#also her eyes are actually opal now

[dollfat]

ofc i only get this insight after romancing him twice. guess i shouldn't be surprised

my logic is that opal knows she's not attractive to most men and is more suspicious of flattery. tiv and selphira were pretty elves with high charisma

#i fighting with myself to make her lips more pink and kissable #she doesn't like gale yet he's too.... indoor type #also her eyes are actually opal now #no clue why i was so hesitant to see all eye/skin colors #dove plays bg3

[sunny-arts-blog]

my mc for our life now and forever! he's nonbinary and goes by he/they

#our life #our life: now & forever #gb patch #our life mc #our life oc #the name may be subject to change though #also they're a transmasc :3 #ol:nf #our life now and forever #more info: I imagine opal being half chinese and so sun is too! #they have the same eye colour as their mom as well even though their hair makes them look like a magical girl LMAO #they also definitely have a loner/popular kid vibe with qiu and was actually miffed with him at first #they love tamarack though and find her vibe so sweet!! They're best friends #my art #my oc

[runningfrom2am]

in this life or the next

summary: It's the seventy-fifth annual Hunger Games, and you were just unlucky enough to get picked; but lucky enough for this Quarter Quell to feature pre-selected teams. You get paired up with District One's pride and joy, the one and only Rafe Cameron.

pairing: rafe x fem!reader

wc: 15k (oh my LORD)

tags/warnings: its the hunger games so like... yeah... violence and gore and stuff. definitely swearing, spoilers for the og Hunger Games movie I guess (but also not bc i changed it up a bit- you'll see), reader has a special talent that i won't spoil here, Rafe is lowkey a dick at the beginning, Ward being a shitty dad (what's new). also this isn't thoroughly edited bc.. its 15k words and i'm lazy.

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a/n: hello lovelies!! oh my gosh i have been slowly chipping away at this for actual literal months, and i am so proud of how it turned out!! i’m really glad i could finally post it by my birthday!! (i’m 23 wtf??)

thank you so much if you're going to put in the time to read this, but it honestly means a lot to me that you've made it this far. reblogs and likes would be so appreciated and let me know your thoughts in the replies! i really, really hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. let me know if you want a part two of what happens post games, bc i think i left it at a minor baby sized cliffhanger. anyway, i’m off to eat cake now! enjoy!

Staring blankly out at the crowd in front of you, you attempt to process the echoing of your heartbeat in your ears.

"I'd like us to give a round of applause for our brave, brave tributes this year, and wish them the best of luck in this year's quarter quell!" Your attention is drawn to the woman next to you, the District Five escort, Opal, dressed head to toe in bright yellow. A universally happy color- what a joke.

The crowd is mostly silent and you can't bear the thought of even glancing in the direction of your parents. You turn silently as you're ushered back into the building from the stage, tripping slightly over your feet as the shock sets in. People are talking, possibly to you, but you can hardly hear a thing. You almost made it. You were almost eighteen- one more year and you would have been free.

You were granted the briefest of goodbyes to your family, but you were tempted to even turn that down. An action you regret not taking as your parents walk into the room, your mother with tears already coating her cheeks and your father trying to keep a strong resolve for you and your siblings.

"We'll see you soon, Bug. Remember we love you," He whispers into your hair as you sob into his shoulder. You know he doesn't necessarily mean in this lifetime.

Your tunnel vision settles back in as you're walked out of the room, glancing one last time over your shoulder only to see your dad's shoulders shaking from his silent cries as he turns his back to you.

You are quickly pushed onto the train taking you out of District Five, ignoring the other three tributes and your mentors as they talk. You just stare out the window with tired, red eyes and say a silent goodbye to the home you're already sure you'll never see again.

"Y/N..?" The girl next to you says, tapping you on the shoulder and making you jump.

"Hm?" You hum your acknowledgment, looking at the girl beside you. She's only a year older than you, and you went to school together for years; Maisie, you remember.

"I just wanted to make sure you hear them," Maisie whispers, gesturing to Opal as she starts to explain what the premise of the games is this year.

"So," she claps her hands together, clad in tacky yellow gloves. "I'm sure you have noticed that this year there are four of you, and you'll each be paired up with another tribute to compete. Not necessarily from your own District, but, anything is possible, I suppose. The exciting news is that there's a possibility for two winners this year! You and your teammate will be given a score throughout the games, and if your score as the final two is above ten, you will both be crowned victors!" The woman says excitedly- like it's a good thing.

"And if we don't have over ten?" The boy sitting across from you asks flatly.

"Well... the games shall continue," Opal explains vaguely, but you know what that means. You've seen it before.

"Okay, well, how do we get a good score?" The boy asks.

"I-" The escort starts, hesitance clear in her tone as she's quickly interrupted.

"You kill people," Your female mentor answers. She's leaning her elbows on the end of the table, standing with a knife in her hand, spinning it around like it's some kind of toy.

Your eyes drop from her form, staring down at the table in front of you, suddenly remembering your glass of water and quickly grabbing it when you realize your mouth has gone completely dry just from the idea of what's to come.

You arrive at the Capitol in the middle of the night and despite this fact, the crowds are still there. You didn't expect this, even though you've seen it on the beat-up television in your living room every year. It feels less real, somehow, when you're the one getting pushed through the crowd, not knowing what to do besides give awkward smiles to people yelling your name.

Your room is beautiful. You've never seen anything like this, but you can fully customize it at will with a remote, and this level of technology fascinates you. You spend hours flicking through different images that can appear on the walls, surrounding you in another world. Exhaustion and the sound of an artificial thunderstorm put you to sleep with the remote still resting in your palm.

"Up, up, up, my dear! We've got a big day ahead!" Opal's cheery voice startles you awake from your less-than-cozy spot on the floor. "There's breakfast on the table then we've got to get you down to prep, so hurry up, please." She says, and just like that she's gone, no doubt off to wake the other District Five tributes in a similar fashion.

"You're going to be meeting your teammates for the first time today so you can train together- gosh isn't that just so exciting!" Opal claps as you all stand in the elevator. There's a silence that follows as you and Maisie just nod, not excited about the whole idea. You're about to meet someone who will either be spending the last days of your life with you, or be killing you themselves, and you're not fond of either.

"This way you'll get to train together first, which I do believe to be a very generous act on behalf of the game makers." She adds, making you roll your eyes. How considerate. The most you can hope for is someone who is capable, and preferably someone who isn't in the twelve to fifteen age range, having seen that there were several drawn from different districts.

You shift on your feet as you try to adjust to the uncomfortably tight catsuit they squeezed you into, covered in what must be sapphire and diamond rhinestones, pinching your skin with every slight movement. Gold accents line the seams of the suit, extending out into something that resembles wings and lightning bolts protruding from your back. District Five; power. You get it, but we're the diamonds necessary? You hardly take note of the varying outfits you're surrounded with from the other kids in your district, before Opal is guiding the four of you up the line of extravagant carriages you're meant to parade out on for the people of the Capitol to fawn over.

You take note of where all of the other tributes from Five are lead, guessing based on the order of carriages that Maisie got paired up with another girl from Eleven, and the boys somehow ended up paired together. There must be some sort of personal aspect to this decision, considering you have watched those two boys fight back home. You're last, and Opal looks at you excitedly as you follow her up, and up, and up- to the very front of the line.

"Surprise!" She grins, clapping excitedly as you approach the very first carriage. "Y/N, getting paired with a career is huge. Your odds are good already, your partner has trained his whole life- he even volunteered."

"Sucks for him." You mutter under your breath as you get closer, eyeing up the boy in front of you, wearing an almost matching outfit. All the rhinestones make sense now, blending power with luxury could only mean as much.

"Y/N Y/L/N, meet Rafe Cameron. He'll be your teammate in the games." She smiles as she introduces you.

"Hi." You say quietly, taking his hand as he holds it out to you to help you up onto the carriage.

"Hey." He mutters, avoiding your gaze. It's off to a rough start for him for sure, seeing he's being paired up with someone from an outlying district must be daunting, when for you it should be exciting. Rafe did volunteer, yes, but he doesn't want to risk any kind of attachment- despite what the people of the Capitol want for their entertainment. He wants to come out alive, he doesn't care so much about who he's with.

"Okay, Y/N, remember to smile, please." Opal reminds you and you nod, looking down at her as you hold onto the handle in front of you.

You promise her with a nod, willing to do almost anything at this point to win the favour of possible sponsors. Again, your odds look better next to a career on that front, as well.

Quickly everyone is cleared away from the horses and the carriages and you start moving, catching you off guard and you stumble a little, readjusting your grip on the railing. "Careful." Rafe says beside you, quick to reach out to steady you if you needed it. You think you see the smallest of smiles on his face, but that must have just been your own mind trying to find comfort in anything around you.

"I got it." You whisper, blushing slightly. You've been with your teammate for all of a minute, and you're already proving yourself to be clumsy.

The lights hit your eyes the same time all the cheering does, being the first carriage, it's already so loud you can hardly hear yourself think. You snap out of it quickly, plastering on a smile once you see your own face on a giant screen ahead of you, you don't even look like yourself anymore. Your eyes land on the screen adjacent to the one showing you, seeing Rafe as well. He's smiling too, clearly having headed Opal's advice, or his many years of training is getting to him and he's excited. You really don't know. Then his head turns, and you turn your head as well, making dead eye contact with him for only a moment before he's looking past you into the crowds, taking in the moment.

When you finally get out of the extremely public eye and back into the building you exited from, you feel like you can finally breathe again. Not fully, in the tight, rigid suit they had you dressed up in, but more than you realized you were with all that yelling in your ears and lights in your face.

"District Five, right?" Rafe asks you as you're both stepping down and you nod. "Jeez, you don't talk much, do you?" He follows up with, taking a water bottle from someone who's walking by with them.

"I talk." You reply quietly. "Just... not much to talk about at the moment."

"The shock? Yeah, that'll do it." He nods, taking a sip from the water bottle and holding it out to you. You shake your head and push it away, making him shrug. "Shitty bust when you're not a volunteer."

You just stare at him, taken off guard by the comment. "That being said..." He leans in closer to make sure no one else hears. "I've been waiting my whole life for this, so don't ruin it for me, yeah?"

You pull back away from him and just nod again, not wanting to get on his bad side already. He won't be the one to kill you, probably, but it would still be nice if you spent your final days without your teammate hating your guts. "Thanks, darling." He smirks, patting your shoulder and brushing past you to go to the elevators.

The next day, bright and early yet again, you have your first day of training. You're sure Rafe won't even need it, but you certainly will. Your mentor told you he will likely be using it to size up the other tributes, especially considering there is a staggering amount of them this year, and you will need to focus on survival skills. Only survival skills, if you had to pick one thing- and your mentor drove that into your head until it was all that was echoing in your mind when you entered the training center.

After the trainers speech which ironically tried to do the same thing, you beeline straight for the fire making station. You're shocked to see almost no one else listened, definitely none of the boys, mostly lining up to show off their physical strengths, likely to try and intimidate each other. You'd be lying if you said it wasn't working.

You look up as you hear echoing laughter coming from the other side of the room, eyes scanning over the wall lined with silhouette targets, and racks with an array of weapons before landing on your teammate, laughing away with the other career tributes over a joke you didn't hear. He's got a spear in one hand, leaning his weight on it as his head drops back with laughter. You shake your head to get back on task, rolling the rough wood in your palms in hopes of making a spark. Good to see at least one of you is having fun, especially in your final days.

After a few minutes you get it, sitting back into your calves where you were kneeling on the ground, taking a breath of relief as you're satisfied with your success. You glance around to see how others are doing, giving a small smile and wave to Maisie when you see her, reading a book about different edible plants and trying desperately to memorize every image. You watch as Rafe takes the same spear he was leaning on before, hurling towards one of the targets. A direct hit, right in the chest, slightly right of the centre. You jump a little at the sound it makes on impact, looking finally at the boy who threw it.

He's pacing, huffing and looking a little frustrated with himself. A little to the left would have been perfect, but it was a kill shot nonetheless. There would be no coming back from that, and you count yourself lucky that it likely won't be you in place of the target in the games.

You quickly put out your fire and try again, making sure you've got the hang of it. You'll sit here all day if you must. After three more successful attempts, you're satisfied for the day, deciding you'll return to that station tomorrow and try again. You get up and brush the dirt off your knees, trekking over to where they have supplies to make game traps. You've never done this before, but there's no better time to learn, especially since your teammate has shown no interest in survival skills so far today.

"What are you doing?" Suddenly Rafe is standing behind you, as you're once again kneeling on the ground attempting to get the trigger on your bladeless trap to work.

You jump a little, startled by someone talking to you. "Uh, trying to make a snare, I think." You answer, turning to look up at him.

"Looks good." He nods, crouching down next to you. "Uh, isn't there supposed to be a blade or a spearhead or something on that piece?" He says, pointing to it.

"Well, yeah, I just didn't want to stab myself by accident." You laugh slightly, trying the trigger again- and this time it works, snapping forward into his arm.

"Ouch, yeah, fair enough." Rafe chuckles, rubbing the spot on his arm where the wood made contact.

You just nod and begin to reset it to test it again. "What if you can't get any of this shit in the arena?" He asks.

"What, a stick?" You ask, hitting the trigger one more time, sending the stick into his arm again, which he had decided not to move.

"Ow! Yes, a stick. We don't know what it will look like." He rubs his arm, examining the trap you built closer now.

"Then we're screwed I guess." You joke, leaning back on your calves again, watching him dissect it piece by piece to figure out how it works.

"So, is this like, your thing?" Rafe asks, and you tilt your head at him as you think it over.

"My thing?" You ask, unsure entirely what he meant. "I've never made one before, if that's what you're asking."

"Really?" He seems shocked by this.

"Uh, yeah, really. Unfortunately for you, you got paired up with someone who has zero survival or combat skills."

Rafe looks at you, a smug grin crossing his features. "Ha ha, very funny." He clearly thinks you're joking, but you're definitely not.

"I'm serious." You say, confused as to why he doesn't believe you.

His smile falters, replaced with wrinkles of confusion on his forehead. "But- I just watched you look at the instruction book for no more than like, three seconds before sitting down to make this."

"And..?"

"If you've never done it before it's supposed to be harder than that."

"Well, I've seen other people do it on TV and stuff every year for like, ever." You shrug. "I've just got a good memory, I guess."

Rafe nods, looking at the deconstructed trap in front of him for a moment, thinking about the implications of this. How far does this go? Could he use it? He'd never dreamt of having to work in a team in his games, but maybe it would benefit him after all. "Come with me." He stands up, and you follow as he paces over to two big screens, covered with a large array of different symbols.

"Try this, I just want to see something." Rafe says, standing next to you with his arms crossed as you quickly look over the screen, reaching down toward the one in front of you. You notice quickly that the screens mirror each other, all the images placed in the same spots as they are above. You look up at your teammate briefly who nods at you and then you tap one, watching it disappear from both screens before you tap the matching symbol. It's a matching game.

Your eyes are locked on the top screen as you tap away at the bottom one, quickly making all the images disappear one by one. It takes you no more than a minute to get rid of them all, and then a timer appears on the screen replaying your every move in real-time. Forty-two seconds. Were you really going that fast?

"Neat." Rafe says to himself, nodding as he watches it replay on the screen. That was impressive, sure, but his mind is straining to find a practical implication for this in the arena. "Go back to survival stuff. Learn as much as you can." He settles on, turning and walking off back to where he was before, returning to combat training.

The four days of training fly by insanely fast, and that's likely due to your dread of what's to come. you've got through everything in survival no less than three times, and you're pretty sure last night you dreamt of plants and making a fire. Not surprisingly, Rafe has left you pretty much alone the whole time, but you did watch from a distance as he cycled through every weapon the training center had to offer, proving he's almost mastered every last one. Of course, with over ten years of training, anything less wouldn't make sense. What scares you is the other careers showing a similar skill level to that of your teammate, but he seems to be on good terms with them. Again, maybe this would be a good thing in the beginning of the games.

You sit down for your last day of making fires and fishing hooks, working solely on memory since day one, you're feeling pretty confident that the elements or exposure won't be what takes you out- but you don't know if that's a good thing or not. You just hope your death will be quick.

"Y/N, c'mere." Rafe is suddenly calling to you, motioning for you to join him in the combat area. Not seeing much of a choice, and not looking forward to another day of doing the same thing over and over, you listen.

You make your way over, avoiding the gaze of other tributes who are looking at you like you're about to make a fool of yourself. It's possible you are. "I want you to learn how to use this." He says as you walk up, holding out the handle of a knife to you.

You take it, turning the sharp blade over in your hand. "I thought you were the weapons master." You joke, looking up at him briefly.

"Well, I need you to make fires and shit so you have to stay alive somehow, and if we get separated or something I need to know you can at least defend yourself. These are good from a distance and up close, but remember that any weapon you have they can take and use against you. So keep distance whenever you can." He answers, pointing over to the target about fifteen feet away. "So, throw it."

You look over to where he was pointing, adjusting your grip on the handle as you nod, taking in the information he's dumping on you. He is probably right, especially since you don't think he plans on protecting you himself. Why would he? If you die, he can still win without you.

You lift your arm over your shoulder, closing one eye to narrow down your aim before throwing it hard towards the target, which the knife bounces off of and clatters to the ground. You and Rafe both turn at the same time to look at the group that's laughing at you, the clang of the metal on the cement echoing loudly in the vast space.

"Don't worry about them. They're not there." Rafe is quick to grab another one, handing it to you the same way. "Try again, this time, hold it like this..." He says, grabbing your hand and placing your fingers in the correct spots on the handle. "Keep your wrist tense and straight, don't flick it or anything. Yeah, like that." He nods, taking a step back.

You look over how you're holding it, committing the feeling and finger placement to memory before raising your arm again. You throw it again, and this time it sticks, but your aim is off and it ends up in the target's leg. You look over at Rafe, unsure if you're hoping for approval or just satisfaction. "That's perfect." He nods. "Not a death blow, but that'll buy you time to get away. which is all you need."

"Okay." You agree quietly.

"Would it help if you watched me?" He offered, already grabbing a new knife while you nod. "So, you want to follow through with the throw, your shoulders should end about here if you're doing it right. You get more power that way, and better aim." He explains, standing with one foot forward, parallel to the target.

You step back to watch his strategy, noting the way he held the blade and his form when he aimed to throw it. He lets it fly from his fingers as his shoulders fall forward, smirking to himself as it hits the bullseye circle, right in the chest.

"You got it?" He asks, standing up straight again. You nod in response and he's handing you yet another knife to try again.

You go back and forth for hours, not caring that you're keeping anyone else from practicing. You're not the best at it, but it's become muscle memory now, and every time it sticks, most of the time hitting the silhouette somewhere. You tried the moving targets briefly, the gold, pixelated figures running at you quickly. You were immediately overwhelmed, and Rafe ended up having to step in to help. He said after that the minimal skill you had would be good enough to get away, and that is all you would need. You just have to focus on that.

You didn't talk a lot, besides taking a few short breaks to gather the knives and his arrows as Rafe explained the pros and cons of every weapon they had present, showing you briefly how to use some of them. Mostly how to defend yourself against them. It's hard for him to sum up years of training in one day, but he's dead set on the idea that you won't need most of it- just having to focus on keeping the two of you sheltered and fed, he can handle the rest; hopefully.

You sit outside the training center next to Rafe, waiting for your name to be called. It was the youngest female tribute from his district first, so if you had to guess, you would be third and fourth to go, which doesn't buy you a lot of time to decide what to do to best show your skills.

"What are you gonna do?" You ask, whispering in the deathly quiet room.

"Huh?" Rafe hums, leaning closer to hear you better.

You clear your throat, before speaking this time, unsure if you were clear enough. "What are you gonna do? Like which skill?" You clarify.

"Oh, uh..." He mutters, adjusting how he's sitting as he thinks about what to say. "I'm just going to cycle through some different weapons, different distance targets, I think. My mentors want me to show like, a variety of what I can do."

You nod at this, making a mental note of that. Maybe you should do the matching game and then try the knives. Opal told you that you would be scored both individually, and as a team. You hope you won't bring down his score too much, since you know he's aiming high. You planned on going for a mid-level score, not to be seen as a threat but also not as an easy kill. A perfect six would be your ideal score. "What about you?" Rafe interrupts your thought process.

"I'm not sure." You answer honestly.

"You should do your survival stuff. That will improve our team score, if we show them we have strengths at both." Rafe suggests. That's not actually a bad idea. Your individual score will likely be lower, but that's a risk you're willing to take.

