#( thread ‣ aria. )

[thatonebirdwrites]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51626497/chapters/170039260

I finally finished this chapter. There's only three left of this fic, and then this behemoth is DONE. Whew. I wish I wasn't so sick so this could go a bit faster...

EXCERPT:

KARA-Z

The explosion rips through the cavern, the pillar of metal and energy torn apart. Parts of its exterior still clutched in her hands, Kara is thrown backward, into the wall. She crashes through it and falls into a different, quieter chamber. The ground shakes beneath her. Groans and cracks echo in the caverns, and stalactites crash to the ground. With her superspeed, she smashes her way from the crumbling chambers, dashes down the falling corridor, and sights a crevice in the rock above her. With a burst of speed, she flies into it, her suit ripped by jagged rocks.

Up and up she speeds, until she smashes through a rock wall and zips into the ocean. Salt water presses around her, but she swims for the surface, her limbs a blur, her eyes stinging. Her lungs ache for breath.

She shoots into the air. Water cascades off her suit and body. Higher and higher she flies until ice crystals form. She spins and ice and water fly off her body as it dries. Below her the ocean churns with energy.

A discordant sound rings through the air, the violet light crackling and spitting at its broken edges. In the distance, farther out to sea, she sees a pillar of violet. She speeds through the air, circling the Earth in its upper atmosphere, and she counts seven pillars. Most thin and perhaps  easily destroyed, but the one that pours out the highest concentrations of energy — the light thick like a Sequoia tree — emits from a massive stone in Ireland. 

Lena, Kara-Z thinks. She slams into the ground near the pillar, the ground cracking at her feet. Energy wafts off the stone, and it sickens her. Her emotions flare, her vision swims with dots, and she backs away, gasping for air as if caught underwater. She stumbles and pushes her way through a rocky field, sloshes through a creek, until she drops to the ground at the edge of the massive energy field. Her fingers dig into the dirt, and anger pulses through her body. She can’t think, her anger, the squeals of energy, the rippling violet sky — it all scrambles her senses, her thoughts disorderly, but one sound peaks through the turmoil.

A clear consonant harmony, one full of love and gentleness wraps itself boldly around her spirit. It tugs her to the west, and with a disorienting jerk, she’s catapulted from her body and to a glowing circle of magic by National City’s harbor. Lena glows with gold energy, Nia at her side with hints of blue in her hands, and a shimmering gold-violet overlaps Kara’s body, like a not quite snug glove.

All her focus turns to Lena, her love, the one light shining through her pain and discombobulation.

Lena, her eyes still closed, finishes her chant, and gold energy pulses so bright it blinds. Waves course through Kara, and saturates the ground and air. A tentative hope pulses in time with the harmonious ring of Lena’s magic, and above them, the sky burns a bright blue, the edges of the horizon jagged shards of violet. She reaches out to brush her fingers against Lena’s cheek.

Lena opens her eyes and turns to her, her expression inscrutable, but her eyes sear with an intensity that burns away the vestiges of Kara’s disorientation.

“Lena,” Kara says her name as a prayer. She doesn’t know how long she has before this moment ends, before she’s catapulted away, before the anger returns and devours her thoughts. “Lena, I destroyed a pillar. More exist, but their energy converge on Ireland. The fourth treasure of those Tuatha people. I can’t breach its field.” She thinks of the other pillars of violet light, how they are fainter but all interconnected. Words to describe the map in her head won’t form, and she clenches her fists frustrated.

Lena reaches toward her, and her fingers brush against Kara’s shoulder and pass through the shadow-y form that shimmers out-of-sync with Kara’s own body. A gorgeous wrinkle between Lena’s eyebrows forms. Kara wants to smooth it away with her thumb. Her shadow doesn’t move with her, and coldness slaps Kara. She turns to see a mirror image of herself, half inside her own body. 

Red Daughter. Anger, fear, and worry collide in a nexus of complexity that freezes her movements. Her clone who had saved her life, given her the power to stop Lex, but who had also killed her and threatened all she loved.

