why a light to their path shines as a ficseries

Ten little lantern-sticks,
marching in a straight line;
one of them was left behind,
and then there were...

Nine little lantern-sticks,
hastening not to be late;
the gates closed in on one of them,
and then there were...

Eight little lantern-sticks,
four their records given  (Every second lighter is issued a small book called a record to note down any lamps in need of repair for the seltzermen to attend to.);
...,
and then there were...

Seven little lantern-sticks,
still but lantern-sticks;
...
and then there were...

Six little lantern-sticks
left so far alive;
...
and then there were...

Five little lantern-sticks
bolting the cothouse door;
...
and then there were...

Four little lantern-sticks,
struggling to break free;
...
and then there were...

Three little lantern-sticks,
few, yet hardy few;
...
and then there were...

Two little lantern-sticks
stood right before a gun;
one took a bullet to the chest,
and then there was...

One little lantern-stick
thought he would be a hero;
he looked his death straight in the eye,
and then there were zero.

Or (bowdlerised version, the one Aunt Gillenormand 'the Old Maid' used to tell)

One little lantern-stick
took his ladylove to wife;
they cared for one another
and soon brought forth new life.

With our Musain crew plus Éponine, Montparnasse, and later on Gavroche as lantern-sticks suddenly turned fully-fledged lamplighters in the Ichormeer, StrixAlluka actually created a shorter series than The Seed of the Hanged, yet one that delivers a powerful punch in its simple three-act structure:

• I - the training at Winstermill (fodicar drilling, lighting of lamps along the Pettiwiggin... the basics), disappearance of Jehan Prouvaire in the woods, and sudden change of Lamplighter-Marshal after Pontmercy's demise (there is a short custody war for Marius against his maternal family), with suspicions that the new commander of all lamplighters might be a war criminal - Book the First: The Rise
• II - the perilous eventful cross-Ichormeer journey of Q(uarto) Pontmercy from Winstermill to Cripplebolt, having suddenly received a promotion all of them (Captain Enjolras, Lieutenants Combeferre and de Courfeyrac, Sergeant Thénardier the Younger, and their lampsmen of various ranks), in order for the new Lamplighter-Marshal to get them out of the way since they know he's a war criminal (on the way, they encounter Cosette and her companions and chaptins -calendar senpai- as well as Jehanne Prouvaire, who is now in the Right of the Pacific Dove as well and has undergone sex-change surgery; this chara is always meant to be trans by Alluka) Book the Second: The Journey
• III - settling down at Cripplebolt, reveal of a dark secret (R's identity) that makes the whole quarto defect from the ranks and seals their fate, and the subsequent wartime battles against their fellow lamplighters, including a siege of Cripplebolt, betrayed by Montparnasse, in which the party dwindles echoing the nursery rhyme about the ten little lantern-sticks, their wounds, referred to in the nursery tale, being the same as in canon, (Enjolras and Marius mirroring the two polarly-opposite versions of the final stanza). The person Enjolras gets killed for having killed is Franz d'Epinay, in single combat; he and Grantaire are killed off by a shocked Albert de Morcerf. Book the Third: the Fall

Crossover is of course also present in A Light To Their Path, mainly Les Mis/Monte Cristo (Albert and his parents move into Winstermill when Ferran [Fernand: Alluka uses the Catalan names for both him and his wife Mercè/Mercedes] becomes the next Lamplighter Marshal after Pontmercy's untimely death due to an ostensible "stroke"; Eugénie Danglars and Louise d'Armilly, with the same social ranks as in canon, fled their hometown of High Vesting and arranged marriage to join the Right of the Pacific Dove, and became Cosette's senpaitachi Ena and Wiske) ---- even though cameos from other series are added, for instance Ritsu Sohma gets a funny cameo at one point (at the expense of young Lt. Gillenormand when he thinks to have bedded a wench).
Of note is not only that Grantaire is a rossamünderling or humanoid monster (the R on his foundling's swaddling stood for that) who is in star-crossed love with Enjolras... and this reveal leads to the defection of the entire quarto to protect the innocent enemy in their midst. Also that the relationship between Lesgle/Bossuet (a dexter - ie a kind of super with both electric and psychic powers, with arrows like Aang's tattooed on his skin) and Jolllly (his factotum - ie healer manservant), alongside their calendar ladylove Musichetta, is even better developed in A Light To Their Path thanks to the constraints of the setting; one can tell the chemistry - no pun intended - and even feel the survivors' angst once one of them is killed off.

