#spoiler : she finds out from safiye

[moonshincs]

 ☾⋆⁺₊⋆ "Only if you're sure?" Selin asked before her eyes looked down at the paper and back up. She wasn't necessarily interested in the front page as such. More that she just wanted to keep up to date on the latest fashion and what was going on around town. The press could be ruthless, that was a fact, and everyone knew it. She'd occasionally glance over the gossip columns but would take it all with a pinch of salt.

"Don't worry, I've already decided whatever it is I probably don't need to know about it anyway. I won't look it up online." Selin adds, smiling more genuinely. "Well, whoever they are, they sound lucky to have a friend like you to look out for them like this."

Elif's eyes softened as Selin held the paper out to her with an apologetic smile. "Thank you and you don't have to give it back and I really am sorry that I took your paper. I'm just trying to protect my friends and I probably could have gone about it in a better way, but," She trained off, her gaze falling to the ground as she thought back to the own article that had been written about her family when she was only a kid- Bodrum Murder. Child found standing over parents bodies- and how different her life might have been if that article had never been published. "And I know I'm in no position to ask for any favors, but is there any chance you can hold off looking it up for like a week or something? They just don't deserve to have everyone else find out about their own family before they do, you know?"

[teaandinanity]

For whichever MC you want! 15, 17, 26 :)

Yeee thank you! (Under the cut because babbling.)

15. Friends - childhood

Calanthia mostly had her siblings; they lived in a pretty rural area, so finding other kids around the same age was tricky. Calanthia mostly adapted to this by not caring how old people were as long as they were willing to be interesting; she made friends with the miller’s wife because town was vaguely within walking distance and the woman was willing to entertain a well-dressed probably-noble child who came and knocked on the door. Calanthia also managed to make friends with Dowager Marchioness Aleni, who was not in reasonable walking distance at all, because she overheard people talking about Aleni’s library. Calanthia spent an entire morning walking to Aleni’s estate and politely requested an introduction from the footman, and also to use the library (she was young enough that everyone involved was bewildered rather than offended by all of this). Calanthia also basically thought Marchioness Aleni was secretly a sphinx until she was about twelve, though, because Aleni asked her a riddle before she let her in the house, that first day, kept asking them afterwards, always expected her to understand allusions, and occasionally would take Calanthia to her library and give her a history book and be like, ‘you are woefully ignorant, EDUCATE YOURSELF.’

Safiye is friends with everyone who will hold still long enough.

Nisha has trust issues, but she’s definitely friends with Constance (and occasionally daydreams about Prince Amir getting accidentally-on-purpose dead so that he can’t make Constance miserable anymore).

Demetria has three boys she grew up with who she formed a rapport with primarily through the medium of all of them hitting each other with sticks, mostly in good fun. One of them is now in charge of her kennel at home. They still occasionally hit each other with sticks.

17.  Love - past

Safiye (my pirate) is the only one who got up to much. She had her first girlfriend at twelve. They held hands a lot and Irina was Safiye’s first kiss. They dated until Irina fell in love with a cute Jiyelian boy when they were around sixteen, at which point Fii was reasonably content with becoming best friend instead of girlfriend. After that, Fii had a lot of fun with a lot of people and she sincerely adored every single one of them (her father would have been profoundly horrified if he’d had any inkling; he was already kind of scandalized by the hand-holding, which he pretended very hard was all that was going on). Safiye miraculously managed to stay on really good terms with almost everyone she was ever involved with (mostly by dint of being a solid judge of character, combined with really excellent communication skills). Only one was an unmitigated disaster - she doesn’t mind open or poly relationships if they’re negotiated beforehand, but one asshole cheated on her and I think she arranged for him to get the cold shoulder in port for like a year and a half afterwards just by refusing to keep it quiet. She probably still had a couple of current FWBs (although no one she was twitterpated over) when she decided she was bored with not-sailing and needed an adventure and got herself sent to the Summit.

Countess Demetria was in love before the Summit, once, but she was also keenly aware that she was responsible for protecting her people and that she caused enough gossip just by unapologetically being herself. She did her best not to let on that she had squishy feelings and waited for them to go away. (Demi has a reasonably good grasp of politics. She would probably be happier without it.)

Calanthia is demiromantic and has never been in love until she gets to the Summit and goes, ‘oh no.’

26.  Descendants

For Calanthia and Jasper, I actually have no idea! So much of this depends on how the ending actually works out and also [alpha spoilers] makes me think that [maybe spoilers] BUT WHO EVEN KNOWS. I did, however, once write the phrase ‘exceedingly tall violet-eyed children’ in my notes.

Provided they live that long, Safiye and Zarad will have five very attractive children who are all at least one of the following: Very good liars, dangerously charming, just plain dangerous, capable of convincing people they’re friends after a two-day acquaintance, and throwing the BEST parties. One of them is only pretty and good at parties. The other four are designed for creating political instability and breaking hearts. Their parents are very proud of all of them.