Having just come back off House of Leaves I would appreciate any related prompts, including impression requests! (Or, y'know, fic requests in general, I have a whole load of procrastination from writing main event plot to do ;-) )
As usual I would also be overjoyed to get any fic about Allegra :-).
And now for all the fic I posted on FB a little while back so that it's in a place I can find again (please point out if I missed any, I was trying to use the Activity Log and I appear to do an awful lot of posting comments on FB):
----
Carlita di Sarvos
She is not sure where to look first.
In the middle of the Senate floor, one of Wintermark's egregores is engaged in a knife duel with a gentleman in a somewhat unflattering dress.
Around the edges are a variety of ne'er-do-well types, and some excitable Leaguers.
And - over in the corner, the left-hand corner next to the Throne - a lady in green is enthusiastically making out with...
Strange. She's forgotten who it was with.
She meets her again in an inn on the road between Zenith and Spiral.
Maybe if the river brings them together again, she'll remember her name.
----
Nora
That is a dangerous game, but you are playing it well.
They love you. They want to protect you. But only insofar as you are helpless; you must spend your agency wisely.
And you do, on the raised platform at the unveiling of the Sapling - just enough trepidation, a show of courage that suggests you would not be able to sustain it.
I hope that you are using Lisabetta as much as she is using you, just as you have used the protection of others to defy their enemies.
I hope that you have planned your escape route as well.
----
Eleri
I want to like you.
Everyone else respects you.
You are the obvious friendly face that I should turn to; the intellectual Merrow guide that I should have something in common with.
But every time I try to talk to you, you make me feel like I am imposing on you.
And if that was because you were busy doing other things that were just as important, I would respect that.
And maybe you are.
But it looks to me like you resent the time that I am taking up because you want to get back to flirting with naga.
----
The Shattered Tower
I've heard them called the Tattered Shower...
No, let's be honest. I've called them the Tattered Shower.
I shouldn't have, because I don't really know them.
I know they run the Nissed Pewt, and they kept getting past life visions out of the Prosperity Auction before the real high rollers picked up on the opportunity and started outbidding them.
And I know they lose a lot of people in battle, but there always seem to be more of them.
But my vision of them has always been as a bunch of cataphracts, and I hadn't even really noticed the magisters.
----
Mina
"Oh, so you're Mina!"
I had forgotten what it was to notice a new light.
There is such an aura of hope around you that I can't quite believe you exist.
There are some others around you, dressed in your uniform, but they seem scarcely more than your shadow.
You are what Gabriel is looking for.
I tell you things. How can I not? For a moment, I don't remember to be cynical - I don't remember that I don't believe in the plan.
I don't really understand Prosperity, but surely whatever you embrace will succeed.
You are not tarnished - yet.
----
Ariadne
"Ariadne," I say. "She's the best senator in Urizen."
I kind of wish I knew you, but there doesn't seem to be anything I need to do - mostly I get my introductions because I need to persuade someone, or nudge them, or cajole them.
But you are already doing all the right things, and don't appear to have any need of me.
Instead, I just direct people towards you, and assume that you will figure it out.
I assume that you know the Pledge are trying to hitch a ride on your coat-tails, when you are handed that golden horse...
----
Lecaia Coldlight
She's got a notebook out.
She's got a notebook out and some lists are already starting to be populated, and one of them is headed, Theology.
She's got a notebook out and she's asking questions.
Dan says: "You know how Livia and you were moaning about not having any Questors?"
She might not be a Questor. Her interests are far-ranging. She's talking about military rituals, in the way everyone who is new to talking about military rituals does.
I don't tell her: "They've heard all this before; they'll tell you to come back when you have something that actually works."
----
Chancellor Abronsius Eldenheart
(this is not an impression but is instead some complete fiction as Allegra has never noticed him)
It had started out as a wonderful plan.
The Jotun would expect the Empire's children to be just as unskilled as their own, so a Horizon's Razor Edge here, an Illuminate the Higher Mind there, and a cast-iron guarantee The Tusks would be there to bail them out at the other end...
