#but like sophie and tam my beloved

[swans-chirping-in-the-distance]

HAVE YOU SEEN IT IM GRIPPING YOUR SHOULDERS RN DO YOU SEE THEM ADJDKFLFLGKKG

[greyfell-the-horse]

I am required to link all of the humans as well as Silveny. Here they are:

My beloved mate

Silveny- @therarestprattlespin

actually trustworthy ones

Sophie- @therealsophieelizabethfoster

The fork man- @norwegian-trickster-god

Tam- @tam-shade-song

ok ones i guess

Dex- @dex-the-smart-one

Biana- @sparkles-make-anything-better

Fitz- @fitz-avery-vacker

Keefe- @keefe--sencen

Linh- @linh--song

Maruca- @the-only-maruca-chebota

Wylie- @flasher-boi-endal

I do not like them but I will not kick them

Marella- @shut-up-i-will-burn-you

Stina- @im-just-cooler

This one stinks of human. I do not like humans.

Amy- @amy-rose-foster

Big elves I like (heard good things about this one from Silveny)

Alden- @alden-dendrick-vacker

Big elves that are apparently swans

(@black-swan-official)

Quinlin- @quinlin-sonden

Elwin- @elwin-at-your-service

Edaline- @edaline-ruwen

Ogres

Sandor- @igowhereyougo

Bad ones I will kick

(@neverseen-official)

Fintan the fire man- @fintan-pyren

King Dimitar- @king-dimitar

Lady Gisela- @lady-gisela

Gethen- @gethen-inar-ondsinn

Alvar- @alvar-not-vacker

Vespera- @vespera-neci-folend

Ruy- @ruy-tonio-ignis

Glimmer (Rayni?)- @little-miss-neverseen

please keep in account which of you I will kick and stay far away from the ones I tolerate.

[commandersya]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤

ahhhh thank you <3 <3 <3

okay, this is a hard one. let's see!

(all these fics are written under @howlingmoonrise)

cinq d'epées (the princess and the frog, charlotte la bouff/dr facilier)

in which charlotte needs to turn to the shadowman to save big daddy, and then finds herself coming back. again and again and again.

honestly this one is like. a HUGE underdog, and yet possibly my fave. people always go for the barbie/dracula due to powerhouse popularity and sleep on this one. the first couple scenes or so are a bit awkward but then it really hits its stride.

--

2. a spun sugar night's dream (the nutcracker & the mouse king, nutcracker/marie stahlbaum)

Sometimes, her prince is too perfect. Godfather Drosselmeier's single dark eye is not unlike those of his nephew. But in the right light, in the right mood, her beloved’s could have been perfect black circles painted over wood, glossed over in a steady toymaker’s hand.

*throws vibes around like glitter* a fest of candy-related words with an undertone of fae creepiness, just the way i like it. post-fairytale exploration my beloved.

--

3. beloved, beloved (hold on to the world) (petshop of horrors, leon orcot/count d)

D's kind is not easy to hold on to.

*banging pots and pans* tam lin au!!! tam lin au!!! also an underappreciated fic, even in the midst of all my petshop of horrors works. it reads very poetically and, well. it is a tam lin au. it was bound to be a winner.

--

this is where is starts getting hard. i'm VERY picky and i turn my nose at most of my own writing, especially older stuff, so these last two are less faves in terms of enjoying them as a written piece and more "i had a lot of fun writing them way back when" sort of self-recs.

4. In the Woods Somewhere (ever after high, daring charming/cerise hood)

AU where Milton Grimm discovered Red and Badwolf's affair and went to great lengths to silence it. Years later, Daring Charming finds a girl in the woods. Or, Daring Charming accidentally becomes the next Red Riding Hood.

basically a role reversal, but if their initial roles were more or less the same? i wrote the first 12k of it non-stop in a fugue state after watching thronecoming, that's how many brainworms it gave me. i feel like the writing is a bit dated (this is from... 2016? oh wow) but i'm still pretty proud of the work i did regarding daring's characterization here!

--

5. hearteater (howl's moving castle, howl jenkins/sophie hatter)

It was a joke, at first. A quip thrown this way and that when they call him a rake, a rogue, a ravisher. You just go around stealing hearts, they say, sometimes accusing, sometimes sad, and he can’t stomach any sort of seriousness so he replies with a winking and I eat them, too. But this is the land of Ingary, where things such as giants and fire demons and seven-league boots exist. And so, it becomes true.

in which the whole heart-eating thing becomes a loooooot more literal. written originally as a gift for sandmancircus, my beloved

thank you so much for the ask!!!

[howlingmoonrise]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤

thank you so much for thinking of me anon! <3 <3 <3

(i also got tagged on this on my main blog, so if it looks familiar to anyone that's why!)

okay, this is a hard one. let's see!

cinq d'epées (the princess and the frog, charlotte la bouff/dr facilier)

in which charlotte needs to turn to the shadowman to save big daddy, and then finds herself coming back. again and again and again.

honestly this one is like. a HUGE underdog, and yet possibly my fave. people always go for the barbie/dracula due to powerhouse popularity and sleep on this one. the first couple scenes or so are a bit awkward but then it really hits its stride.

--

2. a spun sugar night's dream (the nutcracker & the mouse king, nutcracker/marie stahlbaum)

Sometimes, her prince is too perfect.Godfather Drosselmeier's single dark eye is not unlike those of his nephew. But in the right light, in the right mood, her beloved’s could have been perfect black circles painted over wood, glossed over in a steady toymaker’s hand.

*throws vibes around like glitter* a fest of candy-related words with an undertone of fae creepiness, just the way i like it. post-fairytale exploration my beloved.

--

3. beloved, beloved (hold on to the world) (petshop of horrors, leon orcot/count d)

D's kind is not easy to hold on to.

*banging pots and pans* tam lin au!!! tam lin au!!! also an underappreciated fic, even in the midst of all my petshop of horrors works. it reads very poetically and, well. it is a tam lin au. it was bound to be a winner.

--

this is where is starts getting hard. i'm VERY picky and i turn my nose at most of my own writing, especially older stuff, so these last two are less faves in terms of enjoying them as a written piece and more "i had a lot of fun writing them way back when" sort of self-recs.

4. In the Woods Somewhere (ever after high, daring charming/cerise hood)

AU where Milton Grimm discovered Red and Badwolf's affair and went to great lengths to silence it. Years later, Daring Charming finds a girl in the woods. Or, Daring Charming accidentally becomes the next Red Riding Hood.

basically a role reversal, but if their initial roles were more or less the same? i wrote the first 12k of it non-stop in a fugue state after watching thronecoming, that's how many brainworms it gave me. i feel like the writing is a bit dated (this is from... 2016? oh wow) but i'm still pretty proud of the work i did regarding daring's characterization here!

--

5. hearteater (howl's moving castle, howl jenkins/sophie hatter)

It was a joke, at first. A quip thrown this way and that when they call him a rake, a rogue, a ravisher. You just go around stealing hearts, they say, sometimes accusing, sometimes sad, and he can’t stomach any sort of seriousness so he replies with a winking and I eat them, too. But this is the land of Ingary, where things such as giants and fire demons and seven-league boots exist. And so, it becomes true.

in which the whole heart-eating thing becomes a loooooot more literal. written originally as a gift for sandmancircus, my beloved

thank you so much for the ask!!! <3

[figure-skating-avocado]

Keefitz Brocedes KOTLCxF1 au

So, the goal was reached so I suppose I should stick to my promise :)

Details under the cut because it's going to be looooooong

Keefe: Is the Nico Rosberg of the au -> Keefe was born into a well off family, his dad was a former World Drivers Champion and his mom married his dad because of the championship win (clout, think Kelly Piquet). His dad (Cassius obviously) set him up to be an F1 driver from a young age to fulfill the Sencen family 'legacy' of also becoming a WDC. Keefe hates Cassius (why wouldn't he?) and doesn't want to fulfill the legacy, but rather wants to win a WDC for himself with a different team from the one his father wants him to join (will be figured out later).

Fitz: Is the Lewis Hamilton of the au -> we're changing it here so Fitz is also well off, but from a much more loving family than Keefe's (also has a better support system). He's the first racer in his family and grew up watching F1 races at home. He has a natural talent in the kart and everyone tells him that one day he can become a WDC (which is his dream).

Sophie: Is kind of like the Sebastien Vettel of the au -> Sophie is one of the most beloved drivers on the grid and wins multiple championships with Red Bull Racing. She's friends with both Keefe and Fitz. When Fitz and Keefe have their falling out Sophie's always the mediator between them (mostly in the cooldown room post race like Seb was). Similar to how Nico would talk to Seb in German in the cooldown rooms to exclude Lewis, Fitz does the same with Sophie (which kind of reflects the telepathic cognate conversations they have.

Tam: Similar to Kimi Raikonnen in this au -> Tam is a really skilled driver and was WDC in Keefe's Rookie year and actually beat Keefe out for WDC by one point. He has a more relaxed attitude towards racing and it isn't exactly life or death for him. He cares more about Linh than anything.

Dex: Keefe's race engineer -> Dex used to Go-Kart when he was younger and actually showed quite a bit of promise. He had great skills on track and did most of the tweaks on his Kart himself off track. Unfortunately, his family couldn't afford to continue his racing career so he had to stop. His dream of being WDC now out of reach. Despite this, he was still a huge fan of F1 and studied the sport intensly. His knowledge, and connection to Keefe from childhood landed him a job as Keefe's race engineer when Keefe started racing in the formula's. He's got beef with Fitz because of stuff that happened on track when they were younger but he's pretty chill with Keefe and they goof off with each other between races.

Prentice: The Michael Schumacher -> An absolute LEGEND on the track and was Sophie's hero growing up. Mentored her a bit on the side when she came into F1 and was a bit like a father figure to her. Had a racing accident that landed him in a coma though...

Wylie: The Mick Schumacher -> Do you see where I'm going with this?