"Yeah, I'll do that."

You ended up scoring a six, the judges obviously not seeing you as any kind of threat. This is what you expected, though, and you were correct about your group score as well. Rafe and you together scored a ten. On his own, he scored a ten, so you hadn't affected it in the way you feared. This left you reeling over the idea of other tributes seeing you both as a threat as you stand in yet another extravagant dress, waiting in line to be called out for your interview. The games were tomorrow, and the last thing you wanted was to get in front of a crowd and subtly plead with them to let you live, to send you gifts, and to give you their sympathy.

So far it's been in the same order they called everyone for assessments yesterday, which means you would be next. Rafe stands behind you, arms crossed in a suit that looks more expensive than any you've seen back home in all of your life, but he looks comfortable in it. Your dress is once again covered in rhinestones, and your waist is cinched in so tight you can hardly breathe as it is, so you're not looking forward to going on stage.

"Our next tribute, welcome to the stage from District Five, Miss Y/N Y/L/N!" You hear the familiar voice of Caesar Flickerman calling you out and some guards usher you forward onto the stage, very briefly glancing over your shoulder at Rafe.

You're quick to smile as you turn back around, giving a small wave to the host and then out to the audience as they cheer for you. For a brief moment, you feel as if they don't plan on watching you die as early as tomorrow, you feel as if they're rooting for you. "Hi!" You say as you get closer and Caesar stands up to greet you, shaking your hand and giving you a quick hug before gesturing for you to sit down across from him.

You look around the large theatre, spotting every camera you can. Your family is out there watching, somewhere, and you know they'll see right through this show you have to put on. You wish they wouldn't. You can picture so vividly your living room back home, with your parents and siblings scattered across the couch and the floor watching you with bated breath, they can see you- and on some level, you can see them too.

"Miss Y/L/N. Thank you for being here." Caesar sighs, reaching out and patting your hand where it sits on the armrest next to you.

"Well, I didn't have any other plans for the night, so..." You shrug, making him laugh. Laughter echoes from the audience and you smile, hoping that your plan to win people over is working.

"What? A beautiful girl like you?" He asks after he's done laughing. "You weren't planning on spending some of your free time with your teammate?" As if you got even a minute of free time since you've been here.

"Well, I guess we'll never know." You chuckle, looking back at the boy where he stands in the wing, giving you a small smile.

"Now listen, Y/N, Rafe is..." He has to stop after mentioning his name as cheers erupt again, laughing as he waits for the audience to quiet down. "Your teammate is, as you may have guessed, a popular face in the Capitol right now. Are you feeling lucky about your pairing?"

Rafe crossed his arms as he watches intently, feeling smug about his odds, especially now knowing the Capitol's opinion of him. He knows his dad is back home watching, full of pride that his son has become a fan favourite.

"I am." You answer honestly. "He's very talented."

"And handsome, don't you think?"

"I mean, who am I to argue with the people?" You joke, waving your hand dismissively as you hear the cheers pick up again. "Besides, his looks won't save us. We will save ourselves." You add seriously.

Caesar nods in acknowledgment, showing that to an extent, he agrees with you. "Well, I hope that you are right, dear." He smiles, getting up to signal you've run out of time. You stand as well, taking his hand as he holds it up above your heads. "It was so lovely to meet you, and may the odds stay ever in your favor. Y/N Y/L/N, everyone!"

You smile and thank him quietly, waving to everyone with both hands as you walk across the stage to exit on the other side. You take a few deep breaths as you step into yet another waiting room, watching the screen as Rafe is called out right behind you.

Rafe sits down on the chair across from Caesar after his introduction, which allows a few moments for the audience to quiet down. He smiles proudly as he rests one of his feet on his other knee, bouncing his leg with anxiety. He hopes it's interpreted as excitement. "Rafe." Caesar smiles at him, sitting back down as well. "I'll be honest, I have been so excited to finally meet you."

"It's good to meet you too." Rafe grins, chuckling slightly at the few whistles he gets scattered from the crowd.

"You got a fabulous score, how are you feeling about that?"

"Really good, yeah. Obviously I've been waiting my whole life for this opportunity, so it feels amazing to see it all paying off." Rafe answers, focussing on keeping the confidence in his tone.

"We can tell, can't we?" Caesar laughs, riling up the audience again, making Rafe laugh to himself as he softly shakes his head. "Yeah, yeah. So, with all this planning you've been doing, how do you feel about getting paired up? You probably expected to be going in solo."

"I did, for sure, but I don't think this is a bad thing." Rafe admits.

"Oh, getting along well with your teammate?" Caesar asks, a hint of suggestion in his tone.

"Yeah, we get on really well." Rafe exaggerates your relationship a bit, knowing it will earn you more sponsors, and maybe keep other tributes away from you in the games. "At least I think we do, I'm not fully sure about her thoughts on me, though."

"You scored incredibly well together, despite Y/N having a fairly average score on her own. What are your thoughts and feelings on that?"

Rafe chuckles as he leans forward a bit, pointing out to the audience as he speaks. "Don't underestimate her based on the score. I won't give you any spoilers, but trust me, don't overlook her. She's got as good a shot as any of us. Maybe better."

Caesar makes a surprised expression as he nods. "Well okay! Does she have some sort of secret weapon we should be worried about?" He chuckles, gripping the armrests and looking around as the audience laughs.

Rafe just shrugs in response, smirking slightly, which you can tell the audience just eats up. You're trying to decide if this is good or bad for you, though, as you watch, gnawing at your nails in anticipation as you stare at the screen.

"Okay, alright, don't spoil anything then." Caesar laughs. "It'll make for a better show, and I can get behind that."

After a moment of waiting for the cheers to die down, Caesar speaks up again. "Rafe, if I can ask, I know your father has a lot of influence in your district- how is he feeling about your selection for the games?"

You furrow your brow a little bit as you look at the screen, finally learning something interesting about your teammate. If he's from a prominent family in District One of all places, that would certainly explain his attitude. Rafe, on the other hand, doesn't want to talk about his father at all- but of course they would bring him up.

"Yeah, of course." Rafe replies, shifting in his seat. "He's thrilled, it's a huge honour to be here, and to be the first out of his children to be chosen is really special to me. I just hope I can make him and my sisters proud, he's always encouraged us to volunteer."

"I'm sure that you will." Caesar smiles at him. "I hope I will have the honour of hosting one of your sisters on this stage one day, as well."

Your stomach churns just watching this. How can any father who loves his children want this fate for them? This was your father's worst nightmare. You watch as Rafe nods with a smile, and you can see behind his eyes that he doesn't want that, not at all.

The audience cheers as they both stand up, shaking hands before Rafe leaves the stage, a cocky smirk on his face as he waves and winks at the audience. Before Rafe makes it down to the waiting room, you're grabbed an escorted out, heading for the elevator back to your room.

You can't eat, but you know you should. This will likely be your last meal for a while. You decide on just taking a large bowl of fruit and toast to your room, trying to get it down slowly with all the nerves, while you have a bath. Your parents never let you eat in the bath. It's hard to get out knowing this is likely the last bath you'll ever have.

The morning goes by in a blur, you feel Opal's arms around you as she hugs you goodbye and wishes you luck. You know you'll need all of it. You stare down at the ground in front of you as you're pushed onto a plane, of sorts, along with all the other tributes. Once you're sat down, you look around at everyone else. You remember all of their names as you scan over their faces, but you wish you didn't. You get stuck on one of the girls from District Eleven, Hope, who was only thirteen.

She's shaking, and you can see that from where you're sat down the row from her. She reminds you of Rue, the tribute from last year. Her death was a tragedy, it broke the hearts of everyone outside of the Capitol and the career districts. Hope's curly hair sat in a bun on top of her head, and tears fell down her cheeks as she sniffled. She got paired up with a girl from Twelve- the lengths the Capitol will go to to make a mockery of last years games will never cease to amaze you.

"Hey, you look a little pale." Rafe whispers, leaning close to you. You didn't even notice him sit down on the other side of you.

You shake your head slightly, looking down at your knees. "I'm fine."

"Don't think about it." Rafe instructs you, holding his arm out for the tracker to be injected as a guard approaches with the device.

You wince as you hear it get shot into his arm and he chuckles, shaking his arm off to ease the sting. You raise your shaking arm as they hold their hand out expectantly to you. You don't know what it is they're putting in you, but you've never been fond of needles. This is a million times worse. "It's not that bad," Rafe tells you, and you squeeze your eyes shut as you feel pressure on your forearm, followed by a sharp, stabbing pain. You bite your tongue to keep from making a sound, dropping your arm onto your lap as they quickly walk away.

"What did they do?" You ask him, trying to keep a steady tone.

"It's a tracker, so they know where we are in the arena." He explains quietly. You were the only two talking, and you notice it's earning you glares from several other tributes. Rafe notices this as well, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms, taking this time to size everyone up.

The plane takes off, and before you know it, you're landing at the arena on the outskirts of Capitol property. You wonder if you're close to the ocean, not that you'll get to see it anyways.

You're paraded off of the plane, still trying not to let it show how afraid you are of what's to come. You make the briefest of eye contact with Maisie as she's pulled towards a different hallway, and neither of you have it in you to smile anymore.

"We've gotta get supplies, that's our first move." Rafe says to you as you're led out of earshot of other tributes, into your own hall.

"My mentor said to run." You reply quietly.

Rafe scoffs, shaking his head. "Your what, one mentor said that? Cool. I have fifteen that are still alive and well enough to show up every year. I think we should get supplies." He tells you firmly, but you know that will get you instantly killed, maybe not him, but you stand no shot. "Just stick with me if you want to live."

You just nod a little bit, glancing at him again briefly before you're directed into a separate room across the hall from him. His pedestal will be next to yours, which is a bit of a relief. Your stylist quickly instructs you to strip, and then she helps you into the uniform you assume you'll all be wearing. It's exactly the same as last year, you notice this quickly, but with a '75' logo embroidered on the chest where the District Twelve tribute had her pin placed. Katniss, you remember her name was. She had volunteered for her sister, and at the time you contemplated heavily on whether or not you would do the same. She was so, so close to winning- to getting to see her sister again, but she and the boy from her district, the final two tributes, ended up committing together rather than giving the Capitol their Victor. It was an admirable stance, but you couldn't imagine what that was like for her family, and his.

You step off the concrete floor once you're dressed, instructed to get into the pod that will lift you up into the arena; a glass elevator. Your stylist says nothing to you as they walk out of the room, the glass door sliding shut in front of you. Your knees get weak as you realize you are totally, completely alone, and likely no more than twenty minutes from dying. You think of your family, your siblings, your dad- and the last words he said to you. You'll see him soon.

Your thoughts are halted when the elevator starts to move, lifting you up as the ceiling falls away and you can see sunlight coming through. You squint and shield your eyes as you try to look up to get a better grasp on your surroundings before you can even see anything. Once trees come into view you're frantically looking around, trying to process as much information as you can, and quickly. It's exactly the same as last year, but from what you can tell, flipped in reverse, and made larger to accommodate twice as many tributes. Or everything on camera last year was flipped. There's a silver cornucopia in the middle with the timer that's immediately counting down and supplies inside and scattered around the field in front of you. Rafe is to your right, and a boy from Seven on your left. He scored a six, the same as you, so he's not the biggest threat to you immediately.

You adjust your stance, getting ready to run once the timer hits zero. In what direction, you don't know yet. Rafe wants you to run to the supplies, but statistically, the most deaths will happen in the next five minutes and you don't want any part of that. The supply bags and weapons spread out on the grass are all the same too, by the looks of it. The closest bag to you got picked up by the girl from Seven last year, and it didn't have much of anything helpful. If you're remembering right, it had a rope and some matches, and that was it. It definitely would be useful, but you know you can do better. There should be a bag four pedestals to your right, with a water bottle, an emergency blanket, a fire starter, a first aid kit, and a knife. Right now, that's the one you have to get to. That's your best bet.

Ten, nine, eight... The timer ticks down to the final seconds as you look over at Rafe, who's already looking at you. You point to the bag as your eyes land on it on the other side of him across the field, and he looks at you confused. He's closer, he has a better shot, but you know he won't take it.

Rafe is confused, following your finger and spotting the bag. Why would you want that one specifically? There are others closer, he doesn't feel like now is a time to be picky.

Four, three, two...

Your ears ring with shock as the clock reaches zero, and you're watching most of the other tributes booking it for the center. No one has seen your bag yet as you jump down, beelining across the field and narrowly brushing past Rafe in your move for the small backpack. He stops to let you pass, almost crashing into you head-on. He doesn't have time to worry about you, so he continues on his path to the middle, but he's lost time. Precious time that he doesn't have to lose right at the beginning of the games.

He gets into the bloodbath that the cornucopia has already turned into, looking back over his shoulder quickly as he grabs at any weapon he can get his hands on. He quickly has to sacrifice the blade he just grabbed when he hears footsteps quickly approaching from behind him, turning quickly and plunging it into the boy's chest. He doesn't think to look at who it was.

Cannon's echo around you, and you're counting how many internally as you get to the bag, reaching down to grab it as you run past, trying not to slow down. You look back over your shoulder, hoping to spot your teammate somewhere, but you can't see him. You're scanning the area, blocking out the blood you see flying and scattered along the silver metal of the cornucopia. You can hardly hear any screams over the sound of your heartbeat pounding in your ears. You can't help but watch as the girl from Three jumps on who is supposed to be her partner, a girl from Twelve, snapping her neck in a second. Within moments, she just drops to the ground next to her- another cannon following. That makes a strong incentive for working in teams. At least Rafe won't betray you early on.

You freeze up for a moment, stopping to scan your surroundings. You still can't find Rafe, taking in the number of bodies scattered around the cornucopia and a few tributes running into the tree line. At least some people were smart. Something flies past your head, making you jump back a step as you look up ahead of you. Within an instant, you're being tackled back by the body of the boy from your district.

"Y/N, fancy seeing you here." He chuckles darkly while you try and fight him off.

"Don't!" You squeak out, him pressing his forearm down against your throat on the ground.

"I've wanted to do this since the second they called your name." He growls, shoving you down again.

"We can help each other, Jack..." You say weakly, clawing at his arm.

"You don't need me. You've got your career boyfriend- and whatever your secret weapon is." He scoffs. "You don't have a secret weapon, Y/N. He's bluffing and he won't convince us."

You gather all your strength and knee him in the crotch, scrambling to get away as he fumbles for just a moment. "God- you are a bitch!" He shouts, grabbing for your ankle just has you pick up the knife he had thrown at you. You grip it the way Rafe had shown you, quickly shoving it into Jack's leg. You just needed to get away.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" You exclaim, backing away quickly. Jack doesn't say another word, cutting his losses and getting up to make an escape for the woods. You hope he ends up okay.

You make your break for it as well, running back towards the woods as you once again scan your surroundings for your partner.

Suddenly you're on the ground, having run straight into the side of one of the pedestals and falling over it. You yelp with the sudden impact of the ground, scrambling to get up and continue when suddenly someone is grabbing your jacket, slamming you into the pedestal again. You scream, trying to shove them off, but they're much stronger than you. "Jael! Wait, wait- Jael!" You make out your own voice yelling the boy's name, which makes him falter. He's the oldest tribute from Eight- he seems shocked you even know his name.

In the moment when he loosened his grip, he jerks forward and then falls over you, a cannon booming making you gasp as you panic to get away. Rafe is quickly running towards you, slinging the bow he just used over his shoulder and yanking the arrow out of the boy's back. "Y/N, let's go!" He shouts, motioning for you to follow him as you continue toward the tree line, both of you keeping an eye on what's happening behind you as you disappear into the woods.

"Let's stay close, but not too close," Rafe suggests as soon as you feel safe enough to slow down, your chest heaving with the exertion of energy and boost of adrenaline. He glances at you briefly, then does a double take. "You okay? Are you hurt?"

You shake your head, coughing to ease the stinging in your throat. "I'm fine. You?"

"Good," Rafe answers, slowing his pace to match yours.

"We, uh, I think we should go the other way." You say, looking around to try and mentally place where abouts you are.

Rafe stops and furrows his brow at you, seemingly frustrated by your resistance. "Why does it matter?"

"The arena, it's the same as last year. Exactly the same. Just, scaled up a bit." You explain. "We should head south, that's where the river is. We'll need water soon."

Rafe laughs slightly, his demeanor changing as he places his hands on his hips and looks at you. "No shit," He says, truly surprised and impressed that you could tell. A lot of the games tend to look like this, and he would never notice a repeat arena down to the rivers if it punched him in the face. Your 'secret weapon' is already paying off. "And you could tell that right away?"

"Yeah, I mean, I guess so. The bags were all the same, everything was laid out the same. I bet there's a river down south." You nod, having a sudden realization. "We should get to that cave- the one the tributes from Twelve holed up in last year. That'll be a good, stable shelter. We can pretty much wait it out." You say, starting to walk in what you believe is the right direction.

"No," Rafe replies, making you stop in your tracks. "Unless you want me to have to kill you in the end."

"Oh, right." You forgot about that part, keeping score. "We're still going to need somewhere to sleep, though."

"Yeah, we'll find it anyways." Rafe nods, carrying on in the direction you started heading. You follow a few steps behind, keeping a bit of distance in the somewhat awkward silence that fell over you two after his comment about having to kill you.

You walk in the thick of the woods for about an hour before you feel like you're reaching the river. You can feel it under your feet, the soil is slightly softer, and the trees a little more green.

Cannons interrupt your thoughts a few times in the hike, totaling up to twenty-three by the time you reach the riverbank. "You were right." Rafe chuckles, mentally disparaging any skepticism he faced during the long, quiet walk.

"Thank god." You giggle, dropping your bag and crouching down to dig through it, hoping for a water bottle. You were right, everything you expected was accounted for.

"Why that bag?" Rafe says, already sitting down on the rocky water's edge to rest for a moment.

"Huh?" You question, unsure you heard over the shuffling of the bag while you zip it up.

"You pointed to it, during the countdown. Why did you want that one?"

"Oh, uh, like I said they all looked the same as last year, and I hoped I remembered what was inside." You say, laying down to reach into the water and fill up the bottle.

"Were you right?"

You nod with a small smile, sitting back up and holding the bottle out to him as you cross your legs.

"That's actually insane." Rafe shakes his head in disbelief as he takes it, downing just about everything in it before handing it back.

You take it and refill it again for yourself. "I'll choose to take that as a compliment."

Rafe wouldn't admit it, but at this moment as he's watching you drink, he's grateful that he got paired up with you. But now, that it's been shown on national television that you know the arena in and out, he wonders what obstacles the gamemakers will desperately throw your way.

"We should keep moving. I feel like a sitting duck out here in the open, I don't like it." Rafe mutters, checking his attitude as he stands up. You're quick to fill up the bottle again, following behind him yet again as the arrows in his quiver rattle together against his back walking over the rocky and unstable terrain, knife gripped tightly in his hand.

You wonder to yourself how he's feeling about leaving behind his predestined alliance of the career pack, but with the factor of most of them being paired up with other districts, it was already too unpredictable. You wouldn't have stuck around either.

The sun started to set as you followed the river upstream. You didn't want to settle without some kind of shelter, and you were committed to finding that cave before you could relax. You could tell that Rafe had the same idea, his steps ahead of you gradually picking up speed with the bow still gripped firmly in his palm.

"It's a beautiful sunset." You speak your mind before thinking, desperately wanting to fill the silence.

Rafe just hums in response, looking up only briefly before training his gaze once again on the ragged rocks at his feet and continuing on. "What's it like in District One?" You ask.

"Fine." He replies coldly. You aren't sure what you expected, but this response was pretty on par. You knew you had almost no chance of survival, so it would at least be nice to get to know the person you spend your final days with, even if he would be the one to kill you in the end.

"I've never been, but I've heard it's... nice." You've only ever heard about it from the perspective of other bitter individuals from Five, jealous of the cushy lifestyle everyone knew they must have lived.

"Yeah." Rafe agrees, clearly not wanting to discuss it.

"What are your sister's names?" You ask, deciding to push a little bit. It's not like he can kill you just yet.

Rafe sighs, but answers anyways. "Wheezie and Sarah."

You're shocked that he answered at all, but you could tell in his interview that he has a soft spot for them. "Cute." You nod, smiling to yourself. "Is Wheezie a nickname?"

"Yep, it's short for Louise."

