#rayla or callum would be disasters

[raayllum]

Something I think is interesting is the way Ezran has... centralized, for lack of a better term. He still is very concerned with keeping the world safe and knows he has a big part to play in creating more peaceful circumstances globally, but he undoubtedly has a mind and heart set first and foremost on his own kingdom, as 4x03 demonstrates well, that's shifted a little from 2x09. It reminds me a bit of how he handles things in 2x07, where he wants to help the dragon, but also doesn't struggle to leave it in segue of difficult/dangerous odds because Zym is waiting for them. He's empathetic, but knows when and where to prioritize a mission with a sort of clear, emotional rationality -- whereas Rayla was the total bleeding heart and couldn't leave the dragon at all, and Callum couldn't leave her.

[tategaminu]

Theory time because I can’t sleep:

Rayla is getting stabbed this season by possessed Callum. Yes, some fanfics have featured this but because it makes all the sense.

Rayllum’s foreshadowing with the possesion, Rayla refusing to kill him even if it hurts her, Aaron saying there would be stabbing, Callum being called “Lord Stabbington” and “Stab-Prince” by Soren in the first episode…

So why Rayla? Why not Bait? Because it makes the most sense you baby, you dummy:

Their relationship is still in mending so she getting hurt just to save him out of the possesion would be super proof of her love for him, basically she will be his guiding star.

She’s the one that killed Virgen and the special person of Aaravos' favourite toy… wouldn’t be weird if she uses Callum to hurt her.

There’s a spoiler that said Ezran and Callum found ruins, why isn’t Rayla there? cause she’s hurt!

She has the tendency of almost dying or attracting disasters.

(There are more things but I don't want this to turn super long).

Also, it will be happening on her birthday. Why? juicy

[kilfeur]

The reason I was asking whether humans were able to use primal magic and then it was taken away was in reference to the ripples short story

Ah ! I see sorry, it's just that compared to the previous asks I've had in with tdp has a bearing on this particular topic. As for the fact that it was taken away from them, I don't think that would have been the case. Because if it was, then Callum wouldn't have been able to connect to the sky arcanum or even the ocean arcanum.

In the short story, it's not specified precisely which human had used primal magic. But it did result in natural disasters caused by the startouch elves. So I think that with the gift of Aaravos and the fear of retribution from these startouch elves. That humans forgot that they could connect to an arcanum. And since dark magic is much simpler and easier to use than primal magic where you have to understand it and grasp its meaning.

As for why the startouch elves did this, it's still unknown, but we know from Rayla that they were the first elves. Aaravos called them arrogant, so it's possible they feared that humans would become more powerful than them, since they're not connected to an arcanum unlike elves. Or the fact that primal magic is a privilege reserved for elves. And given that Aaravos and Callum are currently the only mages connected to more than one arcanum. And since we don't yet have anyone with something similar to these two, it remains to be seen how things will unfold in the future.

[sapphicteadragon]

a whole load of headcanons i wrote out just after s4 came out (though my thoughts are largely still the same now so not much has changed really) that have to do with ruthari:

Callum will have to use dark magic to free him from the coin, and will be reluctant to do so, but if Rayllum is back on track by that point he will probably agree to do it for Rayla even if he knows what Runaan has done

When he gets out, he’ll probably be very disoriented and have no clue where he is or what’s going on. I like the idea that getting coined has left him physically weak, so he needs time to recover.

On top of that, I think his mission will be the last thing on his mind at that point.

Different theories are going around – will the dragang take the coins back to the silvergrove, or will they free the coins elsewhere?

If they take the coins back to the silvergrove, and Ethari helps them out, I imagine he won’t leave Runaan’s side even for a minute. Cue every soft and angsty interaction you can possibly think of.

Ethari can barely believe that he’s got Runaan back after all this time. He cries when they kiss for the first time after being reunited.

Let’s say Zym is there and manages to get the binding off. Runaan doesn’t have much choice in the matter, but that can wait for a later time when he’s not half dead. Even then, his arm is permanently damaged, and he’ll likely never regain full use of it.

Runaan has trouble sleeping, since he keeps flashing back to the moment he got coined, and how painful it was, both physically and emotionally. After a few nights, even though he’s still weak, he asks Ethari to stay with him.

This whole time, the one thing Ethari has ached for more than anything is to hold Runaan again. To hear his voice. To know he’s there and he’s alive. And now that he is, he can’t quite believe it’s real.

Once he regains more strength, Runaan is faced with difficult questions. What will he do with his life now that he’s crippled? Obviously Zubeia will have called him off killing Ezran at this point so that isn’t an issue. More the problem is with Callum, who likely had a great personal cost to bring him back. He’s… indebted to Callum, who saved him despite him being the one who killed his dad. This wouldn’t be the first time he’s questioned his path in life, and I really think it will rock his worldview significantly. I don’t know if I can see him retiring to settle down for a quiet life with Ethari just yet, but no doubt it’s on his mind. Ethari did lose him for two years, after all.

As for Rayla, well… there sure are things to talk out. The advantage is that she knows him and how he thinks and operates. And with the whole Callum thing, knowing how desperately she wanted him back that Callum was willing to do that for her… also given how she helped Xadia and knowing the truth about her parents, he would probably argue strongly in favour of unghosting her. I do think, given their history, that they would be able to forgive each other eventually, and that it would make a nice parallel to her and Callum.

