#Ethari thinks it's not a big deal

[themistdragon]

Ethari is one of those people who attracts animals. Like, whenever he's around, any pet or other animal will migrate to him. Even Moonstriders are sweet and happy when he pets them and talks to them.

Runaan is insanely jealous.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

TDP S6 poster!!!

let's see what we've got in this one! omgomgomg

this won't make a lot of sense, I'm just gushing

First impressions: there is a LOT of magic going on in this poster, and most of it seems to be Moon magic, which Aaravos is casting from his cool book.

There are moon moths everywhere!

Ethari's lotuses are everywhere too!

Some of them are breaking. Some of them have vivid colors coming from them. They could be from the differently colored crystals they all have.

There are also a large number of spirits in the picture!

There's also a red colored spirit, uh oh:

Is this one looking at the white one, do they see each other?

Aaravos has a full moon behind him, and his cube has a blazing moon rune on it. I'm not sure how many other moon themes this poster can hold, are we missing any?

Of interest, there's a thematic similarity to the key art we got of Rayla jumping into the Moon Nexus, where the lower left was dark and creepy with lost spirit arms and the upper right was lighter with the arms of her family reaching for her. In this art, those corners are again the darkest and lightest:

And then there's the man himself. His eyes are glowing bright with magic, he's got his bling on. And it's hard to be certain since we can't see his chest well but it's likely that his star is lit, as it gets when he casts magic.

Okay let's take a quick peek at what is actually happening in this poster. Aaravos is casting magic from the book. It's pouring out of the cool crescent-moon portal thingy there and swirling around.

eta: it's actually connecting the rune cube to the book, but I'm not sure which way the connection is flowing. But he seems to have plugged the cube in, and it is called the Key of Aaravos. Is this book the thing of great power that gets unlocked in Xadia?

And behind him, across the top of the art, you can see something else: a weaving of thick white strands.

What is he actually doing? Is he weaving them, or unweaving them? Is he just releasing three elves from their coins? This looks way more powerful - and destructive - than that. Is he releasing all the spirits ever? Why are there so many spirits in this picture?? Where are they from? Are they also trapped? Were they crossed over? Is he breaking the whole duality of life and death?

Aaravos wouldn't bother casting a measly little spell just to free three elves from coins just because Callum asks him to, not when he could flex stylishly and get something he also wants out of the deal.

Remember when he helped Viren get past Lux Aurea? He didn't have to kill Khessa and poison the Sunforge to help Viren reach Zym. But his method got the caterpillar a burst of primal magic so it could start growing, it stopped the Sunfire forces from retaliating, it gave him some form of payback on Aditi's bloodline, and it stopped the Sunfire elves from being able to use the Sunforge on anyone else corrupted with dark magic. Plus it netted him Pharos and made Viren trust him even more. It was indeed elegant and efficient.

So he's probably doing something on that level again here. Sure, Callum may have given him an opening to help Rayla's family out. But Aaravos will stop when Aaravos decides to stop, and not before. If Callum makes a deal to free three souls that he can't get out of their coins on his own, then Aaravos can definitely work with that.

But he thinks bigger. If Callum wants three souls freed, that's easy enough. But why stop at three? It's so inefficient. Maybe he attacks the Moon Nexus next, and makes it volcano out all the souls it's ever held and looses them on the world in some kind of spirit plague. Job still done, deal met, requirements satisfied. And while the mortals scramble to deal with his mess, he just does whatever he has planned next. All the better that he did something so big that no one can step away from cleaning it up to try to stop him!

Anyway. Art gives me thoughts. Very excited about this poster and its moontastic implications for S6!

[raayllum]

Do you truly believe that Callum is the only best thing that's happened to Rayla?

I don't think Callum is the only good thing in Rayla's life, but I do absolutely agree with her sentiment that he's the best thing she's ever had / that's ever happened to her. This is for a few reasons (mostly only talking about arc 1 as that's the time she's referring to, but I'm also gonna be touching on S4/S5):

In Bloodmoon Huntress, the long time headcanon of post-s1-s3 fans that Rayla was a relatively friendless / lonely child was confirmed. This makes Callum and Ezran her first real friends, and while she's more likely to lean on Ezran for support (in arc 1 at least) initially than Callum is, Callum is still more so her peer (due to being similar ages) and is her first and main Best Friend. For that alone, I'd buy her statement.

Then there's the other ways Callum has changed her life. He is:

The person who inspired her to actively work towards breaking the cycle past the point of 1) believing it was right for Zym to return home and 2) to make up for her parents' perceived/failures mistakes, as seen most prominently in 2x07. This is something she is willing to die for, and while Rayla is (unfortunately) willing to die for many things, this is the cause she believes in and feels centred in: "Every fibre in my body is telling me that [leaving her] is wrong [...] It doesn't just feel like the right thing to do, it feels like the right thing for me to do. It's where I'm meant to be." ("Look at yourself, Rayla. Who are you? What do you stand for? Once you know that, you'll end up where you were always meant to be.") Someone giving you a much more positive worldview that aligns with your values and sense of rightness is certainly a big deal (and a positive one, particularly for someone who's struggled with hesitating over what feels right for so much of her life.

Callum is the first person in Rayla's life to love her wholly unconditionally. While Rayla is deeply loved by all four of her parents, and I've gone on record saying that Tiadrin and Lain didn't do anything wrong, arc 1 sees Rayla brush up against the lingering cultural hangups and choices that make her family's love for her feel if not outright be somewhat conditional. She is shunned by her village (condition 1), while Ethari says goodbye to her and embraces her he still turned his back on her (condition 2), Runaan was heavily disappointed in her betrayal of him/the mission and left her (condition 3), and her parents put their duty over her / being her parents (condition 4). Callum says fuck all that shit. He refuses to leave even when she's pushing him away. He loves and admires her for the exact things she's been punished or shamed for ("You have true courage and a big heart" -> "Even when her own people might misunderstand and turn against her"). He says she doesn't deserve to be Ghosted, she doesn't deserve to be unjustly turned away for a mistake she didn't even make, he says and shows that it's okay for her to be scared and that she can (and should) rely on him.

This is even more intrinsically tethered given Chasing Shadows and the canon fact that Callum and his love for her 1) kept her from throwing what little remained of her life away entirely and 2) literally kept her from forsaking her name/identity/everything else that makes her Rayla and 3) gave her the courage to try and come home to somewhere she'd be safe and loved, even if she knew/felt she didn't deserve to. There's an underlying belief in Chasing Shadows we see carry through into S4 where Rayla truly believes Callum can do and overcome just about anything, and if he can do the impossible, then maybe so can she:

She backed away, close to the pit’s edge. The crowd shouted and screamed at her ears, their spittle landing on her neck. It rattled her. The human kicked dirt at her, and Rayla scraped at her eyes, angry—infuriated, even. Humans were frustrating. Humans were clever. Humans could do anything, they could be anything, they could take their own fates and change them—

It is for all these reasons that Rayla clearly considers him to be her family and the love of her life. She gives him the pendant (from Ethari to Runaan, then Ethari to her, and then her to Callum) as a symbol of both familial and romantic love. He seems to be the first person she's had serious feelings for and certainly the first person she's fallen in love with.

She was originally going to confess first (2x09) back when she clearly didn't have any thought or inclination he'd ever love her back, either. Then he did, and it elevated an already very steady and safe relationship to one that was good natured, even more incredibly supportive, and wholly unconditional.

And given how he supports and loves her in S4 and S5, I am even more inclined to think she's Right <3

[thedizzydinosaur]

Day 5, reward (gift/prize)

(Moden au with magic and elves)

To Runaan's highy tuned senses, the bright lights and clashing sounds of the funfair was anything but fun to deal with, but the look of childlike joy on Ethari's face when he'd agreed to go was more than worth putting up with sensory hell for a couple of hours.

It had been so, so long since he'd gotten to go on any big family outings (or anywhere for that matter).

Besides, unlike Rayla, he had no intention of dragging the love of his life onto one of those heart attack inducing rides. No, she and her human could keep those to themselves.

"You're brooding again, dear." Ethari hummed at him, bouncing on his heels.

"Am not." Runaan dropped his carefully constructed facade for just a second to stick his tongue out at Ethari, who almost immediately started to laugh " I was just contemplating the look on a certain prince's face when Rayla brought up going on that big wooden roller coaster over there."

"He looked a little apprehensive" Ethari agreed.

"You'd think that a sky mage would be more enthusiastic about rides like that." Runaan had no intention of finding out why said coster was called the bone shaker.

"He's probably never been to a xadian fair before." Ethari pointed out "and you know as much as I do that folks like to put interesting enchantments on the rides to make them more... uh "

"Interesting? Don't remind me."

-

Runaan may not of been ones for the rides, but there was one part of funfairs that he loved, mainly becase he got to show off to his big strong husband.

The games.

Whilst Ethari dominated games like the hammer swing/bell ring game and tug of war, anything aim or precision based was Runaan’s speciality, and he had two years' worth of Ethari birthdays to catch up on.

What a good thing it was that Ethari was a sucker for big plush toys.

First up was a dart throwing game, which getting 3 bullseyes would win you one of the football sized adoraburr plushes, some of which lit up.

And lit up brightly.

Which, of course, meant that the one he won was one of those.

And it was not a bad prize, since it was very soft, nicely squishy, and made Ethari beam as brightly as it lit up when he saw it.

Runaan swapped it for the beany moonstrider that Ethari had won off the hammer swing, and the duo set off again.

In rapid secession, they hit up 3 more games stands, winning between them another, non glowing adoraburr, a large moonmoth that could be converted into a backpack, and an even larger plush moonstrider, which almost came up to Runaan's hip. (And it was laying down)

".. and where are we putting that?" Runaan asked as Ethari presented it to him with a grin

"Foot of the bed? I would say lounge, but I think Jenni would disapprove."

Jenni, the moonstrider pup, the newest addition to the household, would admittedly probably hate the thing on sight. But that was an issue for when they got home. Not for now. The now issue was actually carrying the big, bulky plush around as they slowly circled back towards the food stands.

[zuppizup]

in character design to show when a character has an emotional change they have a physical change (and them looking the same shows how they’ve not progressed emotionally, like Claudia) E.G. haircut/outfit change, do you think that when Rayla fully overcomes her emotional arc she’ll change her facial markings?

As someone who’s given Rayla at least two traumatic haircuts, I love visual change as an emotional shift as trope, buuuuut I do think we’re unlikely to see much in the way of design change for Rayla between now and the end of the series. With only 18 episodes to go, I don’t think there would be time more than anything.

I think we’ll see Rayla certainly dealing with her issues with her parents leaving and how that affected her and her character arc, but there’s also Runaan and their relationship, his relationship with her and Callum and potentially/hopefully Rayllum, Runaan and Ezran requiring focus. Ethari is also going to come into play. Moon fam is messy and have a lot of things they need to work though.

During the world ending.

It’s… a lot. And while I think TDP does an amazing job of focusing on trauma and how it can affect people, I just don’t think there’s enough episodes to do deal with everything they’ve set up there. Not in a “resolved to the point where I’m a healed person and can move on” type thing. Not truthfully, at least.

