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elliebellyboo · 5 months

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Keeper of the Lost Cities: Forevermore (Chapter 3)

“Keefe?” Sophie wheeled around.

Her boyfriend stood with crossed arms, a white uniform, and his signature smirk.

“Can’t go one day without going to the healing center, can’t you, Foster?” He joked.

“You know me.” Sophie sighed and smiled. She hadn’t seen Keefe in a few days. He’d been busy moving into Splendor Plains. Sophie was happy he was living with Elwin instead of his overbearing father, Lord Cassius.

“What are you doing here?” Sophie asked.

“Learning, apparently. Magnate Leto insisted I go back to Foxfire, so here I am!” Keefe grinned.

“I didn’t see you at orientation.” Sophie noted.

“Well, I did some training with Grady this morning. But it took longer than expected.” He explained.

“Why? Did something go wrong?” Sophie scrunched her eyebrows.

“Ahh, and you’ve got that adorable worried look on your face. Everything’s fine, Foster. But, um, he wanted to talk to me.” Keefe looked a bit nervous as he told her the last part.

“About what?” Sophie pressed.

“Soooo, uhhh, well, have you talked to your parents about…us?” Keefe asked.

“No, I haven’t.” Sophie replied.

And it was true. Although, Sophie was sure Edalune suspected their relationship through all the sappy smiles, she had yet to tell them it was official. She really didn’t want to think about what Grady would say, though, since he had a past of not favoring Keefe. And if he knew she was dating That Boy?

Pure chaos and embarrassment.

“Well, Grady asked me if there was anything going on between us.” Keefe sighed.

“What did you say?” Sophie gasped.

“I told him we were in a relationship.” He shrugged.

Sophie’s eyes widened.

“What?!” She exclaimed, “Why did you tell him?” She asked, frustrated.

“Hey, I thought it was better to tell the truth.” Keefe argued.

“But this is Grady we’re talking about. He…didn’t kill you?” Sophie narrowed her eyes.

Keefe’s smirk returned. “Nope. Turns out the Gradynator actually likes me.” He laughed.

“Thank god,” said Sophie, “But I bet I’m in for a long, stern talk when I get home.”

“Sorry..” Keefe told her.

“It’s alright. I guess it’s good that we got it over with.”

The bell rung for lunch.

“Well, I guess it’s time to go say hello to our bffs.” Keefe reached for her hand. Sophie got butterflies as their fingers intertwined. They walked down the hall to the cafeteria together and spotted Biana and Tam at their usual table.

Bianas eyes widened. “Keefe! You’re here!” She realized.

“Unfortunately.” He joked.

Tam just stared at their clasped hands.

“Anyways.” Sophie breathed, plopping down in a chair, and Keefe in the one next to her.

“Your hair is looking shinier than usual, Bangs Boy.” Keefe noted.

Tam’s bangs did have more of a shimmer to them.

“Oh uh, yeah I decided to melt more silver in” He fussed with his bangs.

“It looks really good.” Biana told him.

Tam looked the other way and Biana tugged at the ends of her hair.

They seemed…awkward.

And both of them were flushing red…

But Sophie decided not to acknowledge it.

And neither did Keefe, apparently. Even though this was quite the epic teasing opportunity.

“Look who’s back.” Fitz muttered setting down his tray.

“Fitz!” Sophie exclaimed a bit too loudly.

He sat on the opposite side of her.

“Hiya, Fitzy!” Keefe smiled at him.

Sophie hoped he’d ignore Fitz’s glare, but that was impossible. Fitz eyed Keefe with a hundred daggers.

Keefe sucked in a breath, like he was about to snap him a reply, but he stayed quiet.

“Well,” Marella plopped down next to Biana, breaking the awkwardness, “I’m pretty sure I failed that metaphysics test! But, eh, what’s new?” She smiled, tossing her reddish blonde hair.

“I know, right!” Biana agreed.

“It wasn’t that hard.” Dex sat down next to Keefe.

“Easy for you to say.” Biana grumbled.

Sophie probably failed the test too, but she didn’t contribute to the conversation because she was busy falling asleep again.

Soph? Keefe transmitted.

Huh? Oh sorry I was just…

Tired?

Yeah.. Sophie yawned

You’re so cute. Keefe smirked.

Sophie rolled her eyes.

Do you think we should tell them about us? She asked.

Do you want to tell them? Keefe questioned.

I think we should. Sophie replied, I mean my parents know and Fitz…

Knows we kissed? Keefe finished

Yeah. That. Sophie sighed.

“ME AND FOSTER HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT!” Keefe exclaimed.

“Keefe!” Sophie hissed.

“Don’t worry Soph, I got this.”

Sophie turned to her friends. Their eyes were wide and confused.

Keefe paused, took a deep breath and said, “We wanted to tell you guys…we’re together.” He smiled.

Her friends all looked at each other and smiles started to creep onto their faces.

“Oh crud!” Biana laughed.

“Oh crud, what?” Linh came over and sat by Marella.

“Dex owes me so much money!” Biana smirked.

“Come on!” Dex grumbled.

“Wait, what?” Sophie was confused.

“Yeah they made bets on you.” Marella twirled her hair around her finger.

“So…you guys knew?” Keefe inquired.

“It’s not like you guys were subtle about it.” Tam muttered.

Fitz snorted.

Sophie wasn’t an empath. But if she was, she’d probably get a whole lot of negative emotions coming from her ex-boyfriend.

“I’m so happy for your guys!” Linh grinned.

“Yeah, but dude, if you hurt her at all, you should expect a particularly painful prank coming your way.” Dex warned Keefe.

“Now, Dexter, why would I do that?” Keefe said.

“Why wouldn’t you?” Someone spoke up.

It was Fitz.

“Okay, dude, what is your problem?” Keefe leaned across the table.

“You.” Fitz snarled, “You’re my problem.”

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moonlarked · 2 years

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i haven’t read hamlet but i really wanna hear about your idea, can you give me like a vague rundown of the characters?

( @sarcasticinsomniac-and-theories you also asked so here :))

ok!!! So, for context, hamlet is a play where the Prince of Denmark is approached the the ghost of his recently deceased father and learns that the person responsible for the father’s death is his uncle, the new king. This leads him down a path of murder and betrayal and madness and all that stuff.

disclaimer: I am not an expert on this play. I’m actually pretty casual and i don’t know the full extent of all of the characters. I’m in the process of doing more research for my au, so this is unfinished right now, unfortunately.

So. Sophie is Hamlet. She’s the princess of Havenfield and her father, King Grady Ruewen, has passed away. She’s naturally a very emphatic, impulsive, and self righteous person, and those are all traits that I’m going to be pulling from the books to make her descent into madness more realistic and not just slapped on there to fit the play. She’s going to be frustrated with people not believing her and that’s going to turn into paranoia that she can’t trust anyone. Hamlet in the play is, well, a smartass and likes to press peoples’ buttons when he doesn’t like them. I’m gonna be keeping that with au!sophie.

Stina is Horatio. In the play, Horatio is Hamlet’s best friend and is the only person who sticks with him even as he becomes more and more illogical and obsessive. Book Stina doesn’t exactly fit this role - she’s incredibly judgemental of Sophie - but in this au she and Sophie are going to be much older than they are in the book and have made up their differences and have formed an incredibly close bond. I’m still going to be keeping Stina’s base personality, but she’s gone through a lot of character development, so to speak, and has a vastly different perspective. (also, horatio and hamlet have a very gay dynamic. I’m keeping that here.)

Fitz is Ophelia! Which…. If you’ve read the play, that may seem like an odd choice, but hear me out. Now, Ophelia is Hamlet’s “love interest” (their relationship falls apart pretty quickly) and she goes mad after Hamlet rejects her and her father ends up dying. Fitz is going to have a different personality that Ophelia. After his father (Alden here) warns him to stay away from Sophie, he’s going to remain determined to stay with her. But after Sophie turns erratic and even violent, he starts to fracture a little and doesn’t know who to turn to, since his sister is away. His father tells him to stay away (Alden is going to be just as manipulative here as he is in the books) and Fitz doesn’t know who to trust. Fitz’s mental state ends up deteriorating after his father dies.

Biana is Laertes, Ophelia’s brother. He’s away for most of the play, but when he comes back, it means a lot for the plot. At the beginning, Biana is leaving Havenfield on a trip to another nation. She stays away until she learns about the untimely death of her father, which prompts her to come back and challenge a duel. Which ends up going Really Fucking Badly.

Wylie is Reynaldo, the spy sent after Laertes. I wanted to put Wylie in here somewhere because I love him but unfortunately I couldn’t think of a major role for him. Also I’m gonna make it so he’s being blackmailed by the king via Prentice.

Lord Cassius is… King Claudius!! Just because he’s the biggest asshole i could think of! He killed the late King Grady and married his wife (which I WILL explain). Not much character to him other than he’s a jerk and I want to hate on him as much as possible. Well, I guess there is that one scene where he feels guilty, but… whatever.

Edaline is Gertrude, who married Claudius after the king died. In the play she’s portrayed as a selfish coward but in this au she’s trying to help her family and her kingdom the best she can and after the death of both her daughter Jolie and now her husband she has to find a way to cope. Also, Cassius is manipulating her into fearing that everyone is trying to take her kingdom. She has fights with Sophie about this and tries to make her see her perspective, but Sophie doesn’t listen.

Alden is Polonius (the bitch). He’s an overbearing father and one of the king’s lackeys. He dies because he was spying on Hamlet through the curtains and Hamlet mistook him for the king and stabbed him. After this Hamlet remarks that Polonius was just stupid. Absolutely nothing needs to be changed here. Perfection.

Keefe and Dex are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. (I have not read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, so I’m gonna be taking most of their personalities from the books.) They’re Sophie’s childhood friends who are sent (in this au blackmailed by Keefe’s father) by the king to spy on her. I’m gonna make Keefe Sophie’s old flame, because you know me. Now if you’ve read the play, you know how this ends, but let me just say in this version there’s a hell of a lot more angst (because sokeefe).

Linh is Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway (here the Princess of Choralmere) who, if I’m correct, invades the King of Denmark’s castle to get revenge for the murder of his father. In this case, she’s going to be getting revenge for the murder of her brother (sorry). I would add more but I’ve got to do more research because he was cut out of the version of the play I have.

Marella and Maruca are the gravediggers. I wanted to add them in somewhere.

Jensi is Osric, because funny.

Jolie is Yorick. :)

And Bronte is the priest.

#I think I got everyone!!#if I forget/add anyone I’ll reblog this post with the additions #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #hamlet #kotlc au #kotlc hamlet au

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arcadialedger · 2 years

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Stellarlune wishlist, cause there’s a lot I expect to be packed in those 800 pages.

— Sokeefe reunion/ potential kiss (Second to last book= first kiss, as @shadowqueendiangelo said on the podcast)

— Marlinh friendship

— Lord Cassius being interesting

— Linh/ Tam angst and family strain

— Sophie manifests a final ability

— Major character death (Also a second to last book convention)

— Ro getting some complexity, particularly with her father

— Maruca having her moment to shine?