[wolfliviia]

Who: @photoaria Where: Infamy

It was the first time Olivia was out since everything that happened with Yuisa and she felt like a completely new person. Her scars were healed, but more importantly, she felt confident, sure of herself and where she belonged. She was a god damn Warwick werewolf and it felt incredible.

So yeah, she was more daring the usual. Her clothes showed a little more skin, she didn't turn away whenever a girl looked at her direction, she even decided to drink a little — a first for her. Olivia didn't know how long this rush was gonna last, but she wanted to make the most of it while it lasted.

The few times she'd been to Infamy before consisted in her arriving alone, dancing alone, and going home alone. This was the night she was going to change that. There was a girl in the bar she'd seen before once or twice and she thought was beautiful - she decided she was going to make her move.

"Hey! I'm really sorry to bother you, but I was just over there and I can't take my eyes off you," she approached the other with a smile, her heart rushing with excitement, "I would really like to buy you a drink if you'd let me".

[beautybrains-bhavi]

WHO: @photoaria WHERE: Bookends

Bhavi needs new personal reading material. She doesn't know if The Manuscript could feel emotions, no less envious scorn, but spending this much time annotating any piece of text had to be unhealthy. “It’ll just be a palate cleanser between independent studies. Just a palate cleanser. Not a commitment. Not cheating,” Bhavi mutters to herself as she enters Bookends. The witch is unsure if she’s talking to herself or The Manuscript in her shoulder bag.

One hand clings to the bag’s sling, the other running along book spines as Bhavi walks past. Her pace is slow, slow enough to give Bhavi enough time to read each title that comes her way. However, it’s not the reading selection that brings her to a halt. There’s something, someone in the spaces inbetween. A familiar silhouette stocking books on the other side. Bhavi leans in and peers between volumes as she would look through a window. Their eyes meet. The witch gasps.

"Aria?"

Just like that, Bhavana is a kid again.

"Aria!" She’s making a break for her, quickly striding from one aisle to the other with tunnel vision. The shoulder bag slips off and clatters to the floor the exact same way her backpack would back then. Back when Bhavi would run across the schoolyard to reach Aria with a tearful wail. A big test bombed. A crush gone sour. A wardrobe wrongfully dress-coded. Anything gone wrong in Bhavana’s life could be remedied with a hug from her best friend. And everything in her life has gone wrong now.

So Bhavi crashes into Aria and pulls her into an unbearably tight embrace. “Aria! Why haven’t you called me? Or even texted! Oh, how I’ve missed you!,” Bhavi hugs the other woman as she would a teddy bear, slightly hoisting her up and swaying in the air as she whines. “It's bad. It’s so bad, Aria. Everything's gone to shit. I don't know what to do-” Please tell me everything is going to be okay.

[forgottencassandra]

Rainy Days | Cassandra & Aria

"Goodness, I wonder if this rain shall ever stop!"

"It mocks me," Cassandra lamented with a heavy sigh, as though this was the greatest trouble she had ever had to overcome. She might have well told you that it was, for it certainly felt that way in this particular moment.

Today was the first day that her father had finally allowed her some freedom from the castle. Under a heavy band of guards and the supervision of her mother, she had been permitted to leave the castle. It was a small social gathering hosted by the (rather dull) wife of one of her father's councilmen. She, at least, had had the foresight to invite some more interesting people to liven things up (including Lord Calleary).

Most of all, Cassandra had simply been dying for a change of scenery and any excuse to wear one of her new gowns.

But the storm that raged outside her window, had cancelled the entire affair after it was deemed that the storm may be too dangerous to do any sort of traveling in, and all of Cassandra's hopes for the day had vanished.

Cassandra did not catch that Genevieve (who had been her nursemaid since infancy and continued to look after her, even now) rolled her eyes at the princess's dramatics.

"And now there's nothing to be done about it." Cassandra added, leaving the window.

"You are a innovative woman, Your Imperial Highness," Evie replied, "I am certain you shall not allow for the weather to determine your mood."