Also of note are Ermengarde Johannitz (St. John in canon), Wendy Darling, and Christine Daaé, as well as Musichetta and Jehanne Prouvaire, as Cosette's companions at Herbroulesse and later on as part of the Takarazuka-esque theatre troupe Eugénie and Louise wind up leading in the ending.

The Mariusette/Lougénie finale is heartwarming straight on, - even after the revelation that Ferran shot himself as per canon when facing the facts that he was a war criminal as a young lieutenant, and his career has been founded on corruption and betrayal. - 

At the end, it is revealed that the straight surviving couple, caladine (lone high-ranking calendar) Cosette and herbalist Marius in High Vesting, are singing the "ten little lantern-sticks" nursery rhyme as a lullaby to their daughter Éponine (Catherine in The Seed); they later on watch, for the evening after tucking her to bed, a performance by the queer couple, of a story eerily similar to Swan Lake or the Little Mermaid Disney film with Eugénie as the prince and Louise "Wiske" as the villain enchantress, introducing Christine Daaé in the title role; Wendy and Musichetta as scriptwriters. We then get the POV of Lougénie and Chrisraoul and it's as satisfactory as Mariusette's... (even a marriage between Éponine Pontmercy and Gustave de Chagny, both as toddlers, is discussed in the finale... and these two, as adults, wind up being the authors and compilators behind this epic!!).

The story employs a switching POV chapter by chapter just like Westeros, but generally using the records Combeferre, Feuilly, Marius, and Éponine, as well as Wendy, J. Prouvaire, Musichetta, and Cosette, keep as a framing device and a first-person (think of all these "Dear Diary" fiction and you get the idea).

There are also stories within the story, most of them told as fireside yarns throughout the trip across the Ichormeer; - one of them, told by Éponine, is how the Thénardiers got their inn and it's basically the Cat's Arm legend (the severed paw of a gigantic housecat turns out to be a human hand, and a female nearby has suffered a hand amputation-proving she's the werecat). Also, Courfeyrac, Grantaire, and Éponine sing Bellman songs. LOTS of Bellman songs!! And Carmina Burana!

The Twilight Robbery AU As The Luck Would Have It may have crystallised Enj's first name as Paragon, and Madame Defarge being Madame Thénardier's mother (ie the siblings' maternal grandmother), for all of StrixAlluka's crossovers, but the Half-Continent is a rococo world as enticing as the fortress village of Toll (by Day and by Night), aside from one more territorial and militaristic - and it shows, the leading cast cutting a figure in their military ranks and uniforms - linking A Light to Their Path to El semen de los ahorcados, with uniformed and ranked characters at an academy of adventure setting (well, only at the start of Light compared to Hogwarts AU Seed) as a way to find common ground.


A LIGHT TO THEIR PATH
An Ichormeer Scenario

• lanternsticks amis - all + éponine in the same quarto (q pontmercy)
• enjoltaire
• courferre
• mariusette
• lougénie
• franzbert
• jolesgletta
• montponine
• éposette
• enjonine friendly
• courfeyrius friendly
• courfsette friendly
• cosettaire friendly?
• calendar!cosette
• calendar!musichetta
• calendar!eugénie - calendar!louise
• calendar!christine daaé
• captain!enjolras
• lieutenant!combeferre - lieutenant!courfeyrac
• lamplighter sergeant!éponine
• healer!combeferre - healer!jolllly
• dexter!bossuet (with air nomad arrows)
• factotum!joly (with joestar birthmark)
• trans!lamplighter-turned-calendar!jehanne prouvaire
• rossamünderling!lampsman!grantaire
• lamplighter sergeant!sgt. thénardier
• winstermill cook/culinaire!mme. thénardier (formerly wayhouse landlady)
• lamplighter marshal!pontmercy (dead "of stroke" actually poisoned) and his aide lieutenant théo gillenormand (the foxglove poisoner)
• lamplighter marshal!ferrán mondiego (as successor) - mercè and lieutenant!albert (captain!franz senpai at winstermill)
• lieutenant!raoul de chagny
• foundling!gavroche (joins the quarto as servant from his mum's wayhouse)
• cameos from oc:s
• cameo from lady syntyche vey (as expected)
• cameo from toddler threnody vey
• cameo from hikaru sulu (lamplighter in same quarto as albert+franz)
• cameo from count jean de satigny
• cameo from lt. paul d'arnot (still a polyglot, still goes m.i.a. and returns)
• cameo from lt. charpentier (still d'arnot's childhood friend)
• cameo from alistair mccooley (from oscar pill book series; lamplighter in same quarto as albert+franz, ie q eastwood -- for charles eastwood, not clint!)
• cameo from lloyd asplund + cécile croomy
• cameo from ritsu sohma (as an okama in highvesting)
• and these are only a few of the cameos
• +over with other works
• like hanged men's seed but in the ichormeer instead of hogwarts (and sans condesce or lady alistair or "chewblacka" bossuet)
• like in gankutsuoh; except that enjolras (taking on edmond's role) is the one to duel and kill franz in lieu of albert, and albert kills enj (+r) for revenge
• three acts - winstermill as prentices (academy of adventure) - en route to cripplebolt - cripplebolt 