Linh: The Jenson Button -> Won a WDC before moving to McLaren where Fitz was. They had a pretty healthy team mate rivalry with both of them pushing each other to be better. Started commentating after retiring from the sport and cheers Fitz on from the commentating box as a supportive friend.

Marella: F1 Journalist -> Marella loved watching F1 as a child but her parents could never afford to put her into racing. She was a part of the school newspaper when she was younger given her knack for finding gossip which led her to pursuing a job in sports journalism. Specifically for F1. She's now a trusted journalist and NO. She isn't at ALL interested in a certain F1 driver whose name starts with an F.

Forkle: The Toto Wolff a.k.a Mercedes team leader -> Why did I choose Forkle to take on the Toto role? They both make crappy decisions lol. Anyways, Forkle just wants these two super talented drivers he has on his team to get along like how they did before.

Elwin: The Niki Lauda -> Loves these two boys that are on his team. But if they could stop fighting on track and damaging their cars he'd love them even more. (R.I.P. Niki Lauda)

Tiergan: The Fernando Alonso -> Rookie of the year for 18 seasons, had some beef with Fitz after Fitz beat him to the Championship by one point but has now warmed up to him. (let's just hope he doesn't get another villain arc).

Jensi: The Daniel Ricciardo -> We love him, he's fun and up beat. Brings tons of pr for the team he's on. Hasn't won a WDC (yet he's looking towards the future optimistically). Went through a rough spot but he's continuing to persevere. Doesn't have as much raw talent as Sophie, Keefe, or Fitz, but Sophie says he doesn't need to have natural talent because hard work achieves more.

Stina: F1 Sports Analyst -> Her dad was a pay driver (meaning that the team he was on signed him because he brought tons of sponsors, didn't mean he was that good though...) and wanted her to drive in F1. She never really got into the actual racing aspect but she loved analysing the races. Has some kind of beef with Sophie but it's not like she's being biased in her analysis'. She's critical but fans love her for that because she never sugar coats things.

Biana: PR manager -> Fitz's PR manager and has basically been one of his biggest supporters since they were children. Used to race when she was younger and many thought she would go to F1 but she instead chose to get a full education instead of pursuing a career in racing. After finishing school though, she made a return to the paddock but this time as her brothers PR manager (and just his manager in general because as she says "someone has to keep him in check")

And that's all I have for now!

[ratheread]

Greetings mutual of mine, tis I, completing my duties as a mutual to randomly send you questions :D

If you sorted the main gang from KotLC (Sophie, Keefe, Fitz, Biana, Dex, Maruca, Marella, Linh, Tam, Stina, and Wylie) into the four Hogwarts houses, who would be in what?

Hello my beloved mutal how are you today?

Ooooooofffff hmmmmmmmmm imma have to think about this I'm a Hufflepuff btw 💛🖤

Sophie: 💛🖤 She's sloyal, kind, and overall fits the hufflepuff thing. Now for those of you saying no she's a Griffendor THEY ALL COULD GE GRIFFENDORS I DONT WANNA HEAR IT. Also Dedric (now this can't be a spoiler to many ppl since it's every on the internet)

Fitz: 💚🩶 that or Griffendor I'm struggled with this one

Keefe:❤️🧡 Now I don't wanna here that he is sylithern and I see it (I really do cuz I played hogwarts legacy and really enjoyed the sid quest with Sebastion)

Biana: ❤️🧡

Dex: 💙🩶 he's smart like real smart

Marella: ❤️🧡 or sythrin

Maruca:❤️🧡

Linh: 💛🖤

Stina: ❤️🧡 Now she has grown on me if ykyk but she could be a sythrin

Tam: 💛🖤 he was hard but I feel he fits the best here

Wylie: 💙🩶 he's just seems like it

Lemme know your thoughts but please don't be disrespectful toward my opinions

[dreaming-of-the-end]

a lesson in running away (the art of returning)

compiled links to all the chapters of my beloved keefitz longfic!! Find it on ao3 and wattpad!

Summary: In which Keefe writes a series of letters and Fitz waits for him to come back. And then he does, and everything gets a whole lot worse. Replacing the events of Stellarlune but carried on a similar track.

or,

"I'm going to leave you behind," Keefe should have said. "I meant to leave my heart behind, but sewing it to Sophie's sleeve left needles in my stomach instead of butterflies." / "I know you," Fitz will say when he sees him again. "So why does it feel like you've forgotten everything I ever was?"

Chapter One: Dear Biana — of all the secrets to tell (im glad you were the one to hear them) (wordcount 876)

Chapter Two: a lesson in forgetting, and being forgotten (wordcount 871)

Chapter Three: Dear Della — to throw yourself into the wind (and trust that it will catch you)  (wordcount 1162)

Chapter Four: a lesson in putting violence on a pedestal (wordcount 1325)

Chapter Five: Dear Linh — to staying brave through the floods (raise a glass!) (wordcount 999)

Chapter Six: a lesson in missing someone enough to lose a lung (wordcount 1971)

Chapter Seven: Dear Dex — how to keep the anger down (from behind the foggy glass) (wordcount 1496)

Chapter Eight: a lesson in failures and new endings (wordcount 1714)

Chapter Nine: Dear Alden — the right way to be proud (and hate me all the same) (wordcount 989) 

Chapter Ten: a lesson on seeing the shadows and knowing how to let the light swallow them (wordcount 1877)

Chapter Eleven: Dear Tam — of knowing&loving selfishness (by seeing it in yourself) (wordcount 1766)

Chapter Twelve: a lesson in guilt, leadership, and broken glass (wordcount 1946)

Chapter Thirteen: Dear Cassius, (wordcount 2350)

Chapter Fourteen: a lesson in knowing regret when you see it (wordcount 1998)

Chapter Fifteen: Dear Sophie — lies to tell (like i love you) (wordcount 1557)

Chapter Sixteen: a lesson in jealousy, guilt, and other things we know better than we know ourselves (wordcount 2096)

Chapter Seventeen: Dear [YOU KNOW WHO] — of being made from stone (and learning to let it crumble) (wordcount 2082)

Chapter Eighteen: a lesson in change, and stopping it before it goes too far  (wordcount 1496)

Chapter Nineteen: Dear Keefe: Be Grateful. (This Is Not A Request.) (wordcount 3118)

Chapter Twenty: the art of coming back (a lesson in staying) (wordcount 1912)

Special: Dear Fitz — in a black and white world (you’d still be golden) (wordcount 792)

Special: Dear Forkle: the right way to be empty (and wake up nevertheless) (wordcount 359)

Special: Original notes for Keefe’s letters + Letter Thought Process

[crymeariveronceagain]

KOTLC Characters' Halloween costumes: 2022 edition!!!

Holy crap, I've been on tumblr for over a year now!! Let's get some Halloween costumes going, because nobody wears the same outfit two years in a row, right? *kicks my own beloved witch costume out of sight*

Sophie Foster: 1920's gangster. She's always been one for suits and ties, and she looks stunning with the fedora on her head and her fake cigar in her teeth. She drinks her lushberry juice out of a wine glass and talks in a Brooklyn accent the whole night. No one knows what her accent's about, but no one can get her to stop. She has bright red lipstick on her teeth, halfway through the night, and her brown eyes sparkle. Her suspenders are super cute, though.

Keefe Sencen: Cereal Killer. You know exactly what I'm talking about, because that is not a typo. There is a cereal box, and there is red dye involved, and a fake knife. Keefe is loving it.

Fitz Vacker: Alexander The Great. He's got his hair messed up and his eyes look a little wild, but the historical accuracy is there, from the Macedonian armor to the spear he made himself. There are feathers tucked into the helmet he spent hours making, and his shield is carefully crafted to have a golden star right at the center. He's wearing gold and red and he looks every inch like a warrior king.

Biana Vacker: Cinderella. Her skirts are shimmery and blue and she's got her hair in long loose waves, butterfly clips in her hair, and she's smiling brightly, and she looks lovely. Oh, her slippers are made of crystals. She commissioned them and paid money for the trolls to carve her her shoes. They cost quite a chunk of change.

Tam Song: Prince Charming. He looks put together and like the prince he is. He and Biana went to the party together, and if you see Cinderella and Her prince dancing the night away to "Monster Mash" you're correct. That's what they're doing, tonight.

Linh Song: Sheet Ghost. With glasses over the top. It's really cute, and she giggles and her whole costume looks like it's shaking. She's just floating around, and it's really really sweet.

Marella Redek: Katara, from Avatar, The Last Airbender. It's about the IRONY, and the hair loopies that she spent three hours researching and braiding her hair so it's accurate. She put so much effort into this costume, and worked on this for weeks. She's put her heart and soul into this costume, and it looks like it. It's just a brilliant cosplay of the character, and you can tell that Marella had so much fun putting it together.

Dex Dizznee: Pirate. He's got an eye patch and a fantastic outfit that looks perfectly like he walked out of a book on pirates. He even burned the sleeves with gun powder, and dusted his cheek bones with red so it looks like he's got a sunburn. Good thing he's got so many freckles, it looks like he's been in the sun for months.

Stina Heks: Goth Witch. She's got her makeup dark and her dress jagged at the bottom. She's got spiderwebs embroidered across her sleeves, and her hat is pointed and embellished with flowers and a skull(sustainably sourced). She's got her lipstick dark and her hair curly and scattered and messy. She's grinning, brightly, and she looks like a creature of the night. It's lovely.

Maruca Chebota: An angler fish. She's got her dress done up in shimmery scales, attaches huge teeth to her face with makeup glue, and she fastens a glowing sort of shield in place at the end of her headpiece, and she looks amazing.

Wylie Endal: A lighthouse. All of his college friends screech in laughter when he walks in and there's a light moving around him like he's a real actual walking talking lighthouse who just walked in the room.