— FEDEX ALL OF THE FEDEX INTERACTIONS

— Consequences of Sophie’s arson/ more arson (PLEASE? I want this girl unhinged)

— Evil Fitz arc? Question mark? Also happy to see him as a platonic power duo with Sophie

— Grady kills a mfer

#keeper of the lost cities #kotlc #kotlc stellarlune #stellarlune #it’s the final countdown guys #shannon messenger #the arcadia ledger

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bookwyrminspiration · 2 years

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Liora killed Alvar

dusk (Fintan arson bf) killed Kesler, so quinlin killed dusk, so Fintan killed livvy

Cassius just randomly started talking about hair gel

Sophie and Fitz are getting (platonic) relationship therapy bc they sorta hate each other now

White blonde fathers with empath abilities and glowing statues of themselves in their 200+ story houses and insist on people calling them Lord with oily smiles are out here inserting themselves places no one wants them yet again :/, like we do not care about your hair gel thoughts, you blister

That aside, there is so much going on in such a short amount of space but one of the first things that popped into my head was why did Quinlin kill Dusk over Kesler's death? They're not exactly close, so either in this alternate version of keeper they're much closer, or this was a situation where he was just the person there when it happened and acted without thought.

I think more than just Sophie and Fitz are going to need therapy in this situation if so many murders are being committed. I hope Sophie and Fitz work it out though as I love their dynamic!

Also shout out to Fintan for being queer and murderous, that's certainly something!

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #quil's queries #the word dusk is reminding me of something and I can't figure out what it is #twilight? maybe it's the feeling of that scene in the first book where edward's talking about twilight and how it's the safest vampire time #but that's not quite right #there's also a book I read that had dusk in the name (and amber)#but that doesn't seem right either #I. do not know. but it has a feeling #tw death

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gay-otlc · 4 years

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Perfect (Keefitz)

Summary: And yet... he can't shake the feeling that, if he wasn't a Vacker, if he wasn't stuck in the cage of perfection... he would love to be with Keefe.

That didn't matter. Whether he likes it or not, Fitz is in his cage of perfection, so he can't want Keefe.

He can't. Because he's perfect.

(Alternatively: 4.5K words of Keefitz angst and about 100 of Keefitz fl*ff)

Trigger warnings: Internalized homophobia, cursing

Words: 4352

(Read on AO3)

Fitz Vacker is perfect.

His friends call him Wonderboy, and that's for a reason. He knows they're making fun of him when they say it, but he can't help but feel the smallest glimmer of pride when he hears the nickname. Maybe a bit more than that. Yes, people are making fun of him for being perfect. That still means they see him as being perfect.

And that's good. That's exactly how he wants it to be.

No, he corrects himself- not how he wants it to be. How it is. People don't just see him as perfect- he is perfect. (Or so he tells himself. But is he, is he really perfect? Or is he just lying, trying to convince himself. Convince everyone else.) Wonderboy is at the top of his class. He's passable at Base Quest and actually quite good at Bramble. Even though his father doesn't approve of the hobby, his talent at baking is undeniable. Every girl at Foxfire is in agreement that he's handsome, with bronze skin, teal eyes, and a smile that makes all of them swoon.

(He doesn't care how many girls like him. He's never liked any of them.)

And Sophie. He's a key member of the Black Swan, and he's Sophie's cognate. They're cognates. And everyone expects them to be a couple.

He's supposed to love her. He can't.

They would be a perfect couple, if only he could feel what he was supposed to.

He can't.

The point is, Fitz is perfect. He's sunshine, blue skies. Flawless. Golden.

Fitz Vacker is perfect. And he can't shake the feeling that perfection is a cage.

---

Keefe Sencen is anything but perfect.

It's obvious from the very moment they meet. Keefe is too loud, too energetic, too obnoxious. He barely pays any attention in his classes and lands in detention every other day. Taking anything seriously seems to be impossible for him. Even his appearance, with messed up hair and the way he "forgets" his cape, reflect on his personality.

Alden disapproves immediately. Keefe would never be a good influence for Fitz, could get him in trouble, damage his reputation. Blah, blah, blah. He does make sense, too; Fitz is a Vacker, and he's the golden boy, so he can only be surrounded by the best. Which likely doesn't include Keefe. But after one conversation with that boy, he finds himself inviting him over to Everglen after school.

After that, they're inseparable, no matter what Alden says.

And Keefe is still far from perfect. He hides everything in jokes and spends too much time obviously crushing on Sophie. (A fact that gives Fitz a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He isn't sure why; maybe it would be weird if two of his best friends started dating?) Keefe's mom is part of the Neverseen and the council banished him to Exillium and he makes reckless decisions.

Odds are, Keefe is a ticking time bomb, and Fitz needs to get away. That's what his brain tells him to do. Then, Keefe tells him Lord Cassius's theory on head and heart emotions, and something clicks. In his head, he wants Keefe gone. In his heart, he needs Keefe to stay.

Shit, he thinks.

Keefe is anything but perfect. He's a hurricane, a natural disaster. Flawed. Broken glass.

Keefe Sencen is anything but perfect. And Fitz cares about Keefe way to much to ever let it come between them. Shit.

---

Fitz nearly dies once, a time most people have forgotten about. He remembers it perfectly.

It's soon after he, Sophie, Dex, Biana, and... Keefe, though Fitz doesn't yet know why he has the ellipses, run away to join the Black Swan in Allavuterre. When they break into Exile to visit Prentice, and the Council comes to stop them. It's the most stupid way to nearly die, but a giant bug stabs Fitz. An arthopleura, eight feet tall and full of poison, stabs him.

And he nearly dies.

Even though he doesn't have a photographic memory, the time plays out perfectly in his mind- everything suddenly aches, he can barely breathe and the world swims before his eyes. His brain feels foggy, clouded by the poison. Through the fog, he can only think of one thing. A name, that he clings to like a lifeline.

And it should be Sophie's name. It should be Sophie's name. He's usually perfect enough to keep control of his thoughts, make sure he wants the right thing and doesn't spend too much time ever longing for the wrong thing.

In his poisoned state, that sort of control is gone, and all he can think of is what he actually wants.

Keefe.

The name echoes in his mind, over and over. When he feels himself only at his last point of consciousness, Keefe's name is still repeating, but he doesn't remember what it means.

Who's Keefe? he thinks.

A memory tickles at the back of his mind. Keefe... he... I... I think I'm in love with him.

He gives into the poison, consciousness gone.

---

When he wakes up, his head still feels foggy and slow. Keefe's name is still there, and it doesn't take long for the rest of Fitz's memories to come slotting into place. I think I'm in love with him.

Where the fuck had that thought come from?

Fitz isn't in love with Keefe. He can't be. He isn't. Fitz is the perfect Vacker, the golden boy. He's going to marry someone on his match list that his father approves of, and then he's going to further the Vacker family name and not dishonor generations of Vackers before him. He'll continue being perfect, something that can't happen if he loves Keefe. Because Keefe is so far from perfect, nothing like anyone those generations of Vackers want him to marry. He's chaotic and disobedient and, well, a boy.

If Fitz is to be perfect, he can't like Keefe.

And he will be perfect.

No, he is.

---

His friends come in, full of concerns and well wishes. Keefe comes in carrying Mr. Snuggles, and thought he's laughing at Fitz, all Fitz can think about is how cute his laugh is, how Keefe hasn't smiled in so long and he's so happy that Keefe is happy. Keefe lights up Fitz's world, and after a bug-induced realization, Fitz notices that Keefe is... well, really hot.

Don't think about that.

Eventually, the rest of his friends leave, and Livvy gives him various elixirs. Della and Biana stay behind, but eventually, Livvy and Della have to talk about something, and he's left alone with Biana.

Biana smirks. "Does Fitzy have a crush?"

His face burns. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Please," she scoffs. "You've been making heart eyes ever since our friends came in. Spill."

"I don't- I'm not-"

"Fitz, you're a terrible liar. Come on, just admit you like Sophie."

Sophie. Yes, he likes Sophie. Sophie is the Moonlark, the most powerful elf; just who the perfect Vacker boy should like. She's pretty, and she's a girl, and she's just as perfect as he is. They're meant to be together.

---

"Yes," he lies. "Fine. I like Sophie. I realized it after almost dying. Happy now?"

"Very."

"But don't... don't tell her." Fitz knows that Sophie has a crush on him; no matter how hard she tries to keep it a secret, it's fairly obvious. He doesn't want her thinking that he likes her, though, because then they'd have to date, and he wouldn't like her. Well, he likes her a lot, but not like that. He likes her enough to not lead her on like that.

Biana gives him a strange look. "You know she likes you, right?"

Shit. Now he has to think of a lie, and as Biana pointed out, he's not good at lying. "I'm... I don't really want a relationship right now. While we're dealing with the Neverseen and all that. I kind of just want to wait, and I'm worried Sophie will take that as I don't like her."

He feels Biana's eyes on him for a long time, but she finally nods. "Makes sense. I'm gonna go... get some sleep, Fitz."

When she leaves, he feels like he can finally exhale. He was nearly caught with a crush on Keefe Sencen, of all people. He managed to lie and divert the attention to Sophie... but that was fucking hard.

It shouldn't be hard. He should forget all about Keefe right now, before he falls in deeper, and like Sophie instead. That's what he has to do, to be perfect again.

And yet... he can't shake the feeling that, if he wasn't a Vacker, if he wasn't stuck in the cage of perfection... he would love to be with Keefe.

That didn't matter. Whether he likes it or not, Fitz is in his cage of perfection, so he can't want Keefe.

He can't. Because he's perfect.

---

As the world continues on, with a mess of Neverseen attacks and near death experiences and drama with their friends, Keefe Sencen never fucking leaves Fitz's head. His stupid smirk and stupid Hair and stupid, stupidly imperfect beauty. He's so stupidly funny and caring and brilliant, and oh, Fitz is so stupidly in love.

It's infuriating.

And yes, he's well aware it's kind of an asshole move, but ever since he recovered from the bug stabbing incident and the feelings for Keefe didn't go away, he's been avoiding him. Every second he spends with Keefe makes him fall even deeper in love. And as he falls deeper in love, he comes closer and closer to falling off his throne.

He can't risk that.

Even strained conversations are difficult. Fitz feels something he can't name, a combination of fury and frustration and love bubbling up in his chest, and he sometimes thinks he'll explode if he doesn't scream it. I'm in love with Keefe. I'm in love with Keefe.

But he can't scream it. So he'll just have to stay away.

Keefe thinks he's jealous, that he and Sophie have something going on, because he thinks Fitz likes Sophie. Fitz is jealous whenever Keefe and Sophie are together, it's true. He wishes he were jealous of Keefe. It's safer to have him believe that. Safer to stay away.

It kills him.

But he can't have both Keefe and perfection, and he's chosen perfection.

---

The perfection he wants (this isn't what he wants, he wants Keefe, he's never wanted this) comes in the form of Sophie Elizabeth Foster and a walk through Everglen. They're discussing matchmaking, dangerous territory- and then the danger becomes real, tipping Fitz into the deep end of a conversation he'd rather avoid.

