Scarlett Gale is the author of His Secret Illuminations. Long ago, under another name, she was the co-author of Needles and Artifice (Cooperative Press; 2012), featuring a rollicking romantic steampunk adventure novella and associated knitting patterns, of which she also designed several. She writes and produces fringe theatre plays based on B-movies, such as Bodacious Barbarian Babes vs. The Indigo Empress, and Showgirls of Beast Island. She is a co-producer of the Alison-Bechdel-approved Bechdel Test Burlesque, which in 2017 was included in the Women and Gender Studies curriculum at the University of Oregon. She lives in Seattle with her wife, where she gardens, knits, reads, and drinks warm beverages. Unsurprisingly, she also has cats.
Link: Archive of Our Own | Twitter
Story Title: Unusual Blends
tags: bipoc character, getting together, the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one, meet cute, mildly dubious consent, witches, witches have familiars, wlw
Teaser:
“Don’t look at me like that, Vivi!” she says, laughing at Vivian’s stern glare. “They’re not bad. They’re mostly pranks, with the odd self-defense jinx thrown in when someone needs it.”
“Pranks,” Vivian says, voice flat. She doesn’t look up from the scale where she’s measuring out burdock root.
“Pranks,” Gwendolyn confirms. “And good ones! The kind where everyone laughs. Making someone’s slippers run away from them is pretty freaking funny, and it only lasts thirty seconds.” She pokes Vivian in the shoulder, chin propped on her other hand, elbow on the counter. “C’mon.” She tugs at Vivian’s sleeve. “Admit it, Vivi, that’s funny.”
Vivian moves her arm out of Gwendolyn’s grip and pours the burdock into her mortar. She doesn’t respond. She can’t. Words always tangle up on her tongue, and it’s worse around Gwendolyn than anyone else, because Gwendolyn doesn’t stick to a script. She flutters around unpredictably, like a butterfly on the breeze, beautiful, glimmering… but absolutely, positively infuriating.
“You’ll see,” Gwendolyn says, unconcerned by Vivian’s silence. “One of these days, I’ll prank you and you’ll laugh and admit I was right and I’ll brag about it forever.”
Will the grumpy one actually be soft for the sunshine one? How will they work this out? You’ll have to read the story to see. Back the Kickstarter for Add Magic to Taste and found out!