Glimmer Alenefar: Fintan Pyren. There was so much laughter. She even went on a dramatic speech in Fintan's voice!!!! Sophie is losing her mind over this, and Keefe has been laughing so hard he's now crying, especially when Glimmer says something along the lines of "I'VE ALWAYS LOVED YOU, WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE" or something like that. No one is ssafe from Glimmer Fintan. Not a single one of these kids is mentally healthy. But stars, if they aren't having a good time.

[cogaytes]

also it seems u have not gotten any asks abt it so i shall ask u myself any headcanons on the song twins? on fitz vacker perhaps?

 lsong twins my beloved:

linh is older

she manifested first but tam hid it for her from their parents as long as he could

they had a way of getting to each other’s rooms from the roof when they were little

dancer!tam <3

he likes ballet and lyrical styles

he’s also scarily flexible

like can put his foot behind his head and has all his splits

very graceful catlike motions

linh steals tam’s clothes and hoodies a lot

she sews and makes jewelry 

designs clothes that are very cool!

and also this pretty delicate little jewelry

except some of it has like. ways to weaponize it

like pretty hairpins that can be stabby

these are her usual midterms gifts to friends

she and marella bond over fashion first

and then. ahahah marellinh

fitz:

has scolosis n wears a brace

hates the color of his eyes, especially as he learns more about the vacker legacy

loves but will never admit to reading romance novels 

very interested in linguistics!

he’s trying to learn dwarven on his own and struggling

he’s low key a little jealous of sophie manifesting as a polyglot, because she just gets to Know languages he’s worked at for centuries

when he was little his dream job was to be a mentor

struggles a lot with the pressure of being as strong of a telepath as his father

deeply insecure (he and keefe are similar in that but express it very differently)

wasn’t naturally super athletic as a kid so he made alvar and alden practice bramble with him for hours until he could beat his whole class

likes to sing

doesn’t know how to express it but absolutely loves biana and is so so proud of her

she’s the person he’s most protective over than. more than sophie, more than his dad, more than keefe, etc

plant mom <3

[when-wax-wings-melt]

I DO LOVE ICARUS !!!! good song :) havent heard strangler fig or haunt me yet :OO

wilbur did ! it is um. its really funny. its. yeah its really funny. there is a prechorus that is just "but i wont wear the cat ears, i wont wear the cat ears, please dont make me wear the cat ears, please im so done with the cat ears" and i love the song for that reason alone. ...basically anytime i see or hear anything remotely absurd i go. Summer. I Must Share With Summer. this is what i mean when i say you are the funny friend.

also youre so based for that lovejoy more like belovedjoy (hehe). (i have a friend whose tumblr is daylovejoy and i call them daybelovedjoy because day the beloved. this is not the first time i have made the lovejoy -> beloved joke. jsyk :thumbs up:) i got concrete stuck in my head the other day and aaaa fun song IF I HAD IT MY WAY YOUD SLEEP ON THE CONCRETE FLOOOOOR WhATD YOU SAY TO ME. i saw a take once that was like. someone heard the song for the first time and thought it was like. if i had it my way you'd sleep on the concrete. and then the next part of the lyric was the person drunkenly yelling at the floor "what'd you say to me?" and ill never be able to unsee... unhear? it

WE ARE GOATS CHILLING !!!! i was like hmm how to describe my relationship with summer. and then i was like. goat. and it was right. we are goats we are chilling together and occasionally headbutting each other :DDDD

OML EVIL SOPHIE,,,,, o7s to all of our abandoned wips pensive. summer my beloved youre in school rn probably and i am not because illness. pensive. ITS OKAY im vibing i was like uuuu im gonna be home all day im gonna get so much work done and then i didnt. hence why i am on tumblr rn. ye

LOVE UUUU SUMMER !!!!!!! friend :D i am running up to you and giving you a playful headbut. goat.

and also we are goats because you are the G.O.A.T. !! hehe :3

THEY ARE SOO LOVELY I love crane wives.

Also Wilbur silly boy. I like his silly music 😌😌 and Lovejoy. I was listening to concrete earlier!!! Love that song. I for sure was not listening to the lyrics bc I thought it was like sleep on the concrete. And then end like I did not hear the floor but at all HELP

We ARE goats I'm headbutting u as we speak

AHH YEAH. Keefes letters might have joined the abandoned pile... It's so sad. It's like with the smell of petrichor 😭😭 I didn't like a lot of the other letters besides Fitz and tams so I dropped the entire thing 😔

LOVE YOU WE ARE TBE GOAT

[bookwyrminspiration]

Shattered Upside Down

A kotlc wings au: masterpost here

Chapter 7: The Outside

word count: 8.2k

chapter summary: Everything seems to be crashing down around Sophie, so she had to try and figure out how to clean up the aftermath.

warnings: explosions, injuries, burns, panic and numbness, theft, desire to pull out hair (no actual pulling), collapsing, swearing, intentional misuse of grammar

taglist: in the replies. let me know if you want to be added or removed!

I had a lot of fun with this one, so hopefully you'll enjoy it even a fraction as much as I enjoyed writing it. And I don’t want to keep you here, so enjoy the chapter!

ao3 link here or read below

The world ended years ago.

Left in haphazard chunks littered across the sky, cracked glass sunken and molding at the bottom of a lake, stone pillars crushed into ash.

So why was it still breaking?

Why were those shards of glass splintering into dust, why were the pillars scattering in the wind? Why did every single day wake a new horror from the shadows.

Sophie’s ears rang hollow, each and every second stopping as the mist parted. Marella and Linh were moving so slow, each fork of lightning visible and trackable, the nothingness building to a roar in her mind and then everything was happening all at once.

Creatures had abilities now.

Lightning struck and something screamed and the thunder cried and her hair whipped about her face in a frenzy the winds were agonizing the air pressure pressed against her ears her shirt stuck to her skin the air yelled its fury and dragons fought fought fought in the sky.

When had she last breathed?

Air rushed, choked into her lungs as the world broke around her. Focus. Choose a fight and win it.

Marella.

That would be her fight.

Far below, the assortment of friends she’d dragged into this hellish world watched as Marella glowed hotter and hotter, a light against the storm. Sophie took the single moment it took to find her amongst the rain, pinpointed her location, and moved.

The dragons were not the priority, getting Marella away from them was.

Distance ceased to exist before Sophie as she darted forward, carried by those wings. She jumped through pockets of space, teleported through around and out of reality, blinking through existence, each jolt taking her closer and closer to Marella.

Marella, who had nearly reached the origin of the storm.

Sophie was mere feet away now, a single glitch away from grabbing her.

Her fingers wrapped around Marella’s wrist; Heat boiled against her skin, the glow of the flames simmering beneath her skin scorching her eyes. Don’t let go. She couldn’t.

Energy drained from her fingertips, dispersing and scattering and leaving and powering and enhancing.

No difference existed between the two of them.

Her eyes were alight with flame and pain, the very core of her power thrumming outside her skin, her gaze focused on those beast above, the lightning crackling all around them, the boom of smoke curling through the air, the harsh rasp of teeth and talons on scale as they fought just above the two of them.

Marella and Sophie were the only two people in the entire world.

And then it ended.

Pure heat exploded out from Marella in a shock wave, turning the rain to steam, lighting the sky as though the sun had gone out and she was the only thing left to replace it. Something bright white flashed around her, enveloping her for a brief moment as the sky shook. Sophie’s skin screamed, but she did not let go. She would not freeze. She couldn’t.

Sophie glitched away, dragging Marella with her.

And the void did not let them out.

There was nothing everywhere as far as the eye could see. Infinite empty for eternity. The everything in between.  

And they were ablaze.

Sophie’s eyes were pressed closed against the deluge of dry heat and light emanating from Marella, but she just couldn’t bring herself to let go. She couldn’t now, would lose her forever if she did not hold tight for all she was worth.

“Marella!” she hissed through clenched teeth.

Marella. No response. All she could find within the web of consciousness around this void was the--

 MARELLA.

Something snapped, and a downpour of something aqueous crashed through their minds, sizzling and popping against the flames. Streams of multi-colored thought flowed, flooding their minds until they were completely submerged, sinking down down down into the depths of an ocean, bubbles rising above them as they descended, utterly helpless.

Down

down

down.

Until the fire went out.

An ocean surrounded them, infinitely deep, the surface trickling further and further away. Smoke curled against her skin, the taste poignant on her tongue as she drowned her fury, her pain, seeing nothing but everything.

They hovered there, time meaningless as it ticked past, suspended in those watery graves, that space between.

Distantly, she became aware of ragged breathing, uneven and pained rasping against her ears. The sound was so far away, yet she began to follow it, chase it through those depths until it became clearer and clearer and she could hear it and she was aware and the ocean parted around her and she erupted into her own mind and body and she was alive alive alive.

Sophie’s hand remained clenched tight around Marella’s wrist, the flood of adrenaline dancing through her veins masking the pain for now, but eventually it would fade and she’d have to face the consequences of playing with fire.

The breathing continued, harsh, uneven.

Marella. She needed to check on Marella; there was no way she was alright after an event of that scale--

No.

That wasn’t Marella’s breathing.

The pained breaths were coming from the figure beside her, draped over her shoulder, holding tight like the world was in her hands and it was made of glass and she couldn’t dare break it.

That was Linh.

“Don’t let us out,” Linh grunted, fingers spasming as her breathing quickened.

She had followed. Sophie had been reaching for Marella, but Linh had been too. And now her fingers clenched in Marella’s clothes were red and raw and bruised and peeling and her skin was cracked and dry and nothing but pain pain pain caressed her face. No. There was fear there, too.

Not for herself. No, she was staring down down down at the figure she held so tight, so fragile. She had come to save her and she would not stop until she had.

What? Her mind was moving too quickly to make sense of what Linh had said, to remember to respond, or what she meant--out of where? Don’t what?

“The void,” she said, having heard her confusion. Sophie didn’t bother raising her mental barriers now, the thought not even occurring to her. “Give her--Marella--a few minutes to cool down. Don’t let us out yet.”

