#Rayla showing Callum the Adoraburrs because she thought he would like them | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tenspontaneite · 4 years ago

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Across Shared Skin (Chapter 1/?)

When Callum was born, Sarai pored over every inch of his skin by candlelight until she found it: a tiny, diminutive patch of discoloured skin on the back of his tiny, diminutive left hand.

(Second of two pieces written for @falling-for-you-a-rayllum-zine) (Soulmate AU. For the ‘AU’ chapter. Only this instalment was written for the zine; future chapters are all new. Piece length: 7k. Ao3 link)

---

It was an interesting skin tone. Pale and purplish, almost, plainly evident against the ruddy colour of his newborn body. She wondered if, across whatever distance separated them, her son’s soulmate had noticed the corresponding shift on their own hand. She wondered how much older they were. She wondered many things that, in the end, only the passage of years would be able to answer. But for now, there were observances to meet.

She fetched a pen, and in the tiniest script she could manage, drew lines of ink carefully across the back of her son’s hand. Callum, she wrote, and left it at that.

Others might include a birth-date, or kingdom of residence, or the names of the parents. But Sarai was wary, and wrote only what custom dictated. The name.

She wasn’t expecting a response right away. For all the prominence of the mark’s location, it was late, and whoever waited on the other end might well be asleep. She had expected more to be waiting until morning, at the very least. But, mere minutes later—

Clear and careful, a name unfolded on her son’s skin, directly beneath the one she’d written.

Rayla, it said, and nothing else.

Sarai mulled the name over. It was unusual. Foreign, certainly, though that didn’t guarantee anything about how far away the girl might live. In the end, she nodded, and committed the name to her memory. It might be years until Callum could communicate with his soulmate himself, but until then, he deserved to know her name.

She left both names on Callum’s hand, and set him gently down to sleep.

---

“He might not be a human.” Lain attempted, yet again, looking down for what seemed like the hundredth time at the name on his daughter’s hand. “Elves use the common script, too. And the name—it’s not unusual. It would fit in well with any of the communities that use Draconic more than we do.”

Tiadrin sighed, and eased the glove once again onto Rayla’s squirming fingers. It wasn’t proper to have one’s mark visible in public, but children so often disliked restrictive coverings. “They didn’t write the primal.” She said, flatly, and that was a tired statement too. “What elf wouldn’t write the symbol of the primal their child was born to? It’s tradition.”

The name and the symbol were obligatory. All else—birthdate, location, family—was optional. But there should have been a symbol. Moon, or Sun, or Sky, or Earth—even Ocean—there should have been a symbol. But there wasn’t, and in its absence, they’d omitted Rayla’s moon. If her soulmate was a human, it would keep him safer. It didn’t seem prudent to declare arcanum to a human audience of unknown prejudices.

Lain was quiet, watching as she covered up the damning ink of the unaccompanied names. “He might not be a human.” He repeated, more softly. “Perhaps they omitted his primal for security reasons. Perhaps he’s the son of someone important.” His brow furrowed. “Perhaps he’s a Startouch elf.”

She snorted. “Fat chance of that. And even royalty declare their children’s primal.” She bent down to kiss her daughter’s forehead. “No, Lain. Our daughter has a human soulmate, and we’ll just have to live with that.”

He frowned, resignation and concern written more clearly on him than the names on Rayla’s hand. “…We can’t let anyone find out.” He said, eventually, defeat weighing on his every word. “She’d never be able to do anything without someone questioning her loyalties. She’d be shunned. We can’t let that happen to her.”

Tiadrin nodded. It went without saying, really. “We’ll tell Runaan and Ethari. Everyone else…” She mulled the name over. Callum. It could mean ‘hard-skinned’. It could also, if derived from Columba, mean ‘dove’. Either way, it was a plainly Draconic name, and Moonshadow elves didn’t tend to name their children for Draconic. Others, though… “We’ll say he’s a Skywing elf.” She decided, and her husband hummed approvingly.

“What about Rayla?” He asked, then. “What will we tell her?”

She went quiet. “…I can’t lie to my own daughter about her soulmate, Lain.” She admitted. “We’ll just…have to impress on her the importance of discretion. Children aren’t always the best at keeping secrets, but…”

He held silent for a moment, then smiled. “She’s a Moonshadow elf. She’ll be fine.” He said, and she wished she could share his confidence.

“We’ll see.” Tiadrin said, noncommittal, and left it to that.

---

Once or twice in his early years, Callum experienced little hints of the shared skin between himself and his soulmate. Here and there, he felt phantom fingertips against the back of his hand, the weight of unfamiliar cloth, and—once—the sharp sting of a scratch from some sort of animal across the skin. It healed quickly, as all blemishes on soulmarks did, but he’d gone crying to his mother from the unexpected pain anyway.

People were circumspect about their soulmarks, and that was part of the background hum of culture that he was raised to. He wasn’t to show his soulmark in public. He wasn’t even to say where it was. He wore fingerless gloves, on both hands, to disguise it—and, at least until he was able to talk to her, he wasn’t even supposed to tell anyone her name.

He did, though.

He finger-spelled it out to Aunt Amaya, albeit clumsily. “Her name is Rayla,” he said, almost solemnly, with the motions of his hands. She smiled at him indulgently and raised a finger to her lips in a ‘hush’ motion.

She wasn’t the only person he told. He told the officer of the Standing Battalion who was watching his mother and Amaya’s latest sparring match. He told the baker that they went to buy sweets from. He told near everyone he met, when he was going through the typical three-year-old’s phase of desperate interest in the phenomenon of a soulmate, and his mother sighed at him for it every time.

Again and again, he asked her to write something to Rayla. To ask questions, to find out something more about her, anything. He had a soulmate, and he wanted to know more about her than her name and skin colour.

“It wouldn’t be right, Callum.” She told him, patiently. “Only soulmates should speak through their skin. You’ll just have to wait until you can write to her yourself.”

Callum scowled, and set back into learning his alphabet very vehemently indeed. Because that was the thing:

It wasn’t proper for someone else to write to your soulmate for you. It wasn’t even proper to be walked through spelling out an introduction. When you first wrote to your soulmate, you were supposed to do it yourself. And you were supposed to wait until you were good enough to manage basic conversation, too.

Callum didn’t want to wait until he had words to communicate with. So, one evening, in abject defiance of custom and propriety, he took off his glove and doodled a little flower on the back of his hand. He fell asleep feeling particularly pleased with himself, and somehow, didn’t consider that writing upon shared skin might garner a response.

He woke to a tiny, clumsy flower-doodle scrawled beside his own.

---

Rayla was something of a lonely child. She didn’t have friends her age, having never meshed well with the other children. She didn’t play like the other children did, preferring instead to train with Runaan, or go off sneaking into the forest alone. She didn’t socialise and the closest thing she had to friends were the adoraburrs she brought home by the armful. So, really, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she became so taken with her soulmate.

It started when, one day, Rayla ran up to them with her expression so bright it was impossible not to smile back at her. And then they saw what was on her hand, and Tiadrin had to restrain a surprised laugh at the neat little flower doodled on her daughter’s hand. “Oh, well,” She managed, and shared a glance with Lain. “That’s…” She remembered, for a moment, that this was a human, but… “That’s incredibly cute.” She sighed in the end, because it was, and Rayla was so charmingly pleased with the tiny drawing. “Congratulations, Rayla.”

“It’s only a flower,” said their rambunctious, headstrong little girl, but there was no hiding how delighted she was. “He didn’t even write anything.”

“Maybe he doesn’t know how, yet.” Tiadrin said, while she tried to remember how old Rayla’s soulmate was. “He’s not quite four, and that’s very young for writing.” She shook her head. “Well, I suppose we’d best get you your skin-inks, if you’re going to be talking now. Or drawing.” Suddenly, she levelled her daughter with a penetrating look. “Remind me what you know about talking to your soulmate, Rayla.”

She stilled for a second, and fell from her childish delight into the more bullheaded determination that accompanied her through her training. “Nothing ‘bout elves, or Xadia, or where we live, or anyone’s names, or magic, or assassins.”

Lain reached out and ruffled her hair. “Good girl.” He praised, and she beamed at him. When she was older, no doubt, she’d chafe against those restrictions. They’d make it very hard to talk to one’s soulmate about anything of substance, after all. But for now, she was content.

Rayla puffed up. “I’m gonna draw him an adoraburr!” She announced, and both of her parents made despairing noises.

“Rayla, honey, adoraburrs are magic.” Tiadrin explained, patiently, and her daughter’s face fell. Evidently, this might be more challenging than they’d thought.

(Rayla drew the adoraburr anyway. Adoraburrs were everywhere, after all. What could it hurt?)

Callum kept up a clandestine exchange of doodles with his soulmate for months before his mother found out. Rayla always used some sort of weird ink that washed off his skin really easily, while his ink lingered in faded outlines for days after he scrubbed it off. It was that which caught him, in the end.

“Callum,” his mother sighed, a little despairingly, at the evidence of many successive generations of doodles on the skin of his hand. “You’re supposed to wait until you can write.”

He made a face at her from the side of the bath, where he really should have expected he’d be caught. “It’s not hurting anyone.” He muttered, chagrined. “We’re just drawing.”

She pursed her lips, reluctantly curious. “She draws back? Or does she write?”

“She draws.” He admitted. “She got this weird ink that washes off easy.”

After a brief correction to his grammar, she shook her head. “Skin-ink. It’s made to wash off. I’ll have to get you some, I suppose.” She watched him almost tiredly for several long moments, then said “I’ll not stop you from drawing to each other, Callum. But this means we’ll need to have your security lessons earlier than normal. There are things you’re not supposed to talk to soulmates about—things that could hurt the kingdom. Do you understand?”

He didn’t. But he pretended he did, to make her happy.

In the end, she held the skin-inks hostage until he could dutifully rattle off the list of things he wasn’t supposed to talk about. This included: local governance, anything about how much food people had or where the food or water was kept, anything about the military (this being especially relevant, considering his mother and aunt), anything about the nobility, and a laundry list of other things.