Aside from all that, he has to take some time to just get used to living again. To being with Ethari again. To sitting out on the front porch, drinking tea together every morning. Adjusting to life with a permanent injury.

absolutely no clue how many of these will come true and if they do how many we'll actually see, but a gay disaster can dream, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?

[purpleplaid17]

Jess Watches // Thu 5 Sept // Day 343 & Fri 6 Sept // Day 344 & Sat 7 Sept // Day 345 Synopses & Favourite Scenes & Poll

The Dragon Prince 6x05 Moonless Night

To prove themselves as the Chosen Two, Rayla and Callum set out to end the storms swirling around the Starscraper. Viren tries to right past wrongs.

Rayla: ♪ Though the sky is dark tonight. I still shine for you, my dear. The moon is more than just her light. I am near, my love is here.

Though you feel so much alone. Oh, my darling, do not fear. Hold to what you've always known. I am near, my love is here. Though my face cannot be seen. The answer in your heart is clear. I am the moon, the silver queen.I am near, my love is here. ♪

Viren: ♪ There are many things that I would like to say to you, but I don't know how.

Because maybe, You're gonna be the one that saves me. And after all, You're my wonderwall. ♪

We Might Regret This 1x02

Freya has her first modelling shoot which is almost a disaster. Abe insists Jo get PA training. Jo gets lots of missed calls from an unknown number. Abe buys Levi a food van.

The audacity of the clothing company to photoshop her hands. Making her disability more 'palatble' for the ableist society we live in. Disappointing but unfortunately not surprising. However, lmao at Ty making it onto the promos. She and Jo should both be her carers. Also, Jo has more chemistry with Ty and Lolly (hi 👋) than Levi.

Bad Monkey (with L) 1x01 The Floating-Human-Body-Parts Capital of America

When tourists on a fishing charter in Key West, Florida, discover a human arm, suspended detective Andrew Yancy takes the case.

Some parts have potential. Other parts I did not like. Maybe pacing gets better as it goes too. Has anyone watched this? Do you like it?

[atreefullofstars]

So like, in my case, it's because I haven't been on board with the narrative's framing of the moral landscape since like episode... three?

This narrative is just PLAGUED with rules for thee but not for me. Is it wrong to assassinate the enemy kingdom's ruler who has blood on his hands? Depends on who does it. To send an assassin after the innocent young prince? Depends on who's doing it. To BE a magical assassin? Dunno, are you aesthetically pleasing while doing it? Is it wrong to kill bugs? Depends on who's doing it. Is it wrong to want power? Ditto. Is it wrong to use slurs and do unflattering impersonations of another species? Shocking and unforgivable if you're human, hilarious if you're an elf. Almost point for point, everything the "evil" characters have done that was bad, the "good" characters have also done and never been held to account for it by the other characters or by the narrative. And the "bad guys" have done a lot of GOOD stuff that the narrative refuses to acknowledge.

One of THE villains of the series is a man who worked tirelessly and sacrificed his physical health to not only defend his people from natural disasters and from incursions from invading forces, but ALSO defends the actual lives of said people from a king who would blithely throw thousands of them away for a feel-good moment with the queens of a foreign kingdom. Harrow FAILED as a king right there, it would have been DISASTROUS to his rule if they'd actually carried our that edict, Viren snatched that situation right out of the fire, and he's VILIFIED for it! And the reasoning is that they had to kill a big, possibly sentient, possibly unique creature to save thousands of (ordinary, common, boring) lives... ... but THEN when it's RAYLA AND CALLUM setting out with the intent to kill a big, possibly sentient, possibly unique creature -- not even to save lives, but to restore a cultural practice and claim the reward for it -- THAT'S FINE. Yes, they found a way not to kill it, warm fuzzies all around, but the narrative completely fails to grapple with the fact that they were GOING to and it NEVER treats that as wrong the way it does with the magma titan. (Caveat: I'm not saying Viren did nothing else wrong, but I take issue with the way sins were heaped upon him by the writers in later seasons because frankly they're just trying to retroactively justify the vilification that was already present in season 1.)

And the BIGGEST injustice at the heart of all these injustices is this idea that humans have no right to want magic, even when they're dying for lack of it, even when the people who have it are abusing them instead of helping them, humans have no right to call anybody out or take anything they aren't given or even wish for it to be different. Every human who ever did dark magic for any reason was wrong, every human who ever fought back against an elf or dragon was wrong, humans are supposed to accept their place at the bottom of the pecking order and in the reservations they've been force-marched to and they're supposed to be the ones to absorb any lingering anger from the conflict and set down their weapons first even when being actively invaded --

-- and then we get told the story of the FIRST time this happened, when a sweet innocent child motivated by love was the only one who wanted to help humans, and she was KILLED for it in the name of the natural order --

-- I'm on Team Aaravos here, not because I think he's righteous (he's not) or because this is nobler than vengeance (it's not) but because I'm disgusted with the so-called morality of everyone the show is telling me to root for. EVERYONE in this show has sought revenge for something at some point, which makes Aaravos no worse than any of them in terms of motives. Everybody's got blood on their hands, and the numbers just depend on who you think 'counts' as a person. He's manipulative in a way that obviously creeps some people out, but this show has failed to give me any character whose behavior I'm happy with, so pick your poison.

Aaravos is railing against the entire moral order of this little fictional universe and so am I. He wants to take that world apart with his teeth and I'm going to be over here with my popcorn. Fucking get 'em, babygirl.

