#girl genius week
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Girl Genius Event Week - 2023
Dates: May 21st-27th
There are three prompts every day, organized as "Character Group :: Trope :: AU"
Each is an option for the day. They can be combined, or done separately.
May 21 - Parent Generation :: Body Swap :: Soulmate AU
May 22 - Main Trio :: Kidnapping Fic :: Modern/Near-Modern AU
May 23 - Jagerkin :: Arranged Marriage :: Crossovers
May 24 - Fighting Girls Tea and Cake Society :: Costume or Fancy Dress :: Role/Age/Generation Swap
May 25 - Muses :: Kid Fic :: Human-Animal Hybrid AU
May 26 - Foreign Rulers :: Cake (Cheese, Beef, or Literal) :: Genre AU
May 27 - OCs and Commoners of Europa :: Time Travel :: Villain AU
How does this work?
I provide a set of prompts for each day of the event week. You can choose one or more prompts, and then you base a fanwork on that prompt. If you want to combine prompts, or make multiple pieces to contrast prompts, then you can do so.
How do I post?
Post your work or a link to your work (for fics hosted on AO3) on tumblr, and tag it #girl genius event week. You will also tag @girlgeniusevents in the body of the post. I will then reblog it to share with the other participants.
Do not post before the day of the prompt. Late posts are accepted. If I do not reblog your post within 36 hours, contact me.
Are there any limitations?
Please do not submit nsfw if you are a minor. Please provide warnings for fics with sensitive content, and tag appropriately. Please do not bash ships or characters.
Am I supposed to interpret the prompts any specific way?
Nope! So long as it’s Girl Genius and relates to the prompt somehow, feel free to go wild.
I don’t understand what this particular prompt is supposed to mean.
I had to shorten a few to make them snappy, so here's some clarification!
Parent Generation: Bill, Lucrezia, and Klaus's generation. Includes Barry, Aaronev, etc.
Near-Modern AU: a recent history AU (e.g. an eighties AU) that is lacking in canon fantasy elements... or a modern AU with non-canon fantastical elements, like an urban fantasy.
(Or you can just stick with a real world modern AU! There's plenty of interesting work to be done there, too.)
Fighting Girls Tea and Cake Society: the canon nickname for Zeetha, Violetta, and Bang as a trio
Kid Fic: Could be a flashback to when they were kids. Could be de-aging. Could be about their children, a few years into the future. Go nuts.
Foreign Rulers: Albia, Voltaire, Zantabraxus, and so on. If they aren't inside Wulfenbach territory, they count.
Genre AU: Doing a genre fiction story about canon. GG covers plenty of genres in a mix, but a Genre AU would be dedicated to one specific genre that isn't GG's main. For instance, if you wanted to do a film noir AU, you could do a standard film noir setting with GG characters, or you could do something more like the Ivo Sharktooth comic.
Cheesecake/Beefcake: Cheesecake is pin-up style sexy ladies. Beefcake is pin-up style sexy dudes. Phil draws a lot of these, so the prompts are in honor of that. If you aren’t in the mood to draw or write something relating to sexy people, then we also have the option of literal cake.
OCs and Commoners of Europa: Originally, this was just the Circus, but I've expanded it to cover more. Show us your Original Characters, or just write about someone who's living their life outside the plot.
