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cadence-talle · 4 years ago

Text

Moonlight Burst Into the Room

Pairing: Marella Redek/Linh Song

Wordcount: 2,203

TW: mentions of transphobia

Notes: For @marellinh-week-2020! Doesn’t totally fit any of the prompts besides First Kiss/Confession so let’s just pretend I posted it then instead of several days late

Taglist: @everyonehasthoughts, @clearlykeefitz, @loverofallthingssmart, @a-lonely-tatertot, @enbies-and-felonies, @molly-sencen, @lemontarto, @appalyneinstitute1, @ruewen-and-rising, @silver-snow, @linhamon-roll, @hyperlollypop, @never-ever-too-many-fandoms, @keeper-of-the-lost-queers, @impostertamsong, @vibing-in-the-void, @yeetersofthelostcities, @mistythegirlfluxmess, @diamond-dreamerr, @we-have-no-bananas-today, @an-absolute-travesty, @callas-starkflower-stew

Linh has never had a nickname.

When she was younger, still living with her parents, names were a point of frustration. Her parents never used pet names, which meant they always referred to her by her given name- the wrong name. Always the wrong name, until Linh had to tell them to stop.

(That conversation was quiet, hushed, like her parents couldn’t quite believe it. They had simply stared at her when she said I’m a girl and then shared a long look.)

Her parents had called her Linh from then on, but it still felt strictly impersonal. As if a wall of water had sprung up between them and drowned any hope of parental affection.

Once they were banished, names were hardly ever used. Elves at Exillium weren’t considered to have names; they were referred to in a group or not at all. So Linh grew accustomed to turning at a simple shout, to only hearing her name spoken by her brother. Lonely? Sure, but at least she didn’t have to hear that disappointed sigh of Linh whenever she messed up.

(The way Tam said her name wasn’t disappointed, not ever. But it was resigned, like he knew he was the only one who would ever say it. Like he had come to terms with the fact that they were going to fade into oblivion.)

Then Sophie turned up and ushered them into her friend group, into warmth and belonging and people talking to Linh. People saying her name.

Sophie’s group didn’t use nicknames much- besides Keefe, of course, who seemed to be in a competition against himself to come up with the most ridiculous titles for Sophie- but just hearing her name said in a way that told Linh people wanted her here was enough.

And then Marella Redek becomes a bigger part of Linh’s life, her fiery temper charging into arguments and her endless vocabulary of pet names filling the air, and Linh doesn’t know what to do with herself.

-/-

“Hey, sweetheart, could you grab me that box?”

Linh turns just in time to see Dex hand Marella the small wooden box in question with a confused look. The blond girl grins at him and opens the box, digging through its contents. “Ooh, a necklace! And… Prattles?”

She holds up the package for all to see. The three of them are the only kids at Havenfield today- the others are all off on various errands. Even Sophie’s out in Atlantis, shopping with Biana. Linh doesn’t mind much, though, even as they embark on the laborious task of sorting through the stuff in Edaline’s cluttered office. She’s still marveling at the fact that she has friends now.

“They’re probably really stale by now,” Dex says. Marella shrugs, ripping off the top and popping a candy into her mouth. She makes a face.

“Oh, ew. Why did you two let me eat that?”

Linh giggles and Marella smiles at her. There’s a strange flush on the other girl’s cheeks, and Linh wonders if you can get sick from eating old Prattles. She hopes not.

“He did warn you,” Linh points out. Marella puts a hand over her heart in mock insult.

“Betrayal! I thought we were friends, sweetie.”

Linh shrugs nonchalantly, trying to hide the warmth she can feel creeping up her neck. Marella does this all the time, she reminds herself, and Linh just needs to get used to it. “Sorry. All’s fair in lov- in war and stale Prattles.”

Dex snorts, shooting Linh a knowing look. Linh blinks and he shakes his head. “We should get back to cleaning. Marella, put the Prattles down.”

Marella, who is apparently a three-year-old in the body of a fifteen-year-old, shoves two more Prattles into her mouth and pockets the drawstring bag that holds the pin. Dex rolls his eyes and turns to a huge green chest. Marella nudges Linh’s ankle with her foot.

“You know, hon, this stuff really isn’t bad. You wanna try?” She holds out the box.

Linh shakes her head and Marella puts the package away. Linh’s thoughts, though, can’t be dislodged so easily, and the word hon echoes in her mind for the rest of the day.

-/-

The transition from Exillium to Foxfire was a hurried one, a few busy days of reading schedules and getting used to being around normal people again. It felt almost too fast in the moment, too quick for even the little they were leaving behind.

Linh has left a lot of things behind in her life. She doesn’t miss them most of the time, but on days like this- days where it’s quiet and cool and the winds whipping past her sound eerily like the whispers in her head- it’s hard not to remember.

She wanders outside of Solreef, settling down under a tree where she won’t be directly visible from the house. The grass around her is still slightly damp with dew, and Linh tugs a few blades out of the ground to fiddle with.

Tiergan’s house is very different from anywhere she’s ever lived. The rooms are large and sprawling but still cozy, perhaps made so by the various pillows and classified scrolls that are scattered across nearly every surface. It’s not the rugged landscape of Wildwood nor the smoothed edges of Choralmere, and Linh is glad. Things are calm here, but not so calm she’s afraid to walk on anything but tiptoe.

She broke a vase, once. One of her mother’s heirlooms. Tam had been chasing her through the house and Linh hadn’t had a chance to slow down in time. Quan had shouted louder than she had ever heard, too angry to even call Linh by the right name.

It’s been years since that event, but the disappointment still presses on Linh’s skin. Covers her like a heavy blanket woven from sad sighs and ignorant comments and constant dissatisfied looks. The idea that Linh would never be enough.

Will never be enough, no matter what she does.

(There have been too many conversations for her to ever disprove that.)

“Linh?”

Abruptly, Linh realizes she hasn’t been breathing. She breaks away from the fixed point she’s been staring at and pastes a smile on her face.

“Marella! Hey, sorry, I must have forgotten you were coming today.”

“You didn’t,” the blond girl responds, sinking down next to Linh. “I wanted to surprise you. Are you okay?”

“What? I’m fine. Why?”

Marella gives her an utterly unimpressed look.

“Hon. You looked about five seconds away from crying when I showed up. And that’s not a bad thing,” she hurries to add when Linh opens her mouth to apologize. “I just want to help, if I can.”

“I-” Linh trails off, staring at the ground. “I was just thinking. About… stuff. Names. Memories.”

“Huh.” Marella doesn’t press, which Linh is thankful for. “Names can be weird sometimes,” she says carefully, turning to face Linh. “My mom- on her better days, she calls me Ella.”

Linh blinks. “I thought you didn’t like being called Ella.” Marella had almost taken Keefe’s head off when he had called her that once. Marella shrugs.

“I don’t know. It’s different when Mom does it. It tells me… she’s there, I guess. She’s there and she loves me.” Marella worries her bottom lip between her teeth. “It’s hard to see, sometimes. What she’s going to do. What I’m supposed to do when she gets frantic or starts crying.”

“I get that. Well. Not the ‘frantic and crying’ part, but I get not knowing what to do.”

Marella smiles, a tiny, crooked thing. “I thought you would, sweetie.”

Linh turns back to the landscape, staring out at it. Next to her, Marella shifts so she’s facing the same direction. Her eyes are still fixed on Linh, though. Maybe it’s that, or maybe it’s the sweetie, but Linh speaks up a few moments later.

“My parents… didn’t always remember to call me Linh.” She says, testing the waters. Marella’s head inclines a tiny bit, encouraging her to go on.

So Linh does. She tells the whole story, all those lonely years in Choralmere and then the too-free years in Wildwood. She’s never had to tell anyone that before- Tam has always known, and neither of them needed to say it out loud.

When she finishes, Marella is silent. Linh worries she’s made a huge mistake.

“Sorry,” she says quietly. “You don’t have to- I mean, I know this changes-”

“Hey, darling.” Marella shifts to sit on her knees in front of Linh, leaning forward and grabbing her hands. “This doesn’t change anything, okay. I mean, obviously it does,” she says thoughtfully, “but you’re still Linh, okay? You’re still Linh and you’re still beautiful. And I totally understand if you don’t want me to make a big deal out of this, but if you do, I happen to throw legendary parties.”

Linh laughs, a half-choked sound of relief. Marella settles back against the tree with a grin and they stare at the horizon again.

“Thanks,” Linh says after a moment. Marella gives her a thumbs-up.

“What are friends for, right?”

“Yeah.” Yeah, Linh reminds herself. Friends.

-/-

“Whoa. Hon, look at this.” Marella pulls a tiny marble out of a box, glittering pale yellow and about the size of her thumbnail. Linh would almost mistake it for a Councillor’s cache if it weren’t for the absence of tiny jewels inside.

They’re back in Edaline’s office, digging through piles of junk, but this time it’s just the two of them. Linh is halfway sure that’s intentional, actually- even Grady and Edaline suddenly decided to take an impromptu trip to Mysterium today. They have Havenfield all to themselves.

(That sentence seems to fill Linh’s stomach with the mechanical butterflies they accidentally unleashed earlier. She doesn’t think about that too hard.)

(If she does, she knows she’ll find out something very odd about why she always feels warm when Marella calls her a pet name.)

“What is it?” She asks Marella. The other girl lifts one shoulder.

“I don’t know, but it’s pretty. Let’s see...”

She taps the marble with two fingers and the lights cut out. They come back a few seconds later, Marella grinning sheepishly.

“Whoops. Sorry, sweetheart-”

“Stop calling me that.”

The words are out before Linh can stop them, and she flounders. “I mean- I just-” She shakes her head. “I can’t. Not when I know…” You don’t mean them, she finishes mentally. It hurts too much to hear you throw them out that easily.

Marella’s expression shutters and she looks away. “Right,” she says, sounding oddly defeated. “Of course.”

She turns around, muttering “of course you would have figured it out” under her breath. Linh frowns and, since her mouth and her brain seem to be operating on different planes of existence today, says,

“What? Figured out what?” Her tone is almost challenging, but even Linh isn’t entirely sure why. Marella turns back around, arms crossed defensively.

“Really. You’re really gonna make me say it?”

“Say what?”

Marella throws up her hands. “Fine. I like you, okay? Is that what you wanted?” Her voice drops lower, less frustrated and more finished. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be weird. I’ll get over it.”

“You. You like me?”

Marella doesn’t respond, already sorting through another pile. Linh takes a deep breath and uses what’s left of her courage.

“I didn’t know that. I wanted you to stop calling me pet names because I thought they didn’t mean anything to you.”

Marella pauses. Straightens up.

“They did,” she says, so softly it’s almost imperceptible. “They all did.”

“They meant something to me too.”

Edaline’s office is quiet. Linh doesn’t move, doesn’t blink, tries not to even think until Marella turns her head.

“I hear there’s a really good restaurant in downtown Atlantis,” she says. It’s a question, an outstretched hand. Linh smiles and takes it.

“That sounds amazing,” she responds. “Honey.”

The marble slips from Marella’s fingers and the lights turn off again. Marella’s smile, though, is enough to brighten the room.

-/-

When she was little, Linh never had a nickname.

They were too frivolous for her parents, too unnecessary for the people who sometimes forgot to even call her Linh. Nicknames weren’t needed for someone who barely had a name at all.

Nicknames are never really needed, but they’re used here.

“Mare,” she calls across their small kitchen, “we need to go.”

“I’m here! I’m ready,” Marella responds breathlessly, pecking Linh on the cheek as she rushes to pull her coat on.

“Bi is going skin us alive if we’re late to Sophie’s party.”

“Good thing we’re not late then, sweetie.” Marella grins at her and moves out of the door. They are late, actually, but neither of them really care.

It hits Linh sometimes, how very different her life is now. She has friends, and family, and a wonderful wife who deserves the world.

(The ring on her finger seems to shine. That conversation was feather-light and delighted, a gasped yes and cheers from all their friends.)

“Hon, come on!”

She has a nickname now. Dozens, in fact. But she also has a name.

Linh Redek steps out the door.