"That's adorable." You grin, shaking your head.

"Hey, look. There." Rafe says, changing the subject and pointing down the rocks, where there's a small opening under a ledge.

"That's it!" You exclaim, deciding to drop the topic of his sisters in favour for finding your shelter for the night. You rush past him, watching your step as you climb down into the small cave.

Rafe quickly draws his bow, slowing down and peaking into the cave and bracing himself for your screams. How could you be so careless in a game like this? He doesn't understand your lightheartedness, your somewhat positive attitude, and your ability to make small talk despite the circumstances. "Hey, careful!"

"It's perfect!" You call back out as you look around, and Rafe steps down carefully, looking around more carefully than you had. He relaxes once he's satisfied that there's nothing down there waiting to kill you.

"Nice, okay." Rafe nods to himself, and you both get to work making a small fire near the entrance, hidden from view.

You take off your jacket and roll it up, using it as a makeshift pillow as you lay next to the fire, staring at the orange flicker of the flames you made.

Rafe is sitting across from you, knees tucked up to his chest as he does just the same. His mind is absolutely reeling- he needs to find something to eat, and soon. That will be the first thing you'll do in the morning, he'll have to employ your help to find something edible. "How are you with making traps?" He asks.

"I can do it." You reply, sitting up and leaning on your elbow so you can see him. "I'll set some up in the morning."

Rafe nods a little bit. He already knew you could, of course, but he's wondering about the logistics of how they work. "So like... hypothetically, would they work the same if you made them bigger?"

"Like... human-sized?" You ask, catching on to what he's suggesting. It's not ethical- but nothing about this game is. For you, this would definitely be preferable to fighting other kids to death over and over again.

Rafe nods, adjusting how he was sitting and crossing his legs.

"Yeah. I can't see why not." You answer. "It would be harder since I've never done it, but I think it could work."

"Then I say we try it."

The next day, you wake up as the sun rises and the light beats down on you from the entrance of the cave. You didn't sleep comfortably, that's for sure, waking up twice throughout the night to the sound of the cannon. That's twenty-seven. You wonder how many teams have already reached their ten-kill quota, you imagine someone in the career pack already has. Both times when you were startled awake, Rafe was standing at the cave entrance, bow drawn as he squinted into the darkness, hoping that whoever was out hunting other tributes wasn't nearby.

You sit up slowly, stretching out your tired limbs as you look over to see Rafe, fast asleep with a blade in his hand. You should let him sleep, and get to work on finding something to eat, and making some traps.

You grab one of the knives Rafe somehow collected from the bag laying next to him as quietly as possible, sneaking outside and taking in your surroundings. The sound of the river flowing and the smell of morning dew was amazing- you wish you could truly enjoy it in different circumstances.

You quickly get to work tracking down something to eat, landing on a few different plants you know to be edible. You're trekking through the woods near your cave when you come across an apple tree- making you pause as you look it over. It looks out of place- and maybe no one got close enough to it in the games last time that you wouldn't have seen it, but that seems unlikely. It must be new; it makes for the perfect place to try and set up a trap for the next hungry tribute who would be unfortunate enough to wander too close to your hideout.

You're digging a hole in the ground with your hands, avoiding the roots of the tree and sticking in some sticks you sharpened when you hear a twig snap behind you. You freeze, hoping that by some miracle, it's just an animal. You slowly turn your head to try and look, picking up the knife from the ground next to you and holding it tight.

"Just me." Rafe's voice relaxes you, and you stand up, brushing off your knees.

"You scared me." You admit as he takes to looking down into the hole you just dug.

"That looks... awful." He chuckles, patting your shoulder. "It won't kill, but it'll slow someone down enough that I can finish the job."

You nod slightly, staring into the dirt as well. You hated the idea that you were crafting something intentionally to bring harm to another person, but realistically you have no choice. "We'll set up more, along the riverbed and closer to the career pack. We can't monitor them all at once, though- can you make more fatal ones next time?" Rafe asks, pointing back towards the river to accentuate his point.

"That depends, how many arrows can you spare?"

The next few days saw the death toll rise to thirty-six. You kept track every night, scratching their numbers and names into the walls of the cave despite being able to remember anyway. You viewed it as a small memorial, Rafe saw it as a timer ticking down to when he'd have to kill you.

Your first trap had worked on one person, their screams of pain from a cut-up leg summoning your teammate back to the apple tree. He insisted you stay behind as he finished what you started. You had to reset several other traps as well, closer to the cornucopia.

Rafe would never admit it, but he was really starting to like you. He didn't want to hurt you- he was worried the traps wouldn't do enough. The passive approach you so preferred wasn't what he expected, and he knew his dad would be disappointed in him. But Ward would never understand.

He sighed as he poked at the fire with a stick, leaning his head back against the rocky wall of the cave, another cold night ahead of you.

You had your head laid on his lap, his thigh replacing the thin material of your coat that you had been using the last few days.

"How old are your sisters?" You ask out of nowhere, prompting him to look down at you. He had thought you fell asleep a while ago.

"Why does it matter?" Rafe replies, and you just shrug a little bit.

"Gives us something to talk about."

"Fifteen and Eleven." He relents.

"Hey, me too." You smile a little to yourself.

"You have sisters?" Rafe asks. He never asked much about you- he didn't really want to know, in the case he had to kill you.

"Yep. And a brother." You nod, sitting up a little bit. "He's older though, he aged out last year."

Rafe finds himself clenching his jaw. He can't hear that- to see you as a little sister. He doesn't want to imagine what it would be like to see his sisters face the same fate. "Lucky guy." He says quietly.

"Why? I thought it was a privilege, and all that." You chuckle.

"Well, yeah, but not for most. For the outlying districts like you."

"At least you get it." You agree. "How does it feel? Now that you're here, I mean."

"Scary." Rafe admits, throwing caution to the wind now with what his father will think. "Not what everyone tells you it'll be like."

"Is that because of me?" You ask after a few moments, and he nods slightly.

"Not in a bad way, though. It's just different. I expected to be on my own, to die alone, or kill my allies if I had to. Now... I don't know that I have to. Or if I even could." He can practically hear his father shouting at their large screen at home, or storming out claiming he was an embarrassment. He was told his whole life to never show weakness, to 'be a man', but now, at the end, that doesn't matter to him.

"I won't take it personally." You giggle softly, voice shaking as you try to make light of it. "My family won't either, I don't think. Maybe my dad, at first, but eventually he'll understand. They'll forgive you." You try and ease his mind, knowing that in the case that Rafe does win without you, he'll have to face your family in the next month or so during the victory tour.

"I wouldn't ever expect him to." Rafe tells you, tossing his stick into the flames now. He feels sick hearing you talk about it like it's inevitable- but if he has anything to do with it, you'll be coming home with him.

"They're good people." You assure him.

"Don't say that." Rafe chuckles, shaking his head. "I would never forgive myself."

"Okay, fine. They're awful. Just... the worst." You smile, looking up at him and resting your chin in your hand.

"That's better. Thank you." Rafe laughs, poking your forehead and gazing out onto the river as the flames illuminate the water.

In the morning, you're awoken to something brushing your leg. You groan and roll over, head landing once more on Rafe's extended arm underneath you. At least he was finally getting some sleep, pretty much unable to close his eyes since you set foot in the arena. You feel the brush again, followed by something moving on your arm, several things, suddenly, and your eyes fly open and look down when you remember where you are. You let out a scream, scrambling to sit up and pushing yourself back against the wall.

Rafe wakes up quickly, scrambling for the bow next to him when he realizes it won't be any help. You're surrounded by and quickly almost covered in a sickening combination of snakes and spiders.

You're still screaming, trying to shove the creatures off of you. "Come on- come on!" Rafe is yelling at you, grabbing your arm and pulling you towards the exit. You don't get the chance to grab your back and you regret that as you're jumping into the river in attempt to get the spiders off of your skin and out of your clothes.

You're breathing heavily as you come up for air, and Rafe is quickly there, brushing his hands over your hair to make sure every last spider is gone. He looks back at the entrance of the cave, chest heaving like yours as the bugs and snakes spill out of it. It sends a shiver down his spine- he was never a fan of snakes.

"I guess that's the gamemakers telling us enough was enough." He sighs, gently pulling you towards the shore again a safe distance away. "Are you bit?" He asks once you're a safe distance away.

"I don't think so..." You reply, hiking up the ankles of your pants to look at your calves and over your bare arms as you sit on the shore. "You?"

Rafe shakes his head, doing the same. "It was probably just a warning. We have to move." He quickly lowers his pant leg over the puncture wounds in his leg, hoping you didn't see. If it gets worse, he'll tell you. The bite itself didn't hurt much, so if it's going to be fatal, he's glad he won't have to hurt you.

Rafe helps you up, leading you up towards the tree line. "They probably want to push us in toward the other tributes, I think we should go with it before they throw something worse at us." You, the two of you now left with nothing but what you had on you, along with Rafe's bow and a few spare arrows.

He nods. "It's our best move anyways. How many tributes are left?"

"Twelve including us." You answer quickly. "There's Avril, a boy from six, Maisie, she's from my district, most of the careers I think are still in it but not their teammates," You begin to rattle off the list,

"I don't want to know names." Rafe cuts you off, and you understand why. He's been doing all the dirty work, and part of you knows it's because he's hoping to have time to learn names and feel guilty about it later. Right now, he can't afford to see them as human.

"Right." You agree. "It doesn't really matter, anyways."

"Do you know scores?" He asks, walking alongside you now.

You nod, beginning to list off all the remaining tributes and their scores, from lowest to highest. The lowest being you- and the highest being ten, shared by Rafe and a boy from district two.

After hearing two more cannons that day, and checking all the traps you had set, you're circling back to the river to be near fresh water before you set up camp again. You don't have your water bottle anymore, or anything to set up any kind of shelter with, you do your best. You set up a fire, Rafe insisting that if it draws other tributes to you so be it- he's ready for this to end just as much as you, but you don't want to rush into your death or an ambush. It's safe to say you won't be sleeping tonight.

You didn't sleep, but at least, curled up under a tree, the night sky was beautiful. The stars seemed realistic, and you wondered if somehow they were real. Between the two more cannons that struck overnight, you still wondered if you were somewhere near the ocean, or somewhere closer to home. While you're sitting next to each other in a peaceful silence, both admiring the vastness of the night sky, you hear a ringing sound coming from above.

Rafe quickly stands, reaching for the small silver pack with a parachute before it hits the ground. He's quick to open it as you stand up, looking into the container. You grab the small card, tilting it into the light of your fire to read it.

For our Y/N,

Keep fighting. Please come home to us.

Love You Always, Dad

Tears form in your eyes almost instantly, your hand coming up to cover your mouth. "It's just a water bottle and some kind of granola bars... or something." Rafe says, turning the water bottle over in his hand.

He looks up at you, frowning when he sees how upset you look. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." You quickly shake your head, wiping your eyes. "Uhm, it's from my dad."

The fact that your family could spare enough money to send you something in the games at all was amazing to you. You heard horror stories of the astronomical prices of trying to send something from outside of the capitol, without the status and funds of a sponsor.

"Oh." Rafe replies, handing you the tin and bottle now, taking the card from you gently. He reads it over slowly, and over and over again. His family had seemingly endless amounts of money, and they had sent him nothing. He knew his father viewed it as cheating, and that you shouldn't need any kind of help to win. If he loved him, though, that wouldn't matter. He should be willing to do anything he could to keep his son alive. The way your parents did.

"My mom made these." You sniffle, grabbing a small bar from the container in her hand. "They're my favourite, she only makes them on birthdays or special occasions." You explain.

"That's... that's really nice." Rafe says, putting the card back in the tin. He doesn't know how to handle this, or what to say.

You smile sadly as you sit back down against the tree, placing the tin on your lap as Rafe joins you. "Here." You hold the bar out to him.

"They're for you." Rafe shakes his head, pushing it away.

"They're for us." You insist, holding it out to him again. "They wouldn't have sent two if I wasn't meant to share."

"Thank you." Rafe smiles genuinely, for the first time in weeks as he takes it. He's starving, having eaten only small amounts of meat and plants over the last week or so, so he's quick to take a bite. It's sweet, more so than he expected. He never thought he could enjoy sugar this much.

"No wonder they're reserved for celebrations, hey?" You giggle, having intently watched his reaction.

Rafe nods. "Yeah, it's really good. Super sweet." He says, mouth still full. You grin, satisfied as you take a bite of your own.

The night flew by so quickly, you're feeling as though it must have gotten shorter. The sunrise went by fast too. You're guessing the gamemakers and the viewers were getting antsy. To be honest, you were as well.

Renewed with your energy the sugary baking your parents had sent, you set about gathering food and water, while Rafe goes on to check a few of your traps to see if they needed to be reset. He could do it on his own, but he liked watching you do it, working the ropes between your fingers and tying intricate knots, pulling back on the stick used to trigger the arrow. By the afternoon, having taken a mental note of the amount of cannons that had fired. It was a few, at least. You must be getting down to the end. He prayed it wasn't you, but the cries of some kind of mutts in the distance right before the cannons lead him to believe that you were fine- but he should be getting back soon anyways.

You were wandering down to the water, reluctant to leave your camp, but you knew water was a priority. You were just filling up the new bottle when you heard a scream. It sounded like a boy. You quickly look back over your shoulder, noticing it was nearby. Toward the apple tree. You stand slowly, looking around as you attach the water bottle back to your side with a carabiner, reaching instead for the knife Rafe had left with you. God, you hoped it wasn't him. The absence of a cannon gives you hope, though.

You quietly head in that direction, watching your step so your presence isn't detected. When you get closer to the tree, you hear crying. Painful crying, as you're faced with the reality of the trap you set.

You watch from behind a tree as the boy from eight tries to pull his leg up from the ground, screaming out again as the sharp sticks dig into his flesh. You should go get Rafe- you feel guilty, but you can't kill him yourself. You turn quickly, and before you can get a step away you're face to face with one of the other careers- a sword held up against your neck.

"Don't move." Blake says, a smile that can only be described as evil spreading over his lips.

You try and scream out for help, hoping Rafe was still in earshot but a hand is quickly covering your mouth. "Not yet." He whispers, shaking his head. "We've got a plan, it'll be fun. You wouldn't want to ruin that, right?"

As Rafe gets back to your small camp, he expects to see you there waiting. He scans the trees above him, wondering if you had climbed up for some reason. He calls your name when he doesn't see you, brow furrowed. You definitely should be back by now. As he's heading down to the water to look for you, he hears a cannon, which at this point wouldn't bother him- if it wasn't for the scream that followed after. It was you. No doubt in his mind that it was you. With his bow drawn, he's moving quickly towards where he heard your voice, throwing caution to the wind.

You scream again, crying as the tip of the sword is dug into your shoulder, laying down next to the apple tree. You can't help it- but you don't want their trap to work. You don't want Rafe to come, so you bite your tongue until you taste blood, hoping to keep quiet. "It'll only get worse for you if you don't scream, Y/N/N." Blake scolds you, digging in the blade more. "He has to hear you." He adds through gritted teeth.

You hear a twig snap just outside the small clearing, and Blake is quickly turning to look with the sword still pinning you to the ground. "Rafe it's a trap!" You shout, hoping that it's him.

Rafe steps out then, into full view with his bow drawn as he aims at the boy in front of him. When they first met, he knew they would have been good friends if they met anywhere else. "You won't shoot me." Blake chuckles, and Rafe quickly readjusts his grip.

"I will." Rafe says sternly, pulling the string tighter as Blake moves the sword to hover over your chest. Over your heart.

"If you shoot, the last of my energy will go into killing her. I don't think you want that." He shakes his head, smiling smugly.

"I don't care." Rafe says, making your heart clench. You know that you're friends, at the very least. He does care. He's bluffing- you have to believe that.

"If you didn't care you would have shot me already." Blake calls it, and Rafe tenses up, looking down at you only briefly.

"Then what do you want?" Rafe spits.

"Oh, nothing. I just wanted you to watch." Blake shrugs. "Just makes it a little more fun, you know? But don't worry, you'll be next." You know he just wants to prove himself, somehow, not having scored as high as Rafe did. You wonder if his family was somehow similar- that he needed some kind of approval that he thought he might find through sadism.

Rafe looks down at you again, and you just nod, tears streaming down your temples to your ears. He quickly readjusts before letting the arrow fly, planting straight in the shoulder that held the sword as you quickly roll over, slicing across your chest and shoulder in the process. It was well worth it.

Rafe fires another arrow into his chest, not taking any risks and the cannon quickly follows as he rushes to your side.

"Are you okay?" He's asking, hands hovering above you as he's kneeled next to you, unsure what to do.

You nod, still biting into your tongue as blood continues to slide down your skin, dampening your now torn up clothes.

"It's not that bad." Rafe says, looking over the cuts as best he can, but you wince when he pulls the fabric away. "You're gonna be fine, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah..." You mumble, letting your head fall back against the brush below you. Rafe is quick to take his coat off, using it to push down on the deepest part of the wound on your shoulder, trying with his other hand to apply pressure to the rest of it. You try and focus on your breathing, rather than the pain, but it's hard when a significant amount of weight is being applied to your shoulder and chest.

"I'm sorry, I have to." Rafe tells you, jaw tense as he lifts his coat to check whether or not the bleeding has slowed. You didn't even realize you were crying.

After a few minutes, he's lessened the pressure a bit, still holding the fabric firmly over your skin. "You could have ran." You mumble, voice hardly above a whisper.

"I wasn't gonna leave you." Rafe shakes his head, gently peeling away his now blood soaked windbreaker.

"You at least shouldn't have saved me. Not much point in that, is there?" You smile softly, trying to sit up and Rafe is quick to help.

"There is. You have to win." He mutters.

"I'm not winning, Rafe." You smile sadly at him. "Infection will kill me if you won't, and if no one else does first."

"No, they'll fix you up. This cut will be gone in a week, the technology they have is-"

"Rafe." You grab his attention again and he looks up to meet your eyes. They seemed to suck in all the light of the sunset above the two of you, reflecting back at him in a way that makes his breath hitch. The thought is cut short, however, when you say something that breaks his heart. "Don't give me hope like that."

"Why? You're gonna go home. I mean it." He promises. "I'll make sure of it."

"I don't think we have enough." You remind him sadly, a small smile still evident on your lips as you reach up to cup his cheek in your palm. "I never expected to go home. I'm okay with that."

Your friend shakes his head softly. "That doesn't matter. You have your family to get home to, I read that note from your dad. They need you, I can see that. For me, these games are all I was raised for. I have nothing left for me after this." He admits, avoiding eye contact with you.  "I could never forgive myself if I didn't get you home."

Tears are forming in your eyes again as you look up at him. The world is watching, and in this moment of vulnerability you feel that more than ever- despite the quiet sounds around you being only the rushing water in the nearby river and the birds chirping around you. "You're a good person, Rafe." You smile at him, watching as he gently raises his hand to yours, grabbing it in his own. "I hope you know that."

In this moment, you settle on the idea that you would die for him. You never understood last years tributes, honestly, how they were willing to die for each other instead of getting home to their own loved ones, but now you do. Completely.

Without a second thought, you find yourself leaning closer, Rafe doing the same as he kneels next to you in the dark. Your eyes meet once more, lips only an inch from touching when you hear a howl in the distance, and you snap your head to the direction it came from. "The Mutts... Already?" You say, scrambling to get up and ignoring the pain in your shoulder.

"I- I heard them earlier, they sound far away." Rafe says, trying to calm you.

"You heard them? You didn't tell me?" You ask, frantically grabbing his bow from the ground and handing it to him as he goes to pull the discarded arrows out of Blake's body.

"I didn't think it mattered!" He defends, trying to hide the panic in his voice.

"There were four left last year when they sent them out. I think... yeah I think that's right. There's four of us. We have to run." You say in a panic, pulling on his hand. "Our best bet is making it back to the cornucopia."

"It'll be too open- can't we climb a tree or something?" Rafe says, following after you as you're running through the bush now in the direction of the open field.

"I don't know if that will work, but I know we'll be safe there." You explain like it's obvious. "We have to risk it- and if you can get to the others first, if they have the same idea, we'll be at ten."

You're out of breath already, adrenaline pushing you through as you hear scattered barking getting steadily closer after one more cannon. Part of you wants to stop, turn, and force Rafe to take the win if you couldn't have it, but with any hope left, you have to try and get back to where this started. The traps was an unfortunate choice in how you got your kills, because you couldn't keep track of how many since by the time you got around to checking them, the body's would have been airlifted off if it wasn't a misfire. If you had to guess, though, you were sitting at eight.

