#I hope it doesn’t have too much Sophitz

[literaturewithliz]

distracting kiss or secret kiss with kam?

In the grandeur of a Vacker ball, the most captivating part was either the décor, or the Vackers themselves.

Keefe had to disagree.

Don’t misunderstand, it was insanely entertaining to watch his best friend not even pretend he wasn’t pining over Foster in her scarlet evening gown. And the teal and gold decorations were nothing short of spectacular. It was Fitz’s Winnowing Gala, of course. So how could everything NOT be perfect?

The only person Keefe wanted to dance with on any ballroom floor wasn’t going to be there tonight, that’s how.

Keefe was mostly there for morale support. The whole party was pretty much just a formality. As if anyone other than Sophie was ever going to own Fitz’s heart. However, in elvin culture, Winnowing Galas weren’t just so you could start scratching names off your Match lists. They were also a celebration of the host becoming an adult and making their debut into society as an independent citizen.

So the last thing Keefe should be doing right now is imagining Tam Song in a perfectly tailored jerkin, sweeping him onto the dance floor like in those cheesy royal teen movies Foster had shown him.

And yet….

Keefe sighed and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jerkin. He debated on going to the garden for a breath of fresh air when a huge wave of emotions slammed into him. He knew who it was instantly. He put on a smirk and turned around to face Sophie Foster.

“Hey Foster, you do know that there’s really no reason to be this nervous, right? Fitzy’s too obsessed with you to even think about anyone else here,” Keefe chided. Sophie blushed and scrambled to deny her nerves. “How many times do I need to remind you that you can’t lie to an empath?” Keefe asked with fake annoyance.

“I’m not lying!” Sophie insisted. Keefe raised an eyebrow. Foster sighed and accepted defeat. “Fine, maybe I am. But while we’re on the topic of feelings, you wanna explain why you’ve had this wistful look on your face all night?” Well, she had him there.

“I haven’t the slightest idea what you mean,” Keefe replied. But he knew Foster wasn’t going to let this go, so he held out a hand to her and pulled her to dance when she took it. “Don’t fall over,” Keefe teased. Sophie scoffed and got right down to business.

“Thinking about Tam?” she asked. Keefe nodded wordlessly. “Well, why don’t you go talk to him?” she wondered. “I didn’t think he was coming. And besides, what am I supposed to say? ‘Hey Tammy, I know I’ve made fun of you and your ability for the entirety of my knowing you, but I have a massive crush on you! Go out with me?’” Keefe asked sarcastically.

“Not a bad idea, actually.” Sophie smirked. Keefe scoffed. “You might as well try it, at this point. He is in attendance. He’s just been hiding himself in shadows by the corner over there,” Sophie pointed to a corner Keefe could see over his right shoulder. Now that Keefe thought about it, that corner was a bit dark compared to the other ones. He couldn’t see Tam, but he suspected he was there.

“Still, bad idea.” Keefe said with a sigh. Sophie looked at him with sympathy, all signs of playfulness from earlier gone. She was the only Keefe had ever told about his crush on the male Song twin. “You know, I think you should confess when you’re ready, but if you don’t ever talk to him about it, you’ll never get a chance with him.” Ugh, he hated it when Foster was right.

Keefe nodded, and looked to his right when he heard someone clear their throat. Fitz, with a very nervous expression, looked at Keefe. “Do you mind if I borrow her for a sec?” Fitz asked. “If you don’t mind, of course, Soph.” Fitz clarified. “She’s all yours” Keefe confirmed as Sophie nodded shyly. But before Keefe left the dance floor, Sophie tapped his shoulder. “Don’t forget what I said, okay?” Keefe nodded and winked. “Have fun, you two” he said before leaving his two blushing best friends alone together.

Keefe decided that even if he wasn’t ready to tell Tam how he felt, he could always tease him. So he made his way towards the dark corner Sophie’d shown him. Once he was there, he said aloud: “You know, Bangs Boy, there are a million better places to hide from people at Everglen. Like, I don’t know, the six libraries and eight gardens, for a start.”

