#wizard!shannon

As a child, Mary was saved by someone she couldn't remember for as long as she didn't know magic existed.

AKA what if I took a wizard!Shannon AU and made it vaguely Utena? Like, this fic is so utenanthy coded that the title comes from an English translation of one of the songs from Adolescence of Utena.

Also available on AO3.

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"But I don't want to forget you," Mary said to the witch who had saved her.

"You're human," Shannon said. "You can't know about magic. It won't be safe for either of us." Before Mary could protest any further, Shannon cast a sleep spell on her. It would block the memories of the past few hours as long as she had no idea that magic really existed.

After the Battle of the Bands, Mary stomped up to Shannon. "Magic exists, and you've only aged two years in the past ten."

Shannon gulped at Mary's angry expression. There was no wiping her mind to get out of this one. And they had just started to get along, months after Shannon had found Mary again by accident.

"Did you know that I still had dreams about that day? I didn't remember you, or exactly how you saved me, but I remembered being saved by someone fantastic. I've been chasing after every boy in Arcadia searching for my prince, only to find out that it's been you all along."

Akiridion!Bodyguard!Douxie AU

Douxie was raised by the military and is a bit of a prodigy. Between this and the fact that he’s so close in age to the Tarron twins, he ends up being assigned guard duty to them. This started several keltons ago in an attempt to dissuade Aja from running away so much. It helped a little, but Aja still ran from the coup.

Douxie and Krel have been slowly falling in love together for years (well, more slowly on Krel’s end than on Douxie’s) but they haven’t done anything about their feelings because their love is forgiven and they’re both too loyal to the crown

When they gain their human transductions, Douxie is delighted by how much of his height he’s retained (even though he still gets a little shorter when he becomes human), as opposed to how short Aja, Krel, and Varvatos are as humans.

Douxie’s cover story is that his family are friends of the Tarrons, and that during the coup he was forced to leave them behind when he was running for his life. Uhl interprets this as “oh shit I shouldn’t have demanded that these kids each bring both of their parents; this one doesn’t even have parents anymore”

Aja: I’m afraid that Mama and Papa might not approve of my relationship with Steve. I mean, we’re so different, could we make it work when I go back to Akiridion-V? Krel and Douxie, trying not to look at each other: Wow. I wouldn’t know what that’s like at all, having a forbidden romance with someone outside your caste.

Aja knew that Krel and Douxie were really close but she didn’t realize that they were in love until after they went to Earth. She was a little jealous of their closeness when they were younger since her brother had a close friend who wasn’t her and she wasn’t that close to anyone other than Krel.

Steve: So, are Douxie and Krel dating or...? Aja: Do not let Varvatos and Zadra here you ask that, and the answer is sort of. They’re in love with each other, but they can’t actually be together, and they think they’re being subtle as they flirt when they’re really just being infuriating.

Varvatos and Zadra eventually realize that Douxie and Krel have feelings for each other and (somewhat-sympathetically) try to lecture Douxie about how, as a non-royal, he is forbidden by the laws of Akiridion-V from ever having a romantic relationship with the King-in-Waiting... and that those laws are ones that, even when Krel finally becomes King as opposed to King-in-Wating, he and Aja alone would not have the power to change that. (They do not give this lecture to Steve since they don’t think his relationship with Aja will last long.)

Douxie and Krel go to the Deep together, and they have their first kiss after Krel breaks them both out of their fears by defeating Morando.

So I’ve always found Flower Shop AU’s boring, so unless I can find a clever take on it, then the likelihood of me interacting with it is low. Since Claire is my favorite character, the likelihood of interaction goes up marginally.

On the other hand, I’ve always loved Secret Heritage as a trope. I guess there’s something there in those stories that I feel a connection to despite it being more extreme than my own experiences (I know of my Mexican heritage and make no effort to conceal my being mixed race but I have very little connection to the culture compared to my father’s heritage.)

Anyways, for Shannon, that would certainly be interesting. I’d posit her as either secretly a wizard or part changeling. Part changeling would be good if the story were to be focusing on the long-term effects of the Eternal Night on both Arcadia and the world at large. On the other hand, Shannon being a muggleborn wizard would definitely give her some much-needed character development and also place her in a potentially important position for Wizards.

(I’ve seen alien!Shannon posited but it’s never really caught my interest.)