Rafe is running similar calculations in his head as he lets you lead him by memory straight to the field, mind short-circuiting as he sees the silver moonlight reflect off the cornucopia.

You sprint across the open field, blood pouring from your undressed wound again with the intense exertion of energy. Rafe doesn't pass you, though, despite you expecting that he would. You have tunnel vision as you make it to the metal structure, practically slamming into it before you can even stop. Rafe is quick to lift you and shove you up, both of you looking over your shoulders as you struggle to hold onto the edge, kicking the sides to hold yourself up.

You finally get up, reaching down to help pull Rafe up. He grabs onto your arm for leverage, mostly pulling himself up and you wince as you feel the tension from his weight in your cuts.

You flop down onto your back on the cold surface as he climbs over you, immediately standing up with bow drawn as he intently scans the surrounding area. He's only got the two arrows left, which makes him nervous if that's all he has to defend the both of you with.

You try to settle your breathing, which only lasts for a moment until the sky lights up with the recap. You miss your cave, where you could contribute to your memorial, especially seeing the face of Maisie flash above you on the sky while the anthem plays.

You close your eyes, just listening to the music now until you hear barking just outside of where Rafe can see, and you're quickly sitting up. He draws the bow tighter, aiming in the direction the howls came from just as someone pushes out into the clearing. Rafe is aimed straight at them, bow string pressed to his cheek. He's getting dizzy, and quickly. His aim can't fail him now, he doesn't have that option.

You watch them, in the dark you think it's the other boy from district one, and in your exhaustion you can't remember his name. You wouldn't dare say it, anyways. He's screaming for help, a call you know you can't answer, and you watch as they stumble on their feet, shoes and hands digging into the ground as they try to get up, just ten or so yards from you by now.

Rafe wants to shoot just then, it would be as simple as letting his finger loose and the arrow would fly towards its target. It would be a merciful end for the boy he's trained with for years now, only a couple years younger than him. The muscle in his jaw is aching from the tension he's put on it when he forces himself to let go. He has to do it, for himself, if he wants to go home.

He misses. The yelp of one of the mutts tells you it landed in a paw or back, and you look up at Rafe who's already drawn his second. "Rafe!" You cry out, pushing yourself up onto your feet and standing behind him now.

He hates to admit that your empathy has rubbed off on him. Watching you every night carving seemingly endless names and numbers into the rocks that lined the space you stepped in. He recalls waking up one morning and seeing your name and his carved in as well, closer to where he laid by the fire, his underlined and yours with a heart at the end. Like a signature on the top of a math test. He had wondered if you always wrote your name like that, and in this moment as he releases the bow again, he knows he has to find out for himself.

It happened so fast, the mutts knocking down the boy and the arrow flying from Rafe's shaky hands into where he should have been right as the cannon sounds. You don't know that it was Rafe's arrow that did him in.

"No..." You mumble, clamouring forward and onto your knees again to look over as the boys body is torn apart by the mutts. "You had to have done it. You had to." You say, trying to get a better view.

In a second, Rafe's arms are around you and he's pulling you back from the edge, sitting now behind you with his arms wrapped tightly over your body. "It's okay.. it's over." He mumbles, kissing the side of your head as the sunlight comes over the trees. He's fighting off the urge to vomit, everything spinning around him now.

You sit with him, gripping onto his arms and crying. Nothing is happening, so you must not have made it to ten. You feel sick- your heart is in your throat and suddenly you're really hot, moving away from him to look over the edge again, this time incase you have to throw up. You freeze, looking over to where the boy's body once was. The second arrow was in the ground. He missed again.

Rafe sees it at the same time as you. He sighs, hanging his legs over the edge. "Shit... Y/N, I'm sorry." He mumbles, gently reaching over to rub your back.

"No, no. It's okay." You insist, sitting up next to him. "I knew this would happen."

"I'll get you home." Rafe says, sliding down the side of the cornucopia before you can stop him. He stumbles the landing, swaying in his walk as he heads towards the arrow lodged into the dirt.

"Wait! Wait, wait, Rafe!" You're sliding down after him, running to his side and grabbing his arm before he can get to the arrow in the ground.

He turns to you quickly, hand on your cheek and he's pressing his lips to your forehead. "Sit with me?" He asks, knees already giving out as he falls to the ground.

You're instantly on the ground beside him, practically holding his head up with your free hand as you search him visually for some kind of injury.  "What happened? Are you hurt?"

"Uh, I guess so." Rafe mutters. "Snake bite. I think."

"You didn't tell me? I could have fixed this, I could have helped..." You ramble on, his eyes dropping shut now. "Hey, eyes open."

"It's okay. Just sit with me..." He says again, smiling weakly. "Wait with me... please?"

You nod, sniffling as you fight back the tears that want to fall. "Yeah, of course. I'll stay."

Before he closes his eyes, the music starts again and your eyes are drawn up to the sky after you notice Rafe is looking first.

Then, begins a similar slideshow of faces you recognize. Ten in total. Rafe's eyes flicker with slight recollection, remembering any kills he made himself and you gasp when you see Jack. Whatever damage you had done when he tackled you on the first day must have killed him. "Rafe.." You mumble, lowering your eyes to meet his. "I think we won."

Your point is accentuated by the voice of the head gamemaker over some unseen speakers. "Introducing the Victors of the Seventy-Fifth Annual Hunger Games!"

"We did it." Rafe laughs weakly, squeezing your hand.

You fully ignore the aircraft hovering down in front of you on the grass, turning your head to look down at him. You don't say anything, neither of you do, and you finally feel your lips against his. The kiss is bad, it doesn't really work when both of you are stuck smiling ear to ear, but you don't care one bit. The only thing that matters is that you got this chance at all.

Rafe pulls away from you slowly, using all the strength he has left to lift himself onto his feet as you steady him. "He needs help!" You shout to them, and you're quickly being lead onto the plane.

"They've got really good technology," You mock what he said to you just the day before. "It'll be like it never happened in a week, okay?" You chuckle, feeling waves of happiness, worry, and relief all at once as you quickly wipe away a tear with your free hand, other arm wrapped tightly around Rafe's waist to hold him up.

He laughs, and you lean into him more, your forehead against his shoulder as the aircraft door slides shut behind you.

taglist: @bookishbabyyy @madelynie, @whore-4-drewstarkey, @slut4drudy, @winterrrnight, @totalswag, @sadfury @fullfledgedemo @rafemotherfuckingcameron, @urfaveluvr, @chenslucy, @hxnnah-397, @s-we-e-t-t-ea, @tahliac11, @saccharinesammie, @ietss, @maybankslover @redhead1180, @suzyheartsrafe, @wpdailyminimeta, @aegons-bitch, @rafegirly, @lovelyxtommy @dee127

#rafe cameron #rafe obx #rafe fic #outer banks #obx #obx fanfic #rafe fanfiction #rafe x reader #outerbanks rafe #rafe cameron fluff #rafe cameron x reader #rafe imagine #rafe outer banks #rafe x you #rafe cameron fanfiction #rafe cameron fanfic #rafe cameron fic #rafe cameron x you #obx fanfiction #rafe cameron imagine

[witchywriter18]

Being married and having a child with Sebastian Sallow

Slight hint of MC being a Hufflepuff but I'm a Hufflepuff soooo, deal with it

You and Sebastian got married almost immediately out of Hogwarts.

After you had stood by him during 5th year, he knew you were going to be the only woman for him.

Nah, let's face it. He knew you were perfect once you kicked his ass in DADA, the other stuff just sealed the deal.

Anne actually attended the wedding. While she was still upset about the relic situation, she couldn't miss her own twin's wedding.

Sebastian was very much on the verge of tears when he saw you in your dress.

If you thought he was clingy when you were dating, oh boy. Sebastian is even more clingy and affectionate after you two got married.

After the honeymoon, you both decided to live in Feldcroft.

While yes it held horrible memories for Sebastian, it had some good ones too. And he was ready to make more good memories with you.

For work, I don't think Sebastian would become an Auror. He didn't want to be anything like his uncle. I like the thought of him being a cursebreaker or even an unspeakable.

You on the other hand. Instead of being a housewife, you're either a herbologist or magizoologist. Your reasoning being that you've dealt with enough dark wizards and treasure hunting to last you a lifetime.

After about a year of marriage, you find out that you are with child. Sebastian is literally giddy with excitement.

And now super overprotective Sebby has been activated.

"Oi, put that down! It's too heavy!"

"......Seb, this literally a sheet of paper."

Oh boy, this will be fun....

When he's not at work, he's following you around the house like if he doesn't have eyes on you, you'll get hurt.

You accidentally knicking yourself with the knife while he was using the bathroom didn't help.

"Seb, it's just a small knick. It's nothing-"

"IT'S NOT NOTHING!!! YOU GOT INJURED WHEN I WASN'T HERE!!! *sniff* I'm a horrible husband😢"

Oof, and you thought you had moodswings.

After making sure your SMALL wound was cleaned and bandaged, you're consoling him for a good hour.

He's also getting sympathy pains and cravings.

You have back pain? Now his back aches a bit.

You're craving chocolate on top of bacon? Now he wants a bite.

Once you start showing, he immediately thinks you shouldn't be galivanting around the highlands.

You agree with that since you don't want to take a bad tumble and put your unborn child in danger, as much as it pains you to not being able to rescue beasts.

Ah, there are the mood swings! Yes, now you're crying about how now you won't be able to save a hypothetical Niffler named Opal.

During the months as your stomach swells, you're trying (and failing) to knit little booties and a hat for your child.

Sebastian is quite good with his hands (in more ways then one 😏) so he's making the baby's crib by hand.

When you guys are in bed getting ready to sleep, Sebastian has his hands on your belly. He gets so excited when the baby kicks.

Sometimes when the baby is too restless and won't let you sleep with all the kicking, Sebastian's hand gently rubs it, trying to sooth them.

"Alright little one, I know you're excited to explore the world outside your mother's womb but you need to let her sleep. So stop moving about and sleep you little troublemaker."

He also like kissing your belly just cuz he can.

During your final month, he gets time off so that when the time comes, he's ready to wisk you off to the hospital.

So, the time comes. Sebastian is anything but calm.

"WHERE'S MY WAND?! I CAN'T FIND MY WAND TO APPARATE US TO THE HOSPITAL!!!"

"It's in your hand darling. Now take me to the hospital before I pop this child out on our kitchen floor."

Unfortunately, back in those days, father's weren't allowed in the delivery room. So all he can do is pace outside, panicking whenever you let out a scream of pain.

My poor boy is literally having flashbacks to when he had to use the Cruciatis Curse on you.

Your friends show up to give the poor man support, and to see the baby. Or hear in Ominis's case.

Ominis is patting Sebastian on the shoulder gently.

After about five hours, the midwife comes out to sat that Sebastian can see his wife and daughter.

Man literally jumps up and rushes into the delivery room.

Once he gets inside, he sees you looking exhausted with your hair messy and sweat on your forehead.

With your little bundle of joy held to your chest.

Sebastian is once again crying like he did on your wedding day.

When your friends are coming in one by one, he's presenting your daughter this way, every time;

"Behold! The Snadger! The product of a snake (him) and a badger (you)!"

"Sebastian, stop calling our daughter that or you're not going to get the chance to put another child in me."

You both decided to name her Anne Lilian Sallow.

She has your hair and skin tone while she has Sebastian's eyes. Only time will tell what other features she'll gain from her parents over time.

I'll probably make a sequel to this with early parenthood headcannons. This was originally just gonna be marriage headcannons but then the saga of pregnancy came up so it changed.

#hogwarts legacy #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow x mc #female mc #sebastian sallow x female mc

[ladykailitha]

Oh For a Muse of Fire! Part 2

LOL! I love how much you guys are loving this. I took the idea for the names at the bar from a fantasy novel called The Lark and the Wren (I’m pretty sure) by Mercedes Lackey (only in that case it was a brothel).

Also guys: If I have you on my list but you didn’t get the notification for the tag it means one of two things: it’s a side or secondary blog and tumblr doesn’t tag those. Or and this far more likely you have it set that you’re undiscoverable through tumblr. Under settings go to your blog then scroll all the way down to visibility and make sure both are grey. (Or secret third thing that your blog is set to 18+ because tumblr hates porn.)

Part 1

*

Steve was trembling when he got to the apartment he shared with Robin. So badly that he was struggling to put the key in the lock. After the third failed attempt, he let out a sharp cry and sunk to the floor, his back pressed against the door.

He knew that he wasn’t the best person in high school. He did. But he had changed his senior year. Stopped hanging out with Tommy and Carol. Started focusing on his art. Meeting Robin.

Hell, as far as Steve could remember they hadn’t even gone after Eddie and his friends. He would like to say that it was because he had a crush on the guy. But no, it was just they ran in different circles and were just outside their purview.

He held his hands up and while they still shook, they weren’t as bad. He got up and tried again. With some effort he managed to get the key in the lock. He sighed in relief as the tumbler slid and allowed him to open the door.

As badly as Steve wanted to grab the six pack out of the fridge and down the whole thing, wallowing in self-pity. He couldn’t because he actually had work.

He had to train his replacement. He worked at an upscale bar close to campus, bar-tending. It was good money and he was able to work nights and go to school during the day. But if everything went according to plan, at the end of summer Steve would be starting his student teaching position. So the bar needed a new bartender.

He pulled on the black slacks and white button up that his uniform and his white sneakers. He rolled up his sleeves and checked his hair really quick in the mirror.

It would have to do.

He splashed water on his face to wash away the tears and clear his mind of cobwebs. He didn’t have the liberty of fucking up.

Steve grabbed his car keys and jumped into his BMW. The last remnant of his father’s hospitality. He had gotten the car when he was sixteen and the car was nearing its first decade. He kept his fingers crossed that it would last until he got his first full time teaching job.

When he pulled up the bar, he could see her waiting for him by the door. She was pretty blonde with bright eyes and a cheerful expression. She was wearing a short black skirt and high heeled shoes.

Steve shook his head. She was in for a rough time tonight if that’s what she was going to be wearing.

He trotted up to her. “Hey, you must be the new girl.”

“Yeah I’m C–”

Steve held up his hand. “If you’re going to tell me your real name, don’t. The boss doesn’t like us knowing each other’s real names, says it distracts from the ambient feel. I’m Garnet.”  

She blushed. “Right, right. He said. I’m Opal.”

Steve nodded. “Or at least at first hopefully by the time I leave you’ll be upgraded to a nicer gem.”

Opal fell instep with him as he led the way through the bar. “Have you always been Garnet, then?”

Steve licked his lips. “Yeah. It’s something of a running joke now. I’m the best bartender this bar has ever had and I’ve never been upgraded to Ruby or whatever.”

She nodded.

“Truth is Diamond respects me, but he sure the hell doesn’t like me,” he explained.

“You think Diamond is his real name?” Opal asked eagerly.

Steve shrugged. “Could be.” He grabbed two aprons from their hooks and tossed one at her. “This will help prevent you going home smelling like the bar.”

She nodded, tying it deftly around her waist.

“Diamond said you’ve done this before?” Steve asked, pulling out two white towels and tossing her one.

Opal nodded. “At my last job. It closed up because the owners retired.”

Steve nodded. “So then this won’t be too difficult. This will just be me showing you were everything is and showing you how to make the house specials.”

“Pretty much,” she said cheerfully.

Steve looked down at her shoes. “Your last place make you wear heels to tend in?”

She looked down at her feet. “Yeah, said I was too short to see over the bar otherwise.”

He cocked his head to side. “But you aren’t that short...”

Opal laughed, clear as a bell. “Oh I know. He was just a misogynist pig. I do have flats with me since I take the bus.”

“Put them on,” Steve instructed. “We move way too fast for you to be in heels. I don’t want you breaking your ankle or have blisters by the end of the night.”

She nodded and pulled out a pair of black flats and slipped them on, shoving the heels back in the purse.

“You’ll want tennis shoes or any other comfortable shoe from now on,” Steve explained. “You’re also allowed to wear slacks if you want. The patrons aren’t going to see below your waist and the apron covers your chest. Your tips will come from you being fast and good.”

Opal saluted. “Aye, aye Captain!”

Steve laughed. “Yeah, I think you’ll fit in just fine.”

“Garnet!” a uncoordinated blur shouted and jumped into his arms. Steve caught her deftly and shook his head.

“Hey, Pearl,” he said with a grin. He set her down. “Say hi to the new girl.”

Pearl turned slowly to see that yes, someone was with Steve.

“Uh, hi,” she said, shyly. “Garnet’s my best friend.”

Steve gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Yes, you are. Pearl, this is Opal. She’s my replacement come August. Opal, this gangly giraffe is one of the best waitresses the Queen’s Crown has to offer.”

Pearl smacked Steve’s arm. “Pay no attention to him.”

Opal laughed. “Kinda hafta because he’s training me.”

“Well besides that,” Pearl said. “He’s just a big dingus with a bigger heart.”

Steve blushed.

“Aww...” Opal said, “you two are cute together.”

Pearl made a fake vomiting noise. “We’re just best friends. Platonic with a capital P.”

Steve shook his head. “Ignore her.”

Opal laughed. “Five minutes in and I’m already ignoring everyone. This must be quite the friendly place.”

Just then a large man came out of the back and threw his arms wide open.

“Opal, my pet!” he boomed. “You made it. These two haven’t been giving you a hard time, have they?”

Opal shook her head. “They’ve been sweet.”

“Good, good,” Diamond said with a grin. “The bar opens in an hour. Garnet will show you everything you need to do to get stared.”

He gave them a wink and lumbered back into office.

Steve cleared his throat. “Right. So everyone pitches into to step and take down everything. Take down will include wiping everything down and sweeping and mopping the floors. Even Diamond comes out and helps wash glasses.”

Opal’s eyes went wide. “Seriously?”

Pearl nodded. “He’s kinda a if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself kind of guy. Not always, he does trust us to do our jobs, but he’s  very hands on.”

“But he doesn’t help set up?” Opal asked,

Steve looked back behind him and then back at her. “He gets the drawers ready for the day. He counts it all before hand and then we count our drawers with him after. He also counts the tip jar in front of everyone and gives everyone their percentages.”

Opal’s jaw dropped and she stared at them in shock. A man came out of the back dressed similarly to Pearl in a black button up and black slacks. While Pearl had black boots, this guy had white sneakers.

“This is Topaz, one of the other waiters,” Pearl said as the guy came up to shake her hand. “This is Opal, Garnet’s replacement.”

The guy lifted an eyebrow. “That’s some pretty big shoes to fill.”

Opal blushed. “I’m just surprised you guys are hiring six months out for that.”

Topaz shook his head. “That’s Diamond being a worry-wart again. If you don’t work out, he wants time to hire someone else.”

“You know,” Opal said, putting her hands on her hips, “for someone who insists everyone go by gem nicknames Diamond is sounding more and more like the perfect boss.”

The other three laughed.

“Pretty much,” Pearl said, “He may be an annoying hipster, but he’s good boss and he’ll take care of you.”

Topaz hip checked Steve. “Unless you’re Garnet, here.”

Steve pushed him playfully. “Shut it, man.”

Topaz laughed. “This idiot accidentally hit on Diamond’s daughter.”  

Pearl grinned. “In front of her fiance no less.”

Steve threw his arms in the air. “No one told me who they were. I had been here for like a week. And every signal she was sending me was that she was interested.”

Topaz patted him on the back. “You keep telling yourself that, man.”

Steve shook his head. “Let’s get to work before Diamond comes out and starts yelling at us.”

Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6  Part 7 Part 8 Part 9  Part 10  Part 11  Part 12 Part 13  Part 14  Part 15  Part 16 Part 17 Epilogue

Tag List: @artiststarme @allbymyselfexceptformycactus @spectrum-spectre estrellami-1 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @itsall-taken @m-owo-n @zerokrox-blog @runyousillydetective @grimmfitzz @wonderland-girl143-blog @sapphirecobalt-1@scheodingers-muppet @victor-thee-corvid @apricottree @bookbinderbitch @sleepyboosstuff @biatcgh @pixiefallingupthestairs @grtwdsmwhr @thepainisspicy @carlyv @eboyawstenn @bisexualdisastersworld @bidisastersworld @abstractnaturaldisaster

#ladykailtiha writes

[checkoutmybookshelf]

We Haven't Technically Come Full Circle Yet, But This Is Where You Know We're Going To

Ok, so even for the most die hard Artemis Fowl fans, this tends to be the book where they say the story and/or the worldbuilding goes off the rails. I am not that Artemis Fowl fan, and it wasn't until the relisten (my hardcovers are in Dad's Basement in Alaska, so lately I've been audiobooking this series) that I really understood why I wasn't as thrown by the seemingly sudden shift as everyone else was. And it's a subtle cue, but it's one that I think actually works. So let's talk Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony.