Obviously he's going to lose, and we'll get some speech about how it was because of the desire for peace and unity or something, and it'll be super super gross, and the show will never actually address the fate it consigns the human race to, and everything will all work out because the writers said so, forever and ever, amen. Whatever. I'm here for the food at this point.

Someone explain to me why there are so many posts along the lines of: "Aaravos can do whatever he wants now that we know he lost his beloved daughter and has trauma"

My brother in Satan that's someone else's daughter he's going after and exploiting now.

I know the answer is He's Hot So He Can Do Whatever He Wants which- yeah like I'm here for the fandom's poor-little-meow-meowfication of him, too. Fandom gotta fandom, I guess. but still- I don't fully get that on a logical or emotional level.

The whole Leola thing did humanise him, yes, but that added complexity didn't change my mind about him being kind of a dick.

There is this song in Sweeney Todd, Johanna (Quartet). Sweeney grieves the loss of his daughter but that's still secondary to how focused he is on using that grief to fuel his desire for a revenge- Revenge that's destroying countless lives of innocent bystanders who mean nothing to him. The story he tells himself about his innocent daughter's faith is the justification for his actions. That's my perception of Aaravos. And that's ultimately more interesting to me than him being a perfect lil' victim of this all.

[cabbagebender]

The fact that, by Katolis law, only an orphan can establish a new royal line is fascinating to me, and makes me wonder about an AU where Ezran escaped and was presumed dead, but Callum stayed behind and ended up being crowned King instead.

[pacificwaternymph]

You know what? Fuck it. Dragon Emperor AU

Dragon Prince x Empires SMP AU

Here's the character list. Keep in mind that these people aren't going to stick directly to the character I assign them, it's more just their general role in the story.

(If anyone has OCs that they would be okay with me using as a side character, rb this with your OC and the character you want :D)

Rayla - Scott

Callum - Jimmy

Ezran - Gem.

Corvus - Pixl

Lujanne - Lizzie

Gren - Joel

Janai - Katherine

Amaya - Shubble

Viren - Joey

Soren - Fwhip

Claudia - Sausage

Aaravos - Xornoth

Then obviously the king of dragons it the ender dragon, and Zym is the baby ender dragon (if anyone has name suggestions for those two let me know!)

Roles in story below the cut

(Warning, it's long)

Scott - Skywing Elf Prince with a chip on his shoulder who begged to come along on the mission to assassinate the king and the crown princess. Ended up befriending the princess and one of the princes instead and going on a journey to return the ender dragon egg to Xadia

Jimmy - Adopted son of the king and youngest of the four royal siblings. He ends up caught in the middle of an assassination attempt and, in an attempt to fix the broken relationship between elves and humans, befriends the elf prince and slowly falls in love with him.

Gem - Princess of the human kingdom Katolis, heir to the throne and adoptive older sister to Jimmy. She's a very powerful wizard, and has been teaching her younger brother Sausage magic as well. She relies on her staff with a magic crystal to cast spells (although that will change). She forges a bond with the dragon egg and helps it hatch.

Pixl - A human prophet that was one of two tasked with finding the missing prince and princess by the king's advisors and bringing them back. He can sense death and disaster before it happens, and when he eventually finds the royal siblings, he joins them.

Lizzie - A Tidebound elf who loves to roam around the land and learn new things about humans. She is a powerful sorceress, and is immediately taken with Jimmy. By the end of their first interaction, Jimmy has another older sibling. She swears up and down she's not following them, but they always seem to find her wherever they go.

Joel - A knight who was the second of two tasked with bringing home the missing prince and princess. He and Pixl were both very close to Jimmy and they're both worried about him. Joel runs into Lizzie in her human disguise and immediately falls in love. She ends up being super helpful in their search too.

Katherine - (Playing VERY loose with this one) An Earthblood elf general and princess. She's a good friend of Scott's, and helps them out several times. She's a very kind soul and believes heavily in the power of strong alliances.

Shrub - (Again, playing very loose) A Moonshadow elf (because wolf, moon, get it?) vigilante known as the Wolf Spirit. Gem meets her when they're both trying to break into the same place, and they get along really well. She gets captured by Katherine and the two experience a romantic subplot (b-because nature wives)

Joey - A close friend of Prince Sausage and an advisor to the king. He and Sausage discover a strange mirror in the depths of the castle, and find a corrupted elf on the other side. Joey falls in love immediately, and becomes obsessed with trying to help him escape his prison. He sends Sausage and Fwhip to find the egg. Oh, and their missing siblings, of course.

Fwhip - The second oldest prince, who sets out with his brother Sausage to try and find their siblings themselves after the search party comes back with nothing, and the trackers sent by the advisory council go missing. He wants revenge on the elf that helped kill their father and "kidnapped" his siblings and doesn't notice the strange behavior from Sausage until its too late.

Sausage - The second youngest prince and a wizard in training. Born without much magical prowess, he, encouraged by Joey, secretly turned to darker methods, against Gem's warnings. When he and Joey discover a mirror with a strange elf, the dark magic running through his bloodstream allowed the elf to corrupt him.

Xornoth - A corrupted skywing elf that went too far with dark magic and ended up being sealed away. He's Scott's brother but Scott has no memory of him because their parents wiped them. He wants to escape and get revenge on the ones who had wronged him, and on his brother for never coming to save him.

