#written in 10 minutes with a baby strapped to my chest sorry it sucks

[jelzorz]

110.

Based on the fact that Ez has a rayllum patch on his backpack as per this post

Callum isn't so good at patchwork but it's something he does for Ezran more than it is anything else. The little handstitched label he'd made for Ezran's backpack is still where Ez first pinned it, on the bottom left corner of the flap just to give it some more character and to mark it as Ezran's, actually Ezran's, instead of one other thing passed along the line of succession.

The unicorn had followed because Ez liked them when he was younger, and then of course, after they got back from Xadia, Callum made more: Zym's egg and a Moon moth, and he had a little one of Bait's head underway before Ez had looked at his battered sketchbook and said, "Maybe you should make some for you, too. Y'know. To patch up all the ripped bits."

"I mean, they're not really my thing," Callum had said, but he did look thoughtfully at the various tears on the cover and wonder if maybe Ez had a point. The sketchbook was a gift from Dad, and with Dad gone...

It seemed a shame not to repair it, so Callum had put the Bait patch on hold and started work on one, just to try it out, just for fun.

"Wings," Rayla had said, her smirk fond if a little dry. "Classic. Original."

Callum had given her a look. "Are you making fun of me?"

"Always," she'd laughed.

"It's not even done," Callum had pouted. "Look." And he'd opened his sketchbook to show her the idea, a pair of wings with the moon at their heart, and her smirk melted away into something much more genuine and much more flattered. "Sometimes people have sigils," he'd told her. "My parents got one together when they got married. This one can be ours."

Rayla's gone now. Callum doesn't know where she is or if she'll come back, and it hurts too much to keep that sigil—their sigil—on the cover of his sketchbook, where he can see it and know she's not where she belongs. He tears it off after about a month.

Ezran keeps it. Callum notices it on his backpack with the others a day or two after they leave the castle for Xadia the second time.

"Ez," he says, his heart caught painfully in his throat. "Why do you still have that?"

Ez raises an eyebrow at him and shrugs his pack off to look. "Shouldn't I have it?"

"It was—"

"I know what it is." He shoulders the pack once more, forcing it back into Callum's line of sight. "I'm keeping it for you. You'll want it back."

"No I—"

"You will."

(Two months later, after they find Rayla, after they have it out and come back together, Ez unpins the patch and smiles. "Told you.")

#in anticipation #written in 10 minutes with a baby strapped to my chest sorry it sucks #rayllum

[talkingismylifewrites]

What are some Fleetwood Mac songs that you would recommend? I want to start listening to some of their stuff but I don’t know where to start lol

don’t worry, i gotchu. strap in, it’s long, sorry, i tried limiting it to just my top faves but that got uhhhh hard ahha: 

1. landslide: this is just...this is just the greatest song ever written. it’s so poignant yet hopeful yet melancholic?? like i can still, to this day, remember the first time i heard it. it was at my friend sasha’s house, and i was six, and it was the cover by the dixie chicks?? and i heard it and i just laid on her bedroom floor and she had all these little gold painted stars on her ceiling and i felt like i was looking into the whole of space listening to it. then i heard the real version and it was even more magical. it’s a song i never skip, it’s just too beautiful. 

fave lyric: “i’ve been afraid of changing cuz i’ve built my life around you/ well time makes you bolder, children get older/ i’m getting older too” 

2. the chain: this fucking banger. this goddamned banger of a song!! it’s my favorite song ever, i could listen to it all day, every day. it’s a fucking powerhouse, and i’ve talked about it before, hell, i named my fic after it!! it was written for the album rumours which is infamous in that it was written while the whole band hated each other: stevie nicks and lindsey buckingham were breaking up, stevie had had an affair with mick fleetwood, john and christine mcvie were mid-divorce, and it was the shit show to end all shit shows. this is the one song that they all collaborated on together and it is fucking powerful. the whole song is about being betrayed and kinda accepting that things are ending as they are, and allowing yourself to be angry as shit over it. every single member shines on it: the rawness of the vocals from nicks and mcvie,  buckingham’s guitar solo or fleetwood’s drums, to the dirty bass by mcvie. from start to finish it is, in my mind, a PERFECT song.

fave lyrics: if you don’t love me now you will never love me again/ i can still hear you sayin’ you would never break the chain

3. tusk: where do i even begin with tusk. easily one of the best drum beats? again, brilliant lyrics, stellar performance, and overall overwhelming. my dad used to play it in the car with all the windows down and we’d be driving down the highway with it blasting belting it out and it was just...amazing. i genuinely think?? that the chain and tusk compliment each other so fucking well. like the chain is about the aftermath of the break up, the initial betrayal and the heartbreak, the fucking aftermath of the destruction?? while tusk is the slow crawl of a breakdown. and like a breakup, it creeps up on you in intensity: it starts out soft and kinda suspicious? “why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” and the initially suspicions of a lover cheating, or hiding from you, and then explodes into this sick drum beat that builds and builds and builds while the horns blast and wow. it echoes in your chest, matching the intensity. it just slaps

fave lyrics: “don’t say that you love me/ just tell me that you want me” 

