric.

PS - as someone out in Shadow has said, there are more ways to kill a cat than by choking it to death with cream, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the best way.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: Letter: sincere appreciation
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] vincentursus
Series: In Nomine / Amber
Requested Characters: Archangel Michael, Corwin of Amber
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/1022754.html


Dear Sir,

His Serenity the Archangel of War would like to congratulate you on your use of effective and intelligent combat tactics. His admiration for your style is so great that he wishes to introduce the new award, “A Corwin,” for those servitors who manage to entirely avoid a pointless combat during moments of extreme danger or urgency. The current suggestion involves a medal with one side embossed showing a portrait of a prostate man with a cloak over his head and a sword through his chest, and your signature on the other side. Please respond to this divine communication if you wish to be associated with the presentation of such orders of merit.

Alcohol will be involved.

Yours faithfully,

MICHAEL, ARCHANGEL OF WAR
pp Smitiel, Secretary to the Archangel Michael, Mercurian of War, Eradicator of Paperwork, General of the War Office, Sinker of Beers
incandescens: (Default)
Title: Letter: beware of the Auditor
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] rvdammit
Series: Amber, Vorkosiverse
Requested Characters: Ivan, Random
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/1022754.html

Random, old fellow,

Kindly let a person know when you’re going to be calling. I have absolutely no objection to your spending the night (or the day) on my sofa, but my cousin – you know, the one who recently got that little gold-plated neck ornament – asks awkward questions and makes awkward deductions. The subject of your precise rank came up. I had to say that you were just back from an offworld assignment, which fortunately he let pass without any further comment, but that’s not going to work a second time. If you’re not careful, he’s going to get curious, and that’s going to be the end of your maple mead supplies for the foreseeable future.

Worse still, my mother might find you. And then we’d both be in the soup.

Ivan

PS – dinner as usual on Saturday?
incandescens: (Default)
Title: Letter: the pellet with the poison
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] vincentursus
Series: Amber
Requested Characters: Jurt and Merlin
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/977311.html


Merlin,

The arsenic is in the third bottle from the left on the second shelf down. The thallium is in the small silver salt-shaker on the bottom shelf. The vitriol is the three bottles (graduated by dilution) on the third shelf down in red glass, the cavorite is the blue bottle on one of the middle shelves in the weighted press, and the mandrake roots aren’t in any of the bottles, they’re hanging in dried bunches on your left as you go into the wine-cellar.

Don’t you ever pay attention at lessons?

Jurt
incandescens: (Default)
Title: the pattern of insanity
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] undauntra
Series: Amber/Knitting
Requested Topic: Entrelac/Logrus, please. In which Euclidean needles do not suffice.
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/925482.html


“You go back and forward on the little square,” my mother Dara muttered to herself, “back and forward, back and forward, until it comes to a point, and then you go back and forward on another little square, back and forward and . . .”

“Was it the Logrus that did this to her?” I demanded of my mentor Suhuy.

“No, Merlin,” he said gravely. “It was a step too far on a path far better not taken. Stick to stockinette and garter, I told her. Make mittens and hats. But no. She must try entrelac. And now she must pay the price.”
incandescens: (Default)
Title: incoming call
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] solaas
Series: Harry Dresden / Amber
Requested Topic: Harry Dresden and the Trumps of Doom. DOOM, I tell you! DOOM!
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/925482.html


“You’ve got to listen to me!” I shouted. “They’re real! Real and alive, and they’re going to come through!”

“Poor Harry.” Michael touched my forehead for a moment, then turned to Father Forthill. “Do you think you can help him?”

“With God’s mercy,” Father Forthill said. “You say this madness was caused by a pack of cards?”

Michael nodded. “That’s what Molly said. I think they may be cursed.”

They wouldn’t listen to me. They wouldn’t let me up from where I was tied down on the bed. From the spilled pack of cards, living faces smirked up at me.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: Letter: as sane as the next banana
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] rvdammit
Series: Amber
Requested Characters: Dworkin and Suhuy
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/878842.html


Good Lord Suhuy,

Inasmuch as we have at times been set against each other, not by our own wills but by those greater forces which both inhabit and constrain us, let us set aside this outer strife and renew our ancient friendship. For have we not both known pain and bitterness from this unwanted opposition? Should we both not rather

There’s a little unicorn living in my head and it says that you are a bad, bad man.