#kotlc #marellinh #marellinh week 2020 #marella redek #dex dizznee #linh song #my writing #lynn rambles

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a-lonely-tatertot · 4 years ago

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Finding Home

First / Wattpad / ao3

A/n: Another one done another one done! A longer chapter than the last, and the wait was because a lot of stuff came up and i didn't have much motivation to post because i was concerned that no one really cared about this so um yeah sorry

words: 6065

Tw: mentions of injuries and blood if there's others please let me know

Chapter 7: One Hell Of an Exit

It had been three days since Dex told him Fitz left, three days since the pit in his stomach had started steadily growing. What hurt the most wasn’t Fitz actually leaving, it was the fact he told Dex instead of him. Some best friend, he thought.

Keefe sighed and sat on one of the cots in the Healing Center. Elwin’s office had become home after a year of working as his assistant. Days went by, mindless and boring; they rarely got kids. Tam and Linh’s class often had the most injuries, sending in at least a kid a day because some idiot decided to go against the rules. But they were gone now, and Alchemy instructors were finally being more careful, actually watching the kids when they had dangerous chemicals, but it left the Healing Center bare. Somedays, as he played yet another round of cards with Elwin, he wished that at least one kid would get hurt so he could do something.

Elwin did his best trying to fill the silence, teaching him new things. But Keefe knew that worry that came off him in waves, that concern that never really left after his coma. It had gotten stronger after Fitz left, keeping a watchful eye on him. Searching for pain that was there but Keefe was just too good at hiding it. No matter how many times he told Keefe that he wasn’t Cassius, that he would always be there, the wall between Keefe’s emotions never came down.

“We should go see the Celestial Festival,” Elwin said, startling Keefe. “It’s next week and we haven’t been out much. I do always love Orem’s lights.”

Keefe hummed in response.

“I think Biana plans on going; we talked about it the other day.” Oh. So that was Elwin’s plan. Make him talk to people again. What was the point of it? Pretend that half of their friends didn’t get the great idea to hightail it out of this hell hole to be normal people for once? To pretend that they actually knew what they were without a war to fight?

“I bet with a little persuasion you could get Dex and Marella to come,” Elwin continued.

“Yeah, maybe,” Keefe whispered softly. Why did he agree? Keefe pretended he didn’t know, but deep down under things, he didn’t want to look at he knew he was lonely. That he missed his friends. So why not take advantage of the few who were left?

The festival lights were insane. He stood with Biana as the council stepped to the stage, her determination flew off her in waves and he marveled at how far she had come. The way she held herself, scars on full display, mouth set, she looked older than he was used to. But when she glanced at him, through the flashing lights, her eyes were playful and mysterious and Keefe almost let out a sigh of relief that she hadn’t completely left and grown-up without him too.

Dex and Marella stood at his left, Dex holding some sort of snack over Marella’s hands as she lit a small fire, letting out a whoop when it just barely toasted. Keefe grinned with them, surprised at how far the two had come with their own fears of Marella’s fire. Biana tapped his arm, gesturing to a patch of grass a little ways from them and to the blanket in her hands. From there they had the perfect view of the light show, grinning ear to ear as they appeared in the sky. None of them talked of who they wished was there, and none mentioned the last time they’d watched the lights. They avoided topics flawlessly that they knew brought too much pain and weaved their way through, making their uneventful lives seem important. Honestly, the only semi-put-together person on that blanket was Biana; unlike the rest, she always knew what she was meant for, there was a fight in her that wouldn’t settle for anything less than a better world.

The rest of them were basically just melting mallowmelt.

Eventually, Biana had to leave, and the others ended up back at Elwin’s with a unanimous vote of we’ve-got nothing-better-to-do. They raided the kitchen and grabbed whatever snacks they could find before climbing the stairs to the roof.

They laid there for who knows how long, staring at the stars in silence. “What do you think the others are doing?” Dex asked into the dark.

Keefe sighed. He honestly didn’t want to know but spoke anyway. “Probably doing taxes.”

“What the fuck are taxes?” Marella asked, propping herself up on her elbow.

Keefe chuckled, “Horrid, horrid things.” They lapsed into silence again, the only sound being the scattered animals roaming Spendor Plains. Keefe always thought the name was stupid, but he’d given up on trying to get Elwin to change it a long time ago.

“I want to go,” Marella declared. Keefe glanced at her, but she was staring at the sky; Dex had the same puzzled expression on his face. Finally, she continued, “I’ve got nothing other than people who don’t want me here.” Her tone sounded defeated and honestly, he agreed.

“I’ll drink to that,” Dex laughed, half-heartedly raising his cup of Lushberry juice to the air in a mock toast. After his new power surfaced people stopped believing he could control it. They avoided him on the streets, they hated the fact that he worked with Elwin. It didn’t matter that he had won a war for them, the fact that his mother had started it and had turned him into something dangerous was enough. He glanced at Marella and Dex, knowing they were thinking the same.

A few minutes passed when, “Then let's go.” It was Dex this time, he had sat up, the others following suit. “They hate that we’re here. That we saved them. They hate that Sophie and Fitz left, their Golden Heroes. We’re the screw-ups that are still here. Hell, look at us. The son of a bad match, a pyrokinetic, and a fucking mystery.” Keefe grunted, he’d been called worse. “We might as well find somewhere to belong.”

Keefe clapped sarcastically but he could already feel the addicting buzz of adrenaline in his veins. “Well said, fellow outcast,” he laughed. “But if we do this we’re not leaving quietly like the others.”

Marella nodded a grin taking over her face as she stood. “Buckle up boys, we’ve got one hell of an exit to plan.”

Around 1 am (Keefe thought it was one am, he didn’t actually know at that point), Elwin came out with a plate of snacks. Keefe didn’t have time to register what half of the things were when his attention was brought back to the sheet where he had sketched up the layout of a building—that Marella was marking exits on. Dex watched them, laying on his stomach with his chin resting on a pillow and messing with his device.

At some point they had moved inside, spreading along the couches, their ideas scattered in a chaotic order. Keefe didn’t quite remember when Elwin said he was going to bed, too wrapped up in whatever the others were saying to him. He glanced at the clock; its ticking hands read 4 am. He smiled around the room, Marella sprawled dead to the world asleep on one couch, Dex on the other sitting in a curled ball messing with something that Keefe couldn’t see. Right then, as he sat with his back against the wall and eyes drifting, Keefe couldn’t think of anyone else he’d want to leave with.

Keefe paced Elwin’s office like a mad man. He couldn’t sit still, not with the buzzing and churning in his gut. When Keefe would let out a heavy sigh Elwin would glance up smile lightly before going back to his work.

“You know,” Elwin said softly, after Keefe’s fourth round of the Center, “I’m still not entirely sure what I’m going to do when you leave.” In surprise, Keefe looked up to find Elwin with watery eyes. Keefe halted and stared, shocked, to say the least. The realization of how much he meant to this man who had taken him in after everything he had done when his own father didn’t want him. He didn’t quite know what to say, he wasn’t used to this raw emotion that came off of Elwin in waves. Finally, Keefe’s face melted into a sad smile.

“You’ll be okay without me,” Keefe said, for once sincere. A beat of silence passed where Keefe could practically feel Elwin trying to think of something to say without crying. Without Keefe crying, cause Keefe really didn’t like crying. “Plus,” Keefe smiled to try and break the tension, “You and the other parents can have weekly get-togethers about how much you miss our annoying little faces!”

Elwin let out a harsh laugh, “Yeah I guess we can.” Suddenly Keefe found himself wrapped tightly in Elwin’s arms. It still took him a second to remind himself not to tense up, that it was Elwin’s way of saying “I love you.” He felt tears welling in his eyes from the thought that it was real, that he wouldn’t see Elwin for a long time. He buried his head in his father’s shoulder and fisted his hands in the back of Elwin’s shirt.

“I’ll miss you,” Keefe said finally, willing his voice not to crack.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Elwin reassured. “We’ll be okay. You need this, and when you’re ready you’ll come back home.”

Reluctantly, Keefe pulled away, “What happened to me reassuring you?”

Elwin laughed, “We both know I’m much better at the reassuring.”

He smiled at that. Yeah, maybe he’d miss this place, but he had a whole world to rediscover. A rustle of paper coming from under the door jostled him out of his thoughts. It was from Dex, his cue to get moving. In small words it read:

“headed to the meetup point, all devices ready on schedule - TM"

Keefe grinned and turned to Elwin, "That’s my cue! See you tonight, Dad.” He let the title slip out, Keefe had never called him that before except in his head. Before he could see Elwin’s reaction he turned and was out the door.

Weaving his way through the deserted corridors, he found his way out of Foxfire to the courtyard, running to the leap master and hastily yelling out for Marella’s house.

He arrived to find Marella already waiting for him outside, duffles around her. “You ready?”

With a nod, they grabbed the bags and headed to the leap master, places to be. A minute passed and all three of them, Dex, Keefe, and Marella, found each other standing outside Biana’s office door. Getting in was the easy part, since Biana was gone the house was empty.

“You ready?” this time Dex asked, Keefe was confused about why, after the night they’d had and the plan they’d put together, they’d think to back out. “After this, there’s no turning back,” Dex said, eyes drifting to Keefe and Marella.

Marella grinned, all teeth. “Come on boys, we hit the point of no return the minute we decided to leave.” Promptly, she stuck her lock picks in the hole and twisted them around until they all heard a faint click. It was Keefe’s turn to grin as Marella swung the door open and marched her way in. He followed, placing the duffles in the center of the room, Dex came after him and whistled at the flamboyant decor.

The far wall was almost entirely glass, sun streaming in and lighting the entire room. A desk sat with trinkets and papers scattered. The wall where they entered was covered in bookcases. There was a small nook that wasn’t covered in poorly organized books. A dark wood frame surrounded a drawing that Keefe had given her; it was of the entire crew, a sort of sequel to the one he had given to Sophie all that time ago. They had been laying in her room after the twins left, a week before Fitz would too, and they had both confessed that they missed them. Sophie, Tam, Linh, how rarely the entire team would get together because they had no reason to. No war to fight, no reason they’d need to get together. Keefe thought that growing up fighting a war made them all forget how to have a simple friendship.

Before falling asleep that night he decided to draw something to remind Biana of them. He would never forget the way Biana’s entire face lit up when he handed the painting to her. He softly smiled at the memory.

“I found the crystal!” Dex called from the other side of the room, half stuck in a drawer. “Marella, are you almost done?”

Marella, who had one foot on the seating part of the chair and the other on the back, was trying to balance on two legs of it with one circular disk in her mouth and the other in her hand, trying to place it on the ceiling. “Well I would be if Keefe would get his butt over here and actually do something!” she grunted. Tried to at least, her words came out muffled and confusing, but Keefe got the idea quick enough to grab the chair before she fell.

“Oh my god,” Dex muttered. “I’m going to be the one making sure you two dumbasses don’t die, aren’t I?” In unison, Marella and Keefe grinned at him and he groaned. With one last little hop Marella got the device on the ceiling and planted the other on the bookshelf. Keefe placed one under Biana’s desk, and next to the door on the wall. It all hit them at the same moment as Keefe armed the last disk, and Dex drew out the letter they had written up on the roof.

“I think I’ll miss her,” Dex said finally; Marella nodded. And finally, it felt like a bright neon sign, right in front of him, blinking bright and loud, and somehow all along he had missed it. The only reason the three of them had stayed was Biana. Keefe, who knew her as his little sister. Marella who she knew as a friend that no matter what was there. And Dex, as the person who stuck by his side when Sophie left him and waited to return the favor. Maybe it was poetry, maybe Keefe was connecting dots that weren’t supposed to connect but it made him want to laugh.

“Yeah, me too, but we’ll see her before we leave,” Keefe reminded him a bit forcefully. If he were in that office any longer, he’d convince himself to stay. Marella took the note from him to read over again before leaving it. “Let’s go, we’ve got four more places to hit.”

Keefe didn’t wait for an answer and ended up making it to the leap master before the others. It took a few minutes, but finally, they were all there calling out for Foxfire.

It was dark, everyone had gone. Keefe didn’t quite understand how time zones worked with jumping from Biana’s house, which the sun was just then setting, and Foxfire where it was already dark with the moon high. Granted, he didn’t really try.

Foxfire, being much bigger than Biana’s office, forced them to split up. Dex took the top levels, Keefe took the middle, and Marella the ground floor. Keefe slung his bag of disks over his shoulder and made his way through the classrooms. It was slow work, finding good spots to put them in each room and through the hallways, with the bag which felt like it held a bunch of rocks.