A LAMP TO LIGHT THEIR PATH

A LIGHT TO THEIR PATH
An Ichormeer Scenario

• lanternsticks amis - all + éponine in the same quarto (pontmercy quarto)
• enjoltaire
• courferre
• mariusette
• lougénie
• franzbert
• jolesgletta
• enjonine friendly
• courfeyrius friendly
• courfsette friendly
• cosettaire friendly?
• calendar!cosette
• calendar!eugénie - calendar!louise
• captain!enj
• lieutenant!combeferre - lieutenant!courfeyrac
• healer!combeferre - healer!jolllly
• dexter!bossuet (with air nomad arrows)
• trans!jehanne prouvaire
• rossamünderling!erre 
• lamplighter sergeant!sgt. thénardier
• winstermill cook!mme. thénardier (formerly wayhouse landlady)
• lamplighter marshal!pontmercy (dead "of stroke" actually poisoned) and his aide théo gillenormand
• lamplighter marshal!ferrán mondiego - mercè and albert (franz senpai at winstermill)
• cameos from oc:s
• cameo from toddler threnody vey
• cameo from hikaru sulu (lamplighter in same quarto as albert+franz)
• cameo from count de satigny
• cameo from alistair mccooley (from oscar pill book series)
• cameo from lloyd asplund + cécile croomy
• cameo from ritsu sohma (as an okama in highvesting)
• and these are only a few of the cameos
• +over with other works
• like hanged men's seed but in the ichormeer instead of hogwarts (and sans condesce or "chewblacka" bossuet)
• three acts - winstermill as prentices (academy of adventure) - en route to cripplebolt - cripplebolt

Orestes und Pylades (Les Misérables)

Orestes und Pylades

Ich habe mich bei diesem Oneshot mehr am Buch orientiert, da diese Stelle für mich eine der Traurigsten in Les Mis ist. 
Ich hoffe es gefällt euch :)
____________________________________________________________________

Enjolras rannte die Stufen hinauf, so schnell er konnte. Um ihn herum war alles zerstört. Schmutz und zerstörte Möbel flogen umher. Er merkte, wie ein Holzsplitter seine Jacke und das Hemd zerrissen und spürte einen stechenden Schmerz, doch er versuchte es zu ignorieren. Er musste ein Zeichen setzen. Ein Zeichen für seine gefallenen Kameraden.

Combeferre, einer seiner engsten Freunde, durchbohrt von drei Bajonetten. Enjolras hatte gedacht, dass nicht einmal Tausend es geschafft hätten, Combeferres Herz anzuhalten. 

Courfeyrac, erschossen, noch als er die Fahne in der Hand hielt. Ein Kämpfer bis zum Ende.

Jetzt war er der Einzige, der noch aus der Führung der Gruppe übrig war. Doch wen konnte er anführen? Sie alle waren bereits gegangen. Bossuet, Joly, Bahorel, Feuilly, sogar Gavroche. Sie hatten nicht zurückgeschreckt, ein Kind zu erschießen.

Jean Prouvaire, einer der treusten Freunde des ABC. Es war Enjolras‘ Schuld gewesen, dass er gestorben war. Er hatte zu langsam reagiert. Er hatte auf die Menschlichkeit vertraut. Daran, dass auch die Nationalgardisten an eine Revolution glaubten, doch er hatte sich getäuscht.