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some flirty lever throwing for this ggweek
either a bill daydream or a hazy memory because he was zapped immediately afterwards haha
#gg#girl genius#lucrezia mongfish#girlgeniusevents#girl genius week#ggew 2023#my art#good old lu#breaking my wrist when i least wanted her to
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i am so obsessed with how like. taken as read the ot3 are at this point. like on the one hand it feels like they've been building up to this for ages but on the other hand it kind of feels like i blinked and we skipped right past some Major Turning Point where everything got spelled out and we're just already in firmly Established Relationship-land. obviously tarvek is too well-protected for anyone to assassinate openly, look how angry his boyfriend and girlfriend are at the idea of anyone threatening him. at this point i'm half-convinced agatha's just going to refer to her boyfriends in passing to someone else and no one's even going to comment on it until van finds out twenty pages later and immediately starts making everyone pay up
#girl genius#i just. the matching frowns. tarvek's deliberately-foppish not-quite-innocent shit-eating grin and folded hands#i'm obsessed with this panel i'm obsessed with this page i'm obsessed with this entire week's comics#and everything that everyone has chosen to say about these three since. man i don't even remember. october?#when was the comment about albia worrying colette will join the polycule i forget#i mean and also everyone has said about these three ever. violetta telling gilvek to stop flirting lives in my head rent free#but the entire last month has just been. i am Reeling what has HAPPENED#i was ready to live off the group hug for the next YEAR and every comic then has felt like a brand new brick????#except for krosp and norville's grand adventure which. well that also felt like a set of bricks but very different ones#also i'm only half-convinced bc a) agatha *is* awfully good at big dramatic speeches#and it's still hard to imagine the Big Relationship(s) Upgrade(s) happening without one#b) it also feels extremely plausible that instead of agatha talking about her boyfriends to a third party#gil or tarvek will refer to *their* boyfriend to agatha (who will not comment on that until van finds out twenty pages later etc)#anthyding can hadplen etc and it feels so much like suddenly it already has. what timeline are we IN#sarah don't look#nyquil don't look
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In watching more interviews with Liv about Van and the escalation of Van's pragmatism to such dark degrees, I find myself genuinely baffled that anyone could ever think Van the bad guy. I mean, I'm perplexed at finding ANY of these girls The Bad Guy. The bad guy is the situation. It's being lost. It's freezing. It's starving. It's being scraped down to the barest bone of being alive. They make choices that might be snippy, or cruel, or hard-headed, sure--Shauna refusing to just hash it out with Jackie; Jackie being too stubborn to come inside; Taissa refusing to discuss her situation plainly; etc--but by the time we reach the end of season 2, it doesn't even matter. Petty bullshit doesn't matter. Jealousy doesn't matter. Those things are still going to be present and complicated, because--for all their choices, for all the distancing they're trying to do--these kids ARE still human beings. But it isn't the point.
The point is survival. Plain, simple, straightforward. Van's pragmatism is survival. It is the difference between living another day with blood on your teeth or dying pretty. It is the difference between fighting forward through the fire and the snow and the hell of it all, and laying down to die. Van knowing, in watching the ritual violence of Shauna beating Lottie nearly the death, that they will be killing and eating one another soon. Van coming up with the cards for the hunt. Van not blinking when the moment comes, Van choosing a weapon that doubles as a tool to bring the body back, Van refusing to apologize for staying alive--it's not evil. It's not Bad Guy behavior. It's purely about survival, because there is nothing else left to her--or to any of them. They can play the pretty little Sweet Angel Girl game and die, or they can get dirty, bloody, horrific and fight. Van chooses the fight. Van chooses to fight for herself, for her lover, for her team, even knowing not everyone is going to make it out...because the alternate path there is that no one makes it out. Van knew the baby wouldn't live. Van knows the rest of them won't, either. Not unless they start making the hard choices.
And, honestly, the fact that Van sees this narrative coming. Comes up with this plan. Brings out the cards. To me, that is the opposite of Bad Behavior. That is as close to justice as anyone can find in the wilderness. If someone else came up with an idea, maybe it would have come down to voting--but that would have had such a human element to it, with bitterness or hostility or whatever ultimately petty shit always comes of humans selecting who to Other. The cards don't leave room for that. It isn't fair, because the situation isn't fair, because Man vs. Nature isn't fair, but it's as close to a just system as they could possibly find. It's the kindest solution to an unwinnable game. Not to bring it back to American Gods again, but all I can think is "it's easy, there's a trick to it: you do it, or you die." Van gave them that.
#yellowjackets#yj meta#van palmer#i simply cannot ever accept people blindly hating ANY of the girls for their actions at the end of S2#because by that point it's not about personality flaws or errors of judgement or teenage bullshit#it's survival. it's literally do or die.#be mad at the stuff they did the first few weeks out there. THAT was in their control.#but by the end of S2 it's 'do i want to live? cool. then this is the next step. there IS nothing else. we are eating belts.'#every once in a while on instagram or somewhere i see a hot take like 'oh this whole thing is THIS girl's fault'#and it's like no no. no--apart from misty busting the black box--NOTHING these girls do will change the fact of their situation#they might make it worse or make it more palatable but in the end#it's the purity of man vs. nature as a story#and any of them getting darker. more logical. more pragmatic. just means they're putting another day breathing first.#the human element of it comes in with the faith and the ritual and the acceptance of violence--but the violence was coming either way#'this place cannot be argued with. and that is how we survive: by giving into that.' exactly. liv hewson you genius. exactly.