Even with two seasons left, I actually think we’ll see the beginning of the rebuilding of some of those relationship and a general nudge to the fact they’re being repaired but I assume the actual grunt work of resolving decades long issues (in some cases) will take more than some Big Feelings Time and a hug.

And they could certainly show that process has begun via Rayla changing her markings but I don’t think there’s been enough time spent on showing that elves can and do change their markings, and why they might.

I think we might well get some character design changes but I’m more side eying Callum and his hair. So if he’s pushed into actually doing dark magic, potentially even to release Moon fam, I think something like that would be far more impactful.

What I think we might see is Rayla with different markings if we get a flashforward though. If we got something a few years down the line, Adult King Ezran, much bigger Zym, parental Rayllum with a kid or two and perhaps something along the lines of meshing their two cultures together via their chosen markings?

[ladyandherbooks]

Rayla’s Important Conversations

I didn’t have a problem with Rayla not being more open with Callum this season, especially after she first returned. I do think that it’s clear that she’s trying to avoid this uncomfortable conversation, the emotion and the issues that would be addressed during it. She just wants to avoid it all together and pretend that it never happened or that it was a big deal in the hopes that the issues will just go away on their own. And with Callum being possessed and understandably focusing on this issue she’s able to avoid having this conversation with him altogether this season. 

However I think that this may change next season and that Rayla and possibly even Callum will have someone to listen to them about this topic and encourage them to eventually start the conversation. I think that this person will be Ethari who will join the Dragang in order to save his family but will also end up helping to mend Rayla and Callum’s relationship too. 

My theory is that during season 5 Ethari will have a discussion with Rayla about their time apart and her ghosting. I think that during the timeskip that Ethari has been trying to get Rayla’s ghosting reversed so that she can come home and that he will tell her about this while also apologising for ghosting her in the first place. He will offer an explanation as to why he did it, be incredibly remorseful about it and tell Rayla how much he regrets it. I think she will forgive him if she hasn’t done so already but she will also be able to have an honest conversation with her about it and the last 2 years of her life. I believe that she will also open up to Ethari about the pain she has caused Callum and the distance between them. After hearing about all of this Ethari will encourage her to have this conversation with Callum, telling her that this will help them to heal and come together again.

I think that Ethari will also end up helping Callum by helping him to understand Rayla and her motivations a bit better. This will help Callum to see and understand why she left him and allow him to also have this important conversation with her. 

Then when they do have the conversation Rayla will be able to acknowledge and address the pain she caused Callum and he will be able explain that he understands why she made these decisions 2 years ago and why she took so long to return and open up to him. 

Both of these conversations will also ultimately help Rayla with some other big and important conversation that she will need to have with her family once they are freed. Specifically the conversation she’s inevitably going to have with Runaan about their mission way back at the end of the show. Both of them are going to their own fair share of guilt and regrets surrounding this day and they will need to address them in order to heal and move forward together as a family. 

[jelzorz]

78b.

@raayllum wanted a follow up to 78 so here we are

Queen Zubeia pardons Rayla before anyone even has the chance to explain what really happened. Jumping off the Pinnacle in an effort to save her son, it seems, is a pretty big deal—a bigger deal than Rayla's supposed failure to assassinate her marks, and a big enough deal to order the elves in the Silvergrove to reverse her Ghosting immediately.

Ethari hears about it second hand. The elders of the Silvergrove are grumpy about it, but they're not stubborn enough to defy the Queen of Dragons so, grudgingly, they do as they're told. The relief that floods Ethari's system once the spell is lifted for good is overwhelming, and he waits in his forge for days wondering when Rayla will come back.

She doesn't. At first he thinks it's because she's got business to attend to in the Human Kingdoms. The way he'd heard it, she and that prince of hers are pretty joined at the hip, and he can't see her wanting to leave him so quickly, so maybe that's all it is. But days turn into weeks and then into months, and he doesn't get so much as a letter explaining where she is or what she's doing, and his nerves begin to fray. Is she okay? What's happened to her? Why hasn't he heard anything from anyone? Why hasn't she come home?

Then her human does appear, bitter and angry and heartbroken, and Callum explains: "She… went off on her own. She’s gone after someone dangerous, and she—she wanted me to be safe. So she disappeared."

And Ethari's insides go cold because of course she did, of course she would, of course she takes after his stupid, stubborn husband and takes the stupid, stubborn mentality of being already dead to heart. Callum, unsurprisingly, is furious about it when Ethari explains, and Ethari thinks he's right to be—

Right up until that fury turns on him.

Ethari supposes he just never expected it. It was Runaan who drilled that code into her; Runaan who made the missions sound more important than her own life. He's not innocent either, but he was less involved in that aspect of her life. It's not a good excuse, no, but—

"You still let it happen, didn't you?" snaps Callum. "You let her think she wasn't important. You let her think she was worthless enough to risk her life like this."

Ethari stares, unsure how to respond. "I—"

"I don't want to hear it," Callum snarls. For a boy so young, his anger is scathing, and Ethari finds that he can't even look him in the eye. "Do you have any idea how heartbreaking it is to see someone as amazing as her hate herself so much? How could you do that to her? You were supposed to take care of her and instead—"

"It's no one's fault, Callum, it's just our way—"

"It's as much your fault as everyone else's," says Callum acidly. "You did this to her. You messed her up. You and your stupid customs about being already dead. And now—" He cuts himself off, his voice raw.

Ethari ducks his head, ashamed. "Is that why she hasn't come home?" he asks quietly.

"I don't know." Callum draws a ragged breath. "But if it was..." He swallows, and when he looks up again, his jaw is set and his eyes are hard and full of anger. "If it were me, I wouldn't want to come home either."

Ethari says nothing. There's nothing he can say. There's only shame, and the knowledge that Callum is right.

[heppyhenry]

Some of my soft, wholesome Rayllum Headcanons for your viewing pleasure:

Callum likes to massage Rayla’s horns because she actually has nerves in them and can feel a nice sensation whenever he touches them; he tried doing it one day out of pure curiosity and now he does it every day at her request because she loves it; it’s a nice stress reliever after an arduous day.

Rayla is terrified of nighttime storms. It reminds her of the stormy night when she found out that her parents weren’t coming home. Callum thinks it’s kind of adorable, but also takes it 100% seriously and constantly tries to find new ways to help her deal with it.

Callum and Rayla alternate big spoon/little spoon based on how the other is feeling. For example, if Callum has a stressful day with royal duties, Rayla will wrap her arms around him and tell him: “Don’t worry, love, you can relax; it’s just you and me now.” If it’s a stormy night or Rayla has a bad dream and Callum can see her start to shake, he’ll softly put his arms around her stomach and pull her in close, before kissing her neck and telling her that he’s there for her and everything will be alright. The shaking usually stops pretty quickly.

Callum tries to braid Rayla’s hair and he’s terrible at it, but Rayla thinks it’s cute so she lets him do it from time to time anyways. He slowly but surely improves, though!

Callum starts to spar with Rayla a lot after the battle at the Storm Spire; it’s mainly so that he can stay in shape and increase his endurance, so Rayla goes easy on him and rarely uses her best moves on him. Emphasis on rarely. Every now and then she just can’t help herself. It certainly doesn’t help that Callum encourages her every time she knocks him down; but regardless of what happens, he never fails to get back up and try again, and that brings a smile to Rayla’s face every single time. (Also, Callum starts to gain some muscle and definition after a few sessions and Rayla definitely takes notice)

One day, Callum overhears Rayla humming a tune in another room. He approaches her and asks her to sing, to which she quickly says no as her cheeks begin to flush. But Callum is stubborn as usual and eventually gets what he wants after a few words of encouragement. She sings a few verses of a lullaby Ethari used to sing to her when she was a kid, and Callum is completely blown away. Fast forward a month and now they have sessions every day or two where Callum lies on Rayla’s lap while she runs her fingers through his hair and sings a song from her childhood to him.

[hoothalcyon]

That hc is incredibly cute!!! I really love the fact that you explored the special connection Runaan and Rayla seem to have in canon by making her his daughter.

For the teacher thing I'm actually teaching older students so both Runaan and Ethari are relatable in that sense! The part where Ethari looks for a way to appear busy while waiting to meet Runaan so he doesn't look like a bad teacher was SO painfully relatable, especially as a young teacher 😖 But yeah I always thought Ethari would be a teacher in an alternate universe too. He just has the right vibe for it.

But reading your fic really made me think you had either an experience with teaching or with gymnastics (I'm pretty gullible but still). Is it just research?

The fox icon is an embroidery of mine actually! Glad you loved it!

eeee u flatter me <33

teachers have so much pressure on them, especially when their students are adolescents. you have parents to deal with as well as being held responsible for a kid who's in their formative years and is very influential. what you teach them at that age can have such a big impact! I sympathize.

I actually don't have experience with teaching! I'm currently a college student studying creative writing; with gymnastics, my only experience is from when I was very very young. both of those are mostly research, and I have a friend who used to be a teacher who helps me out there!

[creampuffqueen]

Just Like This | Chapter One

Summary: Rayla and Callum have been best friends since elementary school. Now, years later, Rayla is discovering new feelings for her best friend. The only problem: she's about 99% sure he doesn't think of her in the same way. Not willing to risk their friendship, Rayla continues to hide her feelings for Callum. How long until the truth comes out?

a/n: Hey everyone! Here it is, the greatly anticipated Rayllum high school au! Please please please reblog this, because Tumblr won't show this post in the main tags due to an affiliate link! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