Well, the fight was going quite well until the Jotun supervisors realised what was happening. And he could handle that: an entangle here, a repel here, a tot of Mageblood -
Once he had finished gazing around in wonder, one tiny Merrow was left pointing - "They went that way..."
----
Juha, the Cave spider
When everyone thinks of the Circle of Zulgan-Tash, they think of Simargl, and assume that the entire Circle is constructed of hooded robes, sibilant whispers, darkened shadows. And the name fits - the Cave Spider. And certainly he is sure to be keeping his secrets, keeping their secrets, the proper dragon's horde - but you wouldn't believe it of that face. He looks like your kindly grandfather. Even the spiral horns in the context of his golden hair are warm and open like hearth and home. And his eyes sparkle with gentle mirth, not the mocking smile you imagine behind Simargl's hood.
----
Tabor
"But Tabor's one of them."
Always fall forwards; never admit your mistakes.
The river flows. I've seen you. I've seen Antonio. I've seen both try to speak at once, the mask rising and falling.
You are on stage and I can't quite hear the words, and I think that is how it always goes, between us. She can hear you, but I can't.
There is that in me that wants to know your story, and there is that in me which knows better than to ask.
Perhaps you'd have helped, if I'd known you.
No - I doubt I'd have listened.
----
Gabriel
When he catches my eye, he smiles.
And he sees me when I'm pointing him out to someone who's asked where he is - recognizes me...
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
"I don't ask people," I tell her, "because the more I ask them, the less they let me watch."
But I fear she is starting to clock me, too.
It's very simple, she tells me.
There are a lot of people in the Empire.
Just don't be a person to them.
I wanted too much - and too widely - and this is already ruined, and I can't believe he doesn't know it yet...
----
Ieaun Linkforge
I don't know what to make of you.
You have such a nervous smile, but you fall asleep in public.
Part of me says - rival. Part of me says - only just chased off my territory, still sniffing around, needs a careful eye - but you seem almost... relieved.
Have you ever had any responsibility in your life, Ieaun?
That can't be right, can it? That can't be fair.
Have you ever had any responsibility in your life that you have not run away from?
Linkforge was the closest she's had to family, and you could have kept her there, but no...
----
Livia
I watch you dancing with him, and I am so happy for you.
I wanted you.
No, that's not quite true, is it?
I wanted to fix you.
You radiate loneliness, wearing him around your neck, making him into an awkward joke to fill the ragged hole that everyone can see.
But I'm happy if someone else can fix you.
He's a cute merrow.
My spirits are dampened a bit, to hear that he tried to disclaim flirting with you, but maybe he is just playing hard to get.
I hope you can find someone. If not him, then someone.
----
Isca
I can't tell any more which one is the truth and which one is...
She doesn't want to go up the river, so we head up the side of the Mourn; King's Stoke; Woodhall; then we cut across the nowhere places between Miaren and Hercynia.
Temeschwar. Vorota. Delev.
I remember the old stories; the Urizeni who came to Varushka to fight Alderei, and then turned around and decided to have nothing to do with any Empire that had such horrors in it.
A wayhouse outside Delev gets the robes this time; we'll be back here on the way to Holberg.
----
Iulian
"It's like he stopped being Archmage just in time."
But is that it, or was the authority holding you together?
Selfishly, I am glad that I am not there to watch you fall apart.
Some part of me still thinks that I could have saved you, but it is the part which thinks I could have stolen you, that sees your child as a rival - that wanted you to be my father figure, especially after Sejanus...
I am glad that I am not there to watch.
I would feel bad for abandoning you, but your letter absolved me.
Thank you.
----
Nicassia
"And our general, Nicassia, is pretty good."
It seems strange to be able to direct Urizeni to their - our - own general.
I tell her about Tanwyn, too, for completeness; wonder if Military Council will be as accepting of a babe in arms as Senate.
And I tell her that Nicassia can often be found in Phoenix Reach at night, but even as I say it, I wonder if that will continue to be the case.
There is about to be another Nicassia - and that's on top of the three or four different sides of you that I already know exist.