Oh.

Marella’s eyes moved beneath shut lids, the rhythm of her moving chest hypnotically slow as they drifted through the void, waiting waiting waiting. Light continued to pulsate out of their unconscious friend, a glimmer of bright against this endless dark, pressing in like an ocean of inevitability around them.

Her gaze darted back and forth between all the space around them, the tiny threads she could feel, the places they would take her. Memories of when she’d been here before, the places she’d gone, the places she could return to.

The Lost Cities, the underground.

Home.

It was foolish to even think about--Havenfield had one of the first places overrun with all those animals around. And the people she wanted so desperately to hold her wouldn’t be there anyways.

She needed to stop thinking so hopelessly about the past. It was gone. Remembering it did nothing but propagate heartbreak and regrets.

Linh inhaled sharply, jerkily, and Sophie’s shot to her, the crease between her brow, the gritted teeth, the--

“What the hell,” Sophie gasped, leaning forward involuntarily with disbelief, the sudden movement sending them spinning as they floated along.

Linh grimaced, offering a shy, embarrassed smile as she flexed her hand. It was...iridescent. The surface of her skin was separated into small, chaotically organized sections, reflecting the light from Marella’s skin off her own. The effect was not local, instead spreading up her entire arm, across her chest, over her face--every inch of skin.

Rainbows of faint color refracted, lighting her up and setting her aglow, a muted complement to Marella’s intense blaze.

Linh’s muscles spasmed, disrupting the brief serenity as she glanced down at Marella, exhaling heavily. Shit. How badly had she been hit? How close had she been to Marella when she’d gone off like a bomb?

Close enough that she tagged along on Sophie’s teleportation. Close enough to make skin to skin contact. Shit.

How badly was Sophie hurt? Adrenaline still buzzed through her as they floated, but it became less and less with each second, even as Linh’s clear pain marred her determined face.

Dammit. What was she supposed to do in situations like this? Burns--how did you treat burns?

“We need to leave now,” she said, gentle. The next step was to get them out of here. They couldn’t do anything just floating around in the void, and they’d left their other friends behind.

Fuck.

It hadn’t even registered until that very moment. How long had they sat here, what had happened back at the gnomish village? Were they all looking for them? They’d just vanished out of the sky--

“Okay,” Linh whispered, and it broke Sophie. Whatever happened, she had two injured friends on hand, alongside her own injure body.

She conjured up the clearest picture she could of the village, the one she knew by heart, had stared at so solemnly she could tell you how many flowers dripped down the shattered window even without her photographic memory.

The void ruptured, the intricate web parting before her as she pulled them all through, into that bedroom she’d claimed as her own.

They needed to be with the people who could care for them when the adrenaline faded.

Hard wood and poignant petals grated against her skin, tearing down her arm as she skidded slightly. The echo of the thunderclap lingered in her ears, haunting as that nothing was replaced with everything.

Move.

Forcing herself to push upwards, propped on her elbows on her back, she allowed herself a few moments to observe before taking action. Marella was still unconscious, sprawled across the floor, petals and glass curled in her hair. Linh lay beside her, still conscious but fading quickly, flush with Marella’s back.

Okay. She could do this, she could think this through.

Sophie?! Sophie where are you--

Never mind. A cascade of voices barraged their way into her mind, the mindbubble screaming with activity the moment she’d left the void. Every single friend howling and scrambling, their minds hives of thought and panic.

They’d heard the thunder, heard them return, now frantically running about trying to locate them.

My house. She responded, unsure how else to describe it. It wasn’t hers, but it was the one she’d claimed. Gingerly, she sat up fully, pressing her hands to her temples, fingers tangling in her hair. It was so loud--

“Sophie. There you are--wait, what? Hang on--” Fitz had burst into the room,  cutting off as he saw the prone figures on the floor.

Over here. His voice echoed through her mind, reaching out to the others and giving them a sense of direction to follow, a way to find them. He winced slightly as he did so, the cacophony overwhelming for him too.

All at once, the adrenaline faded and reality came crashing into her, the scrapes on her arm the burns across her skin the dryness of her lips the crackling simmering skin coating her body.

Fitz caught her as her muscles went limp and tensed, sagging to the floor. He set her down, and it was all she could do to breathe breathe breathe and hold her eyes closed as footsteps approached, as the door was tossed open and voices whispered and screamed and panic and sweat and indecision coated the air, dripped down her tongue.

People were moving talking singing crying, yet Sophie’s world was painted with deep blues and hurt reds and all she could see was nothing.

Cool water poured over her head, gliding down her hair and back, soothing the burns, the ache, the regret. Tam had told her Linh rerouted the irrigation systems. He hadn’t told her she’d redone the entire goddamned room. Rich greens frothed and bloomed from every available surface, overwhelming the pots and creeping up the walls. The open wall to the side showed off the night sky, starts blinking overhead, moonlight reflecting off the glass pots and decor scattered around the space.

There was no way she could’ve done this on her own in such a short time.

Sophie sat, curled in a raised bath, water spilling over the edge into other pools, sprawling through the room until it eventually drifted off towards the open wall, spilling towards the ground below. It reminded her of those natural hot springs she’d visited as a child--although this one was chilled, reminiscent of a pool on a summer day.

Stop. Stop remembering what’s past.

Her fingers clenched and she pushed off the edge, drifting back until that silent pour of water from the top hit her in the head once more. Carefully, she made sure the wings were held above the water line. Linh wasn’t here to keep them dry anymore.

Linh.

No, as talented as Linh was, she couldn’t have done all this. What purpose this place used to serve the gnomes, she couldn’t even begin to guess, but the overwhelming scent of pollen and nectar pressed against her mind, a heady lull that wouldn’t fade. The flowers were unnaturally bright, the way white glowed under a UV light. That’s not important.

Cool water to soothe burns. That’s how it went. That was important. So she sat here.

Tam had taken her here, pushed her gently through the door, and left. To give her privacy. Fitz had stopped by a few minutes later, dropping off a thing of water, along with an elixir or two he must’ve grabbed from Elwin’s office before they’d run. Smart. Thinking ahead. She’d have to ask him how he did it.

Cool the burns, replace lost fluid. That was the procedure. So she did.

She was the only conscious one, that’s why she’d been left here. Marella was unconscious, Linh too, so they were being cared for elsewhere. She shouldn’t be so calm.

She should want to be by their side, wait with them till they woke, hold cold compresses to their skin and wait wait wait for them. So why was she so unbothered?

Her friends--

Oh.

Her friends, the ones she trusted so entirely, were taking care of the situation. Sophie had got the three of them out of the sky, held them till they mellowed and brought them back. She’d done her part. Everyone else could handle the rest. For a brief moment, she could breathe easy. Delegate.  

So what was she supposed to do? What was next?

Faint rain pattered against the roof, splashing through the open wall the water fell from. But it was...natural. Where had those beasts gone? What had happened to them after the three of them tore the sky apart and vanished into it?

There was so much information she was missing--

No. Not now. That was a problem for the future, for when her skin didn’t peel from her bones and her tongue didn’t grate against the roof of her mouth.

It was like a river, the flow of the water around her, constantly in gentle motion, running against her skin. But she couldn’t follow it, couldn’t linger and tip over the edge to see where it led.

Her friends had covered where she faltered, but she still had a responsibility to them. Sophie belonged with them, beside them, leading them.

Grabbing an elixir and downing it like a shot, she rose from the water.

   Fatigue pulled at her each step she took, bare feet thudding against the wooden bridges as she moved. Twigs and flower petals pressed against her skin, but she ignored it. She’d tracked the others with her mind, now all she had to do was get to them. The rest she’d figure out later.

   Fitz had left a change of clothes alongside the elixirs, a simple pair of black drawstring shorts and a blouse to match. She’d torn slits in the latter, wings protruding through the loose fabric. Mindlessly, she pulled her hair back, braiding it out of the way as she went, wet strands sticking to the back of her neck. Vertina had taught her how. She wasn’t sure, but Vertina might be broken now. In her destroyed bedroom.

   It didn’t matter, don’t think about it.

   She wasn’t as tired as she should’ve been. Wasn’t in as much pain as she knew she should’ve been. They were completely without the resources to properly treat burns, yet she was walking and talking--well, she could talk, she just hadn’t yet--perfectly fine, if a little loopy. Whatever fragrance those flowers gave off was strong.

None of this matched any of her past experiences with medicine, and she had plenty. What was going on with her?

   One of her friend’s presence flickered close by and she paused, looking around for them. They weren’t with the rest of the group, the others who were clustered around one space, the place she was heading. She assumed that’s where Linh and Marella were.

   Her ears were better than her eyes, and the telltale creak of a swinging bridge off to her right had her pivoting in place, turning to see--

   Dex. His pace quickened when he saw she’d noticed him, but he winced slightly, holding a hand to his chest as he came to a stop beside her. When had he gotten so tall?

   “You...alright?” he asked, but it clearly wasn’t what was on his mind. Like he was expected to ask and he just wanted to get out of the way. He seemed...distracted, fidgety--more so than usual.  

   “I’m not dead. You?” He laughed slightly, then winced again, the movement jarring to his injuries. She didn’t know what else to call it; none of them knew what was wrong with him, but at the very least it seemed to be improving with time. Maybe. She couldn’t tell if it was the lighting, but he seemed unnaturally pale.

“About the same.” Okay, so he wasn’t going to make this easy. Whatever was eating at him would have to be drawn out then.

“I was going to go check on Linh and Marella, need anything?” That seemed a good place to start. Open the conversation for him.

“Oh. Cool. I’ll go with you,” he said, turning alongside her as she resumed her stride, much slower with him beside her--not that she minded. She’d prefer he take things slow until someone could figure out what was going on with him. Not that any of them were qualified to do that. No, that was something for--

“I have a request,” Dex blurted out, uncharacteristically formal.