Little Unicorn says pooh bah sux to Snakey Wakey


and hope for a time of peace and growth, where our offspring may live and mingle in glorious harmony?

Yours in faith and hope of a future blessed by all powers,

Dworkin
Father to the King of Amber
incandescens: (Default)
Title: AU: an error in the paperwork
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] drivingblind
Series: Amber
Requested Topic: What if Zelazny's Amber was based more on Chinese (and other Asian) mythologies instead of Celtic, Norse, and Arthurian myths?
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/857773.html

"You must understand," the young woman said, "that I am the fruit of Prince Benedict's unfortunate dalliance with a Minister of Hell. Naturally this has caused my family some concern, but my mother had been reincarnated by the point that this was discovered, and so no blame could be placed upon her."

I eyed her thoughtfully. My brother Benedict had never been one for unfortunate dalliances, or any dalliances at all. "And so you're hoping to meet your father?" I asked.

She bowed. "It is my fondest wish. Do you know the gentleman?"

"I'm his brother," I said. I might have smirked. I'm not sure.

She gasped. "Which one?"

"Corwin," I said, and took a swig of my tea.

She frowned. "I thought that your name had been written in the Register of Deaths some years ago."

"No, no," I said. "Error in the bookkeeping. Locked away for life, not killed. You must get a lot of that."

She shrugged. "Certainly if anyone could evade the Register, it would be a child of Amber."
incandescens: (Default)
Title: AU: just trying to be helpful
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] summer_queen
Series: Amber / Doctor Who
Requested Topic: What if the Doctor stumbled across the Courts of Chaos on his many travels....
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/857773.html


"Doctor," Mandor said, toying with a steel ball or two, "I think you fail to understand the situation."

"Fail to understand it? I think the whole point is that I do understand it." The Doctor tugged at his leather jacket, settling it on his shoulders. The whole Logrus pick-up-and-drop thing had got it askew, and he could tell that the sonic screwdriver was going to need a recalibration or two. "Doesn't that just prove it?" He pointed at the clipboard on the wall.

Mandor looked very much as if he would like to sigh. "Educative and informative as it is, Doctor, we do not normally put up fully diagrammed flow charts of the current political position between the major Houses, complete with arrows, red cross-hatchings, and instructive side notes for junior members of the House about Everyone Should Learn To Trust One Another."

"But it's for the junior members of the House!" the Doctor protested.

"The junior members of the House," Mandor said firmly, "are the last people who need any grasp of the political realities."
incandescens: (Default)
Title: impossible
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] cat_i_th_adage
Series: Amber
Requested Topic: That time Fiona and Corwin prefer not to discuss (no, not looking for smut).
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/788099.html


While the redheads were closest to each other as children, there were moments when they were interested in what their elder siblings were up to. There was even wide-eyed admiration and following around like puppies.

While Corwin had time for the young Bleys, he explained to Fiona that she should be doing ladylike things. Perhaps she could sit nicely in the library and read, or practice her embroidery.

A hundred years later, Corwin realised he might have made a mistake.

A hundred years later, Fiona would never admit that such a thing as her admiring Corwin could ever have happened.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: blazing sheets
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] summer_queen
Series: Amber / Torchwood
Requested Topic: I think you'll do fine with just Jack. So ... crossover, Torchwood & Amber. Jack and Bleys. ^____^
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/724310.html

Dear Bleys,

Yes, the cross-dimensional aperture has been mended, NO THANKS TO YOU, given that you have just spent the last few days in bedding your latest toy inamorata Captain Jack. Who, I would like to mention, tried to seduce me first.

I would like to know what the point is with you coming along on these universe-mending trips if it always ends up like this.

So much for sibling bonding.

Your thoroughly irritated sister,

Fiona.

PS - if I never hear you addressed as my "snuggy-wuggy carrot-top" again, it will be too soon.

PS - the same goes for Torchwood.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: In Which Merlin Displays His Customary Intelligence
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] doire
Series: Amber
Requested Topic: Merlin and Mandor; the scene on the bridge was the first time I realised I was having my own slashy thoughts.
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/685692.html

"Mandor," I said, "this is the first time I've caught you in a mistake."