When he was older, he’d understand the rationale behind it; that the careless words of children to their soulmates could reach the ears of adults who knew how to use them. A complaint about always being hungry might not mean much to the soulmate—but to an adult, it might indicate famine in a neighbouring kingdom. It might indicate weakness. And there were many such ways to damn one’s nation.

Of course, by the time he understood, he was himself a member of the nobility—a prince of Katolis. The damage an unwary prince might do with spilled secrets was potentially catastrophic, and so the lessons were drummed into his head until he almost felt wary to so much as touch the nib of his pen to the back of his hand. It would be so easy to give something away.

But, for now, he was only a child, and the ink on his skin held no secrets. He drew flowers, and birds, and cats, and dogs, and horses. His soulmate drew flowers, and weird circles with eyes, and animals that either had spikes on their heads or extra ears, and occasionally she attempted birds too. She wasn’t very good, but the drawings were from her, so he treasured them anyway.

He just wished he could write already, and talk to her properly.

---

Callum tugged on his mother’s sleeve and requested a writing test every week. And, every time, she looked over whatever she’d told him to write, praised his progress, and said, “Not yet.”

Not yet, every time. It meant ‘you are not yet at the level appropriate for talking to a soulmate’, and Callum thought it was an exceptionally annoying standard to hold someone to. It wasn’t like he and Rayla weren’t already sort-of talking, with their pictures. What did it matter if his spelling was bad or his handwriting messy or his letters extremely slow to form? But his mother was adamant.

Time passed, and in the wake of the great upheavals in his life, Callum wished more than ever before that he could talk to his soulmate. His mother married royalty, and she was crowned Queen, and Callum named prince, and in the overwhelming confusion of trying to adapt to life in the castle he desperately wished he could talk to Rayla about it. He didn’t have anyone to talk to, really. The only kids at the castle were Lord Viren’s children, and he didn’t know them well enough to confide in. But Rayla was his soulmate. He should be able to talk to her, right?

…But then, he realised, when his mother started to hesitate a little before saying “not yet,” he wouldn’t be able to talk to Rayla about this, anyway. His mother marrying a King, and him moving into a castle…that was big, important stuff. The sort of stuff soulmates weren’t meant to talk about, if they didn’t know for sure which kingdom they were loyal to.

That realisation left him sour and solemn for days. Still, he wanted to be able to talk to her about some things, even if not the big stuff that he wasn’t allowed to mention. He thought he was getting close to being pronounced ready, but…

In the end, Rayla lost patience before he did.

When Callum felt the scrawl of pen on his skin, it was an automatic reflex to duck away to somewhere secluded to peel off his glove and watch. This time, though, the scrawl just…kept going, as he headed for a secluded spot among a few trees, and he thought she must be drawing something unusually large and elaborate.

He just about fell over when he removed the glove to find words there.

The handwriting was messy, and slow to form. He was slow to read it. But it was unmistakably words.

Are you ever gonna write? Rayla asked, through their shared skin, and he stared at the back of his hand with his heart beating so hard it made his head feel weird and dizzy and hot. She was talking to him! Really talking!

After a moment, she underlined ‘ever’.

He panicked for several long minutes about what he should do. Mom said he shouldn’t. She said ‘not yet’. But that was about him making contact. The younger soulmate was supposed to do it first, after all.

He hesitated, rummaged for his pen and inks, and finally wrote Sorry. Mom won’t let me yet. It took him a long time. The letters were huge and messy and barely fit on the shared skin. For the first time in his life, he felt embarrassed for his handwriting, and suddenly understood why his mother might be saying ‘not yet’.

There was a pause as she wiped off her skin-inks and both sets of words vacated his skin. In her impatience, she left a vague inky smear behind. But you just wrote now, she pointed out, and – and his face burned, he felt unbearably shy and unbearably excited and nervous all at once…was this how people normally felt when they talked to their soulmates for the first time?

He ducked his head, flushed, and scrawled You did it first. He accidentally wrote over some of her letters in the process.

She washed off the inks again. Yeah, cause you were taking forever!! She paused, then added a few more exclamation marks for emphasis. I was so bored waiting.

After a brief pause where he carefully sounded out the word ‘waiting’ to figure out what it said, he wrote Me too.

Waiting had been annoying, and senseless, and stupid. Maybe it was a bit embarrassing to put bad handwriting on someone else’s skin, but…shouldn’t that be up to them to decide? If she still wanted to talk even though his writing was bad…then wasn’t it okay?

She had contacted him. He couldn’t be blamed for that, right?

…And it wasn’t like he hadn’t already broken tradition by drawing, anyway.

As soon as she washed their ink off, he started writing again. But we’re writing now, so I guess it’s okay?

Finally! Rayla wrote, in a quick and victorious scrawl, and also drew a little smiley face next to it. It was fairly delightful.

I’m Callum, he offered, a little shyly, after a moment. This, at least, he had practiced a lot.

I know. She wrote, the letters blocky and cheerful. I’m Rayla.

I know, he scrawled back, and imagined that on the other side of their connection, she was smiling too.

---

Callum learned a lot of things about his soulmate, in the weeks after she opened contact.

He learned that she liked to go exploring in the woods, which her town was inside. She wouldn’t say much about her town, but he got the idea it was pretty small.

He learned that she spent most of her time ‘training’, and while she wouldn’t say what she was training for, he gathered that it involved weapons and fighting and—apparently—being able to jump and flip around a lot.

He learned that she loved her parents and had two sort-of uncles who were married to each other, and one of those uncles was the one who trained her.

He learned that she absolutely detested water, and was terrified of it, and even the prospect of a bath was completely awful to her.

He learned that she was stubborn, and determined, and occasionally so blunt it was kind of rude. He learned that she didn’t really have friends, and while she put on a good show of not caring about that…

We’re friends, though, he pointed out to her, and felt the warmth of her fingertips lingering beneath the words for several minutes before she replied.

Yeah, she said, and that was all.

---

Rayla learned many things about her soulmate, in turn.

He was kind of shy, and got nervous easily, and wasn’t very good at talking to the kids where he lived. He had moved towns not all that long ago, and really wasn’t used to it yet, and found the new place kind of big and scary. He loved his mother an insane amount, and…didn’t seem to have a father. His mother had remarried, though, and had a baby on the way. He was cautiously excited about that.

He wasn’t good at fighting, and though he’d started sword lessons, he hated it and wished he didn’t have to do it. He took a lot of lessons—with tutors, instead of at a school—and wasn’t terribly keen on those, either. What he did like was drawing, and even though they could write now, he kept drawing things for her. Because he wanted to.

I want to draw stuff for you, he wrote, very firmly, and Rayla’s heart fluttered too much for her to think of objecting.

In all, he was really nice, considering he was a human.

...Maybe he wouldn’t be so nice, though, if he knew that she was an elf.

---

Callum was a shy and often tongue-tied boy out in the halls and grounds of the castle. In private, though, he never seemed to stop talking. And, unsurprisingly, one of his absolute favourite topics was his soulmate. As such, Sarai found out very rapidly when they’d started writing, and honestly wasn’t surprised by it at all. Only a little exasperated.

Time passed and Callum chattered, and Sarai grew to know a lot about her son’s soulmate. But there were things about her that she didn’t know. That she hadn’t even guessed about. Until…

“She spells things weirdly.” Callum confided, one day, while she was brushing his hair. “I tried telling her she was spelling stuff wrong but she just said that I’m spelling stuff wrong. Like ‘color’. She puts a ‘u’ in it. And she spells ‘mom’ with a ‘u’ too. It’s so weird.”

Sarai paused, brush stilling in his hair for a second, before she made herself complete the stroke. “Oh?” She said, lightly, allowing no trace of her unease into her voice. “That is odd. Does she spell any other words like that?”

Callum thought for a while. “She uses ‘s’ instead of ‘z’ a lot?” He ventured. “Like…she’ll spell ‘realize’ with an ‘s’. And sometimes she uses different words for things too. She calls pants ‘trousers’. I think maybe she’s from a kingdom where they say stuff different?”

“The common tongue does change a little, depending on where it’s spoken.” Sarai agreed, by all appearances unbothered. “So more likely than not, your Rayla speaks and writes with her regional dialect.” She paused, and carefully, she asked “Did she ever say where she was from?”

She could almost hear Callum’s face scrunching up. “No,” he admitted. “I guess she’s had security lessons too. I know she lives somewhere in a huge forest, though. She talks about it a lot.”

Sarai hummed, with the usual fond interest, and didn’t ask him to tell her more. He would, in time; he loved talking about his soulmate. If she asked, it would only make him suspicious. He was a bright boy. He’d notice. “Maybe one day she can give you tree-climbing lessons.” She suggested, and then that was all he could talk about for the next hour.

She listened more closely, after that. And, slowly, day by day, the clues started adding up.

“She says she lives inside a tree!” Callum declared one day, absolutely astonished and absolutely delighted and wanting her to know all about it. “A tree big enough that they could carve a house inside it! That must be so cool!”

Sarai agreed easily that it was very cool, and did not mention that there were no trees so large within the Pentarchy.

“I still draw her stuff, even though we can write now.” Her son said cheerfully, maybe a few weeks after the treehouse revelation. “She draws back sometimes, but she doesn’t like doing it because she doesn’t think she’s very good at it.”

“What does she draw?” Sarai inquired, and was presented with his hand, the skin-ink a little smudged around the shape of a fuzzy ball with a cute little face.

“Mostly these round fuzzy things.” He confided. “Sometimes she draws them stacked on each other.”

For a moment, she couldn’t answer. She stared, silent, at what was unmistakably an adoraburr, one of those creatures so common and omnipresent in Xadia that sometimes their charred fuzzy bodies were found fallen into the crevices of the Breach. Viren frequently received shipments of them. Apparently they were useful in some spells.

“Cute.” She commented, in the end, and knew by her son’s abrupt quietness that she hadn’t quite managed to hide her reaction.

She went to Harrow, almost as soon as she let Callum go out to play.

“I think Callum’s soulmate is an elf.” She said to him, without preamble, as soon as they were in private. He froze, and studied her, and watched her with wide eyes as he exhaled. He reached out and took her hand.

“Tell me everything.” He said, and she did. She explained the dialect, and the treehouse, and the adoraburrs, and every other clue her son had cheerfully rattled off at her over the months.