*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS*

The first Artemis Fowl book begins with Artemis and Butler sweating half to death in Ho Chi Minh City trying to buy a lead to a Fairy. It's an opening that tells us we are going to deal with heists, kidnapping, and Artemis being very much the bad guy. It gives us the genre we are going to be working in, and that's basically crime fiction, with Artemis learning not to be a complete dickhead as the character arc. We get that and it basically finishes out with The Opal Deception.

The beginning of The Lost Colony mirrors the beginning of that first book. It starts with Artemis and Butler sweating half to death on a sidewalk in Barcelona waiting for a demon to materialize. We as readers are back to--to borrow a phrase from Robert Jordan--if not THE beginning, A beginning. This is where the book tells you that we are revamping the series, and there are even clues that this will be more of a fairy tale than a crime novel. And that there will be a metric fraggle rock ton of time travel, which holds true for all the rest of the Artemis Fowl novels. Time in general is a key theme in the later books, as Artemis himself tells us when he responds to Butler's query about whether the demon is beaming down from space with "Not space, old friend, [...] Time."

We also get the most hilarious self-actualized Artemis-ism on his own puberty in this chapter:

"It's this blasted puberty, Butler. Every time I see a pretty girl, I waste valuable mind space thinking about her. The girl at that restaurant, for instance. I've glanced in her direction a dozen times in the past few minutes."

And aside from being hilarious, this also cues us into the fact that The Lost Colony is a new beginning for Artemis and the series. Our boy finally hit puberty, and he is not the same cold, focused, calculating little asshole we remember from book 1. Everything about this chapter screams "Hey, remember the first book? This ain't that." It cues the reader that this will be something different, something unexpected. I kind of love this symmetrical asymmetry approach to revamping the series.

We also get the fun of watching two geniuses mastermind against each other while learning how to puberty, and honestly I love that Minerva Paradizo exists. She is a nice little nod to the fact that Artemis is really going to be TORN between the human and fairy worlds. As I believe Philippa Boynes said of the end of Return of the King, if you want to make Frodo going with Sam have weight, you have to give him the other choice. And Eoin Colfer is setting Artemis up to HAVE the choice.

As far as our demons and wrlocks go, mostly what I have to say is that No. 1 is a delightful little cinnamon roll and I love him and I want to scritch his little demon horns.

Now. The other massive thing we need to talk about here is the climax of the book, because Artemis high-key just...time travels. And steals magic. But mostly MOTHERFUCKING TIME TRAVELS. And saves Holly's life with math. But again, TIME TRAVELS. At the end of this book, Artemis is yeeted three years into the future, so he is a 14-year-old body with a 25-year-old brain in a temporal location where he is supposed to be 17. It's peak wibbly wobbly timey wimey ball of stuff. Artemis also has one of Holly's eyes and a little spark of magic. Our boy is fully in fairy tale territory here, and this book was structured really brilliantly to transition the readers from middle grade crime fiction to borderline YA fairy tales. And honestly, if you're willing to let criminal mastermind Artemis go and grow with him (or just consider the series as having two distinct halves, as I do), then I don't actually think the series falls apart in the latter half.

Lots of Artemis Fowl fans might disagree with me on this assessment, and that's fine. You can love on the first 3-4 books and just pretend the second half of the series doesn't exist. But I really love the change, and from a purely structural, writer perspective, Eoin Colfer pulled off an IMPRESSIVE AS HELL shift.

#artemis fowl #artemis fowl the lost colony #the lost colony #domovoi butler #eoin colfer #holly short #middle grade sci fi #middle grade fantasy #middle grade books #middle grade fiction #books & libraries #books and reading #books and novels #books #book recommendations

[valiantsilver]

Pokémon Sw/Sh but it’s a British high school

Allister:

* Year Seven

* Wears a face mask everywhere

* Never speaks in class even if he’s called on

* Has a hard time talking to others so mostly just sticks around Bea

Hop:

* Year Eight

* Wants to be a linguist just like his older brother

* Sonia has seen his grades however and she knows he’s destined to be a STEM kid

* Has gotten multiple reprimands for running in the halls

Marnie

* Year Eight

* Not as shy as Allister but still pretty reserved

* Wears her leather jacket instead of her blazer (the teachers have given up on that one)

* Listens to music instead of paying attention in class but most teachers let it go since her grades are good and she isn’t disruptive

Bede

* Year Nine

* Gifted kid and absolutely insufferable about it

* Wants to go into STEM since he believes all the other subjects aren’t ‘real academics’

* Opal constantly points out how good his artwork is and he hates it (secretly loves it)

Bea

* Year Ten

* Grew up as Allister’s neighbour, sees him as a younger brother and is very protective of him

* Great at PE, not so great at other subjects

* GCSEs have her low-key stressed but she’d rather die than admit it

Milo

* Geography teacher

* The chill teacher who will just stick on a movie when he doesn’t have a lesson planned

* Students go to him for hugs when they’re feeling under the weather because Milo hugs are top tier 👌

* Super nice but low-key doesn’t know how to control his students when they get wild

Nessa

* English teacher

* Is a great teacher when she isn’t distracted by giving her students fashion advice

* Fishes outside of teaching as well as modelling - once brought a fish she had caught that morning into school and stored it in her filing cabinet

* Absolutely despises the idea that ‘maybe the curtains are just blue’ and will go on long rants about the issues with anti-intellectualism and lack of critical thinking

Kabu

* PE teacher

* Students will make fun of him for being old only to get absolutely thrashed by him in literally any sport

* Close to Bea who sees him as a mentor and confidant - as well as talking about her exam stress she also told him her worries that Allister wasn’t settling into high school well, so Kabu now keeps an eye on him as well

* Taught Raihan before he also became a teacher at the school and always reminds him how proud he is of him

Opal

* Art teacher

* Doesn’t actually show up half the time, she’ll be gone for several weeks and everyone will be convinced she’s dead only for her to just reappear with no explanation

* All of her exemplar art is pink

* She can see Bede’s artistic talent and natural inclination towards art (even if he tries to repress it), tries to encourage him to express himself more

Gordie

* History teacher

* Super young teacher, like it’s his first or second year after finishing his teaching course

* Randomly stops lessons to show his students some kind of crazy stunt he learnt like a double back flick or smth idk

* Hides the fact that Melony is his mother from students because he knows how viscous they can be

Melony

* Chemistry teacher

* Constantly finds excuses to make fake snow as an experiment

* Hate the fact that Gordie won’t acknowledge her as his mother while at work

* Once intercepted a note from her students that called her a ‘milf’, asked Gordie what it meant later that day and he lost several years from his lifespan

Piers

* Maths teacher

* Addicted to coffee, students have learnt to steer clear of his desk due to coffee breath

* Never gives homework because he knows he won’t be arsed to mark it

* He asks Marnie what ‘the kids are into’ all the time so he can slip pop culture references into his lessons to seem more ‘cool’

Raihan

* Physics teacher

* You know that ‘Welcome to Physics’ vine? That’s Raihan’s classroom

* He has a very big social media presence and new students are always flabbergasted when they find out their physics teacher is also an influencer

* Constantly sets assignments/homework which involve students having to make some kind of social media post

Leon

* French teacher

* Teaches French but knows several other languages - Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Cantonese, etc

* Was a former student who got near perfect grades, all the older teachers love him, most students love him too because he’s a good teacher while still being fun

* Brags to his students every time Hop has some kind of minor achievement

Sonia

* Biology teacher

* Students love her because sometimes she sneaks her dog into school

* One of the few teachers who will put Bede in his place instead of encouraging his ego and superiority complex

* She and Nessa go over to each other’s houses every Saturday to mark papers together + gossip about work

Oleana

* Deputy Head

* Does most of the Head’s work anyway

* Low-key terrifying, students only come to her with very serious issues

* Nobody can figure why she’s so defensive of Rose when he constantly seems to dump his responsibilities as Head onto her

Rose

* Head Teacher

* Shows up to important meetings wearing a shirt and suit jacket on top and nothing but underwear underneath his desk

* Actually a very hard worker - he’s just working on something concerning the school that isn’t exactly for educational purposes

* Has attempted to form a parental bond with Bede after finding out he lost his parents at a young age, has not succeeded

#pokemon #pokemon swsh #leon pokemon #hop pokemon #allister pokemon #bea pokemon #bede pokemon #marnie pokemon #gordie pokemon #melony pokemon #kabu pokemon #nessa pokemon #milo pokemon #opal pokemon #chairman rose #oleana pokemon #raihan pokemon #piers pokemon #sonia pokemon

[l-lenny]

Bet you can´t woo her of her feet! (pt. 1)

Fred Weasley x Slytherin! reader PART 1

SERIES MASTERLIST

TW: reader cursed, but other than that I hope none :3 (also not proof read and english is not my first language) 

My first FF hope you will like it! -Lenny ________________________________________________________________ Power. Pure blood. Beauty. Smart. Cunning. Dangerous.

Those were the words to describe her and the family of Ravens. Everybody knew the rich family of mighty merchants and dealers of magic relics, goods and fauna. They were well respected as they can get almost anything from anyone or anywhere. Their whole business is based on finding the impossible. The family had long tradition of maintaining this business. The founding father of the “Raven´s goods” Wolfe Killian Raven build great name for next generations to follow. His son and daughter Goran Azriel and Aurelia Sybil Ravens took over the bussines after their fathers death and expanded the goods to fauna and relics too. Next owner become Aurelia´s son Calder Eliphas Raven, who was the last to own the shop before his daughter Lilith Ursa Raven took over with her husband. Thanks to Lilith and Athan the business took sky high popularity. Now the shop is one of the best places to get anything and everything you wish for.

At King´s cross station stood, on platform 9 ¾ stood many young witches and wizards, waiting for the train to Hogwarts. Y/n Indigo Raven, the eldest daughter of the mighty Ravens was there waiting with her parents. Her younger brother Darius Wolfe and his twin sister Opal Estelle hugging her legs crying and already missing their sister. “Be sure to enjoy yourself.” Her father said. Y/n smiled and nodded. “Sure will!” Her mother placed hand on her head and said “We have to go to the shop soon.” The eldest daughter knew that, she was expecting this after all. Her parents were always about business. “I know, it is to make your business grow.” Her mother smiled proudly. “Of course! Smart and correct as always. I know you will be in Raven claw like me. ” she added patting her hair. The toddlers finally let her go from their big hug. Her parents bid their eldest daughter last goodbye and left with the small twins. As the girl went to the train she sit down in one of the coupes. With opened book she was going to enjoy her favorite novel and peaceful moment, when one loud girl came to the coupe. “Hi! Can I sit here?” The girl wasn´t even waiting to her answer as the silver-hair made herself comfortable. Y/n closed the book rather loudly and looked at the girls. “And who you might be?” she asked. Honestly she was interested in the loud and kinda obnoxious girl. “I am Orleana.” said the girl in front of Y/n. The eldest daughter of Ravens nodded and gave them a small smile. “You can call me Y/n.”

It wasn´t even full week in the school and Y/n was looking around each corner of Hogwarts just to memorize everything in the school. She was quick to realize where most of the ingredients for potions were and where teachers had their notes stored. The eldest daughter of Raven family was going to be continuing the family legacy. She decided that it would be beneficial. And oportunity stroke in few days, when she heard two redheads talk about getting wolf´s fangs of a prank. “-have to get a wolf´s fangs George!” said one to the other. Y/n stayed hidden and listen to the voices. “Fred, where would we found a wolf´s fangs now?! You should have told me before!” said the other voice. Y/n was in fact aware where to  get them. She actually got them from supply cabinet for her experiment. “I can help you with that.” She said as she revealed herself. There were two boys in front of her eyes. Twins with flaming hair and red ties. “Bloody hell did it had to be slytherin who cought us?” Cursed one of them. “I said I would help you, right?” the girl folded her arms and smirked. “Why?” asked the boys at the same time. “I want to start a business. I am sure I could find a way to get you anything! But anything has a prize right?” She stated. The boys looked at each other and asked suspiciously “Anything?” they asked at the same time. “like ingredients?” asked Fred. “like test answers?” asked George. “like information?” asked Fred again. “like esseys?” asked George again. While the girl nodded. “Yes to all of that. I can find anything! Just like my mom and dad. They own the Raven´s goods after all” said little girl with confidence and showed them her palm full of their desired ingredient. The twins jaws dropped. This was deal of the century! Still they were sceptical about her motive because she was a slytherin. But in the moment they agreed. “What do you want for the wolf´s fangs?” they asked. “Because you are my first costumers I will get you a good deal. Spread a word around, that I can get anything for anyone and we will be even.”

Trough the years her clientele enormously grew. She was treated with more respect then before. Eaven royalty would be jealous. She was pride of her class. Everyone in the school knew who she was and why she was famous, although no one dared to tell the teachers. But the rumors were spread that even teachers asked for things of her small bussiness. She grew into a dealer with incredible skills and respect of others. One of her regular costumers were her first costumers, the Weasley twins. And she was getting more busy by the day, specifically around exam period. Every house would want something around this time, even if they would be suspicious of her. She also grew into intelligent, witty, kinda smug, brilliant and beautiful witch. Y/n did get a lot of admirers through the years, but everyone of them stayed hidden in the shadows in fear of rejection or her wrath.

________________________________________________________________

“Of course I am the more handsome twin!” Argued Fred. “Says who?” deadpanned the younger twin. “Says me!” Yelled the older Weasley twin. “What are you two arguing about?” asked Angelina, obviously annoyed with her friends, who had been very loud this morning. They weren't mad at each other, just brotherly bickering. Angelina seemed mad at them, because they have been very loud and obnoxious, more than usual. “About who is more handsome.” Said Fred and looked the girl in the eye. “Say, Angie... the one and only Angelina with joyful eyes and blinding smile, I am the more handsome twin, right?” He winked at her and the girl blused. “Come on mate! Not fair.” Pouted George and slap his brother on his shoulder.  Obviously pointing at the fact that Angelina did fancy Fred. With quick “shut up, I don´t know” the girl returned to her food, small smile on her lips. “Let´s make a bet then!” Offered George. Confident in his new brilliant idea. “The first girl we see come to the great hall you will try to win over. If you woo her of her feet I will publicly announce that you are the more attractive twin.” George explained. Fred smirked and shake hands with his brother. “You are going to loose! 5 galleons on top that.” Stated the older ginger, smiling and agreeing on the terms.

Both of the twins were waiting for a girl to come trough door in great hall. And than the loud bang came though the door and there walked very pissed girl with the most beautiful eyes. Both of the twins knew her. The slytherin pride and joy, treated as royalty, filthy rich and powerful girl Y/n Indigo Raven. They were both so dead if caught!

She was fuming and giving death stare towards a slytherin table. She stormed towards Adrian Pucey avadake davra written in her firing gaze. “Adrian bloody Pucey!” The boy in question turned to her, visibly shaken. “Can you explain yourself?!” She showed a book in his face. Fred and George were enjoying the show and then again, the thought of seducing this firecracker settled in. “You are so dead...” George said. It wasn´t a fact that they would be scared, more that they did kinda respected her. And for the twins to respect someone means something. “Why in the bloody hell would you do this?” The girl screamed in his face. “Come on! I know you love the idea-” the boy was quickly shushed by the girl´s finger. “Don´t fuck with me Pucey! I loathe the idea of being with you in the same house, room and universe… isn't it enough that we share the same oxygen?! ” she said with a freezing tone. The boy swallowed hard and shifted in his seat. After this the girl left and after her there was Orleana. Fred and George were looking at each other in shock. 

“How much time do I have?” Asked the older ginger. “Dunno mate. How about a month?” Suggested the younger one. “Deal” they said at the same time. George was curious though “How will you make her fall for you?” he asked. The older boy smirked, already forming a plan. “You will see my dear brother.”

________________________________________________________________

“Y/n!” yelled rather short girl with shiny, curly silver hair. Said girl stopped and looked at her friend. “Yea?” she asked plainly. “What happened? You just said you would look for your potions book! Not that you would yell at Adrian!” Orleana started asking about the debacle in great hall. That morning before the breakfast Y/n forgot her potions book and returned to her room to look for it. How ever when someone messes with her stuff, she can´t forgive them that easily. “He wrote in my book without my knowledge or permission, see?” Y/n showed her potions book. In fact there was a writing that wasn't hers. “Go out with me. Tomorrow at Hogsmeade. -Yours Adrian” when the words left the shorter girls mouth she made discussed face. “He didn´t even asked you?! It´s like he orderd you to do it.” she was fuming now. “I will break his nose.” That made Y/n´s day a bit better. She didn’t like Adrian Pucey at all. She didn´t even spoke to him that much. Yet he had the audacity to write in her book. “Orle, you can´t...you will get yourself in detention. I will not go trough the dark forest again just to get your ass out of trouble.” smiled the taller girl. “You go there on daily basis!” pouted the silverhead. “But that's because its for my costumers! You know, the ones that actually pay?” argued Y/n in a mocking maner. “Hey! I said I will pay you when my dad will give me back my allowance.” Orleana pouted more, while the girl in front of her giggled. ________________________________________________________________

PART 2: here PS: Orleana is just my OC :)

#harry potter #fred weasley x slytherin!reader #fred wealsey fic #fred weasley #fred weasly x reader #harry potter ff #fanfic #fanfiction #y/n #fred x y/n #fred x you #fred weasley x you #fred weasley x y/n #hp #hp golden era #bet #bet trope #writing

[sxyphen]

soooo I made some morphology's and outfits for td charcters, here’s what I have so far (warning, this is gonna be long)

Gwen: outfit (Female Pearlcatcher; teal Jupiter, obsidian Basic, and emerald Basic) This is one of my personal favorites, it's simple but it works really well, but you'll see the morphologies and outfits get more complicated soooo

Courtney: outfit (Female Coatl; sand Cherub, camo Constellation, and wisteria Basic) Another favorite, she just looks pretty :3

Duncan: outfit (Male Bogsneak, eldritch Cinder, fern Blaze, and flaxen Basic) Silly little eepy guy, I feel like this is probably the most accurate dragon of any td character i've made. not much to say about him tho

Alejandro: outfit (Male Imperial; coral Python, maroon Shimmer, and blood Smoke) This is actually a dragon that I have, you can check him out here, but it actually took a couple tries to get an outfit that I think works with him lol

Bridgette: outfit (Female Skydancer; caribbean Lionfish, sanddollar Shimmer, and cobalt Okapi) nothing much to say other than, pretty :3

Geoff: outfit (Male Pearlcatcher; magenta Clown, ivory Butterfly, and strawberry Spines) same with Bridgette, I wanted them to be matching, cause, y'know. they kiss :<, but I honestly prefer this one over Bridgette (the outfit, not the morphology)

Harold: outfit (Male Ridgeback; periwinkle Skink, orange Hex, and fern Stained) I'm really happy with how this came out, even if it took a couple redos lol, and the steampunk apparel works with Harold's, vibe

ok for some stupid reason I can't put the pictures of Beth, Justin, Katie and Sadie [im on pc], so I'm just going to link the morphologies here: Beth (Female Aether; ivory Candy, magenta Butterfly, and shamrock Wish), Justin (Male Aether; bronze Boa, hunter Daub, and overcast Flutter), Katie and Sadie (Female Aberration; brown Pinstripe, ivory Flair, and cottoncandy Koi)

Ezekiel: outfit (Male Wildclaw; algae Pinstripe, soil Patchwork, and stonewash Veined) My favorite tbh, can't really explain why it just, ✨does✨

Feral Ezekiel: outfit (Male Mirror; fern Stiched, camo Patchwork, and cobalt Ghost) yeah, i made the eepy. i changed the breed cause 1) it reflects how ezekiel changed after his mutation, and 2) Male Wildclaw's position(?) isn't creaturey enough

Leshawna: outfit (Female Obelisk; ginger Falcon, obsidian Rosette, and cerise Contour) Nothing much to say about this one tbh, she looks real pretty tho :D

Owen: outfit (Male Snapper; metals Ground, marigold Safari, and teal Koi) I like this one, it's simple but unfortunately i couldn't find anything to represent his maple leaf :(

Cody: outfit (Male Coatl; gold Swirl, twilight Fissure, and copper Contour) i'm honestly not happy with this one, specifically the outfit. might redo this one later, and remove all the autumn stuff

DJ: outfit (Male Tundra; camo Python, brown Constellation, and dust Runes) lookie, is my boy :3333333333

Izzy: outfit (Female Mirror; sunshine Clown, pear Eye Spots, and avocado Gembond) really happy with this one, it fits her well and gives off her craziness :>

Sierra: outfit (Female Spiral; jade Clown, mulberry Hypnotic, and blackberry Opal) i'm very lucky to have found the apparel that i did for her, cause if i didn't, i have no idea what outfit to have given her ;-; but yeah she pretty

Eva: outfit (Female Snapper; cobalt Falcon, sapphire Peregrine, and obsidian Spines) big buff lady :D

Tyler: outfit (Male Ridgeback; cherry Jupiter, sable Eel, and white Basic) A fan of this one, and the Love's Herald was a gift from Lindsay. and now thinking about it, i might wanna make some lore for this. it's a big maybe though

Lindsay: outfit (Female Fae; garnet Flaunt, honey Jester, and cornflower Scales) i don't know how to feel abt this one, not a fan of it. and also will probably redo the outfit. the morphology i can live with.