Sophie starts crying. He's not an idiot; he knows why.

Because she thinks he'll never like her.

(And she's right. He can't like her. He can't like girls.)

Before he can think it through, the words are out of his mouth: "I want it to be you," he blurts. "I want it to be you. On my match list." It's not a lie. He wants her on his match list, and him to be on hers, so they can be matched, and together... and, well, married, as horrifying as that thought is. Married to Sophie. Together for eternity.

(That sounds like a nightmare. He loves her, but not like that. The mere thought of spending eternity together feels like he's already trapped. Caged within perfection.)

He wants to want Sophie like that. And that means he wants her, right?

(He wants Keefe.)

This is what he wants, he reminds himself, as he leans towards her, ready to kiss. He'd never admit it to anyone, but when they're interrupted by Silveny, he's overwhelmingly relieved.

No he isn't.

This is what he wants.

---

He's relieved again when he and Sophie break up. And terrified. She was his safety net, and now, when he falls for Keefe, nothing is going to catch him. Then, he regrets feeling any bit of relief- what kind of boyfriend does that make him?

A gay one.

That's what he is, isn't he? He's not perfect. He's gay. And he thought it would go away. It hasn't. It isn't going to. He's gay, he's gay for Keefe Sencen, and he'll never be perfect. Never be fucking perfect. Unless he pushes the feelings down until he forgets about them. Unless he never tells anyone. Unless he bites his tongue and marries a woman and does everything exactly right. Never slips up. Convinces himself, and everyone else, that he's... normal.

Not just normal.

Perfect.

Fucking perfect.

His plans to repress all Keefe-related emotions fails horribly within a few days. Keefe, the fucking idiot, manages to get himself in a coma, and now Fitz doesn't know whether he'll wake up, and dammit, even ignoring Keefe was better than this.

He just wants Keefe back, even if it'll be harder to be perfect.

---

The universe rewards him, the time he spends by Keefe's bedside whispering I'll stay away from him, I won't fall in love, I'll forget all about him, if he can stay alive works, or maybe it was just luck. Either way, Keefe is awake.

At first, he has no idea what to feel. Overwhelmingly happy, for one. It's hard to push that down.

He's your best friend. It's normal to feel happy about your best friend not dying. It's fine. This is fine. You're fine.

You're still perfect.

Then, everything spirals very quickly, and it turns out Keefe's mother- shit, Fitz hates her- has managed to ruin everything once again. Fantastic. Now Keefe is scared of himself, and if Fitz is being honest, he's a little scared... but then again, he was always scared of Keefe, wasn't he? Scared of how his laugh made Fitz feel like he'd won a million lusters and how he could be so imperfect yet so wonderful and how sometimes, Fitz thought maybe, it'd be worth it to not be perfect, as long as they could be together.

And scared of how he can't stop thinking about Keefe, so he buys flowers- fucking flowers- and goes to visit him at Elwin's house.

Elwin opens the door. He glances at Fitz, then the flowers, then Fitz again, and smiles knowingly. Fitz wants to shrink into a hole, knowing that Elwin knows- or even suspects- his secret, that he's so far from perfect. Elwin doesn't think of it as a bad thing, though. It's still terrifying. "Keefe is in his room," he says. Fitz nods, not trusting his voice, and walks up the stairs.

---

Keefe opens the door. "Elwin, I said I'd- you're not Elwin."

"Not unless something very confusing just happened, no," Fitz agrees.

"What are you doing here?"

Fitz swallows. "I came to check on you," he says. Then he holds out the flowers. "And to give you these." Keefe stares at the flowers for a long time, long enough to make Fitz extremely uneasy. Oh why did I do this, this was so stupid, Keefe thinks it's stupid, it obviously is, and now Elwin knows, or at least suspects, and maybe Keefe suspects too, and why am I such a fucking idiot? But Keefe takes the flowers eventually.

"Thanks."

The word is clipped, not particularly grateful, but Fitz lets his eyes meet Keefe's and he seems sincere. "No problem." Awkwardly, he shuffles his feet. "How are you?"

"I'm... I'm alright, I guess."

"You guess?"

"I don't really want to talk about it, if that's okay." When Fitz nods, Keefe gives a small smile. "How about you? I heard you and Foster broke up."

Truth be told, Fitz had nearly forgotten about that, which didn't bode well for his whole Yes, I definitely like girls act he was trying to do. "I'm... I think it was the right decision for us. Can I tell you a secret?" he blurts, the last sentence not planned. He hopes Keefe will say no, but of course he says yes, so Fitz swallows. "I don't think I ever liked her, really. I mean, I like her a lot. But not like that. Never like that. I've never liked a girl like that."

Instantly, Fitz regrets specifying a girl, but that was the only way to keep it truthful. Despite that, he regrets not lying as he watches Keefe connect the dots. "You like me, don't you?" Before Fitz can say anything, really even register the question, Keefe continues "It's not bad if you do. In fact, it's good, because I... I like you. A lot. Like that. So it's okay to tell me if you like me. And I promise I won't tell anyone unless you're alright with it."

Fitz nods. Almost in a whisper, he answers "I like you. I... I really like you, so much, so much it physically aches, but Keefe, I can't. You know I can't."

A look Fitz can't quite decipher comes over Keefe, a mixture of pain and anger and joy and... determination. "Tell me if you want me to stop," he whispers, before cupping Fitz's face. Even before their lips touch, Fitz knows it's so unlike the times he and Sophie almost kissed. This time, it feels exactly right.

It feels perfect.

That word, that fucking word, draws Fitz back abruptly away. "I can't," he repeats, taking a step back towards the door. Twists the doorknob. "I can't. I'm sorry, Keefe, but I can't."

Keefe nods. "I know. You have to be perfect." He doesn't sound angry; just resigned.

"I have to be perfect," Fitz agrees, and he leaves.

---

Once again, the world continues on. Keefe slowly begins trusting himself around other people again. Fitz still doesn't trust himself around Keefe. If they're too close for too long, he thinks he might just disregard everything and kiss him again. He thought it was hard before, but after he knows who fucking wonderful it is to kiss Keefe, it's nearly impossible. Keefe is like a drug, and Fitz has to do everything he can not to relapse.

So he stays away.

They fight the Neverseen a few more times. Nearly die once or twice. Elwin basically adopts Keefe. He and Sophie work to rebuild their trust as cognates, but it's hard, because now he's keeping such a big secret.

I never liked you.

I don't like girls.

I'm gay.

I like Keefe.

I kissed Keefe once.

He can't tell her any of that. Can't tell anyone. Keefe is the only person who knows, and even that is far too many people. He has to trust that Keefe won't tell anyone- though Keefe doesn't have as much to lose from it, it can't be good for him either. And Sophie... she's a really good friend, but he still... he can't. He just can't.

Even as their friendship repairs itself, they never date again. He's glad.

And disappointed.

Because he really needs a safety net, now more than ever.

---

Alden convinces him to get a match list, one without Sophie on it. One with a hundred girls, each one of them someone he can never love. Maybe he'll find one he likes well enough. And he can pretend to love her until he's convinced everyone, including himself. A new safety net.

A new mask of perfection.

He throws a Winnowing Gala then, mostly for the food. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to just eat the whole time. He has to dance with people, talk to them, hope to find some sort of spark. It never comes, of course. When he first met Keefe first, he knew that boy would be bad for him, but he couldn't stay away. Every moment talking to him felt like electricity. This is just... dull.

It's nearly torture.

Also, it's what the rest of his life is going to be like.

Fitz already knew perfection was a cage. He chose the cage instead of Keefe. Now he's living with the consequences. This was his choice, and he made his choice, but it's still... so hard. It feels like he's suffocating.

---

"I need some fresh air," he chokes out to the girl he's dancing with now. He can't even remember her name. She's nice, but nothing like Keefe. All of these girls blend together, because none of them are Keefe, and he's too focused on surviving the next few hours to concentrate on any of them.

Without waiting to here her response, he stumbles outside.

"Fitz?" a voice asks. He groans. Keefe. Why did it have to be Keefe?

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"It's nice to see you too. I came to pine as you chose a girl to marry, of course. Didn't expect you to come outside."

Fitz groans, burying his head in his hands. "Sorry to snap at you. I just..."

"You hate this. You hate this so much."

"How do you know?"

"Empath. Also, I know you," Keefe says. Fitz sighs. They fall silent for a long time, but finally, Keefe speaks again. "I still... I can't stop thinking about the kiss. It feels like forever ago, and I still sometimes feel your lips on mine like some sort of phantom. All I can do is think about kissing you again. I really want to kiss you again. I... I really want you." He takes a breath, then resumes, cutting off whatever Fitz was about to say. "But I know. You can't. I understand."

"I... it doesn't feel like I can. At all. But..." Fitz took a deep breath, gesturing at Everglen. "I can't do this either. I can't keep doing this, pretending to be perfect."

Keefe tilted his head to the side. "Fitz?"

"I'm done pretending," Fitz said, and he kissed Keefe once again.

Perfect.

---

When they finally separate, Keefe's ice blue eyes are wide, pupils dilated. "That was... incredible." He touches his fingers to his lips, never taking his eyes off Fitz. Fitz can't see himself, but he's sure he looks just as lovestruck. He's wanted this for years, and finally, finally...

"I want to tell people," Fitz says, his own voice sounding foreign to his ears. He didn't plan to say that, but repeats it. "I want to tell people about... about us."

"You know there's no going back after that," Keefe says, the beautiful smile on his face widening anyway.

Fitz nods. "I know. I don't want to go back. I told you, I'm done pretending."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." He pauses. "Unless you don't want to?"

After a quick kiss that makes little fireworks go off in Fitz's head, he smiles again and says "No, I want to. Do you know what you're going to say?" Fitz shakes his head. "Just making it up as you go along. That works. Honestly, the best way to do things. Can I come in with you?" In response, Fitz takes Keefe's hand in his and squeezes it. "Great. Let's go."

With every step Fitz takes, he knows his time being perfect is running out. He's never been happier.

---

"I want to thank you all for coming tonight," Fitz says, waiting for the room to fall silent from the talking and laughing and music. While he waits, his eyes meet Keefe's. His boyfriend's. Keefe smiles, and he gives a tentative smile in return. His stomach flips with anxiety, and doubts of Do I really want to do this? start to creep back in. He briefly closes his eyes and lets the memory of the kiss wash over him, and it's the only thing to get them to go away.

Distantly, he hears a girl whisper-scream "Is he about to propose to someone?"

He clears his throat and continues. "I've really enjoyed getting to speak of all of you and get to know you. Unfortunately..." he swallows. "None of you... my perfect match. There's nothing wrong with any of you, and if I could be attracted to any of you, I would have some good options to choose from. But... I'm not attracted to girls. Any girls. At all."

Behind him, he hears his father hissing "Fitz, what are you doing?"

"Let him finish," his mom murmurs, voice low.

After letting his eyes drift back to Keefe, he takes a deep breath and blurts it out to the entire room. It's been bubbling up in him for so long, with no one knowing, and by tomorrow, everyone in the Lost Cities will know. That's terrifying. But strangely liberating. No more pretending. "I'm gay."