The job went by in about an hour, even though it felt much much longer, and he finally made his way back down to the courtyard. “What took you so long?” Marella laughed as he came out rubbing his sore shoulder. “Don’t forget we’ve got more to do!”

“Yeah yeah,” he grumbled. “You guys done here yet?”

Dex poked his head out from behind one of the trees and said, “I’ve got two more left.“

Keefe could tell that the ones in his hands were the only ones he had left from how his bag looked much lighter. "So we can mark Foxfire off the list, ey?” Marella asked.

“Only three more places to hit,” Keefe grinned.

Dex rolled his eyes, “That’s not counting the spots inside those places. It’s much more than you think.”

Keefe just laughed in response; they were so close. To being free, to running away, the thing Keefe was so good at. Running, and well, making one hell of a lasting impression. That was really their plan.

It was a short time till they found themselves in Atlantis weaving their way through the back allies to find the shed they had left the next batch of devices at. Dex reminded them, yet again because “everything has to be perfect”, that Marella was taking the treasury building—which sounded entirely boring, which was why Keefe had opted out. Keefe would be taking the various transportation locations, and Dex the business district (also boring). Their rendezvous would be the monument of Linh, Sophie, and himself when they had saved Atlantis. Keefe remembered making some horrible joke about the monument when it was built, something about how they didn’t get his hair in all of its glory, but then, after seeing it again, all he could think of was how much he regretted that his stupid crush had gotten in the way of actually being able to get to talk with Linh. He wondered how many of the others he’d neglected ‘cause of it; he wanted to groan at how stupid he was.

“You good there, Goldie?” Marella asked.

“Why am I Goldie? You’ve got blonde hair too."

"Okay, yeah, but my hair is more pale than gold. And plus I deserve something much cooler than ‘Goldie’."

Keefe shook his head, "Okay, Braids.”

Marella, who had started to walk off, threw a smile over her shoulder. “Could use some work!”

“I didn’t have enough time!”

“Excuses! I expect something better when I come back!”

“Oh, so I’m getting graded?” Keefe shouted, but she was gone and he was left standing alone. Slinging his bag over his shoulder he headed to the nearest light leaper. There were about five of them across the city that only lead to other light leapers inside Atlantis. He had five devices, the smaller ones that would reach only the light leaper itself and the edges of surrounding buildings.

In total it only took him about twenty minutes to leap to each spot, find a hidden location to hide the device, arm them, and then leap away. Marella and Dex had more to cover than him so he found himself sitting at the edge of the fountain, fiddling with the KMD, as they had ended up calling them. Dex arrived first, grinning and clearly riding an adrenaline high, with Marella in tow. “All set?” Dex asked.

Keefe stood. “Yup just as you planned, Techmaster.”

“Wait, why does he get a cool name?” Marella gasped.

“I like him more,” Keefe deadpanned. Dex smiled and did his best to look innocent (which he was really good at for some reason) and Marella rolled her eyes.

“Don’t just stand around; we’ve got places to be!” Dex called, already headed for the whirlpool.

With a chuckle, he and Marella followed. Mysterium was next, in Keefe’s opinion the most boring of their stops but the way that Dex’s face lit up when he spotted Slurps and Burps whirling and glittering in the distance made it worth it. Dex beamed with something like pride and it was infectious. Keefe shook his head slightly, at how easy it was for him to grin, at Dex’s face that was entirely dorky, and at Marella who smiled somewhat mischievously as she placed her devices. It was quick and easy work placing the devices while Dex dropped off the letter—almost identical to the one they had left Biana—at Slurps and Burps. They waited as Dex made his way back to them and practically ran when they could see him. There wasn’t as much time left as they had hoped; the sun was supposed to rise in about two hours, leaving them barely enough time to cover all of Eternalia. Keefe reached the leaper expecting the others to be on his tail when he turned around, but they weren’t.

His eyes scanned fervently and finally found Marella and Dex standing off to the side, staring back at the Slurps and Burps. Keefe wanted to laugh at the scene if it wasn’t so serious. Marella, stoney, sarcastic, quick-witted Marella, had her arm over Dex’s shoulders like she was pulling him in for a hug. Keefe raised an eyebrow at her when their eyes locked over Dex’s shoulder and her face turned hard. Speak of this and I will kill you, was the message Keefe read loud and clear.

After what seemed like ages, the pair made it to the leap master seemingly still emotionally intact and Dex with a new determined look in his eyes. As Keefe called out for Eternalia he couldn’t help but feel a new rush of adrenaline crash over him.

Now to tackle Eternalia it relied on many moving parts. Part I, the councillors homes. Each of them had two disks, set to cover a larger distance, and needed to place one in between every two towers. Keefe, along with his two devices, also was in charge of the KMD, which was to be placed on Alina’s tower. When they were still scheming Alina’s tower was the obvious choice of who they’d want to annoy the most. Alina’s surprisingly wasn’t the hardest to find, of course, being the most glittery and the most bright even in the dark. Just as he placed it he saw three flashes in the distance, Marella’s signal, marking her to finish first. Once the device was placed Keefe sprinted to his last spot when- CRASH!

He sprawled on the ground, head aching and pain shooting up his arms. Fuck, he thought eloquently. Curses slipped from his mouth as he tried to stand. He managed to pull himself to his knees to determine just how screwed he was. He had rough spots on his palms that were bound to bruise, a huge scrape down his arm, a busted lip from the way he could taste copper in his mouth, and from how much his head ached, he had probably cut his head too. His legs were probably worse; luckily, he couldn’t actually see the extent of his injuries because of his pants (and from the pain he could feel he honestly didn’t want to see it).

He was fine. This was fine. He would just push past the pain and get himself through downtown than he could figure it out. It was just a fall. A fucking painful fall, his brain supplied unhelpfully. He saw three green flashes in the distance and cursed again. Dex was gone too.

He needed to get moving, and he needed to get moving fast. Keefe grunted, took a few breathes, and managed to get his feet. It was a bit harder to leap with an injury but he managed, and after placing his last device, he found himself in downtown.

Dex saw him first, delight turned to concern turned to worry until he was rushing to him. “Why are you bleeding? Why are you beat up? I leave you alone for five freaking seconds-"

"What happened?” Marella came up behind him with more annoyance than concern on her face.

“Well, I was going to explain to Gears over here-”

“Gears? Really?”

“-but I don’t think he knows how to keep quiet,” Keefe finished.

“Start talking, now."

Keefe sighed, "I fell.”

Marella stared at him, “You fell, and did this?”

“It was a very mean rock!”

“Oh, my Ancients-” Marella breathed clearly trying not to laugh.

“You’re benched. we’ve only got a few more left anyway,” Dex said, still eyeing his injuries. Keefe honestly didn’t have it in him to argue. Though it didn’t stop him from snatching the other KMD from the bag next to him and securing it to the ground with only a few winces.

He watch as Dex and Marella placed the last couple of devices. They were clearly talking about something urgent, and from the way, Dex kept on glancing his way, it was probably about Keefe, but he wasn’t close enough to hear and honestly, it was getting on his nerves. What was so important they couldn’t tell it to his face? Probably something you won't like, Keefe thought. He wasn’t always the best at taking bad news, though he didn’t think he was as bad as Fitzy used to be.

“We’re gonna have to jump back to your house before we can set everything off,” Marella stated.

Keefe balked. “We don’t have time for that!”

She threw up her hands, “Well you went and got yourself hurt and we don’t exactly have another choice.”

“I am fine,” Keefe said, trying to hide the wince that came.

Dex rolled his eyes, “It’s a short pit stop, come on. We’re all done here; a few minutes won’t hurt the schedule.”

Keefe wanted to argue that it would hurt the schedule because the schedule was flawless and nothing mattered more than the schedule. Unfortunately, he knew that neither of them would actually listen to him.

Admittedly, when it was all done, getting Keefe patched up with the cloth they found and cleaning off the blood took a lot less time than he initially thought. They had found Elwin’s stash of pain killer serums and as soon as Keefe took them he ordered them to get moving. “We’ve got places to be and things to set off!”

“Lead the way, dude,” Dex huffed. After the war, Forkle had ended up showing the rest of the Black Swan members where his office was—with a heavy, heavy swear to never show the council where it was. The best part about Forkle retiring: they could use the dusty office as a great spot to see pranks. That was probably not Forkle’s intent but who could really stop them?

Stepping into the weird round office (what had Sophie said it resembled? A hobbit hole? Keefe put that on the list as a first order of business to figure out when they got to the Forbidden Cities), it was like nothing had changed. TV’s still lined the wall, and the desk in the center had scattered papers from who knows how long ago. From his memory, Sophie was the last person here, she had watched right before she left, she spent almost a whole day just watching. In Keefe’s opinion, it was kind of creepy but it was probably something sentimental to her. It had been a year since then and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.

They set to work, setting up, connecting cables, dusting (not something Keefe thought this would entail). Their list was made quick work of and soon they were all set up and staring at the screens. People moved like nothing was going to happen, they moved in a trance of things to do and places to be and not a care for the world around them. Keefe remembered a long time ago, Alden saying that elves loved their work, but as he watched people go they didn’t all seem to love it. Their lives were a dull continuous day after day after day with nothing to want and nothing different. Keefe grinned, oh how they would change that. They all held separate controllers, all for different things.

With a nod, Marella started to count down. “Three. Two. One.” She pressed her button and the disks went off. Pink goop (Keefe got the idea from bubble gum, something he had been a tad bit addicted to in his time away) covered everywhere. Luckily, the cameras were high enough that their view wasn’t blocked, because the view from above was amazing. People shouted and left their shops, watching as the mass overtook everywhere. No one was actually in danger, anyone stuck would be just a tad bit uncomfortable but still safe. Dex let out a breathless laugh, “It worked, oh my Ancients it worked!"

Marella let out a whoop and he couldn’t help but be caught in the crashing wave of her joy. But they weren’t done yet; there was still more to do.

They waited in anxious excitement for the panic to die down before they could release Wave 2. Finally, it was time and Keefe pushed his remote to see glitter fill the air and Biana’s infamous quote light the sky. ”' Sparkles make everything better,’“ Keefe said as he watched the shimmering rain. "That they do, that they do.”

Dex giggled as he pushed his button, releasing the KMD. Keefe was fairly proud of his odd combination of their initials, but it worked well. Keefe’s pink faded into Marella’s orange into Dex’s green in a shimmering rain that morphed into “The Outsiders”, as Dex had called them the night before.

Keefe swelled with pride, “Now that is something sixteen-year-old me would be hella proud of.”

Marella nodded, “We did something amazing here today, boys.”

“That we did."

That afternoon, moments before sunset, Dex, Marella, Keefe, Biana, and Elwin stood on the hill behind Elwin’s house. No one knew what to say, no one knew where to start. Honestly, Keefe thought that the only thing keeping Elwin from crying was his silence.

"Really,” Biana spoke startling them all. “You had to use the 'Sparkles make everything better'?”

Marella barked out a laugh. “Hey, we knew it would get your attention,” Dex said.

Biana raised her eyebrow, “Oh, really? Because the giant blob of pink goop in my office and everywhere else wouldn’t?”

“Wellll- it was a fun addition,” Keefe said.

Biana smiled softly, “I’m going to miss you guys.” Keefe couldn’t stop himself anymore and he pulled her into a hug.

“We’ll be back. I promise.”

“You better be, asshole; I can’t fix everything on my own,” Biana whispered into his shoulder.

“And you don’t have to,” Keefe whispered back. If anything, he wanted her to know that before they left. She nodded slowly.

Keefe felt Dex and Marella join the hug, and eventually so did Elwin and it felt so final that Keefe had to remind himself again and again that it wasn’t; that he’d be back.

Finally, they pull away, everyone with teary eyes. “If any one of you gets hurt you are calling me immediately, got it?” Elwin stated, point his finger at them.

Dex snorted, “I don’t think it works like that.”

“I do not care, I am not letting anyone of you get hurt by that place,” Elwin said, almost glaring at them. “Are you kidding? The amount of work I’m going to have to go through, detoxing you after you’re exposed to all those-” he waved his hands excessively, “pollutions!”

“Yes sir,” Keefe said as he mock-soluted him.

“We should probably get going,” Marella elbowed him, checking her watch. “Bi? Watch my mom, will you?”