[raayllum]

what's the worst that can happen

Going into s6, we know it's the show's 11th hour in a lot of ways. I expect the mid-point of S7 will also have some terrible shit happening, don't get me wrong, but going into S6, there's a lot of things that are probably going to happen and here's some of 'em, and then we can check back here in two weeks and see what was shaken out!

Janai loses her kingdom. This would be especially devastating because 1) Janai has called for reinforcements through both Ezran and Aanya, and 2) it means Kim'Dael could be freed as well. I'm not expecting this to be the end of the plot line either per se (Sol Regem + Pharos corruption sleeper agent infecting more Sunfire elves)

Aanya dies. We know that Aanya has an older adoptive brother, and I've been wondering for a while on why to give her one in the first place. The most obvious reasons would be for him to provide her with a confidant (perhaps some Aanya angst or uncertainty) and as a parallel to the broyals. The other most obvious reason would be for her or her brother to die, thereby leaving the other alone; if Aanya dies as well, he would also inherit the throne, and this would possibly leave Ezran with a weakened or non-existent ally as well.

Katolis falls. Katolis has been a safe base and starting point throughout arc 2. We also know Ezran is staying behind there in early S6 and that Claudia, at some point alongside Terry, makes her way to the Valley of Graves in Katolis as well for some kind of spell. If Katolis fell, and Ezran and co. had to leave (maybe with the castle under siege, and a character like Opeli also dying), this would be a big blow to the status quo as well as for Ezran's character to deal with.

The quasar diamonds don't work. One is missing, or the Star magic isn't enough because of the nature of the coins. This doesn't mean the Moon fam + Kpp'Ar doesn't get out, per se, but that more creative solutions (dark magic, a quasar diamond substitute) have to added in order to have a real shot at releasing them. Alternatively: the quasar diamond star magic is all that's needed, but it leads to disaster such as the possession.

Aaravos takes the Nova Blade. Big bad who is notoriously angry at other Startouch elves, and the sword that just happens to be the main thing that can kill Startouch elves? Yeah, it's a recipe for disaster in terms of "collecting mega dangerous objects that Aaravos could have a reasonable vested interest in" and a classic "the tool you hunt down to use on your enemy is then used against you" (perhaps literally, if Callum and/or Rayla are also stabbed with it).

Callum is possessed. This is a matter of when, not if. There are a few different orders this could go through, the most dramatic probably being either escalated choices Callum makes or random happenstance leading to his possession, Aaravos isn't out yet, Rayla refuses to hurt him despite everything being on the line, Callum stabs her (with the Nova Blade?) but snaps out of it, and sets Aaravos free in order to keep her alive. I could also very much see Aaravos being released and then Callum being possessed if they want to go full throttle on the "possession is a kind of death (you chose)" deal.

Claudia is Claudia. Do I really have to explain this one? Poor girl, but the world is definitely going to be worse off in S6 for having her in it. Still love her though.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Everybody Hates Marcos

I recently noticed people liking some of my older posts on Moonshadow assassins (thanks guys, glad you enjoyed), and rereading a couple of them back to back in light of the little peek we've gotten at BH only seems to bolster the notion that Runaan does as much of the assassining as he can.

For the Moonshadow assassins' reputation according to Viren post, it would be ironically funny if Viren didn't know that all of the assassins he was describing to Harrow as an unstoppable threat were really the same prolifically stabby elf. Alternately, it would be very deeply interesting if Viren did know about Runaan and his endless stabbiness, and pretended he didn't.

Then there's Rayla getting fooled by Callum pretending to be Ezran. The implication is that Runaan never intended for Rayla to stab the young prince, so he never gave her any information that would allow her to track down Ezran without him. The idea that Runaan always intended to take Ezran himself so Rayla didn't have to isn't a new one to me, but the reinforcement from the other side of things is really helping it land: Runaan always intends to take everyone himself.

So I have two new thoughts, from these older thoughts:

1. Marcos and Viren just roll with there being multiple assassins after Harrow, as if more than one is normal.

First, we all thought Runaan always led a team of six assassins. Over time, headcanons formed for fewer than six, and also for solo missions. I've had a fresh one since I started writing this, so I'll add it: the elves seem to defend Xadia's border in pairs, so what if, when Runaan goes on missions to the human lands, he takes one other elf with him?

This might normally have been an assassin's SO, like Lain and Tiadrin going on missions together in the black ops version of the Sacred Band of Thebes (heyo it's my "assassins are all queer and their love must be partly tactical" love letter to the Sacred Band headcanon again). But Runaan went and fell for a soft elf who does not stab, and so he may need other partners to watch his back and make sure that they both get home to their family.

Maybe every elf that Runaan took on his mission to Katolis, except for Rayla, was someone he'd taken on previous missions. Maybe that's his standard training method: train them in the Silvergrove until they're ready for a proper mission, and then go with them and make sure they get it done right because their life back home hangs in the balance.

And then there's what Rayla said in "Ghost":

"When assassins are sent on a dangerous mission, Ethari enchants one of these flowers for each of them." "Mission" is singular, but "one... for each" indicates a plural. The grammar in this sentence tells me that a single mission with multiple elves is standard for Ethari's Dangerous Mission Enchantment Protocol. It doesn't say how many "each" is supposed to represent, so it could vary with circumstance. But in a culture so packed with angst, it's probably mostly a good thing that the Moonshadow assassins don't go taking dangerous missions alone.