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#poll#truly the most stimulating task for a self proclaimed evil genius: hunting down women who went to the same middle school as this one guy#ok but yeah. whats the best option here#itd be funny if he just lied. or if he was like 'oh i did kill every woman he was close to' (<- true. techincally. he killed all 0 of them)#i mean i went back and looked. theres no background rebel who is Clearly A Woman#which doesnt mean theres no women rebels#but. given the track record.#a single girl ofa user. a single girl nomu named 'woman'.......#how much credit do i really want to give#(i mean UNLESS the leaks this week show more? and we do get rebel girls now?? thatd be nice but idk i havent seen them.)#anyway uhhhhh#bnha manga spoilers
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in our anxiety to combat the tiktokification of autism, some of us have gone too far and are lovaasposting
#just saw a post going '1/3 of autistics are intell disabled most will never live alone' ....#GIRL calm the FUCK down!! it's not just social awkwardness but it's not a death sentence either!#I s2g that we are approx 3 weeks from unironically reviving the awkward genius aspie/dangerous animalistic autistic dichotomy#actuallyautistic
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For Girl Genius Event Week day 1, Parent Generation, I finally got around to scanning the cover of this paperback I found in a discount bin hahaha just kidding I made this. I've wanted to do a Heterodyne Boys pulp-style cover for a while! Heavily styled after the Hardy Boys, who were always in the foreground pointing at things in the mid- or background, and referenced against the extensive collection at @pulpcovers. The art is acrylics on canvasboard; the lettering and weathering are digital.
Ask me about the fonts. "The-?" THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST, all of the lettering was drawn by hand! (Except the watermark.) This made the process much slower but was more fun for me. If you ever need to hire someone to design a logo....call me.
Sorry it's late, @girlgeniusevents!
Do you see these pulp heroes? Do you like them? Do you promise to love them? The pulp heroes are now in a deconstructive lastgen tragedy.
#i'll add unweathered and bare art versions in a bit#girl genius#girl genius event week#scribbles by the proprietor
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@girlgeniusevents theme week day 3: jagers
I don't draw jagers enough. Or bears
No dialogue version under the cut
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Girl Genius event week day 2: Main Trio, near-modern AU(kinda)
It’s Cyberpunk gg!
@girlgeniusevents
#girl genius event week#girl genius#agatha heterodyne#gilgamesh wulfenbach#tarvek sturmvoraus#ot3#cyberpunk
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I am a fucking artist.
@girlgeniusevents Day Three: Jagerkin & Crossover
wayne just has absolute jäger energy.
in the middle of a fight he stops to shop clothes off the guy he defeated
he believes in hats
his relationship with hats is unmatchable
book 1 plot is he loses his hat and tries to get it back
he's undyingly loyal
eager for a fight
knows how to start a bar fight
brawler in an age where there's shooty things
thinks getting shot at is a form of affection
absolutely would go up to someone and say "nize hat" (and eat it off their head)
inspired by one of my favorite panels of girl genius.
oh, and if they weren't stick figures, wax would be pulling him back by his suspenders.
#mistborn era two#wax and wayne#cosmere#wayne terrisborn#girl genius#girl genius event week#day three#jagerkin#crossover#this is probably not what was meant by crossover#but wayne is such jager energy#hats are the most important words a man can find#shadows of self#hoid#cremposting#i have an entire wayne gets adopted by jagers crossover that maybe one person is aaking for#really this is my propaganda campaign for gg people to learn about wayne#also book 1 is sort of actually book 4 ... so it's an investment to get to know wayne unfortunately#waxillium ladrian#shavynel scribbles
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Could do with a kiss or 17 ngl... 💋
Treat me ~ Tip me
#Bad brain week so far so i dyed my hair and started rewatching the clone wars from the begining again#Strangely not cured yet but still. damn. im a genius. Im truly a self care pro. This is how its done. 😎#Satans knitwear#Wearing insanely pretty lingerie also helps. And corsets are basically a powerful hug. So ive got this.#Alt pinup#Pinup girl#Corsetry#Underbust corset#satin corset#Pink lingerie set#bi girl#uk girl#cheeky#girls with tattoos#wlw#Pretty lingerie
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Girl Genius Event Week - 2023
Reminder that we start in one week, on Sunday, May 21st!