Word Count: 3372

Warnings: Language

Read on Ao3

~~~~

Sunday, September 30th, 2020

Katolis Supermarket, 5:31 PM

“Who wrote this list?” Rayla complained loudly, stalking behind Callum at the grocery store, shaking the piece of paper in his face. Her fellow sophomore was pushing a cart around, eternally focused on the task ahead.

“Well, Claudia suggested it, but everyone else added on,” Callum replied, not even looking at her. Stopping in the middle of the isle, he grabbed a 12-pack of soda and loaded it in the cart. “What’s next?”

Looking over the extensive list again, Rayla frowned. “Uh, it says… ‘those little animal cookie things with sprinkles, you know the ones’.”

Callum finally turned to look at her, a wide grin on his face as they both said “Soren,” in unison.

“Jinx,” Rayla giggled, “You owe me a soda.”

“Okay… just take one from the pack when we get home?”

Both teenagers continued through the store, Rayla getting bored of walking and hanging off the front of the cart, laughing as Callum made a big deal of struggling to push them around.

She supposed they should be hurrying. Evening was approaching quickly, and soon all their friends would be over at Callum’s place to study. Callum had dragged her off to the grocery store to get snacks for their cram session, considering she lived only a street over and had a car.

“We’re all going to be sick by the end of the night,” Rayla sighed, loading more snacks into the cart.

“Well, at least we’ll be awake,” Callum, ever cheerful, turned his head around to grin at her.

At his smile, Rayla felt her heart give a small wayward flutter, though she squished it down quickly. Tonight was important; she needed to pass this test to keep her grade up, and it wouldn’t help if she spent the entire night mulling over how cute her best friend’s smile looked.

“Yeah,” She chuckled, trying to pull herself back to the present. Keep it together, Rayla.

They got their unhealthy amount of junk food, collectively winced at the price, bought it anyway, and set about loading it in the backseat of Rayla’s car.

In no time at all Rayla was driving, Callum reclining in the passenger seat. With the radio cranked up, neither felt the need to talk, content to sit in the comfortable silence.

It was hard to believe that they’d been friends for eight years now. Rayla could still remember the first time they met like it was yesterday.

She was eight years old, in second grade, having just moved to a new school after her parents left on a military tour and she went to live with her uncles. Her first day of school had gone off without a hitch.

That is, until she met Callum at recess.

Content to play by herself, Rayla had been making use of the free time by pretending to build a fort under the slide. While pretending to hammer in nails, she noticed a small group of kids nearby. Two boys and a girl.

While she couldn’t make out all the words, the body language she saw was more than enough. The bigger boy, a head of blond hair, was pointing at the smaller, brown-haired boy, and laughing. The girl, black hair tied in two pigtail braids, was looking between them, unsure of what to do.

Curious eight-year-old Rayla snuck up, for she’d always been good at sneaking, and listened in on the conversation.

“Soren, shut up, he’s going to cry!” The girl said.

“Oh, so little Callum’s a crybaby now?” The boy, Soren, taunted.

“I’m not a crybaby, Soren!” The other boy shouted, though he couldn’t hide the sniffle at the end of his sentence.

“Oooh, Callum’s crying! Who’s gonna help him, his dad? Oh wait-”

Soren didn’t get to finish his sentence.

Well, she thought as she sat in the principal’s office twenty minutes later, Runaan will be happy to know that I’m learning something in my karate class.

All four kids were in the office, sitting in chairs in front of the desk. Callum and the other girl, Claudia, were both still sniffling from residual tears. Soren, fresh from the nurse’s office, was holding an ice pack over a rapidly blackening eye.

The door opened, and in came the principal, shaking her head with a sigh.

“You three again?”

“We didn’t do anything!” Soren shouted, voice whistling through the new gap in his teeth. Oh yeah, she’d knocked a tooth out as well. “She started it!”

“Well you were being really mean to that other kid!” Rayla protested. She and Soren glared at each other from their respective chairs, accusatory fingers pointed straight out.

“I wasn’t being mean, I was just joking!” Soren explained, “Callum’s my friend!”

“Well Soren, what you said was really mean-” Claudia interjected, but the boy, who Rayla had learned was her brother, interrupted.

“Callum, you know I was joking, right?”

“Well…” Soren’s face fell as Callum dropped his gaze to his lap. “It did kind of hurt my feelings, Soren…”

“Wait, you’re friends?” Rayla exclaimed, glancing curiously between both boys. “I thought he was bullying you! And my parents and uncles always said you have to stand up to bullies and-”

“I’m not a bully!” Soren shouted. Voices began to rise between them again, and the principal was forced to interject.

“All of you, quiet down. I’m going to talk with you each individually, and we’ll see what happens then. Callum, come with me. The rest of you: play nice.”

In the end, Rayla got suspended for two days for fighting, and Soren got one day for bullying. Despite the massive lecture Runaan and Ethari subjected her to, Rayla couldn’t help but feel like she’d done the right thing in the end.

When she returned to school, she was surprised to find Callum approach her at recess, a little paper bag clutched shyly in his hands.

“Sorry my friends and I got you in trouble,” He said, passing the bag to her. Opening it, Rayla’s face split into a huge grin at the sight of two tart-things waiting for her, filled with jelly.

“Soren’s usually pretty nice,” Callum continued, “But he doesn’t know when to stop talking. If you hadn’t stepped in, he would have said something mean without thinking, I’m sure. So you kind of helped both of us, in a way.”

“Oh. Well, you’re welcome, I guess. And thanks for the tarts.”

She was about to turn away and enjoy her spoils, but then Callum kept talking.

“Do you want to come play with us? Me and Claudia are pretending to do magic, and Soren’s a knight. You can do magic with us, if you want.”

Well, this game was certainly right up her alley. “I’ll play,” Rayla conceded, “But only if I get to be an elf.”

Callum grinned broadly, pointing to where the two siblings were playing. “Of course.”

~~~~

“The snacks are here!” Rayla called into the house, arms laden with shopping bags. Callum shut the door behind them, similarly burdened with the case of soda.

The pounding of feet sounded overhead, and several heads poked over the stairwell to glimpse the pair in the kitchen. “Finally!” Soren cheered, racing downstairs to try and rifle through the bags Rayla was carrying.

“Not yet, you lump,” Rayla scolded, pushing past the senior boy, “We’ve got to get upstairs at least.”

“Thanks for going to get snacks,” Claudia called, and her thanks was echoed by the other kids there. Callum and Rayla both shrugged, and made their way upstairs to the game room, where they’d all be studying.

Sitting on the various bean bag chairs and couches, the rest of the study group cheered when the food and drinks arrived. Andromeda, Callisto, Ram, Skor, and Marcos all leapt up to snatch the snacks they wanted. When everyone was sitting again, food in hand, Callum gave a dramatic clearing of his throat, turning all the heads in the room towards him.

“So, uh, thanks for coming over. Hopefully we can all actually get some studying done, since, you know, that’s what we’re here for.” He fixed a firm glance on the two couples in the room. “Ground rules: no making out in my house, don’t be super messy, and also please actually study. Soren, no idea what you’re doing here since you’ve already taken this history class, but okay.”

The older boy shrugged, taking a big gulp of his soda. “Moral support. A welcome distraction.”

Callum clapped his hands together once. “Okay then. I actually made a schedule for this, and if we follow it, we can cover all of the sections by… midnight, I think. 11 pm if we work really fast.”

“You made a schedule for studying?” Callisto asked in disbelief. Andromeda laughed, throwing an arm over her partner’s shoulder.

“Yes, I made a schedule for studying, I think it’s going to be very helpful!” Callum defended, crossing his arms over his chest. Even talking with the other two people, his green eyes somehow still managed to find Rayla’s.

She met his gaze, just for a second, heart pounding, before she looked away again. “Well, guys, if Callum wants to make a study schedule, good for him. Let’s just get started; I really need to pass this test.”

“Since when have you been worried about grades, Rayla?” Skor snorted, reclining in a beanbag chair, dumping spicy chips into his mouth.

“Since I’m in four extracurriculars and if I don’t pass, I don’t play.”

“Try-hard,” Soren coughed from his seat. Rayla just flashed him her middle finger, eliciting wild laughter from the rest of the room.

“Guys,” Callum whined, “I’m trying to be productive-”

“Okay, let’s start,” Claudia said, placing a gentle hand on Callum’s arm. It took everything Rayla had not to glare at the other girl, biting back the unwarranted flash of jealousy.

That’s all in the past. We figured it out.

Usually, she could forget just how close Callum was with Soren and Claudia. But then, something like this would happen, and she’d be reminded that before he met her, it was the siblings who were his best friends.

Having known them his whole life, it was no surprise that he’d developed a massive crush on Claudia in middle school. And he never shut up about it.

His confession at the end of seventh grade had very nearly torn their friend group to shreds. He wanted to ask her to the end of year dance, and when Claudia accepted he was ecstatic. Rayla had been happy for him, and just hoped that when they started dating, they wouldn’t be weird about it and make her and Soren uncomfortable.

But as it turned out, Claudia only thought of Callum as a friend. When she told him, Callum was crushed.

Rayla could still remember opening up her front door to see her best friend standing there, tears streaking down his face.

“Rayla, I just- I can’t believe how stupid I am-”

She pulled him into a fierce hug, and didn’t relinquish her grip on him until his mother came to pick him up. At school the next day, nobody could stop her wrath as she stalked up to Claudia and demanded answers.

“How could you?! You know how Callum feels about you, and you led him on anyway!” Rayla shouted.

“I didn’t want to hurt his feelings!” Claudia insisted, “And I do know how he feels and I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea-”

“No, I know what flirting looks like, and you led him on! He believed that you felt the same way!”

Claudia looked on the verge of tears, and some sick part of Rayla was glad for it. Let her feel bad for her actions, let her feel the same way Callum was feeling.

“Look, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings. I just… I don’t see Callum in that way.”

“Then why’d you keep flirting with him?” Rayla’s voice was dangerously low. Their shouting match had attracted a small audience in the school cafeteria.

“I…” She was at a loss for words.

“You know what?” Rayla snapped, “Save it for someone who cares. Explain yourself to Callum, not me. It’s him who needs the apology.”

The next few weeks were tense. Hardly any of them spoke to each other. Even though Soren was in high school and had nothing to do with the drama, he still sided with his sister, like Rayla knew he would.

Things worked out. Slowly, but surely, they worked out. But not without a lot of tears from everyone involved, a lot of yelling, a lot of accusations. Things worked out.

But even after Claudia and Callum were on speaking terms again, he decided to ditch the dance. Rayla, who never was going in the first place, was more than happy to offer up her couch for a night of movie watching and junk food eating. And sure, Claudia’s Instagram photos were cute, but for Rayla, nothing could beat the fun she was having with her best friend, right here.

Rayla was pretty sure that was when she’d started to fall in love with him. Or, more accurately, when she realized that she already had fallen in love with him.

However, confessing your love to your best friend after a recent heartbreak seemed like a bad idea. So she kept it to herself.

Which, she supposed, was how she found herself here, three years later, still madly in love with her best friend who was none the wiser, getting jealous over a relationship she both knew was purely innocent and also she had no claim over anyway.

Cool, Rayla, very cool.

Shoving down her stupid feelings, Rayla listened as Callum went over his plan for the evening. Review through chapter 2, take a 15 minute break, review through chapter 4, continue pattern until they got through all the chapters they needed.

The plan was met with a loud groan of complaint from Soren’s end. “Callum, why are you even doing this? You literally have a photographic memory.”

“Well, you guys don’t, so really I’m helping all of you!”

“I mean…” Rayla snorted, “Soren does have a point. Why are you so worried about studying, Callum?”

The teenage boy scratched at his neck awkwardly. “Well, uh, it’s kind of embarrassing, but… I’ve only skimmed for answers this entire time. I need to actually read the passages to remember it.”

Rayla just rolled her eyes. “Callum. Everyone on earth just skims for answers. We know you’re all goody two-shoes, teacher’s pet, but chill. You’re going to be fine.”

“How are you so chill, Rayla?” Callum demanded, “Weren’t you just freaking out, like, two seconds ago? Hello, Miss I’m-in-every-sport-imaginable?”