They brought Viren in. He agreed, from his acquaintance with stolen Xadian texts, that the dialect matched. He mentioned that there were enormous forests in Xadia not all that far from the border, and that they were home to a number of communities of Moonshadow elves. There might be other great forests elsewhere, of course. But that was the one he knew of.

From there on, she started noting down everything. The vague idea of ‘maybe she’s a Moonshadow elf’ went from ‘possible’ to ‘very likely’ when Sarai relayed the soulmate’s enthusiasm for a monthly community dance that—when she checked—turned out to fall on the full moon, every month. (Coincidentally, Callum had stopped complaining about his ballroom dancing lessons. She’d have found this much cuter if not for the circumstances.)

“The history texts I have say that Moonshadow elf tradition places a lot of emphasis on dancing.” Viren told her, almost apologetically, when she came back with this latest report.

“There’s no sense denying it any more, is there.” Sarai said, wearily, rubbing at her aching temples. Her son’s soulmate was an elf. Perhaps a Moonshadow elf, even, and those were some of the deadliest and most vicious elves there were. Combined with all of Callum’s mentions of his soulmate’s training…

Harrow laid his hand on her arm in warm, wordless reassurance. “What do you want to do?” he asked, quiet, and she sighed.

“I don’t know.” She admitted. In the end, it took a long talk with her sister before she made up her mind, and even then…it was hard to know what to do. How to react.

“He should know.” Was Amaya’s brusque opinion, expression laced with sympathy as she signed. “He’s a prince now, and he needs to know to watch his words around this soulmate of his. It’s a shame, but he’s hardly the first person to have an enemy for a soulmate.”

“There’s that.” Sarai agreed, glumly, and tried to stop worrying about what it meant for her son’s future, that his soulmate was an elf.

It was hard, telling him. Hard to sit him down and inform him, very seriously, that she was near certain that his soulmate was an elf. It was hard to watch the way his expression went…blank, almost. Closed-off, for a few seconds before it became confused and vulnerable instead.

“…What does this mean?” He asked, quiet, and she wasn’t sure what to tell him.

“It means that you need to be very, very careful what you tell her.” She said, in the end, because that was what she knew. “Her people are at war with ours, Callum. I won’t tell you to cut contact with her—she’s your soulmate. You couldn’t. But…” She exhaled, and shook her head. “I’ll get you some reading.”

She sent him off with a number of historical accounts about the tragedies of loyalty and heartbreak that could come from soulbonds divided by war, and wished that fate had been kinder.

---

Callum was quiet for days, after he learned the truth. He read through the books his mother gave him, even though they were long with tiny script and big words that he didn’t know, and felt more and more upset at the possibilities they implied for his future.

His soulmate…was an enemy. An elf. One of the people Aunt Amaya called bloodthirsty monsters.

He was short and brusque in his replies to her, for a while. He looked at the almost purplish hue of the shared skin with new eyes, and wondered what she looked like. Did she have horns? Pointy ears? The wrong number of fingers and toes? He’d wondered what she looked like before, of course, but…never in terms of how inhuman she might look.

She caught on to his strange behaviour very quickly. Did something happen? She asked him, through their skin, her handwriting its familiar blocky scrawl. You’ve been all quiet.

He wasn’t sure what to say. Wasn’t sure how to reconcile his feelings towards Rayla, his closest friend and his soulmate, with the knowledge that she was an elf. Kind of, he wrote, in the end, heart heavy. He wished his mother hadn’t told him. He wished he didn’t know. I found some stuff out, and I don’t know what to think.

There was a pause while she washed the ink off. And then: Do you want to talk about it?

He didn’t. Not then. So he passed the following weeks, reading her usual reports of daily life, and wondering what exactly she was training for, day after day after day. Why such long hours, when she was so young? Who exactly was she planning on using those combat skills against?

They were heavy thoughts for a child as young as he was, but there was hardly any escaping them. He tried to focus on happier things, like his mother’s pregnancy, and the nigh arrival of his younger sibling. He tried to think of how Claudia was pretty and friendly and fun to talk to, and definitely wasn’t an elf. He tried to think of a lot of things that weren’t his soulmate, and failed fairly thoroughly.

In the end, after weeks of stilted conversation, he couldn’t take it anymore, and sat down with skin-ink and pen to write: You’re an elf, aren’t you.

She didn’t reply for a long time. But eventually, he felt the tickle of a pen-nib at the back of his hand, and retreated into private to peel off the glove. Yeah, she’d written, and nothing else. Not for a few minutes. Then: You’re a human.

It wasn’t a question. He hesitated, wiped off the ink, and wrote You knew?

Yeah, she said again, and then haltingly explained. Apparently, elves wrote their children’s names to their soulmates just like humans did, except they always included some sort of magic symbol, so her parents had known he was human the second his name came through without it.

He asked what hers was. He probably shouldn’t have, and she probably shouldn’t have answered, but she did. She drew a little symbol, and he took it carefully to his mother.

“Moonshadow elf,” she concluded, with honest sympathy, like someone offering condolences. “Like we thought. I’m sorry, Callum.”

‘I’m sorry’, like it was a death-sentence.

He sighed, and put his glove back on. “I’ll be careful.” He promised, quiet, and left to be alone.

---

Both of them were quieter, after that. There was less idle chatter. Less writing about their days, their experiences, the things that annoyed them and the things they enjoyed. He still wrote—he didn’t think he could have stopped himself if he tried. But there was a wariness between them now that he hated.

Still. There were at least some advantages to having an elf on the other end of his soulbond. Investigating rumours, for one. My friend says elves drink blood, he wrote, one day, with a sort of morbid interest. Is that true?

What?? No!! She wrote, furiously, and then underlined it twice and circled it for good measure.

She reciprocated, sometimes.

Is it true humans have extra fingers? She asked, and he responded by drawing his hand onto the back of his hand. Weird, was her response to that, and despite everything, he couldn’t help but smile.

---

I heard that in Xadia everything is magic, he wrote, one day. Is that true? What’s it like?

She hesitated a long while, then wrote I’m not supposed to talk about magic. Or Xadia.

It hurt, a little. But in the end, they both had their security lessons, and their people were still at war. There was nothing to be done.

Eventually, he wrote what had been on his mind for months, now. I wonder how we’ll meet, he said, with a twist of emotion that was half unease and half interest. It was on his mother’s mind, he knew, and it was certainly a thought he kept coming back to, for good reason.

Soulmates always met eventually, whether or not they contrived to. Even if they tried to avoid it…it would happen someday. His mother was worried about it. The circumstances under which a Prince of Katolis might meet an elf were almost exclusively unpleasant, after all. But he entertained childish thoughts of peace treaties and reconciliation, and clung to them, as unlikely as they might be.

I have no idea, Rayla answered him eventually, and he wondered if she was worried, too.

---

The next year or so was eventful for both of them. Callum’s little brother was born, and he instantly became utterly enchanted with him. He wrote to Rayla at considerable length about how tiny his fingers and toes were, how fuzzy his hair was, how he didn’t have a soulmark yet at all. He never wrote his name, because names were forbidden, but Rayla seemed entertained enough by the stories anyway.

Some time later, Rayla went quiet for a while, and was plainly subdued by something. Eventually, she admitted that her parents had agreed to taking a job that meant they had to go away. She wouldn’t see them more than once a year now, if that. Whatever job it was, it was supposedly an honour; but that didn’t help how much she missed them. She was living with her uncles, now.

You can write letters to them, maybe? He suggested. It wasn’t as good as the real-time writing between soulmates, but it was better than nothing.

I guess, she said, but didn’t seem very enthusiastic about it. Her life changed, but Callum’s went on.

---

And then Callum’s life shattered around him.

He shut himself in his room and cried for hours, burying his face in his hands, until tears were streaming between his fingers and his chest hurt and everything felt so awful he had no idea how to cope. How could he? She was gone.

Not much could carry across shared skin. But evidently, enough of the salt-water managed it for Rayla to be alarmed. By the time he checked what she’d written, the tears had smeared and diluted the inks, but the words were still recognisable. Is something wrong? She’d asked, hurried enough that it looked alarmed. Are you crying?

He nearly collapsed, when he went to get the inks. Could hardly see through tears when he wrote, lopsided and awful, My mom is dead. Writing it was terrible. An admission that it was real, it had happened, she was dead.

Rayla didn’t know what to say to that, and he could tell. She wrote I’m so sorry, Callum, and asked if there was anything she could do, if he wanted to talk about anything. But there wasn’t, and he didn’t. Mom was dead. What was there to talk about?

Eventually, perhaps for lack of anything else to try, Rayla drew him a little flower. She’d done it to try to make him feel better, and—and somehow, that made him start sobbing all over again.

A long way down the line, she asked him how it had happened. He couldn’t answer. Of course he couldn’t. That the Dragon King had killed her would reveal too much.

But saying ‘I can’t talk about that’ was revealing in its own way, too.

---

Years passed them by. Callum slowly pieced his life back together around the hole his mother had left, and learned to cope with the loneliness of being without her. His brother grew, and started talking, and swiftly became the dearest person in Callum’s life…except, perhaps, for the elf on the other end of his soulbond.

In many ways, things stayed the same. Callum hated his training and Rayla loved hers. He loved drawing—and became very good at it—and Rayla continued to hate water. She remained as stubborn and headstrong as ever, and she remained his friend.

Sometimes, he had no idea what he’d do without her. Soren was kind of an unpleasant friend, most of the time, and Claudia was always too occupied with her books or lessons or brother to answer his attempts to socialise. He had Ezran, of course, but without Rayla…he could only imagine how lonely he’d have been.

Sometimes he remembered all over again that she was an elf, and felt weird about how much he depended on her.

He still wondered how they’d meet.

---

King Harrow and Lord Viren, with very little warning, departed Katolis and rode into Xadia. There, they killed the Dragon King, and his son the Dragon Prince, and returned covered in a glory that Harrow’s bearing didn’t reflect. Callum wondered if the revenge had felt as hollow to enact as he felt to receive it. The one who killed mom is dead now, he thought, and didn’t feel vindicated. Didn’t feel happy. He just felt…empty. What was the use of it, so many years after her death? She was still dead.

