#tdytyk

[thrandilf]

It's been almost a year since The Devil You Thought You Knew had a promo post for the fic overall and while I can't make a new graphic right now, I can toss out a list of things readers may be interested in that are in this fic

In no particular order:

Aaravos centric/sympathetic

Moon Arcanum Callum

Aaravos having a father/daughter relationship with Claudia

Callum being Aaravos’s apprentice- an exchange for Aaravos postponing revenge

Aaravos angst

Aaravos fluff

Viravos wedding

Callum and Viren having a relationship and addressing baggage between them

Ocean Arcanum Viren

[REDACTED] Arcanum Claudia (it's a couple chapters away but I'll let it out of the bag that it's coming)

World building exploration focused on Evenere

Villads has a dormant arcanum connection. Also he and Aaravos have a conversation

Kpp'ar gets out

Janaya Wedding 2

Rayllum pining but as of ch 37 Rayllum REUNITE

Sorvus dates constantly crashed by mage gang (sorry Sorvus)

So many Dark Magic/general magic discussions and debates

People in this fic are not afraid to scream and cry at each other

Aaravos and the archdragons were old friends and it's much more Bittersweet than we got in s7

Aaravos has a modern day underground human mage cult following

Sir Sparklepuff Lives

There's going to be a happy ending, I promise

If this sounds like your kind of fic, check it out/come say hi!

[fandombee973]

started reading the devil you thought you knew again after a year, and its so cool how aaravos acts like a father, even though at the time of writing we didn't know he was one. also the re-directing lightning?? how did i miss that when i first read it??? so much i love about this fic :DD

[salty-and-spiraling]

Gonna hide away and read my comfort fics to cope with this trainwreck of a season 😭😭

[thrandilf]

To add on/reiterate as someone with a long canon divergent fic, character voice and mannerisms are so important, as are their established relationships. How your character talks to very particular people they're close to and keeping those dynamics foundationally ic goes a long way. Having that root understanding of how all of these parts intersect and why is all the difference.

Maybe one relationship dynamic changes as the crux of your fic but the others staying canon makes it feel grounded, for instance. Or maybe one major choice is made differently but the core values the character has are the same so it feels ic.

Depending on length those other relationships and events will be impacted and you get to have natural progressions into new dynamics that are still internally consistent within your divergent fic, which is all a story can ask to be

Put in the work to be solid on everything that isn't changing from canon and your audience will buy it

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

[imminent-danger-came]

Step one of getting good lmk fic: get a really good tdp fic writer to become obsessed with lmk

[thrandilf]

Rayllum Scene-

I just wanna beam the mental image of this scene into the Rayllum fandom/if anyone wants drawing inspo or something here you are, it's from the end of chapter 38 of The Devil You Thought You Knew:

Rayla was always beautiful, but she was most stunning in the moonlight. Callum didn’t need to look up at the moon- just at her- to feel his connection to the arcanum grow. He focused on a feeling, not an incantation, eyes closing as he felt something click into place inside of him, a silent understanding he couldn’t explain with words. The sensation started with the crown of his head and ran downward like raindrops, soaking him in moonlight. He opened his eyes to Rayla staring at him, mouth open. He held up their joined hands- his hand was only outlined- a barely detectable shadow to those who didn’t know the Moon Arcanum. “Callum, how did you- you connected to the moon?” Rayla looked him up and down over and over again with amazement. “Moonshadow form, just like that!” “I’ve had the best teachers.” Rayla made a face. “Lujanne?” “No, she definitely wasn’t the best.” “Aaravos.” “I mean- technically yes, but I meant you.” Callum stepped closer to her, cupping her face with his palm, touch as gentle as a breeze. “I could tell you- like I’ve told everyone, apparently- how much I missed you, and how much you mean to me, but this says more than I could. I never stopped thinking about you and wanting to be closer, even if it was just being under the same sky.” Rayla’s own Moonshadow transformation happened a lot faster, but Callum could still trace the motion it made from head to toe. She smiled at him, and the smile turned more into a joyful laugh, shared power and connection racing through every point their outlines met. “We don’t have to miss each other anymore.” No one else could see them, two silhouettes in the moonlight. Rayla leaned close to him, hands on his shoulders. Both of them moved in together, lips meeting and chasing away any lingering space between them in a world entirely their own.

This is all to say Moon Arcanum Callum! Moon Arcanum Callum AUs let's go!!!

[thrandilf]

The Devil You Thought You Knew- Ch 38

Viren lingered. “I… I’m sorry,” he managed. “It’s difficult. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.” “It’s what you’ve done too, isn’t it?” asked Callum. “Different times and places, but it felt like this.” “Whatever you have to do, whatever you’re faced with-” Viren stood tall but bowed his head as he spoke to Callum. “-make sure that there’s enough of you left to make it home and still be you.” Callum sat with those words for a while.