“Changing the subject!” Rayla declared loudly, “Open up the textbook, Callum!”

~~~~

“Time check,” Ram moaned from where his face was pressed into one of the beanbag chairs, “How much longer?”

“We’re at-” Callum attempted to respond, but was cut off by a yawn.

“Chapter six?” Rayla asked, though she wasn’t too sure herself. All the words were beginning to jumble together on the pages. At some point her notecards had gotten mixed up, and random dates and events were scattered all over the room.

“No, the time,” Ram complained. The other boy sat up, brushing his shaggy white hair from his eyes. “What time is it? My curfew is 11:30.”

Callisto grabbed their phone and took a glance. “11:15.”

“Ok, let’s review,” Callum suggested. However, the entire room gave a loud groan of complaint.

“My brain is melting!” Soren cried, dramatically tossing his head into Marcos’s lap. His boyfriend rolled his eyes at his antics, though he threaded his fingers through the other boy’s blond hair.

“Soren, you don’t have to take this test tomorrow!” Claudia snapped, “Don’t start whining!” The girl looked almost ready to start pulling her hair out.

“Alright,” Andromeda sighed, “My mom’s calling; she’s probably here to pick me up. Thanks for this, Callum. If I find a quizlet I’ll send it in the groupchat, okay?”

“Yes!” Skor cheered, “Quizlet is my lifesaver!”

“Pass me some Doritos, Rayla,” Callum muttered in quiet defeat. Rayla hummed in agreement, grabbing the chip bag from the pile of snacks nearby. Her friend was so tired that he didn’t even complain when she took a couple for herself.

One by one, the room began to empty. Callisto’s dad came to pick them up, Ram agreed to drive Skor home, and Claudia, Soren, and Marcos piled into Soren’s little car to drive off into the night.

That just left Rayla. And Callum. Alone.

“Place is a mess,” Callum sighed, taking in all the damage. Although they’d started out pretty clean, as the night wore on everyone got lazier and started just piling the trash where they were sitting. Crumbs spilled over the carpet, and empty soda cans rolled about.

“Let me help clean,” Rayla offered, “I mean, some of the mess is mine.” She gestured to the notecards spilled everywhere. Her mind was a bit fuzzy from exhaustion, but she was pretty sure she and Soren had started throwing them at each other at one point.

“No, it’s fine-” Callum sputtered, but Rayla just rolled her eyes.

“Let me help. Then we can both go to bed and you won’t get in trouble for the mess.” She left no room for argument, and started gathering up all the garbage and stuffing it in the empty grocery bags.

They worked in companionable silence, just tidying up the room. Rayla knew his house well enough to know where everything went, and tossed out all the garbage and swept up the lingering crumbs. Soon enough, the room looked nearly spotless again.

“See, fast!” Rayla chuckled. She glanced at her phone. “Just in time, too. Runaan’s asking where I am.”

Callum surprised her with a sudden hug, catching her off guard for a moment before she returned it, trying to calm her fluttering heart.

It’s just a hug. Friends hug all the time, don’t get all excited.

“Thanks for coming,” Callum said, a tiny bit breathlessly, “I know you were worried about the test and I wanted to help, sorry it got kind of out of hand.”

“You… organized this all… for me?” Rayla hoped her face wasn’t as red as it felt.

“Well, yeah,” He laughed, “Even though you probably didn’t need it. You know all the material really well.”

“Only thanks to you, and you know that,” Giving him a friendly punch to the shoulder, Rayla couldn’t contain her grin. “I do feel better prepared, though. I’ll pass. If my brain doesn’t turn to mush first.”

“You’ll ace it,” Callum assured her, “I’m sure of it.”

His green eyes were so bright. And his smile so genuine. Rayla returned it, albeit with less enthusiasm. “Thanks.” Her voice sounded stupidly high-pitched, even to her.

He held her gaze for another long moment before glancing down, at the buzzing phone in her hand that she hadn’t even noticed, too caught up in staring. “You should go. Get some sleep for the test tomorrow, huh?”

“Yeah,” Rayla breathed, “You too. I’ll see in English tomorrow.”

It was an effort to leave the room. To walk down the stairs, quietly so she wouldn’t wake his parents, and out the front door. To open up her door and get in the car, turn the key in the ignition.

The entire street was silent. That’s how it always was, she supposed. The first to arrive and the last to leave. A glance up told her Callum was staring out his bedroom window at her, watching her leave.

With a heavy sigh, Rayla put the car in reverse. Pulled out of the driveway.

She wasn’t naive. Callum had always been big on physical contact, and it had never meant anything more than he cared. She wasn’t willing to put her heart on the line like that, not when she was sure he didn’t like her that way.

Rayla was a risk taker. Always had been. But this? To risk the relationship she already had with her best friend? That was one risk she would never be willing to take.

~~~~

a/n: Poor Rayla! I would like to apologize to everyone in advance; the pining is not going to get better for a LONG TIME

Tag List: (comment to be added or removed)

@hipster-rapunzel

[beautifulterriblequeen]

The Thief and the Tinker, Part 3: I See Fire

part 2

Part 3

Viren: Well how do you suggest we get him out?

Claudia: *grins, brandishes marshmallow on toasting fork* Unharmed is just another kind of harmed

Viren: Claudia no

Claudia: Claudia YES

I See Fire

Angst rating: 9/10

Viren is clever enough not to take the Silvergrove on alone, no matter how badly he wants Ethari to make him a magic key. Aaravos could be cooking in that pod for a while longer, but Viren still has a trustworthy and badass ally at his side.

Oh yeah, it's Claudia Time again!

Claudia is a powerful and imaginative dark mage, and she has the tainted Sun staff. So, you're the magefam, and you've made it to Xadia, to the edges of the Moonshadow Forest. And all you need to do to get the power of your dreams is to threaten one soft craftsman. But how do you find one specific Moonshadow elf in a hidden Moonshadow village somewhere in the middle of a giant spooky magical forest?

You burn him out.

Credit once again to@random-fandom-ramble for reminding me of this forest fire headcanon, because it fits so well. and so I don't get all the blame for this one, lol

Because see, that's not ordinary fire. Oh, no. That's dark magic fire. We've seen that before. It leaves permanent scars. Remember Sol Regem's eyes?

That's going to be the landscape when Claudia's fire gets through with the Moonshadow elves' home. Where I live on the US West Coast, they name forest fires, and if they combine, they get called complexes. So maybe we can name this fire the Dark Tragedy Complex? Because I do have to wonder... you could start a dark magic forest fire easily with a tainted Sun staff, but how do you put it out?

Two things are going to happen if these events should unfold. One is angsty. The other is also angsty but then amazing.

Firstly, Viren is going to get what he wants. He'll find Ethari, whose tree burned down :(. He'll show him the coins, and he'll offer a trade. Build what he wants and make it work, and Ethari can have his family back, uncoined and free.

And Ethari will say yes.

He'll say yes no matter what anyone else tries to persuade him to do, and I hope they do try, because see: Ethari has to make it look good. He has to make it look like he's all in on Viren's plan, to Viren. Even if that means turning his back on his people in their time of greatest need.

Secondly, the Moonshadow elves are going to be collectively homeless and bereft, hungry, injured, terrified, angry. They will have nowhere to go. They will be a people without a home. And no one else in Xadia will help them. Maybe they're too terrified to hide Ethari's people in case doing so brings Viren down on them, too. We've seen how ordinary elves flee in terror from dark magic. Maybe they're all fighting other issues, too. Viren knows all about stretching resources too far during times of crisis. Whatever the case, there will be no welcome anywhere in Xadia for the Moonshadow elves of the Moonshadow Forest.

But here's where it gets amazing. Because one hand will reach out. One small hand, from across the border. Good King Ezran will stand up on the seat of his throne and say, "You can stay here. I have forests. You're tired, you're hungry. You need medicine. Let me help."

And I'm gonna cry like a little baby.

How many cycles does this break, how many circles does it complete? Moonshadow elves used to live in Katolis before the border was created. When humans were under threat of total annihilation, the Moonshadow leader's daughter spoke up and asked for mercy. That mercy came in the form of land reassignment, and the Moonshadow elves had to give up their ancestral home, their Nexus, and travel east across the new Border. But that mercy got paired with justice, and the life-loving Moon Druids probably had to swear some kind of blood promise to keep an eye on the humans forevermore, and to kill any individuals who got out of hand, as if their sins were the Moonshadows' responsibility now.

That's got to breed a little resentment, a little superiority. "Look what we sacrificed for you, and this is how you act. Ungrateful." And maybe that was partially Luna Tenebris's goal: to hold to her vision of justice, she had to make the elves who shared her arcanum feel a little resentment. Moonshadows love life, but we can't have them being too soft to keep Xadia safe from dark mages, now, can we? I will never stop cackling over dragon politics okay, never

But the Moonshadow elves never figured on King Ezran. A soft boy who refused to let his father's assassination harden his heart, because every life is genuinely important to him. I've seen headcanons for Ezran getting the Sun, Earth, Ocean, and Stars arcanum. How about Moon, too? Because this is very Ethari of him, and if these stories of Viren's plan and the Moonshadow elves' displacement were actually to happen in tandem, the contrast between Ezran's soft choice and Ethari's hard one would be mindblowing.

Ezran completes the circle by inviting the Moonshadow elves to return to Katolis, to their ancestral home. They left long ago, paying the price for an act of mercy, but they were welcomed back by the mercy of humans, repaid after a thousand years, repaid in the face of tragedy. Tragedy on all sides. Tragedy Ezran wants to stop from happening, by being brave and caring and soft, and by being the first to break this thousand-year cycle between Katolis and the Moonshadow elves.

Rayla is his friend. And these are her people. It won't matter what they've done, only that they need help in a time of great desperation. And of course he'll help them. He's Ezran, and he's Katolis's greatest treasure.

Oh, what's that you say? Inviting the Moonshadow elves to settle in Katolis again would make it easier for Rayla to live with Callum in the future? Oh gosh, how about that? What a deal. *smug matchmaker noises*

And once the Moonshadow elves understand that they're safe and begin to trust Ezran--which could happen very quickly, because saving a Moonshadow elf's life when you didn't need to is a really fast way to prove you're trustworthy--maybe Ezran will be encouraged to take the next step toward peace, and eventually other elves and dragons will come to meet together to talk it over. And Ez will offer them jelly tarts, which they will love.

Back to Ethari, because we're not done with him yet. Ethari is soft, but he isn't weak. He won't be a willing pawn for Viren. He loves Runaan to the point of invention, and his devotion is more constant than the moon itself. He'll agree to do what Viren says, and he'll be Very Sad. But his spirit is in no way broken. Viren bribing him with the coins containing his family will only have the opposite effect. It'll give Ethari something to fight for.

We could get Focused Chaos Ethari. We could get Angery Trickster Ethari. We could get Rules, What Rules? Ethari. Let him try to steal the coins, try to break them, try to kill Viren, and be stymied at every turn, until he settles and seems cowed. And then all he does is craft his way out of the problem. What if we are gifted with Iron Man Ethari, who pretends to build a fake Key for Viren, but meanwhile he's really building a coinbuster with whatever he can get his hands on - primal stones, magically imbued gemstones, stolen artifacts, his own arcanum, his own reputation as the Master Craftsman of the Silvergrove. He'll use almost- almost - anything, to stop Viren and free his family.

Ethari may have to choose between those two things, though. And he's a hero, deep down, just like his family, just like his daughter. If he has to choose, he'll choose to stop Viren and save Xadia. He'll pay the same price as his family has if he must.

