I love the arranged marriage au trope so much but it just doesn’t work for madohomu :(
maybe kyosaya??? I need to think about this....no. DAMMIT.
whatever they have angst to the max super tragedy au canon already so i suppose it’s ok
(it works basically for all rwby pairings tho agghghgh)
WAIT WAIT. if we lift tragedy from kyosaya as is generally done......then it could work!!!! hmmmm HHmmhnHHMHHMm but in what way.
how to incorporate???? Sayaka likes Kyousuke still of course - but she doesn’t get ‘im hehe. She’s a fighter! He’s super good at playing a string instrument or something? He gets hurt because she couldn’t save him? The Madosaya wife jokes need to feature - THEY ARE still CHILDHOOD FRIENDS. Hitomi too. Madohomu could be a background pairing!!! with Homura as a brooding, stoic, dark kinda motif with an inner dork heart ofc but. Maybe she got so sad because CHILDHOOD kindness from Madoka while she lost her family BUT she doesn’t have the status to associate with her and instead she has.....dedicated herself to becoming strong enough to guard her??? (shit getting into some goddamn Negima situation - i love this fucking trope too aghahghgag) MAYBE MADOKA SAVED HER LIFE WHEN THEY WERE KIDS BY HAVING HER BE PICKED UP FROM THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND FIXED UP BY HER PHYSICIAN. this is some xena level historical fudging!!!!
Let’s say Madoka’s family House is pretty damn kind to their servants & within their domain. OMG Junko as head of the house WARRIOR. Tomo as head of the house internal affairs!!!!!!! Tatsuya as adorable.
Do i want the patriarchy to dissapear in this fic?
so ANYWAY what? how do we get to Kyosaya arranged marriage?? Kyouko’s family is done for? Disgraced because of blasphemy?? how the hell would she get married to high-status Sayaka? How would her original introduction be recreated.....hmmMMMMMMM. maybe she’s a leader of a rogue band and she gets defeated? no.....agh. how to recreate their dynamic?? I LIKE that they started out fighting and Kyouko started out more experienced. MAYBE. Kyouko was like a cool fighter-priestess, maybe MAYBE Sayaka wholeheartedly believes in the authority of the empire and Duty and Honour, but she’s only been training and Kyouko is like I’ve had to fight off fuckers from this temple from the day i could hold a damn spear. SURVIVAL IS WHAT COUNTS. her family gets killed? maybe she is taken prisoner? no maybe her family essentially ‘sells’ her for their lives? (that doesn’t make sense without patriarchy in play)
(Ah arranged marriage in real life especially in this form can be fucking sick but let’s not think about that!!!!!!!!!!! it’s femslash!!!!!!!!! IT’s STUPID fantasyy fanfiction in which everything is cool!!!!)
maybe her family gets executed bc - maybe Kyouko does something so shameful her dad kamikazes her familly? Ok how does she end up with Sayaka? goddamn. this is no longer an arranged marriage.
!!!!! maybe Kyouko doesn’t realise that Sayaka is like 1/6 royal and challenges her to a duel over wasting their very little food and Kyouko almost kills her and her dad’s like OH MY FUCKING GOD KYOUKO and doesn’t kamikaze her family but it’s like they’ve been surviving on the edge of imperial tolerance!!! and he ships Kyoukos off as a gift to Sayaka to save the rest of their skins and Momo cries. hahaha
i am clearly thinking of some amorphous ridiculous harem-y feudal House within a kingdom/empire society with japanese aesthetics. PFFFT.
how does....mami fit into this??????? oh my god Mami, you’re so important. nagisa too. Hitomi is obviously like....1/3 royal. Like pretty damn ojou-sama. Mami has lost her parents as well! nobody has parents I guess who’s sad an lonely. Mami..........im tempted to say she’s a super fancy prostitute or something somehow culturally prestigious but that means i will age everybody the FUCK up. Maybe she’s simply a lady who provides professional company you know. Poetry and string instrument playing, pleasant conversation impeccable cooking whatever. ye. I’m more comfortable with that.
so she’s like super cultured. and Nagisa.
I’m not sure how brutal i want to make this world!!! slavery? war? executions? the past was pretty fucking brutal!!!! but this is a really stupid fantasy past.
Maybe Nagisa’s mum hid her when their village was attacked and died in front of her. xD I’m horrible. (it was a warlady called Charlotte of course - and one day Nagisa will take up arms and avenge-!)
If Kyouko got shipped off with Sayaka, Sayaka will probably be like - ???? goddammit???? i don’t want to have to execute these people so i have to accept this ‘gift’ but she pisses me off so much?????? Kyouko is obliged to be completely obedient. fuck it’s no longer arranged marriage it’s i’m falling in love with my obnoxious servant au shit see this doesn’t work without icky patriarchy models. ANYWAY. WHATEVER LET’S GO ALL IN THEN. Kyouko gets stripped of weapons, Sayaka gains a first ‘wife’ that she didn’t want and Kyouko has to obey her every whim or the double shame combo will have her Dad kamikazi-ing their family and/or Sayaka’s prideful parents will trample them.
Why is Sayaka cool and not a ruthless horror as befitting of her class? Because Madoka of course.
Naturally Madoka instantly befriends Kyouko being her loveable trying-very-hard self. Homura and Kyouko also have an instant sense of camaraderie because they veterans and Homura judges her to be sufficiently protective of Madoka after a while.
HOW to set up the Sayaka vs Homura....because Sayaka is still a class horror in the sense that she believes that servants are servants!!! and Homura is being too familiar (though she really isn’t trying to be - that’s Madoka for ya) and she’s noticed that Homura is having inappropriate feeligns and Sayaka is protective of Madoka!!
How do Madoka, Sayaka, Kyouko and HOmura meet Mami? MAYBE Mami is a spy cooking for the enemy? MAYBE she’s also a scout who is super familiar with the environment that they are passing through? Maybe she’s an assasin who kills people with ribbons?? anddd...... simple explosives? guns wouldnt be a thing....right maybe they could be?? How does Nagisa end up with Mami?
Madoka is def an archer from horseback. eh how does she handle killing people? i mean their psyches and morals would need some reworking? Is this their first campaign? Is the empire being attacked by an Incubator warlord? Have Houses’ of-age sons and daughters been called upon to defend the emperor/king and their domain? There’s no standing army really this is a feudal society!
I’m srsly picking and choosing from all probably inaccurate greek vs. random japanese vs. general european vs. straight-up sci-fi conceptualisations i’ve read of historic nonsense.
(city states??? add city states? wait...add clans?? instead of Houses? Houses part of clans??? king-clan?? whatever)