He wished he could talk to Rayla about it. But if names were a forbidden topic, then revealing that his step-father had ridden into Xadia and killed their King…that was plainly out of the question. So he told her nothing.

He wondered if it was his imagination, that she’d grown quieter anyway. When she wrote, she seemed unhappy. Preoccupied, too.

Weeks passed, and she admitted that she was going to be travelling soon. She didn’t say why, or to where, or what for—all of that was proscribed. But she gave it as warning, anyway, that she’d be able to talk less while en route.

In the month that followed, the brevity of their contact left him lonelier than ever.

---

“You must be careful, Rayla.” Runaan said to her, in private, where the other assassins couldn’t hear. “For the first time, you are venturing into the human kingdoms. You must take particular care to avoid meeting your soulmate.”

“Everyone meets their soulmate eventually.” She muttered back to him, fingers resting reflexively over the guard on her left hand.

He was unmoved. “Yes. But, with luck, you can avoid it taking place on this mission.”

It was, in fairness, a very important mission. She sighed. “I’ll do my best.” She promised, though it wasn’t exactly within her control.

When the Full Moon was nigh, and the bindings tight around her wrists, Rayla broke into Katolis Castle and went looking for her quarry.

The first non-soldier she found was a young human boy, maybe around her age. She didn’t know how old Prince Ezran was, but she knew he wasn’t an adult, and…according to what she’d been taught, this boy was wearing pretty high-quality clothes. If he wasn’t Ezran, he should at least know who was.

She chased him. She cornered him. He said, “I am Prince Ezran,” and looked up at her with a resolve and solemnity that didn’t quite manage to mask his fear.

It hit her, then, looking down the length of her blade towards the face of this human boy waiting to die. It hit her that—that he was afraid, that he didn’t want to die, that he was a person, as much as she was, as much as her soulmate was, he was a human just like Callum and she was here to kill him—

But…she had to do it. She had to. She’d bound herself, it was her mission, it was the justice that the Dragon Prince deserved. She had to.

It was in the midst of trying to talk herself into it, and him trying to talk her out of it, that a child’s voice emerged from behind a painting.

It said, “Callum”, and she only had a moment for her blood to freeze before, at her feet, the terrified human boy, the boy who had claimed to be Prince Ezran, the boy she’d been about to kill—

He answered. He responded. It was his name.

What were the chances that she’d meet someone named Callum—the correct age, the correct species, everything—and it wouldn’t be her soulmate?

The painting edged open, revealing a younger human boy with some sort of weird pet. A pet she’d heard descriptions of, held in the arms of a child she’d been hearing about since he was born, looking worriedly between her and the boy she had at swordpoint—

She realised she’d been frozen for too long. She realised that, one way or another, she had to be sure. She reached over, and hit herself hard on the back of her left hand.

The human, in an instant and involuntary motion, flinched and gripped the back of his own left hand. Her heart thudded, and— it only took him a second to realise—

His eyes went wide. He glanced wildly between her and his hand, undoubtedly registering that she was a Moonshadow elf, that she was the right age, that she was—

“Rayla?” He squeaked, and if she hadn’t already known for certain, that would have told her.

She lowered her sword, utterly struck by how much of a disaster this was.

“Shit.” She said, succinctly, and stared at the astounded face of her soulmate.

What in Xadia’s name was she supposed to do now?

---

Notes:

I’ve adored this piece ever since I wrote it in Whenever, Early 2020. Really, really thrilled to be able to share it with everyone at last. As you can tell, it ends on a pretty rude cliffhanger. It’s always invited follow-up, and I think I knew from the moment I finished it that I’d be continuing it someday. And so I did! Eventually!!

According to my discord message history, I began writing chapter 2 in February this year, 2021. I probably wrote the following two chapters within a mad haze in the same week or two, knowing me. The chapters are uncharacteristically short, considering my usual habits, but it felt right for the story. I’ve completed up to the end of chapter 4, and have nothing written after that yet.

Minor edits have been made from the zine version, including some formatting, but nothing drastic. Writing this piece in general was a challenge. There was so much I wanted to include – about the differences in Callum’s life, about Ezran’s soulmate – that I had to cut out because of the word count restriction. Ultimately I opted not to edit that back in for the online version, and simply fill it in organically through the rest of the story. There’s some really interesting stuff, and the story as a whole is going to be wildly canon-divergent.

Some worldbuilding details: - platonic soulmates are considerably more common than romantic ones - there’s some cool weird soulmate metaphysics re: magic

I think I’ll keep it vague and let everyone discover how I’m doing soulmates for themselves, though. Hope everyone enjoyed! Would really love comments on this one; I’ve been waiting so long to share it and I’m so excited.

(also I’m fully aware that the fic’s acronym is ASS, and I’ve decided to embrace this)

#rayllum #rayllumzine #tdp fic #soulmate AU #tdp callum #tdp rayla #god I'm so excited for this fic you don't even know #I've been sitting on the extra chapters for months now #Across Shared Skin

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hiccstrxd · 4 years ago

Text

Heart in disguise

I mixed muse and the crush prompt together and behold the outcome! Read it on ao3.

Summary: Callum couldn’t pinpoint exactly when she had become the primary subject of most of his artistic compositions, though he can admit — if a little shyly — that somewhere along the way, when the mistrust faded, new feelings arose in its place.

Sometimes he’d find himself drawing the unfamiliar curve of a horn or the foreign form of a hand; a face with sinuous markings underneath the eyes or the rather pointy tip of an ear instead of the usual rounder ending.

It caught him unguarded, leaving him baffled.

The features were new, unlike anything he has drawn before and they intrigued him to no end. He wanted to depict them on paper when possible, study them from afar, learn more about this newly discovered truth about elves not being the bloodthirsty monster people claimed to be.

Or maybe he just loved drawing her.

Callum couldn’t pinpoint exactly when she had become the primary subject of most of his artistic compositions, though he can admit — if a little shyly — that somewhere along the way, when the mistrust faded, new feelings arose in its place.

They have come a long way since that eventful encounter in the castle’s hallway. Somehow, they have grown closer – there’s a bond that wasn’t there before, a dynamic that has changed throughout their journey. And a feeling that ran deeper than mere friendship. Sure, he likes to consider her as one of his closest friends – his best friend, dare he say – but there was something else that Callum couldn’t wrap his finger around no matter how hard he tried.

Because it’s new, it’s thrilling, and it’s completely different than anything he has felt before.

He is no stranger to the concept of having a ‘crush’, after all, Soren used to refer his infatuation towards Claudia as such. But unbeknownst to him, there has been something akin — if a bit more serious — blossoming deep in his chest ever since they started their solo trip that has thrown him off guard and left him with a heartwarming afterthought.

It started simple, taking notice of small things that he has overlooked before. Like the way her ears twitch whenever she is excited, or how they droop down when she is either feeling emotional or crestfallen. The very thick accent that he has come to found absolutely endearing, especially when at moments it just gets even thicker on its own accord. The glimmer in her eyes when she talks about something she deeply cares about, or a notion she firmly believes in.

How she is one of the strongest, bravest, and most determined individuals he’s known and how she doesn’t credit herself enough – which he tries to remind her whenever possible – and that past that hard exterior lies one of the gentlest, most selfless souls.

Then came the increasing heart rate, the blushing when she decides to tease him or when her hand brushes against his by accident, and the warmth that pools in his chest when she smiles that fond smile of hers.

And, sometimes, he can’t help but put them on paper, to freeze those little moments that captivate him so much, that make a fluttering sensation settle in his stomach when he so much as looked her way. Just thinking about it makes his heart swell and the corners of his mouth to involuntarily twitch, because – when he stops to think about it – how could he not develop feelings for someone as fierce and smart and kind and beautiful as Rayla.

The way he feels safe, feeling like everything thought impossible is possible around her, weightless by her mere presence and encouraged with a sole smile shot his way.

“What are you smiling at?” She said with a light laugh upon laying eyes on him. He might have looked utterly ridiculous with a silly smile on his face and a love-struck expression towards nothing in particular.

He cleared his throat and fought the crimson color from spreading across his cheeks but to no avail, “Uhh... nothing,” Callum adverted his eyes, fearing they could give him away.

She slowed down her pace and came to walk next to him, giving him a playful shove on the shoulder. Zym was perched on his own shoulder, watching with wonder in his eyes everything around him, but when hearing the conversation taking place, he leaned his little body forward to have a better look at his two – out of three – favorite people. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t it be?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Because since a mile ago you’ve been zoning out, and now you won’t look me in the eye?” Her voice carried a humorous tone, one he has become familiar with as of lately. It’s heartening to see her at ease, less uptight, and with her walls down.

He flinched but soon covered it with a small laugh, “Seriously, it’s nothing.” Callum gave her a reassuring smile, one he thought was convincing enough to drop the subject but even he thought it lacked genuineness.

Rayla hummed again, “Whatever you say, sad prince.” Zym chirped behind him as if saying he wasn’t convinced either. The betrayal.

“Well, if nothing’s wrong then come, I want to show you something.” He barely registered when her fingers laced together with his and yanked him to a direction that definitely would take them a little off track, but he couldn’t make himself care about the slight detour.

It wasn’t the first time that they held hands, but he’d never get tired of how their fingers fit together almost perfectly, almost as if that was supposed to be.

She took them to a meadow where a ton of fluffy little creatures made their afternoon a whole lot better. And later that day, it was unavoidable to not draw the scene that was very much printed in his mind; Zym playing around with the adoraburrs, Rayla laughing without a care in the world – a sight that as of recently does not fail to make his heart soar.

Drawing has always meant more than just a diversion. It was more than just a form of manifestation, more than simply portraying tangible things on paper. A charcoal in his hand felt like the whole world on his fingertips — it’s what made him feel complete, fulfilled.

His art embodies who he is and everything he has come to love over the years.

So it should really come as no surprise as to why Rayla has been filling page after page of his sketchbook, why drawing her brings him such delight. Maybe he has developed feelings for her, and the sudden pang of heartache whenever he thinks about it it’s hard to ignore because the sentiment — he is rather positive — is pretty much one-sided.