He'd let Viren think he was motivated purely by wanting his family back, but Ethari is far too steeped in the illusion and sacrifice for that to be all there is to his motives. It's a so-close-and-yet-so-far thing, how he and Viren almost embody the same ideals. Almost. Ethari would take one look at Viren, who just burnt down his whole Forest, he'd see the biggest threat in Xadia, and he'd say anything to get a chance to stop this juggernaut of destruction from getting his hands on whatever that ultimate power really is, locked behind that missing key. If he has to abandon his people and bawl his eyes out to convince Viren he's in, then he will.

And Viren wouldn't make it easy for him. He knows clever when he sees it. He went through all this trouble to persuade Ethari to work with him. He would need to keep Ethari as off-balance as possible to ensure that he keeps working as he should.

Angsty jewelry, anyone: Viren giving Ethari his husband in pendant form to remind him what he's working for, when Viren and Ethari both know full well that only dark magic can open the hellcoins. Ethari wearing another pendant of his love, except it's not a metaphor this time. It's literally his love, in a coin around his neck.

Viren would know that Ethari would have to stay close to Viren of his own free will if he ever hoped to free Runaan. And making people bind themselves to you is a big power flex. Remember that TDP stream future-season teaser note about Bait being in a creepy restraint in a future season?

This card is written on in all-caps, so that really could be "Bait" or "bait," or--knowing this show--both. Viren's been using Runaan as bait for Ethari all along. Putting his coin in a dark magic pendant casing for Ethari to wear would be a great parallel for that. Oh god. Oh man.

Maybe he'll stab the coin's scary casing right through that circle on Ethari's chest, right over his heart, make that Iron Man reference really obvious. Ethari also losing his shirt at some point, for angsty Viren-related reasons? It's more likely than you think. I mean... Ethari is literally involved in both forms of forging at this point. Shirt's gotta come off for uhhhh work reasons. And because he's hot. Because of all the forging. I mean how else are we finally going to discover what his markings look like

I mentioned that I liked god-tier villains, right? Yeah, this is amazing. I haven't wanted to die and ascend over an idea for quite a while, but Ethari vs Viren in a drawn-out battle of wills would kill me in the best way. Especially since, while it looks like they're essentially fighting for who gets Runaan, they're truly fighting a much larger battle with much higher stakes. They're fighting for the future itself. It's an epic struggle between the Narrative of Strength and the Narrative of Love. And we've seen what happens, over and over, when the Narrative of Strength gets to call the shots.

On a meta note: If Runaan and Ethari's story arc isn't a love letter from one trauma survivor to another, and on a broader scope to all survivors who see it, I don't know what is. Sometimes life just chews us up and spits us out and we can't stop it and it breaks us. But sometimes we can reach out and grasp the chance to help each other, even after that, even when it hurts a lot, because we know what it means to be loved, and to love, and to want a safer future for each other and for people we'll never meet. The future is worth standing together for, helping each other back up for, fighting side by side for, even if you can't see how it'll end, or even how to begin. We are stronger together, and sometimes we need to fight for our "together" before we can fight for anything else. And that's worth it, every time.

This is glorious, it's beautiful, it's tragic, it's amazing, it makes me want to dance, it makes me want to scream into the void, it makes me want to slap someone with a semi truck. No, someone specific, don't worry, and he super deserves it.

Because Ethari is going to win. He was always going to win. He's soft, and he's clever, and he hasn't forgotten what love means. It's what he's fighting for. Not power, not control. Love. He doesn't want to dictate Runaan's future, or anyone else's. He just wants his husband--and everyone else--to have one at all.

So he's going to win.

What beating Viren looks like, I can't guess yet. TDP is no stranger to angst, so there will probably be a high cost involved in thwarting the dark mage. Maybe not everyone can be rescued from the coins. Maybe Ethari will lose his life, or his soul, or his vision, or something else really angsty. Viren could even kill him and resurrect him as a smoky craftsman, or a zombie craftsman, or something equally biddable but horrible. The only thing I'm sure of is that Ethari would never willingly make a working Key of Aaravos Ethari as long as there's a chance Viren could possess it. But I do believe that if he gets the right opportunity while he's busy saving the world from Viren's dark intentions, he'll break his husband's hellcoin open somehow and set him free, even if he has to smile at the devil to do it.

part 4

[foxie-roxie]

why rayllum is a MASTERPIECE part 3

*RUBS MY CLAWS TOGETHER* IT IS SEASON 3 TIME BITCHES AND H O L Y S H I T I LOVE THIS SEASON SO MUCH

i even rewatched it for this!

this time i’ll try to have SOME order, and go by episode. this will however still include unintelligible screaming

1. DAMN THESE FUCKERS BE PINING MORE THAN A PINE TREE FOREST!

first off, affectionate eye rolling, nose boop, and head bonk is the best thing.

second, IF SOMEONE SAYS THAT DURING WHEN CALLUM WAS HELPING RAYLA PUT ON HIS SCARF AND THEY J STARED AT EACHOTHER FOR A BIT BEFORE RAYLA TURNED AWAY THAT HE WAS N O T LOST IN HER EYES? they’re wrong. this is fact now.

third, their teamwork and decision making is excellent. they agree to try and sneak past sol regem, and when that fails try talking to him and then decide to simply trick his senses with the scarf. and instead of rayla shooting down callum’s “smelltriloquism” idea, she simply adds onto it! LOVE HEALTHY FRIENDSHIPS

“i think it’s good luck!” YES IT IS RAY THAT’S UR BOYFRIENDS SCARF

also, here you go. you’re welcome.

2. STILL PINING. GOD DAMN.

first, CALLUM BEING SO EXCITED BY ALL THE MAGIC IN XADIA IS S O CUTE! MY SON. this might turn into an overrall review of s3. o well

second. FLUSTERED RAYLA AND FLUSTERED CALLUM. Y E S

third, THE ADORABURR FIELD! their smiles were so fond and soft and A. they make me cry of joy. 

an overall look on it, i like how this episode really shows their feelings clearly. no “will they won’t they”, at least for rayla. it’s clear she has feelings.

3. AH FUCK. ANGST.

first i love how when rayla mentions that she’s excited and happy but also terrified, callum tries to comfort her. good boi. best boi.

second, elf callum. i love that scene so much even if the second-hand embarrassment kills me, and rayla is j like “why the fuck do i love you. im gonna kill him.”

third, DANCE! callum not being rude and saying her home is “modest” before rayla explains it’s an illusion, his BLUSH WHEN SHE HELPS HIM, and the softness in general. rayla’s excitement that she’s home and talks abt that she can show callum where she went to school, the best moonberry surprise place, until...

fourth, AH FUCK. A N G S T T I M E. rayla being crest-fallen before callum says that it must’ve been a mistake, and she realizes that ethari would probably understand!

and then CONFIRMED GAYS. YES.

rayla realizing ethari ghosted her too and then callum GOING O F F. he angy and when rayla runs out callum IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS (like in a later episode) and comforts her again.

when ethari comes down and breaks the spell and says to callum “trees to meet you too” and rayla’s like “don’t encourage him”

also callum trying to get on the shadowpaw and ethari being Concerned is AMAZING. concerned dad content

i’ll talk more about ezran/ruthari/the dark magic trio in a later ted talk

4. H E R E W E G O

first, rayla clearly being sad and callum picking up on that quickly (he even seems to be almost falling on purpose, perhaps to make her smile?) and asking if she’s ok before being shot down by rayla insisting she is fine. GOD DAMN. THAT HURTS.

second, their interaction with nyx is so amazing. rayla being protective of zym and callum being a DORK is awesome, but also their decision making.

after rayla reluctantly decides that they can go see how nyx could get them across the desert so quickly, they see the ambler and then their reasoning is amazing.

“what do you think?”

“the dragon queen is dying.” and then i forget the rest of the exact quote but they give a subtle nod to eachother. they make their decisions TOGETHER. AS A TEAM. AND THAT’S ON HEALTHY FRIENDSHIPS X2!

third, callum continuing to gently press for rayla to express her emotions. he doesn’t pressure her, but seems to simply let her know that if she needs to talk (when she insists she’s fine), he is there. 

four, MORE FLUSTERED RAYLLUM. YES. TY NYX but also fuck u for taking zym but also ur hot- A N Y W A Y

five. OOOOOOH. MY FAVORITE SCENE.

rayla’s crying and callum tries to reassure her. nyx is plotting, while rayla runs away and callum follows. Y E S.

rayla talks about how there’s nobody left that cares about her and she lost everything.. and then the SPEECH. i have this speech memorized i’ve watched this scene so many times

"JUST SHUT UP, YOU'RE TALKING CRAZY. JUST, LISTEN TO ME. YOU'RE TOO GOOD TO FEEL THIS BAD ABOUT YOURSELF. I KNOW THAT, AND YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT. YOU HAVE TRUE COURAGE, AND A BIG HEART! I'VE SEEN YOU GET KNOCKED DOWN SO MANY TIMES AND EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. YOU GET UP AGAIN. THAT'S REAL STRENGTH. AND.. AND YOU'RE TEN TIMES FUNNIER THAN ANY HUMAN I KNOW! chuckle SEE? SEE YOU KNOW YOU'RE AMAZING. YOU'RE SMART AND FAST AND BEAUTIFUL. RAYLA YOU'RE THE MOST AMAZING PERSON I'VE EVER MET."

LOVE THEMMM

and then rayla kisses him and that’s all that happened. callum was not a dumbass. right? RIGHT???

5. MY FAVORITE EPISODE!

first, rayla saving callum from the soulfang serpents and callum helping her get up is AMAZING, LOVE THAT.

second, callum tryna get a good position and rayla j saying to hold onto her and callum GETTING FLUSTERED. BOY IS PINING also he didn’t have to hold her that close.

“I DON’T THINK OF HER THAT WAY” “YOU AND I DON’T HAVE THAT YET” LIAR.

three, THEM JUMPING OFF THE AMBLER AND. THAT WHOLE MOMENT? THE ROMANTIC TENSION IS KILLING ME

four. DAMN CALLUM RLLY DO BE HAVING HEART EYES @ RAYLA WHILE SHE KILLS LIKE 80 SOULFANGS HE IS PINING PART 2

five. THE SPEECH. THE SOFTNESS. THE KISSES. GOD DAMN. FAVORITE SCENE OUT OF THE ENTIRETY OF TDP. LOVE THEM.

also here you go again

what can i say except YOU’RE WELCOME

6. ANGST BUT ALSO FLUFF ALSO REUNION

once again won’t b talking abt ezran specifically but there’s some passing mentions of him from now on

first, rayla and callum reaching the stone thunder and callum asking “is it... a statue?” and rayla sadly saying “no. it’s not a statue” A. I CRI.