Here is the main post, with instructions, themes, and FAQ.
See you all in a bit!
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Hi Uncle Nina !!
I don't wanna clog your ask box with stupid shit but this is stupid shit but it was also my bday on the thirteenth so shjdjdjs
As a fellow Monster addict ( I got a flat of Monster for my bday and collect the cans I have 30 diff ones so far <3 ) I need to know what Stan's favourite is
And on the less stupid side of things I was also hoping to potentially hear more about Stan's trans journey/Kyle finding out Raven is trans
Also I'm sorry your job has been so stressful lately :(( I hope you have a good day 🧡
- Stan 🧡
hi orange heart stan! <3
it's so good to hear from you, baby.
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHSLAY, MY LOVE! i'm sorry i'm a little late, but you know me -- everything i do is fashionably late, darling. ;)
but also!!!!! call your wonderful, lovely ask message stupid shit again!!! see what happens!!! i'm gonna frown So WIDE, i'm gonna look so Upset. i'm going to hold you up to the sun!!! JUST WATCH!!!! >;/
my sweet stannie; you are a gift, a treasure. and your ask memes are a pleasure. i don't find them stupid in any shape or form, be nice. conversely, they are extremely special to me and it's why i put off writing this message for a little while because i wanted to respond to it thoughtfully, seeing as though it's your bday message.
which, *cracks knuckles* to get the ball roooollling.
i can absolutely tell you what monster energy is stan's favorite, but as a bday bonus, bc i wasn't sure which stan you wanted to know about, or if you wanted both: i'll give you both my style's fave monster flavs
and i was going to go into some ravenstan trans lore after that, but i feel like that info should go in it's own ask, yeah? i just don't want it to get cluttered. so if you feel so inclined, would you mind sending me a second anon where i can drop that info? thank you, baby! mwah
but now, w/o further ado...
please enjoy the most Refreshing part of your day <333
for context ( and actually because i got an anon once who wanted to know whether i drink energy drinks ), i don't really know that much about energy drinks/flavors because i don't really drink energy drinks.
i mean okay, i'm not really sure if it counts as an energy drink, but i will chug a guayaki yerba mate like it is the elixir of life. ( also i fully maintain that pep stan drinks the enlightenment flavor and ravenstan drinks the raspberry one -- crunchy eco kings ) my favorite one is the passion terrere one. it's like the only one that doesn't come in a can and only comes in a glass bottle...that ice cold passion terrere mate in the glass...it hits so different than the can...oh my god. so good.
and as far as monsters go, i pretty much only drink pipeline punch bc i'm a pretty pink princess and that's what hot girls drink <3 but other than that i drink black coffee because i am an exhausted teacher girlie, but that's purely for fuel. to be honest, i rarely drink energy drinks just for fun, i only have caffeine to stay upright.
which isn't a great idea...but...i am not a role model....
speaking of:
so i told riley this story the other day, bc i needed to get her brilliant genius girl insight on energy drink flavors because she is the sugar free energy queen ( riley's answer was kyle x ultra strawberry dreams and stan x ultra mango fiesta, which, everyone say thank u riley <3 )
-- also god if you are real, bring back the watermelon lime venom you discontinued, you sick fuck, it was riley's favorite, thank you for giving us lovely orange heart stan, and fuck you very much for making ME, bitch! come on down, king! you won't! why the fuck would you extend my coworkers vacation! fight me, ugly!!!! --
and i was telling her about how i am the chaotic kenny friend, i make really bad, chaotic decisions, have no self preservation, hype and gas up my extremely bad ideas and convince myself i'm big brain, wow.
and...oof. so like 2-3 years ago during finals week, i had a fuck ton of essays and projects due ( i was a very bad student btw which is funny bc i'm a teacher ) and no idea how i was gonna do them, so i had the Brilliant Idea...to buy three Random bang energy drinks...