And I kinda like the soft angst of Runaan shepherding younger assassins through their early missions and then trusting them to watch his back when things get really dangerous. But even then, he has a hard line where he won't let another risk themself for him when he'd rather go alone and pay the price himself. I wonder if, when he was younger, he tried to do everything himself and didn't help others train and learn as much as he does when he's older. If he's matured to some angsty "as good as it gets" mindset where he'd rather risk or ruin one or a handful of lives belonging to people he loves than risk utter failure on his own and all-out war and disaster. To slowly taint those you cherish in order to protect others you also cherish from an even worse fate... ahaha god, that's so angsty. Whose souls do you chose to darken? Only those with the brightest spark.

2. Runaan may not have intended for Rayla to take Ezran, but he sure sent her after Marcos quickly, to keep their mission on track. Runaan was basically ordering Rayla to kill someone to protect the team so the team could protect their loved ones and all of Xadia, and she couldn't do it.

What he was asking of her was a kind of halfway point between what Runaan's duty demands of him and what Rayla ended up choosing to do on top of the Storm Spire. Runaan's duty is focused way out at the tip of his sword, but his train of thinking ties that directly to the people he loves and protects with his stabbing.

Rayla's choice was her own, though, atop the Spire. Neither Runaan nor anyone else told her to do it. She chose for herself, because she knew in her heart what was right, in that moment, and she followed it.

Why didn't Runaan kill Marcos himself, then? As the only member of the squad who hadn't taken before, I think Rayla needed to come home blooded. It was her first mission, and maybe on your first mission you must take a life, whether you're solo coughEljaalcough or in a duo with the assassin leader as he helps you get your first kill or in a squad of six. Rite of passage kind of thing, in the way where failure might get you ghosted, or worse.

Maybe the way that Runaan pointed Rayla after her target is how he interacts with other young assassins when he's on their first missions with them. Silent, focused, but still guiding from the shadows. Halfway there, halfway not, an unobtrusive guide, a living reminder of all his own teachings, who stays out of your way except in the most dire of need.

So Runaan's combining Rayla's first training mission with possibly the most dangerous mission of his life. Neeeat. And once he got everyone into the castle, then things were going to get extremely dangerous, so he didn't want anyone on his team worrying about who/when/where/how Rayla was going to take a target after that point. Best to get it out of the way outside the castle, so everyone can relax and focus on their own thing.

So maybe Runaan did rustle that bush really loudly and alert Marcos to their presence, after all. And maybe it was on purpose. If he knew Rayla had to take a life on this mission - for honor or cultural or magical balance reasons - and if the rest of the team knew it too, then he could've been on the lookout for a way to force an early resolution to everyone's concerns about Rayla's capability: give her a convenient human target and get it over with.

Maybe he was so furious with Rayla when she let Marcos live because he'd deliberately selected Marcos to die.

Which is very ironic, because that's what I think Viren did, too, by sending him out into the forest with the full moon approaching. If any of the patrols just didn't report in the next morning, Viren would know Xadia had sent its regards, and they'd be arriving on the full moon. Viren knows what he did at the Storm Spire. If he's got any sense at all, he's been expecting reprisals. Marcos was Viren's canary in the coal mine, and he was also Runaan's injured mouse for his kitten to cut her teeth on.

Bahaha. Viren and Runaan literally can't stop paralleling each other, can they. But this makes Marcos's promotion to recurring character and one of the heroes of S3 all the more amazing! If two of the show's major early plot drivers wanted Marcos dead, and he survived them both thanks to Rayla, then everything he does is possible because of her choice, and that comes back around to save her and her allies at the end of S3, when Marcos rallies with Opeli, Barius, Corvus, and Queen Aanya and her army to defeat Viren's forces.

Rayla saved Runaan from doing exactly what Viren expected him to do, and ended up saving herself, along with Marcos and countless others, too.

[numptypylon]

Drabble for Jack_RB on Ao3 and @acronymking4tdp who both requested some hungover Rayla, post-chapter 13 of Homeward Bound. It's a continuation of the last drabble in this series but can be read on its own

Ow.

Yeah, she had to think about regular dumb stuff like this, because her wrist was not happy about the twist she had just done to unhook the stupid chafy bra she had been too wasted to remove last night.

And it didn’t even hurt that much anymore, just… it was really distractingspikes of pain, spreading to the tips of her fingers and up her arm, before slowly dispersing.

Almost dispersing, that was.

It was like an itch you couldn’t scratch, just a sliver of background ache… reminding her it was messed up and intending to stay that way and she couldn’t do the things she wanted or was supposed to do and it wouldn’t matter, she had already messed up-

Callum…

Yeah, she had messed up, alright. He had said she hadn’t, and he meant what he said, but… he was also too generous with her.

He was out on the other side of the door, probably, because unlike her, he had two braincells to rub together and so had not been awake all night pounding back disgusting, synthetic, green banana-shots, and then spewed them all over his housemate-slash-doomed-crush.

She couldn’t just… stay in here for the remainder of their cohabitation, right?

No, Callum would come check on her, he had made it clear he didn’t feel the way about her that she did for him, but… he had also made it clear, and not just yesterday, that he cared about her.

There was a glass of water and some paracetamol on her nightstand.

She sniffed. Why was he so nice to her and made her feel so good and why was she such a monumental idiot?

And she had just… what had she even done? It was mostly pretty fuzzy, but some things were way too clear, like… Callum promising to never fall in love with her. She could see his face as he’d said it, flushed and wide-eyed discomfort because of her-

But, she should stop feeling sorry for herself for something entirely her own doing.