1.5 ayla and callum best dragon parents

i’ll get to an actual analysis later

second, THIS MOMENT IS UNDERRATED EVEN THO IT’S ONE OF MY FAVS why has nobody mentioned the lil tender moment where ezran is by phoe-phoe and rayla puts her hand on callum’s shoulder AND CALLUM PUTS HIS HAND ON HERS. SO SWEET.

third, OK I’LL STOP MOST OF MY UNINTELLIGIBLE SHRIEKS AND ACTUALLY ANALYZE THIS.

callum is upset because of thunder and rayla sympathizes immediately. this is similar to how callum lets rayla let out her own emotions, and rayla is doing the same. he explains how he feels angry, upset, confused, sad, and rayla quickly empathizes. he keeps on venting, not knowing whether to feel regretful, or glad, and how he’s confused because that’s sarai’s spear. he feels sorry that all this happened, but rayla reassures him that zym and ezran are going to break the cycle! that’s hope! and then they hold hands and i screech

AND THAT’S SO FUCKING HEALTHY AND I LOVE IT. THEY RLLY BREAK ALL BAD HET RELATIONSHIP STEREOTYPES (coughbutistillheadcanonthembothasbiandcallumistransilldieonthishillcough)

7. angst but not rayllum angst so its ok

first, they begin to go up the storm spire and i really love their banter. “and i’m guessing the dragon queen didn’t make her den at a nice, halfway kinda place?” “nope. tiptop!”

cuties.

second, ASSDHFNF THE FACT THEY M O C K THE IDEA OF A FORBIDDEN RELATIONSHIP. THEY’RE IN LOVE AND THE WORLD CAN DEAL WITH IT. LOVE THAT FOR THEM

third, RAYLA CATCHING CALLUM. IT’S. NOT RLLY BIG I JUST LIKE IT AND THINK IT’S CUTE HOW EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS ALSO OUT OF BREATH SHE RAN UP TO CATCH HIM. 

four, AHSDHGDHFG THEY DEADASS FORGOT EZRAN WAS THERE. more flustered rayllum i love that

8. FUCK IT’S RAYLLUM ANGST NOOOO

one, ibis is j a good boi. back to rayla and callum

two, rayla going in to see the dragon queen and when she runs out callum QUICKLY FOLLOWS to see if she’s ok. asks her if she’s ok, and she OPENS UP!! CHARACTER GROWTH BABY!!! and then they hold hands and i once again shriek

three, AH. HELLO ANGST.

before we go to the actual angst, can i say that THE LAUGH AFTER RAYLA SAID “STORM SNEEZE” IS SO CUTE. CALLUMS IN LOVE. MY SON.

oh no.

*bonks rayla on the head* nO SELF SACRIFICING!!

although their fight is super angsty and i hate it, it does provide some conflict and more plot because it gives callum a reason to want to find out the truth about rayla’s parents. and then he does! people argue that this fight was unnecessary or that callum was a jerk, but this was needed i think. he did let his worry become a bit of anger, and that was not a nice move, but he knows he fucked up and fixes it!

and then we get soft rayllum this is fine

9. AND YOU THOUGHT LAST EPISODE WAS BAD N O *CRYING*

there’s not much rayllum featured in this ep, but the amount we do get is 80 PERCENT ANGST AND I WASN’T OK WITH IT

first, the fluff! callum trying to do the wing spell and rayla teasing “did you pull a muscle in the middle of a jumping jack?” is so cute. i LOVE THEM. also they hold hands and i SH RIEK again. 

also soren how dare you interrupt callum he was abt to confess

second, callum when he’s explaining the battle plan and his ZAP HAND. rayla is j watching him like “yep. that is my dork.”

and CALLUM SEEMS SO FOND WHEN JANAI CALLS RAYLA THE LAST DRAGONGUARD. PERHAPS I SOB

skipping forward in time a bit for the angst oh no

third, callum going up to the storm spire after ez encouraging him to go to rayla. love that soft brotherly relationship. and we think “oh, soft rayllum, right?”

NO. VIREN’S UP THERE.

fourth, THEY DIDN’T NEED ME TO BE ROLLING ON THE FLOOR WTF. the fact that rayla’s blade went right in front of callum and he looks up and sees zym in danger, viren is there, and RAYLA is there, p a n i k.

and then rayla jumps and the entire rayllum fandom SC REAMS after callum’s “no!” before she jumps and “no, no, no, RAYLA!”

fifth, CALLUM NO WHY ARE YOU JUMPING TOO- oh wait its ok he did the wings and im still crying fuck

THAT CONFESSION THO- i cri tears of joy now. they’re in love

sixth, I J WANNA KNOW WHAT THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT BEFORE EZRAN SHOWED UP. like it’s clear that they’re talking or something, but abt what is the question. also yes they hug and raylas fond

seventh, THEY HOLD HANDS!! soft bbs,,,

AAAND IM DONE! this is. quite long so if you read all of this i hope u have a good day and thnx for listening to me ramble with some coherent thoughts

[raayllum]

so we will have ocean, coins and kimdael in the same season is this going to be rayla's season? I think it's also going to be a traumatic season for Rayla, what are your expectations for her this season?

Yeah, today's short story definitely shed light on how Kim'Dael is factoring into the plot, which is a big relief because it was a big head scratcher for me! Turns out we knew literally nothing and that's why. However I've written a little bit about why I think Kim'Dael is being included with context from Bloodmoon Huntress, which was far easier to at least take a stab at (ha) predictions wise.

The last time Rayla faced Kim'Dael, Runaan and Ethari were there to help protect her, reaffirming that they were stronger together. Now her family is in coins and while not physically alone any more, I think S5 will shed light on how emotionally isolated she still is. She left in TTM to "be strong" and protect the people she loves, but this was a very misguided (understandable) choice born out of deep trauma.

Now she knows Callum is vulnerable to Aaravos, Viren is legitimately alive, Claudia is more dangerous than ever, her parents are weaker than ever, and Kim'Dael is running around. Oof. Rayla is also primed to become more like Runaan than ever before, with her boyfriend literally asking her to kill him and be a proper assassin a season before. It's an emotionally rigorous combination

Basically, I'm expecting Rayla to have the worst time she's ever had in her life (which is saying something) but hopefully this emotional of a process, as well as having Callum actually back as a support - although whether she'll be receptive to his support again is up in the air, as she's always been back and forth with it - can hopefully mean she starts gaining ground in healing and dealing with some of her emotional & self worth issues

I think the first step will be her realizing she Can save people again (since 4x05 and her failed mission casts doubt on that) which would work out nicely if she saves Callum from possession. Then hopefully she can learn that just because she can sacrifice herself for others doesn't mean she always should - that she's saving her parents because she wants to, not because she failed them somehow or has to redeem herself

At the very least, I'm expecting at least one Rayla breakdown if not two, because a Rayla breakdown every season is a TDP tradition at this point, and we're certainly not going to stop now

TLDR; I think in many ways she'll be pushed to her absolute emotional breaking point, and there's hopefully nowhere to go but up

[swtzutara]

MAJOR THROUGH THE MOON SPOILERS

after reading through the moon, I decided to make a post with all my predictions for season four, especially because it changed the course of what most of us were expecting for it (rather tragically). i think it’ll be fun to come back here when the season drops and see what I got right. most of these predictions were already in my mind before the comic came out, but I had to change them just a bit to fit what happened at the end of thought the moon. under a read more because of ~spoilers 

Rayla won’t appear on the first episode, and maybe not on the second one too (though I think we might see a little bit of her at the end of the second ep) but we’ll see her on the end credits art, like maybe clues showing where she is, or the places she went to

I think callum is gonna be desperate about her, and will want to go after her right away, but won’t be able too for some reason, probably ezran and soren convincing him to go back to katolis first, or maybe something in the letter she left for him? 

Callum and ezran will have a fight about callum wanting to leave everything behind and go look for rayla, because ezran is also worried about her but he can’t leave because of his duties, and he feels abandoned by rayla already and doesn’t want callum to leave him too. rayla leaving the way she did would impact them both, but since callum can be a little bit of jerk towards ezran when he’s got his head full, I think maybe he’ll focus on how rayla leaving affected him and how hurt he is, and forget that ezran also cares deeply about her. they’re brothers and it’s easy to get overly emotional with family, and to have a lot of complicated feelings, and I’d like to see it being explored on the show with them. also callum can’t just leave his brother like that, i think he knows that deep down, but after the events at the end of season three i think he would be really worried about rayla 

(that’s a popular one already) I think we might get a “Rayla Alone” kind of episode, since I believe rayla won’t appear much in the first episodes. the episode will show the scenes referenced in the end credits art from the previous episodes and also where she is now. i believe we will see her struggling mostly with her feelings, since survival is not a problem for her. she will have nightmares like the ones in through the moon, and maybe new ones, since she left callum and ezran behind and will probably feel guilty about it, even though she believes it was the right decision. it will be a very emotional journey, which i think would be great, rayla’s feelings are incredible to analyze and really complex, there’s just so much potential for her on this season

I think Terry the Earthblood Elf will appear on book four

Ezran and callum will have a Big Feelings Time and solve their fight (not fast or easily, but i’ll leave these details for the show lol), and then maybe they will send corvus or soren after her, but at some point i think callum will go too, perhaps after they got a clue? i love rayllum but i can’t think of callum just leaving his baby brother (who’s king) for only God knows how long, especially knowing that rayla can take care of herself during her journey, the biggest problem here is to where this journey is taking her

Rayla will be able to reach viren because I believe she will get the coins in this season. they need time to develop all the conflicts that will explode when runaan, tiadrin and lain are free, so I think she will get the coins by the end of season four, they will be freed on season five, and we’re gonna have seasons six and seven to develop the characters and the conflicts between them

Rayllum will have a Big Fight when they get together again. i think their inicial reactions will depend on the situation they will found themselves into when they reunite, but after this they will have a fight that will turn into a serious conversation about what happened; i think they just need to put their feelings out there and with the way things happened, it would be through some screaming. callum will talk about how he felt betrayed by her, how she left him and ezran, how he just wants to help her and be there for her, she broke his trust, and as much as i think he’ll understand her motives, it’s still very hurtful, and she doesn’t need to do things alone anymore. rayla will talk about how difficult it was for her to see everybody apparently moving on while she was stuck in the past, how she didn’t want him to distract her of her pain but just accept that she was hurting and let her deal with it on her own, how she COULDN’T let it go because only answers would bring her peace, though it is true that she didn’t have to run away and try to hunt viren on her own. they will be fine by the end of the season, but we’re gonna get some pretty heavy emotional moments before that

I think ezran won’t be able to go after rayla with callum because of his kingly duties, and we’re gonna get a lot of human kingdoms politics with his narrative, and maybe some aanya-ezran bonding (PLS I WANT IT SO BAD). it would be nice to see callum dealing with the politics to, awkward as he is, and he is a prince after all, he can’t just ignore this part of himself

I think amaya will be torn between lux aurea and katolis. i think she and janai will be pretty close when the season starts, and since janai, as the new queen, will be dealing with the disaster viren caused at lux aurea and with no doubt being stressed a lot by it, amaya will want to support her and be there for her, but then she’ll found out about what’s happening at katolis (aka her nephews fighting all the time and rayla’s disappearance and all the crazy politics ezran will be dealing with) and she’ll want to be there for them too. i think it would be nice to see amaya having more of a emotional conflict, she’s so tough when it comes to physical conflicts, but emotions are something that can really shake you to the core