AND SHOTGUN ALL OF THEM BACK TO BACK LIKE BEER CANS.
ohhhhhhhhhhhh my god, party girl nina. help. crying.
and yknow, i thought this was such a good idea! i was like wow i'm gonna be so awake, i am going to b invincible.
i....was not Invicible. i was...very, very sick. i was like almost catatonic and shaking on the floor of my dorm bathroom, lmao. i had to have my roomate take a picture of me on the floor and text all my teachers what happened, which, thank god they were all really nice and laughed but...i feel like that tells you everything you need to know about me...people who think i'm their hero...i am a fucking idiot.
but!! BUUUUTTT! just for You, baby. i deep dived a lot of forums and read a lot about the flavor profiles and think...i made a pretty accurate assertion of what my kid's energy drink preferences are <3
me: paris hilton pipeline punch bc i am bad as hell ;)
stan the man with the plan: okay, so i think that pep stan is definitely that ultra paradise monster energy. it just seems really crisp, clean, earthy. stan also doesn't really care for sweets or sugar, so it makes sense to me that he would be drinking a zero sugar monster ( kyle is disgusted ) idk the kiwi, lime, cucumber flavor profile just feels like pep stan. please tell me you can see the vision, help.
kyle pile: hmmm...so what i've concluded with my research is that kyle pile probably likes that pacific pipeline monster that seems to taste like fruit punch <3 it has to be the full sugar ones because of his blood sugar and stan does kind of scold kyle for drinking them bc he's not really supposed to and he gets really cracked out ahdslkshd like he's really cute but stan is like oh my god bro you gotta lay down but yeah i think that one or the orange dreamsicle one, which is hilarious because the only foods stmwtp canonically does not like are pickles and artifical orange flavoring...he really loves kp.
raven: soooooo i know that i said pep stan was the mango loco monster energy, BUT RAVENSTAN IS LITERALLY THE MANGO LOCO MONSTER ENERGY LIKE HELLO??? also i feel like he is like those mexican dads that put a little tajin in whatever they're eating and act like they've invented fire heeeeeelp ravenstan is so the dad that cuts u up fruit into little shapes and pus tajin on them and feeds u them when ur sad <333 luv u raven ;-; <3 but yeah i feel like he full on turns it into a raspado its so unserious sometimes theres a shot in there, it's usually the spicy tamarind smirnoff vodka,
...what can i say my man is a visionary and i see it
jersey: oooookaaaaay. so...sigh. for Obvious Reasons, pre and during rm, because of kyle's ed, he only drinks the sugar free monsters. for energy because he's exhausted ( my baby </3 ) but i also do think he thinks they taste good. i think he fucks with that ultra watermelon flavor that just tastes like the most beautiful, delectable, mouth watering liquid watermelon candy ever. i also think he could rock with the strawberry or the peach one sounds dank.
if the watermelon one isn't there it does stress him out, but he has a mental list of what one is next on the tier list, and acts accordingly. its kind of a nice change of pace but...his brain does not think that. however, when kyle is healing, weirdly enough, i think he ACTUALLY LIKES???? those coffee flavored ones??? which is Insane and everyone including tweek points and laughs at him
i hope...that suffices? you're totally welcome to offer me what you think is the right answer: you're the monster expert, after all. but this is what i feel in my heart! i think it feels accurate but, lmk! :')
and also...speaking of my job. UUUUUUGH. thank you baby. :((( i am actually criminally depressed because my fucking HOE-WORKER fucking extended his vacation ONE MORE WEEK! so i have to cover all his shifts for an extra week while he's on vacation. so that means i don't get to watch my testing accommodation kids who i miss very much, i still don't get his kinder reccess shift and literally??? spring break is next week like he couldn't WAIT???? holy fuck i'm Sad. :(
but i will be fine darling. but it's actually why i wanted to see if you could send me another anon so i can use that anon to talk about trans stan journey stuff? i just don't want it to get lost in this post and also, i'm not in great spirits rn and don't want to answer it until i can write something that's not flaming garbage.