Biana smiled, “Of course.”

Dex gulped, “And watch the triplets for me? And Elwin, talk to my parents? They’ll be mad I didn’t tell them but I just couldn’t say goodbye to them.”

Elwin and Biana nodded. Keefe raised his leaping crystal, “I love you guys.” The beam opened up and before he could bite his tongue, “I love you, Dad.” He stepped through, not even looking to see Elwin’s response.

Marella and Dex met him on the other side, both giving him quizzical looks. “You really just called him Dad for the first time and then ran away for who knows how long?” Dex asked.

“Yup!”

“I thought that impulsive phase was over,” Marella said.

“I'm sorry what have the past two days been?"

"We don’t talk about that."

Keefe grinned, "Okay Techmaster, lead the way.” And they were off a clean slate, a fresh beginning.

They had rigged up a computer, a shitty web camera, and a stand duct-taped together in the middle of their small Sydney apartment. Dex stood behind, still messing with the settings as Keefe was trying to fix the crappy white sheet they had hung behind them. “I think it’s fine,” Marella chuckled.

“Oh suree tell the guy who actually can speak to the tech how it works,” Dex said, rolling his eyes and pressing a few more buttons. Marella moved her fingers around her temple and mouthed, “Crazy” and Keefe found that he couldn’t stop himself from snorting.

“You know I can see you right.”

“Yup!” Marella and Keefe said in unison, giving in to another round of giggles.

Dex shook his head, “Well, we’re all set up.” For a millisecond Keefe could tell just how nervous Marella was in the way that her eyes darted, trying to make sure everything was holding steady, how her hands silently snapped to some imaginary song. It came off her in waves, though her excitement accompanied it.

“Okay, you guys ready?” Dex asked.

Keefe nodded. “Okay, three,” Dex held up three fingers. Two. One. He pointed at them.

The first round ended prematurely in a fit of giggles. The second with Marella staring blankly, the third with Keefe singing some random song he had heard on the radio because who knew what he was supposed to say? Certainly not him!

It took more tries than Keefe could count and well after the sun went down before they finally had an acceptable intro (they also managed to drag Dex into the actual camera view which was secretly Marella and Keefe’s main goal).

It took only two days to edit on top of the jobs that they had managed to find. Eventually, they were all standing in front of the computer anxiously watching Dex press the upload button.

“You know,” Dex said, “it’s not going to make any difference with you standing right there.”

“We are witnessing history in the making; we cannot miss out on that!” Keefe yelled dramatically, met with an exaggerated eye roll.

It all seemed too simple to be called a beginning, just a click of a button, and they were alive somewhere among the firing code in this vast world.

They were all lounging on the couch when it came. The doorbell rang, and no one moved, except the cat. Dex was too wrapped in his current school project that had to do with writing something that was way above Keefe’s amount of brain cell. Curled on the couch, Marella had her headphones in, editing their newest video that had them trying to paint a posing Dex with their fingers. This ended into chaos which was a surprise to no one. Keefe grinned at the memory as he tried to lure out their new cat that had decide to bolt under the sofa the moment the bell rang. “Come here Marty Jr.,” Keefe cooed.

Marella pulled out one earbud, “Did we really have to name her Marty Jr.?”

“If I recall correctly you didn’t have a better idea at the time,” Keefe retorted.

“I did!” Dex called.

“For the last time, we are not naming her after some weird chemical!”

“Pneumonia is a perfectly reasonable name!”

“Wait,” Marella said, “isn’t that a lung disease?”

“I thought it was some poisonous gas thing?” Keefe said.

Dex groaned, “Why must I be the only intelligent person here?”

“Look is someone going to get the door? It could be pizza,” Marella said. Keefe groaned and gave up trying to get the cat out from under the couch, going to answer the door.

No one was outside on the balcony, no one was in the courtyard except for the neighbor's kids. But there was pizza on the ground, still in the box, and it smelt like heaven. On top of the box was an envelop. “Did either of you order a mysterious pizza and a suspicious-looking envelope?” Keefe called out, carrying the box into the house.

“No?” Dex said, his face twisted in confusion.

“Well, looks like we got a surprise then.”

Marella came up behind him, Marty Jr. sitting comfortably in her arms, “What’s in the envelope?”

“Just a letter,” Keefe said. It was a letter, but when he unfolded it, it held a handwriting he would never mistake. Biana’s. “What the-” Keefe started but Marella snatched the paper out of his hands.

“She wants to meet us,” Marella whispered.

“Where?"

"In some cabin in the US.”

Keefe groaned, “Crap, we don’t have that kinda money without it being sponsored.”

Dex grinned holding up the discarded envelope, “She already thought of that.” He pulled out three plane tickets.

Keefe grinned, “Well, I guess we’re going to America.”

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enbies-and-felonies · 4 years ago

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KOTLC peeps!!!

I posted my first KOTLC oneshot about @everyonehasthoughts baby, Simon Foster :D Check it out on my Wattpad @pan-with-pans, or hit on that Keep Reading Button :D

My Name Is.... Simon

tw: internalized transhobia

tw: mild swearing

Sophie tugged at an eyelash. Today was NOT a good day, and knowing her life, it would probably get worse. Sitting under Calla's panakes tree, with its flowing branches and the sweet smell of its tricolor flowers normally helped calm her, but now...

She was dirty from helping clean Wynn and Luna after they found a muddy meadow, but she couldn't stand the thought of taking a shower. Angrily, she shoved her hair long out of her face. She wanted to yell. Why did she feel so... so rotten?! She looked down at her form-fitting tunic and felt her stomach heave as she scrubbed her eyes in an effort to keep her frustrated tears from falling.

She, Biana, and Linh had planned a girls outing for today, so they had had a sleepover and in the morning Biana had done their makeup. They had picked out gorgeous outfits; Linh wearing a dark grey, slim-fitting dress with silver embroidery that looked stunning with her hair, and a pair of leggings decorated with a flame pattern. Biana had chosen a light, flowy sundress with strawberries on it, leaving her arms and shoulders exposed. The light pink contrasted beautifully with her dark skin and hair, and she had even put her hair up with a matching strawberry pin.

For Sophie Biana had helped pick out a form-fitting white dress with gold trimming. Despite it being pleasing to the eye, it wasn't too flashy and Sophie had liked the way it looked. Biana had said it fit nicely, and showed her curves. At the time Sophie had laughed at the compliment, but now its memory made her stomach churn even more.

Why why why was she feeling like this???

Groaning, Sophie curled up into the fetal position. The tenseness didn't fade, but at least with her eyes closed she could focus on the bark cutting into her back and a stone pressing against her hip. It was a better discomfort than the way her stomach felt. It made her want to tear every single eyelash out, the more it hurt the better.

"Hey... You okay?" It was Keefe, and for some reason that didn't make her feel better.

"Fine and dandy," She groaned, now grateful for the curtain of hair that covered her face, and therefore her tears.

"BS." Damn empaths.

"Maybe I'm not fine, but it doesn't matter anyway because nothing's wrong." She wasn't trying to be difficult, but how else was she supposed to say that she had no idea what was happening?

"Sophie-" She may have been able to hide the flinch, but he felt the emotional recoil at his words.

"Foster, please," He tried again, "Let me help you?" An idea niggled at the back of his mind.

There was a pause, and a blue panakes flower gently settled onto Sophie's shoulder.

"Okay," She whispered, "You can try."

"Okay, so I'm thinking I just say things and feel your reaction to it and then we build off of that, so that then we can pinpoint what's up." The two blondes were sitting on Sophie's bed, cross-legged and with a plate of mallowmelt between them.

Sophie raised an eyebrow.

"What?! I didn't have much time to make a plan of attack!" Keefe raised his hands defensively, but a smirk played at the edges of his lips.

"Well... I did already say yes." In all honesty just being around Keefe and his jokes had already helped. He had poured a bucket of water on her, which had actually helped her get the motivation to take a shower, and then Grady had made some mallowmelt for them as a surprise. His still didn't really like Keefe, but he had a secret fondness for the boy.

"Will you need my enhancing?"

Keefe swallowed. "I think it would be better if we didn't make it more... complicated." Sophie didn't exactly know what he meant by that, but she went along.

"Ready?" She nodded, "Okay.... um... I should have come up with a question before I suggested this." He rubbed the back of his neck ruefully.

"Wait! I'll just start with some generic questions, so you get comfortable with answering questions, since I know you don't like telling all of your secrets. You ARE the Mysterious Miss Foster after all." A twinge swirled in with her general 'sucky-feelings' and 'gently-amused-anticipation'. Keefe thought it was interesting, but didn't push it just yet.

"Uh... So your favourite human thing." He needed to figure out some better questions to get to know people.

"Well, I really miss music, but I do still get to listen to some of it via my iPod. Other than that... probably miss movies the most."

"Favourite movie, and why?"

"Booksmart." There was a swell of happiness at the memory, immediately followed by reservation and hiding. Maybe... disgust? But why would she be disgusted at her favourite movie?

"Why?"

"Because the two girls were such close friends, and back then I was so lonely... It was nice to imagine people being so close." It was a good answer, but it didn't match the feelings she was radiating.

"Sophie," That twinge again, "I can't help you if you don't give me the bare-chested answers. I don't plan on judging you for a movie, so you can be honest. It's okay. I mean, unless its about eating meat, but I could probably forgive you for even that." She smiled, and he grinned at his success.

"I guess I liked it because..." She tugged an eyelash out.

Abruptly she jerked her head up, staring into his eyes, and he instinctively brought a hand to his stomach against the churning anxiety and reservation.

"Keefe."

"Yeah Foster?"

"How do- in the lost cities- How do you feel about the lgbtq community."

Oh damn, did she know?

"Like, personally or...?"

"Personally." Her anxiety was the main emotion now, bubbling and swirling in his stomach.

"I support them, for multiple reasons. And that includes ALL of them." He didn't know if she was trying to get him to say something or if she honestly just wanted to know, but at his words the storm of anxiety calmed slightly.

"Oh. Okay. I guess I liked it because it showed representation." She was still holding back, but Keefe was too busy recovering from the abrupt onslaught of emotions and then the change in subject.

"Cool... uh, favourite... Human celebrity??"

"Rain Dove." There was no hesitation, but afterwards she paused. "I don't- I don't really know much about them, but they seem cool." Them? Nonbinary maybe? The idea burrowed deeper into his mind, but he still didn't put it into words.

"This one will be more personal, okay?" Keefe waited until after her feelings had settled, not just once she nodded, before he asked, "Why don't you like being called Sophie?"

Her heart stopped, which probably shouldn't 'technically' count as an emotion, but Keefe still sensed it. Then there was a twist of confusion as she tried to answer.

"I don't know...?" She wasn't lying or hiding anything this time, but she still pulled at an eyelash and flicked it away.

"Every time I said Sophie this evening you have flinched. Not always physically, but still. Is it because that was what your human parents named you?" He regarded her as she thought, turning the idea over in her head like a pebble at the beach, before frowning and shaking her head.

"It's not that..." Her brow furrowed, and she reached her hand up again, this time continuing to tug at her eyelashes even as she pulled three out.

Keefe took a deep breath, steeling himself for her emotions before taking her hands in his.

"Foster, have you considered that maybe.. you aren't cis?" He really hoped he wasn't stepping out of line, and that it didn't offend her. What if he was just projecting? What if she didn't support trans people?? What if-

He cut the thoughts off when he realized that the majority of the panic was from Foster. Her eyes were wide and she pushed away from him, nearly slipping of the bed.

"What?! I'm not! No, I'm a girl!! I-" Her voice was shrill, but he felt the anxiety get replaced by disgust, and an undercurrent of guilt. She was lying...

And then she was crying.

"Keefe what if I'm broken? I don't know what I am. I think I'm a girl?? What else could I be?" She hiccupped, "I've always been a girl. I was *sniff* born a girl and I- I don't want to disappoint anybody and-"

Keefe hugged her hard.

"You are not broken, you have never been broken, and I am so sorry that you might even entertain that possibility. I'm sorry for pushing, and making you uncomfortable, I just wanted you to feel better and I noticed how you never liked 'Sophie' and you didn't like 'miss' and I didn't know what to do!! I'm so sorry Foster."

She hugged him back, "I think, I think I just need to be alone for a minute. Can I call you later?" She sniffed.