Grantaire. Wahrscheinlich war er auch tot. Gefallen, wie alle seiner Kameraden.
Enjolras kämpfte sich weiter nach oben. Er war in einem der oberen Räume angekommen indem ein Billardtisch stand. Er zog ihn in die Mitte des Raumes und stellte sich selbst an die Wand, sodass der Tisch eine Abgrenzung zwischen ihm und der Tür bildete.

Er musste nicht lange warten. Eine Gruppe Nationalgardisten stürmte in den Raum. Er hörte leises Flüstern, doch es war ihm egal. 

„Er ist der Anführer.“, rief nun einer der Gardisten. „Er hat den Artilleristen getötet. Wo er steht, steht er gut und soll er bleiben. Wir werden ihn sofort erschießen.“
Enjolras lächelte matt. An diesem Tag waren auch viele der Kameraden dieses Gardisten gestorben. Er und Enjolras unterschieden sich nicht. Sie hielten beide an ihrer Überzeugung fest und waren zornig, verzweifelt und traurig über den Tod von Menschen, die ihnen viel bedeuteten. Nur das der Gardist eine Waffe hatte.

Enjolras schleuderte den Rest seines Karabiners weg und breitete die Arme ein Stück aus.

„Erschießt mich.“, sagte er und in seiner Stimme lag nicht die Spur von Unsicherheit oder Angst.

Er sah dem Ende entgegen und nahm es stolz an.

Ein Dutzend Mann stellten sich vor ihm auf und richteten die Gewehre auf ihn. „Legt an!“

„Warten.“, rief ein Offizier. „Soll man Ihnen die Augen verbinden?“

Enjolras schaute stur geradeaus als er antwortete: „Nein.“

„Haben sie den Artilleriesergeanten getötet?“

„Ja.“

--

Grantaire wachte unsanft auf. Langsam realisierte er, was um ihn herum geschah. Er hörte Schüsse, Holz zersplittern, Schreie.

Er richtete sich schnell auf und verspürte hämmernde Kopfschmerzen. Sie wurden jedoch von dem schrecklichen Gefühl verdrängt, dass er den Kampf versäumt hatte. Er hatte ihn verschlafen. Nicht einmal die Kanonenschüsse hatten es vollbracht, ihn zu wecken. 

Er hielt sich den Kopf und schaute sich ungläubig um. Das konnte nicht wahr sein. Er hatte so sehr versucht zu zeigen, dass er doch zu etwas gut war. Das er dazu gehörte und in entscheidenden Momenten zeigen konnte, dass er nicht nur ein Säufer war.

Doch er hatte versagt.

Auf einmal war es vollkommen still. Die Schreie und Schüsse waren verstummt. Das Einzige, was man vernehmen konnte, waren Schritte. Schritte ganz in der Nähe.
Grantaire wankte aus dem Raum und sah hastig um sich. Er wusste nicht, wo er hin sollte. Durch eines der Fenster konnte er das Chaos erkennen. Er sah einige seiner Freunde, die bewegungslos draußen lagen, neben toten Soldaten.

Sein Blick fiel auf einen der Räume in der Nähe, dessen Tür offen stand. Dort hatten sich einige Gardisten versammelt, die Waffen im Anschlag. Ihnen gegenüber stand Enjolras. Seine Jacke und das Hemd waren zerrissen, jedoch wirkte er ansonsten mehr oder weniger unverletzt. Er stand da, ohne Waffen, jedoch mit einem Ausdruck des Stolzes.

Grantaire beschleunigte seinen Schritt. Er wusste nun genau, wo er hinmusste. 
„Es lebe die Republik!“, rief er, als er den Türrahmen des Raumes erreicht hatte.

Die Gardisten drehten die Köpfe zu ihm und auch Enjolras richtete den Blick auf ihn.

„Es lebe die Republik!“, rief Grantaire noch einmal und drängte sich in den Raum.

Mit starrem Blick auf Enjolras ging er auf ihn zu. Vorbei an den Gardisten, direkt auf den Mann zu, den er verehrte, den er liebte, der ihn immer zurückgewiesen hatte. 
Jetzt entdeckte er einen neuen Ausdruck in den klaren, blauen Augen. Einen, nach dem er sich so lange gesehnt hatte.