but happy late birthday baby, i'm so glad you were born. <333
-uncle nina, monster shot gun queen
p.s. what is your favorite monster energy? :)
#BB IF YOU CALL YOUR MESSAGE STUPID ONE MORE TIME#I AM GOING TO PUT YOU IN SO MANY BLANKETS AND FEED YOU SO MANY SNACKS AND BRAID UR HAIR#KNOCK IT AWHFF!!!!!!#you are so loved and this was no stupid at all and i actually had a lot of fun reading all about all the monster flavors#i'm sorry if its not totally accurate i did my best#i'm sorry the green one is so much more pep stan#and the mango loco one is actually raven#like thats just the right answer#ravenstan drinking the mango loco monster w the tajin rim...like he's kind of a genius oh my god#him turning them into a cursed mixed drink is foul tho i just know his head hurts after that#i cant believe i had jersey likes the coffee ones that is so foul#but him drinking the no sugar ones and drinking the candy flavored ones bc he is like 7 years old#theyre so cute lkahdkshd also kyle pile also likes the cherry blade lemonade bang energy that feels right to me#BUT YEAH I HOPE THIS MADE YOU SMILE#TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK HAHA#also sorry i didnt give you the Serious answer in that post but ravens trans journey is really important to me#and i really want to honor that and not rush it or write it when i am in a bad mood...ill make it worth it for you my love#but uuuugh no im in such a bad mood like im actually so frustrated like this is just not fair to me#me n the older kids are starting to kind of be alright but it kind of ebbs and flows like its better somedays and worse others#but they are stuck with just me for another week so were managing tbh my coworker was dad and im mom basically#im more like stepmom and they dont really like me bc ur not my real mom but like at least im nice lmao#but yeah happy birthday baby hope you enjoyed this and i will get you the answers you seek very soon mWAAAAH#also not me shotgunning 3 bang energies and throwing up and having to have my friends email my professors#when i tell you im not a role model i mean that i am a joke i make such bad decisions#live fast die young bad girls do it well
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Girl Genius Week Day 1: Bodyswap/Soulmates
@girlgeniusevents
“He always was a sentimental one, dear Clemethious.”
Agatha sighed. The sound was bizarre, in Gil’s voice. “You’re telling me that soulmates are real.”
“Yes, Mistress,” the Castle said.
“And one of my ancestors discovered them.”
“Naturally, Mistress!” the Castle said in a voice as though anyone else could.
“And invented some sort of... substance, which makes you switch bodies with yours.” Her hair - Gil’s hair - was covered in bright red goo and increasingly sticky. Looking at the others, they weren’t much better. Tarvek was making a face in Agatha’s own body as he wiped... their glasses?, while Gil fiddled with his/Tarvek’s hair. “Which he weaponized.”
“Of course, Mistress. The disorientation alone would be invaluable!”
Agatha groaned. She was starting to see why none of her ancestors had ever tried a spring cleaning project like this. She gestured to the bucket over the door. “Weren’t you going to warn me before I walked into any traps?” The Castle just cackled. Of course. The better to produce an heir, she was sure.
“It probably just switches bodies with whoever’s nearby,” Gil says. “I mean - you I can see, Agatha -”
“Thank you.”
“- But him?!” He gestured to Tarvek, which meant he was gesturing to Agatha’s body. “There’s no way we’re soulmates!”
“Oh, you’re not the first ones, of course. One of Clemethious’s test subjects found herself in Holfung-Borzoi! The new blood was an... interesting addition, to be sure, when she finally made her way back to her body.”
“Meaning, much as it pains me to admit, we’re clearly both Agatha’s soulmates,” Tarvek said. “This is just... some way to square the triangle problem.”
Agatha had some doubts, herself. Still, now was hardly the time for it. “Did Clemethious make a way to turn us back, too?”
“Naturally. I would hardly let my Heterodyne remain in some other body forever, even for your consorts,” the Castle said. “It should be... hm.”
Of course it didn’t remember. “Let’s start with the lab, then. We’ll probably be here a while.”
It could have been worse, though. There were far worse traps in the Castle. Besides, they could have found this their first time around.
#girl genius#girl genius event week#the rest is pointless#this just felt like the sort of thing that a Heterodyne would create on a random whim
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Ballroom Dancing and Other Monsters
Bang hates fancy parties. She hates formal etiquette. She really hates anything where she can’t solve her problems with knives, ideally in someone else’s body. But she was going to suffer through — the horrors — prom because Violetta and Zeetha wanted to go, and she wasn’t going to be a lousy friend. (She also didn’t want Gil to go alone, which would have happened, since Agatha refused to go, Tarvek was going with Violetta, Xerxesphina was Colette’s date, and Zeetha had her mysterious boyfriend, and Klaus had told his son that he was going, whether he wanted to or not.)
Bang, above all, hates formal dresses. She’d called Tarvek to find an outfit for her. He’d thought she was going to try to kill him, but when it became clear that she’d kill him if he didn’t get her a dress, he made sure to find a very pretty one for her. It was a lovely cream with crimson beadwork on the bodice, spaghetti straps, an A-line full skirt, and a deep V-neck. She did have to admit that she felt pretty in it, even if it did make her vulnerable.