"Of course, I'm always here Foss-Boss."

~~~

Sophie rocked on her bed for a while after Keefe light leaped away. She had already tugged out five more eyelashes, and now she was rocking back and forth.

Was she not a girl? She had never thought of herself as trans before...

But now that she thought about it... It made sense with how much she hated makeup, and dresses, and formfitting clothing... So if she wasn't a girl, then who was she?

~~~~

"Hey Keefe?" The whisper was barely picked up by the imparter, but Keefe still heard it.

"Yeah?"

"I... figured some things out."

"That's great Foster, I'm proud of you."

"My name is.... Simon. I think I'm a demiboy."

#simon foster #kotlc #trans #demiboy #keefe sencen #sophie foster #keeper of the lost cities #keefe #foster #foss boss

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impostertamsong · 4 years ago

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Learning to Be Happy Again

A/N: Hello again, and yes I’m posting on Saturday. Things are not going Great, and I dunno. Feelin’ a little rebellious. Schedules are for normies. Anyway, I’ve made some edits so that the whole story is more accessible to new readers! If you’re new (or missed the last chapter), I’ve put one of those “first, previous, next” things at the bottom (right before the cut). If you’re more behind than just the last chapter, check my pinned post, all chapters are there.

With that said, get ready. This one’s a doozy (hate that I said that, but I don’t know what other word to use).

Chapter Ten: It’s Not Your Fault

The tree we found is large and shady, which is perfect. Fitz is sitting quietly next to me, thinking. He sighs, slumping further down the tree.

“What’s up?” I wonder.

“Oh, just,” he gestures, “everything.”

“Care to elaborate?” I don’t want to push too much because of what happened last time, but this seems like something that needs to be let out. “I know you don’t want to, but if it’s all you can think about, maybe it’s better to just let it go? Talking usually helps. Or writing, but I know you’re more of a talker. Well, except for maybe that one time,” I add, cringing at the memory of Fitz and Sophie sitting close under the panakes tree.

He laughs quietly. “Right, that. Well, I’m not really sure either of those things are great ideas. I’ll still think about it, I’m sure. I mean, it’s been at least a month since I realized and it hasn’t stopped--” He shakes his head. “I should stop talking.”

“No, no, this is good! What did you realize?” I scoot closer to Fitz, turning myself to face him. “I won’t judge you, you know that, right?”

“Except you will.” He stands up. “I should go.”

I jump up and grab his hands. “No, please? I promise I won’t--oh.” There’s a shooting pink warmth that flows from his hands to mine and I drop them, surprised.

“Yeah,” he whispers. “I’m sorry.”

“No, no, no, don’t be! It’s not your fault. I just, I don’t like you that way? I’m sorry, I, uh, you’re great and all, but,” I ramble.

“Just stop, I get it alright? I understand, I do. I just need time, alright? I’m going to go now,” he mumbles, looking at his feet.

“Okay, I’ll see you around, Fitz.” He turns around and walks away. I fall back against the tree, sighing. That was a weird turn of events. Definitely wasn’t except any of that.

“Elwin, can I talk to you?” I yell at the house as soon as the door closes behind me.

“Woah, chill, I’m just in the kitchen,” Elwin calls back, much less loud. He walks over to me. “What’s up? Did something happen with Fitz?” He sits down on a couch.

“Well, yeah.” I flop down next to him. “How’d you guess?”

“Pa—uh, just intuition, I suppose. I’m good at that sort of thing, being a medical professional and all.”

“Right, of course. I bet you have to deal with kids not knowing why something hurts all the time.” I smile.

“So, what happened with Fitz? Is he alright?”

“No, I don’t think he’s okay. But not in a, wow I don’t really know how to put it. He, well, he likes me. And I don’t. So he’s not doing great.” I scratch the back of my neck awkwardly. “And I don’t really know what to do either? Like, do I comfort him or leave him be? I don’t know what’s best here?”

“Oh, I see,” Elwin says wisely. “What would you want if you were in his shoes?”

“Hm, I guess I would want space. But he’s my best friend, I can’t just let him wallow!”

“You can, actually. I know it’s hard to see people you care about in pain, but he has other friends. Dex and him have been getting closer since you, uh, were in a coma, so he has at least one anchor. And I’m sure Biana will be there for him too. He has other people, Keefe, you don’t need to carry everyone’s weight all the time.”

“But if I can help, shouldn’t I? And most of the time it’s my fault anyway, so I have a moral obligation to.”

“Was it your fault this time?” I hold my tongue, trying to seem like I’m thinking about my answer, even though I already know.

“Yes. Right? How could it not be? I probably led him on, and now.” I sigh.

“Actually, Keefe, it’s not your fault. People can’t control how they feel, and you certainly can’t do anything about it. And it’s also not your fault for not liking him back, you just don’t, and that’s okay.” He pats my shoulder.

“How’d you know I was going to say that next?”

“Well, I was a kid too once. I was in a similar situation to Fitz, but felt the way you did. I know now that my feelings towards this person weren’t anyone’s fault, but at the time, I definitely did. It’s all going to be fine, kiddo. Feelings pass. I bet you’ll be back to normal before you know it.”

“Normal? Is that possible?” I wonder.

“Well, if you make it weird, it’ll be weird.”

“Gee, thanks. I’ll try not to act weird,” I answer sarcastically.

Elwin sighs just as the door opens. Huz comes in, a burst of cold air after him. He kicks off his boots, cape, and scarf before flopping down on the couch across from Elwin and I.

“Oh, hello, honey,” Elwin greets, turning away from me. “How was work?”

“The usual. Zara’s making a lot of progress, which is good to see. She went through a whole session without lighting the chair on fire.” Huz smiles. “What’s going on with you two?”

“Oh, it’s nothing really. Just teenager stuff,” I respond before Elwin gets the chance to. Something tells me he’ll spill everything, and I’d rather keep the embarrassment down to a minimum.

“Okay. Oh, have you given any more thought to getting help? I know the situation with your parents is bad, and I was just wondering if--”

“No, I haven’t given it any thought,” I interrupt, not wanting to further the subject. I keep getting put in corners here, I should probably make my excuses to leave.

As if on cue, my imparter rings.

“Hey, Keefe, you wanna hang now that you’re awake and all? Sophie, Fitz, Biana, and I are already here at Rimshire.” It’s Dex.

“Um, sure. But, should I be there?” I ask, looking at Elwin to confirm that I can go. He nods in approval.

“Why would it not be?” Dex furrows his brow, looking confused.

“Oh, um, nothing. Just, well, is Fitz alright?”

Dex’s face drops. “Oh. He told you then? He’s a little spacey, I guess. But he told me to invite you. Um, yeah. He’s fine, all things considered, I guess. But you’re going to come?”

I nod and we hang up. “You coming with, Ro?”

“Naw, I got things to do. And anyway, you’ve been ignoring me, I think you’ll be fine a little while longer,” she answers, fiddling with a knife.

“Um, okay,” I respond, unsure about whether or not to apologize. “Sorry?”

“It’s fine, dude, go have fun.” Ro smiles.

“Be back for dinner, or hail me if plans change, okay kiddo?” Elwin says.

“Yeah, ‘course. I’ll see you then,” stopping myself before I say anything too sappy. It was close this time, but Elwin has been so caring I can’t help but love him. He feels like the dad I never had, even more so than Alden.

I close the door behind me quickly, not dwelling on these thoughts, and leap to Rimshire.

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girlofmanyfandoms · 4 years ago

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Advocates

A/n: So, I feel bad for not posting lately, here’s my AU where I take a slightly different take on the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. A few changes that I’m trying to make: more friendship-based, no love triangle, probably more gay, more racially diverse cast (without any harmful stereotypes). I’ll try to stay true to each character’s personality!

I’ll also take this time to say there’s stuff I haven’t released yet, so tell me if you want me to release those!

Disclaimer: This is in no way hating on Shannon’s series, I just wanna see where the story would go if we took a slightly different approach!

Warnings: I didn’t edit this at all-

Word count: 2868

Tag list: @everyonehasthoughts @imaramennoodle @bookwyrminspiration @holesinmyfalseconfidence @percabetn @an-absolute-travesty @linhammon-roll-bromance101 @linhamon-roll @holesinmyfalseconfidence @linhamon2 @a-lonely-tatertot @loverofallthingssmart

Let me know if you want to be added or if I forgot to tag you!

“Uh, no boys, she’s sitting with me.”

Jensi raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with her sitting here, Marella?”

“Nothing! I just need to pull her to the side for some girl talk.” Marella pulled Sophie’s sleeve, navigating across the cafeteria to an empty booth in the corner. Sitting down and adjusting herself, she extended a hand. “Marella Redek. No nicknames. I know the ins and outs of everything around here.”

“Sophie Foster,” Sophie introduced, shaking her hand, though her response came out as a murmur. She brushed her hair out of her face, trying to shrink as small as possible. “But I’m sure you knew that.”

Marella nodded. “You must’ve caused the Council a lot of trouble if you’ve gotten your way into Level Two right after being with humans. What was it like, by the way?”

“Pretty normal, I guess. Well, not for me, I was a highschool senior at 12, and my parents wanted me to attend community college instead of an Ivy League. Even the newspapers were talking about it, and that ticked my parents off big time.”

“What?”

“I know, crazy, right?” Sophie started digging into her lunch. “Why would the news choose a story about a child over actual breaking news?”

“No, I meant those words you used. A high school, college, a new paper? What do they mean?”

“Oh, that’s right! Those are more human terms, sorry,” Sophie apologized. “There are levels of human school: Preschool, which is usually ages 1 to 4, elementary school is from ages 5 to 10, middle school is ages 11 to 13, high school is ages 14 to 17, and college is at least four years, and gives you the certification you need to get a good paying job. Newspapers are just mini books made completely of paper that tell you what’s going on in the world.”

“Oh,” Marella said, looking off into the distance. “I guess I never really thought that human school would be so different from Foxfire. We just have these levels, and then the elite levels. What was your human family like?”

Sophie tugged out an eyelash, which didn’t go unnoticed on Marella’s end. “U-um-“

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be pushing you so much on your first day. I should be helping you adjust.” She toyed with her food. “So, how’s our world been for you so far?”

“A little overwhelming,” Sophie admitted. “I don’t feel half as glamorous as anything around me. We don’t exactly have crystal houses and fancy ball gowns in San Diego.”

“You don’t?” Marella shook her head vigorously. “Right. Sorry. Let’s get back on track. Anything you think you’ll need to know that I can help you with?”

Sophie clutched her knees, now rolled up into a ball. This Marella girl was a bit intense at first, but maybe she wasn’t so bad. After all, she had saved her from sitting with some yes-boys. The declared leader of them seemed friendly, but a little too hyper. No, she decided, Marella wasn’t half bad. “I don’t know. Anything really, you know best.”

“Alright, then. This place is sort of a maze, try to find someone with a similar schedule to you so you can walk together until you know your way around. You know Stina Heks?”

Sophie shivered and nodded, thinking back to seeing her raging through the halls screaming about someone making her bald. She could’ve sworn she heard her say “Disney,” too.

“Stay away from her. Stereotypical bully, not afraid of fighting dirty. The Vackers, Keefe Sencen, and their little bubble are all the buzz. They’re pretty nice, and Sencen’s a bit of a flirt, but if you don’t like attention, maybe steer clear from them.”

Sophie let out a bitter laugh. “Easier said than done. The Vackers are the ones who found me. Fitz brought me here, Alden sent him out to find me, and Della helped me get ready for Foxfire.” Sophie paused to pull out another eyelash. “I don’t think Biana likes me much.

Marella’s eyes widened in shock as she leaned back and blew out a breath.

“Is that bad?” Sophie was panicking a bit now. What had she screwed up now?

“Well, it’s not good for your social status, that’s for sure.” Marella started slicing her food, which resembled Jello. “If you’re on her bad side, you’ll want to stay away from Maruca, too. They’re best friends.”

“Great,” Sophie sighed. One day in and she already had a long list of people to avoid. “Anything else I should know about?”

“Oh, yeah, but I’ll stick to school stuff. Your most difficult subjects are gonna be Elementalism and Alchemy.”

“I can help with that,” a boy called, sliding next to Sophie in the booth and placing his tray down. “Dex Dizznee, by the way.”