"Fitzroy," his father snaps, instantly. "Stop talking at once."

"No."

"Fitzroy Avery Vacker-"

"No," Fitz repeats, meeting Alden's eyes and ignoring every voice of wisdom telling him to look away. "No. I'm done pretending. And I'm done being perfect. I'm gay, and I'm in love with Keefe, and you're just going to have to fucking deal with that."

---

Without waiting for a response, he turns and walks over to Keefe, collapsing into a hug. "I'm proud of you," he hears in a whisper.

"That was terrifying," he breathes.

"I know. But it's going to be okay."

Fitz tangles his hands in Keefe's stupidly beautiful hair and meets their lips in another earth shattering kiss. "I love you."

"I love you too, Wonderboy."

Things won't ever be perfect again. Alden and Della divorce, and though neither of them says it, Fitz knows it's his fault. Keefe's father is furious, which he knows upsets Keefe even though he lives with Elwin now. Some elves are supportive, and some even come out after Fitz- including Sophie and Biana, who have apparently been dating for months- but other elves whisper about the gay Vacker boy, and how unfortunate it is for the family. The Council has been arguing for months about whether or not Fitz should be allowed to be matched with Keefe. Fighting the Neverseen is still a necessity, and they keep getting hurt.

Things won't ever be perfect again. Fitz won't be "perfect" again.

But it doesn't matter whether he's perfect. He's happy.

#simone types things #keefitz #kotlc #fitz vacker #divorce alden vacker 2021 #cursing tw #internalized homophobia tw #shai's writing

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sing-swan-spring-swan · 4 years

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kam & solinh, fairytale au style

hey, did i ever chuck the 13-page bullet-point-style fairytale au i wrote once on here? no? well we’re fixing that. kam, solinh, draws from various fairytale tropes but is mostly a mix of “beauty and the beast” and “sleeping beauty”. so!

the sencens live in a small rural town on the edge of a cursed wood. they're like, the town's pet nobles. sometimes they get messages from the council. the town thinks they're cool as heck, because nobles! they never get nobility all the way out here- but no one actually knows why they chose to live here.

it's because lady gisela did some Bad Stuff, actually. or she tried, and failed, but without enough evidence to prove it the council couldn't do anything, and lord cassius had enough clout to prevent her from most of the consequences but, of course, they subsequently moved because, y'know. not a good idea to be in close proximity to power structures you definitely defied.

so, keefe, cassius, and gisela live in this small rural town. keefe, despite being popular (see: nobles!) has exactly one actual friend, and her name is sophie. they are friends mainly because sophie took one look at keefe and went "you're chaotic neutral, aren't you" and keefe went "oh thank god all these people think i'm lawful good where do i get some mischief in this town"

it's not perfect. sophie hates being stuck in a little orphanage of a little town and knows she’s going to be basically nothing when she comes of age, keefe is basically stuck with his family, who exemplify a power structure he hates and can’t seem to change, but y'know, they're happy.

and then one night, when keefe is trying to turn sophie's hair purple, he sees his mother sneaking into the woods.

he leaves the hair dye and sneaks after her. in the woods, he sees lady gisela making some sort of deal with a demon- she offers it a vial of her son's blood and promises it sophie's life in exchange for power. (enough power to regain the sencens' influence and eventually take over the kingdom, with keefe as a puppet king, but keefe doesn't know that yet.)

so keefe, shocked by this, tries to run and reveals himself. lady gisela chases him and he flees, but he can't go to the town because sophie, so he's just crashing through the woods until he finds a castle, gets into it, slams the gates shut.

and then a voice behind him says "you really shouldn't have done that."

keefe screams. because it's a ghost! sort of a ghost. transparent enough to be a ghost.the ghost explains that now that he's here, he can't leave- the curse will keep him trapped. keefe's like, sure, what curse? and tries. he gets maybe three feet out before vines that definitely weren't there before crawl up from the forest and fling him bodily back into the castle.

"told you," the ghost says, then gestures to where keefe is now bleeding significantly, because thorns. "let's get those taken care of."

the ghost informs him that the castle is his to explore and that it will provide for him, but he should really never ever go up the stairs. one because those floors aren't really maintained, but two because the stairs aren't maintained either, and they'll probably collapse and kill him. keefe asks if that's how the ghost died. the ghost glares.

meanwhile- sophie hasn't seen keefe in three days. gisela says he's most likely exploring in the forest, what a shame, so dangerous, you know, but he's a hero at heart and he thinks he can save it and sophie thinks "nope, you know what, he's an idiot and i'm gonna go find that idiot"

so she goes into the forest, and she finds the castle, and she finds keefe, and keefe is like "sophie what the frick now you can't leave either"

sophie is . . . pretty chill about this, actually, because she didn't have much waiting for her in the town, but keefe is like "no this is actually a problem gisela is planning things and she's making deals and if you're here she can't fulfill them and i don't know what she's going to do, and also there are ghosts here"

"hi," says the ghost.

keefe introduces the ghost as tam and they give sophie a rundown of the curse and what's going on. tam repeats the "don't trust the stairs" thing and keefe and sophie Look at each other, because keefe is now healed enough to attempt sneakery and now they can do it together.

they wait a few days, and then they try the stairs. they go to the basement first, because the basement stairs look more solid and there are fewer of them.in the basement, they find a pool, large and wide and still. for a moment, there's no sound, and sophie begins to walk towards it.

and then a monster bursts from the surface.

"who invades this castle?" it screams, and its voice shakes the stone.

sophie, who is soaking wet and terrified, puts her hands up and tries to back away, before tam rushes up behind her.

"they're villagers! they're just villagers." he glances over at sophie and keefe. "foolish, stupid villagers who got lost and found this place. they're harmless."

tam approaches the monster and they talk, tam in a whisper, and the monster in a gravelly voice, like ocean tides, that sophie can't make words out of. the monster backs off, and tam storms towards them. he grabs them and starts dragging them towards the stairs, and then he glares until they start moving up the stairs ahead of him.

"what was that thing?" keefe asks, as they approach the ground floor.

"she," tam hisses, "is . . . the owner of this castle. she protects us."

"from what? the curse keeps you here."

no response.

". . . is she responsible for the curse? because if she is-"

"the curse protects us! from people like you! they would kill her, they killed me, and the curse keeps us safe. you were the ones stupid enough to come in!"

they walk the rest of the way in silence. when they get to the ground floor, tam says that they’ve already proven they won't listen to him if he tells them not to go to the tower, but he is asking them not to, as a basic kindness.

they don't see tam for the next few days. both keefe and sophie feel bad, but it's sophie that first decides "you know what, i'm gonna go apologize to the monster." keefe responds with "look, you're right but tam got so angry last time. maybe this is a bad idea." they think for a moment, and then sophie's like "what if we write a letter?"

the castle provides for them, at least, so finding paper and ink isn't too hard. they write a letter and decide that sophie will deliver it.

sophie goes down with the letter and is planning to just leave it there but surprise! monster, who asks her what she's holding. sophie explains about the letter, the monster asks sophie to read it to her since, you know, claws and things make paper a Challenge. sophie feels painfully awkward but she does, and the monster thanks her and apologizes in turn for her reaction when they entered. as sophie leaves. she promises they'll find a way out, and leave the two alone.

meanwhile, keefe, who is going a Little Bit Crazy here waiting for sophie, goes looking for tam. he finds tam, the two kind of- end up in a standoff for a bit, until keefe, who has no better ideas, asks if tam knows how to cook. tam does not- the castle has always provided for them. keefe takes tam into the kitchen and shows him how to make mallowmelt. neither of them are very good at it, and also tam sometimes phases through physical things, but they get a sort of mallowmelt that is a little burnt but still very sweet and very good.

tam comes in the next day and tells sophie that "she wants to see you." there's only one other being in the whole castle, so sophie and tam go down to the basement. tam lingers, before sophie says it's okay, and then he lingers a little longer until the monster gives what's probably a nod.

"i'm not going to eat you," the monster says. she very well could- those fangs are proof enough- but.

"i didn't think you were," sophie says.

the monster explains that the curse is magic, complicated, confusing magic, that even she doesn't understand, but if sophie wants to get out of it then she'll probably need what the monster knows.

sophie pauses.

"i thought you cast it," she says.

". . . yes, but i don't know how." "can it be broken?"

"you're not breaking the curse," the monster says, and there's a snarl to her voice.

"no, that's not what i meant, just- if you knew a way to break it maybe we could alter that to just- pause it temporarily? so keefe and i could leave?"

"oh. no, i don't know how to break it."

"okay," sophie says, and then she goes and gets paper and ink, and the monster tells her everything she knows.

when they're done, she looks at her pages of notes, and then she looks at the monster, but it doesn't feel right to keep calling her that.

"do you have a name?"

the monster pauses. and then she says, "linh. and you're sophie?"

"i- yes. how did you know that?"

linh gives what might be a laugh.

"you said it in your letter."

"oh. right."

"sophie. it's a pretty name."

"thank you," sophie says, and then, "so is linh."

she does that sort-of laugh thing again. "i'll see you tomorrow, sophie."

two days later, when keefe and sophie head into the kitchen, there is another plate of mallowmelt on the counter, and keefe does not know if that's the castle's doing or tam's (or if they're the same). it tastes a little weird, and keefe assumes, since tam can’t actually eat, he was guessing at the flavor, but it’s good. it feels like approval, too, which gives keefe the confidence to ask if tam knows how to make dye. he does.

they make dye. they also stain the kitchen, and keefe's hair, and for a moment keefe forgets that tam is non-corporeal and tries to put finely chopped cabbage in his hair. there's a moment of awkwardness, before keefe pouts about it not being fair and knows he's succeeded when tam laughs.

they get one of the squirrels that lives on the castle grounds and dye its fur multiple colors. the squirrel, to its credit, seems to be enjoying the whole thing.

at some point, probably late one night, tam asks where he learned to do all this, and keefe tells him that he mostly uses it to play pranks on people, back in the town.

"geez," tam says. "your parents let you get away with all that?"

"ah," keefe says, "no. they don't. they're actually, uh . . . kind of terrible."

there's a moment.

"i'm sorry."

"no, don't be. i mean, it's normal, right?"

"no," tam says, vehemently. "it's not, and it shouldn't be."

keefe looks at him. "were yours kind of terrible too?"

". . . yeah.”

"i mean. you don't have to tell me, but what happened?"

there's a pause, as tam looks at his hands.

"i'm a twin. my sister was born first, by about five minutes, so she was technically crown princess, but she had . . . magic. a lot of it."

"isn't that a good thing?"

"she wasn't- it was a lot. and they never taught her how to control it, they just expected her to, and when she couldn't, they made me the heir. and i fought it, so they fought me, and eventually they sent us . . . here."

"and then people attacked. and they killed you." keefe says, and tam nods.

"i'm . . ." keefe looks for something better and doesn't find it. "sorry."

"yeah, well. what happened to you?"

"my dad hates me, and, uh, my mom tried to feed my blood to a demon."

tam winces. "well. at least they can't get to us here?"

"yeah," keefe says, and then he tilts his head back and looks up at the ceiling. "nobility, am i right?"