--

Grantaire war nicht tot. Dieser Gedanke erfasste Enjolras. Grantaire ging einfach an den Gardisten vorbei. Direkt in die Schusslinie. Zu Enjolras.

In seinem Gesicht lag ein Ausdruck von Kampfeslust und Stolz. Sein Verstand war nicht vom Wein getrübt. Er war klar und ließ den Mut in Grantaire zum Vorschein kommen. Mut, sich dem sicheren Tod zu stellen. 

Grantaire war einer der Menschen gewesen, von dem Enjolras immer gedacht hatte, dass sie vor einem Kampf davon laufen würden. Dass sie dem Tod immer davon liefen. Doch nun stand dieser Mann vor ihm.

In Enjolras‘ kaltem Herzen regte sich etwas. Er sah nun in Grantaire nicht mehr den Trinker, den Taugenichts, sondern den Kämpfer, der für eine Sache zu sterben bereit war. 

„Erschießt zwei auf einmal.“, sagte Grantaire, als er bei Enjolras angekommen war.

In seiner Stimme lag ein bestimmter Ausdruck, ein Endgültiger. 

Er wandte sich zu Enjolras und lächelte, dieses schiefe Lächeln, wie er es immer tat.

„Erlaubst du?“

Enjolras erwiderte das Lächeln und hielt seinem Freund die Hand hin. Über Grantaires Gesicht huschte kurz ein überraschter Ausdruck, doch dann nahm er Enjolras‘ blasse Hand. Dieser drückte sie kurz und atmete leicht erleichtert aus.
Dann schallten die Schüsse und ein überwältigender Schmerz erfasste Enjolras. Er taumelte nach hinten und fiel gegen die Wand. Dann rutschte er langsam nach unten und es wurde allmählich dunkel vor seinen Augen. Seine Lider fielen zu, doch er war noch wach. Er konnte sich nicht bewegen. Sein Atem ging flach und brannte in seinen Lungen.

Er hörte Schritte, die immer leiser wurden und dann setzte der Tumult des Gefechts wieder ein. Er hörte neben seinem eigenen langsamen Atem noch einen Schnelleren, der Grantaire gehören musste.

Enjolras dämmerte langsam weg, doch bevor sein Herz endgültig versagte, spürte er, wie seine Hand gedrückt wurde und eine leise Stimme seinen Namen sagte.
Mit letzter Kraft öffnete er noch einmal die Augen. Neben ihm lag Grantaire. Einige seiner Locken hingen ihm ins Gesicht und verdeckten die dunklen Augen, die Enjolras direkt ansahen.

„Ich…bin froh-“ Grantaire hustete. „neben dir zu-“ Seine Stimme brach ab.

„Ich bin auch froh, Grantaire.“, brachte Enjolras hervor. 

Grantaire nickte leicht und dann fielen seine Augen zu. Enjolras klammerte sich an seiner Hand fest, so als wäre sie das Einzige, was ihn in dieser Welt hielt. Was ihn am Leben hielt. 

Seine Lider schlossen sich wieder und er atmete nur noch stoßweise. Doch anstatt Dunkelheit umhüllte ihn nun Licht und er hörte eine leise Musik. Eine, die förmlich ‚Rebellion‘ schrie. Er sah die Gesichter seiner Freunde und Grantaire vor sich, der ihm die Hand hinhielt. 

So lagen sie nebeneinander. Ein nüchterner Orestes und ein betrunkener Pylades.

HAKKENDEN NEW WORLD OF DARKNESS AU

A story set in a world very similar yet very different from ours (for instance, with Nazis on the dark side of the Moon and within the hollow Earth, aside from all-steampunk or solarpunk (depending of the nation) transportation and other technologies; it's later revealed to be a Confederate States uchronia in which Europe retained its world supremacy, hence the country-esque, Ruritanian, steampunk and solarpunk aesthetic!) with my OCs, the Chronicles/New World of Darkness, and the inspiration being the EPIC Japanese nineteenth-century fantasy that inspired a four-parter in Season 20 of Detective Conan, the first season of the magical girl warrior anime Corrector Yui (fillers aside: only the episodes in which new correctors are introduced, and the finale), the first Digimon season titled Digimon Adventure, and a boys' love anime sharing the hypotext's title of Hakkenden.