Noah: outfit (Male Nocturne; brown Jupiter, pthalo Safari, and crimson Underbelly) another favorite, it gives off very Noah vibes lol (and i just realized that he shares a gene with Owen. so do with that information as you will)

Trent: outfit (Male Skydancer; algae Viperia, forest Eel, and obsidian Koi) I love this one, gives off very bard/guitarist kinda vibes. and if there was lore, i imagine trent would be a nomad entertainer, playing in small towns and cities, and maybe at a bar or two

Chris: outfit (Male Fae; forest Falcon, teal Myrid, and obsidian Smoke) look, it's him, the guy!!!!/j but in all seriousness, this is literally just him. entitled little short king who slays (i also have one for Chef, but it's yucky :,<)

i had one for Heather, but I deleted the outfit for her, which was of a dragon that i already sold, soooooooo i'm just gonna make a new one for her :3 also thank you for reading this long ass post (if you actually did), it means a lot to me :3

#total drama #td alejandro #td noah #td courtney #td cody #td gwen #td heather #td leshawna #td dj #td duncan #td beth #td owen #td bridgette #td lindsay #td trent #td geoff #td tyler #td eva #td sierra #td izzy #td ezekiel #td feral ezekiel #feral ezekiel #td harold #td katie #td sadie #td justin #flight rising #snapper #coatl

[friendofcars]

I know a lot of people have pointed out that Maura, Calla, and Persephone serve as mirrors for/are counterparts of Gansey, Ronan, and Adam, but before she is Adam's mirror, if she is at all, Persephone is Noah's. As time loops, Noah has died, is dying, will die, and so will persephone- something of which I think they're both aware. they reflect each other's ghostly qualities. more on Adam later, though!

(in hindsight, part of this list reads like diagnostic criteria. unintentional on my part. take from that what you will. this is also really long. it gets more analytical towards the end.)

From a more meta (?) perspective, I think the purpose of Noah and Persephone being parallels to one another is to foreshadow Persephone’s death (in concert with her name) via parallel descriptions and narrative roles to noah: a lot of her descriptions and actions are ghost-like, not just generally, but Noah-like too!

1. appearance and impressions: light, vague, approximate, ephemeral - except for their dark eyes

“There was something out of place about his clothing, his mostly combed-back fair hair.”

“Persephone knelt on the edge of her bed, draping a crimped pale cloud of hair around Blue’s face.” (I think it's also worth mentioning here that the woman who dies in Opal is described as cloud-like).

“[O]ne was smudgy, just as he said, with a rumpled, faded look about his person, like his body had been laundered too many times.”

“He looked pale and insubstantial in the yellow, late-night light of the room behind him; the skin beneath his eyes was darker than anything. He looked less like Noah than the suggestion of Noah.”

“For a second, all that seemed to be visible was his pale face; his dark clothing invisible and his eyes chasms into someplace unknowable.”

“Noah’s chin ducked farther, his expression somehow black, his eye sockets hollowed and skull-like. Were they looking at a boy? Or something that looked like a boy?”

“He thought of what a cruel mockery that mirror-version of her had been, the terrible child-creature from his ritual before. Nothing like this airy whisper of a person in front of him now. ”

“When pressed, people often remembered Persephone’s hair: a long, wavy white-blond mane that fell to the back of her thighs. If they got past her hair, they sometimes recalled her dresses — elaborate, frothy creations or quizzical smocks. And if they made it past that, they were unsettled by her eyes, true mirror black, the pupils hidden in the darkness.”

“Persephone blinked up, her black eyes a little far away.”

“A mirage had appeared at the end of the exit ramp, only now that they looked a bit harder, it was a real person, behaving like an unreal person... Her hair was a blond frothy cloud and her skin was chalky. Except for her black eyes, everything about her was as pale as the psychic beside Maura was dark.”

“He was, Adam noted, nearly disappeared already. He was more the feeling of Noah than actually Noah.”

“He thought of what a cruel mockery that mirror-version of her had been, the terrible child-creature from his ritual before. Nothing like this airy whisper of a person in front of him now. ”

Even her tarot cards resemble Noah: "Spidery lines and smudgy backgrounds suggested the figures on each card..."

2. movement and body language

“Czerny was on the ground. Not dead, but dying. His legs still pedaled on the uneven surface beside his red car, making drifts of fallen leaves behind him.” Re: drifts- I associate both Noah and Persephone with air (especially as a symbol of dwindling life).

“Persephone was a poor but energetic sleeper; her midnight shouting and nocturnal leg paddling ensured that she never had to share a room.”

Like the tarot cards, Persephone's belongings look and act like Noah's dying body: “Most of the bed was covered by strange, embroidered leggings and plaid tights running in place...”

“Noah seemed about to put his hands in his pockets and then didn’t. Noah’s hands seemed to belong fewer places than other people’s.”

“She twirled a hand around in a vague sort of way. Blue took this as a sign to find a place to sit.”

“Behind her, Persephone stood in the doorway, her hands clasping and unclasping each other.”

“Noah made a series of incomprehensible gestures, more agitated than she’d seen him.”

“ Noah immediately spotted Gansey and made a generalized flapping gesture.”

“Persephone flapped a hand as if it was too difficult for her to explain.”

“When he straightened, he realized Noah had drifted from his room to stand near Gansey.”

“Persephone tended to get caught in odd drafts and blow around.”

“Behind them, the stairs creaked, and both Calla and Blue leapt...She’d gotten over her shock and was now merely angry at being shocked. “You should make some noise when you enter rooms.”

“Noah. You’re creepy as hell back there.” In the deep, shadowed entrance of the church, Noah stood silently.”

“Because it was rare that Blue noticed the moment Noah actually appeared.”

“Persephone, and the furniture lurked against the walls.”

Both Noah and Persephone often seem childlike in comparison to their friends, too, emphasized by their preternatural knowledge of the story (Noah's through nonlinear time experience, Persephone's through psychic ability).

3. quiet and distant voices

“Persephone’s tiny, breathy voice said, “It’s available. I mean, open.”

“Her dainty, child’s voice was soft enough that Blue had to hold her breath to hear it. ”

“Oh dear,” Persephone said in a small voice — and Persephone’s voice was already quite small, so her small voice was indeed tiny — but she turned and went up the stairs. Her bare feet were soundless as she did.”

“One at a time?” Persephone suggested, her voice nearly inaudible.”

“Noah’s voice, cool and barely there, whispered in her ear. “Please say something to them.” ...Noah’s voice was faint but desperate. His distress hummed through her. “Please.”

“He thought he heard Noah’s voice, distantly... “I’m sorry. Can you say it louder, Noah?”

“Noah, who could go unnoticed for hours, whose room was pristine, whose voice was never raised.”

“Persephone’s quiet voice cut through Maura’s and Calla’s increasingly loud competition.”

“Noah, who could go unnoticed for hours, whose room was pristine, whose voice was never raised.”

“Persephone finally spoke up in her tiny voice.”

“Now,” Persephone said, and her voice was very small and soft. “Are you the Magician? Or aren’t you?”

“She sighed deeply. She sighed a lot.”

“Even though Ronan was snarling and Noah was sighing and Adam was hesitating, he didn’t turn to verify that they were coming.”

4. obscurity/evasion of others' memories

“-it was always difficult to know details when it came to Persephone-”

“Adam,” he demanded, “what is Noah’s last name?” Before Gansey had asked, Adam felt as if he must have known. But now the answer slid away from his mouth and then from his thoughts entirely, leaving his lips parted. It was like losing his way to class, losing his way home, forgetting the phone number for Monmouth Manufacturing. “I don’t know,” Adam admitted.”

“Everyone had been surprised to discover Persephone had a last name.”

“Maura offered, “It’s the Russian in you.” “Estonian,” Persephone replied.”

and soon after,

“Maura gestured toward the third member of their group. “And Persephone is Russian.” “Estonian,” Persephone corrected softly.”

The fact that only a handful of characters can see Noah also applies here. A lot of the examples in the appearance section also fall under this category!

5. recycled language: from other people and other points in time

“Good morning,” Persephone echoed. “It’s too early. My words aren’t working, so I’ll just use as many of the ones that work for you as possible.”

“No,” Adam said softly. Persephone echoed, “No?”

“He’ll be a champ,” Blue said, punching Noah’s arm lightly. “I’ll be a champ,” repeated Noah.”

“Is that all?” she whispered. Gansey closed his eyes. “That’s all there is.”

and then,

“Noah, standing next to a pile of plywood and four-by-fours, asked, “Is that all? That doesn’t seem like very much.”

and a three part example:

“Ronan was right. Things felt bigger. He may not have found the line, or the heart of the line, but something was happening, something was starting. Noah said, “Don’t throw it away.” This is right after Ronan kills the wasp in Monmouth and deposits it in the waste basket, but Noah is, of course, referring to Gansey's second chance at life, for which Noah has sacrificed himself.

and

“Don’t throw it away,” Noah whispered. “I’m trying not to,” Adam replied.” This is right before Adam takes the Camaro to Cabeswater to stop Whelk. Noah is now referring to Adam's chance to make a sacrifice to Cabeswater and wake the line, to supplant himself in the story where Noah left off. This is perhaps the point at which Adam definitively sets along the path that leads him to Persephone, but first, before he goes, he mirrors Noah one last time: “Noah stood directly in front of him, hollow eyes on level with Adam’s eyes, smashed cheek on level with Adam’s ruined ear, breathless mouth inches from Adam’s sucked-in breath.” The parallel injuries, the opposing presence/absence of air (read: life)- it's a turning point! It's almost as if Noah starts to cede his mirroring of Persephone to Adam in this moment- he doesn't lose the qualities he and Persephone have in common, but they become secondary as Persephone's primary role in the story crystalizes as a mentor to Adam. I think you could also consider Persephone not as a mirror to Adam but a lens- microscopic, telescopic, or both. She's instrumental in his psychic awakening and self healing and does so by teaching him to shift his perspective, to look both within himself and far beyond himself, finding the connections in between. I still think Adam and Persephone mirror one another, especially with regard to their generally quiet and distant demeanors and psychic abilities that distinguish them from their friends, but it's a parallel that gets crafted mid-story, not a parallel that frames the story from the start- even if Adam is inherently psychic independent of his sacrifice, which I think he is!

and finally,

“Goodbye,” Noah said. “Don’t throw it away.” I don't think this needs any further commentary:(

6. relationships with friends: noah + gansey and persephone + maura

Gansey and Maura can also be considered mirrors of one another; given Gansey's experiences with falling into cavern pits, the Henry hole in the ground situation, etc., we can tenuously equate Gansey's (second) death with Maura's disappearance into the caves. Noah knows that Gansey is fated to die through his nonlinear experience of time (time along the ley line in particular, I believe). Persephone is implied to have known Maura was going to disappear too: when the characters return to Fox Way in the epilogue of The Dream Thieves and find Maura's note, we read: “As Persephone climbed the stairs, Calla said accusingly, “This is your fault. Did you know this was going to happen?” Noah is also aware that he cannot stay in the story forever ("I'm almost gone anyway"), and it seems to me that Persephone knows she will die too (mainly because her giving her tarot cards to Adam seems like a precautionary measure/a parting gift). I'd even go as far as saying that Noah dies for Gansey and Persephone dies for Maura, although they "die for" their respective friends in different ways (Noah designates his death as a sacrifice for Gansey's life; Persephone dies in the process of trying to save Maura's- but unlike Noah's death, her death is not integral to Maura's survival. Two distinct actions and outcomes, but not entirely unrelated ones. I'd argue they both make the biggest sacrifices for Gansey/Maura in their respective groups of friends.).

And because I can't not make this about Adam again, Persephone herself doesn't see Adam as like her: in the prologue of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Persephone comments on how new to life he seems (in contrast with her agelessness), how she isn't suited to bargains like he is, and especially this:

“She was a far better psychic when she had her two friends Calla and Maura with her: Calla to sort through her impressions and Maura to put them in context. Adam seemed to have potential in this department, though he was too new to replace Maura— no, that was a ridiculous way to put it, Persephone told herself, you don’t replace friends. She struggled to think of the proper word. Not replace.”

Like the Gray Man (see "Adam Parrish and his band of merry men" which sort of happens in a contrived way in TD3 w/ the Crying Club being rather unmerry men), Persephone recognizes Adam as a leader of the kids' quest, much like Maura's leadership amongst the psychics of Fox Way.

7. other notes

I think it's worth mentioning that Noah doesn't enter 300 Fox Way until after Persephone's death. I haven't reasoned out why exactly, but I think it's intentional.

They're both harmed by literal mirrors (not narrative foils nor the Blue/Gwenllian type of mirror)- when Gwenllian possesses Noah, Jesse Dittley halts the possession by putting a mirror in front of Noah, which makes him incredibly distressed. Persephone, of course, dies between the mirrors in perpetuum in the Fox Way attic.

In the epilogue of The Dream Thieves, Persephone and Adam flank Noah as Ronan brings Aurora into Cabeswater: “And there was Noah, shoulders slumped, hand lifted in an apologetic wave. On one side of him, Adam stood, hands in pockets, and on the other side was Persephone, her fingers twisted together.” In the same section, Ronan realizes Aurora looks like Matthew, which to me serves as an implicit reminder to consider how Noah and Adam are similar to Persephone as well.

I don't really have any summative thoughts on this, but I think it would have been incredibly cool if Persephone turned out to be a ghost as well... but alas...

#rchl #trc #noah #persephone #adam #the raven cycle #noah czerny #persephone poldma #adam parrish #maura sargent #gansey #im a little remorseful about making a 2.3k word tumblr post #i wanted to make this concise but the autistic urge to include every piece of evidence i found in the books was too strong xoxo

[littlebignoona]

BOUND TO YOU:

if two people can’t stay away from each other, maybe they aren’t meant to be apart.

CHAPTER 1

"Venus, stop messing with the children." "Uncle, I don't see the point of being here with... strangers." "These people are my welcomed guess." "Really?" She glanced at the teens up and down before nodding. "I'll be in my room." She walked off, taking her book and her cat with her. "Fun, isn't she?" "Who is she?" "My niece, Venus Polaris Black the only heir left besides myself to the household Black." "Is she evil?", questioned Ron as he watched her disappear up the stairs. "Actually no, just stubborn, a Black family trait. Along with the astronomical name and signature ice eyes and opal hair. Please, be kind to her, she hasn't been in a loving environment,since her mother died." "I wonder how Harry would react to her." "Yeah, she just screams Slytherin." "She is not a Slytherin." "Oh?" "As far as I know, she is just a teenage girl who needs a home, so please, be nice."

Sirius leaves them, heading to Venus' room, who was petting her cat. "Venus? Can we talk?" Venus flicked her hand, unlocking the door. She was sitting in the middle of her bed, reading her book with her cat on her lap. "How are you?" "I want to go home." "You can't, your grandparents sent you here to be safe." "How safe can I be, when you have him coming here." "Harry is also to be protected." Venus rolled her eyes as she stood up, her cat, Moon, yawned rolling on his belly. "Uncle, I know that he means a lot to you, but I don't care. I want to go home." "Whether you like it or not Venus, I am your home now." He gently held her face, softly looking into her eyes. "You look a lot like my brother.... but you have your mother's fire in your eyes." Her eyes watered as she thought of her mother.

He let her go, heading down stairs. "Will you be joining us for dinner?" "No...Not tonight." he nodded, closing her door staring at the words that were engraved on the door. R.A.B. He gently touched over the letters, his heart felt heavy, before walking away. 

After hours had passed, and Harry arrived. He was sitting in the living room, watching the fire. He heard someone walk in. Making him look at the noise. "oh, hello there..." Venus was holding Moon, as she stood in her black sweats and loose black long sleeve. "Do people know that you are down here by yourself?" Her slight cockney accent peaking out of her trained posh accent. "I wanted to be alone...same as you I guess." Her lips slightly twitched upwards before her face went blank. "I guess." "I'm Harry." "I know?" Her amusement was heard in her slight teasing tone. "Venus Black. Niece." Harry looked at her for a long time. 

She was pretty. Not magically beautiful but pretty enough to catch your attention. She stood tall, like she knew what she wanted. As he looked deeply at her, she studied him. He was cute. Not enough for her to want to marry him but enough for her to appreciate his boyish charm. He sat slouched, like the weight of the world was crushing his shoulders. And it was. 

"Why are you up so late?" "Not tired. You?" "Thirsty....Wanna drink?" He stared at her for a good long minute before nodding. She put her cat on the couch before getting the fire whiskey. They sat watching the fire, as the cat sat between them. They didn't talk about their lives, just drank in silence. She brought out her cigarettes, lighting one up, before taking a puff. She offered it to him, and he just stared at her before taking it. His hands gently grazed over hers. Ice cold. 

She lit one up for herself, smoking and drinking in silence. "So...You like reading?" He looked at her. "No, not really. But I don't mind it. Do you like quidditch?" "No, never understood it?" They had nothing in common. "Do you have any pets?" "Just Moon. I've always wanted an owl." "I have an owl, Hedwig, she is a beautiful snow owl." "I wanted one when I was little, but on my way to the pet store, I found Moon, hiding in a moonshine box of liquor. I just knew his devious little tail had to be mine." Moon purred as he laid on Harry's lap. Harry gently stroked the cat.

They spent the next couple hours, talking about themselves. What they liked, what they dreamed of. But never their reality. Soon they felt tired, and headed up to bed. "Hey Venus....Thanks." "Don't mention it." They went to sleep, as the house slowly woke up. 

Venus slept peacefully, as everyone else was wide awake. 

She didn't spend her days with the others, but spent her nights with Harry. Nobody knew what was going on, the adults were oblivious. Well everyone but the twins and Sirius. The twins walked passed the room when they heard Venus and Harry talking. They wanted to tease the young teens, but when they saw how peaceful they looked, they knew it would be wrong of them to ruin their moment. However, Sirius walked down stairs and saw them at the fire. He knew they were drinking, plus he could smell the smoke. But when looking at them, he saw a spark between them. 

He watched as they sat in silence. Just enjoying each other's presence. He would sneak back to his room, staying awake until he heard them walk up the stairs. It reminded him of the times he would catch James and Lily just sitting there, enjoying the company of one another. It was beautiful.

One night, Harry's eyes traced the tattoos on her hands. The dark ink on her pale skin. It was captivating. 

"Why a moon?" She put her book down, giving him attention. "Why not?" He rolled his eyes. Venus just laughed. "Moon for Moon." "And that one?" "For protection, its a spell tattoo. I have a couple more."  how many?" She sat up, moving her hand to show him. She tapped her skin, and the tattoos started moving. She had a heart tattoo, a moon, a protection symbol, and some words printed on her skin. "I have bigger ones, but I don't want to show you all my secrets." He touched them, and chills spread throughout her skin. He traced them, and found himself tracing his hand over her arm. His eyes met hers, and soon they felt very exposed to each other. She coughed, moving away, grabbing her book. "Well, I feel tired. I'll see you later." Harry stood up, following her up the stairs, before grabbing her wrist. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable, please...don't leave." She turned to look at him, seeing the desperate look in his eyes. She felt strange, as he stared at her like she had never been looked at before. Like he knew who she was, and why she was running away. She hated that feeling, the feeling of not knowing what to do. She let him take her up to her room, let him in her room, let him sit across from her on her bed, let him lay side by side on her bed, let herself feel safe next to him. 