“Sophie Foster.” She grinned a bit. Edaline had gone without her to the apothecary and mentioned the “Disneys.” This must’ve been who Stina was shouting at. “I saw what you did to Stina earlier. Wicked move.”

“Finally, someone understands the genius! She deserved it, too, after what a pain she was last year. That’s where the alchemy comes in handy.”

Marella rolled her eyes, and Dex leaned back casually. “Don’t act like you don’t think she deserved it Marella. You know she did.”

“Ok, it was kind of satisfying seeing her run around like that-“

“Yes!”

“-but don’t take it as a sign that I’ll join in. I have a reputation to protect.”

Dex snorted. “Yeah, as the gossip girl.”

“I don’t gossip, I have connections,” she corrected.

“Whatever you say madam,” Dex relented jokingly. “What about you, Soph? Got anything you could build a reputation for?”

“Not really,” she expressed. “I don’t want the spotlight. I just want to make it by here.”

Marella took a bite of her lunch and scoffed. “Good luck with that.”

“Tell you what, my next class is Multispecesial Studies, I can walk you to Alchemy,” Dex offered.

“Really? That would be great, thank you!”

“No problem. It’s hard making it by for people like us.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Marella chugged down her lushberry juice.

“We’re different, special.”

“So, outcasts?” Sophie rested her head in her hand and stirred her drink nonchalantly, taking in the view of the cafeteria. It was remarkably pristine and clean, its white walls with blue accents not showing a hint of grime. With the barstools at tables all around the center and the booths to the side, it looked like every diner’s dream.

“No, not outcasts. Think more sideline supporters.”

“So, advocates,” Sophie helped. “I don’t really see that, but maybe one day. Right now I just want to pass.”

“Well you can’t do that on an empty stomach,” Marella chided playfully. “Eat up. Lady Galvin is a stickler for accuracy.”

————

Fantastic. Sophie had only been there one day and she had already ruined her Alchemy teacher’s favorite cloak. Marella was right, Alchemy was tough. She’d have to take Dex up on his offer. She wandered through the halls, trying to find the way to her next class, P.E. She strolled like this for a few more minutes before a snobby voice called to her from down the hall.

“Lost, new kid?”

Sophie winced. Great. The number one person on her People To Avoid list had already found a way into her world. She attempted to speed walk, but the clacking of leveled boots followed quickly, and she was spun around with a harsh push.

Stina laughed, and for a 12 year old elven child, it sounded quite maniacal. “Why so frightened? I don’t bite. Much.”

Somehow Sophie sincerely doubted that. There had to be some fangs behind that evil smirk. But maybe she could play it cool with this demon in disguise.

“I’m not frightened, just lost. Do you think you could point me to P.E.? I don’t want to be late on my first day.” Sophie held her breath, hoping she came off as casual.

“My pleasure,” Stina grinned a sickeningly sweet smile. “In fact, I’ll walk you there. Wouldn’t want our newest prodigy to miss class because of some weak instructions, now would we?”

“No, of course not.”

Stina linked their arms, acting as if they were old pals going on a walk in the park to catch up. It was silent except for the shuffling of their shoes, so Sophie made sure she was hyper aware of her surroundings, trying to memorize the numbers on each locker and how they connected to the twisting, winding paths of the school.

At this point, she was sure Stina planned to do something crazy to her, like stuff her in a locker or hide her body, so she had to think fast. Luckily, this was her specialty.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry,” Sophie began, stopping abruptly. Stina stumbled a bit, but regained her composure in seconds. “I forgot something at my locker! Oh, I’m so sorry, but Edaline told me I’d need what was in my locker. You go ahead, I shouldn’t keep you from your class! Don’t worry, I’ll find my way to Phys Ed.”

Sophie speed walked away, leaving Stina in the dust. Once she rounded the corner, she took off, speeding through corridors and halls until she ran out of breath. Giving up, she rested her head against the wall, trying to clear her head when she was forced to her feet and slammed into a locker. There was a click, and through the slits, Sophie could see Stina’s eyes crinkled in smugness and satisfaction. Yet through all of this, the only thing Sophie was thinking of was, That was pretty lame on a scale of bullying-ness.

“Good luck getting out of there, Foster,” she remarked. “Now, you get comfortable, I have some business to attend to.”

“Gonna go sharpen your claws?” Sophie snapped.

“No, newbie, I’m going to put the princess of Everglen in her place. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated!”

And with that, Stina clacked away, her footsteps receding and the silence finding its way to creep back in.

________

Sophie had no way of telling time. This she had learned when she realized she had in fact left something in her locker: her Imparter and the Ruewen crest. She let out an audible groan of frustration, and tried to occupy herself with her temporary home. There were books about unicorn breeding on the shelf above her, to which Sophie wrinkled her nose. Next, there was a box of animal pins, glittering and shiny, and she was very tempted to stuff a few in her pocket, but she restrained herself. She took to examining the pictures on the door with what little light she had and realized, to her disdain, that this was Stina’s locker.

Sophie shivered in disgust and tried patting herself out and getting the Stina vibes off of her.

“Well, if I’m going to be stuck here, I might as well take advantage of it,” she decided. Sophie put all of her energy into memorizing the photo album beside her, and wound up with some lovely photos of baby Stina, along with some other cherished memories. She was scanning through Stina’s diary and chuckling to herself at her inevitable revenge when yelling came from around the corner. Sophie dropped the journal and shuffled forward a bit, peering through the slits. This could be her saving.

“MESS WITH BIANA ONE MORE TIME-” Maruca had her pinned to the wall and looked ready to murder her, but Stina remained unfazed.

“Relax, duchess, you might be the heir soon,” Stina responded coolly.

That was the breaking point. Maruca opened her locker, which was, unfortunately, next to the one Sophie was trapped in, and slammed it shut.

“Maruca!” Sophie yelled, but Stina rattled in her locker, and shouted curses over her, both to insult Maruca and to put an end to Sophie’s escape plan.

Maruca was quick to exit, and soon enough it was just Stina and Sophie, trapped in their lockers, trying to determine the other person’s next move.

“Do you happen to know how to break down locker doors?” Stina commented dryly.

“Would I still be here if I did?”

“Fair.”

“You got a hairpin?” Sophie asked. “Or some thin piece of metal you can slide in between the crack of our lockers? I might be able to break out of mine by picking the lock.”

“And what about me? Gonna leave me here to rot while you run free?” She harrumphed. “I don’t think so. If I’m suffering you suffer with me.”

“I’ll get you out too, just answer the question and slide the metal through the crack.”

Stina huffed, but Sophie heard the sound of metal on metal scratch as something hit her foot. “My family crest. Do not scratch it.”

“You got it.” Sophie used her fingernails to get a little bit of extra room before sliding the crest through the door. She maneuvered it a bit, and the door let out a click as it swung open. Sophie fell forward face first, but sat up and whooped in victory.

Stina cleared her throat. “I’m still here.”

“Oh, I know,” Sophie poked smugly. “But if I’m going to break you outta there, you’re going to owe me a favor.”

“I do NOT-“

“Fine, then stay there. And spend all day, heck, maybe even until tomorrow, stuck in that cramped locker with no food or water whatsoever.” Sophie began to stroll away slowly, biding for time just in case Stina changed her mind about the offer.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “Just get me out.”

Sophie cheered to herself silently and crouched down in front of the locker and got to work. Stina was peering through the slits in the locker, and for a moment they felt each other’s breath on their faces and they met eyes before glaring at each other and backing up a bit. The door swung open, and Stina came crashing down onto Sophie.

Stina pushed herself off of her quickly, seeming very flustered. She reached out a hand to Sophie, which she took. Stina shook Sophie’s hand off of hers.

“I need my family crest,” she said, looking off to the side uncomfortably.

“Oh,” Sophie frowned, unsure why she felt a little disappointed. Probably because my back hurts and I was just refused the little she could have given as thanks, she thought. “Right. Take it.”

Stina’s fingers brushed against Sophie’s as she took it back and pinned it onto her cloak once more. “Well.” Stina lifted her nose upon in the air, regaining her haughty facade. “Until we meet again, Foster.”

“Yeah, Sophie nodded, getting back to her feet. Once Stina was out of earshot, she muttered, “Hopefully that’s never.”

Sophie dusted herself off, finally registering her circumstances. She was late for class, and she looked disheveled. Stina had just walked off, leaving her lost, confused, and just waiting for a punishment of her lifetime. Sighing, she walked along the edges of a pyramid.

“Ms. Foster,” a cold voice crowed from behind her.

Sophie recognized that voice. Dame Alina. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Is there a particular reason that you’re not in class right now?”

“Uh-“

“Incoming!” a boy screamed from the top of his lungs, a bunch of verminions on his tail. Alina shrieked and ran into a neighboring hall for shelter. Sophie took this as an opportunity to find her way out of this maze and escape Alina’s grasp. She followed the boy until they reached the Healing Center, where he hid until the verminions passed by. Sophie stopped. She could go in and ask whatever medic was present for directions, but the thought of going anywhere near a doctor made her sick to the stomach.

“Can I help you, new girl?”

Sophie jumped. The boy she had been following was right in front of her, and she instinctively slunk back.

“Chill, I won’t hurt you. The name’s Keefe, but you can call me-“

“Sorry Keefe, but I’m really late for class, do you know where P.E. Is?”

He furrowed his eyebrows and massaged his neck, looking a bit hurt. “Uh, yeah, take a left after the next three halls.”

“Thank you!” Sophie bolted to class and arrived there out of breath.

“Sophie! Just in time for us to start splotching,” Dex waved her over. “It’s easy, you just use your telekinesis to move this marble into the other person. If you succeed, it bursts and you get a paint splotch on you.”

“Great,” she muttered. “You won’t believe what I’ve just gone through.”

“Tell me at the end of class. We’re gonna need all of our focus for this.”

“Alright,” she sighed. She couldn’t be upset, seeing Dex that excited lifted her mood just a bit. And that was just the boost she needed.

________

This was it. It was down to her and Fitz for the Splotching Champion title. Sophie gathered her concentration. She could not mess this up.

The splotcher was thrown in between them, and Sophie gave it her all. The marble exploded with a loud boom, and they were both thrown into opposite sides of the room. Sophie saw nothing but the green paint, and then darkness.

#hopefully you liked it 🥺#it was really fun to write so I’ll continue if you want it #lemme know #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc fanfic #sophie foster #dex dizznee #marella redek #jensi babblos #stina heks #maruca endal

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svtellify · 6 years ago

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KOTLC: Flashback Review [WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Keeper of the Lost Cities: Flashback by Shannon Messenger ★★☆☆☆

That little blurb/intro in the beginning? Hmmm, intense. Like, way more directly and upfront intense than the rest of the series has been, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing.

Alvar’s sentencing was a really interesting choice, but I feel like bringing in all the Vackers was a little unnecessary. There were just too many opinions to follow, and it did make Fallon Vacker a little less of the interesting enigma that he previously was.

Fitz’s outburst wasn’t totally uncalled for, but he could have definitely dialed it back. I mean, he wasn’t as close to Alvar as Biana was, and his younger sister wasn’t reacting as explosively. This does show that Fitz is consistent (his outburst in Exile), but it did feel a little repetitive when he kept yelling out about how much he hated Alvar. We get it dude, Alvar sucks. But so do Lady Gisela, Quan Song, and Mai Song. And let’s not forget that Wylie’s just scarred, after what happened to Prentice and his mom.

Whom the heck is Luzia Vacker? Why bring in another Vacker only to make them relevant for a little bit and then take them out again? We, as a fandom, already went through that with Kenric, and trust be we’re all still sobbing about that. Not to forget Marella, who is suddenly relevant again?

Dex’s technopathic skills. Goodbye everyone else’s abilities, Dex is a genius who is finally, getting some sort of credit, even if it’s from the council, and not his friends, I am desperate and will take it, at this point.

Speaking of Dex, it was nice to see him standing up for himself against Alvar.

And Fitz is mad again, and yelling at Dex and then Keefe, and then Sophie, quiznak, dude, anger management and a therapist will do you wonders.

Also, why didn’t Sophie stand up for Dex? She did *technically* side with Alvar’s sentencing, she spoke with Keefe and Ro about it. Besides, Dex is her best friend, who was there for her when Fitz and Biana definitely were not. Dex was also her first friend and they’ve been through a lot together.

