AU from Disorderly Knights in which, when Gabriel allegedly tries to "save his soul", Lymond plays along because he's so confident he can withstand whatever Gabriel could throw at him
this is an interesting one I had not considered! I feel like in canon Lymond's tactic with Gabriel is to just be a wrench in his gears at every turn, so a version where he's playing along would be a very different feel, but not one I necessarily think is implausible.
mostly I can see this as a different way of trying to lure Gabriel into revealing himself more visibly; Lymond pretty clearly recognizes Gabriel for what he is early on (and ask me how I feel about the fact that he does underlining the ways in which their foiling is marked by similarity and not just difference!), but in this AU he masks his dislike and distrust. I don't think Lymond would play it completely straight; I think the approach he would adopt would be more the reluctant but willing to be persuaded skeptic. makes for a challenge that keeps Gabriel busy and interested, for one thing, and also seems more plausible.
there is definitely a version of this AU also where Gabriel "a purely spiritual love" Reid Mallett moves to make a more direct seduction of Lymond rather than using Joleta as a proxy, and Lymond being Lymond honestly might. go along with that too. it's not like we don't see him using his body as sexual collateral elsewhere. all in service of the goal! it's fine.
the good thing here (in some respects) is that it might mean Joleta gets left out of things more! possibly not, though, it could be that Gabriel leans even harder into using her as a means of binding Lymond more closely to him.
I'm afraid Will probably still dies, though. I'm not happy about it but I think that might remain a fixed point.
incidentally Jerrott Blyth is losing his mind because the two objects of his deeply closeted bisexual fantasies are now a thing and this should be a good thing and yet also. it's complicated. he's having a whole experience about it