She got up, pulled a comfy, loose t-shirt over her head, and willed the dizzy, nauseous feeling into the background, and went to go scrub the bathroom floor, because she definitely had some unfinished business in there.

Or… not. Callum must have cleaned up her barf, because it smelled freshly like floor cleaner.

Awesome. More things to make up to him.

And she knew she didn’t have to, he didn’t keep score like that, but… she didn’t want to be just… some mess he had to pick up.

And she couldn’t be what she wanted to be to him, she had messed that up too.

The thing looking back at her from the bathroom mirror was like a cursed mix of human disaster and romcom cliché, pale and streaky mascara that had smudged and run. She stuck her tongue out at her own pitiful reflection.

Greenish.

Just to hammer it home.

She looked away. Not like her looks was why Callum didn’t like her, anyway, she wasn’t that oblivious.

A bare minimum of personal hygiene later, she exited the bathroom, because she wasn’t showering for pleasure; she wanted to wash her hair when she did and that was a pain to get done with one hand and would continually remind her-

Well, she wasn’t doing the crying-in-the-shower romcom cliché too, plenty of human-disaster for one day already.

Callum was in the kitchen when she entered, fixing… lunch, probably.

“Hey, Callum.”

“Rayla!” He jumped around to face her, flushing bright red and rubbing the back of his neck. “Good… well… afternoon.”

He couldn’t even look at her, his gaze flickering between his feet, the cutting board of obnoxiously delicious-looking greasy potato bread, the window-

Just unnecessary confirmation that she had completely overstepped and made him uncomfortable last night. Some A+ seduction, that, puking on him and smelling him like some creepy vampire and extremely ineptly hitting on him while bent over the toilet bowl, just… ugh.

She was the absolute worst… friend… housemate… prospective love interest for anyone, let alone the best person she knew.

“How are you feeling today?” he continued, but he turned his back and went to the fridge to rummage aimlessly. “I bought coke when I was at the shops earlier, if you want one. And there’s loads of focaccia left.”

Damnit, why?! If he didn’t care, he could at least have the courtesy to be less… him. And her stomach was churning and her head throbbing, and she wanted the coke and the bloody oily bread that still smelled so bloody amazing and would taste amazing because Callum was amazing and she was a barfy mess who ruined things-

“I’m fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I know I look like shit, you don’t have to fucking rub it in-“

“What-”

Oh great, she was actually the worst. “Sorry. I’m…” Furious at her less-than-worthless drunk self? “Hungover.” He had probably gleaned that one. “I didn’t mean to- I’m… I’m sorry I puked on you. You could have left it for me to clean up, you know? It was my bloody puke, least I could do, now I just can’t do a thing to make it up to-“

“What? You don’t need to… and… you want to be cleaning up puke right now? It’s awful, cleaning up puke when you’re already nauseous-“

“Who says I’m nauseous?”

“Uhm… I just… figured-“

Yeah, because he knew her, and knew her stomach hated her and she got nauseous from absolutely everything - hangovers, her period, long car rides, sailing-

She sank onto a kitchen chair, burying her face in her hands.

She couldn’t avoid her housemate.

She didn’t want to avoid her friend.

There was the sound of a can being opened, a plate placed in front of her.

Callum didn’t drink coke, he liked citrus flavors when it came to sodas, so he had bought those for her because of course he had noticed her hangover-drink-of-choice because he noticed everything-

She took a giant, uncouth bite of delicious, warm potato bread, a giant, slurpy drink of delicious, fizzy, liquid caffeine.

He was back to staring into the fridge, doing some kind of organizing, it seemed.

He didn’t seem angry or cold though, not even a little bit. It would be easier if he treated her like she deserved.

“Uhm,” he repeated. “Do you… you wanna borrow some pajama bottoms? Mine are almost all clean, if you’re out. You can have your favorite super-soft pair with the little moons-“

Right. She had never actually gotten around to putting any more clothes on besides the t-shirt. And of course Callum didn’t care about her half-dressed state like she wanted him to, but just… honest friend-caring that was just-

“Callum, I feel like utter shite, and I can’t even begin to apologize about last night and you’re not even angry and just… just offering me your trousers and your fizz and your… perfect, greasy potato bread with natural antiemetic herb topping-”

“I didn’t mean to do that!”

“I know you didn’t, but damnit! Be less-“ She took another defiant monster bite. Why was it so good-

“I meant… I didn’t know rosemary was an antiemetic. That was a coincidence.“ He actually looked at her, grinning crookedly, hesitantly but… hopeful.

Her breath came out as relieved laughter. And a few crumbs.

He was not pulling away from her, he was making an effort to have things be normal, too.

With two of them wanting that… they could do it.

[honeyxmonkey]

I just realized... Callum could potentially control the weather if he learned enough spells...

What if he could make a tornado? 👀

Rayla: there are too many! We can't fight them all!

Callum about to wizard of oz their enemies: not with that attitude we won't.

The list of potential natural disasters Callum would be able to make if he mastered all six primal arcanums... it would be devastating.

WHO GAVE THIS SKINNY NERD THIS MUCH POWER

[blutopaz15]

Writing prompt idea: Callum and Rayla doing errands together?