"nobility," tam replies, and the air feels lighter.

so linh and sophie and tam and keefe just kinda! hang out in the castle together! and bond! and they work on fixing the curse so keefe and sophie can leave

there’s one conversation when they’re all working together where sophie brings up the concept of “true love”. It sounds silly to her, but there’s mentions in the text of it being really powerful magic.

“of course,” linh says. “all the best spells draw on love.”

“and all the worst,” tam adds.

for a moment, they just look at each other, and then linh sighs and turns back to sophie. she explains that while love is an extremely powerful magic, it is also one that tends to be uncontrollable. magic born out of love is extremely strong- it can overcome most other magical forces and constructions in the world, and there are stories about it performing what are essentially miracles- but it's not really the kind of thing where the outcome can be predicted. so, since both tam and linh are insistent that keefe and sophie not break the curse, it’s not a viable route. keefe and sophie agree, and they get back to work.

also at some point in this they start a girls vs. boys prank war and they have fun and everything is fine for a little while

but of course, you know, they keep talking, and keefe and sophie are starting to put it together. and at one point, when they're all down in the basement and it's quiet, sophie asks, "were you two siblings?"

tam and linh look at her.

"i just thought- if we want the best chance of getting keefe and i out, we need as much information as we can get. and we still don't know what happened to cause this curse."

"we haven't been snooping," keefe says, quickly. "you've just said some stuff, and we just been thinking.”

linh looks at tam. tam takes a breath. "alright. come with me."

he leads them up the tower. they climb flights of stairs, before they are stopped by a thicket of thorns.

"oh, i didn't- i don't know if you can get through."

but keefe steps up, and the thorns pull back, revealing a passage.

"well," tam says, quietly. "that's new."

the passage leads to a room. in it is a single body, resting on a dais, surrounded by thorns.

it's tam: the same clothes, same hair, same face. the only difference is the broken arrows, three of them, lodged in the body's still-breathing chest.

"this is why you can't break the curse," tam says.

"it's keeping you alive," sophie breathes.

"barely."

keefe takes a step closer to the body.

"i thought you were a ghost," he says.

"i am, really. but i'm not dead. just . . . sleeping."

they leave the room and go back down to linh, and together linh and tam explain that when they were attacked and tam was killed, linh felt it. her magic exploded and twisted around the castle, creating the thorns and the lake. it saved tam's life, but it came at the cost of her body, turning her into what she is.

sophie and keefe leave tam, who clearly needs a little space, alone with linh. the next day, keefe makes mallowmelt and presents it to tam, who, while not necessarily able to eat it, smiles at him anyway.

they keep working, but now they're looking- or at least, sophie and keefe are looking- for two things: a way to get out and a way to heal tam. it's unlikely they'll find anything linh and tam haven’t, but they still try.

but.

sophie has been missing for weeks now, and lady gisela, back in the village, still needs her and keefe. so she convinces the demon to give her enough power to find them, and she discovers the castle, and she creates a plan.

she goes to the leaders of the town, and in front of them, she starts to weep. apparently, her son has gone missing, and she knows where he's been taken- into the cursed wood, by the beast that lives in the castle. she produces a torn letter with a sketch of it, horribly monstrous, and she convinces the town to go into the woods and kill the beast.

the people of the village launch an attack, and linh and tam are unprepared and overwhelmed. they tell keefe and sophie to hide.

"what are you going to do?" sophie asks.

and linh rises out of the lake, water pouring off her in rivers.

"fight," she says.

"i'm not letting you go alone."

linh looks at her for a long, long moment, before she bends her head to sophie.

"then get on."

before keefe runs off with tam, he says, very quickly, "they're good people. not all of them. not my parents. but there are good people in the village."

linh nods, and sophie dips with the movement.

"we'll be careful. now go."

sophie and linh fight the mob, led by lord cassius. linh's strong, but in her current form her magic is weak, and there's too many of them- sophie keeps them off of linh as best she can, but they're just two people, linh hasn't fought in ages, and they're trying to pull their punches.

they hold them off for as long as they can, but it's not enough. they overwhelm linh. they pull sophie off her back, and lady gisela, who is smart, grabs her and holds a knife to her neck.

"stop," she says. "or the girl dies."

linh goes still.

"linh, no," sophie begs, but she does not move, does not look away from sophie even as lord cassius lifts his sword and stabs into the soft flesh just behind her head.

they take rope. they tie sophie to linh's body as she sobs.

"spread out. search the castle. find my son, at any cost."

"he's not yours," sophie cries, as the mob scatters.

lord cassius looks at her, once, and then he turns away.

keefe and tam, in the tower, hear the noises downstairs, the sudden silence that means nothing good.

"do you know how to use a sword?" tam asks.

keefe nods.

tam reaches into the darkness by the thorns and pulls out a sword, shadows curling off the edges. keefe stares, open-mouthed.

"my sister wasn't the only one with magic," tam says, smiling, before he glances at his body. "i think- if i do too much, it'll break this, and kill me, but i can give you this."

and just then, the thorns curl back as if burned, and lady gisela enters the room.

"keefe,” she says, reaching for him. “come back. stop this, come home with me. i did this for you, you know. i'll give you power. you'll be able to change the world. isn't that what you always wanted?"

"i don't want anything from you," he says, and swings.

keefe's good with a sword but he's never had to use it in combat before. and what's more, gisela trained him. gisela knows how he fights. and for all that he is in danger, he doesn't want to kill his mom.

the sword is helping him, pushing force behind his strikes and blocking attacks with its wisps of shadow, but it's not enough to beat gisela. he manages to fight her to a standstill, sword pressed up against her shield of flickering power, but it's taking all keefe's strength to do that.

"you'll see," gisela says, gathering power in her other hand. "i'll take you with me, and you'll do great things."

keefe shakes his head, but there's nothing he can do to stop her.

then he hears, "kiss me before i die, okay?"

and just as gisela raises her hand, the sword explodes.

when the darkness fades, lady gisela is unconscious. the only sounds in the room are that of keefe's heavy breathing, and behind him, the rattling, raspy breaths of a dying body, on the dais behind him.

keefe turns, and sees blood.

tam is back in his body. tam, who knew it would kill him, who did it anyway to keep keefe from his mother.

kiss me before i die, okay?

he wants tam to be awake for this. he wants to stumble over a confession, and he wants tam to shut him up, and he wants tam to kiss him back. but if this is all he gets, then. well. nothing’s fair. this is the least he can do.

keefe leans in.

sophie leans against linh's body. the water is cold but linh is still warm and she thinks of the last time they did this, when sophie fell asleep in the basement and linh curled around her to make her comfortable. she thinks of waking up to a smile that was all teeth and fangs and somehow, still soft and kind. she thinks of what she wanted to say, then.

"i love you," she whispers, to someone who can't hear her anymore.

and linh's body begins to glow.

up in the tower, keefe kisses tam, just once, quick and gentle. when he pulls away, tam's body is still, and keefe pretends he doesn't notice the tears that drip onto tam's face.

but then something catches the corner of his eye, and he looks up.

all around him, the thorns are blooming into dark purple roses, shining at the edges of their petals with a strange light. he looks to tam's chest, where the shafts of the arrows are growing, twisting together before they, too, burst into bloom, and dissipate into petals.

the blue glow around linh's body gets stronger, and brighter, until it hurts sophie's eyes, but she doesn't look away. around her, she hears, faintly, shouting, but it can't seem to reach her. the light twists, turns, and then the ropes go slack. in her arms is a girl, thin and pale, with waist-long black hair and torn clothes.

her eyes blink open, grey-blue. she smiles, and sophie knows her, even without the teeth.

"linh," she says.

"i heard you."

sophie reaches for her hand and laces their fingers together. linh looks at it in wonder, as if she's forgotten what it felt like, to have hands.

"ready?" sophie asks.

"always," linh says, and then, as the mob approaches, she raises her voice. "i am princess linh of exilium. this is my kingdom, and you are going to leave."

sophie calls on all linh’s shown her about magic, on the glowing thing at the center of her chest, and together, they pull.

the petals fall, gently, to tam's chest. the arrows are gone. so is the wound.

"keefe?" says a shaky, familiar voice.

he looks back. tam's eyes are open.

"you idiot," he says. "you died."

"you saved me," tam tells him, and keefe, helplessly, has no clever response to that.

"i love you," he says, instead.

"i love you too."

and then the ground beneath them starts to rumble. keefe glances around them, worried, but tam laughs, once, bright and wondering.

"that's my sister. that's linh. she's back."

the lake washes through the castle. it sweeps up the villagers, the swords, the weapons. it washes into the tower and takes the dais and lady gisela with it. keefe scoops tam into his arms and they walk down, untouched by the raging current, as tam lifts a hand and starts to pull the last of the demon’s shadows from gisela and the villagers that pass them. they twist around each other, before dissipating into nothing but harmless wisps.

sophie and linh are there, in the foyer, hands clasped at the center of it all, as the waters curl and turn around them.

"can i kiss you?" sophie says, half breathless.

and linh leans in, and in the center of a bright blue whirlpool, kisses her.

#if you read all of this i love you #thank you and i hope you enjoyed!#kotlc #kotlc au #sophie foster #linh song #keefe sencen #tam song #solinh #kam #fairytale au #this is- maybe the first au i EVER came up with for kotlc #i think i might have started posting about it a few years but it's changed substantially since then #but- it's done now. i've made it into something #proud of that #anyway hope you enjoyed!

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jaxtheoraliestanner · 4 years

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Some random characters you may have forgotten

Jurek: The scrawny Sanctuary caretaker who got upset for Sophie and Keefe arriving late for their meeting with Silveny. He was once reprimanded by Lord Cassius because he was Talentless.

The Black Swan’s Psionipath: It was revealed in Neverseen that the Black Swan has a Psionipath on their side. But we have no details as to their name, appearance, or motivation.

Trix: The Neverseen’s Guster. We also know nothing about his identity or why he joined the Neverseen. But we do know that he worked with Umber on missions very often.

Brielle: Grady’s goblin bodyguard who was killed in Lodestar by rogue ogres. She was aurified in Gildingham later in the book.

Damel Kafuta: A talented Washer who wiped the minds of Sophie’s human parents after they were abducted by Vespera. He’s 18, but has a young face.

Marty the cat: Sophie’s only friend in the human world. She found him as a kitten in some bushes and begged her parents to let her keep him. He has fluffy grey fur and a crackly purr ( hey that rhymed ), and he always slept on Sophie’s pillow.

Shayda Adel: The daughter of two well-known Emissaries. She might have a crush on Keefe. Shayda tried to trip Ro in Nightfall, and Ro responded by crushing her foot into pieces.

Bronte’s mother: She was accidentally Inflicted on by Bronte when he was unable to control his ability. She was brought up by Bronte when he was lecturing Grady on the power of his ability.