“What is it?”

He wouldn’t make eye contact, looking around the trees, surveying the flowers. “I…”

Sophie nudged him slightly, playfully, trying to encourage him. “I can’t do anything if you don’t tell me, dumbass.” He smiled slightly at that, although he didn’t stop wringing his fingers. She’d take the partial win.

“I want you to take me back to The Lost Cities.”  

   What. She’d stopped moving. Clouds drifted by overhead, wind swayed through the leaves, time ticked onward. But Sophie had stopped moving.

���What.” Her voice was dead flat, shocking even to her.

Dex bit his lip, holding his hands up, placating. “It’s not what it sounds like, I promise.”

“I hope not. Because it sounds like you’re saying you want to go back home, you know--where there are hordes of creatures. Creatures that drove us underground. Just...roaming around. Everywhere.” Shivers trembled down her spine at the mere thought. That one day, when they’d crushed the gates and shattered through crystal walls, looming and gaping and towering over her--

“Okay so maybe it’s a little bit like that.” She could feel her eyebrows raise, and the color staining his cheeks reminded her that he was a friend a friend a friend. She should be nicer. She didn’t have the energy left to be nicer. “Just for a quick trip. To...pick up some things there. And I’d go on my own but--”

“Nope. You cannot go alone to the monster-infested Lost Cities--”

“I’m not going to! I can’t! The pathfinder cracked, remember? You’re our only form of long-distance transportation.” Fuck. He had a point. “I literally cannot do this without you! And I don’t want to, either.” The last part was so quiet she would’ve missed it could she not hear every single sound screaming through the night.

“Where exactly in the Lost Cities do you want to go?” She wasn’t agreeing, not yet. But dammit she was curious. And he was her friend. She trusted him, wanted to hear him out.

Dex shook his head slightly, as though trying to keep himself awake, hand shooting out to catch himself on a nearby tree trunk. She reached out as if to catch him, but he wasn’t falling and there was nothing for her to do. Her hand dropped back to her side.

“I’m fine,” he said. She didn’t believe him. “I need to stop by Slurps and Burps, where my old lab is. Just...Eternalia in general.” Right. He’d said he needed supplies; there’d be a plethora of things for him to work with there. Whatever project he was working on, clearly he hadn’t brought enough when they’d run away.

Run away. Huh. They were runaways now, weren’t they?

“I’ll think about it. I can’t...too tired to think through all the details right now, okay?” She rubbed at her eyes and he nodded along. “I’m not saying no.” She wanted to. “I just…” she trailed off, exhaling heavily.

He nodded even more, looking slightly off kilter and pallid after doing so. He really shouldn’t be moving around so much without treatment for whatever it was. But they didn’t have anyone who could do that sort of thing. Or properly treat her and Linh’s burns.

“I understand,” he said. “Thanks.”

For what? The world had ended already. She wasn’t doing anything.

Dex had left her a ways away from the clustered mass of minds she’d been approaching, most of them in some sort of lull. Worn and tired. She glanced towards the sky, the stars on full display--Dex hadn’t seemed even remotely tired. Fatigued? Yes. But that was from his healing injuries, not any kind of natural exhaustion. She’d forgotten how late it was despite the ache in her own bones.

He seemed...better. Like it was just a matter of time before whatever had happened yesterday--holy fuck was that just yesterday? Why was everything moving so fast? Life had been so much more peaceful, even boring when they’d been underground. She supposed this was why they were down there in the first place. Just a few days above the surface had tossed them into absolute chaos so consuming it felt like the last few hours had lasted weeks.

And now she sat on the floor of an old dilapidated cottage, flower petals scattered beneath her, two friends unconscious before her, other’s resting around her. They’d made the most out of what they had, cool water poured over burns and pressed against feverish foreheads, torn clothing wrapped around blisters. But they hadn’t anticipated this. Any of this.

Their world had only shifted underground a few months ago, how could everything above be so chaotic, so frantic? Beasts could have abilities, control the weather, breath smoke and scream ash. She still didn’t know what had happened to those two, the one’s battling up above, the one’s Marella had tried to join as if entranced.  

She didn’t want to ask.

And now Marella lay sleeping before her, skin pulsating and gleaming with sweat, uneasy even in rest. The blankets had been thrown to the floor, damp sheets sticking to her exposed skin--entirely unblemished from the blast.

Linh hadn’t been so lucky. Her skin was angry angry red, shining in this dim light. And not the way her new iridescence sparkled, no, this was hurt, damaged skin coating her body. And still...it didn’t seem bad enough.

Marella had exploded, each of them mere feet away at most. They should be coated, covered, dying from these burns. Instead she was only aching, wincing, awake. What had happened?

“It was Maruca.” Tam’s voice took a moment to register, but she looked at him. He was perched beside Linh’s bed, sitting absolutely preposterously in a chair--how hadn’t he fallen out of it? His lip was red and raw, chewed over and destroyed. How had he made such a mess of it? Sleep appeared to elude him, and he tugged at his bangs as he shifted, eyes darting towards her. Wait, right, she was supposed to respond.

“What was Maruca?”

“She happened.” This was a very productive conversation. Tam exhaled, tugging harder at his bangs, like he was trying to gather the proper words. “You said it into the mind bubble,” he continued. “What happened? Maruca did. That’s why your injuries aren’t as bad as they should be--or at least part of it.”

Oh. She checked her mental barriers and sure enough, most of them were down, her consciousness standing exposed within their shared network. She fixed it.

“What did she do?”

He took a moment to respond, looking down at Linh. “It was hard to see what was happening because of all the rain and storming, but Marella was easy to track. She lit up the sky like a beacon. Whatever was happening with her...it clearly wasn’t good. So Maruca threw up a shield, trying to isolate her, but she wasn’t quick enough. It only blocked some of the explosion. But it was enough to help.”

Wait.

“Wait I saw it,” she responded, talking mostly to herself. “There was a...like a white light just before she went off. It wrapped around me--that must’ve been the force field.” Oh. Okay. Problem solved. She wasn’t as hurt as she should’ve been because she’d been shielded. So why did the question still irk her?

Turning, she searched for Maruca; she had to be in here somewhere. Ah, there she was, asleep against a wall beside Biana. Everyone had passed out from stress and exhaustion, littered around the room like they couldn’t even muster the energy to make it past the door. She could see Keefe and Fitz cuddled on a couch in an adjacent room, haphazardly draped over one another. Wylie was nowhere to be seen, and Dex hadn’t come into the room with her.

It was just her and Tam awake against the world.

Neither of them spoke, falling into an anxious, taut, comfortable silence. Pain buzzed along her skin, and she lowered herself backwards onto the floor, staring into the ceiling. She hadn’t thought ahead enough to take any elixirs from Elwin’s office when they left, and none of them had grabbed nearly enough. She didn’t even know what they had and she still knew it was insufficient.

What the hell were they going to do?

She sat up. Tam looked at her and she stared back.

An idea struck. A stupid one, but those were the best kind. “How do you feel about petty theft?”

“I can’t think of any possible way this could go wrong,” Tam whispered, and she resisted the urge to shove him over.

“I can. I can think of several.” They stood just outside the cottage, the others’ sleeping forms still visible through the window. She pressed her hands together in thought, trying to think through as much as she could in the next few minutes before all reason left her.

Tam crossed his arms, looking down at her with faint amusement. She scrunched her nose at him.

“Okay. Okay okay okay,” she repeated to herself, shaking her hands slightly to get her mind working. “We need to stay hidden. So who would...” She glanced back inside, looking towards the couch. Who out of their group would be the most prepared when they’d run away, specifically…

“What are you doing,” Tam hissed as she crept back into the building, stepping over Biana’s legs, hoping she could muster just enough agility to make it through without waking anyone else up. She already had Tam on her side, but she didn’t know if she had the energy to convince anyone else.

The wings at her back shivered in agitation. “Something smart.”

Silently, she crept towards that couch, the one Fitz and Keefe had collapsed upon. She was looking for--there. Fitz’s bag was discarded towards the end, spilling out various elixirs and fruit bars and water bottles and an old shirt. Hands ever so gentle, she pried open the top as she crouched down, the sound of the shifting floorboards grating against her ears.

Keefe’s breath caught. She stilled, not daring to move a muscle. Tam pulled at his bangs in her peripheral vision, face planting.

She eyed Keefe; his hand tensed in Fitz’s shirt, the fabric riding up his back. He relaxed, turning slightly.

Sophie exhaled heavily. He was still asleep. For some reason, the idea of anyone else knowing what they were doing was absolutely unacceptable. She rummaged through the bag for a moment--aha. Perfect.

She held the obscurer close, rising fully and making her way back to Tam, moving around cluttered floors and unconscious friends. Fitz’d had the foresight to bring an obscurer along when they’d run away to join the Black Swan, wandering through Florence. If anyone would have one, it’d be him.

She pressed the gadget into Tam’s hands, and he looked at her in question

“I don’t know how to use it” she explained, hooking her arm through his and dragging him away. The longer they were near those rooms the more anxious she became that someone would wake.

He fidgeted with the thing for a moment before a faint ripple marred its pristine surface, and she knew he’d turned it on.

“And what’s the next step in this brilliant plan of yours?”

She glanced around the area, then pointed to the near straight path of bridges laid out before them.

“I’ve gotta be honest, I’m mostly winging it,” he glared at her unintentional word play, but she just ignored it. “But now we run really fast.”

“We what--” his words vanished into the night air as Sophie charged forward, building speed with each step, the trees a blur around her and she pounded over the wooden bridges and platforms, darting so quick her feet barely grazed the ground. Tam, to his credit, tried his best to match her pace, but she was mostly dragging him behind her.

And then she could taste the void on her tongue and they vanished.

Sophie always forgot how much the Forbidden Cities stunk, but the gas fumes and humidity was home. Tam’s face was apprehensive, lip curled as he adjusted to the poor air quality.