But he likes her beyond what words can express and right now, her friendship and everything in between, means the world to him. Perhaps one day, they could take one big step forward in their relationship and he would no longer have to cloak his heart’s true yearning.

(They do).

#rayllum #rayllum fic #rayllummonth2021 #my writing #this is all fluff #no regrets #the dragon prince #rayla tdp #callum tdp #it's pining callum for ya

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shiramoonshadow · 4 years ago

Text

I just finished writing the first vip panel with Rhona Rees, Paula Burrows, Jack De Sena and Omari Newton. My old post was erased (but I posted it again), I don't know what's wrong with my computer or this app, but if I try to minimize the page it erases everything I had written, so sorry for the double post. This is only the first part.

I've written the questions like the moderator asked them:

Rhona, who did you have a chance to work with in the booth and be next to and then we’ll go Omari and then Paula.

Rhona: I think most of the core cast were there when I got a chance to join in..Um..Paula, Racquel, Jesse, Omari you were in the booth for one of my episodes I believe. Jason, Sasha, yeah and first time I’d met Jack as well so, I mean, this was pre-pandemic, these days we’re all recording separately and it has made a real difference..Um.. recording cartoons is one the most joyful things you can do and I know that I don’t know how you guys have felt recording separately but it’s not the same, I miss the magic of being able to bounce off each other’s energy.

Omari: It’s sad. I would agree with you, like most of the main cast was there when I went in, you know? And I think we had a day where we overlapped but I’m trying to think now..Had this show been cast in this covid times? I don’t know if it would have had the same magic it does, if we did not all get to know each other and riff off each other... It is so much of the show, especially a show that relies on kind of humor and heart, relies on the connection with other people so yeah, I really miss it too.

Rhona: Yeah, and that connection, you know, between Paula and Jack’s characters, how do you build that when you’re not recording together and you’re not even hearing the delivery of the other people, like I think it’s great that you guys already have that established, so that if we move forward and things still aren’t ensemble, you’ve already established that connection and you know you can probably predict maybe how things are gonna go

Paula: Yeah, yeah. I mean, we’re being so lucky on this show like I don’t know, we usually record in a big U, so we’re all sort of shoulder to shoulder, I have Jack on one side and Jason on the other, so Callum and Viren, but across from me is Sasha and Omari are usually across from me as well, so you’re your scenes with people..Um..I don’t know, this is a new world going forward. I haven’t done any animation recording only solo records, throughout the pandemic I’ve only done commercial so I haven’t really experienced it yet, but in terms of recording The Dragon Prince, the only people I didn’t get to record with were the sunfire elves and Aaravos.

Are there other ships besides Rayllum..Um.. What is that ship with their aunt that’s deaf and…

Paula and Jack: Amaya?

Yeah! that's a ship, right?

Paula: they’re a thing

Jack: I think that’s certainly shippable if it’s not canonically a ship.

Omari: Someone sent a video of Corvus and Soren like they edited it and put it on youtube and I was like “Oh!”

Jack: I’m sure with Callum, I’m sure people, you know, there’s a Claudia thing as well but I always felt like-

Paula: Excuse me?

Jack (laughs): There was, but then they go on a date at the moon nexus.

Do they?

Jack: Yeah, kind of, and then she tells them his dad died so it’s not like a great date, it doesn’t go super well.

Paula: Was that a date or like a kidnapping?

Jack: I think Callum thought it was maybe a date

Rhona: I feel like a lot of my dates go “is this a date or a kidnapping?”

Omari: The fine line, right Rhona?

I think this is my favorite (Janaya’s picture), whether or not it felt like it and I loved Gren’s smile in the background.

Jack: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Paula: I have never looked so happy.

Right? So are there any others, like shipping Callum with different people seems really...It’s very clear that Rayla and Callum are a thing.

Jack: Yeah.

Rhona: I mean, when I was recording, me and Jesse were joking that Nyx and Soren would be a fun ship because they both kind of had this kind of slightly…(sorry, I couldn't hear what she said because someone talked at the same time and her audio wasn’t the best…) They never interact yet in the show but like let’s just throw it out into the universe and see what comes back.

Paula: I would like to see Bait fall in love.

Jack: Aww…

Rhona: With jelly tarts?

Jack: (laughs) Yeah, he has already.

Any other ships? No?

Jack: I mean, do people ship in sort of like a backstory way? Do people ship Harrow and Viren? Because I definitely have that mentioned.

Paula: right?

Jack: I think it’s a very textured friendship thing but I think there’s plenty to read the other way if you-

With Viren I could see but do you honestly think that-

Jack: I think that’s maybe more what I think...yeah I think it’s more.

Paula: There’s something that can be perceived as very saucy between the two of them.

Jack: There’s a vibe.

What is your favorite moment in the show? Rhona, and then Omari, and then Paula and then Jack.

Rhona: I think the moment when Rayla is meeting her... like ancestors by the pool, I don’t know how to describe..do you know that scene I’m talking about?

Jack: It’s the moon nexus, right? She’s like through the memories.

Rhona:Yeah, that was beautiful. I think that or when you guys have all those little fuzzy. What are those little fuzzy..?

Jack: Adoraburrs? Is that what they’re called?

Paula: They are adorable.

Rhona:Yes! I think those... That was like such a sweet moment and then, yeah, I really remember that. I really remember that moon nexus scene as being so emotional and beautiful and mature. (I think they may be talking about the Silvergrove scene?)

#the dragon prince #cast and crew #rayllum #Rhona Rees #paula burrows #jack de sena #omari newton #janaya #soren x nyx #virrow

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foxie-roxie · 5 years ago

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why rayllum is a MASTERPIECE part 3

*RUBS MY CLAWS TOGETHER* IT IS SEASON 3 TIME BITCHES AND H O L Y S H I T I LOVE THIS SEASON SO MUCH

i even rewatched it for this!

this time i’ll try to have SOME order, and go by episode. this will however still include unintelligible screaming

1. DAMN THESE FUCKERS BE PINING MORE THAN A PINE TREE FOREST!

first off, affectionate eye rolling, nose boop, and head bonk is the best thing.

second, IF SOMEONE SAYS THAT DURING WHEN CALLUM WAS HELPING RAYLA PUT ON HIS SCARF AND THEY J STARED AT EACHOTHER FOR A BIT BEFORE RAYLA TURNED AWAY THAT HE WAS N O T LOST IN HER EYES? they’re wrong. this is fact now.

third, their teamwork and decision making is excellent. they agree to try and sneak past sol regem, and when that fails try talking to him and then decide to simply trick his senses with the scarf. and instead of rayla shooting down callum’s “smelltriloquism” idea, she simply adds onto it! LOVE HEALTHY FRIENDSHIPS

“i think it’s good luck!” YES IT IS RAY THAT’S UR BOYFRIENDS SCARF

also, here you go. you’re welcome.

2. STILL PINING. GOD DAMN.

first, CALLUM BEING SO EXCITED BY ALL THE MAGIC IN XADIA IS S O CUTE! MY SON. this might turn into an overrall review of s3. o well

second. FLUSTERED RAYLA AND FLUSTERED CALLUM. Y E S

third, THE ADORABURR FIELD! their smiles were so fond and soft and A. they make me cry of joy.

an overall look on it, i like how this episode really shows their feelings clearly. no “will they won’t they”, at least for rayla. it’s clear she has feelings.

3. AH FUCK. ANGST.

first i love how when rayla mentions that she’s excited and happy but also terrified, callum tries to comfort her. good boi. best boi.

second, elf callum. i love that scene so much even if the second-hand embarrassment kills me, and rayla is j like “why the fuck do i love you. im gonna kill him.”

third, DANCE! callum not being rude and saying her home is “modest” before rayla explains it’s an illusion, his BLUSH WHEN SHE HELPS HIM, and the softness in general. rayla’s excitement that she’s home and talks abt that she can show callum where she went to school, the best moonberry surprise place, until...

fourth, AH FUCK. A N G S T T I M E. rayla being crest-fallen before callum says that it must’ve been a mistake, and she realizes that ethari would probably understand!

and then CONFIRMED GAYS. YES.

rayla realizing ethari ghosted her too and then callum GOING O F F. he angy and when rayla runs out callum IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS (like in a later episode) and comforts her again.

when ethari comes down and breaks the spell and says to callum “trees to meet you too” and rayla’s like “don’t encourage him”

also callum trying to get on the shadowpaw and ethari being Concerned is AMAZING. concerned dad content

i’ll talk more about ezran/ruthari/the dark magic trio in a later ted talk

4. H E R E W E G O

first, rayla clearly being sad and callum picking up on that quickly (he even seems to be almost falling on purpose, perhaps to make her smile?) and asking if she’s ok before being shot down by rayla insisting she is fine. GOD DAMN. THAT HURTS.

second, their interaction with nyx is so amazing. rayla being protective of zym and callum being a DORK is awesome, but also their decision making.

after rayla reluctantly decides that they can go see how nyx could get them across the desert so quickly, they see the ambler and then their reasoning is amazing.

“what do you think?”

“the dragon queen is dying.” and then i forget the rest of the exact quote but they give a subtle nod to eachother. they make their decisions TOGETHER. AS A TEAM. AND THAT’S ON HEALTHY FRIENDSHIPS X2!

third, callum continuing to gently press for rayla to express her emotions. he doesn’t pressure her, but seems to simply let her know that if she needs to talk (when she insists she’s fine), he is there.

four, MORE FLUSTERED RAYLLUM. YES. TY NYX but also fuck u for taking zym but also ur hot- A N Y W A Y

five. OOOOOOH. MY FAVORITE SCENE.

rayla’s crying and callum tries to reassure her. nyx is plotting, while rayla runs away and callum follows. Y E S.

rayla talks about how there’s nobody left that cares about her and she lost everything.. and then the SPEECH. i have this speech memorized i’ve watched this scene so many times

"JUST SHUT UP, YOU'RE TALKING CRAZY. JUST, LISTEN TO ME. YOU'RE TOO GOOD TO FEEL THIS BAD ABOUT YOURSELF. I KNOW THAT, AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT. YOU HAVE TRUE COURAGE, AND A BIG HEART! I'VE SEEN YOU GET KNOCKED DOWN SO MANY TIMES AND EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. YOU GET UP AGAIN. THAT'S REAL STRENGTH. AND.. AND YOU'RE TEN TIMES FUNNIER THAN ANY HUMAN I KNOW! chuckle SEE? SEE YOU KNOW YOU'RE AMAZING. YOU'RE SMART AND FAST AND BEAUTIFUL. RAYLA YOU'RE THE MOST AMAZING PERSON I'VE EVER MET."