#random stuff with jax #yeah i totally forgot about Shayda #and jeez Ro #calm yourself #that poor girl's foot must be as shattered as my sanity

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tygertyger137 · 4 years

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my kotlc predictions for the rest of the series

-sophie never figures out who her dad is

-oralie dies lmao

like she’s gonna pull a Big Hero Sacrifice moment to save sophie and crew cause she thinks that’s the only way she can make things right

is probably going to trigger a massive depressive spiral for sophie bc she assumes it’s her fault and regrets not getting to know oralie better

oralie is prolly gonna say something sad and sorta sappy about getting to see kenric again. i may or may not cry about it

-sokeefe is endgame. i will die on this hill

-sophie goes off on lord cassius for being such a prick

says that he has an amazing son that he should be grateful for,,like she just goes on and on and on about how great keefe is and then she sees him standing outside the room lol

then she straight up just dies of embarrassment. no more eyelashes, all gone

-alvar is a bastard. literally. like he’s half human half elf

-della’s backstory is revealed

nobody ever explained what she was doing w humans???

-sophie never gets her matchmakers list

-fitz has a little pissbaby cryfest when he finds out that sophie and keefe saw alvar but didn’t kill him on sight

says something super mean and hurtful to sophie and keefe

sophie finally stands up for herself to fitz and tells him where to shove it

i could totally see fitz saying something about how she’s freaky/defective and sophie inflicting

-sophie gets a sword

i have no reason to believe this will happen i just rlly want it to

-somebody’s winnowing gala burns down

-ppl find out that marella is a pyrokinetic and they lose their whole minds

-the series is gonna end with sophie and keefe cuddling and saying a bunch of sleepy ‘i love you’s’ and then it’s gonna say something like “and for the first time in a very long time, sophie foster slept soundly” and fade to black. the end. we all scream and i die

#kotlc #kotlc headcanon #sokeefe #keefoster #incorrect kotlc quotes #exile #everblaze #neverseen #lodestar #nighfall #flashback #legacy #sophitz #y'all know im right #givesophieasword2k20

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an-absolute-travesty · 4 years

Text

Royal Screw-Ups

It’s time, the final chapter is here

*Sobbing*

I won’t get too sappy on you guys here, since I got pretty sappy at the end of thing on Wattpad

But yeah. Thanks if you’ve been reading this long. I have more plans for this world (i have some plans for a few oneshots) but for this moment, we are closing out this story

If you’re looking for the rest of the story, it can be found on my wattpad @ohwowhatethis, under the tags “kotlc fic” and “keefex” on my blog, or under the cut on my pinned post

Tag list (tell me if you want to be added or removed, just for this story or as a whole): @you-are-the-vacker-legacy @ruewen-and-rising @lemontarto @a-lonely-tatertot @clearlykeefitz @percabetn @vibing-in-the-void @sewersewersewercouch @everyonehasthoughts @imaramennoodle @enbies-and-felonies @blxckh0les42 @rainbowtay-11 @callas-starkflower-stew @impostertamsong @appalyneinstitute1 @stars-and-splendor @anna-without-an-e

Chapter 8:

Word count: 3,677

Warnings: swearing, cassi-ass being an ass, destruction, fire, chaos, etc.

Three months of planning later, servants scurried around the property in preparation for the ceremony the next day. A glass dome had been built in the center of the property to house it.

Tam and Linh had arrived soon after they had their first meeting, luckily Tam and Fitz weren’t as lovey-dovey in real life as they were in their letters. However, Marella and Linh very much made up for it. The moment they met the guard and the princess had a connection, the sweet talk was almost too much to bear.

In fact, all of them had grown quite close over the past months. Who knew low-level treason could bring people together so.

Of course, not nearly as close as he’d like with a certain person, but closer for sure. Every week they met back up at the library to work out bumps in their plan, clean up the absurd amount of paper Keefe used in drawing out his first plan, or just sit and talk. Today would be their last before the big day.

Keefe watched over Dex’s shoulder as he made his final tinkers on the device he had been working on.

“How’s it looking Techmaster?”

“Eh, having more metal makes everything easier but...it’s one use only, so I can’t test it. We just have to hope for the best.”

“Well, I have faith in you. Your genius brain could make anything.”

Dex rolled his eyes. Keefe wanted to subtly touch him to see if his blatant flirting had been noticed, but it felt wrong to. He had been stuck in the dark for the last 3 months.

Everyone else ran their lines around the room. Everyone besides Sophie who, as typical of her, looked half way sick in the corner.

Keefe sat down next to her on the floor.

“Alright, what’s up Foster, have you acquired a stomach bug?”

She giggled. “No...it’s just…” She sighed. “It feels wrong, y’know? I mean...I don’t want to hurt anybody.”

“You’re really doing the opposite of hurting people though, I mean you’re making them happy.”

“Not happy, hysterical. Yeah it can be happy, but not in the way we’re doing it. Trust me, it’s not fun to watch.”

Keefe thought for a moment.

“Hey...your parents have that griffin, right?”

~*~

The sound of a wedding march echoed through the castle lawn as Sophie was led down the isle by her father. Keefe guessed she looked quite lovely in her dress, Biana, who stood as her maid of honor, was looking at her more like a husband would than him. He stood frozen at the alter, Fitz beside him as his best man and everyone else interspersed within the crowd for optimal dramatic effect.

Sophie reached him at long last. Surprisingly enough, she didn’t look sickly this time. Her face steeled with determination gave him confidence.

The guy marrying them together was one of Cassius’ officials. Keefe didn’t bother to remember most names anymore, but this one was a...Moland? Noland? Something like that.

Everyone winced in unison as the man started talking, Keefe’s ears began to ring a bit at the volume.

“Lords and Ladies, we are gathered here today to celebrate the joyous union of our young Prince Keefe Sencen and the lovely Miss Sophie Foster-Ruewen.”

Keefe only realized he was fidgeting when Fitz subtly reached out and held his hand down from where it had been tapping on his leg.

“We are honored to be joined by so many friends and family. The Goom and Bride are overjoyed you all could be here to participate in this most important occasion.

“There are few greater joys in life than finding someone we truly connect with. Creatives have many names for this, a spark, clicking, but let us say today what it truly is: love.”

Keefe looked out into the crowd, he caught the eye of Dex. The redhead’s brow was crinkled and his cheeks flushed slightly. He pat the pocket of his coat in confirmation.

“Love is what these two young souls have found in each other. In love, our truest selves are revealed. We open ourselves up and break down our walls. The veil we present to the public is lifted so we can be loved for who we are, not who we pretend to be.”

Keefe struggled to not roll his eyes. He took a final look around the room, each person nodding as he met eyes with them.

“Over these months, our Bride and Groom have developed a strong bond. This bond will only get stronger throughout the course of their marriage. Let us revel in the joy and love displayed in front of us today. May we treasure these memories as Prince Keefe and Miss Sophie get set to begin their new life together.”

Keefe took a deep breath, knowing the next words out of his mouth.

“If anyone has cause to object the forming of this union, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

3, 2, 1…

“I object!”

Stina first. “This marriage was meant to be mine! She’s just a dirty commoner!”

“How dare you!” Fitz cut in before anyone else could. “I object because I love her! Sophie is meant to be with me. Maruca has admitted her love to Keefe, let her marry him!”

Biana gasped dramatically. “Maruca you snake! You knew I loved him.”

“You only loved his title!” She screamed, standing up to match the rest. “And Fitz, if you’re so concerned with what Stina has to say about Sophie, you should hear what Wylie has to say.”

Fitz walked in Wylie’s direction and he stood. “Why you little-”

Just then, Keefe heard it.

Beep. Beep. Beep. BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP.

BOOM.

An explosion burst a small part of the glass dome’s ceiling. Sophie let out an ear-splitting whistle and the griffin flew straight through the hole as the glass fell. Screams erupted through the room as the animal landed on chairs and destroyed the alter.

The screams only got louder as the room was lit up as bright as the sun before swiftly being plunged into darkness. Those involved in the plan used the opportunity to gather themselves at the exit. With the exception of Biana and Marella who, if all went as planned, stood prepared by the very flammable reception tables.

The darkness lifted and people quickly ran out, some of the more stuck up nobles guided by guards. Once everyone was out safely, Keefe watched as a red glow started and grew. Marella wasn’t visible, but anyone paying attention could see the two sets of footprints forming in the grass.

People ran farther from the dome swiftly filling with fire. It spread quickly, but before it could reach the outside, Linh yelled.

“Everyone back up!”

She pulled water from a nearby pond, making a large wave that, while it put out the fires, crushed the dome in its entirety.

~*~

Two hours later, the guests sat huddled in the ballroom of the castle, many wrapped in blankets and eating soup the kitchen served to recover from what they had been through. Through the window, Keefe saw the Ruewen parents attempting to calm their griffin after taking a long time to wrangle it.

They were good at keeping secrets, they brought the animal here in the first place.

Just as he started crossing the room to go talk to Dex, he felt a heavy hand grip his shoulder.

Cassius looked at him with a glare that could kill ten men. He wordlessly guided Keefe in the direction of his office and the prince obliged.

When Keefe walked in the door, it was messier than he had ever seen it. Even his father himself was disheveled, his typically slick-backed hair uncharacteristically sloppy and his tunic smudged with soot. He sat down at his desk and heaved a sigh.

“Do you know why I brought you in here?”

“Because my wedding was destroyed?”

“Because we are going to plan a new one. I need you to collect everyone who had objections to get this idiotic drama cleared for the records. I’ve sent for Councillor Bronte, he can officiate you. You will have a wedding today, whether you get the ceremony or not.”

“One problem with that, Biana and Marella haven’t been found.”

Technically the truth. They were to hide in the Queen’s Gardens until further notice, but the Guard Force didn’t know that.

Cassius was silent for a moment, his face hidden in his hands.

Then he started convulsing.

No, not convulsing.

Laughing.

“Of course!” He got up from his chair in one movement. “Of course they haven’t been found! Why am I even surprised anymore.” He threw his hands in the air. “Nothing ever goes right!” He spoke through his teeth as he pushed everything off of his desk.

“MY MARRIAGE” He cleared a bookshelf with one arm, dumping the junk to the ground.

“MY LEADERSHIP!” He knocked over his chair.

“MY SON!” He grabbed the painting from the wall and threw it down.

“ALL DISAPPOINTMENTS!” He pushed over his desk, it landed with a loud crash.

“And now this too? Nothing ever goes right! No matter how hard I try! No matter how much work I put in! Everything ends in failure!”

“It’s a good thing this was my wedding and not yours then.”

The door behind them opened without a knock.

“King Cassius, is this a bad time?” Bronte looked at the office with contempt.

“No, now works.”

Despite not being formally invited in, Bronte sat down on the overturned desk and pulled out a folder of paperwork.

“So...we’re trying to do an emergency wedding, yes?”

Cassius nodded.

“And from my understanding, there were 1,2...4 objections that haven’t been cleared?”

Cassius nodded again.

“Then I’m afraid I can’t perform a wedding. Legally or morally considering the fact that fate itself seems against this union. It is traditional, when a wedding goes so badly, to accept that something in the universe is not accepting of the marriage and call it off.”

“I understand, Councillor. However, I am the goddamned king and you will do as I say!

Bronte was unfazed.

“Actually sir, with only a month until the coronation you have resigned some of your duties, as is customary. You don’t have full control over the law at the moment, you signed a contract.”