She just stood there a moment, observing the scene--she hadn’t seen humans in months. Tam’s unease propelled her forward, shaking her out of it, ignoring the people on the street who ignored them. They couldn’t even see the two of them, obscurer clutched tightly in hand.

She glanced to the sky--the sun was just beginning to set, late afternoon. Good. That meant a few select places would still be open. It was disorienting, almost, to jump that quickly through time zones.

“Okay. This is good. This is fine.” Sophie grabbed Tam’s wrist, pulling them along the street, past the rush of the cars.

“You don’t sound confident.” She ignored him. She could hear the faint whine and compress of each individual engine as it shot past, and she made a mental note that they’d all need earplugs if they went literally anywhere ever. Especially the Forbidden Cities. They’d been loud before, but now…

They both winced as a motorcycle revved a few streets away.  

A few minutes passed in relative silence until the building Sophie was looking for became visible as they rounded a corner, narrowly avoiding some family out for a casual stroll. It was so...normal. She’d known that the Forbidden Cities had been left unaffected, had been untouched by the ruin, but to see it so clearly--

“Wait for me to say it’s okay, Tam!” she screeched, jerking on his sleeve, hauling him back with a burst of that new strength. He’d been inching out into the road, Sophie so lost in thought she’d almost let him walk into the intersection.

He nearly toppled over from the force, and she mentally scolded herself for not giving him at least a basic rundown of how to not die.

“You can’t just walk in the street,” she began, trying to calm her pounding heart. “The cars won’t stop for you, and they can’t even see us right now. See that little red hand over there?” She pointed to the street light on the other side of the crosswalk and he nodded, confused but sensing her distress. “When that turns into a white figure, then we can go, okay?”

He fiddled with the tips of his bangs and nodded, face flushed beneath. His eyes were too bright, too reflective, and he looked away.

“Anything else I should know?”

“I…” Huh. Everything human was so deeply ingrained in her mind she didn’t even know what was useful to share, what she just assumed was common sense and didn’t need explaining. “We’ll see.”

Tam’s attention shifted and he pointed across the street, to the white figure now on display and the countdown that had just begun.

“See, now the cars are all stopped,” she gestured as they hurried by. She wasn’t comfortable with the idea of crossing the street when no one could see her, so she moved a little faster than necessary.

Once they made it to the other side with no trouble, she began to cut through the store’s parking lot, holding Tam close. No cars could see them and he didn’t know what to look for, so she was not taking any chances.

The more she thought about this, the more she began to realize maybe she should’ve come on her own--but she’d already snuck off once today, she wasn’t pushing her luck.

She was hoping she’d never have to tell them about that creature she found in the forest, about what she’d done.

A couple walked through the doors just ahead of them, and Sophie dragged them in behind. She didn’t think the automatic doors would be able to detect them, and even if they could, it might draw attention.

“What is all this?” Tam asked, glancing around. Aisles of overflowing shelves filled the space, everything from scented soaps to candies to old movies to vitamins to books to prescription medication counters.

“A human store,” she whispered--she knew the obscurer covered any noise they made, but she didn’t want to give it more work than necessary. She could hear the pounding of each of their hearts as they moved, beating a fraction too quickly to be comfortable.

Their bodies were so close they nearly bumped into each other with each step, slipping through aisles and around humans, each of them none the wiser to their presence. She brought them towards the back of the store, the rows of human medications and ointments and creams--this was what they’d come for.

Tam had been willing for this reason alone. They didn’t have any useful medication, hadn’t thought to bring any--aside from Fitz--so this was their next best bet. Sophie eyed the shelves, grabbing bottles of pills and tubes of cream at random, just looking for key words--she’d figure out what to actually use later. Burns, irritation, pain relief, blister, you name it, she grabbed it.

Footsteps sounded as an elderly woman wandered into the aisle, moving with surprising agility. A family approached from the opposite way, two young children in tow. Shit.

One of the kids screamed, throwing a fit as they tossed themself out of their parent’s arms, running down the aisle directly towards them.

Neither Tam nor Sophie dared breathe as they searched for an escape; they couldn’t get caught between the two. Tam’s hand clenched around her arm as he hauled the two of them back, narrowly avoiding the kid as they skirted by.

Shit, he hissed, and her eyes darted to him, widening as she saw him fiddling with the obscurer, tapping it frantically. Fuck. Shadows condensed around the two of them, but they wouldn’t do much in the middle of a well lit store.

Panicked, she turned back to the scene--that little kid. The parents were chasing after the kid, the old woman’s eyes following. They had a few seconds at most before they were noticed, two beat up, ragged teens with fucking wings just appearing in the center of a store.

“Woah!!” Her heart constricted, head whipping around to the source of the noise, mind on high alert, only to see the other kid, no more than three, pointing directly at her over their parent’s shoulder, eyes wide.

“In a minute, buddy,” their parent said, but Sophie couldn’t think over that pair of too-brown eyes boring into her own. She stepped back almost instinctively, the urge to run overwhelming, the tapping of Tam’s finger’s against the obscurer incessant.

The movement jostled her arms, and a bottle slipped, careening towards the hard tile floor. No no no no no no no--

Got it! Tam breathed, and Sophie watched as the child’s mouth fell open in shock as the two of them vanished once more.

Desperately, her mind reached out towards the bottle, jerking and clenching around it as she stopped it midair, levitating it an inch above the floor. She didn’t dare move. Only slowly directed it back towards her, sending out other little tendrils of energy to the bunch she held in her arms, a preventative measure.

“Here,” Tam mumbled, shuffling the two of them over and away from the people. She had severely overestimated the number of things she could hold at one time.

They paused for a moment in a vacant section of the store, adrenaline lingering in both their systems. Neither said a word, just breathing until they stopped shaking.

“We need a bag,” Sophie whispered, barely audible even to her own ears. They should’ve thought of that before they left. Dammit, there always seemed to be one little detail she was missing when he planned something out and it always came back to bite her in the ass.

“Umm...there’s a few over there. Does this work?” He handed her a cloth backpack from a shelf after they shuffled over a little.

She dumped all the contents of her arms into the bag, pleased to see there was plenty of room left over for anything else they could grab once the aisles were a bit more vacant.

“Sure. This works,” she said, grabbing the handles. “We could put the obscurer in there too.” He seemed to consider the suggestion for a moment before he shook his head.

“If it stops working again it’ll take too long to get out and fix.” She hummed in agreement, looking around. They might as well circle around the entire store while they could. Fingering the straps on her shoulder, careful to keep the wings from brushing against them, she glanced at the display Tam had grabbed it from.

Her heart stopped.

It was a local artists display, filled with various embroidered backpacks and totes and hats and anything cloth, vibrant threads of red standing out against browns and rich purples and electric teals. She took the backpack from her shoulder, flipping it around to run her finger along the design. It was a bird of some kind, a peacock or a phoenix, golden tail feathers spilling down the black fabric of the bag. It came to life with luscious greens popping white, layer upon layer of stitches running together in such a deliberate, careful pattern she couldn’t breathe.

There was someone, somewhere in the world, who had the time, the safety, to decorate a backpack. To painstakingly carve the details into permanence, to render it exactly how they wanted at their leisure.

“It’s like nothing has changed here,” she whispered, and Tam’s hand came to rest on her shoulder. He had no connection to this past of hers, but he surveyed the people mingling in the store, the smiles and laughter and idle chit chat. No, these people were unaffected.

The world had ended for them, but it flourished here.

He glanced at her fingers fisted around the backpack handles. “Are you okay?”

“No.” How could she be? “But let’s finish this first.” He squeezed her shoulder in reassurance, and she threw the bag over her shoulder once more, that embroidered bird out of sight.  

They started moving again, shadows condensing around their feet as Tam added to the obscurer's power, Sophie scanning the shelves for anything that could be useful. She grabbed bars of scented soap, washcloths, fancy water bottles, heart pounding pounding pounding.

This had been her idea, so why was she so goddamned nervous? Her intestines squirmed and wiggled within her abdomen and she ran a hand through her still-wet hair, gripping it tight. She wouldn’t pull it out. She wouldn’t. It was braided anyways.

A hand intertwined with hers and gently began tugging at her fingers, untangling them from the strands. Tam’s face was blank as he pulled her hand away from her head, smoothed out her hair, and pulled them forward.

She couldn’t do this. There were so many people everywhere she looked, so many people living completely ordinary lives unaware of the creatures that roamed their Earth, wreaked havoc upon the delicate ecosystems. They didn’t know it yet. But they would. Eventually. When the ocean spoiled with more than just crude oil, when the animals vanished entirely, when the bees fell from the sky like rain.

“Breathe, Sophie,” Tam’s voice slammed into her, dragged her from the depth of her mind and suddenly she was breathing she was processing she was dying. She didn’t know where she was, blurs of shadows and nothing fuzzy in her peripherals and she was inhaling faster than she was exhaling and there was everything in her lungs and her heart was trying to implode, to scatter itself into pieces.

“I said breathe, dumbass.” His voice was so so soft, so gentle, a damp cool stone against the night sky of her imagination. She inhaled. She exhaled. She did it again.

The first thing she saw was her knuckles, white. Her fingers were wrapped around Tam’s wrists, gripping him so so tightly. She inhaled again. His hands were on either side of her body, holding her by the shoulders. She exhaled.

Slowly, she raised her gaze, meeting his eyes for a prolonged moment. They shone red, reflecting some far off light, oh so wide. Fear and concern lined the soft edges of his face, relaxing slightly as she held eye contact, as she breathed, as they both listened to her heart slowing, the race of her blood calming.

“Sorry,” she whispered, vision going blurry again, sagging beneath the weight of the world.

“There’s nothing to apologize for.” She nodded instinctively, not even fully registering what he said. Time ticked by, the sky darkening in silence.