LOVE THEMMM

and then rayla kisses him and that’s all that happened. callum was not a dumbass. right? RIGHT???

5. MY FAVORITE EPISODE!

first, rayla saving callum from the soulfang serpents and callum helping her get up is AMAZING, LOVE THAT.

second, callum tryna get a good position and rayla j saying to hold onto her and callum GETTING FLUSTERED. BOY IS PINING also he didn’t have to hold her that close.

“I DON’T THINK OF HER THAT WAY” “YOU AND I DON’T HAVE THAT YET” LIAR.

three, THEM JUMPING OFF THE AMBLER AND. THAT WHOLE MOMENT? THE ROMANTIC TENSION IS KILLING ME

four. DAMN CALLUM RLLY DO BE HAVING HEART EYES @ RAYLA WHILE SHE KILLS LIKE 80 SOULFANGS HE IS PINING PART 2

five. THE SPEECH. THE SOFTNESS. THE KISSES. GOD DAMN. FAVORITE SCENE OUT OF THE ENTIRETY OF TDP. LOVE THEM.

also here you go again

what can i say except YOU’RE WELCOME

6. ANGST BUT ALSO FLUFF ALSO REUNION

once again won’t b talking abt ezran specifically but there’s some passing mentions of him from now on

first, rayla and callum reaching the stone thunder and callum asking “is it... a statue?” and rayla sadly saying “no. it’s not a statue” A. I CRI.

1.5 ayla and callum best dragon parents

i’ll get to an actual analysis later

second, THIS MOMENT IS UNDERRATED EVEN THO IT’S ONE OF MY FAVS why has nobody mentioned the lil tender moment where ezran is by phoe-phoe and rayla puts her hand on callum’s shoulder AND CALLUM PUTS HIS HAND ON HERS. SO SWEET.

third, OK I’LL STOP MOST OF MY UNINTELLIGIBLE SHRIEKS AND ACTUALLY ANALYZE THIS.

callum is upset because of thunder and rayla sympathizes immediately. this is similar to how callum lets rayla let out her own emotions, and rayla is doing the same. he explains how he feels angry, upset, confused, sad, and rayla quickly empathizes. he keeps on venting, not knowing whether to feel regretful, or glad, and how he’s confused because that’s sarai’s spear. he feels sorry that all this happened, but rayla reassures him that zym and ezran are going to break the cycle! that’s hope! and then they hold hands and i screech

AND THAT’S SO FUCKING HEALTHY AND I LOVE IT. THEY RLLY BREAK ALL BAD HET RELATIONSHIP STEREOTYPES (coughbutistillheadcanonthembothasbiandcallumistransilldieonthishillcough)

7. angst but not rayllum angst so its ok

first, they begin to go up the storm spire and i really love their banter. “and i’m guessing the dragon queen didn’t make her den at a nice, halfway kinda place?” “nope. tiptop!”

cuties.

second, ASSDHFNF THE FACT THEY M O C K THE IDEA OF A FORBIDDEN RELATIONSHIP. THEY’RE IN LOVE AND THE WORLD CAN DEAL WITH IT. LOVE THAT FOR THEM

third, RAYLA CATCHING CALLUM. IT’S. NOT RLLY BIG I JUST LIKE IT AND THINK IT’S CUTE HOW EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS ALSO OUT OF BREATH SHE RAN UP TO CATCH HIM.

four, AHSDHGDHFG THEY DEADASS FORGOT EZRAN WAS THERE. more flustered rayllum i love that

8. FUCK IT’S RAYLLUM ANGST NOOOO

one, ibis is j a good boi. back to rayla and callum

two, rayla going in to see the dragon queen and when she runs out callum QUICKLY FOLLOWS to see if she’s ok. asks her if she’s ok, and she OPENS UP!! CHARACTER GROWTH BABY!!! and then they hold hands and i once again shriek

three, AH. HELLO ANGST.

before we go to the actual angst, can i say that THE LAUGH AFTER RAYLA SAID “STORM SNEEZE” IS SO CUTE. CALLUMS IN LOVE. MY SON.

oh no.

*bonks rayla on the head* nO SELF SACRIFICING!!

although their fight is super angsty and i hate it, it does provide some conflict and more plot because it gives callum a reason to want to find out the truth about rayla’s parents. and then he does! people argue that this fight was unnecessary or that callum was a jerk, but this was needed i think. he did let his worry become a bit of anger, and that was not a nice move, but he knows he fucked up and fixes it!

and then we get soft rayllum this is fine

9. AND YOU THOUGHT LAST EPISODE WAS BAD N O *CRYING*

there’s not much rayllum featured in this ep, but the amount we do get is 80 PERCENT ANGST AND I WASN’T OK WITH IT

first, the fluff! callum trying to do the wing spell and rayla teasing “did you pull a muscle in the middle of a jumping jack?” is so cute. i LOVE THEM. also they hold hands and i SH RIEK again.

also soren how dare you interrupt callum he was abt to confess

second, callum when he’s explaining the battle plan and his ZAP HAND. rayla is j watching him like “yep. that is my dork.”

and CALLUM SEEMS SO FOND WHEN JANAI CALLS RAYLA THE LAST DRAGONGUARD. PERHAPS I SOB

skipping forward in time a bit for the angst oh no

third, callum going up to the storm spire after ez encouraging him to go to rayla. love that soft brotherly relationship. and we think “oh, soft rayllum, right?”

NO. VIREN’S UP THERE.

fourth, THEY DIDN’T NEED ME TO BE ROLLING ON THE FLOOR WTF. the fact that rayla’s blade went right in front of callum and he looks up and sees zym in danger, viren is there, and RAYLA is there, p a n i k.

and then rayla jumps and the entire rayllum fandom SC REAMS after callum’s “no!” before she jumps and “no, no, no, RAYLA!”

fifth, CALLUM NO WHY ARE YOU JUMPING TOO- oh wait its ok he did the wings and im still crying fuck

THAT CONFESSION THO- i cri tears of joy now. they’re in love

sixth, I J WANNA KNOW WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT BEFORE EZRAN SHOWED UP. like it’s clear that they’re talking or something, but abt what is the question. also yes they hug and raylas fond

seventh, THEY HOLD HANDS!! soft bbs,,,

AAAND IM DONE! this is. quite long so if you read all of this i hope u have a good day and thnx for listening to me ramble with some coherent thoughts

#rayla #callum #rayllum #rambling #thanks for reading #ezran #tdp season three #tdp s3 #soren #the dragon prince zym #tdp

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xadianwolf · 4 years ago

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All right, wolves, last part of Wolfy's Dragon December is here! Let's do it!

☀️Book III: Sun☀️

🐲 Sol Regem🐲

- Wait, dragons can talk?!

- Oooh, more gray morality!

- Not gonna lie, Sol Regem totally deserved it

- "This whole thing about appearances sounds lile moon arcanum stuff." Foreshadowing much 😏?

- She called him a mage!

- I do agree with Fen in this situation

- No, Zym!

- Oh crap, Sol knows they there!

- Strawberry boy is back! And he has some bad news!

- That horrified look on Rayla's face when Sol sniffs her may tell something about dragons being bad leaders. Seriously, Xadia, you pick a leader by power and not wisdom?!

- I wonder how did everyone "knew" that the Egg was "destroyed"...

- I've seen people say that Sol Regem was done dirty because he's stupid, but in my opinion he's actually done well despite being a villain. Like, this dude has spent his time sitting alone in his angry thoughts in this canyon for 1000+ years, so it'd be no wonder that he's gone insane because of it

- CALLUM'S PUPILS DILATED! I REPEAT, CALLUM'S PUPILS DILATED!

- Janai is back!

- That's a very clever plan, Callum! And it's good Rayla agreed with it

- Noooo, Rayla!

- To be honest, it makes sense that Amaya saved Janai. She was stuck on elven side and would be captured soon anyway, plus if she'd let Janai die, she would've been punished harsher

- Callum's so worried about Rayla that he flat out forgets an insane sun dragon is there

- Woooo, take that, Sol!

- More compliments! And Rayla loves her stinky soon-to-be-boyfriend

- Yeah, Zym, good boy!

- Ez is back!

👑The Crown👑

- Bait is Ezran's surrort Glow Toad

- Callum finally gets to enjoy himself. And Zym too. And Rayla gets to be happy seeing them experience her homeland.

- I NEED THAT PURPLE BURP FRUIT!!!

- Too bad all the fun with the guards and jelly tarts will soon end...

- Crow Master has returned! With 417 unread messages.

- WHY IS XADIA SO MUCH COOLER THAN OUR WORLD?!

- I would totally prank someone with a fart flower, too

- Oh no, two rulers dead and one injured!

- It's Ezran's first day as king and he alrrady has to deal with things he's not comfortable with

- Rayla, I know you believe strongly in Callum, but sometimes it's good to help out

- More gray morality!

- Woooooooo, helicopter seed ride! And blushies!

- Opeli will totally become an aunt figure to Ezran in the future

- ADORABURRS!!!

- Ez, just when I thought you wouldn't get any cuter and more mature, you did the exact opposite

- I'm just gonna say this once: Kasef's not a bad guy for now. Yes, he's grumpy and snappy, but he's also responsible for an entire kingdom. Not to mention his father being gravely injured. And with how quickly everything happened, he hasn't had time to process it all, so he lives out his confusement and sadness on other in a form of an anger

- Also, as cruel as he is, he did have some manners: first bowing to Ezran, shaking his hand, letting him collect his thoughts and accepting the plan to not go to war, even if it did make him angrier

- Yes, Ezran finally accepts his throne!