She shouldn't. Because she wasn't. Not while she was a Black. Especially not while she was next to Harry Potter. She laid on her back on her bed as he looked at her. She was beautiful. Not the type of beautiful that was memorizing, but the type that just made you want to look. She looked at him as he looked away. He was handsome. Not enough for you to want to marry him, but the type that had a special charm to him. They laid in silence, as they fell asleep, Moon was laying between them, as the warm blankets covered all three of them. 

Sirius opened her door slightly, catching them asleep. He smiled slightly as he realized that they were sleeping side ways on the bed. Venus was curled up, and Harry laid towards her, as if he fell asleep staring at her. His arm was stretched out, his hand was touching her hair, as she had her head tucked towards her chest. Moon was curled up between them, enjoying the warmth. Sirius walked over, and covered them. He put the blanket correctly over them, and turned off the lights. He stared at them for another minute before closing the door. He walked towards his room, pulling an album from his book shelf, and opening it. It was James and Lily, asleep sideways on the bed, with their ugly orange cat between them. James fell asleep looking at Lily, as if protecting her from the world. Lily fell asleep petting the cat, her head was tucked in towards her chest. Their cat was basking in the warmth. Sirius sat down on the floor as the tears filled his eyes. 

He flipped the page, finding his little brother staring at him, a young woman in his arms. They were smiling at the camera. It was taken before Marie was pregnant. They were just kids, not knowing of the dangers they were going to face. These kids didn't deserve this kind of life. They needed their parents, they needed a safe place. They needed each other. He closed the book, as he gripped his head. He cried, silently, and no one ever heard his cries.

*

*

*

*VENUS*

The sun was hitting my eyes, and I felt warm. I opened them, finding Harry across from me, still asleep. I moved, stretching, as a small yawn escaped my mouth. I glanced at the mirror from my bed, and found my hair in a nest instead of the braid that I had it in. I fixed it, before getting up. I grabbed the clock, 6 a.m., throwing it back on the dresser, and opened the curtains. The sun was barely touching the sky, pink painted what I could see. I heard movement behind me, before I felt Harry stand behind me. "Beautiful sky." I nodded, as he leaned to open the window. The air was nice as it hit our skin. "How did you sleep Venus?" "Fine, you?" "Fine. Although I did wake up due to Moon's tail hitting my face." I snorted as I turned to look at him. His hair was messier than normal. He ran his hands through his hair, trying to fix it but it made me laugh. 

"What? What's wrong?" "Your hair." I went up to touch it but he just grabbed my hand before I could fix it. "What are you doing?" "Nothing, just fixing your hair." "Don't." I nodded, as his tone was soft but stern. There was a knock at the door. "Who is it?" "Me. I need to speak to you." I waved for Harry to hide- "Harry too." He looked at me wide eyed, before I went over to open the door. Uncle Sirius walked in, closing the door behind him. "I need to talk about this. What is this?" "This-?" "It's just us hanging out Sirius." "Really, nothing more?" "What? No, it's nothing. I promise." I said as Harry looked down at his feet. "Okay, because if there is something going on. I would like to know. Also, there are safety spells for you know...." I glanced at Harry who scratched the back of his head. "Well, don't worry about us Sirius, because nothing is going on between us. Promise."

Harry walked out, as it was just Uncle Sirius and I. "I need to talk to you." "What?" "You're mother was younger than you, when she met my brother. She didn't like him at first, but after spending some time with him, he ended up winning her over and they fell in love. During a very difficult time, because he was....already promised to a pure blood of my mother's choosing. You're grandfather, didn't like how my family was and were considered blood traitors, but your parents were in love. She soon became pregnant, and they ran away, nine months later, you were born, and Regulus believed you would be safe in the care of your grandparents. So he sent you and your mother to live with them, as he went off to war. She was just a girl, having a child herself, not prepared for this life, but she was determined for you to live a happy life." "Then she died.", I said, my eyes stinging as I looked out the window. The sun was fully seen in the sky. "She died, because she loved you very much." "If she really loved me, she would have found a way to stay." He stared at me, not saying a thing before sighing. He got up and walked over to a dresser. Opening it, he pulled out something before sitting down next to me. I took the frame, cleaning over the collected dust. 

It was my parents, sitting and smiling into a camera, wearing school uniforms, my mother was wearing a red tie, as my father wore a green one. He was hugging her, as she had one hand in the air and the other wrapped about his neck. I touched their faces, tracing what youth they had before they died. "Why are you telling me all this?", I quietly said. "I know that you and Harry have been secretly meeting at night when you think everyone is asleep, and as your guardian, for both of you, I want you two to be safe." "We aren't doing anything." "Yet." He got up from the bed, walking out the room, peaking his head in once last time. "See you at breakfast?" I nodded. He closed the door. 

I got ready, pulling a white shirt over blue jeans, walking with my hair loose, and my cat following me. I walked into the dinning room, and all the people were there. They all stopped when they noticed me walk in. The twins looked at each other, nodding. "Toast?" "Or fruit?" They asked, holding up food. I nodded, sitting quietly near them, as everyone slowly resumed to the things they were doing. I ate as the twins started including me in their conversation. "So, do they ask you for I.D on those tattoos lovely little planet." "No, my neighbor worked at a magical tattoo shop, called, Lucky One." "And he just you know, let you get a tattoo?" "No questions? You're such a small thing, and he just willingly did this?" "Well, my grandfather had a couple, and agreed to let me just get one. But one turned into multiple." "Should we get one?" "Well if we do, we should get something cool!" "Like...a dragon!" I snorted as I bit into my toast. 

I ate the rest of my food in their company, not realizing that the chosen one was staring at me. 

*HARRY*

I woke up in her room, and that was the moment I felt in peace. But now she is sitting at the end of the table, talking to the twins as if we didn't have a moment between us. Her tattoos were exposed, and I could hear both Hermione and Ginny judging her. "She thinks she is all that because she's got a couple of tattoos." "I like them, they look cool." Ron piped in with food stuffed in his mouth. "Ron, she looks trashy-" "I think they are nice." I said, stopping the girls from insulting her any more. Her laugh could be heard from the end of the table, causing us to stare at her. She was covering her face, hiding it, as the twins made jokes with her. 

It was soon time for me to disappear to the ministry, everyone bidding me goodbye, Venus watching from the stairs, the Twins standing in front of her, as if hiding her from anyone's point of view. I looked at her, as she looked at me. Her eyes spoke the words that she refused to let leave her mouth. 

'everything will be fine, I'll be here waiting for you.' 

I nodded, and with that, I made my way out of the safety of the Black household

#harry potter #harry potter smut #james potter #hogwarts legacy #hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry #sirius black #regulus black #ron weasley #fred weasley #george weasley #weasley twins #draco malfoy #slytherin #gryffindor #hufflepuff #ravenclaw #magic #romance #fanfic

[captastra]

OC Interview

Thanks for the tag @theelderhazelnut 💗! Decided to do the interview for my newest oc, Death Lily, featuring her banner :D! This got pretty long so all under the cut. I also had fun with this so it takes place at Lily’s home after Tangerine and Lemon show up at her apartment with Tangerine on deaths door. After he’s in the clear, Lily and Lemon take a breather and Lemon decides to get to know the woman that has captured his brother’s heart.

Lily collapsed in her favorite chair, feeling the cushion start to give way around her, shaping to her body in a welcomed bliss. Taking a few deep breaths, she reached for the glass of wine she had carried over. She took a long sip, willing the liquid to calm her nerves after the events of the last couple of hours. The effects weren’t quick but what little she had started to feel calmed her racing heart.  

Lemon sat across from her, one hand petting her cat Smudge while he glared at her. 

“What,” Lily finally asked, her nerves too shot to ignore him. That didn’t stop her from shooting a glare at Smudge in betrayal. 

“Nothing. Just trying to understand what my brother sees in you,” he said, shaking his head and gesturing with his free hand as if in indifference. But Lily could see otherwise. 

She shrugged, taking another sip of wine. “He likes a challenge? I fill a hole he’s always had? I don’t know what answer you expect from me. If that’s what he wants, then that’s what matters.” Lily was too tired to put up a good show, not now. It was probably the most authentic she had been with anyone, or anyone other than Opal...and Tangerine. 

Lemon snorted. “Since you seem to be in a more genuine mood, let's play a game.” He picked up a magazine next to him, flipping to some page she couldn’t see. “Saw this quiz and decided, you know, since you intrigue me with what you are as a train, I’ll try it your way.” 

He held up the magazine and Lily recognized what looked like one of those basic magazine quizzes that mean absolutely nothing and yet they constantly sold as life altering. 

“Really? You want to do this now?” She glanced through the open door just to the left of her. From where she sat, she could just make out the rise and fall of Tangerines chest as he laid in her bed asleep. 

“Yup. You agree with me, right Smudge?” The cat that had been sleeping in Lemon’s lap lifted his head and gave a forceful meow before going right back to sleep. Lemon nodded and looked back up to her, raising his eyebrow. 

“Very well. I’m too tired to argue.” She motioned with her free hand for him to continue.  

Basics 

"Name?" 

“Lily.” 

Lemon gave her a look. “Your real name.” 

“You know we never give our real names.” Lily tried for humor but even she could feel it fall flat. When Lemon continued to look at her, she sighed, and she thought back to the girl she had been all those years ago. “The only name you or anyone else ever needs to know...is Lily. The girl I was before is gone.”

For a moment she expected Lemon to argue or probe further, but he only nodded and looked back to the page. 

"Are you single?" 

Lily snorted, again looking to where Tangerine was sleeping. “I guess I’ll have to say it's complicated.” 

“Damn right,” Lemon responded. “We can move on.” 

"Are you happy?" 

"Am I happy? What a question!” Lily laughed, slightly higher than normal as her body started to come back down from worrying about Tangerine.  

“One you haven’t answered,” Lemon pointed at her. 

Lily looked at the glass in her hand, the swirling of the red wine almost hypnotic. She thought back on the events of the last few years, the people she had met and the few she actually let into her life. The fact that Tangerine would survive the recent mission he and Lemon had been on. 

“Yes, yes I am.” 

Lemon didn’t move for a moment, only staring at her. Then he gave her a curt nod and read the next question. 

"Are you angry?" 

“I just said I was happy,” Lily pointed out, but Lemon raised his eyebrow again and she rolled her eyes. “Clearly not. Though if you had asked me that a few hours ago then yes, yes I was very angry. And scared. Since we are getting so personal,” Lily motioned her drink in his direction. “If that was to be your next question. 

Lemon glanced at the page he was holding and shook his head. 

"Are your parents still married?" 

Lily laughed, a real genuine laugh that nearly set her reeling. “How should I know,” she lied but those details would go to her grave. 

Thankfully Lemon didn’t push the matter. 

9 Facts 

"Birth place?" 

“You tell me yours first,” Lily answered. She was surprised when Lemon chuckled. 

“Fair enough. I’ll make sure he,” Lemon nodded in Tangerine’s direction, “Doesn’t tell you either.” 

“It wasn’t my intention to ask,” Lily said, taking a sip of her wine. “What’s next?” 

"Hair color?" 

“Are we going for obvious questions now? Very well.” She leaned back, languishing across her chair. “A beautiful chestnut brown. Natural, of course.” 

"Eye color?" 

“Also chestnut brown.” 

"Birthday?" 

“Now now, what are you looking for, to buy me a gift?” Lily winked at Lemon but he ignored her. 

"Mood?" 

Lily gave him a dismissive wave, focusing away from him to stare at the wall. “Already answered, next question.” 

"Gender?" 

“Female.” 

"Summer or Winter?" 

“Hmm.” Lily played with her glass, thinking back on her fondest summer or winter moments. One particular summer evening with Tangerine was most prominent on her mind. “Summer,” she mused, smiling softly to herself. 

“Something tells me I don’t want to know.” Lemon said, almost sounding disgusted. 

Lily laughed into her drink. “No, you don’t.” 

"Morning or Afternoon?" 

“Morning.” 

Lemon made a noise. “Wouldn’t take you for a morning person.” 

Lily looked away again. “Nothing like having a quiet moment for yourself as the sun is rising.” 

Silence followed her answer and when she looked at Lemon, he wore an expression she hadn’t seen before. Almost...pensive. 

“Now for the unfortunate questions. Please spare me any pertinent details.” Lemon finally said, shifting in his seat. 

“I’ll try my best,” Lily smiled at him, which seemed to only annoy him more. 

Eight Things About Your Love Life 

"Are you in love?" 

“It’s complicated.” 

“So you don’t love my brother?” 

It was Lily’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Do you want me to love him? That deep romantic love they sell in the media? Get all doe eyed and sweet and sappy around each other?” 

Lemon stared at her and then shook his head as if shaking away unwanted thoughts. “Moving on.” 

"Do you believe in love at first sight?" 

“No.” Lily didn’t even have to think about her answer. “And anyone who says they do is lying to themselves.” 

"Who ended your last relationship?" 

“Me, but I wouldn’t count any of those as relationships,” Lily answered. She gave Lemon a sly smile. He ignored her again.  

"Have ever broken someone's heart?" 

“I guess I can answer this question,” Lemon said the moment he finished reading the question out loud. “You literally have.”

Lily tipped her glass towards him and didn’t answer. She had a trail of dead targets behind her from seducing them.

"Are you afraid of commitments?" 

“I think last question answers that for you. Next question.” 

"Have you hugged someone within the last week?" 

“I’ve done more than just hug,” Lily winked at him. She found herself enjoying this, seeing him squirm. “You’re the one that wanted to ask these questions. Should we stop now?” 

Lemon sniffed and wiped his hand under his nose. “Like I said, just no details.” 

“None. Cross my heart.” 

“I’ll believe that,” Lemon muttered. 

"Have you ever had a secret admirer?" 

“Oh I’ve had many,” Lily lamented, resting her chin on her hand and staring wistfully to the wall again. 

“Poor sods.” Lemon responded. 

“Couldn’t agree more.” 

"Have you ever broken your own heart?" 

Lily paused, the fun little moment they shared before was immediately gone. “Next question.” 

Six Choices 

"Love or Lust?" 

“Lust. Love is too complicated and makes you weak.” 

“Tell my brother that,” Lemon said. 

Lily looked away as she took a sip of her wine. “I have.” 

Lemon only sighed. 

"Lemonade or Iced tea?" 

“Iced tea.” 

“No lemonade,” Lemon asked, almost sounding hurt. 

Lily shook her head, “Too sour.” 

Lemon gave her a sour look. “Fine.” 

"Cats or dogs?" 

Lily glanced at Smudge, who was still happily asleep on Lemon’s lap. “I would say cats but there is a betrayer amongst us so I will hold me tongue.” 

Lemon chuckled. “He just knows a good person when he meets them.” 

“What does that say about Tangerine,” Lily asked. Smudge had taken an instant disliking to Tangerine, much to his annoyance. 

“He’s always been more of a dog person,” Lemon answered. 

"A few best friends or many regular friends?" 

“None if I can help it. I’m sure you understand.” Lily pointed out.  

Lemon deflated a little but gave her an annoyed look. “And yet here we all are.” 

“Indeed,” Lily said, unable to deny that truth. 

"Wild night out or romantic night in?" 

“Both. What about Tangerine?” She figured it was worth a shot to throw that in. 

Lemon deflected easily. “Ask him when he wakes up.” 

"Day or night?" 

“Night. Plenty of time to have fun. Wouldn’t you agree?” 

“With you? No.” Lemon didn’t even look up to respond. 

Lily pouted. “So cruel.” 

Four Have You Evers 

"Been caught sneaking out?" 

“That would require someone to be there to catch me.” Or care, she thought, but against she dared not utter the words. 

"Fallen down/up the stairs?" 

Lemon raised an eyebrow after asking the question. “Do you even know how to be embarrassed?” 

“Me,” Lily brought her hand to her chest, feigning hurt. “Never. And if I did,” she narrowed her eyes at him, “no one would ever see it.” 

“I’m sure you have though, haven’t you Smudge.” Lemon’s scratched at Smudge’s heading, adopting a baby voice as he spoke. Catching himself, he coughed, and smoothed out the magazine. “Anyways.” 

"Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt?" 

Lily glanced towards Tangerine again. Her first instinct was to say no, put on the façade she had mastered so well. But seeing him earlier, nearly dead again and bleeding all over her floor, Lily realized the thought of losing him had been too much to bear. 

Tearing her eyes away from him, Lily brought her glass to her lips, unable to face Lemon as she whispered... 

“Yes.” 

“What was that?” 

“You heard what I said.” Her tone was as icy as the look she gave him. 

Lemon tried to crack a joke, get more out of her, but Lily kept her mouth shut until he asked the next question. 

"Wanted to disappear?" 

The weight she was feeling from the previous question still weighed on here, but it was a question that was easier to answer. 

“You could say I already have.” 

Lemon smirked but didn’t say anything as he turned the page. 

Four Preferences 

"Smile or eyes?" 

“Eyes. A smile is easy to fake,” she quickly put on her best smile even as she struggled to calm her emotions, “But the eyes. They will never lie.” 

Lemon really looked at her this time, eyes flitting between hers. “You’re not lying right now.” 

“No. I’m not.” 

"Shorter or taller?" 

“Does it matter?” 

“You certainly seem the kind to have a type.” 

Lily snorted, that turned into giddy laughter. The alcohol was starting to kick in. “You’re brother is simply special.” 

Lemon groaned. “Please don’t tell him that.” 

“I would never. He already has an ego that could fill that room he’s laying in.” 

“I think you mean your apartment.” Lily looked at him in surprise and he seemed surprise himself. “Don’t let that go to your head. I still don’t trust you.” 

“Oh, of course,” Lily replied, but her smile stayed on her face. 

"Intelligence or attraction?" 

“Either, but in regards to your brother, attractions.” She smirked over the rim of her glass. 

Lemon looked like he wanted to get angry but closed his eyes and nodded. “Yeah, yeah that’s him.” 

Lily chuckled. “Glad you agree.” 

"Hook-up or relationship?" 

“Hook up is certainly much easier. But with Tangerine—” 

“You can stop right there,” Lemon interrupted, holding his hand up. 

“Is that not what you want to know, about me and him?” 

“Still haven’t decided yet,” Lemon reminded her.  

Family 

"Do you and your family get along?" 

“No family, no need to get along.” Lily answered. It was a white lie, she truly didn’t have a family, but she would be damned if she ever let anything happen to her younger sister. Someone no one ever needed to know about. Not even the two people who were known as ‘The Twins’. 

“Doesn’t surprise me.”  

"Would you say you have a messed-up life?" 

Lily raised her eyebrow. “We’re assassins. What do you think?”

“Look mate, I’m just asking the questions here.” Lemon held up the magazine. “I can’t blame,” he paused and looked to see what magazine it was, “Cosmo for not having an assassin questionnaire edition. Maybe write them a letter saying—” 

“Ok, ok,” Lily cut in, “Yes, my life is messed up. So is yours and Tangerines. We kill people for a living.” 

Lemon nodded and then shook his head. “My life is good. I don’t know what you’re on about.” 

Lily stared, her mouth hanging open slightly. “If that’s what you want to call it.” 

"Have you ever run away from home?" 

“Don’t think I became an assassin because mommy and daddy dearest loved me at home.” 

“Not even once,” Lemon asked. “Used to do it all the time with Tangerine.” 

“And what trouble did the two of you get into,” Lily leaned forward, eager to hear more. 

Lemon opened his mouth to answer, but caught himself. “Oh no. I’m not telling you nothing.” 

“So you will?” 

“Shut it. Next question.” 

"Have you ever gotten kicked out?" 

“Again, irrelevant.” Lily swirled the now almost empty glass in her hand. “Troubled past or not, I’m still here. Are we almost done?” 

“Yeah, this is getting a bit boring isn’t it?” Lemon flipped the page.  

“Oh, so you’ve already made your decision about me?” 

“Haven’t decided yet,” Lemon paused to scratch Smudge’s ear and then looked back at the magazine. “Four questions left.” 

“Thank god.” 

Friends 

"Do you secretly hate one of your friends?" 

“Only you Lemon,” Lily winked at him. 

“The feeling’s mutual.” 

"Do you consider all your friends good friends?" 