I think ethari will help the boys on finding rayla, maybe with some spell he knows?? he might work with corvus or soren to track her, they both joining their abilities, that would be really sweet and also reinforce the show’s theme of humans and elves working together. i think maybe we won’t get A LOT of ethari on season four because I believe he will be of great importance on season five helping rayla free runaan, tiadrin and lain from the coins, but it wouldn’t make sense for him to NOT be a part of season four too, considering all the situation with rayla, and how he needs to make up for what he did to her

Aaravos will take great interest in claudia, but she won’t trust him. we already saw on the show that he thinks she’s a “useful asset” and that he’s impressed by her resourcefulness, and he’ll probably want to use her for his own gain, but she doesn’t trust him because she hates elves. the creators said aaravos is really manipulative, especially because he was able to manipulated viren, that is also very clever, so sooner or later he’ll find a way to manipulate claudia or get her to trust him, and I believe it’ll be through viren. he’ll either threaten viren behind viren’s back or manipulate viren so he manipulates his own daughter (what a mess)

I think callum may connect to the moon arcanum by the end of the season. i’m not really into the theory that he’ll connect to all six primal sources, because as badass as it sounds I’m not sure if that’s what the creators are planning for his arc or if it’s really necessary, but I do believe that he’ll connect to at least two, sky and moon. he already have the set up to forge his connection, especially after both his experiences at the moon nexus, and I think the process will happen more smoothly now. he’ll be reflecting about something, maybe his situation with rayla and the lies she told him, and also remembering the “white lies” quote from the comics, and he’ll suddenly realize that he has connected to the moon arcanum (again, it wouldn’t happen as lame as i’m sure i’m describing it, but i’ll leave the details to the writers). callum struggled a lot to understand the sky arcanum because it was his first try, and he had no clue of what exactly to do, and I think it would show great character growth if his second connection came more easily, especially because of his feelings for rayla, and the way he’s trying to understand her. she being the key to his connection with the moon arcanum would be really sweet 

I think we’ll see soren also struggling a lot about his place on the castle. he doesn’t have his family around anymore and he used to be very close to claudia, and all the experiences at the storm spire affected him deeply. he loves the boys and want to be their protector, but I think he might feel lonely. i’d love to see some bonding between him and ezran or him and callum (hopefully both!), and I also think he’ll be worried about rayla too, they seemed to be starting to develop a friendship in ttm (i loved it so much), they talked about his father and how dangerous he is, he knows rayla will be in big trouble if she finds viren, and he’ll be afraid of another confrontation with his father

I’m honestly a bit lost about how the ending could be. if rayla will be found or come back willingly after getting the coins, i don’t know which one i’d like better. also rayllum being separated from ezran again is so hurtful, but there’s no way callum wouldn’t go after rayla at some point, and it would look really bad for ezran if he abandoned the crown again, right after the war, but i hope we can have callum and ezran together for most of the season at least. i’m also expecting a big fight between claudia and rayla, i think it would be great.

I already thought that rayla and callum would be in separate places during s4 or s5, but I sure didn’t expect for it to happen like THAT. I also expected a fight between callum and ezran because I think their relationship needs to be a bit more tested, especially now that ezran is king. I’m so excited about season four I can’t barely sleep at night lol (a release date when??). I know this predictions are a bit (or a lot) vague, but they’re really supposed to be just overall ideas of what could possibly happen on book four. 

[vampiresuns]

Like Real People Do | J. C. Sanlaurento x Saoirse

2.5k words. After reaching a safe port, Jules and Saoirse spend a day away from the crew.

Part 3 of Secrets Of An Ancient Moon series; you can read the rest of it here.

As always, Saoirse, my spouse, belongs to @apprenticealec​. I know I’m the one writing them, but honestly I have to make a pause to give Dani a shoutout: all of the work and characterisation for Saoirse is something I am able to capture because of all the work that Dani herself has put behind her character, and I can only be grateful for be trusted with it. All of of the musings I write for Saoirse are a ‘novelisation’ of things Dani herself has shared with me.

CW for Saoirse being a maniac who’s indifferent to wet socks, and a lot of existential talks, but that’s normal for void-gendered Sartre and Beauvoir.

Of course, the title comes from Hozier.

Personhood was a peculiar thing. People were peculiar things. Up to this point, Saoirse had thought they had the whole deal with human nature more or less pinned down — after all, they had been around long enough to observe humans plenty. Still, the conversation they had had some weeks ago with Julianus in the Ruby’s kitchen was still playing in the back of their mind. 

Because it’s your language, Saoirse.

None of us come with instructions about how to be a person.

They wondered what Niamh would have to say about it, but their last conversation back in Ethari, when Saoirse had done something as human as it got: visit a place that was both tomb and crib, told them she would not be surprised by this turn of events. She was the one who had said Saoirse had changed. Personhood was something Saoirse thought they only observed in others, not something they participated in. Julianus, wonderful and fascinating Julianus, had a different opinion.

When Saoirse had begun teaching them about the code and the language it was written in, they knew Jules would come with a number of legal and juridical backgrounds that they’d be able to tie into the code. According to them by writing themselves into the code, they had given themselves personhood.

“You use very ‘free-willed’ language to explain yourself. You incorporate into societies, you helped create one, which is a very human thing to do. I’ve told you what I think of human nature, haven’t I?” They had said some days ago, when they were brushing on that part of the code. 

“No,” Saoirse replied with a soft smile, “care to tell me?” Saoirse knew this would mess with their schedule, they had agreed on starting around the language but that Saoirse would explain the contents of the code, and Jules would take notes (they took a lot of notes, in general), but Saoirse found themself not caring. 

Time was a scarce thing with humans, but they were so prone to wasting it on things which they somehow found a way to justify in terms of importance. 

“There is no such thing as human nature, Saoirse. There’s nothing that’s inherent to humanity except gregariousness and the wish to be transcendent to contrarrest our own mortality, and truth be told I don’t think those two are different things. Nature is what you nurture, and you helped create this, you use words like ‘I was contracted’ and that’s such a human way to explain it.”

They paused. “I’m not offending you, am I?”

“No, it is different, that’s all.”

Of course, none of the conclusions Saoirse was coming to were conclusions they shared out loud. If Jules had other opinions on the subject, they kept them to themself, except for one and perhaps they only one which mattered.

Back then, Saoirse had placed their hand on Jules back and they carried on. Now, as they discussed with Meredith stopping for a few days in a safe port, it all dawned to them with an absurd clarity. 

Thinking about oneself was too very human, wasn’t it? Of course, humans weren’t the only ones who did so, Saoirse would know, but humans were the only ones whose opinions changed, whose natures changed with it. Gods did not change, and in many ways, Saoirse had not; at the same time, they had spent so long studying humanity they absorbed it in their own way. Sometimes it was knowingly, others unknowingly, and regardless of which Saoirse never understood why.

They couldn’t understand why now either, but they understood that they did not understand. Laughing seemed the obvious conclusion. 

Meredith looked at them with worry for a snap, then like they were crazy, and at last she rolled her eyes. She didn’t ask, she didn’t have to; Saoirse didn’t tell, they didn’t know if they could explain it, so they went back to the topic at hand: safe port. Out of all the things making it a safe port meant, the one which interested Saoirse the most in that moment was that they could wander off enough without having to worry about the Queen’s safety. It meant they’d get to spend time with Jules whatever way they wanted, and they thought they knew exactly where to take them. 

When they made it to the port, Saoirse found them petting Marcius. At first, Jules’ cat hadn’t much liked Saoirse. They spooked him, but now, slowly, he had begun to let himself have his head scratched… sometimes. 

“We’ll be two days here.”

Jules nodded.

“How will you be spending them?”

“Fucked if I know. Exploring, I think. I’ve never been here before. I’m sure there is a market someplace, or… wait, why are you asking me?”

“Because I’d like to take you somewhere, if you’d like to go with me.”

Over Marcius’ soft fur Jules stretched their hand to link their fingers with Saoirse, their cat starting to purr and Jules’ heart to beat like the wings of a frazzled bird; or perhaps, it wasn’t a bird it reassembled but thunder. Thunder roaring strong and steady and threatening to create a microcosm between them. 

Somewhere in the skies, a single thunder made itself heard, for no apparent reason.

“I’d love to,” Julianus replied. 

The only specification Saoirse gave them was to make sure they had something they could swim in — something they had said like they were making the conscious effort to not forget about it. Jules looked at them both baffled and amused, but asked no questions. They liked surprises, when they were controlled. 

So the following day, after leaving Marcius safely inside Saoirse’s quarters with some food, water and some toys, Julianus found themself hiking up the beach with the Quartermaster, from the sand, through a rocky area until they reached a series of natural tide pools between the rocks. The water was turquoise and mint green against the rocks, the bottom of them visible, even though they were still deep enough to swim in. They had been talking as they made their way, but Julianus fell silent upon seeing them, a gasp escaping their lips at last, as giddiness overtook them. 

“Saoirse, they’re beautiful.” 

“Like you.”

“What?”

“I’m glad you like them.”

Jules narrowed their eyes at them, pettiness oozing from them. “Well, I think the water of that one over there matches your eyes.”

Saoirse only laughed. “There’s a grotto there, it’s not too big, but it doesn’t get wet, so it’s a good place to leave your things. I assume you don't want your bag to get wet.”

“No, I would not like that.”

They settled by it, enough shadow and sun for both of them to choose where they wanted to sit. The water glimmered under the sun, and the soft breeze carried some of the sea foam to their faces, the sound of the crashing waves on a tranquil sea day the only sound to accompany their voices as they talked; or not talked, the waves becoming their personal orchestra as they shared comfortable silences. 

Eventually Saoirse stood up, making their way to the water, dipping a leg with their pants, socks and shoes on without batting an eyelash. 

“What are you doing?”

“You go swimming clothed, do you not?”

“It depends, skinny dipping is a thing… but we don’t throw ourselves into the water with that many clothes on. Especially not with shoes, or socks, if you’re wearing those.”

“Why not?”

“Because there’s nothing more uncomfortable than a wet sock?”

Saoirse stared back at them blankly. 

“Of course you don’t think wet socks are uncomfortable,” Jules said with an affectionate eye roll before stripping down to their swimming clothes. A single pair of high-waisted, high-cut, black briefs.

Jules folded their clothes quickly but neatly, and Saoirse looked. Their eyes took in both the whole process and Julianus themself. The shape of the legs, the curve of the hip, the pinch of the waist, the exposed flat chest with healed, periareolar scars that shot like small sun rays on their skin. They lifted their hair to re-tie it in a carelessly done bun, Saoirse’s eyes stopping in the tattoo that read ‘être libre’ on their skin.

“To be free?” They asked, still staring, but now out of the water, shoe and sockless only on one foot, as both items left to dry away from the water. 

“Oh, you mean this? Yeah, that’s what it means. Got it, huh, three years ago? Give or take? It’s six months older than the scars.”

“Does it have a reason to be? I know sometimes you get those with meaning.”

Under the sun, Saoirse’s hair looked like a halo. “Depends on how you want to see it. It’s from one of my favourite books. One of the characters asks, rhetorically most likely, a group of revolutionary students he frequented if there was something greater than a specific political ruler, a military conqueror, an emperor truly, but those are often the same thing; and another character replies ‘to be free’, être libre.”