She released his wrists, the skin red where she’d grasped him so tight, and he dropped his arms back to his sides. Carefully, she wrapped the guilt that sparked into the knot beneath her ribs, pressing her palm against it.

Tam noticed, but didn’t mention it. “Are you ready to go back?” She debated for a moment, taking stock of her body, all the signals and alarms beeping in the background. They stood a ways away from the store, off in a shadowed segment of the parking lot. She had no idea how he’d gotten them out here.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Let’s go.” Her limbs were made of lead, her brain an amalgamation of dense fog, but she’d be okay.

He just nodded, retrieving the obscurer from wherever he’d set it before they turned back to the illuminated store.

“How are you so...awake,” she slurred, rubbing at her eyes. His brow creased for a moment, glancing down at her.

He wiggled his shoulders, drawing her attention to the movement, the things behind them. “I haven’t been able to sleep since the mission.” They flared under the attention, and she realized somehow she hadn’t taken notice of them this entire trip. Just how oblivious was she?

The wings protruded sharply from his back, bones spreading, membrane stretched between each section. Charcoal blacks textured like leather melding into fuzzy browns near his shoulder blades. Sharp talons graced the top--wait, were those talons? Her mind was too mush to tell, but it was painfully obvious what they were.

Bat wings.

It made sense, she realized. The reflective eyes, the alertness this late at night, the--wait a minute. Curiously, she looked to his face.

“Open your mouth.”

“What?”

“Just do it, real quick.” Something had clicked together in her mind, and she just couldn’t find the energy to be cordial about it.

Hesitantly, he opened his mouth slightly, bewilderment and embarrassment written plain across his face. Her own mouth fell open as she leaned forward, trying to get a closer look.

“What are you doing--”

“You have fangs,” she whispered, cocking her head to the side as he clamped his lips shut, hiding those sharp canines. That’s how he’d bitten through his lip earlier, chewed it raw so quickly. It might’ve even been an accident.

She shook herself off, backing away slightly, skirting towards the doors of the store once more. Just a quick, final lap, and then they’d head back. Nothing could go wrong this time. She’d hold it together, as long as it took. She wasn’t doing this just for her, although the longer she moved the more each of her muscles begged her to stop, the more her skin chafed against her clothes.

Tam’s face flushed as they snuck back through the aisles, heading straight for the pharmaceutical section. Her determination was just enough to get her moving. She knew the moment she stopped her body would give out, collapse, but she couldn’t allow that to happen.

She was Tam’s only way back and none of the other’s even knew they’d left.

They grabbed items in relative silence, more alert of their surroundings. Sophie was the only one between the two of them who could read the labels, and Tam was the only one with any energy. They made quick work of it, that embroidered backpack stuffed so full she could hardly close it.

As they made their way out of the store, weaving around people, Sophie stumbling along, eyes falling shut, she spotted one more thing she wanted. It was stupid and nostalgic, she knew.

But goddammit if she was going to commit crimes, she might as well enjoy it.

Tam said nothing as she swiped the items off the shelf, only smiled exasperatedly as they emerged into the dark parking lot.

The streetlights seemed to flicker above her, and Tam gripped her tight, more prepared for what was to come.

She took off at a sprint, fueling every last drop of remaining energy into her run as she cracked the void open before her, the lingering sweet scent of the memory fogging her mind.

Hard wood met her skin, her palms, scraping against fragile, healing skin.

And she collapsed.

 She couldn’t see herself.

 She was supposed to be here.

 That wasn’t her.

 That wasn’t anybody.

 Water rippled pulsated groaned over an endless expanse of everything, echoing the sky and screaming. Delicate. Inescapable. Never.

 The hallway stretched on for miles upon miles upon forever and ever and she couldn’t find her way back and this. was. not. her.

 The choice was not hers. It hovered there, taunting, before plummeting and vanishing beneath the surface, leaving not even a ripple in its wake.

 Wake. Wake up.

 No. She couldn’t. She wasn’t asleep.

Focus.

 Everything shattered.

 It rained down in heaving whorls and coasted through her consciousness and broke and broke and splintered and caved and cried and screamed and she was screaming too. It was not her and she was not dreaming and she was screaming too.

 Wake.

 Up.

 Something was breaking--no, broken. Something was going to break.

 It was her.

Commotion. Everywhere. Everything. Slammed into her all at once and she was choking she was breathing she was thinking the sun was burning her alive and her skin had turned to ash and her mind was fog and--

“Sophie? What do we--” Keefe hissed beside her, uncharacteristically tense, but she eased. Okay. Everything was okay. Keefe was right there and everything would be fine and--

Something buzzed and vibrated. Several somethings, all in sync.

Keefe supported her by the shoulder as she jolted upwards, that familiar tune gravel grating against her ears. She fumbled, the floor dancing and her stomach swimming, reaching for that bag, the one she’d taken from home not the one she’d stolen.

She slipped the device out of its pocket. Saw everyone else present in the room look towards their own. Their imparters, each buzzing with an incoming call.

Sophie tilted it towards her so she could read the screen, the words taking a few seconds to sink in.

An incoming hail, one for each of them.

Hers was from Councillor Oralie.  

[gay-otlc]

Stav. I have spent so many hours staring at this drawing that I've made a whole au for it.

-Della and Livvy own the cupcake shop. It is simply called Della and Livvy's Cupcakes. Della is very upset by this, but couldn't think of anything better.

-Prentice and Tiergan own the second-hand book store. They also sell old records per Tiergan's request.

-Next to the Cupcake shop, There is a cafe. The Four Horse Girls of the Apocalypse + Tam work there.

-They all opened it on their own accord. It's also a safe space for queer kids. There are pride flags all over the walls, and everyone always goes there for their rainbow cups all the time during pride month.

-They all love working there, even though Tam pretends he hates it. He does not.

-Next to the Cafe, is a clothing store, which Biana opened and Sophie came by to help her "friend" with. Everyone knows they're dating. But they'll let them think they're sneaky.

-On the other end of the street, is the Ruewen clinic. Grady uses their close proximity to check on Sophie to make sure she "doesn't need anything" instead making sure that she and Biana aren't doing anything suspicious.

-Edaline often has to intervene so that they don't tip off Sophie and Biana.

-Fitz is visiting from getting his Psychology degree.

-Wylie is a broadway performer travelling but he always loves helping out at his dads' shop.

-The Dizznees own a plant shop. Kesler opened his own auto shop though, so Dex is pretty much the only one in the store at all times.

-Keefe is New in Town™

TOBI. TOBI I LOVE ALL OF THESE HOLD ON JUST GIVE ME A SECOND

-Not a great name for a cupcake shop but I bet those two make delicious food so I'll let it slide. I would spend my life there 10/10

-Especially if right next door (or at least close) is a secondhand book store- have I mentioned how much I love secondhand book stores? they like make me fall back in love with life or something okay- run by my favorite angsty gays.

-OH and the gay cafe (cafGAY) by the horsegirls and their bonus emo? I think I would die /pos if I stepped foot in that building.

-BJFKJSDJSD BIANA AND SOPHIE TRYING TO BE SUBTLE BUT FAILING. Also Grady being overprotective of Sophie and Edaline intervening is such a good mental image.

-Fitz trying to study in the gay cafe and getting distracted by the horsegirls' chaos... beloved...

-He also helps out with the cafe. Mostly by trying to tone down the aforementioned horsegirl chaos.

-You could start literally any sentence with "The Dizznees" and I'd agree wholeheartedly but YES plant shop

-Keefe also trying to study and going "what the fuck" and Fitz saying "haha you get used to them"

-(They end up dating)

I support this au 10000000/10

[loverofallthingssmart]

hi eesha!! hypothetical question but if you had to choose. top three favorite kotlc ships/characters? totally for no reason haha

hi anon!! hypthetically ofc ;)

ships!

1. kam

theyre my absolute fave. literally nothing can top them. sorry <3

2. marelliana

the jilted exes in the past canon gave us.....sotrue. no fr i think lynn and a little bit of sun got me hooked

3. hekster

like maybe i just have a thing for mean girls. who knows honestly. also the stina & sophie & tam friendship where tam sets them up and in return they set him up with keefe...... god i just rlly rlly rlly love stina and sophie and tam as BFFs

honourable mentions go to fedex! jilted exes part 2: the electric boogaloo and marellinh! closest to canon couple of my dreams <3

characters!

1. tam song

r we surprised.......truly?? no we r not tam my beloved my eveyrthing

2. linh song

listen!! song twins own my heart im not sorry

3. stina heks

okay i just rlly have a thing for mean girls!!! and specifically for mean girls who r funny and not putting up with the mc's bullshit!!

honourable mention obviously to maruca (i could give u the backstory of my dreams ohmygod and i should omg.) and sophie my beloved <3

[stardustanddaffodils]

7, 12, 19? <3

7: longest completed fic you wrote this year

probably smiling at the stars, that one was over 8k before i cut some parts out cuz they just Werent Quite Right

12: favorite character to write about this year

initially? fitz vacker. currently? c!tubbo or c!tommy. overall? logan sanders

19: any new fics to start next year

too many ToT, including actually finishing and posting the prompts i got a few months back that are still sitting in my askbox. hang on lemme run through the List Of Wips That I Probably Wont Finish This Year. wait actually i'll give lil summaries? if any of these sound interesting or you'd like to hear more, come talk to me about them, it'll give me motivation lol

dsmp benchtrio ghosts au: c!ranboo is the new kid. he makes friends with c!tubbo and they sit together at lunch. tubbo's friend c!wilbur eats with them too and they become friends. ranboo finds out that their town is said to have a lot of ghostly activity, and he's very interested in ghost hunting. he tries to convince tubbo to come with him, but tubbo isn't too enthusiastic. what happens when ranboo actually finds a ghost, and the only thing it can remember is "my tubbo"? and what's tubbo hiding that makes him so sad all the time?

