Would you ever write Klaus and Diego as pirates? ;)
You know, I haven’t thought about that until right this moment, but I could!
Diego is a blacklisted privateer out for justice, former-first-mate-newly-made-captain with a mountain sized chip on his shoulder and a lot to prove. On a newly christened ship, seeking out the man who he believes killed his father and stole the life spark from his automaton mother. He has no leads, but he does know that no one knows secrets like the dead, which is why he spends the first part of his journey hunting opium dens for his wastrel brother, the only man he knows who can ask the dead anything.
When he finds him there is of course a sobering Klaus up montage and then a quite touching/creepy moment when Diego reveals he’s brought their mother’s body with them on this journey. (Probably after Klaus gets argumentative about The Plan and is like HOW EXACTLY DO YOU PLAN TO GET THIS KNAVE TO PUT HER BACK TO RIGHTS FROM HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD??)
And probably while they’re searching every island they come across for their villain or a ghost who can help, Diego will get in a fist fight for Klaus’s honor at least once, and ends up falling for a beautiful woman he meets at some magistrates office somewhere and promising her he will return (who is Eudora, duh), and he gives a heartfelt monologue about how he knows that growing up means leaving your childhood things behind, including your mother, but that he just can’t leave her alone in the dark like that when someone somewhere had the power to bring her back.
Meanwhile Klaus is on his own journey of Being Sober Which Really Sucks and Flirting With Literally Everyone which sucks less, and then he meets a tan young sailor in a port and convinces him to join their adventure and he can feel winter slowly thawing within him because wow there’s just something about that man that makes him want to be a better person, but of course, you shouldn’t ever change for other people because that doesn’t last, so he has to go through some wringer type stuff with Diego and their search before he can really give that man (who is Dave, duh) the sort of attention and feeling he deserves, which is all of it. The whole ocean and the whole world. (He does not say love to himself at first, because love is for children, until it isn’t.)
And in the end they find the man responsible and it is Reggie, BECAUSE HE’S THE WORST and even in death he’s still fucking them over and Diego and Klaus are both Over This, so there’s some sort of boss battle with literal and emotional ghosts from their past and they find the spark for Grace and all return to Diego’s port of call, which is where Eudora is and they all live a little fucked up, but more or less fine with it for now.
And really, given that this is me you’re just lucky Dave and Eudora aren’t mermaids. So.
That might be fun.
(Send me a Would You Ever Write… ask.)