At the word ‘libraries’ Tam let his shadows fade to reveal himself in a dark blue jerkin with a black undershirt. Crap, he was beautiful. “Everglen has SIX libraries?” Tam asked, eyes going a little wide. “Yep, that’s what happens when you live in Vacker Land!” Keefe confirmed. Keefe briefly entertained the thought of mentioning that Candleshade had seven libraries, but decided against it, because he didn’t want to seem like he was trying too hard.

“ I knew they were… well off, but I didn’t know they were THAT well off. Do you know one that’s nearby?” Tam questioned, with a little bit of awe in his eyes that Keefe found absolutely adorable. “ I do, but to direct you towards one, I need a form of payment for my services.” Keefe said with a smirk on his face. Tam rolled his eyes, and Keefe internally mourned the look of awe. “I think I’ll just ask Biana.” Tam said, turning around.

Tam turned right back around when he saw the massive crowd of people he would have to go through to get to Biana. “You know what? Fine. I’ll do the stupid payment. Can you please just show me the library? Or one of them, I should say.” Tam said, tugging on his bangs a bit. “of course! I’ll need a favor though! Keefe said with a gleeful smile. Without thinking, he grabbed Tam’s hand and lead him out of the ballroom through a door near the corner.

Oh God. He was holding Tam Song’s hand.

Keefe tried to pretend like he wasn’t having a mental breakdown and let Tam’s hand go, leading him to the closest library he could think of. It was small, compared to the others, at least. But it had the best books, in Keefe’s opinion. “Are you a fan of fiction?” Keefe asked, looking at Tam. “It’s my favorite genre,” Tam said curtly. Keefe briefly wondered if Tam was mad at him for taking his hand, and mentally panicked.

Thank God that they finally made it to the library. When Keefe opened the door to reveal a couple hundred books, all tension in the air faded. And Keefe might’ve imagined it, but he was pretty sure he heard a tiny gasp escape Tam’s mouth. He wished he could somehow bottle up that sound.

Tam was the first to move forward, and found a shelf lined with dark blue books. Of course the Vackers would have a color coordinated library. Keefe started following, but then turned towards a shelf with light green books, not wanting to make Tam upset again. He pretend to browse for a book, as if he hadn’t read every one in the room.

“You’ve been here before, haven’t you?” Tam asked. “How did you know? Keefe asked, trying to avoid the question. “You seem extremely uninterested. Sophie told me you like fantasy books, and you’re really close with the Vackers, so I just assumed you must’ve read at least SOME of these.” Ugh, was Keefe always this transparent? “Well, you’re right, I have. I’ve read all of them, actually, so HA! I’ve beat you at the bookworm game, Tammy!” Keefe said, hoping Tam would drop it. He didn’t like the idea of his crush knowing that he was such a nerd. More like, he didn’t want his crush to know WHY he was such a nerd.

Tam just rolled his eyes. “I hadn’t really pegged you for a bookworm. I was surprised when Soph told me,” Tam said, looking at a yellow book that had seen better days. “Well, books are a great escape when your parents suck!” WHY DID HE JUST SAY THAT OUT LOUD? All the deflecting he’d just done to avoid this topic, just for Keefe to screw it up. Figures. Tam got really silent for what felt like hours, days, weeks. But then, just as Keefe thought he would dash out of the room is disgust, Tam uttered a quiet: “I agree.”

Oh.

So Tam read to escape his sucky home life too, huh? Maybe Linh was right. Maybe they did have more in common than they thought. Not like Keefe was going to keep talking about it though. Then again, he didn’t have to. “You don’t have to be embarrassed, you know that, right? In my opinion, it takes a lot of perseverance to focus on the things you love rather than the things that hurt you.” Tam said, looking straight into Keefe’s eyes. Now that Keefe was thinking about it, he realized just how close he and Tam were. He would barely have to move to…

NOPE! NOPE! NOPE! He would most certainly never have the chance to kiss or do anything even a bit romantic with Tam Song. He hated Keefe. Then again, he wasn’t exactly rushing to leave and avoid physical contact, in true Tam fashion. Keefe felt himself relax, and tried to make a joke to lighten Tam up too. “Wow, Bangs Boy. Was that a compliment?” Keefe asked, hoping something like a smirk was on his face.