I hope you like, @nothingmorethanageminiboar!! My head went: errands--> groceries --> they brought food to the moon nexus --> did they bring the food from the castle? let’s go with no --> grocery shopping hijinks...and this is where my brain ended up.

might add more and post on ao3...perhaps featuring some human rayla shenanigans? 👀 👀 👀  :)

---

“Okay,” said Rayla, as Ellis’s door shut behind them. 

After the food-packing disaster she’d discovered the other night, she’d decided that Ezran and Soren couldn’t be trusted to food shop. Neither had complained about being left behind to keep visiting with Ellis and Ava when she’d tugged just Callum to the side for their supply restock. 

“Do you have the list?” she asked.

“Yup!” Callum swung his bag off of his shoulders, the pan and spatula they’d swiped from the kitchens at the castle clattering together noisily before the pack hit the ground. 

They’d been slightly more prepared for their trek through the forests of Katolis this time, bothering with things like cooking utensils and clean underwear for their journey back to the Nexus. But, when Rayla had rummaged through their packs looking for dinner the first night they made camp, she’d found nothing but about a dozen jelly tarts and a loaf of bread in Ez’s backpack.

(More under the cut because, oops, this got long-ish...)

In hindsight, she wasn’t sure why she’d hadn’t questioned Ez and Soren claiming responsibility for packing the food, and she’d grumbled as much to the boys before storming off in search of food, resigning herself to another few weeks subsisting purely on a diet of moonberries and—she grimaced—Lujanne’s grubs.

Upon her return, she’d found the three of them hunched over Callum’s sketchbook, taking turns scribbling items on a page titled ‘Shopping List’. She’d tossed the satchel of berries she’d gathered in their direction before sitting down grumpily on the other side of the fire, rolling her eyes at the snippets of stupidity she overheard. Before long, Callum had tucked the completed list away and come to sit beside her with a kiss to her cheek. 

(”Ha, angry cute,” he’d remarked, needling a reluctant smile out of her.)

He now pulled that same list out of a small pocket on the outside of his pack and handed it to her. 

“Let’s see,” she said, unfolding the list.

Vegetables

Fruit

Bread!!

Meat

Pancakes!!

Cheese

Eggs??

More jelly tarts?

She blinked at the list before turning it over to verify that the other side was, in fact, blank. She took a breath as she looked up...and there Callum was, grinning proudly at her. Her mouth closed and she looked between the list of food groups and nonsense in her hand and her stupid, stupid human’s stupid, stupid smile. Her head rested against her hand as she passed the paper back to him.

“This is not a grocery list, Callum,” she sighed.

“What do you mean? That’s everything we need to buy, right?” he asked with a hopelessly clueless shrug. 

“There is more than one type of vegetable, you know, Callum,” she rolled her eyes and continued, just to confirm stupidity she suspected. “What would you have packed if you were left in charge of the food?”

“Uh...I don’t know.” His eyes shifted around nervously. “Potatoes?” More practical than jelly tarts at least, she thought. 

“And?” She prodded, arms crossed. 

“Uh...bread?” He shrugged again, his arms bending up at the elbows this time. His smile had become apologetic now, as she realized that he was just as oblivious as Ez and Soren had clearly been. It occurred to her that—as far as he and Ez went, at least—this was a perhaps stupid prince problem rather than simply a stupid human problem.

“Have you ever been grocery shopping before?” She asked with another exasperated sigh. He perked up and raised a single finger.

“Yes!”

“Okay, well—”

“When I was 3,” he said, deflating and dropping his hands to his sides.

Rayla groaned. So, yeah. Stupid prince problem.

He flinched a little, bringing his hands up defensively as she snatched the list out of his hands again and reached to grab the charcoal out of its slot on his sketchbook. 

“Well, I’m not eating grubs for the next month,” she snarked, shaking out the creases in the folded-up list with a flick of her wrist. “Turn around.” She twirled a single finger to demonstrate and he obeyed, slumping over so she could lean against his back to scrawl out an actual shopping list.

[kilfeur]

Did humans once possess primal magic but it was taken away by the stars?

So from the short story of Aaravos, where we saw that he was banished. We saw that humans were capable of primal magic. Who exactly? It's not specified in the story. However, given that the consequence of this discovery was to create natural disasters caused by the startouch elves. Given the way Aaravos is banished, there's a good chance that their kingdom lies in the stars, or even in space.

And Rayla said that startouch elves were the first elves, and Aaravos had called his own people arrogant. It's quite likely that the reason they didn't like that humans could do primal magic. It's because they're afraid they'll become more powerful than they are, or because they consider primal magic to be a privilege reserved for the elves.

As humans are not bound to an arcanum unlike elves. We have seen that Callum can connect to different arcanums. But we also saw that it's far from easy, as Callum had to show strength of character and willpower to resist using dark magic. But he also had to understand arcanum in order to master it. So yeah, chances are mankind would rather use dark magic than primal magic. Because dark magic is easier and simpler to use than learning primal magic.

But these are just my speculations to see what the series will propose concerning the two peoples.