Spiritus Mundi: Of Those Lucky Bastards tells the story of:

1. a perky and wealthy, yet at heart awkward Southern French Troubadour Heiress or Lightbearer who collects funny hats and loves to dress up and draw attention, yet with a dark secret insecurity concerning her loneliness and previous guardians' (Moon Nazis'!) sinister schemes (Two-Leaf Clover on left forearm: the Shino character -- Douceline "Douce" Kaleido),
2. a Byronic high-ranking Staunen officer of the Centre for Circumferential Navigation (and member of the Nine Vertex Devils Club thanks to his pedal-propelled skychaser, which is just like Sportacus's sky chaser!), who happens to be her guardian, the leader of them all, and the team dad/oniisama, aside from a sarcastic lovable eccentric (like his own guardian, a retired French colonel of the same catalyst and foundation); later on, this young man is killed by the Nazis and resurrected/emasculated as an emotionless yet equally snarky Osirian of the Refinement of Cobalt (Six-Leaf Clover on corner of left eye: the Kenpachi character -- Étienne Kaleido [also known by various aliases such as Staffan Storm or Csele István])
3. a Lützen-based Scholastic Wesley --also a Staunen-- studying at Leipzig University, yet commuting home to Lützen, who prefers using his wits to fighting, endowed with an extraordinary skill of probability (One-Leaf Clover on left shoulder: the Shinobu character -- Clément "Clem" Kaleido)
4. a hot-blooded 80s-style rockstar, formerly the keytarist and leader of Prüssiän Blüe with a troubled past -involving massacre of the acting troupe to which Douce and Claudine were also born- and difficulties in relationships (and a keytar that is actually a guntar disguised with the Invoke Conclusion, with the inscription THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS left untouched) who happens to be a Tropicana Siren affiliated to the Current of Dark Passions, with an acquired poison immunity that will soon come in handy (Five-Leaf Clover on nape of neck: the Dousetsu character -- Laurent Pascal "Aliöth" Kaleido)
5. a badass, charming and dashing dark-skinned/freckled blond tennis-playing heiress/ojou who blossoms as a Champion of Swords, and gets involved in an Othello-esque intrigue with her Moon Nazi lieutenant coach/guardian Rainer due to a misplaced wrist sweatband found by Étienne (Three-Leaf Clover on brow: the Daikaku character -- Louise "Wiske"/"Rapière" Kaleido)
6. the scarred and one-eyed owner of a macaron foodtruck --Meowcarons-- that is actually bigger on the inside (mansion-sized, like a TARDIS), a realistic titian blond with a soft spot for stray cats and a friendly demeanour, aside from a missing right eye and a dark secret involving flashbacks about drunkenly falling from heights on shattered glasses, which makes him bleed all over, even from his missing eye --he's a stray Messenger Happenstance wraith or Slip-Up (in his life, he was the beholden, adoptive brother, and muggle best friend of the Navigator leader, and practically began a bromance with Étienne that has officially developed into love)--... (Eight-Leaf Clover on left gluteus; the Kobungo character -- André (mortal name)/Secretkeeper (temporary, former wraith name) Kaleido)
7. a reserved Gothenburg-Valencian amateur otokoyaku/bifauxnen thespian (plays Cassio, Mercutio, Laertes) and type 2 diabetic, with recurrent dreams of drowning in outer space, who appears to be the sole mortal in the group and who serves, along with the Wesley, as a Lemony narrator... (She later becomes a Vaporia Siren with various electric powers, able to fly and change gender at will, a dutyborn of the Current of Conflict -even though, with her condition, her powers are limited)... (Seven-Leaf Clover on right forearm: the Sósuke character -- Arya Aleksandra Kaleido)
8. ... and a graceful and stubborn, gorgeous cajón drummer/backup singer, vying with her partner for the role of lead singer, which she has wrested from him after their breakup, of Prüssiän Blüe and in a presently-broken relationship with said keytarist; an M2F trans person raised by an actor troupe, with a heart of gold but a split personality that will come in handy, who will find their way into their group as well; actually an Oceanid Lahmasu (half human, half Oceanid) in the School of Fog, a bastard rejected/persecuted by her paternal family and coldly, convolutedly seeking revenge on them, aside from on some particular members of the enemy NWoD factions featured in-universe (Four-Leaf Clover on left pectoral: the Keno character -- Claude/Claudine Kaleido)
9. ...as well as a ninth person, not surnamed Kaleido, but still connected to the clan and who has been following their steps all the time; are they good or evil? (the Daisuke character -- ???)

