I think those were the two I was considering mashing together, too! Though I went about it from a different angle... messing with genders a bit, and making it so that it's a prince who's away and unavailable for the "counterfeit" scenario, forcing someone else (maybe a dear friend of the prince's?) to take his place for the promised princess. Then the prince returns from his time away like in the "courtesan" scenario and falls for someone - actually the princess he was supposed to marry - based on her incredible skill... except she's now genuinely involved with his best friend that he's also got a thing for. That's ALSO real messy, lol, and would require a pretty high wordcount to make work, I think, because it's still basically two stories that just lead into each other.
But I LOVE the idea of the courtesan to spymaster arc, damn. And the idea of the courtesan and captain working together to prevent a bad marriage for their prince... That plot bunny is going to be tumbling around in my brain for a bit, haha!
I think I'm going with the first summary, with a few modifications - fake dating and mutual threeway pining. Hopefully it won't be *too* hard for me to get outlined and started so that I can post it for the challenge.
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Though I went about it from a different angle... messing with genders a bit, and making it so that it's a prince who's away and unavailable for the "counterfeit" scenario, forcing someone else (maybe a dear friend of the prince's?) to take his place for the promised princess. Then the prince returns from his time away like in the "courtesan" scenario and falls for someone - actually the princess he was supposed to marry - based on her incredible skill... except she's now genuinely involved with his best friend that he's also got a thing for.
That's ALSO real messy, lol, and would require a pretty high wordcount to make work, I think, because it's still basically two stories that just lead into each other.
But I LOVE the idea of the courtesan to spymaster arc, damn. And the idea of the courtesan and captain working together to prevent a bad marriage for their prince... That plot bunny is going to be tumbling around in my brain for a bit, haha!
I think I'm going with the first summary, with a few modifications - fake dating and mutual threeway pining. Hopefully it won't be *too* hard for me to get outlined and started so that I can post it for the challenge.