💀Ghost💀

- These two are such flirts

- Elf!Callum!!! And Rayla getting a taste of her own medicine

- Once again, I agree with both parties here: Zubeia IS the ruler of Xadia, so her word matters. But Kasef is also right because sometimes just having faith in something good happening will not help

- Fuck you, Saleer

- How did Aaravos manage to lead a Sunray Monarch into the dungeon?

- Virus is an awful father and that's the fact

- Yes, Claudia, question him!

- Rayla totally made Callum dance with her so he could experience the wonder of entering Silvergrove

- I hope they'll bring Moonberry Surprise back in the future of the show. I need to know what it's like

- Oh no, Rayla's banished!

- I don't believe in hell and I hope Virus goes straight there when he dies

- Kazi is such a cutie! I love them!

- *sees Saleer, Kasef and Viagra together* Oh no...

- Moonshadow culture is messed up. Who banishes a child?!

- Go, Callum!

- Amaya just straight up told Janai that she should take her Sunforge Blade and shove it up her ass plus spitting on Khessa's feet. This lady doesn't mess around when it comes to dirty things.

- Janai may be younger, but at least she seems to have a bit more morality

- Yes, Amaya survived!

- I noticed that Ethari mentions that Zubeia is dying, but didn't mention that she'd fallen into slumber. So maybe Ibis held the secret that she hasn't woken up

- Moon mounts!!! I have actually given them names: Eclipse (Shadowpaw) and Luna (Moonstrider)

- Life!Shadowhawk

#the dragon prince #wolf rambles about tdp again #tdp #wolfy's dragon december

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keiththeweirdo · 5 years ago

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Our Place - TDP Gift Exchange

This is my gift for @raayllum for the @tdpholidayexchange ! I hope you will enjoy it!

This work is also going to be published on my ao3 “planetundersiege” once the exchange is over.

Callum had not been expected to be dragged out into the cold.

Yesterday had been a long day, he and Rayla were currently visiting Silvergrove, staying at Runaan and Ethari’s house. It was winter, and the forest was filled with white snow and a chilly wind. It had been extremely hard to get there for the human, of course they had hard winters in Katolis, but he had lived in the castle near a town, not in a small magical village in the wilderness of Xadia without proper roads. Having proper roads would kind of defeat the purpose of having a hidden village.

All he had wanted to do was to sit down and relax with a warm cup of tea Ethari had made for him, when his girlfriend had waltzed in, given him a quick peck on the cheek, looked him gently in the eyes, and told him to put his coat on.

And before he could blink, he was outside, in the cold, holding Rayla’s hand as she dragged him god knows where. It was through the village atleast, and it puzzled Callum. He had no idea where he was being taken.

“Where are we going?”

“It wouldn’t make it a surprise if I told you silly. Now, just enjoy your walk through Silvergrove because we’re leaving it.”

“Leaving it?”

“Yeah, of course. You didn’t think your surprise was actually in the village? That would be so boring.” she said as she stopped and gave him a soft smile that almost made the human melt. For a split second, he forgot how cold it was outside and that he could literally see his breath every time he exhaled. With Rayla, he felt warm and happy. And he was about to lean in and kiss her, when she suddenly turned around and tugged at his arm. “Now, come on.”

Callum obeyed and followed his girlfriend as she dragged him through the snow covered village. It looked so different from how it was in the summer when he had Rayla had passed by to get Zym home. Sparkling white snow everywhere, and tons of moonshadow elves wearing layer after layer of warm, green and purple coats that went on with their day. Some chopped wood, some were out on a walk, and he saw some white haired children with purple horns play together, making snow elves or having snowball fights.

As they left the village, the walked down and shoveled paths of snow were now gone, and they had to make their way through one feet of untouched snow, leaving two clear trails in it, and Callum prayed that none would get into his boots. It didn’t, thankfully.

He didn’t know for how long they walked, probably about half an hour. It took way longer with the snow slowing them down, but soon they were at the meadow Rayla had showed him the first time he had entered Xadia, her secret hiding place as a child, filled with adoraburrs.

Now, the lush green was replaced with only sparkling white snow for as long as the eyes could see, untouched snow, with the exception of a few animal tracks. But no human or elf tracks, or any adoraburrs for the matter. They were the first ones here from what he could tell.

“We’re at your meadow.”

She nodded, giving him a chuckle.

“Yeah, I thought that was pretty obvious. Why are you saying it out loud?”

“Well, it’s surprising, I didn’t think we would end up here. Why are we here?”

For a split second, Rayla was silent, and Callum saw the unsure look in her lilac eyes, looking from the left to her right, without making eye contact, before she continued speaking.

“Is that a good or a bad thing?”

“It’s… a good thing. I’m just surprised. It’s really beautiful over when there’s snow here though.”

“Isn’t it? My special place is extra special during the winter months, and I really wanted to show it to you, it’s just so pretty covered in snow and means a lot to me. Though i miss the adoraburrs, they’re hibernating inside of the trees right now. They’ll come back in the beginning of spring.”

Callum nodded, she was right. This place was so beautiful, the snow glittering as the sunlight hit it.

“It is pretty. Did you come here a lot as a kid? During winter?”

“Oh yeah, almost every day for years. I got so many colds, but kept sneaking out even when I was supposed to be in bed, Runaan had to ground me and threatened to chain me to the bed. But I couldn’t help it, I just had to come back, you know. When a place is special, you have to go back.”

He nodded, because he understood.

He always wanted to be with Rayla, and he would gladly travel through dangerous paths to be by her side, it felt wrong to leave her. Being by her was right.

“Yeah, I get it.”

“That’s why I wanted to show it to you too, for you to see it like I do. So that we’ll have to come back here together in the future.”

Callum felt how his cheeks was heating up, making him flustered. Thankfully, he was already red from the cold winds that brushed against his face. But he smiled, and looked into Rayla’s beautiful eyes. It was like he was caught under a spell, she was all on his mind.

He took her hand in his, and refused to look away. His smile grew, Rayla’s words were so warm. He would do anything she asked him too.

“Of course I’ll come back with you, whenever you want.”

He leaned closer and pressed a soft kiss onto her cold forehead, and before he could pull away, Rayla let go of his hands, and immediately embraced him, holding him tightly as she put her head against his shoulder, one of her horns almost hitting his face.

“Then, I guess this is our place now, isn’t it?”

“If that is what you want. I’ll gladly make this our place.”

“Then it is.”

#tdp holiday exchange #rayllum #fanfiction

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gingersnapwolves · 5 years ago

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who’s got two thumbs and couldn’t even wait 24 hours before bingeing season 3 of The Dragon Prince? This gal!

thoughts while watching (not spoiler free)

Everyone involved in this war was a dick

Why don't just tell big angry dragon they're delivering a tiny dragon?

Yay redhead mccutie!

Okay so talking didn't work. Anyway

Man I ship Amaya and that hot sun fire elf

Ezran as king is hilarious

"that checks out"

I want the badass baby queen to show up so she and Ezran can take turns standing on each other's shoulders and slapping adults in the face

Omg the adoraburrs!

Hell yes Ezran!

Claudia and Soren are gonna love him forever now

Omg nerdy linguistic elf! I love them

Poor Rayla 😭

Time to gaslight Soren!

Sad gay elves 😭😭😭

I hope they get a happy ending, I mean, there was definitely a point to showing us that Runaan's flower hadn't sunk all the way to the bottom. He's still alive, just trapped in a coin. So they could totally get him back!

also I ship sun fire elf and Amaya SO HARD now

Big feelings time! Callum is adorable

It's interesting that Rayla automatically doesn't trust Nyx

Boomerang joke!, 😂😂😂

Don't leave the dragon with Nyx!

I feel like there are some flaws in Ezran 's logic

I mean, he's not avoiding the war. Viren is just gonna do it anyway

Soren! I knew I could trust you bb

I hope Claudia gets to punch her father in the face at least once

"She's right. We did forget." lol Callum pls

Damn some people actually lay down their arms after Viren called them cowards to their faces

NoodleOOdlia lmao Soren pls

Love how Ezran caught up to them in like six hours, a journey that took them two seasons

"why didn't they just ride the eagles into mordor?!"

hottie mcevil elf is enjoying this way too much

Claudia if you squish an adoraburr I'll never forgive you

"put him in the extra nice ring of fire" *snrks*

Hell yes to badass ladies working together

Amaya over here like ‘okay I’ve spent my life fighting sunfire elves but Viren is just the fucking worst’

Soren just go find the good guy team, your deserve better

Omg Ezran's reaction to seeing Callum and Rayla kiss

Is Viren making lava Uruk-Hai or what

Boy I bet those people who bailed would be real happy now

Soren's like "okay so my dad has completely lost the plot"

This argument with Callum and Rayla is awful because they're both right

I shouted "yes" so loud when Amaya and hot sun fire elf whose name I really should know by now turned up that I scared the cat off my lap

Baby badass queen! *screaming *

Guy with rolling pin!

Redhead mccutie!

Broken chain banner!

*screaming*

"For King Ezran" I'm

Will someone throw Viren off the tower please!

NOT LIKE THAT

Okay but you know Viren ain't dead, no body no death

OMG ARE AMAYA AND HOT SUN ELF HOLDING HANDS

THEY’RE GONNA GET MARRIED AND I LOVE IT

ok IDK what Aaravos is doing but you should def set that on fire

we have to wait HOW LONG for season 4?????

*screaming*

#anyway if you're not watching this show #you ABSOLUTELY SHOULD BE #this has been a psa #about dragon princes #the dragon prince #liveblog #long post #the dragon prince spoilers

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alas-pancakes · 5 years ago

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some tdp things

kinda sadder stuff

Claudia thought she had made her choice when she went to save Soren over capturing Zym, and so the audience thought she had chosen to do “the right thing” over what her father wanted but all this time her heart lay with her family. she chose her brother over the dragon and her father over Soren. But aren’t they both her family? Her mother may have told her to stay with her brother but she was given a decision she wasn’t strong enough to make. She loved her brother and she still loved her father, going to unthinkable means to bring him back to life but she didn’t have time for that decision and she did not know what to do. I like to think that if she had the strength and the time, she would have gone with Soren. Staying with her father was safe to her, he was her family and she could only remember all the good things that he had ever done for her and nothing would change because she had always been on his side and now all she was doing was to stay there.