They came closer, sitting next to Saoirse, who traced the letters with their fingers. 

“Is that why you travel?”

“Is that why you do too?”

“You have an interesting way to look at things.”

“You always say that.”

“Maybe I do because it’s a compliment.” 

Jules gave them a sly look from their side-eye, tucking a loose strand of hair behind their ear. They smiled too, not before licking their lips. It was, of course, on purpose.

“Should I take the proclivity with which your hands find my ribs as a compliment too?”

“I like the rhythm of your breaths. Sometimes you forget to do them, so you stop until you remind yourself you have to.” 

“By-product,” they joked.

“Of?”

“Life.”

“Personhood is a muscle, muscles get cramps, don’t they?”

“You can’t use my words against me.”

“Who said I’m talking about you?” 

“What about then?”

The sun had made Jules’ skin warmer than usual, Saoirse noted as their other hand settled on their knee. They turned towards them a little more, facing the full weight of Saoirse’s staring now. In truth, Saoirse was always staring, always observing, and Julianus had become a permanent feature in their mental inventory, in their peripheral vision, in those little things which reminded them how far away they were from humans, and how close at the same time. More alike them than Saoirse ever suspected they would become, they marvelled at all the things Julianus had come to unbury from crevices and spaces inside Saoirse they didn’t even know they had. 

Saoirse pried their hand away from their ribs, softly settling against Jules’ jaw, cupping it. The hair strand they had tucked behind their ear went loose again, it’s feathery softness tickling Saoirse’s skin. It was a new, yet welcome sensation. 

“Do you still want to swim?” Julianus asked, their voice hushed, the act of speech itself a secret to be shared with Saoirse.

“We have all day,” Saoirse said, finding themselves mimicking the tone used by Julianus, only in their case it was out of wonder. Out of a sense of ongoing curiosity at Jules themself, at their own state of being right now.

Something nebulous had formed inside them for weeks, something that was too akin the same voluntary, chosen will to protect they tended to have for the Pirate Queen, only for entirely different reasons. It was as if someone had undug them from the ice they one inhabited all over again, but this time to offer no deals, no strategies. Jules came with conversations and butterflies they made appear out of nowhere, to teach them (or remind them, Saoirse didn’t know) contracts and acquired self-determination weren’t the only thing which freed. 

“You’re so fascinating.” 

Julianus leaned against the hand cupping their jaw, turning their head to kiss their wrist. 

“If you come closer I can give you one of those too.” 

Saoirse didn’t need to be told twice. Using the hand they were cupping their jaw with to pull them closer, Jules’ hands landed on Saoirse’s upper thighs as their lips met. Plush and warm, Jules lips traced Saoirse’s softly at first, a careful exploration that gave way to exchanged pecks — as if they were trying to make up their minds about the duration of the kiss but couldn’t, or didn’t want to just yet. 

Jules opened their eyes to meet Saoirse’s, those ice blue eyes which never seemed to leave them. The choice was easy, really, when Saoirse’s open gaze met them like that, a wide, yet still not-very-open smile on their lips: Jules had to kiss them again. 

“How long have you been wanting to do that?” Jules asked, cheeky, when they finally pulled apart. 

“Probably since the kitchen talk.” 

“Huh, okay.”

“You were not expecting that answer?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Bad unexpected?”

“Too good unexpected.” 

Saoirse snorted. 

“Hey, not everyday you find a gorgeous, interesting, surprisingly attentive eldritch deity pining after you. I feel very much like the most powerful human in the world, even though I wield no earthly powers, or have no door-opening family name — okay, maybe a little door-opening. We haven’t talked in a while, so I don’t know if I couldn’t any more.”

Saoirse kissed their knuckles, finding themselves wanting to do it. They’ve seen many people do it, they’ve read about people doing it, now they wanted to do it too. “Means I have more of your company… I never told you who I am exactly, though.”

“You said ‘who’,” Jules smiled, “and you didn’t. I do not know if I seem like it, I do not think I am especially so, or at least not more than others, but I am smart enough. Or I hope I am, at least. One can be many things, however, but that’s beyond the topic.” 

Saoirse now took out their other shoe and sock, rolling their pants up enough so they could dip their legs at the edge of the tide pool. “Perhaps I should throw you into the water, for humbleness.” 

“If you pull me into the water, I’m pulling you with me.”

“I’m heavier than I look.”

“I’ll try anyway.” 

The truth was Saoirse let Julianus pull them into it. It was easy to let them when they got to be so close in the process. There were no obligations, no lessons, no shooting, no chores, no anything to distract them from each other, the water and their lips. At some point, Saoirse ended up ditching their shirt too, teasing Jules just a little for staring when they did, even if they knew they had no grounds to make any comments on the subject, not when they knew they spent a fair amount of time looking at Jules for the sake of it. 

Some other time Julianus would make the comparison with some story they had read about, or seen acted out, where desire was masked to be unmasked in private, as if it was something people too couldn’t directly look at, not completely, not at once. It would have to wait, as today they were too busy living, too busy with Saoirse, swimming and talking and making out in the sun until it was time to go back. 

“Can I hold your hand as we walk?” 

Saoirse’s reply was taking Jules’ hand in theirs, smiling softly at them as the sun began to close the distance between itself and the sea, the warm hues of sunset tinting both their blond heads.  

[ladyandherbooks]

Through the Moon: Moon family and Phoe Phoe

Reading the sneak peeks for the grahic novel "Through the Moon" finally gave me the motivation to post my theory about what I think will happen.

Rayla

Rayla isn't going to discover that her family and Viren are actually alive, instead she will decide to accept their deaths and begin to move on.

Why? Because the fact that all 4 of these characters are actually alive is such a big deal, especially to Rayla, these revelations will be kept to (hopefully) season 4. We have to remember that many fans of the show won't buy this book or even know that it exists. Because of this the events of the book have to stay consistent with the show's storyline. So Rayla coming to the conclusion in the graphic novel that Viren and her family are dead ensures that the story remains consistent to her beliefs at the end of season 3 i.e. she believed that all 4 of these people were gone for good.

However, that doesn't mean that someone else can't be given the revelation that someone dead is actually alive. Which brings me to my next theory.

Ethari

My guess is that at the end of the graphic novel we'll get a short scene or a picture of a shocked Ethari finally seeing that Runaan's Heartbloom flower is still glowing. This will then set off his arc where he tries to learn the truth about why his husband's flower sunk but continued to glow. He'll be shocked, confused and a little hopeful and so he'll decide to do his own research, not stopping until he learns the truth behind such a phenomenon.

He won't tell Rayla because he won't want to give her any false hope of Runaan being alive. First he'll start in the Silvergrove, researching on his own and then consulting with mages when he finds nothing and when that avenue yields no results he'll make the fateful decision to pack up and leave his home.

Because season 4 is titled Earth he'll take the Heartbloom flower and go and see the Earthblood elves, the masters of minerals, jewels and living creatures.

The one bonus of Rayla being ghosted is that it prevents her from discovering his secret and learning that he has left the Silvergrove. He'll take some of his Hawk arrows in order to keep in touch with and to possibly send her a message if he learns that Runaan is actually alive.

So Ethari, carrying Runaan's Heartbloom arrives in Earthblood territory, and begins his next round of research and meetings with mages and craftsmen. Eventually these efforts yield results and Ethari realises that Runaan is alive but currently under the influence of a very powerful spell or ritual. Ecstatic and worried Ethari, finally knowing the truth, knows that he has to come up with a plan to find Runaan before he tells Rayla, because once he does tell her nobody will be able to hold her back from trying to save Runaan.

So why would Ethari be the one to be given such a revelation. Well for a few reasons.

1) Ethari is a minor character, so having him discover Runaan is alive in the graphic novel won't affect the show's storyline by having it being first revealed or teased in the graphic novel. Everything I just wrote about Ethari's journey, at least 90% will happen offscreen during the time skip between seasons 3 and 4. We, as much I as Iove Ethari and would happily watch a few seasons of him trying to discover if his husband is alive or dead, don't need to see this journey as Ethari can tell us and Rayla the abridged version in a couple of minutes when he finally sees her again. He, unlike Rayla, would not require an entire episode or season dedicated to this part of his story. Instead it will be just a nice little bit of trivia for dedicated fans.

2) By having Ethari do at least 90% of the research offscreen and inbetween seasons by the time he actually reunites with Rayla and tells her the truth, he'll be at the tail end of his journey. It means that the characters are only days or a couple of weeks at the most from reuniting with Runaan, Lain and Tiadrin.

3) Runaan, Lain and Tiadrin need to be found soon so that their storylines aren't rushed. They have alot of things to learn and need to be able to work with humans before Aaravos enacts his big plan for Xadia. This is especially important for Runaan, a character who we've been told more than once is meant to have his own storyline. He needs to be freed soon so that the proper time is given to his storyline, especially when it comes to his relationship with Rayla, the princes, the ever increasing possibility that he will lose his arm and what that means for his future, his views on humans, Rayla's ghosting and the fact that he is the only currently living character who knew the truth about Aaravos' mirror.

Phoe Phoe

While it's more likely that something big might happen with Phoe Phoe I'd be very surprised if the novel ended with Phoe Phoe being reborn as again, this seems like something big enough that it would have to happen onscreen.

Not long after season 3 premiered I made a long post about Phoe Phoe and the Nexus that I'll abridge here. I believe that Phoe Phoe has been the familiar or mount for every Nexus guardian since its destruction. Phoenixes are immortal, rare and powerful beings so it would make sense that Phoe Phoe is already an ancient creature who. Then we have this bit of info given to us by Ezran in 2x04

Phoe Phoe is bound to the Nexus so having her aid the generations of elves that have lived there makes sense.

So my theory is that Phoe Phoe, an ancient and powerful Moon Phoenix is the one who chooses the next guardian and, given the important of cycles and balance to those connected to the Moon chooses to die and reborn when a new guardian is required.

Here she is as as a young chick with a younger Lujanne, propably not long after Lujanne became the Nexus Guardian.

So during the graphic novel the kids will return Phoe Phoe's feather to Lujanne just in time for the full moon. Lujanne, believing that Phoe Phoe's death was premature and therefore not a true indication of her time as guardian being up tries to resurrect her but fails. It is then that she realises that her time as guardian is coming to an end and now she must perform her final duty, she must find someone Phoe Phoe believes is worthy to succeed her.

This search will then be recounted and finally come to a conclusion by the end of season 5, allowing Phoe Phoe to be reborn just before the second time skip which will then give her time to grow up and bond with the new guardian before we see her again in season 6.

As to who I think will be the new guardian? My guess should be obvious if you follow me:

Plus wouldn't it be interesting if we get Ethari first realising that Runaan is alive in the same story that Phoe Phoe decides that it is time for a new guardian.

In conclusion: While the "Through the Moon" won't provide a whole lot of answers for the main characters it will actually help to set up and hint at some very important moments and arcs for some side/supporting characters and we will see these play out over the course of season 4 and 5.