for the art guard server’s may prompt: myths, legends and fairy tales
[ID: a digital portrait of Nile Freeman as a water creature, only the top half of her face is visible over the water. Her thin locs float around her, making small ripples. Her eyes have a green tint and glow and her ears are pointed. The background is a gradient from dark green on the water at the bottom to a lighter shade at the top. Around her head is a glowing circle. End ID.]
for the art guard server’s may prompt: myths, legends and fairy tales
[ID: a digital portrait of Nile Freeman as a water creature, only the top half of her face is visible over the water. Her thin locs float around her, making small ripples. Her eyes have a green tint and glow and her ears are pointed. The background is a gradient from dark green on the water at the bottom to a lighter shade at the top. Around her head is a glowing circle. End ID.]
[ID: a digital drawing of Nile Freeman and Sébastien le Livre in a regency era setting. They’re mid-dance, Nile standing with her back to Booker. They’re holding hands across her abdomen and at her shoulder as they stare at each other. Nile has her hair in an updo with a gold tiara, a pink empire waist dress and white gloves. Booker is wearing a dark blue suit and white cravat. The background is hazy, bringing the focus on them. The style is simple black lines and light rendering with a heavy pink overlay. End ID.]
[ID: a digital drawing of Nile Freeman and Sébastien le Livre in a regency era setting. They’re mid-dance, Nile standing with her back to Booker. They’re holding hands across her abdomen and at her shoulder as they stare at each other. Nile has her hair in an updo with a gold tiara, a pink empire waist dress and white gloves. Booker is wearing a dark blue suit and white cravat. The background is hazy, bringing the focus on them. The style is simple black lines and light rendering with a heavy pink overlay. End ID.]
“They’re pretty and they make me feel pretty! Better go start the show, Doc!” // A gift for @chinchillinator because their fic Hooked on a Feelin’ has had me hooked all of May!
What if I wrote a The Mummy au where Booker takes Joe to see Nicky in prison to explain where the key came from and Nicky punches Booker in the mouth and then kisses Joe.
What if I did that.
there are layers to this, right
because on the one hand, you get Joe in his nightshirt getting thrown overboard by Nicky to save his life, the whole time Nicky’s wondering like, you are clearly a man capable of looking after himself, why didn’t you fight there? only to finally get to (the other hand) the “I’m a librarian!” speech, where Nicky has to realise that Joe’s spent his entire life being looked at as a brown face first, and then a man (strong; capable of fighting or labouring), and then finally somewhere way too far down the line, as an educated academic.
And Nicky realises in one breath, oh, he’s amazing actually and also oh, I’ve been the same kind of dick as everyone he’s ever met, it doesn’t matter that my angle was “but sexy??”
also if I was writing this, which I’m not, I’d sober the “I’m a librarian!” scene up a bit, and then move the “ummm I thought you might want these tools I stole acquired” scene to after that, when Nicky really appreciates the depths of Joe and what being an academic means to him. The following morning, I think? First thing, before the next dig. It would leave it fresh in Joe’s mind before shit hits the fan
(Rick steals the tools on the boat. Nicky would steal the tools after the “there are other places to dig *significant look* scene)
An underrated moment I would dwell on:
Evey approaches the fire
Rick, @ Beni: You’re in her seat. [directly next to him, Evey’s been nowhere near them in this scene so far]
Beni: haha
Rick: Move.
Beni: o fuk
Evey: [doesn’t even notice] WAIT TILL YOU HEAR THIS
… There’s definitely a way to make Quynh Imhotep here, I think. There’s also a way to do it without being a cunt, but I’ll need to put so much actual thought into it - but know that the vibe is there. We’re going for the cheesy 90s movie vibe less the Orientalism yah?
Iffff you made Imhotep Quynh, you could change the narrative so she’s trying to regain her truly human body, and escape the hell of her enforced immortality - so finding the Canopic jars etc is her trying to reconstruct her body, and then kidnapping Joe isn’t to kill him to resurrect Anck-su-namun, but instead to force him to help her regain her mortality/possibly have him nearby as a human sacrifice should she need it.
The battle at the end could then be her refusing to accept that she needs to go into the pool of the dead to get her mortality back, and them trying to get her to fucking go in it so she can be mortal/not cursed again.
Andy can be the Ardeth Bay figure, whose family has been watching over Quynh for centuries. She can take responsibility for Quynh after the big last fight scene. Maybe. I’m less sure of where Andy would be kicking about, but she deserves to be somewhere cool/somewhere where she can end up with her wife
actually I woke up with a lot of feelings about Nicky spending the journey to Hamunaptra looking to Joe for assistance in physical tasks and Joe looking back at him like David Rose when his dad tried to imply he should help move the giant painting.
Like, in the first day of the dig, in the chamber under the statue of Anubis Nicky would be like (relatively innocently, but still with the internalised perspective of, oh, he’s big, he can help here, while unconsciously looking at Booker to actually do the Egyptology stuff) oh can you help lift this thing, and then we can see where we’re going next and Joe would have to be like, no, fuck off, I need to read this cartouche first and then I’ll decide where we go next, Booker go get us some water.
And booker would do the thing, and Nicky would be like …okay cool whatever you say.