They fight Loyalist of Thule Nazis and Stormbringers, the Cheiron Group, Ahabs, Letheans, and Flensers; in a world where these young people, all of them left-handed orphans and half-siblings with a birthmark of a differently-leaf clover on different parts of their skin, all have to stick together, accept the surname Kaleido --their mother's (Lilia Kaleido --also known as Csele Liliom, Lilianne von Wieduwillst, etc.--, an eccentric heiress without any special powers, but with an affinity to attract and bed supernaturals of both sexes!) surname-- and confront those who would like to cut them up and especially those Stormites --their rightful legacy being wrested from them by a Princess of Storms now resurrected as a half-human Lieutenant leading a sinister group of well-intentioned extremists (may of which, like creepy Shining-esque twins Kanna and Kagura (Credence and Cadence in their past lives), Isuzu, Ayame, Fumi, Ritsu... not to mention the leaders themselves, Yayoi and Uzuki, have names taken from months in archaic Japanese) who do not care about any collateral damage if it means taking down the Darkness --worth citing that some of the Kaleido siblings, due to their circumstances, are considered creatures of the Darkness by the Stormbringers! 

In between Debut Queue, Putting the Band Back Together, Dwindling Party, heist sagas like the Ocean's trilogy, and a first arc finale with Étienne kidnapped by stunning Thulean Baroness Ilse, rescued at the cost of his own life --the puzzle he was made to solve had been made by Ilse as a catch 22 scenario that would bring the solver to die from a volley of laser shots as soon as the puzzle was cracked--, and subsequently resurrected as an Osirian (following the instructions written in his journal as "MANNER TO PROCEED IN CASE OF ÉTIENNE KALEIDO BEING CLINICALLY DEAD;" to announce his status to the CCN as missing in action and take his form to some demiurge acquaintances of his), which can be read as a retelling of The Snow Queen with the team leader in the role of Kai and a team of seven Gerdas (including a brutal subversion of the Women as Reward and Paid Harem tropes in which gay leader Étienne snarkily tells bisexual Vamp Baroness Isolde during their brief stroll through her Den of Iniquity: "I don't want women. Not as reward, not to make love with. I would rather gladly appreciate a brand new pair of ice-skates. Number 40, so they fit.")... with a new twist or left turn at every corner, this saga is sure exciting... and even more when what we took for granted is turned on its head, revealing this to be not a clear-cut conflict of good versus evil!