dsmp clingyduo superhero au: c!tubbo and c!tommy are out and about, wandering around the city in an effort to get away from their awful home lives. they stumble across a fight between the sbi, renowned heroes, and the masked menace, fearsome villain. a building collapses, and tommy is announced dead- they never find his body. tubbo blames sbi for his friend's death and becomes a villain because if he doesn't blame them, he'll blame himself. meanwhile, sbi gains a mysterious new member...

kotlc marellinh tangled au: not much more to say. except tam is also in it and i think imma keep it platonic or queerplatonic.

kotlc kam coffeeshop au: the smell of petrichor. im gonna finish it... someday..... i swear.... i really do want to finish it, i think i will try to do that sometime in 2022-

kotlc keefitz the prom au: exactly what it sounds like. ft. keefe as emma, fitz as alyssa, biana as nonexistent (sorry she didn't fit with the story D:), and tam, linh, dex, and sophie as the homophobic friends who change their minds eventually.

kotlc sophitz childhood friends au: sophie and fitz are childhood friends in a modern au. they grow up. they are friends. we see this happen. bibbidibobbidiboo feelings. they are more than friends. childhood friends to lovers my beloved <3

she ra oneshot series: essentially little episode-esque oneshots of adora & crew travelling the universe in search of magic like they said they would at the end of the last episode

not sure how many of these i'll actually finish or even work on, but yeah! if any sound cool to you i'd love to chat about them/have you force me to write them bc other people wanting to read my stories often makes them easier to write :)

[ravs6709]

Brain is trying to come up with an omniscient reader au for kotlc and that would actually be fun to write

Keefe as kim dokja because they both have that smart/dumb energy, hide their emotions, and are super self-sacrificial

Tam as yoo joonghyuk because they both are bitter at the world but also care a lot. Also who else would have that dynamic with Keefe? (As for their relationship, romantic or platonic would work great)

Sophie as han sooyoung partially because I felt like it, but I think it would kinda fit. I mean, Sophie's more selfless than hsy, but it fits better than others (something something, Sophie genuinely does want a better world, but like tam, is willing to do bad things to achieve it) (platonic sokam would be fun)

Fitz as yoo sangah so he can be keefe's friend still but also he's pretty sweet and reasonable but also fierce when he needs to be. (background enemies to lovers sophitz is an option)

Biana as jung heewon (okay so I'm not quite sure how to make the vacker siblings siblings but I can figure that out later) because you can't tell me that 'Judge of Evil' Biana beating up evil people doesn't sound so cool (this is purely self-indulgent but Biana and Heewon my beloveds)

Dex as lee hyunsung mostly because idk. There's a lot of changes here but it doesn't feel as serious

Okay so on one hand Marella (kinda) has the personality of lee jihye but c'mon. jihye is a naval commander who has trauma associated associated the ocean does this not give linh vibes? Then I can do a whole bunch of stuff to make the fact that her and tam are siblings (I mean, yjh takes in ljh every time so this makes sense)

Marella wouldn't really get to be a character exactly in orv but I can put her in with keefe's group esp since lgy isn't there. She'd fit right in

I have no patience to make up constellations so I might use the ones from orv. Their skills/stigmas and stuff would change to suit them though (shadow reading can be similar to Sage's Eye, Keefe mimicking can be like bookmark, linh controlling water can be like ghost fleet)

[thescarletromeo]

My Personal Favorite Names (Part 2): Girls

(Note: I don't have all of the original origins because at the start I forgot to do that. Sorry.)

• River - meaning “flowing body of water”. Why I love it; 1. River Song (duh), 2. River Tam.

• Sarah / Sarah Jane - meanings; Sarah “princess”. Jane “God's gracious gift”. Why I love it; 3 words - Sarah Jane Smith.

• Elisabeth - meaning “pledged to God”. Why I love it; simply, Elisabeth Sladen.

• Avalon - meaning “island of apples”. Why I love it; Avalon, an island paradise of Celtic myth and Arthurian legend--it was where King Arthur was taken to recover from his wounds.

• Louisa - meaning "renowned warrior". Why I love it; it's a glorious name, inspired by my favorite singer “Foxes” Louisa Rose Allen.

• Merida - meaning “one who has achieved a high place of honor”. Why I love it; the princess from Brave.

• Nimue - meaning “Celtic Mythology (one of the names of the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legends)”. Why I love it; this is such a pretty name and it's Arthurian roots.

• Melody - meaning “song”. Why I love it; Ariel’s daughter and River’s alter ego.

• Emrys - meaning "immortal one", "ever-living, immortal". Welsh form of Latin Ambrosius. Celtic Form of Ambrose. Why I love it; Emrys Wledig (or Ambrosius Aurelianus) was a Romano-British military leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century. Tales of his life were used by the 12th-century chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth to create the character of Merlin, who he called Merlinus Ambrosius or Myrddin Emrys.

• Aniela - meaning “messenger of God. Angel", Polish variation of Angela. ahn-YELL-ah. Why I love it; I love the way it looks. I love the sound of it. And I love the meaning.

• Anemone - meaning "daughter of the wind", ah-NEM-oh-nee. Flower name; Greek. Why I love it; is a floral name that relates to the ancient Greek myth of the famous love story of Aphrodite and Adonis, in which Aphrodite transforms her wounded lover's blood into a flower, the crimson anemone, whose blossoms are opened by the wind. accounting for its other name, windflower.

• Freya - meaning "Goddess of Love. Queen of the Gods. Beloved. Lady. Noble Woman. High-born Lady. Mistress", Norse. FRAY-ah (Norse Mythology). Why I love it; From Old Norse Freyja meaning "lady". This was the name of the goddess of love, beauty, war and death in Norse mythology. She claimed half of the heroes who were slain in battle and brought them to her realm of Fólkvangr. Along with her brother Freyr and father Njord, she was one of the Vanir (as opposed to the Æsir). Some scholars connect her with the goddess Frigg. This is not the usual spelling in any of the Scandinavian languages (in Sweden and Denmark it is Freja and in Norway it is Frøja) but it is the common spelling of the goddess's name in English. In the 2000s it became popular in Britain.

• Rhiannon - meaning hri-AN-ahn (Welsh), ree-AN-ən (English), REE-ən-ən (English). Probably derived from the old Celtic name Rigantona meaning "great queen". Why I love it; It is speculated that this was the name of an otherwise unattested Celtic goddess of fertility and the moon. The name Rhiannon appears later in Welsh legend in the Mabinogion, borne by the wife of Pwyll and the mother of Pryderi. As an English name, it became popular due to the Fleetwood Mac song 'Rhiannon'.

~~ side note: this is the name dad really wanted to call me but mum wasn't a fan and thought it meant witch not woman.~~

• Emilia - meaning "rival", Feminine variation of Emil, Latin. Why I love it; Because I am in love with Emilia Saccone Joly and she has made me love the name.

• Alessia - meaning "defending warrior", Italian variation of Alexis. Why I love it; I was originally drawn to it because it's the name that Anna and Jonathan named their second daughter. But when I saw the meaning I was like “holy cow that's badass!”.

• Aurora (Rory for short) - meanings: Aurora; "dawn", Latin. Rory; "red king", Irish. Why I love it; Aurora is such a pretty name that is somehow feminine, mystical, out of this world, heavenly and natural wonder. And Rory, I mean it's such a great unisex name. Plus it would suit a red headed or even golden blonde child.

• Seren - meaning "star". Pronounced seh-ren. Welsh origin. Why I love it; Sounds pretty and the meaning is so lovely. Seren is a top girl's name in Wales--and a lovely choice almost unknown elsewhere. Seren, in the Sirona form, was an ancient goddess of the hot springs.

• Ambrosia - meaning "food of the gods". Greek and Roman mythology name. Why I love it; It's similar to Ambrose. The food of the gods in Greek mythology, meaning "immortal".

• Oriana - meaning "dawn". Latin. Why I love it; Oriana is a dashing medieval name, with a meaning similar to Aurora. Strong and exotic, Oriana also has an admirable literary resume. In medieval tales, she was the beloved of the knight Amadis, she appears in at least three seventeenth century plays, and there is an early Tennyson poem called The Ballad of Oriana.

• Thalassa - meaning "the sea". Greek. Why I love it; A pretty, rarely used Greek name, Thalassa is the ancient personification of the sea, particularly the Mediterranean, who is sometimes considered the mother of Aphrodite. In 1991, a newly discovered moon of Neptune was dubbed Thalassa. This name would make a highly original, yet accessible and delicate choice.

• Sophia / Safiya - meaning "wisdom". Greek. Why I love Sophia; Like its sister baby names Isabella and Olivia, Sophia has gained widespread favor by appealing to a broad range of parents: Intellectuals who like it for its meaning and those attracted to its femininity, parents who want a classic name and those looking for a name with Latin roots; the Sofia spelling is also popular. Sophie is the French version of the name, more popular than Sophia in some parts of the world. The name was first famous via St. Sophia, venerated in the Greek Orthodox church--St Sophia was the mother of three daughters named Faith, Hope and Love. It was first used in England in the seventeenth century and was the name of George I's both mother and wife. Why I love Safiya; after one of my favorite youtuber’s whom is literally perfection: Safiya Nygaard.

Bonus Round: My Favorite Middle Name Options.

• Tommasina or Thomasina - meaning (Thomasina) English, feminine variation of Thomas. (Tommasina) Italian version of Thomasina. Why I love it; I adore this name, but I prefer it as a middle name. inspired by Emilia Tommasina Sacconejoly.

• Nova - meaning “new”. Why I love it; I like this as a middle name. It's pretty and I like the space aspect of it.

• Sky / Skye - meaning (Sky) Nature name. (Skye) Scottish place-name. Why I love it; Like Nova, I like this as a middle name. Also inspired by Sky Smith.

• Hope - meaning Virtue name. Why I love it; middle name that I like very much with it's positive vibe.

~•~

If you have any names you love and reason behind it, please share as I would love to read them.