[ashlynmoonn]

- Claudia is a disaster lesbian and has a crush on one of the guards that Soren is friends with and asks him to talk to her and then he comes back to tell the guard said

- when Rayla realized she was demiromantic, she told Rauaan and Ethari and they were obviously supportive and they took her out for ice cream (or whatever they have in Xadia)

- Corvus and Opeli definitely adopted Ezran and Callum after Harrow's death but never told them

- Claudia came out to Viren but he was too busy with Aaravos to notice

- Runaan definitely calls Ethari “my love” aH-

- Earthri does Runaan's hair every morning without fail. it’s a daily ritual of theirs and sometimes Rayla just barges in during this moment which eventually leads Earthri to teach her how to braid his hair since she wanted to try too

- Claudia is autistic

- Earthri stress bakes. one time he baked like five loaves of bread because he was nervous about something and Runaan was like babe are okay-

- due to the fact moonshadow society doesn’t show affection much sometimes when Callum surprises Rayla with like a hug or cheek kiss she just blue screens for a bit. Rayla.exe has crashed and Callum is like what did i do-

- Soren and Rayla get a rival relationship but it’s like. very playful. always competing with eachother

- Janai and Amaya adopt Soren and Claudia just so Amaya can spite Viren. thats literally it

- Rauaan only is soft with Ethari and Rayla on occasion, but thats canon. what ISN’T canon is he pushed Rayla away most of the time due to the fact he was raised like that and thinks he turned out "fine" (spoiler alert. he didnt.)

- he also said has little flower trinkets made by  Rayla over the years on a shelf somewhere

- if you're close to him, you will never stop hearing abt how amazing Rayla is. Soren has almost killed him because oh my god Callum THIS IS THE EIGHTH TIME TODAY

- even though she doesnt understand a word he’s saying Rayla will absolutely sit through Callum talking about magic for hours on end because she loves her boyfriend

- Janai and Amaya just become everyone’s gay wine aunts

- Viren is Ezran’s godfather (sadly)

- Claudia used to read to Ezran when he was little

- when janaya slowdances, Janai presses her lips to Amaya’s neck and hums the music. it’s Amaya’s favourite way to feel the vibrations

- Nyx is June from Avatar: The Last Airbender but with a different filter, change my mind

- Rayla would hands down be a brunette if she were human and light blue eyes

- Claudia looks like Cruella de Vil, fight me

- Sarai was a bisexual

- Aanya’s mothers made a box of their belongings for Aanya if anything happened to them and she found said box and she keeps it next to her throne

- Callum calls Rayla “moon” or “moonlily”

- Rayla calls him “birdie” “dove” or “oversized bird” bc of his wings also dumbass

- Claudia pokes Aaravos’s cocoon from time to time just because she’s bored

- Claudia being the main villain for the rest of the series (or the second arc) and Soren being the one to pull her out of the darkness

- Kazi is the enby, ace and probably aro representation of the dragon prince

- Callum and Claudia, once they finally reconcile, have an amazing bond as well now he doesn't have a crush on her. They can get to know each other (the new versions of each other) properly, Callum helps Claudia connect to an arcanum, they geek out together over magic, they just enjoy joking around together and they have a much healthier relationship than they ever had

- Soren was there when Ezran took his first steps

- after his mom died, Claudia and Soren became big pillars of support for Ezran. he’d go to Claudia after nightmares and they’d stay up late whispering about magic

- Harrow’s mother passed away in his teens

- Claudia qoutes vines on the daily

- Viren had a thing for Harrow

- Castillo is trans

- Lujanne is wlw

- Soren is a pansexual icon

- everyone goes to therapy

[ladyandherbooks]

Rayla's lessons in fear

I think it's interesting to see how the people that care about Rayla teach her different yet important lessons about her fear of water.

When Callum and Ezran learn about her fear they let her know that they don't judge or think badly of her, on the contrary they see her as being incredibly brave.

That it's okay to be afraid of things and to let people know about your fears so that they can help you

We see them acknowledge her fears and do what they can to keep her away from what frightens her. We see this happen again when Callum tells Rayla that they don't have to take the quickest way to Xadia via boat until she reassures him that she'll be fine and that their mission comes first.

Letting Rayla know that she can open up about her fears and that they will do everything they can to not put her in a situation where she is confronted by these fears is an valuable lesson and an important moment in their friendship.

Next we have Runaan and Ethari who approached her fears in a very different yet equally important way.

In the same episode where we learn about Rayla's fears we see this image in the credits

Here we can see that Rayla is not just terrified of water, she appears to have an overwhelming and crippling fear of it which prevents her from even taking a bath. Yet in the same episode we see her jump into a deep lake in order save Bait from the river monster. It's clear that while she's still afraid of water her fears no longer controls or overwhelms her and that she's in control of her emotions.

This is because of Runaan and Ethari. They saw how powerful her fear of water was and what hold it had over her decided to do whatever they could to give Rayla back the control that she desperately needed. They taught her how not only how to swim but how to be a strong swimmer, ready for whatever water related disaster came her way.

Swimming fully clothed and knowing how to rescue someone are advanced skills that take time to learn and are only attempted once an instructor is sure that their student is a strong enough swimmer to attempt them. Therefore Rayla's swimming lessons would have taken years to get to this point.

They gave her a way to escape the water and in doing so gave Rayla what she truly needed, they gave her power and control. They knew that there would be times when Rayla would have no choice but to confront her fear of water so they gave her the tools and the skills that would give her the chance to get away from it. They gave her the ability to save herself and while she's still afraid of water her fear is no longer controlling her, she is controlling it.

Runaan also taught her how to calm herself when things became chaotic and overwhelming:

They taught her to not let her fears control and consume her and taught her ways to deal with these fears, ensuring that she'd be the one in control, not them, even in the most terrifying, overwhelming and chaotic moments. They taught her how to be brave.