EXCERPT I:
Wiske reeled backwards as the spherical ray of firelight gradually left her personal space.
The fireball struck Rainer right in the heart, opening a tennis-ball-sized hole in the middle of his chest, then evaporating after it had severed spine, flesh, skin, shirt.
Once he had pinned her to the ground, flushed with brandy and trying to stab her, no matter how much she writhed, while torturing her about giving the wristband to that bloody Frog... and now he lay on his back, pale and cold as ice, with an empty hole where his heart should have been.
She stood back, entranced, looking at the racket in her left hand --now a sword with a racket-sized and racket-shaped blade. Wondering whatever had happened right then and right there.
And if he really deserved it. The one who as a stripling --no longer a boy, not yet a young man-- had fled the Thulean outpost where he was born and raised, weary of his parents' expectations, the terrible physical and emotional pain from his tutors, the lack of friends, and the fate of a lamb led to the slaughter... the fact that the other cadets in his batch of freshly-baked lieutenants, all of them more physically developed, had always called him a "ladybug" in that mocking tone... and his back and limbs were rife with scars from slights that other young officers had committed... It was no wonder that Rainer, after literally fleeing for his life, had clung so strongly to Wiske. Because she had felt sorry, because she had seen the tennis prodigy and the self-made socialite, as well as the runaway outsider, where others saw the Nazi lieutenant; because they were both lonely young people, friendless and surrounded by liars; a stripling and a little girl who might as well have been siblings.
And yet, should her guardian have seriously tortured her, trying to drown his sorrows in brandy, accepting a French liquor in spite of his self-proclaimed hatred for Frogs and Slaves... ironic given the fact that his own society had always rejected his imperfect personality, and even considered discarding him altogether for being faulty?
And now he lay there, shot through the heart.
By the same force that had transformed her.
Just because she had misplaced her wristband for about an hour and another man had found it.
She looked down towards her own chest and saw the breastplate. Her tennis shoes turned to black or dark chocolate-coloured Wellingtons, her ponytail lowered into an eighteenth-century queue... and her usually freckled arms, lilywhite unless the sun made them red as crawfish, having become completely golden-brown, the colour of a perfect latte. Surely her face had changed phototype as well... but that breastplate? That glittering, dazzling breastplate, with those golden and scarlet trimmings?
"This cannot be true, Louise. You look just like your dream self."
Her dream of that battlefield, of looking like that warrior in her dream, the breastplated maiden that shot a Schutzstaffel-uniformed Rainer through the heart with a gun she usually carried flung across her back. She'd had dreams of storming fortresses and defending them from besiegers, of victory revels, and even of being left for dead upon the battlefield at a twilight clouded by carrion crows, or of limbs being severed and eyes gouged out; either at the surgeon's or on the war front.
She swallowed her welling tears, whispering to herself not to cry over and over again.
"Try drying up your tears," Étienne said, reaching out her wristband, his smile sincere and warm, now seeming far closer to her. "It wasn't the Thulean lieutenant, at the end of the day; she was the one..." he then muttered to himself.
Wiske took up the band at first hesitantly. The fireball then suddenly returned and lodged on her third eye, right between her eyebrows. A light shining brightly; she did not feel it sear her skin but rather as a kiss and a caress. The wristband, back where it should be on her right wrist, was now a compact-shaped silvery shield with a golden outline. Yet she took up her racket-sword to see her face reflected on the blade, and was surprised not to behold her transformed self's latte skin, but at the sign between her eyes: a floral pattern with three leaves or petals, instead of the six forming an ice crystal on the corner of Étienne's left eye.
"The three-leaf clover..." said both Étienne and Wiske at unison.

SPOILER ALERT: Rainer, after being laid in state, is also resurrected --endowed with a waterproof clockwork heart-- and returns to life as a supernal Siren Promethean with the Humour of Relationships!

The original Satomi Hakkenden, the Chronicles of the Eight Warriors of House Satomi/the Satomi Clan, an 106-volume epic and its days' counterpart of A Song of Ice and Fire when it comes to length and complexity, begins with the Warring-States-era story of Tamazusa Anzai --the rightful lady of the shire (or is she?)-- and Satomi Fusehime, Lady Fusé Satomi --the usurper's only daughter (or is she?)--. A curse (to only mother bastards) placed by the former on the latter's household after the coup causes Fusehime to take a bullet to the heart from her spurned suitor/intended fiancé Daisuke Kanamari, leading a detachment of her clan's own men; her heroic sacrifice and the purification rituals she had undergone before to free herself from the curse cause eight beads of her rosary to scatter and become eight children, each of them associated with a different virtue of confucianism and with a peony birthmark on a different body part. The bulk of the epic centers on the Debut Queue of these diverse characters meeting one another and learning about their shared destiny, and their subsequent struggle against a resurrected Tamazusa, who has wrested their rightful place --or is it?-- from the Satomis in a bloody counter-coup, since Kanamari abdicated as penance for accidentally shooting his bride down... and the climax is the confrontation of the leading ensemble against the villainess in the fortress tower that is the epicentre of all this legendary Anzai-Satomi war...

The original Hakkenden is a novel expansion of a motif which appears to have developed in parallel in the East and West. While Takizawa's main influence was the Chinese Suikoden, or Outlaws of the Marsh... Occidental versions exist as well, such as Mme. d'Aulnoy's Belle-Belle and the Baron von Münchhausen's adventures (the Baron has a super-strong servant who can uproot and shoulder pines as if they were carrots, a super-fast one who has to wear weights on his ankles to walk, a sniper who never misses the mark, a sharp-eared one who can hear the grass grow, and one with gale-force lungs; Belle-Belle has servants with the same powers, plus an omnivore who requires a cartload of bread washed down with a whole lake... just for breakfast). In the present day, classic heist series like the A-Team and the Ocean's Trilogy, to which this AU is partly a tribute, have drunk at the same source.