It wasn't until that moment that Cassandra realized that, perhaps, Evie was correct in this: the loosening of her father's protections must certainly mean that she would be, at least, free to roam more of the castle than she had been, previously. She had not seen Aria Stafford since the riots and suddenly found herself desperate for her company.

It took her a good deal of time to find where, exactly, Aria Stafford was. Apparently she no longer was staying in her old rooms and the new ones happened to be on the otherside of the castle.

"Did you find this all as absolutely tedious as I did?" Cassandra asked, as soon as she strode through the doors. "There is only so many hours one can devote to reading and sewing before one develops a headache." Cassandra had never had much patience for either of those activities (unless the book happened to be a romantic novel) and her imagination would always take hold and hold her captive to her own distractions.

"I thought I might go mad. I am so sorry that I have not come to see you before. Father insisted that we stay in our chambers and no amount of pleading or flirting with the guards would do any good, at all, so I suppose he must have been truly serious about it." She found that she had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes. Cassandra felt that her father must have been a bit over-dramatic over the entire thing.

"Oh! But I did finish the book you lent me!" She had brought it back with her, now, and put it into Aria's hands. "I was nearly lost for words through most of it. Each tale was more beautifully written than the last. Although I confess that my favorite was the second tale -- the one which ended when the two lovers choose to be drowned together by the sea, rather than to return to land where they would have been so tragically torn apart? And -- " Cassandra finally took a breath and had the chance to examine her surroundings.

It wasn't until this moment that she noticed that she was cold and she quickly noted that this room not only lacked the luxurious comforts that the Staffords' old quarters were missing, but also, it seemed the basic ones, too.

There wasn't even a decent fire in the fireplace.

"Goodness -- what on earth are you doing here?" Cassandra asked, as though Aria had had any choice in the matter. "It's much too drafty and cold. This won't do at all."

[birdieofprey]

who: @photoaria where: Cliffsides

Watching the girl knock from a few feet down the walkway, Birdie shakes her head. "You do not wanna go in there, babydoll, honeypot's closed." A smile, mean as it is hollow, is talking around the cigarette hanging from her lip. Birdie, in all her shabby glory, sits leaning her plastic chair against the wooden pillar just outside the entrance to 102, rocking herself with a foot against the wall and flicking the lighter open and closed in idle boredom. "Guy's indisposed at the moment, waitin' for his buddy." She lights the cigarette, the orange glow bursting a shock of light into the hood over her head, mouth rimmed in faint smears of red that she's only half-bothered to wipe away.

"You know them? Or, uh, looking for for your fix?" A backpack sits beside her, all stained red on one side.

[painofhumanity]

@vailtoset gets a starter

"Stiles shouldn't have said anything," Aria huffed. "Okay, so Ezra is a little bit older than I said, but it's-- it's really not that big of a deal. I'm a lot more mature than anyone gives me credit for, and. . .Ezra saw that. I get that it's not conventional, but he's not some monster, and I'm not some helpless little girl. We didn't do anything wrong." She could practically hear Stiles reminding her that if it wasn't wrong, Ezra Fitz wouldn't be in jail right now for what he'd done, but Aria still couldn't see past her love for the man.

[withbeasts]

@vitalphenomena.

the vice grip that amelia has around this girl's wrist is hard enough enough to bruise, a decimal of her strength used to push her to the wall.

" it's bad manners to follow someone. " she has to look up at her face. how annoying. " what do you want? "

[lcblanc]

For: @photoaria Where: The Gala

Her wife was already doing what she does best, waving her connections and working the place to better benefit her. Narcisse had no doubt Aoife would do splendid in the meeting, with teeth sharp enough to take off the head of whoever challenged her. She wasn't worried, and she wasn't offended, as she was left to do her own work. With so many new faces, there were many new minds to pick, but for now, she settled on someone known, strangely so with a face so... familiar. "Looking for your inspirating still, dear? In a ballroom such as this, so full of new faces, new cultures, new mindsets." She murmured close to the young vampire, letting her eyes roam around the room and take in the many factions. Some faces she remembered from the last few galas thrown by The Conclave that she had attended, others were entirely new. "Has anything caught your attention?."