Instead of biting back with a witty remark as usual, Tam asked a question. “Can I kiss you?” Keefe froze. No way Tam just asked him that. This was most definitely a dream of some sort. But, you couldn’t dream up the was Tam’s short breaths fanned Keefe’s face. Or the way his silver-blue eyes glittered in the moonlight. So before Keefe even replied, he leaned forward.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Re: the tags on your ro & fitz post, for me the reason it feels like she goes too far with the traits you mentioned is because her usage of those traits isn't usually used in situations that would call for it?

Like you said, she's a very repetitive character, and a lot of her brashness happens when Sophie and Fitz are having nice moments (due to her wanting Keefe to get with Sophie instead despite, iirc, Keefe wanting her to drop the issue and leave Sophitz alone) which is neither an understandable thing to focus on nor something that should be worth the time of a bodyguard and heir to a throne.

Like, this is petty teen drama! You're supposed to be fighting in a war and protecting a major target because the person leading the rebellion wants him either obedient or dead, not getting involved in who has a crush on who? I understand Ro cares about Keefe, but it's getting to a point where this is less about her wanting good things for Keefe and more about her not wanting Sophitz to happen. And again, all of this is completely unrelated to the actual reason she's in the Lost Cities in the first place.

(And, this is a different topic but it's bugging me, until Bo arrived, Ro was pretty much representing the ogres since she was the only ogre elves had regular contact with, and her getting involved with something so inconsequential doesn't paint a good picture of how responsible the ogres are or how serious they are about the very real threat that has hurt them in the past. Which I feel undermines the very little character we got out of her? I feel like I remember something about her wanting to become queen.

I feel like this is kind of a bigger issue with the ogres as a whole, though, since we never really get any competent ogres who also have a smidge of actual character development aside from King Dimitar, who is pretty thoroughly portrayed as Not On The Main Crew's Side, imo. May be forgetting something though, so if I got anything wrong, my bad, please correct me if you catch it.)

Sorry for the (kind of) rant, but you raised a really good point in that post. Your analyses are always really great!

no need to apologize, nonsie!! And thank you that’s very sweet /g. You’re right about a lot of her character, so I’d love to talk about it

it kind of feels like Ro has been backed into a corner, given the exact same function in scenes over and over again. She says the things no one wants to, says the things that are “supposed” to be kept unmentioned, doesn’t take others feelings into account, etc. because we didn’t have anyone like that before and now we’re relying rely heavily on her character and interjections to get us through this awkward post-sophitz phase

I also think it’s interesting how you bring up her being he only representation of ogres and how it doesn’t paint a good picture, because i think it’s both true and untrue. It can make the ogres seem uncaring and involved in unimportant things, not valuing the relationship between species. But it can also be a show of strength, that she’s so powerful she can meddle in whatever she wants and say whatever she wants without consequence. There’s probably more to that but I’m blanking right now

and I 100% agree with the “ogres DONT get character development” thing. Like yes!! It b it bothers me so much. Every ogre that has been introduced has had one singular personality trait and one way they interact with the group the entire book. Long Dimitar is the fierce leader who doesn’t like the characters but doesn’t have as much power as he claims and is taken down a notch. Ro is the gossipy/annoying powerful ogre who doesn’t care about authority other than becoming it, and Bo is the hardened soldier who does what he’s told and hates everyone he works with. There’s not much substance to them right now.