“Eep,” she yelped as Zeetha zipped it up.
“Thought you were invulnerable to pain,” Zeetha remarked.
“I’m not invulnerable to having all the air squeezed out of my chest!” Bang almost reached for a knife but stopped herself. Zeetha is a friend. She means well.
“Okay, Zeetha, try to murder me now,” Violetta laughed. She was in a deep purple off-the-shoulder dress with a tiered tulle skirt. Another Tarvek selection.
Zeetha obliged, yanking Violetta’s zipper up. She was wearing a golden mermaid dress that glistened in the light, with heels and bracelets the same hue of green as her hair. Tarvek hadn’t had any hand in her outfit; she’d picked it out herself. (He had almost been insulted that she hadn’t consulted him.)
“Are we ready to party?” Zeetha asked, rolling the r in a flamboyant manner. “Come on, the limo’s waiting outside!”
“The… limo?” Was not expecting this. Bang awkwardly laughed.
Zeetha rolled her eyes. “We’re picking up the boys in style, gals!” She grabbed Bang and Zeetha by the arms and yanked them outside, plopping them in the limo. “First stop, Tarvek!”
Tarvek was waiting for them when they got to his house. He hurriedly jumped into the limo — Bang could tell that he was worried about his father and his sister trying to stop him. His father was controlling to an extreme and his sister was… ill. She knew his home life wasn’t great, which was why she felt a twinge of guilt each time she stabbed him.
“Hey, Tarvek, if you need somewhere to stay tonight, my place is yours,” she said.
He jumped up in his seat. “Thanks! I don’t think I’ll need it, but thanks anyhow!” He was wearing a purple suit that matched Violetta’s dress exactly, with a purple and blue tie and a blue pocket square. The blue was Wulfenbach blue. Don’t say a thing. Let him pine on his own. He idly adjusted his cufflinks.
“So, Zeetha, who’s getting picked up next?” Violetta asked, fiddling with her amethyst necklace.
Zeetha smiled. “Gil, of course.”
“If he’s in anything other than green, blue, and purple, it’ll be a miracle,” Tarvek muttered.
“Oh, Tarvek!” Zeetha giggled. “Don’t worry. I made sure he got a suit. It’s black, with a cream shirt and a red tie and pocket square. It matches Bang perfectly!”
Tarvek breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you so much, Zeetha. A weight has truly been lifted off my shoulder.”
Bang suddenly realized that the beads on her dress were the same shade of red as Tarvek’s hair.
At Wulfenbach’s, Gil leapt out of the house in the suit Zeetha had bought for him, bounding into the car like an excitable puppy. He flopped down next to Bang, who noted that his new shoes were scuffed up already. Tarvek saw the exact same thing and tossed some black shoe polish towards Gil.
“You’ll need to open the window while applying that,” Tarvek said.
“You had this on you?” Gil asked, incredulous.
Tarvek shrugged. “A well groomed man is always prepared… your cuffs are sewn together, aren’t they?”
“It’s better that than Gil losing a cufflink again!” Zeetha retorted. “Remember when he did that in front of Queen Albia? The Baron was embarrassed for years.”
“Hey,” Gil rolled his eyes. “I’m not the one who showed up in traditional Skifandrian attire to the wedding of one of Albia’s daughters and nearly gave her a heart attack.”
The siblings looked like they were about to punch each other for a second, but the situation defused itself. Good, that’s one more time I won’t have to patch up Gil’s outfit tonight. Zeetha slouched back in her seat as Gil rested his right leg on his left.
“Who’s next?” Violetta eagerly asked.
Zeetha tensed. “I hate to do this,” she said, “but please keep this under wraps. He’s a Jager.”
“What?” Gil turned to his sister. “Dad’s going to kill you! And how did you let the prom committee to give a guest pass to a Jager?”
She twiddled her thumbs. “I pulled some strings, and Dad doesn’t need to know about it. For what it’s worth, Mom approved. He’s a nice guy, not any fangier than I am, just, y’know, immortal. I met him at the MMA gym.” She sighed. “His name’s Axel Higgs.”
The car was silent.
“Zeetha has a boyfriend! Good job, girl!” Violetta yelled.
The mysterious Axel Higgs was picked up outside a defense contractor’s office headquarters. His suit was a distinguished ecru, with a pale golden shirt and a green tie and pocket square. He carried himself with an air of dignity and refinement. A man of many hats.