This would’ve also helped with fixing their relationship a little after the events of Nightfall, and would’ve been a stronger argument for women and men being friends without having to make things romantic. (This can *technically* be said for Fitz or Keefe, but they’ve both been hinted as the possible end games.)

“‘Don’t even get me started on Dex,’ Fitz muttered.

‘I know,’ Biana said quietly. ‘I can’t believe he knew for a week and didn’t tell us.’

Sophie opened her mouth to defend Dex but swallowed back the words. She could tell Fitz and Biana weren’t ready to hear them.

Fitz must’ve noticed, though, because he reeled toward her. ‘Don’t tell me you’re okay with this.’”(Shannon Messenger, Flashback).

This just disappointed me so much, because Biana had finally come so far in getting to know Dex and so had Fitz, but they just couldn’t see any other perspectives.

The little Ro and Keefe bet was super cute. It was nice to see Keefe goofing around again, and Ro’s personality is just so fun.

Alden and Della wanting to get to know their son again? Valid, they are completely valid for that, except for the fact that they seem a little too interested in getting to know Alvar and a little less in oh he was a murdered and he kidnapped my son’s girlfriend and her best friend and tortured them, but he doesn’t even remember now, so that’s okay.

Keefe defending Sophie was cute, as always, but what was that whole thing with “Especially Foster” and the look he and Alden shared? I’m calling shenanigans. Let’s break it down:

Theory: Keefe knows about Fitz’s crush on Sophie and doesn’t want him to hurt her. ( See Exile. )

Easily possible, so easily possible. And this is aside from Keefe just generally defending Sophie regularly.

Theory: Fitz knows about Keefe’s crush on Sophie and he knows that Keefe knows about his crush on Sophie.

Also not that far fetched, they’re best friends and probably talked before Keefe joined the Neverseen.

Theory: Alden asked Keefe to back off.

It would explain the whole look thing but Alden’s never really showed particular interest in that kind of thing. My shipper heart wants to agree with this, but realistically? Probably not true.

Theory: Alden and Keefe are both remembering the events of Exile.

This is probably more likely, considering that Fitz threw a huge tantrum there too and both Alden and Keefe tried to calm him down. This is my best bet about what that whole looking thing was.

Quiznak, who actually believed Alvar when he was whining about being innocent? I have to give it to Fitz, he had a good point about Alvar’s acting being intense. As it turned out, Alvar wasn’t acting, but he did join the Neverseen again. No surprise there.

This was a pretty polarizing event. If you ask me, it didn’t make sense for them to capture Alvar and not gain anything from it or for him to claim innocence for an entire book only to regain his memories and rejoin the villains. The two actions cancelled each other out and left it so that it was as if they’d never captured him in the first place.

Weapons? Uh, quick question, what the heck? Sophie’s spent this entire time ( like six books worth of time ) wanting to be different from the Neverseen, Vespera, and Lady Gisela. She’s even concerned, at one point, that Project Moonlark made her a natural killer, but she just throws all of that out the window and starts up an initiative to fight back?

This seemed really out of character. I don’t know what else to say, especially since elves’ minds can’t handle violence? And Sophie proposed an initiative centered around violence?

What was that entire fight scene? Sophie inflicts, but whoops, there go Fitz, Grizelle and Sandor? Sophie’s outnumbered, so she calls Dex and Wylie? I’m sorry, did we miss something? Wylie wasn’t really a main character prior to Flashback, which is fine, but how is hanging out with Dex all of a sudden?

Side note, Wylie was great, he kicked some Neverseen butt and gave it to them, it was probably one of the better moments in the book.

I feel like we had more of Sophie getting all hot and bothered over Fitz rather than actual plot.

The death of Umber was very anticlimactic, but I have a theory that she’s actually Lady Zillah, Tam’s Shade Mentor. Call it a hunch, Shannon Messenger hasn’t introduced characters to Sophie and/or Mr. Forkle and more of the gang unless they’re important to the plot.

Lady Gisela, Marella, Brant, Magnate Leto, Tiergan, Quentin, Physic/Livy, Amy, Vika, Stina, Luzia, Tarina, Cladfael, Wylie, need I go on?

BUT the majority of the book was just Sophie and Fitz flirting while on bed rest. They spent way too long recovering, and I preferred Nightfall’s way of handling an injury in one half of the love triangle, even if Keefe’s my favorite character. Nothing happened while they were lying there, which is so unreasonable, because when Keefe was out of the picture, they went to Nightfall, but when Fitz got injured, Sophie insisted on being bedside the entire time?

There was also the matter of Fitz choosing Sophie over his family which, yeah, was kind messed up. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Biana was hurting too. Alden and Della were hurting too. Honestly, Sophie was probably the least affected here, especially considering that she pitied Alvar and believed that he shouldn’t be punished for things he didn’t remember doing.

How was Sophie more injured than Fitz when he needed to be on bed rest and sedated constantly? I know she’s the main character and all, but it’s okay to let the other characters develop too. In that sense, Fitz has had the least development, while Biana was injured and got over it, Keefe lost who he was and is still trying to find himself, Linh got over her fear of her powers, Dex acknowledged his crush on Sophie and got over it, and now Tam is starting to get over his hesitance when it comes to using his powers. Even Stina’s getting over her prejudices, but no such development from Fitz.

He’s still focused on being cognates and solely that, but he has so much more potential! He might not be my favorite character, but I know there’s more to him than “I’m in love with Sophie now,” and “I want to be Cognates” and “I hate Alvar, ra-ra, now I’m mad.”

I was hoping to see more development especially since the book seemed to focus on Fitz so much, but I guess not.

Sophie has a bodyguard from every single intelligent species? There was a tumblr post that seemed to describe this perfectly, about how by the end of the series the entire Keeper crew will have at least 98127354392 bodyguards.

Not going to lie, that’s a bit extreme. Five bodyguards? One from each species?

It’s also definitely not helping the idea that all of the species are equal, it makes the elves seem far more superior, and that’s not in Sophie or the Black Swan’s favor. In my opinion, that was unnecessary. ( Especially Bo, but that’s only because he was a huge jerk. )

Whenever Keefe was there, it seemed like everyone was hating on him or he was moping. There’s more to his character than the screw-up troublemaker, hasn’t he proved himself yet?

The monocle pendant was a mistake, and I’ll say that for the people in the back. He didn’t give it to her so they could track her on purpose. The poor boy’s smitten with her, he would never do that. He just didn’t think it through, and it resulted in this.

“...and then I wasn’t even there to help you fight, because I promised Alden . . .’

‘Promised Alden what?’ Sophie asked, glancing between the two of them.

Keefe shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter’”(Shannon Messenger, Flashback).

Guys, I have no idea what’s going on here, but I really don’t like it. They shouldn’t be sidelining the one person who worked with the Neverseen.

Shadowflux. The seemingly unnecessary introduction to an already complex plot. Thoughts:

Unnecessary. The plot was already complex enough, and it didn’t even touch on the Lodesar Initiative that two books spent worrying about. Not to mention it didn’t help connect the title to the plot in any way either.

Not to mention the fact it focused on the echoes way more than the rest of the plot, which has been built up for so long now.

There were barely any interactions with the whole gang, or really any other characters other than Fitz. We didn’t even get much time with Edaline and Grady, who bonded with Sophie in Nightfall and every book prior to Flashback.

“‘Cool. Now how about you try that again with the truth?’”(Shannon Messenger, Flashback). This was really cute, and honestly, I was so glad that they brought Keefe back in. He (and Dex) have a really great way of reducing the stress and tension and just grounding these larger than life characters. I would’ve loved more Dex and Keefe time, but I’m not writing the series so…

“‘Did you let Fitz win?’

‘Psh, like I’d ever do that!’

‘I don’t know . . . ,’ Ro told him—and he sent her a death glare.

‘That’s different,’ he insisted.

‘Not really,’ she grumbled. ‘But it’s your call.”(Shannon Messenger, Flashback). What could this possible mean? ( could you hear the sarcasm? ) I really don’t like the idea of Fitz or Keefe just giving up like that, with zero communication. They were supposed to be best friends, but instead, Keefe’s avoiding Fitz and Fitz is blaming Keefe and just being a total jerk about his mom. Get your act together!

I was disappointed that Silveny asked for Fitz before Keefe, considering that she knew about Keefe first.

Theory: Silveny can pick up on Sophie’s feelings, and with Fitzphie canon now, she probably sensed Sophie’s feelings for Ftiz and responded.

“Keefe flashed the smuggest of smiles. ‘It’s because I make everything better.’

‘Like giving Sophie the pendant that helped the Neverseen find her?’ Fitz snapped back”(Shannon Messenger, Flashback). So no best friend bonding then?

Ro standing up for Keefe slayed me. It was so nice to see her taking Sophie’s place as moral support and being there for him whenever Fitzphie go too intense or Lord Pretentious started acting up.

Not to mention Tinker, who was brought up once and then never really mentioned again, with the exception of the null. I hope she’ll be back, otherwise that entire section/chapter would be unnecessary.

Okay, this is the end of part 1! Wow, that’s a lot longer than I’d planned, guess I just had a lot to say. Let me know what y’all think in the comments below! And remember, there is more to come, this is definitely not over. Also, feel free to tag be in any Flashback posts, I’ll definitely check them out!

-K

#kotlc #kotlc flashback #kotlc flashback spoilers #flashback spoilers #flashback #shannon messenger #flashback review #mine #@k-e-r-b-e-r-o-s #k-e-r-b-e-r-o-s #honest not hateful #flashback review part i #keeper of the lost cities #keeper of the lost cities flashback

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realdimerald · 8 years ago

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10 tiana !!

Sorry this took so long! Also I feel like the ending isn’t that good, so sorry about that. Anyways, enjoy!

“Stay with me forever” Tiana

(This takes place sometime during Lodestar)

Biana always tried to put on a brave face. Especially nowadays, since two of the people close to her had betrayed her. Now, she doubted Keefe was really thinking about her much, or had actually thought of her much at all since Sophie had arrived to the post cities, so she felt less betrayed, and more hurt of being ignored. Alvar was a different story. She felt incredibly betrayed by him, she had trusted him, and she had cared a lot about him, and she thought he cared about her too. She tended to avoid thinking about them as much as she could, but right now she was alone, and she didn’t have anything keeping her mind busy. She thought back at all the times she had spent with them, and she could feel the tears swelling in her eyes. She heard someone walking in, and they had asked her something, but she was crying, not paying attention. “Biana, what’s wrong?” She heard them say, worry laced in their voice. After a second, she realized it was Tam. She wanted to stop crying, wipe away her tears, and say it was nothing, she just felt suddenly overwhelmed. But the tears kept falling, and when she opened her mouth, a sob was the only sound that came out. She covered her mouth with her hand, not able to control the rush of thoughts of the betrayal and hurt she felt. Biana could practically feel the awkwardness radiating from Tam, and she half expected him to either leave or stay still, but he slowly and gently pulled her into a hug. The hug felt a little awkward, but Biana wrapped her arms around him and cried into his shoulder. Tam patted her back and whispered, “it’s going to be ok.” Over and over. Biana eventually calmed down and slowly pulled away, not quite looking at Tam. “Sorry,” she mumbled while wiping away some of her tears. “You have nothing to be sorry for.” Tam said, gently grabbing her shoulder, causing Biana to look at him. A rush of emotions flooded through Biana because of the way Tam was looking at her. It was intense, his eyes worried, and also like he was ready to murder someone. “What’s wrong?” He asked her, “Did something happen?” Biana stared at Tam’s face for a moment. She sighed and looked away, “It’s nothing. I just… Was thinking about Alvar and Keefe.” She glanced at him, and the murderous rage in his face calmed, worry taking over. “Oh,” he whispered. They sat in silence for awhile. “Tam,” Biana said quietly. “Yeah?” Tam said looking at her. Biana fiddled with her rings for a while before looking into his eyes. She slowly grabbed his hand. “Stay with me forever.” She said, her voice cracking and tears welling in her eyes again. Tam inhaled sharply, his eyes widened slightly, his face turning pink. He stared at Biana, who was chewing her lip nervously. He placed his other hand on her cheek. “Of course. Forever and always.” They sat there, staring into each other’s eyes. Biana tackled Tam in a hug, squeezing him. Tam hugged Biana back, closing his eyes and breathing in her scent. “Thank you,” she whispered into his ear. Tam ran his hand through her hair. “Your hair is soft.” He said absentmindedly. Tam realized he’d said that aloud and blushed. Biana giggled quietly and pulled away from Tam. “Thanks,” she said, a small smile on her face. She stood up and took Tam’s hand. “Was there a reason you came into my room in the first place?” She asked him. Tam straightened, “Right, I almost forgot, I was going to ask you if you wanted to come to the Silver Tower with me to help search for clues.” Biana nodded, “Sure, beats sitting here with nothing to do.” Tam offered her a small smile as he stood up, ready to go, but Biana didn’t move. “Do I look ok? I don’t want to go out there looking like I’ve just been crying.” Biana asked him, she didn’t want to worry anyone about why she’d been crying. Tam stared at her, “You look as beautiful as ever.” He said, “No one will be able to tell you were crying.” She really did look beautiful, her hair wasn’t tangled, and her eyes weren’t red or puffy, and her tears have already been wiped away. Biana nodded and they walked hand in hand to the leapmaster.