ONLY THEN, that night, we’d get the, "I’m a librarian!!” speech, this time with added frustration that Nicky isn’t respecting him either, and Nicky would have to be like, …ah. my bad.
and then the next morning, after Joe’s washed and prayed and is starting to prepare for the day, Nicky would sidle up like, soooo ummm, you said you wanted to get into the delicate stuff today, yes?
and Joe would be like, ugh this fucking guy, yes, are you going to ask me to hold the light so booker can see this time?
and Nicky would hold out the roll of tools, all shy and embarrassed, and be like, I thought you might need better tools, I know yours got lost on the ship, I’m sorry I didn’t know to save them.
And then he’d run away.
And Joe would be stood there, holding these really fine quality tools, finer than he could ever afford (Nicky stole them from Merrick), just like, oh.
a while ago I reblogged this post and saw that @aphroditestummyrolls tagged it ‘Nicky the plumber, Joe the embarrassed cat owner’ and this immediately flashed before my eyes
JoeNicky romcom AU where Joe is the up-and -coming romance novel writer of the year, whose agent, Andy, assures him his new editor will be the perfect fit for him, she’sreally good at his job and I am sure you’ll like her. Except it turns out Nile has too many projects going on so Joe has to settle for Nicolò di Genova, known to be a hater of men and lover of books, whose office is at the top floor of a really tall building building with no elevator —to keep the humans away. Nicolò is known for his brutal but efficient notes and seems to hate Joe’s books with a passion, but the deadline is getting closer and Nicky has promised Nile to treat Joe with the utmost care.
Cue the disaster montage: Joe and Nicky spend their days arguing via mail because Nicky wants to change all the things Joe considers fundamental to the book. One day Joe is having lunch with Andy but he keeps texting Nicky all the time because apparently di Genova is so incompetent he doesn’t even know how to place a comma, fuck, he wants to punch his annoyingly handsome face. And here’s the trick, Booker also notices that his best editor is constantly on his phone or working obsessively on Joe’s book, to the point he created a conspiracy wall about all the possible endings.
Nile, Quỳnh, Andy and Booker meet for a secret dinner. There’s only one explanation for Joe and Nicky’s behaviour: they must be secretly dating.
Suddenly, Joe can’t seem to avoid di Genova. His own friends keep betraying him, forcing him to spend time with his most hated colleague. Too bad that the forced proximity makes him discover new things about Nicky, such as the fact that Nicky… Nicky has read his obscure self-published debut novel (copies sold: 202), and hasn’t forgiven him for the fact that the side couple doesn’t get their happy ending.
“You hate me because of a book?”
Nicky shoots him his deadliest glare: “Books are everything.”
“I know books are everything, I write books for a living!”
“WHY DIDN’T MOIRA AND ANGELA GET TOGETHER? DID ANGELA REALLY HAVE TO DIE?”
“IT WAS THE POINT OF THE BOOK, THE THEME!”
“Fuck the theme! I don’t care about the theme!”
Joe gasps. “Take it back.”
Booker, eavesdropping from his office, texting the secret groupchat: They’re having their first big fight omg.
Once Joe understands that Nicky is actually a lover of happy endings disguised as a respectable editor of sad literary novels, it’s over for Nicky’s cover.
“Oh God, you’re a sap. You’re someone who would name his daughter Meg after Meg Ryan.”
Nicky is looking at his salad as if it holds the secrets of the universe. His ears are red.
“Nora.”
“What?”
“I would call her Nora. After Nora Ephron.”
And that. That is the moment the falling in love part begins.
(Booker finds them making out three weeks later and thinks they’re celebrating their six months anniversary. JoeNicky go public as a couple the day the book is published and it takes the group approximately 4 years to learn there existed a time when they hated each other. Joe writes Nicky an alternate ending where Angela and Moira get together and Nicky cries, because the best kept secret in the world is that Nicky is the more romantic of the two.)
Awkwardly, Manon extended her hand in an offer to help her up from her cowered position. Cassia’s stare immediately glued to the razor sharp nails curving wickedly from her pale fingers.
“I won’t hurt you,” she repeated again, cursing the touch of shame that sent a pang down to her very core. Since when did she feel badabout her terrifying exterior?
Cassia visibly swallowed, nodding hesitantly before accepting Manon’s hand, her body so light Manon barely had to exert any energy pulling her up.
“Um, I-” she stammered, timidly meeting her gaze. “Thank you for not killing me.”
Thank you for the dedication, friend I loved this part so much, but I have to highlight my favourite lines:
“Thank you for not killing me.”
FIRST OF ALL. Cassia is absolutely where my heart is. That’d be EXACTLY my response if I came across Manon in the middle of the woods. Plus, Manon’s response is top tier. I see centuries of bloodshed have only helped her hone her humour.
Manon’s lip almost curled. She had… helped someone?
This was madness.
Manon, catching feelings literally five seconds after seeing Cassia:
“I’ve never been hugged before.”
(…)
Cassia’s rosy lips quirked to the side with just a hint of teasing.
“Well I’m glad I got to be your first.”
I love that just seconds ago this woman was ready to scream because there’s a witch right there looking quite ready to tear her throat out but Manon sort of helps her find something and she’s immediately like: I’m gonna hug this witch.
Girl.
I’m starting to think Cassia has no real sense of self-preservation.
That makes two of us.
Human’s fragility had once been a weakness she had pleasured in exploiting, but now the chance of hurting her was a constant worry every time they touched.
Oh :(
WAIT AJSKDHAKJD
waittttt
WAIT.
WAIIIIIT.
Not only does Cassia have no sense of self-preservation but then she goes ahead and kisses a deadly creature who’s got centuries on her. Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool Cool she clearly has a death wish-
But Manooooon. I’m so sad. But so happy. Oh, she deserves the world.