Nobody said anything when he entered the limo. He smiled at them. No fangs. He sat next to Zeetha, who silently wrapped an arm around him.
“Should we, uh, do introductions?” Bang asked.
Zeetha grinned a fangy smile. “Yeah, sure! Do you want to start?”
“Okay,” Bang said. “I’m Bang Dupree. It’s short for Bangladesh. I met Zeetha last year, I think, at a karate tournament. Our match was a draw because the refs stopped us before one of us killed the other.”
“Gil Wulfenbach, short for Gilgamesh. I’m Zeetha’s long-lost twin brother. Our parents are divorced, so I’m stuck living with our dad, who’s some high-up in the defense industry.”
“Violetta Mondarev. I met Zeetha in our film class. We were watching The Princess Bride and we bonded over the inaccuracies in the fight scenes and the poisoning scene.”
“Tarvek Sturmvoraus, Violetta’s cousin. I’m not really all that close with Zeetha — I’m a friend of Gil’s and I’m close with my cousin, so I run into her a lot, but we’ve never really hung out.” Gil blushed at “friend”.
“Axel Higgs, Zeetha’s boyfriend and Jager. I wish I could tell you more about me, but that’s unfortunately classified information.”
Violetta and Tarvek were waltzing respectably well. He’s an excellent dancer — of course he is — and she’d learned from him. She was holding her skirt up just right, and when she twirled, it was glorious. Tarvek’s pince-nez gave them the general impression of being a relic from the Victorian era.
Colette and Xerxesphina were dancing quite well, too. They were enjoying the quick tempo of the Viennese waltz, taking advantage of it to twirl about the dance floor in a modified grapevine step. This was neatly avoiding the question of who was really in the lead.
Zeetha and Higgs were in such a close embrace that it was a surprise they were able to move at all, but moving they were. Their technique was subpar, particularly when compared to Tarvek’s meticulous footwork, but they were in tune with each other in a way that almost no other couple was.
Gil and Bang, on the other hand, were miserably failing at dancing. It wasn’t just the waltz. The saraband had been such a disaster that Tarvek had broken etiquette to whisk Bang off to dance with her while Violetta attempted to instill the basics in Gil. It didn’t help matters that Gil seemed to have two left feet.
“I hate this,” she whispered.
“I know,” he hissed back. “Could you at least try a bit harder?”
“Why should I keep trying when you’re the one who’s blundering the moves?”
Gil looked like he was ten seconds away from being arrested for attempted murder. “How about you think of this as a monster you want to kill?”
“Already trying,” she said. And it’s not working.
Later, they were all taking a break from dancing. Colette and Xerxesphina had gone off to “brush up their makeup”. More like “brush up on making out”. Tarvek was fixing his tie knot — his Eldredge had become asymmetrical, and he couldn’t stand it anymore. Gil and Higgs were enjoying discussing Jager history.
This meant that Bang, Violetta, and Zeetha were sitting at a table, drinking Arnold Palmers and munching on cake, chatting a little bit as they pleased to. Zeetha was a bit pissed that her brother was monopolizing her boyfriend (“especially since he’s got his own boyfriend here, too”), while Violetta was complaining about how sore her feet were (“with him, it’s always aesthetic over function, and it’s not like he’s ever tried dancing in these shoes”). Bang was just fiddling with her straw, listening to her friends.
She was also the first one to notice the monster when it came crashing through the ceiling.
“Guys. Look.” She gently shoved Violetta and Zeetha. “Is that just me, or is that something we can fight?”
“Oh yeah,” Zeetha’s eyes glazed over as their classmates began screaming. “Let’s go fight this thing.” She snatched one of Violetta’s shoes and snapped the heel off. “It’s improvised weapons time!”
Violetta took her other shoe and snapped its heel off, while Bang took an entire table leg. Zeetha passed the other heel to Violetta to grab an entire chair. Violetta complemented her heels by taking a hair pin out of a nearby dancer’s coiffure.
The Fighting Girls Tea and Cake Society started running after the monster, ready to take it down.
Maybe formal dances aren’t all so bad.
Read on AO3.
#girl genius#my fanfic#girl genius event week#may 24 prompt#bang dupree#zeetha#violetta mondarev#gil wulfenbach#tarvek sturmvoraus#axel higgs#fighting girls tea and cake society#prom au
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