Imaginal Casements

Title: suitable company
Requester: 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.”

Title: Letter: it'll be on the Eurovision Song Contest next
Requester: 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.

Title: Letter: beware of the Auditor
Requester: 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?

Title: the pattern of insanity
Requester: 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.”

Title: Letter: as sane as the next banana
Requester: 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

Title: AU: just trying to be helpful
Requester: 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."

Title: blazing sheets
Requester: 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.

Title: practicality
Requester: 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."

Title: there's always someone worse off
Requester: 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."

Title: Knitting Patterns
Requester: 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.