3. silver springs: stevie nicks wrote this for rumours and apparently the decided not to include it due to ‘tensions’ in the band (lindsey buckingham cough cough). it’s so poignant?? and simple?? yet so complex?? and haunting?? that’s what i think sets stevie nicks apart from other songwriters is that her lyrics haunt you when they’re finished. like they stay with you and just loop and loop around in your mind. absolutely fucking fantastic. i cannot even imagine being lindsey buckingham and having to stand on stage and listen to the woman who i considered to be the love of my life stare into my soul while telling me that “you will never get away from the sound/ of the woman that loved you” like DAMN STEVIE!!!

fave lyrics: “time cast a spell on you but you won’t forget me/ i know i could have loved you but you would not let me” 

4. rhiannon: where do i even begin with this one?? the guitar is just insane, almost as amazing as the bass, and stevie nicks just shines on vocals. she wrote the song about a welsh witch and she managed to solidify that aesthetic in the lyrics and the vocals. originally, fleetwood mac only wanted lindsey buckingham to join the band, and he had to demand that stevie nicks (girlfriend and musical partner) join. they relented, she got to join the band, and she wrote their two biggest hits off the next album; landslide and rhiannon. so suck on that. 

fave lyrics: “dreams unwind/love’s a state of mind”

5. dreams: this song in itself is just an experience. it’s beautiful and haunting and so fucking melancholic and yet i listen to it no matter what my mood. apparently stevie nicks wrote it in ten minutes. TEN MINUTES.  i love her. i will fully fucking admit i listen to it on the bus to work while i stare out the window to see the rain falling down outside. it is a magical experience, i firmly believe it changes you. it will cleanse you

fave lyrics: “thunder only happens when it’s raining/ players only love you when they’re playing/ say women, they will come and they will go/ when the rain washes you clean you’ll know” 

6. little lies: christine mcvie and stevie nicks sound like sirens as they croon out the chorus. it’s so fucking good?? so fucking good. it’s catchy and it’ll stay in your head for forever after you listen to it once. like, damn. 

fave lyrics: “no more broken hearts/we’re better off apart/ let’s give it a try/ tell me, tell me, tell me lies” 

7. go your own way: if silver springs is stevie nicks calling lindsey buckingham out and cursing him to always be haunted by her, go your own way is lindsey buckingham offering her his heart on a silver platter with a little side of fuck you. he’s basically like fine you wanna break up?? then fuck you i tried my best and you still wanna go? i can’t make you want to stay if you don’t want to. but at the same time its kinda like a farewell to their relationship like i can’t make you stay if you don’t want to. the two of them end up screaming this at each other throughout their ‘82 tour? just eyes locked as they kinda let the other know ‘fuck you’. fantastic

fave lyric: “if i could, baby i’d give your my world/ how can i when you won’t take it from me?” 

8. everywhere: what a perfect goddamned love song that just encapsulates the feeling of being in love and wanting to be near someone at all hours of the day. its so pure and simple yet so powerful because it’s just that fucking good. christine mcvie does NOT get as much recognition as she deserves. its so fucking good and lovely and sentimental

fave lyrics: “can you hear me calling out your name/you know i’m falling and i don’t know what to say” 

9. songbird: this will be the song that i sing to my children when i put them to bed. enough said.

fave lyrics: “and the songbirds keep singing like they know the score/and i love you i love you i love you/like never before

10. gypsy: so there’s a radio station that plays on sirius xm and only in the summer called yacht rock radio. it’s 100% dad music or songs that you would listen to while sipping a margarita wearing a hawaiian shirt while cruising around the sound with your douche friends ironically wearing a captain’s hat and it is my FAVORITE station ever. this song plays at least ten times a day and now whenever i hear it i think of california sunshine rolling over the hills as i drive down the highway or watching the sunset in the horizon as we all sing along. it’s very nostalgic in the best possible way. it makes me feel both old and young. 

fave lyrics: “back to the floor that i love/ to a room with some lace and paper flowers/ back to the gypsy that i was” 

honorable mentions: beautiful child, you make loving fun, gold dust woman, don’t stop, secondhand news, never forget, sara, big love, the entire album of rumours (even thought i’ve basically listed them all here...oops), and stevie nicks entire 1981 album bella donna

let me know what you think!!

#fleetwood mac #rumours #tusk #stevie nicks #lindsey buckingham #christine mcvie #mick fleetwood #john mcvie #anonymous asks #also i dont have spotify otherwise id make you a playlist 😭 #caro talks