He pulled said contract out of his pocket, displaying the signature, before putting it back in.

“Prince Keefe and you now have split control, as you had when you had a spouse. You both must agree if you are to override a law.”

Cassius hid his face once again.

“Go. Get out of my sight.”

Keefe turned to leave but his father grabbed him.

“Just Bronte.”

The man shrugged and closed the door behind him.

“Keefe...do you know why I was so eager to get you in as king?”

Keefe said nothing. That was one thing he couldn’t figure out himself.

“I am a shitty, shitty, king. I was never made to rule. Your mother? Yes. Yes she was. Me? No. Not at all. I thought I could do this job, I thought it would be cushy, I thought I’d have all the power in the kingdom as well as riches upon riches without having to work. I was wrong.

“I wanted to train you to do this better than I ever could. I wanted to make sure you were going to be prepared.”

“No.” Keefe’s eyes started to water in anger. “You wanted to train me up to take your job as soon as possible. You didn’t want the responsibility so you decided to hand it off to your child. It’s just like...it’s just like Mom. You were the judge and the jury but you were too much of a coward to be the executioner or even a mourner. You hand off all your problems for someone else to deal with. You’re a fucking coward and nothing else.”

“I cared Keefe!-”

“NO YOU DIDN’T.” Tears streamed down his face. “You never cared about me, you never cared about Mom, you never cared for anything or anybody but yourself.

“I don’t love Sophie and I never will, but you tried to make me marry her because you loved the idea of the strong son with a quiet woman. That shows how much you care.”

“It was what I thought was best.”

“WELL YOU WERE WRONG.”

Keefe walked out and slammed the door.

~*~

Keefe went to his room and sobbed. He rarely indulged himself in crying but today was one of the days he let himself. It was maybe an hour later, when he was out of tears and just laid staring up at his ceiling, that he heard a knock on the door.

When he opened it, no one stood there. Just a small note in scratchy handwriting.

“Meet us at the library, midnight”

~*~

Keefe carefully sneaked through the castle halls, only the candle he held lit his way. He slowly cracked open the library door.

“SURPRISE!”

Suddenly a whole group of people attacked him in a hug, rainbow lights filled the normally dull room.

“W-what is all this?”

“It’s a surprise party silly!” For the first time since he’d seen her, Sophie looked truly happy. “We don’t have to get married! And we got out of it without any serious injuries.”

Fitz pulled him over to a table. “C’mon, Bi stole some leftover cake no one ate from the kitchens.”

He looked around for Dex hoping to see his beaming smile and instead saw him sitting solemnly in the corner. He didn’t look Keefe’s way.

“Hey Fee, are you okay?” Apparently Fitz just now noticed his still puffy face.

“Yeah um...just my dad being a jerk again. Don’t worry about it.”

Fitz shrugged it off, he knew about jerky dads.

Or he used to, anyway. That bastard Alden ran away a long time ago.

Keefe tried to partake in the festivities but he found it hard. He was going to be king in a month, and hopefully a good one at that. Just about anything was better than Cassius. He should be celebrating right now. But...there was still something bothering him.

It was approaching the wee hours of the morning as people slowly trickled out. Wylie had long since dropped the rainbow lights. They had been celebrating for hours, Dex was silent nearly the whole time.

“Alright.” Fitz said through a yawn. “I’m tapping out. Night Fee. Last one standing has to clean everything up.”

Keefe nodded. When he finally left the room and they were all alone, he approached Dex. Still silent in the corner.

“Okay, what’s going on Techmaster? You seem down.”

“No it’s just...it’s hard to explain.”

“Take your time, if you’d like.” Keefe sat down criss cross in front of him.

His lips went pouty in a way that made Keefe realize he was staring at his lips.

“You’ll think I’m weird. And clingy. And jealous. Honestly I shouldn’t even be saying any of this right now but I make bad decisions at 3 A.M. I guess.”

“Hey, you can tell me anything.” Keefe started to reach his hand out to Dex before remembering he shouldn’t read his emotions. Dex grabbed it before he could pull away. A lot of sadness and hurt there. He quickly stopped reading, though their hands stayed locked.

“It’s just...there’s this person. This guy. And...and I thought maybe he liked me but now I think he has a boyfriend. I’m not sure though.”

Keefe’s heart dropped. “Well...boyfriend status can be changed.”

Dex chuckled. “I don’t know, they have nicknames for each other and everything.”

“Sounds serious.”

“Looks serious.”

It was silent for a moment, then Dex spoke.

“Look...don’t worry about it, alright? It’s really no big deal. I’ll get over it, I guess.”

“Maybe he likes you back.”

“I highly doubt it. I’m...I’m not good enough for him. I’m just a servant. He deserves someone better.”

“Why does being a servant mean you’re bad? I’ve met some nobles that are real assholes. You’re way better than all of those fuckers.”

Dex laughed again, wow Keefe could listen to that forever.

Dex sighed. “You know what? Screw it.”

He seemed to steel himself before saying his next sentence. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly.

“Are you dating Fitz?”

“What?” Keefe laughed awkwardly. “No, no, no. He’s just a friend.”

“Oh. Then...who were you talking about at the gardens? I- I thought it was Fitz and you guys got together and-”

“No, goodness no. Fitz is great and all but...well he’s just not my type. And he’s been dating Tam for a while now.”

“Oh I uh...I didn’t notice.” Dex’s face flushed furiously. “Who were you talking about then?”

Keefe met his eyes. “Depends, who were you talking about?”

He didn’t answer but his silence spoke more than any words could.

Keefe scooted closer and cupped Dex’s face in his hand. He looked into the boys periwinkle eyes.

“Dex, can I kiss you?”

“Please?”

And they did.

When Keefe heard descriptions of kissing the same gender, they always said that it felt wrong somehow. But this...this only felt right. Like he had been waiting his whole life for the moment when he met the gardener boy’s cracked lips. They weren’t soft, and the kiss was a bit awkward, but it just felt...correct. Keefe chased the kiss slightly when they finally had to pull away.

A shy smile spread across Dex’s face.

Keefe leaned back in.

~*~

Keefe walked out onto the newly-built stage in front of the castle and looked upon his people. His ceremonial robe was itchy and too large for him.

Cassius was no where to be seen. He had just...run away. The day of the wedding was the day he broke. The kingdom had been sovereignless for the last month, coronations couldn't be rushed.

Typically the previous king would place the crown upon the head of the new ruler. Because Cassius seemed to run away in the night with nothing more than a clump of riches, Keefe got to choose who would crown him.

“Friends and subjects of the Kingdom of Eternalia,” Oralie started. “Today, we crown a new ruler. A ruler to put the people first. A ruler who will not sleep until every one of his people is fed. A ruler to unite us.”

Keefe never realized how long winded Oralie was. Looking into the crowd, he spotted Sophie. She wore a sour expression.

Sophie never was a fan of Oralie, she wouldn’t tell him why.

“Prince Keefe has shown a care for his people deeper than any king before him.”

She could say that again. Keefe found Dex in the crowd, absolutely beaming.

“In the time I have had the honor of teaching him in my lessons, he has shown a willingness to learn. An ability to adapt. And a knowledge of the system as well as its successes and failures deeper than anyone else his age.

And yes, it is truly a shame that a king must be crowned this young, but I have no doubt that in time he will do right by our great kingdom.”

Oralie walked over to him, her pink flowy dress trailing behind her. She picked up the ceremonial crown off the pillow that a servant was holding.

“Prince Keefe of Eternalia, do you promise to uphold the law and do what is right for your people to the best of you abilities?”

“I do.”

“And do you promise to preserve the honor of our nation?”

“I do.”

A loud voice came from the crowd.

“AND DO YOU PROMISE TO NOT LET CASSI-ASS BACK INTO THE THRONE ROOM?” Keefe could tell it was Marella, but no one else had to know that.

He cracked a smile. “I do.”

Oralie chuckled too.

“In that case, Keefe Sencen of Eternalia, with this crown I deem you King of Eternalia. May you have a long and peaceful reign.”

The heavy crown was placed upon his head. The crowd cheered and chanted, his friends yelled the loudest. Keefe saw as Fitz lifted Biana on his shoulders, they all hugged and screamed excitedly.

Who he noticed most of all was Dex. His bright smile in that moment was worth everything he’d been through.

Maybe he had found someone he didn’t mind being with.

~*~

Like most days, it was a somewhat quiet day at the castle.

Keefe looked up from his painting to study the gardens, once called the Queen’s Gardens, but that was ages ago. The wall that once surrounded the beautiful landscape was knocked down a very long time ago.

Keefe smiled as he spotted Dex tending to some ivy that had grown on one of the ancient statues. Even being a king couldn’t keep his husband from assisting the gardeners.

Tomorrow, some old friends were visiting. That in itself wasn’t particularly special, as they visited at least twice a year (usually more), but tomorrow was special because it was the anniversary of the Great Wedding Destruction as historians had come to call it.

How many years had it been? 300? 400? One tends to forget.

After 50 years or so, they admitted to planning the whole event. By then, Keefe had already convened with the councillors to pass same gender marriage and gotten married to Dex. The law couldn’t exactly do much, it had been a while and no one was injured so any fear of being charged with treason was history.

A few minutes later, Dex trudged into Keefe’s art studio.

“Hey lovey, do you know where I put the high-power garden clippers?”

“I hope in your lab, but you might want to check the kitchens.”

“Why would they be in the kitchens?”

“Heard some buzzing coming from there and last time I saw the nieces they had frosting all over their faces.”

Chaos ran in the Dizznee family.

Dex sighed as they heard a loud bang followed by an “Oops.” from downstairs.

“Gosh if Rex doesn’t pick up his children soon...I won’t do anything but I’ll be sour about it.”

Keefe chuckled. “You might want to go check on them, wouldn’t want them to break your invention. If they haven’t already.”

Dex hummed noncommittally. “Whatcha drawing?”

“Just a boring landscape...that happens to include a dragon.”

Dex leaned over the easel. “It’s a very pretty boring landscape that happens to include a dragon.”

“Thank you very much, dearest.” Keefe leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Now you may want to actually check on the girls. I don’t think Elwin can heal severed fingers.”

“Yeah, okay.”

As he walked from the room that used to be Cassius’ office he yelled, “Emily! Leah! Please don’t be killing each other-”

Keefe just smiled. He did that a lot nowadays.

He hoped these days would last forever.

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #oh god i hope this is good #please dont flop #kotlc fic #keefex #deefe #dex dizznee #keefe sencen

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silveny-dreams · 4 years

Note

Do you have any theories as to how the keepers deal with their trauma? Like having sleep overs, Tam sneaking into Linh's bed, Sophie rapidly making gingerbread men, stuff like that?

Oho. Buckle up, my friend.

Sophie will pull all-nighters with whichever friends are awake at the time. When the weight of everything she’s had to deal with gets to be too much, she knows undoubtedly that she will have nightmares, and instead of trying to sleep at all, even with Silveny helping fill her mind with peaceful images, she decides to avoid sleep for the night. (It usually works, too; usually the next night she’s so exhausted that her sleep is dreamless.) She stays up with her friends and eats junk and makes up goofy stories and will go out to the cliffs at Havenfield to watch the sun rise.