[darlingskilled]

my witch Aria verse has my heart 🥰

[eclipsecrowned]

seeing people also embrace ‘bi0ware is high for saying half 3lves don’t have any hint of their 3lven heritage’

[grcveyacd]

“ you know, one of these days, we’re going to get caught. “ his voice is soft as he shifts over in his bed, making room for them to slide underneath his covers. luckily, his band mates were oblivious to what was going on between them, and aria was too stuck in her own head to actually see the writing on the wall. the longing looks across the room, the subtle brushing of fingers whenever they passed one another, the flirty banter — it was all there, but had gone unnoticed for months now. which was probably a good thing all things considered. “ think you could handle everyone knowing? “  // @ofcrxwns ( based on x )

[atesbrn]

🏊‍♀️ : ARIA ( @rariath ) / CLARA ( @clanard ) & ATES se encuentren cerca de la PISCINA EXTERIOR.

' tenga cuidado. es la parte mas honda de la piscina, ¿no te gustarían unos flotadores? ' aconseja, aunque la entonación cortés se pierde al notar que era alguien reconocible, relajando postura. diestra hace ademán al camino, antes de explicarse, como buen salvavidas. ' están en el pasillo a las duchas, tienes para escoger. ' ofrece, porque como él, no pierde oportunidad de usar el club como invitado cuanto puede. ' estaré por aqui si necesitas algo. ' solemnidad un poco exagerada se extiende, por pura entretención.

[chimaeraheart]

"Trust me, I've been trying. But things keep happening which make me think more. Can't turn off a brain, sadly." She wished it was that easy to just not think. "Oh well. Headache or no, it'll pass."

Rubbing her forehead where the pain was, just over her left eye, she sighed. "Sorry, I know this must be stupid, hearing me complain about thinking."

@flamesignite // but can you truly stop thinking?

[visioncursed]

Who: @photoaria Where: Bookends

It took Jamie a few days to prepare, first to find and learn the spells she needed for this, then to actually find Aria and plan the attack. She had no false impression that this would be an easy task or that she would even get out of it with any blood left inside of her body, but hey, at least if she got killed the dreams wouldn't bother anymore.

She visited Bookends a couple of days prior to get a feel to the place, she saw Aria behind the counter and smiled at her, then she looked for all exit points and breakable wood that she could use in a fight. She left without making a purchase.

When the day came, Jamie waited until the store was closed and the street was quiet. She used her first spell to break in, unlocking the door in silence. She didn't close the door behind her, instead she just moved forward until she found Aria with her back facing towards her. Before she could turn, Jamie started her enchantment; not the final spell yet, but she needed her target weak, unmoving.

[youllalwaysbemyporcelain]

@vcndetta

Aedhan had gone to get their favorite tea, going to sit down and enjoy it. They don't notice the woman, but manage to stop before running right into her. They're thankful they didn't spill their tea on her. "I am so sorry. Are you okay?"

[rimedancer]

who: @photoaria where: Jennifer Tseng's House

When Jennifer had conceived of the notion that she could help Aria Boughton help her, things had been a bit more romanticized in her head; some sort of waterborn ritual, maybe out at Crane Lake in the park she haunts as a ranger, or out on the river in Port Leiry itself.

But getting her hand and eyes and thoughts on the implications of the process itself, through the usual backdoor network of mutual aid running between the various secret houses of magic in Port Leiry, it had become quickly obvious why this would need to be done inside closed doors.

A vessel to hold all the blood needed to be of some significance, and so she chose an old tea-pot that's been in her family for a long time. It feels sort of wrong, watching Aria's blood seep out of her and into the kettle. It had also felt wrong, inviting a vampire into her home for this. But nothing's really felt right since her cousins saved her from the hunters, so the unfamiliar is beginning to feel more familiar than anything else.

"It's not... I might need to start working the spell before you're done draining - I didn't think about how much blood we need to hold."