“Are you trying to tell me you actually do like me as a friend?” Lily leaned forward again, placing her chin on her hand. 

“It says all your friends,” Lemon motioned to the question on the page. “So do you or not?” 

Lily pondered the question before answering. “If I consider you my friend, that alone means something.” 

"Who is your best friends?" 

“I...” Lily paused, stumped on what to say. She had no friends for a reason. Opal was a happy accident that turned out beneficial for both. Smudge was a cat. Lemon and Tangerine...the realization hit her like a brick wall. “I can’t tell you.” 

“Well Smudge is my best friend. Right kitty?” Lemon’s tone took on that baby voice again and their interview paused for a few moments as he played with her cat. “But its because you don’t have one, isn’t it,” he asked when he was done.  

Lily looked away, not in shame, but in realizing that she might actually do...and that was a dangerous feeling to have. 

“It’s fine. I know you secretly do want me as your best friend,” Lemon said, filling the silence. “But now we’ve hit the final question.” 

“Better be a good one.” 

"Who knows everything about you?" 

“No one and no one ever will.” 

“Not even Tangerine?” 

Lily gave him a look. “No I don’t expect him to tell me everything either. This job is too dangerous for that kind of openness. I’d stop him if he started to tell me more than was needed.” 

Lemon nodded, staying silent as he looked over the questions again. Eventually he set the magazine down and turned his gaze back to Lily. She waited with bated breath, wondering just what would come from this slight moment of vulnerability. 

“If you ever,” Lemon began, holding up his hand to point at her. “Ever put my brother in danger, I will kill you myself.” 

Lily smiled. “I would expect nothing less.” She held out her drink to him and when he nodded, finished it off. 

They may never be true friends, but they both cared for one man and that alone brought them together in a funny kind of way. Not one she expected, but one Lily welcomed nonetheless. 

No pressure tags: @detectivelokis @sstewyhosseini @kourumi @roofgeese @incognito-insomniac @poisonedtruth @eclecticwildflowers @awhellstothejoe @somethingclich8 @confidentandgood @poetikat @bearcina @phillipsgraves @jendoe @kyber-infinitygems @galaxycunt @olliesaurus-rex @ghosttownwhispers and anyone else who wants to do this, this is me tagging you :)!

#bullet train #lemon bullet train #oc: death lily #tangerine bullet train #oc interview

[terrence-silver]

I can see Terry buying Beloved a coveted Fabergé egg for Easter, or an Egyptian pyramid if they are observing Passover…

When we say pyramid, do we mean a pyramidal bewejweled ornament that serves a symbolic purpose to mark victory and deliverence from one's opressors and undoubtedly still costs a fortune despite it being small and rather compact, or do we mean a pyramid --- American businessman and entrepreneur buying a pharaoh's tomb near Luxor or Giza, more at seven, manner of thing? Because I do see both. At the same time. One leading into the other. Terry Silver giving beloved a trinket for starters, as a Passover gift, undeniably still ancient and a work of art, riddled with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, opals and diamonds, fitting into the palm of their hand --- something that could've belonged to a wife, bride, or a coveted concunbine of some ruler. Maybe even to a queen in her own right. Nefretiti or Cleopatra, might've held this very ornament, and now, it is beloved's, as it should be, thousands of years later; a form of providence and karmic justice all on its own, not to mention, something Terry feels rightly entitled to, the same way he does to just about everything he sets his eyes on --- and while beloved's busy admiring the beauty and lavishiness of the sentiment, shocked, not even daring to ask how much this cost, Terry might smile implishly and declare this is only a prelude at something much, much bigger.

And he does mean much, much, much bigger.

Something that can quite literally be seen from outer space.

Thing is; he bought, actually bought the now wholly privatized resting place of some Seti, Ramses or Tut. The Egyptian government, much like any government when faced with a shameless amount of cash, was surprisingly open to negotiations. Their Minister happens to owe Mr. Silver and Mr. Silver's representatives a big, fat favour. Heh.

As for the Fabrege eggs? It is a shame Gustav Fabrege himself is no longer alive so Terry Silver can personally commission something specialized and according to his own design and vision for beloved's Easter --- something he doesn't celeberate himself, but something he nonetheless tucks away as something that is his through someone else who is also his, namely beloved themselves, seeing as how every part of them belongs to him; and I do mean every. Even their religious leanings, in whatever form they may come. Luckily, the House of Fabrege is something still very much active, so he can consult and make his desire known with the consierge operating the brand through his channels, still, a fan of all things antique, gorgeous and luridly expensive, being something of a collector of fine art in general, I do believe Terry goes for an existing classical original after all, valuing his own good taste and opting for the very best for his beloved. Something thematic and fitting. Maybe something with a complex mechanism. Something rare and unique, brought forward from the Fabrege vault, specifically and only for someone with paying power as big as Mr. Silver's. The egg opens. There's two snakes coiled around each other, spinning slowly in a love dance of eternity, forming a circular ouroborous. You are mine, the gift is meant to relay.

#terry silver #kk3 #cobra kai #character headcanons #pyramids and fabrege eggs #holidays #celebrations #religion #terry silver x reader #terry silver x beloved #interfaith relationship #same faith relationship

[ksfoxwald]

Fire and Hemlock Readalong: Part 2 - Chapter 1

We are now starting the second movement: Now Here.

It starts out quietly, but with a few very important things that don't look important until later.

First, Polly receives the opal pendant from Granny. Opals mean tears, Granny tells her, but the necklace is supposed to be lucky. It certainly does something - as near as I can tell, it is able to hold the Leroys at bay temporarily, until they learn to use it against her. I'm going to be keeping a close eye on the opal. Morton Leroy sees it on her while Polly is jogging past Hunsdon House, so that's the start of it.

At school Nina starts the Superstition Club, which is such a random thing to spend so many pages on. While it's referenced a few times later on, such as when Polly steals the photo, I think it's mostly important thematically. We haven't gotten to The Golden Bough yet, but most superstitions are based on what Frazer calls "sympathetic magic," the idea that like things affect other like things. It's a deep, instinctual way of thinking of magic, the way Polly is figuring out the rules the Leroys abide by.

Polly and Tom exchange only two letters in this chapter. In the first one Polly has just read The Three Musketeers and has ideas about the heroes conquering the Evil Cardinal Leroy - sorry, Legris.

To which Tom replies. "Thank you, Hero. You have given me some ideas too."

Which we later learn is the moment when he starts figuring out the nature of Laurel's curse and recognizing that the things he is making up are coming true. Which means he is also starting to think about how to use this gift - and by extension, how to use Polly.

The other letter Tom writes includes a story about the hero Tan Hanivar accidentally turning into a dragon, and the others nearly killing him before they realize. Which of course comes true later, in a way.

Granny teaches Polly the game of tossing an apple peel to see the initials of the person you will marry (more superstitions!) but the peels just splatter into meaningless lines.

"You see? I'm not going to marry," Polly said, secure in the knowledge she would be a hero instead.

Once again Polly is doing gender by way of sexuality; the conviction that being a hero is incompatible with being a girl; because girls in stories only exist to marry boys. But actually not a single female character in the book is an archetypal wife. We have Ivy, divorced; Granny, a widow; Laurel, divorced being the least of what she has going on; Carla, with her three husbands. In modern queer terms, Polly probably considers her gender to be "hero."

Speaking of gender and divorce, Polly returns home to find that her mother has moved Polly out of her bedroom and into the tiny spare room to prepare for a lodger. She has also thrown out many of Polly's things that she considers "babyish," including the dollhouse, conveniently forgetting that she was the one who told Polly's father to get her for Christmas. Ivy, we have seen, has a tendency to create her own reality as well. But while Tom and Polly's creations are a way of blending the Here Now and the Nowhere, Ivy is simply imposing her will on the world, much the way Laurel does. And is it really so different from what Tom does? It is a dangerous thing to be able to change someone else's reality.

#fh readalong #fire and hemlock #dwj

[bluejaybytes]

💘🍛 I like both of these. What's most important to your oc (of choice but I'm thinking of Maggie), and what their usual dinner looks like <3

Hiiiiiiiii <3

💘 HEART WITH ARROW — what and/or who do(es) your oc consider the most important to them?

Maggie has sooo few people she's close with BUT the people she IS close with she is VERY close with, the three main ones would be her brother, Hawke, her Girl Best Friend (come to your own conclusions on this one, they'll never have an actual discussion about it), Jenna, and one of the ghosts that hangs around her, Opal. Hawke she was always fairly close with as a kid, while he never actually believed her when she would talk about the ghosts and their various shenanigans, he was always one of her strongest and most reliable supporters, and would claim to believe her. She knows now that he never actually believed her (She figured that out as a preteen), but she definitely appreciates the fact he was still always there for her and standing up for her when she'd get talked over by others. When she wakes back up after her murder, finding where he lives is one of her first priorities, because she's basically having like a million crises at once and figures he's the person she trusts must to be able to help her.

Paragraph break because I'm going on longer than anticipated WHOOPS. For Jenna, she's close with her for several reasons. The first part is... honestly just a bit of necessity. Maggie's lost and scared and has no idea what's going on, and Jenna's the first person to approach her and is someone willing to try and help her figure out what's going on, during a situation where anyone else would've just forced her to go to a hospital (Which... to be fair Jenna definitely should've suggested they go to some sort of medical help, given that she was passed out in the middle of a field and wakes up talking about being murdered). Outside of necessity, however, she and Jenna just like... basically instantly latch onto each other. They're frankly both a bit obsessive with each other because they both... really don't have anyone else? Once the plot ends and their lives calm down they'll get some other friends and their dynamic will become more sustainable longterm, but in the moment they've only got each other and GODDAMN do they have each other. Jenna's like 90% of the reason Maggie wants to actually take care of herself, because if she's not doing it, Jenna just does it for her, and she doesn't like feeling like a burden, even if Jenna's doing it willingly and without viewing as such. Their bond is so largely based on their willingness to support each other, so. yknow <3

For Opal, she's known Maggie since she was only a few months old! Ghosts took notice of Maggie's ability to see them LONG before Maggie would be learn this was Not normal, AKA, as a several month old baby, she'd track ghosts with her eyes and try and interact with them like any other person, which alerted the ghosts to the fact she could actually see them. This made her essentially a bit of a celebrity/VERY weird and kinda creepy to the ghosts, so word of the Magic Baby Who Can See Dead People spread, and tons of local ghosts would hang around just to see her themselves. Opal ALSO heard of her, and she just generally loves kids, so she went to go see baby Maggie, only to realize that oh man. This is going to be. a tough life for this kid. So she takes it upon herself to watch over her, and chases away other ghosts who bother her so that Maggie doesn't have to spend her entire life being harassed by ghosts. Their dynamic is a bit weird throughout Maggie's life, as Opal tends to be a bit overbearing, and also tends to talk over the living people Maggie's trying to talk/listen to, making it difficult for her to concentrate, but as frustrating as Maggie finds her to be, they still are very close, Opal's someone Maggie can be actually open with, and someone who is always trying to look out for her and protect her any way she can. Their dynamic gets WAY more strained after Maggie's death but this is already a VERY long ramble and that would involve a LOT more so I'll save that for another day

🍛 CURRY AND RICE — what does your oc's typical dinner look like? do they usually eat dinner?

Bad it looks bad.

Okay the actual answer is more nuanced <3 Prior to her murder, Maggie was still living at home (She was only 17 and had JUST graduated highschool, graduating a year early), so her typical dinner was just... whatever her mom made! Nothing too fancy, just pretty generic dinner items. Maggie's never really had much of an appetite, but also stayed up extremely late every night, so typically it'd be eating like half the normal portion of whatever dinner was -> stay up until 2am -> Get hungry and finish off the other half of dinner -> stay up until [god knows how late]. Her favorite meal is probably stew, though while she is an extremely picky eater, of the foods she's okay with she doesn't tend to have really any standout favorites.

Once she wakes back up after her murder and has to care for herself, her dinner is... crackers. As mentioned, she's an extremely picky eater, but she also has no skill in cooking and is also just deeply depressed, so she can't really give the effort to care about it enough to want to eat properly, so she just. doesn't! However, once Jenna starts hanging around more, specifically hanging around for long enough stretches of time to see Maggie's abysmal self care and eating habits, THEN Maggie's typical dinner stops being "crackers" and starts being whatever Jenna makes her. This is typically things like easier to prepare meals like mac n cheese, but Jenna always adds things to them that aren't included to make them nicer, so it's always more than just "box of kraft mac n cheese", its got some added vegetables and meat added in there to make it better!

Once Maggie actually starts trying to learn how to cook herself, her typical dinner consists of one single bite of whatever she tried and promptly failed to make, and then a plate of Whatever Jenna Made Instead. She's trying her best but oh boy. its not great.

#IM SORRY I WENT ON SO LONG. #also Maggie's favorite meal AFTER the plot is probably a nice salad #low effort + REALLY hard for her to fuck up + tastes good #as for Maggies dynamic with Opal post-murder... its. its something. its bad </3 #The start of Maggie's full blown breakdown is literally her snapping and tearing into Opal and essentially blaming her for her murder #This is. bad. Opal has already felt INSANELY guilty all of this time- she would leave Maggie alone at night- #-to try and help with Maggies insomnia by not keeping her up #-so she ABSOLUTELY feels responsible in part for Maggie's murder- that she could've been there and she could've warned Maggie- #-about the intruder. But like. It's not her fault. How could she have known? Maggie knows its not her fault #but she's extremely freaked out at that point and is having an intense breakdown and is lashing out at Opal because she just needs SOMEONE- #-to blame. She's dying and she doesnt know why and she needs to find someone to blame for it #anyways maggie please apologize to your ghost mom. (she does. she also gets to- for the first and only time- physically hold her hand) #(ghosts can physically interact with each other- and Maggies growing wounds are essentially her soul physically splitting- #-so its essentially this bittersweet moment of like. for the first time- shes able to reach out and hold Opals hand. #and its only because shes dying) #BUT THEN SHE DOESNT DIE. VITALLY IMPORTANT #my OCs #maggie

[hexedrosel-arts]

The sillies have been completed

With a persona bonus

Now; the facts ramble under the cut

Edden:

- Edden has trouble remembering anything. He'll just, forget. This includes his name, current location, or personality. He just forgets everything. - Edden's real eye color is actually amber. Do to factors out of his control, however, have made his eyes pure white

Opaline:

- Opal has no likes or dislikes. She is a very plain girl, other than the fact she is AI. - Despite her messy appearance, she always has everything in order. She also watches everything that goes on.

Lace:

- Lace would have that same amber eyes Edden does if they were alive. - Lace can shapeshift their appearance. They tend to make themselves look fem.

Ash:

- Ash's full name is actually Ashley. He adamantly goes by Ash. - Ash has a fear of spiders, he is terrified of them. - He is banned from playing card games with people because he will always win.

Winter:

- Winter travels through time and timelines which makes him have many different outfits for each time period or time line. His current outfit was made by Emory because she doesn't like any one of his older outfits, in time sense or the ones I use to draw him in. - If he feels close to people, he ends up calling sweetie or dear, or any old lady complimenting you name. The only exception is his sister, Carrie, who he affectionately calls 'Care Bear'. - Winter doesn't remember what age he is, he's been through so many timelines and periods that he can't pin point an age. He knows he is at least older than Carrie, which isn't saying much because she is 13.

Damien:

- Damien is roughly 10 ft tall. He is always leaning down to make sure he can talk to people face to face, or at least they don't have to stare up into the sky to make eye contact with him. - Damien can't see due to all the bandages over his face. - Damien has a soft spot for cats, underneath all the mumbling, he is a real sweetheart.

Azure:

- Azure is one of the youngest, along with Opal, being 5 years old. - Azure is terrified of everything and everyone. If your name doesn't start with O, she is scared of you and everything you do. - Her star necklace is a gift from someone who she doesn't remember. She wants to thank them if she ever does.

Lilith:

- Lilith is a really good cook. She has an recipe book of all her mother's recipes. - Lilith is the only one of her siblings to only have 1 design element of her outfit that resembles her card. Her tie looks like a spade(Ash has all the diamonds on his eye patch, bag, on his sleeves, he even has card earrings for both of his siblings. Any look at Elliot shows you the hearts on his design). - Lilith really likes bright colors, she adores scene and pastel clothing. But she never wears it as she feels it makes her business woman persona seem fake.

Cosmo:

- Cosmo will talk for hours about space. He will tell you space puns, talk about astronomers and astronauts for as long as you let him. - His hair style is just a literal play on space buns. The long parts are just an homage to an old hairstyle I gave him. - Cosmo's eyes aren't actually the neon green ones he has, no one has seen what his real eye color is.

Navy:

- Navy's veil is to resemble Jellyfish streamers. - If Navy were to open his eyes, instead of pupils, he would have infinity signs instead. - Navy has a brother, but he isn't around much anymore.

Celina:

- Celina wants to be an actress. She believes that with her dance skills and her 'condition' would make her a star in everyone's eyes. - The stars on her skin (the white dots) would be freckles. - When not dancing or practicing her acting, she likes to a baseball bat to various pictures of other people and smash whatever surface the picture is on. - Her leg strength is very powerful and she will kick your face in, but won't... :)

Carrie:

- Carrie always has her umbrella up, even indoors, she doesn't want people to see her face. - Carrie is very noise sensitive, if there is too much noise, she tends to swing her umbrella in the direction of the noise, hoping to hit whatever generating the noise. - Carrie is blind, she sometimes uses her umbrella as a walking stick when she is sure no one is around her.

.A.M.Y:

- .A.M.Y believes that she is an AI that was created to become human through mechanical means. She started by having a metal spine attached to her. - She loves to learn about mechanics and machinery, she wants to be an engineer when she grows up. - .A.M.Y likes her hair the most about her appearance. She doesn't even like someone touching her hair. She takes good care of it, she believes that's what her programing tells her.

Willow:

- Willow was a very lonely child growing up. He liked to dream of people to be his friends or siblings. When he learned how to make AI that felt human, he immediately created these people so he could be less lonely. - Willow hates his haircut. The only reason he has it is because his father says he should keep his hair at the length it is. - Willow has the remote control part of his wheelchair because of chronic pain he has had all his life. He can't manually move his wheelchair for long periods. - Willow seeks his dad's praise constantly, he would remove his AI creations if that meant his dad was proud of him.

Honor:

- Honor has only ever been seen eating meat. Not even Ray has seen her eat anything else. - Honor has 18 older brothers, she is the youngest of her family and the only daughter. - Honor likes plushies, she really likes bunny ones especially. - Honor knows how to sew and cauterize wounds, even ones that could only happen if one were chopping up body parts.

Elliott:

- Elliott's head band(hair tie? it's a long sash that goes on his head it could be both) was a gift from Willow, Elliott is never seen without it on. - The hearts on Elliott's boots, specifically the inner hearts, are actually buttons that activate the skates of his shoes. As seen in this height chart, he does not have the wheels. - Elliott prefers plants over people. His room is covered with plants, it's more of the plants room than his own. - Elliott always has his hair up in some way, if asked he'll tell you that it is because he doesn't want to look like his brother. - The thick part of Elliott's eyes are his eye brows, his eyes are more dot shaped, he is just constantly angry that his eyebrows have stayed that way

Ray:

- Ray remembers that his father was fisher, which makes him believe that he was named after the Manta Ray. - Ray hates the color blue. He gets irrationally upset when he made to wear it for long periods of time. This being said, he hates Ash's outfit, not Ash, just the outfit. - Ray talks via written word. He has never talked once, he can't. - Honor calls Ray 'popcorn head' cause his hair looks like white cheddar popcorn. Ray has regretfully accepted the fact that she will always call him that. - Ray always has something covering his face, usually the giant sketchbook. He has drawn various expressions on it. Due to this fact, Ray can also fall asleep anywhere, even standing up, and no one would notice .

Emory:

- Emory sews her own clothes. She likes to take inspiration from Lolita styled clothing. She has also sewn various items for other characters such as the frills underneath Navy's raincoat, the overcoat Winter has, and Damien's entire outfit. - Emory switches between first person and third person when ever she talks. No one knows if she is aware of this. - Emory has a posh British accent. She sounds more British than her siblings. - Emory prefers to wear clothes that coverup her body. Along with several layers underneath those clothes. Her current outfit is her most revealing.

#rose-laced art #rosey rambles #undeadandhexedchildren #these facts range from memory loss to silly nicknames from other characters #please ask me about my ocs #I'm going silly and deranged