Keefe turns the nearest convenient surface into a work of art. Doesn’t matter where he is or who he’s with; if he starts to feel his trauma creeping up on him and threaten to overwhelm everything else, you can bet he’s got a pen or some paints in his hand and he’s starting to doodle. Sometimes it’s on the tablecloth at dinner (much to Cassius’ eternal exasperation and Keefe’s added delight), sometimes it’s in his notebook in study hall, sometimes it’s on the walls in his room, sometimes it’s on his own arm. It’s also sometimes on his friends’ arms (and before I get carried away thinking about this idea I’m just going to jot down right here that Keefe doing henna art is a superior concept thank u for your time).

Fitz has to go and physically exhaust himself until he can barely move. Typically, this manifests itself in some insanely grueling workout, the kind where you flop on the ground covered in sweat gasping for breath at the end. He gets Grizel to teach him goblin combat moves and goes for long runs outside, rain or shine. The craziest time was when he did literally one hundred laps in the Everglen lake and Grizel had to pull him out before he couldn’t keep himself above water anymore. He used to do a lot of boxing training, but after the encounter at Everglen where he almost killed Alvar, he decided that boxing felt a little too violent, and he doesn’t like the way violence makes him feel like he loses all control.

Biana will scavenge through her wardrobe for something she hasn’t worn in a while and then pull it out and start modifying it. She doesn’t even have to like the end result, doesn’t even have to want to wear it eventually, but a lot of the time the modifications make the piece of clothing even more suited to her as a person. I’m picturing her doing this late into the night during Flashback, cutting off the sleeves of some of her clothes so she can proudly display her scars. Sometimes she’ll raid her friends’ wardrobe and get to work on something of theirs and let’s be honest it’s usually Sophie because Sophie could not care any less what her clothes are like so long as they’re comfy and the end result is something that empowers that friend, because Biana is a very giving and supportive friend and we should all aspire to her level of commitment and loyalty.

Dex, you might think, would choose to get lost in his tech projects, but he’s got trauma associated with tech that he’s created and sometimes he has to escape that too. So he’ll bake huge batches of goodies to share with his family and friends, instead. It’s similar to the work he does in the apothecary with his father, all about trial and error science to get a recipe exactly right, but the end result is something delicious with no ulterior motives but to be delicious, unlike the elixirs in the shop. Kesler taught him a lot of the finer points and still gives him suggestions on how to make something even more irresistible, but at this point he’s a pretty accomplished baker and his friends adore him for it (although they all give him a hug before taking a treat on the days he comes into school with a huge batch of goodies because they know why he made them).

Tam, lord love him, will cut class in the middle of the day and go home, climb up onto the roof, and lay out flat on his back and sunbathe. He knows and understands and loves the power and mystery and importance of shadows and darkness as a Shade, but sometimes it feels like it’s consuming him from the inside and turning him into someone he doesn’t want to be. He knows it’s stupid, but it feels like the sunlight bakes the twistedness of darkness out of him. Frequently he does this in his long sleeve shirts and pants and nearly sweats to death (is the sun really baking the shadows out of me if I don’t have to suffer at least a little bit, he asks himself). Linh will come home after being unable to find him in study hall and bring him a big glass of ice water. She’s tried to sit there and talk with him sometimes but he always mutters “I need absolute quiet, sister, I’m photosynthesizing” so she’s learned to leave him be.

Linh has an artistic streak in her and you can pry that from my cold dead hands--however, she uses her talents to make things like rock gardens or mosaics or “rainscapes”. Essentially, these are rock gardens that weave little paths away from Tiergan’s house that channel the rainwater from the gutters out elsewhere. She loves to go out on walks in nature and look for unique rocks or shells to add to her work, and it’s a beautiful artistic thing that water cannot destroy; in fact, water only accentuates how beautiful they are.

Marella will go skin diving to clear her head. No heavy, cumbersome equipment, just her and the silent, soothing depths underwater. A lot of the time she can handle colder waters even without temperature regulation, since she usually needs to clear her head when the heat in her skin is threatening to blaze out of her. She likes to test how long she can hold her breath and then explore as deep in the water as the pressure will allow her, sometimes opting to “sunbathe” like ten feet below the surface, just floating in the cool water, the silence calming the tension in her body and mind and heart.

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bookwyrminspiration · 3 years

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TW// Drugs n such

you asked for it smh, but I've been thinking a lot about that one scene in Neverseen in Exilliums healing tent (or whatever its called)

I had a whole rant here about what the implication of this 'serum' might mean in the lost cities but it kinda spiraled into nothing so I'm cutting it out. (main point was just the mood towards drugs, Shannon has had previous mentions of both alcohol and drunk people, so (though im not saying she should incorporate this into a middle grade book series a t a l l), Id be curious to see her take on drugs, (if they exist and how they effect people and the elven population // how is it treated? Is it looked down upon or even forbidden (why we might only see it in Exillium territories) or is it so normal and inconsequential that its just part of the norm in the lost cities?

but anyway, back to the thing I was originally thinking of - i feel like this is something rarely talked about but pls tell me I'm not the only one who has picked up on how weird Keefe's relationship with sedatives is. It's such a contrast to Sophie, where she's openly opposed to taking any type of sedative he seems to be really open to them, in fact in Unlocked every time he's knocked out by a sedative his language is pretty much always positive, like he really enjoys it. This probably just ties into something you mentioned a while back about Keefe and dealing with stuff by running away but I find it really interesting.

(Sorry if this is an uncomfortable ask to get, I know not everyone is comfortable with drug talk and I hope this Isn't overstepping a line.)

you're fine, don't worry! no lines overstepped. I appreciate you including the warning at the top, even though I'm alright talking with the subject. if there's something I'm uncomfortable with, that's not on you to know or worry about because I haven't shared any of my specific triggers, and the more anxiety-inducing ones are so specific to my personal experiences that I highly doubt they'll ever have any effect on any conversation ever. but I do genuinely appreciate your concern <33

I don't remember specifically what I asked for, but this is a topic I hadn't even realized was so fascinating, so thank you for bringing it up! That scene is kinda funny (as in weird) looking back on it, but Keefe was completely out of it and being a lot more vulnerable than he probably wanted to be due to his state of mind. I think it was intended to mirror something like anesthesia or laughing gas (note: in my brief research trying to find info about the boobrie dude I made a mental comparison between tam and sandor, so I'm just making note of it here so I don't forget), at least as far as Keefe's reaction goes. I think part of this was strategic so that we could get some information and vulnerability (although unwillingly) from Keefe and get that first glimpse of "the boy beneath all that swagger" (paraphrased from Sophie). But that's not what your ask is about so I'll move on before I get even more distracted.

wine, at the very least, exists in the lost cities. we've got fizzleberry wine, which is blamed by some for Caprise Redek's accident. Aside from that we've seen no mention of it, as this is a middle grade series about a young teen girl in a fantasy world, and in a "perfect" world there isn't a lot of talk about recreational substances. And I agree with you! this isn't to say that I think drugs and alcohol should be this huge thing in keeper or that it even needs to be address, just commenting that the attitude the general public has towards substances and intoxication is likely even more severe in the elven world, as has been the pattern with other things. We can tell from Caprise's incident that their wine functions similar if not identical to ours, as it was said to have impaired her motor control and thinking, hence how she fell off that balcony. So I think we could assume that drugs in the Lost Cities would be similar to those in the Forbidden Cities in function. Not in name though, likely named after some strange elven thing. Though if we go with the wine example, Fizzleberry is likely an exact description of what it is--the wine probably fizzes and is made from berries.

the elves highly value the mind, so I anticipate that anything that messes with it past beneficial medicinal uses prescribed by a physician are frowned upon. they think of your mental capacity and capabilities as integral to who you are, and composure as essential. drugs take that away and can impair your reasoning, hence my conclusion they're not well liked. however, I propose that this mindset is mostly those who are very proper, for example Lord Cassius. Dex was more than ready to take concentration serums of his own making--and convinced Sophie to take one (note: dex has almost killed both Sophie and Fitz. that can't be fun to know)--which directly messed with his limbic center. However, as he was raised in an apothecary and is already a little less in line with all other elvin values, I don't think him being an outlier is enough to completely through out my assumption. overall: looked down upon because it messes with the mind and the mind is crucial to elven society, and the way it impairs your thinking would make you a lesser person

and you're right! keefe's relationship with sedative is weird. we have this teenager who grew up without stable supports or a loving family having very little regard for how substances will effect his body, prioritizing the possible--not guaranteed, possible--benefits over all the risks. this is not to say drug use is inherently bad, just that the situation he's in makes me very cautious because he feels more at risk of falling into bad habits. also, your observation about tying that into him running away is very astute! i've talked a lot about him running away from his problems in more ways that physical, and I think this is an excellent example of that

he doesn't like his reality, the world he lives in when he's awake and aware and lucid. it's full of all these problems and people and he doesn't know what to do. but when he's asleep? he doesn't have to deal with any of that. he doesn't have to do anything, but he's also troubled enough and anxious enough that sleep doesn't always come easy, and he can be plagued by nightmares. but those sedatives mess with his mind and not only make him sleep faster and longer, but they can mess with your dreams and alter the reality you experience while asleep. i guess it could be a way of trying to take control of a situation he had very little control over, especially in unlocked when everyone else was trying to fix things without consulting him. with his waking world that bad, of course he's gonna like anything that takes him away from it.

it stands out especially when we switch to him as a narrator and he's praising these things and wanting to be sedated, as we've spent so long in Sophie's head and she's so against them from the trauma she experienced in the first book. that could mean his attitude them is more jarring just because we're used to Sophie and it wouldn't seem as dramatic if we'd switched from say, Fitz's head. but that doesn't mean there's nothing here.

i think i've said it before, but Keefe doesn't have any healthy coping strategies right now that he consistently relies on. his deference towards avoidance and making the problem go away, even if it's just in feeling induced by drugs, is a more extreme example of how he doesn't know how to just exist without hurting.

I jumped around a bit between topics so if I missed something you wanted to talk about more in depth please feel free to send another ask! Keefe's relationship to experiencing reality is fascinating and covers things from denial and refusal to change all the way to drugs and literally altering the way his brain perceives reality. This boy is on a collision course with destruction in both body and mind.

#i appreciate the warning before the ask!#i'm personally fine with the subject but it's always nice to have it there for people scrolling through my blog or their dash who might not #have the tag or word filtered #as it gives them an opportunity to look away anyways #keefe really just doesn't want to be him #or experience his own life #it started small with pretending he was a vacker when he was little #but now he's literally trying to avoid experiencing reality #which is a lot more severe #oh and there's the whole thing with the solemlethes (however that's spelled) that i didn't even get to #that's what I was thinking of when I was talking about him not caring how things affected his body #because those are known to be dangerous and he still wants to take them for their potential benefits #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #keefe sencen #kotlc character analysis #tw drugs #long post #tw drug mention #tw substance abuse #nonsie #quil's queries

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