He regarded me with those cold blue eyes. "Really, little brother?" he asked.

"Yes," I said with satisfaction. "You've got your attraction spells mistargeted. I've been having the wrong sort of thoughts about you all morning."

He ran his hand through his hair. "And if I told you that I don't have attraction spells darned into my seams, little brother? Unlike some people?"

"Well, of course you'd say that," I pointed out smugly, and chalked up a notch for the perspicacity of a Prince of Amber.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: practicality
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] vincentursus
Series: Amber / Sherlock Holmes
Requested Topic: Seeking advice
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/622248.html

Our enchanting blonde visitor dabbed at her eyes. "Mr Holmes, imagine my shock when I came home to find my house wrecked -- my servants slaughtered -- my brother missing . . ."

"Yes, yes," said Holmes distractedly. "And the police suspect your brother?"

She blinked her wide blue eyes at us. "They have said the vilest things! My poor Corwin, poor amnesiac boy -- I am sure he cannot be to blame. Mr Holmes, I depend on you, I beg you. Find him."

"What of your other brothers, madam?"

She shrugged. "They feel the need to investigate personally, sir. I would rather consult an expert."
incandescens: (Default)
Title: but how they played the game
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] yagathai
Series: Amber / Harry Potter
Requested Topic: Amber plus Potter. Go!
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/622248.html

By now the players are mostly gone. Brand abandoned his pawn for insufficient vision ("Mere immortality? Pah!"); Fiona has grown bored with hers, who is competent enough but lacks ambition; Caine has pulled off a beautiful reverse sacrifice with his and scored high on points, even if the man is now dying of snakebite; Flora is pointing out to everyone that at least hers survived, even as a diminished coward; while Corwin has sailed through to a general success and triumphant victory.

Gerard and Benedict wait to see the end. Twenty years later, they're still watching. They like happy families.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: there's always someone worse off
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] summer_queen
Series: Angel Sanctuary / Amber
Requested Topic: Angel Sanctuary + Amber. Anyone of your choosing, though if Zaphikel in particular were to appear, I certainly wouldn't complain. ^_^
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/589115.html

"So you see," Zaphkiel explained helpfully, "after being attacked by Lucifer who'd been lied to by their father, Alexiel rebelled, but was sentenced for killing her other brother and doomed to die horrible deaths each time she was reborn, accompanied by her sword Nanatsusaya who was actually Lucifer but who didn't realise it, and then was reborn as a boy and fell in love with his sister, but his sister was actually an amnesiac Archangel trapped in a human body and . . ."

"Right," Corwin said, emptying his cup of coffee. "I have finally found an amnesia case worse than my own."
incandescens: (Default)
Title: the size of your weapon
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] solaas
Series: Amber / Bleach
Requested Topic: Amber + Bleach, bonus points for involving Mandor and his balls. ;)
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/589115.html

"My newest source of power and invention," Merlin said proudly, waving the sword around. "Based on this neat little Shadow. The sword expands to match your spiritual energy. As you release your potential, it grows to full size and showers the area around you with power!"

"Yours is rather small," Jurt said dubiously.

"Definitely small," Luke nodded.

"It isn't that big," Martin agreed.

"Yeah? Bet yours isn't any bigger," Merlin muttered, showing a remarkable lack of enthusiasm for checking this out.

Mandor rolled his balls in his hand. "Some games, little brother, aren't worth getting into in the first place."
incandescens: (Default)
Title: Knitting Patterns
Requester: [livejournal.com profile] copperbird
Requested Topic: Knitting and Amber!
Series: Amber
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/556274.html

I watched my aunt Fiona surreptitiously, turning an occasional page to let her think I was busy with my book.

Her needles clicked briskly. She might claim that it was no more than a scarf, but I knew better. With her many dubious arts, her secret knowledge . . . no doubt it was a Trump in preparation. Or perhaps some artefact of Pattern, some leashed form of power that would let her seize power in Amber. Maybe it was some chain that could hold a captive as she wound it around his throat . . .

I must add this "knitting" to my occult studies.
incandescens: (Default)
Title: you have the family attitude
Requester: without_names
Requested Topic: Can you write a crossover about Ban from GB and Amber's Corwin?
Series: GetBackers / Amber
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/398869.html

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