Claudia never had it easy. Her mother left, she was torn between her two parents but was told to stay with her father. Her father might have been kind and loving once but now, she isn’t so sure. Her brother has left and she can certainly understand why he would but isn’t Viren their father? They have so little of their family left and now it’s just the two of them. She knows that Ezran and Callum are her childhood friends, that they care for her but should she also not try to stay with her father or what is left of him? If she goes, he will have nobody left and maybe she doesn’t know it exactly but Claudia is the one thing still keeping Viren human. She isn’t sure what he has become but she has to help him. He was always so nice to her, so generous, so loving and even if she isn’t sure now, there must still be some good in him buried under all of that. And she gave up so much and she knows it “but you’re okay now” and you can tell that she still loves her father (although she shows a clear disdain for the “creepy caterpillar friend” as one should)

Sarai never got to see her boys grow up, never got to see Callum get better at his drawing, or how he stepped up to bring the dragon prince home, or how he learned to connect to the Sky Arcanum. Maybe Harrow would fill her in, on the other side, of what he knew, or all this while she had been watching over them, from a distance, watching them grow big and strong to fill the positions that they were meant to fill and those that were never planned. Something tells me she would always be proud of them, for never hesitating to do what is right even if it is difficult. Maybe they, especially Ez, grew up before they were supposed to and maybe she feels guilty because some part of it was because of her death but she will always be proud of them, for being brothers and sticking with each other through all of this. And maybe it is a reassurance to know that Amaya continues to watch over them, in whatever way she can, to do what she would have done in this situation. But without a doubt, Sarai wishes that she could be there to walk her children through something they shouldn’t be facing alone.

incoherent rambling

Raydia is a random crack ship of mine with absolutely no backing but tbh it’s kinda cute and i would love to see how Rayla and Claudia develop as friends under the right circumstances and maybe to more than friends.

It would be a shame if Aanya, Eliss, and Ezran didn’t all befriend each other and become instant best friends and maybe Aanya has some kind of animal friend so they all bond and be super cute and just kill my heart

also season 1 definitely had autistic!claudia because nose tapping? and so much more and also https://twitter.com/aaronehasz/status/1041029112809156608

autistic!ezran with hyperempathy and also jelly tarts are his same food and can’t handle change well and connects better with animals than humans

autistic!callum with poor gross motor skills, the scarf? he always wears it, stimmy, photographic memory

autistic!rayla with Not Befriending Other Elves but instead adoraburrs and prodigy? plus water may also be a sensory thing and just the way she explains her fear is just!! her butterfly blades look kinda stimmy ngl

everyone is autistic, I don’t make the rules

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beautifulterriblequeen · 5 years ago

Link

[Mu Shu “I live” gif goes here]

SO. TDP posted this today and now I have LIFE. Go read it if you haven’t! I’mma break down all the moonfam goodness I’m seeing peeking around the edges of this very very Moonshadow happysad birthday information.

Runaan and Ethari both like books now. Can you imagine them just sitting together under a tree, casually touching with feet or shoulders, each engrossed in their own book, being delightfully introverted together? Maybe reading each other the most interesting parts of their books as they come across them? Aahhh. It’s so soft.

Rayla is the one who insists on the adoraburr meadow picnics! She’s decided that her stabby dad needs these picnics! I love this so much. Ethari pretends he’s helpless in the wake of Rayla’s picknicky juggernaut, but I gotta ask you: who makes the picnic food? It’s definitely Ethari.

Also! Why does Rayla think picnics are birthday-worthy? I wonder if Lain and Tiadrin did this with her before they left for the Storm Spire. Whose birthday got a picnic? Was it each of them? A family tradition that Rayla adored and insisted on continuing with her new dads! Ohmygod it’s the sweetest thing!

And I’m so soft for the fact that Rayla believes Runaan deserves this birthday celebration ritual even though he’s quiet and stabby. She doesn’t care that he’s a natural loner. He’s family, and she’s going to care about him whether he likes it or not. ohgodmyheart

These big strong dads getting foiled--repeatedly--by a tiny elfling with pockets full of adoraburrs though. Halp.

Okay the moscato detail is sending me, guys. Before Rayla came to live with them, Runaan’s birthday probably consisted of reading under trees and then moscato and a quiet night in. Moscato is a sweet wine, and it’s not very high in alcohol content. Runaan doesn’t really do sweet, so I think he drinks this particular wine for Ethari. But if he’s a lightweight, it could get him tipsy anyway. This page started by telling us that Runaan has a hard time relaxing, so maybe the moscato is his way of uhhh letting down his hair, just for Ethari? holy shnikes it’s my mdzs headcanon

Ethari’s gifts have a whole bunch of little details tucked in there though! Ethari knew Runaan for what seems to be many years before they married. He knew him as a “young assassin.” Awww man, I need all kinds of details there! And of course he spent many hours working on a joke gift for Runaan. A sweet, cute tasteful jeweled mouse. That’s just... I can’t, Ethari is too pure! But I bet he loved to practice his craft and made fun gifts for all his friends. What dedication, though. A true jeweler at heart.

And he’s observant, watching Runaan when Runaan thinks he isn’t being watched. He does that, with Runaan and with Callum in the show. He just likes to watch everyone around him, to know them. Part of his friendly charm!

Can we get an awww for young Runaan petting an itty bitty Moonstrider? Because awww. Did he pick that one? Is that his mount? Did he insta bond with her and need to take her home that day? I think he might’ve! Runaan seems to make heartfelt decisions in a snap, despite his stoic exterior.

It’s literally a heartbloom flower, that’s its name, I hoped it was. I wanna know all the traditions around those flowers now. They seem very Moonshadow, tied so strongly with life and all its good things.

I’m angsty over the shift in Ethari’s gift choices though. When they were young, he made Runaan a mouse, because he thought the assassin was so quiet. Last year, his gift was supposed to be a three-eyed nightfox, a stabby hunter. Because he thought Runaan would like it. Runaan’s changed so much since they were young, and it makes me have feels. I mean, all the adults have changed. All three dads got harder. But this... ow my feels. Ethari’s just a craftsman in love, trying to make his handsome husband’s stabbiness beautiful. And he does. He looks at Runaan and he sees sleek efficient lines, an apex predator, perfectly suited for his job. He sees Runaan with an artist’s eye, and a lover’s eye. Every move Runaan makes is lovely to Ethari, the epitome of deadly grace. So he crafts his husband a dramatic, lovely fox while Runaan’s in Katolis.

Angst warning!

Runaan had his birthday in Katolis after all. He left home before his birthday, and Ethari took that time to craft the nightfox, to have it ready in time for Runaan’s birthday. But Runaan never came home. Whether he was in the dungeon or the coin, Runaan missed out on sharing that special day with Ethari and Rayla in the meadow. He missed out on those glasses of moscato, on letting Ethari surprise him with yet another jeweled trinket.

Runaan missed his birthday. If you have a birthday in the in-between space of the coin, do you really have a birthday at all? Maybe Aaravos knows the answer to that question.

Okay, more angst, but then a silver lining, okay? I promise.

When Runaan’s lotus sank and Ethari had to ghost Rayla with the rest of the village, he lost the last two members of his family, the two closest to him. In the last five months, Ethari lost every member of the moonfam, and he was completely alone. Three of them ghosted for cowardice, and one dead. Of course his husband remained honorable. But he still died. He still isn’t coming home. He still missed his birthday.

Moonshadows are tightly knit introverts. They need each other very deeply, even though they don’t go around expressing it with every breath. They spend time together and give each other gifts to show their love and affection, instead of blurting their feels with words. Runaan, Ethari, and Rayla were deeply rocked when Lain and Tiadrin supposedly ran away and abandoned their duty. They were each a different kind of mess as a result, but they clung together all the harder. And then, Ethari lost them both. And he was the only one left.

This is Very Not Good Tee Emm for a Moonshadow. They literally need other Moonshadows to be in their lives. And Ethari is so open with his feels, and they’re so strong for his sweet family, and especially for Runaan, that he was actually dying of his grief. Just like Zubeia, who’d been married to Avizandum for how many elven lifetimes. It’s impossible to live without your heart. You just can’t. And so, Ethari crafted a different trinket. Not one for Runaan. Not anymore. But a trinket in memory of Runaan. A dying weeping-tree leaf. Ethari was going to die of grief for all his lost family, for his lost husband. That trinket? That was for everyone else, after he’d gone. To tell them why he died. He spent hours on it, making it with all his usual focus and dedication. Because it was going to be his very last piece. He wanted it to be just right.

Okay now I’ll make it a little better, yeah?

First of all, obviously, Rayla came back! Ethari isn’t going to die. He’s living for Rayla, helping her out, supporting her with everything he’s got, fighting to get her un-ghosted. She’s the only family he has. She’s his world now, and he’s never going to stop loving and supporting her, ever again.

But secondly, *hands you tissues* surely Runaan knew his husband deep down, after all their years together. He may have been a stabby nightfox on the outside, but his heart was attuned to Ethari’s. When he saved Rayla, he did it for love of her. But when he told her to go home...

...He knew, guys. He knew how terribly Ethari would suffer if he lost literally everyone in such a short span. He knew it would be the end of Ethari, that he couldn’t take such a devastating blow on top of the one they’d already suffered.

Runaan didn’t just save Rayla for her own sake. He saved her so Ethari would still have someone to love and care for. So his husband would still have family.

Runaan’s mission was a disaster, and his whole team was lost. But he didn’t just save one life with his last sacifice. He saved two. Runaan saved the rest of his family by sending Rayla home to Ethari. He saved them both. The stabby dark nightfox is more than just a hunter. He’s a husband and a father, and he’ll do whatever he must for his family.

Ethari won’t need that dying weeping-tree trinket. And he’s already made something since: his lighthawk, that carries a message of life. Ethari only needed to know that Rayla was alive and well and needed his help, and he found his purpose again. The moonfam’s going to be okay, because Runaan sent Rayla home to save Ethari’s life. And sooner or later, they’ll save his in return.

#tdp angst #tdp meta #tdp theory #tdp speculation #tdp #rayla #runaan #ethari #lain #tiadrin #moonfam #runaan's birthday #thank you devon

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