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #Biana Vacker #kotlc tiana #tam song #lodestar #angst #fluff #angst to fluff #keefe sencen #alvar vacker

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a-lonely-tatertot · 4 years ago

Text

Finding Home

A/N: Introducingggggg AMY and linh! it gets gay at the end dont worry, once again thanking @bookwyrminspiration for betaing for me!

Tw: mention of injuries and some phantom pains (is that what they’re called??)

Word count: 2279

Chapter 2: Runaway

A month and an accepted roommate later, she got to remember she was Sophie for a minute. Sophie before everything happened. She saw her sister for the first time since their parents were kidnapped and it knocked the breath out of her. Short, bright pink hair blowing around her set face, Amy’s wide eyes stared up at the apartment complex.

The stairs passed in a blur as Sophie barreled down them almost tripping over her feet on the way down. Amy, her Amy. “Amy!” she yelled barreling into her sister. A moment too late she thought it would be extremely awkward if it wasn’t Amy.

But it was, and she hugged her tighter than ever. Sophie buried her head in Amy’s short hair taking in the comfort of her sister. “You smell weird,” she whispered.

“Missed you too, sis,” Amy chuckled lightly.

“Dyed your hair and got glasses?” Sophie said, pulling away and holding her at arm's length.

“Sorry, are we not going to address the fact that you’re passing as human? Under my original name?” Amy asked.

“Uh yeah guess I’ve got a bit of explaining to do.” Sophie rubbed the back of her neck.

“Oh yeah, but over coffee, because I was not ready to see my sister for the first time in over ten years,” she laughed, “And I need a lot more energy cause we have a lot of talking to do.”

So they talked and talked until the sun set behind the skyline and the street lights flickered on empty roadways. They talked until they were out of coffee to drink and snacks to eat and stars to count.

Sophie could barely pay attention to the first day of classes. Every flash of strawberry blonde and soft eyes sent her back. Back to bright mornings and weird lockers and one on one classes. But not only that; it sent her back to her friends. Dex appeared in the ramblings of Jena, one of Amy’s many friends who could talk for hours about chemicals and science. He clouded her memory when she walked into Chemistry and it threw her back to his laboratory. She thought of him looking at the skinny, freckled covered kid that hung onto her Quantum Theory teacher’s every word.

When she walked into the library, three days in, and saw the spiraling stacks she remembered Fitz and how he could get lost in a book and never leave the pages.

Marella could be found in the rare smiles that were Anaz. How sarcastic comments came to her with ease and there was always gossip flooding the halls.

In her English teacher’s humor, she found Keefe. How Sophie collected pens just because they were there and how doodles filled Amy’s margins.

Red became her color. In the morning when she didn’t know what to wear Biana flooded her mind. When she didn’t know how to hide her scars she thought of her. Sophie would wear them as a testament to the people she left behind. And when her eyes caught sight of the scars that littered another student’s body, clear on their dark skin, she stood a little taller. They were a testament to survival.

Tam, she remembered when the world was so loud. How he was able to control his impulses, his power, his shadows like her telepathy and inflicting. When she just wanted to hide from it all she remembered him, and kept going.

And the one that came as a surprise to her was Stina. The cold exterior and the sense of superiority that followed Henry, who locked so much of him away in a tiny box, to hide from the rest of the world. And how when you really got to know them there wasn’t a small corner that was as cold as it seemed.

But the one that never really went away was Linh. It didn’t surprise her. No, she knew she would never really get Linh out of her head. So Sophie accepted the small tug that came with seeing people together. As they laughed and smiled and hugged, as two girls held hands firmly; she wondered if that could’ve ever been them. If their broken world would’ve allowed it.

When she thought of them, her hand found her neck and the crystal and she held on tight only to let go. Because that was no longer her, and those people were no longer her’s. Amilia Ruewen did not know them. The crystal was all she had left of them.

And at some point that would have to be okay.

“You’re coming to this club with the group tonight,” Amy grinned. Ugh, a night with Amy’s friends? Sounded like torture.

“Why?” Sophie asked. In her head and in her apartment, they were Sophie and Amy. To the world, their jobs, their school, their friends, they were Amilia and Natalie.

She didn’t have work until Saturday and she had already finished her homework and Amy knew this. There wasn’t a way she wasn’t going. Amy looked up and smiled all teeth, all eyes. Someone save me, Sophie thought.

Spoiler: it went a lot worse than she expected.

There was a feeling that Sophie knew well. It was why she was here in the first place. The feeling started in her wrists, where she had been bound countless times. It spread up and down to the edges of her fingers which had caused so much pain. The fingers that held weapons and the hands that held both the blood of her enemies and friends. It filled her shoulders with tension and her legs with a need to run. But she couldn’t. She was surrounded by bodies, moving, dancing, controlled by the beat of the drums that shook her core like a war cry. That was because it was a war cry. The image of her friends, the small family she had made, half-dead and filling up every bed in the Healing Center. She had run away from them. That was what she alone had done. Sophie ran from the dangers and the responsibility.

Coward.

“Breathe,” an order. In. Out. One. Two. Three.

“Sophie? Soybean?” Amy’s voice. Amy’s hands on her shoulders. “Hey, hey,” her fingers cradled her jaw. “You’re right here, I got you, you’re okay. We won, it’s over.”

But it wasn’t. At night the demons came back to haunt her. And she would be running from them for the rest of her life.

Sophie had told herself when she left the Lost Cities she wasn’t following orders anymore. Little notes and anonymous gifts were things of the past. She told herself this as she took a picture of her shifts for the next week. They flowed through her mind as she wrote notes for a lecture. Words scribbled on papers and typed on documents controlled her whether she wanted them to or not. They set the path and all she had to do was follow it.

This time it wasn’t directed at her.

“Hey Soph, you got anyone who would send you mail?” Amy called from the hallway.

“Nope!” She had barely even heard what Amy had said, too absorbed by homework.

“Huh, okay.”

“You sure it’s not for you? It’s from that town like an hour north of campus,” Amy asked a minute later, shoving the envelope in front of her computer. “Get out of your nerd stuff and look at important things.”

Sophie made a noise but took the envelope, “My nerd stuff is important!”

Amy chuckled lightly, “Sure dear, you’re almost as bad as Jena.”

“My lord Amy it has your name on it,” Sophie shook her head, “And Jena is really smart and, unlike you, actually capable of holding an intellectual conversation!”

“Huh, guess I’m blind.” Rolling her eyes, she went back to her homework as Amy tore open the letter. Where was she? Oh yeah-

“Do you know about that road house right outside of town?”

“Amy I swear if you interrupt me one more time-”

Amy ignored her, “It’s a coupon to there. We could take the gang this weekend.”

“Yeah sure, totally, now just let me finish my homework,” Sophie said, not realizing that she could’ve just agreed to anything.

“Nat you can drink?” Amilia asked. It was a running gag.

“Oh shush, I’m not eleven anymore!” Natalie retorted. And she wasn’t eleven, she was twenty-three and Amilia had to remind herself of that often.

The roadhouse was dark, full of wooden booths. In the corner there was a pool table surrounded by a group of guys. Amilia sat at a table with three of Nat’s friends, her friends, she reminded herself. Thunk! The sound of darts reminded her of throwing stars. Shaking her head slightly she tried not to think about all she had left behind. Amilia, she thought, but it echoed outside her head.

“Amilia!” Tina called, waving her hand in front of her.

“Sorry, what?” she asked. Get out of your head, she thought sternly.

They all chuckled quietly and tampered off into their different conversations. It was a nice normal, zoning in and out, the words just soft buzzing. She traced the rough wood of the roadhouse with her eyes. The chipped, frayed edges. Dark, daunting, but cozy. The roof domed up to balconies with rooms for the inn part. Sophie didn’t know if anyone actually stayed there anymore. Posts came down into booths, to a karaoke machine in the corner, to the bar that stretched along the entire left side. There was a girl, flannel tight around her waist, short dark hair held up by various barrettes keeping the strands away from her face. The pen and cups flew through her hands with experience and it was mesmerizing to watch. Sophie couldn’t see her face, but there was a tugging feeling that the girl was familiar. From a past life, she thought, and laughed. She had had many past lives. At this point she wouldn’t know which one the girl would’ve been from. If she would just look up, the urge to know who she was got stronger. She was someone to her someone important-

Crash. Her heart pounded, her ears rang. The shattering sound of glass was ironic because it played backwards in her ears. Shattered heart becoming whole.

Sophie, because to that face that was all she was. Her feet moved without her permission.

Because this girl wasn’t just someone to her, she was everything to her.

She was the hardest to leave behind and the only one that could make her stay.

“I’m supposed to be bartending,” Linh whispered into her shoulder, “and your friends are looking at us.”

“Fuck off, I get the longest hug I want after not seeing you for a decade,” Sophie laughed stubbornly into her shoulder.

Linh turned her head into Sophie’s neck and hummed quietly, “I think that’s fair.”

For the first time she relaxed. The world fell off her shoulders and she realized this was the feeling she had been chasing. Linh smelled like cigar smoke and whiskey and cats (she made a mental note to ask about that later). But she knew, as she shifted closer, holding Linh as tight as she could, after all those years she would still smell like the ocean, she’d still smelled like home.

The next morning she found herself passed out in a room that wasn’t her own. An old lamp sat on a wooden nightstand. Next to it, barely lit, was a piece of paper. In big bold letters it read: The Western RoadHouse. In scratchy handwriting there was a note. it filled the entire card,words running into each other. In her very tired state Sophie could barely decipher it.

Hey! Sorry I had to work early and you looked way too peaceful to wake up. How much of last night do you remember? We talked about how I got here, and how you got here. And, well, we talked for hours and did you know the more tired you are the pinker your ears get? And the easier it is the fluster you? You also get clingy and rub your eyes a lot. I ended up having to carry you up to my room and swear to Amy on everything that I had you would be okay. But I realized in that minute in a half of hauling your dead weight and listening to you murmur in your sleep that I had missed you. I ran away because I’ve always been running, but I don’t wanna run anymore. If you’d let me, I’d like to run to you instead. This is me asking if you’ll be my girlfriend, or just go out on a date if you didn’t get that. So yeah? Can I run to you?

For a moment she thought she was dreaming. Then she read it again and all she could do was laugh. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes she grabbed a pen and paper and wrote a simple message in neat, loopy handwriting.

Well then runaway,

Come running.

She wrote her and Amy’s address at the bottom and slipped it into Linh’s bag on the nightstand on her way out. When Amy pulled up in the van she only raised an eyebrow.

“Did you win?” she asked, turning down the music slightly as Sophie closed the door.

She smiled, mouth crooked, eyes wrinkled, for once unguarded and wild. “Yeah, I think I did.” Whoops and hollers rang out from the back where her friends crowded together. They whooped and hollered and clapped her on the shoulder as Amy pulled the van out of the lot.

Tag list: @enbies-and-felonies, @clearlykeefitz, @ruewen-and-rising, @you-are-the-vacker-legacy @linhamon-roll @lemontarto @rainbowtay-11 @an-absolute-travesty @girlofmanyfandoms(if you want to be added or removed come find me here)

#finding home #tater writes #kotlc #kotlc fic #sophie foster #amy foster #linh song #injuries tw #phantom pains tw #keeper of the lost cities #solinh

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