But! Your comment about Ro wanting to be queen is correct! She and Bo both want the throne, which is why Dimitar arranged for them to be married, because that way only one of them has to win the throne and they can both survive instead of one inevitably killing the other. However this hasn’t been explored yet because they’re currently just being bodyguards

I will note, that in Unlocked we do start to see Ro at least a little differently, her showing compassion and caring (and maybe some pity) for Keefe. It’s very brief, but in her way she is trying to support Keefe through this, but it’s difficult for her to get past this sassy image she’s built up. I don’t think she can handle vulnerable emotional moments well, so she tried to support him through strength and snarky humor

another thing is this whole uncaring hardened, gossipy ogre is likely also a defense. She was the only ogre in the elven world for a long tme. No one liked her! She was probably constantly looked at funny and harassed and all that. It’s not surprising she isn’t cuddly and warm, she’s in an actively hostile environment at all times. I can’t blame her for picking an aggressive persona and sticking to it. I just hope as she grows closer to the kotlcrew we can see just a little bit more from her, let that facade down for a moment

TL;DR: Ro is an ogre in the lost cites, so I bet she’s often met with hostility. So it makes sense she’s have a harsh persona with little variety to protect herself, but it’s getting excessive and interfering unnecessarily and rudely with teen drama she shouldn’t be a part of

[kotlc-art-and-posts]

Sophitz is Endgame ~ Reasoning

Background: At the 2018 launch party for Flashback, Shannon admitted that the elves were originally supposed to age extremely slowly throughout their entire lives, even throughout their childhood, and that Fitz was originally going to be 97 years old, but still a teenager because of how slow elves age. She mentioned that she apparently copied the idea from the Twilight Saga, since Edward is basically a 100 year old teenager, as Fitz would have been.

Reasons:

1.) We’ve established that Keeper resembles Twilight in one way, and I have noticed there being another way that they resemble each other. In Twilight, there are two main love interests; Jacob and Edward. There are also two main love interests in Keeper; Keefe and Fitz. We’ve also established that Edward was almost like Fitz because of the age thing, but canon they’re both similar because the main character has a crush on them, and not the other love interest, and both love interests have feelings for the main character. Bella was always interested in Edward, just like Sophie has always had a crush on Fitz. And which love interest in Twilight was endgame? Edward, the love interest the main character had always been interested in. So in theory, since these two series are so much a like in the romance department, Fitz is going to be endgame.

2.) In the acknowledgements of Flashback, Shannon says, and I quote, “this book was a huge labor of love. I have never poured so much of myself into anything in my life.” If you’ve read Flashback, then you’re probably aware of how Sophitz-y this book was. Like, seriously, this book was basically a Sophitz glory story. SO, being that Shannon put so much love into this book, we can clearly see that her heart is telling her Sophitz.

3.) If neither of those reasons got you, I have one final reason. Shannon always claims that she tries to let the characters decide these romance things out for themselves, and that she’s not trying to make whatever she wants to happen happen. So, yes, that leaves room for Sokeefe to happen, but throughout these 7 long books Sophie has never crushed on anyone harder than she’s crushed on Fitz. She’s never even thought about Keefe like that, and yeah, feelings change, and she does blush around him and stuff, but who wouldn’t when there’s this cute person who’s complimenting or teasing you or who you’re getting super close to? Just because she admits he’s cute or attractive doesn’t mean she has a crush on him. Sophie thinks all the elves are attractive, she even admitted Dex was attractive (maybe cute, I don’t remember), and we know how that ship sailed. Plus, Keefe has never been as crude as Fitz has, and she still holds strong on her crush for Fitz. After everything, she still loves him.

Lets go back to reason one for a minute, too. Edward was pretty jerky a lot in twilight too, and he was always cold (literally yes, but I mean metaphorically), yet Bella still was interested him and never stopped having feelings for him, even when he left her. Which is a similar dynamic that Fitz and Sophie have, and Edward and Bella were the endgame couple. So I rest my case, Sophitz is endgame. Never have I been so happy that Bella chose Edward.

Just so everyone knows, I don’t actually fully believe Sophitz will be endgame, this is just a silly hopeful argument haha, I thought these ideas were pretty creative and I wanted to share them. I am a Sophitz shipper, but I still think it’s possible Sokeefe will be endgame, and I’m scared of it. Anyway, I’m not saying you should all believe this or believe Sophitz is the better ship, of course I believe it is, but you’re entitled to your own opinions and this was, again, me just being silly. Hope you were at least a bit entertained by it XD