[thrandilf]

-barely contained excitement- if I may chime in, yes! As Sparkles says it happens in a different way within my fic but I think it would hit the spot regarding not just Aaravos and Callum, but Callum and the mage fam and Aaravos bonding with others

It's still in progress (though 145k words rn is a substantial bit to get through lol) and I won't spoil it, but to put anyone who wants Aaravos content at ease it's angled towards a happy ending and there's a lot of Aaravos feels

their relationship starts off as antagonistic which for means that now that they're close, the journey has made their current positive relationship compelling, if I do say so myself

An idea for arc 3, if you will:

I've always loved the idea of Aaravos and Callum developing a teacher-student relationship after the events of book 7. However, in order to get there, Callum would have to approach him. This would be at least several months after the battle. By this point, the Dragang are still hesitant, but some (mostly Rayla and Soren) have cautiously tried to include Aaravos in things when he's around. He's also a bit hesitant because he's fully aware of the fact that people don't see him in the best light, which, well, is fair. Callum is one of those people, but he's starting to come around. He's reached a standstill in his magic studies and getting frustrated. Aaravos hints that he'd be able to help, but leaves the ball in Callum's court. Callum is afraid of being manipulated and talks to Rayla, who convinces him to give him a chance. They've all seen that Aaravos has started to let go of that manipulative side of himself - he doesn't need it anymore. She manages to convince him and he then tries to come up with the perfect way to ask and starts freaking out. Rayla then gets Soren and they both end up essentially dragging him to Aaravos's new home and forcing him to ask. Much to Aaravos's amusement (watching/making Callum squirm has proven to be quite entertaining), Callum is stuttering and stumbling over his words. He eventually manages to ask his question and Aaravos, true to sassy and sarcastic form, says something along the lines of "Well, I've only offered over a dozen times!"

[thrandilf]

I used to worry I was making Aaravos Too emotional in the devil you thought you knew but now I realize that the sobbing breakdowns are Accurate and I feel so validated

Also

"The flash of faces he once knew drove him to screaming, hands over his own ears so he didn’t have to hear it, yet screaming to no one all the same, making up for years of hiding from the ocean of pain he pretended he could walk on."

Another Apollo dodgeball for me considering this was written post S4. I didn't think ocean of pain would be LITERAL

[thrandilf]

Okay I'd written this with the implication that Aaravos himself had been ousted from his own people pre s6 drop and now that I'm looking at it now I'm like WOW

I keep hitting the correct emotional beat for the wrong reason but I'm still Dying

[thrandilf]

Janai and Amaya are finally to be married, but everyone is on edge, wondering if Aaravos really will show up.

Callum is eager to reunite with Rayla- but there's a small problem. He's attending in disguise due to his association with Aaravos. Will it keep them apart?

Callum held her out and spun her, savoring the moment she was fully in his arms. They resumed dancing and he, by some miracle, kept himself steady without blurting out his real name, address, and favorite food. “Was there someone you were looking for in particular, here?” Rayla made a show of thinking about it. She laid her hands on his shoulders as the music slowed. “Well, there is one person.” “Try me.” “He’s a human.” Rayla smiled. The soft look in her eyes made Callum’s chest seize with adoration. “So you probably don’t know him. He’s the missing prince.” Missing? Of course, Callum had all but vanished from public life. It hadn’t hit him until then. Not that he’d been that involved outside of court, but months away would make people worry. “You love him?” “I do. I always will.” Rayla’s eyes were his very favorite color, he decided. Callum’s hands rested on her waist as the music slowed. This throat was tight, but he managed to keep his voice level. “It sounds just like a fairytale.” The world seemed to vanish except for just them, holding each other close. Rayla laid a hand on his cheek, leaning close. “If this was a fairytale…” Callum’s heart pounded. “Then you’d know exactly what to do.”

[thrandilf]

Oh my gosh the background is Gorgeous!!!! As are the characters and their poses too of course! They look so natural 😍 perfect

“Still gawking, he wandered to a window, looking outside at a foreign city he’d never seen before, marveling at the view from what he realized was a tower.”

———

Chapter 4, The Devil You Thought You Knew by @thrandilf

[thrandilf]

New chapter is up! Next one is the Janaya wedding, wooo! Here's some fun lead up though:

The atmosphere in the Sunfire camp was an odd one. Most people were in a cheerful mood as Sunfire elves and humans alike put up the finalized decorations around the main throughway into camp leading to their main pavilion. It was set to be a warm, dry night, and more importantly, a sunny day for the wedding. Janai needed all the good luck she could get. “How are the perimeters?” asked Amaya. She approached Janai at the entrance to the camp, watching as a couple of people set up huge floral arrangements to flank the entryway. “I can’t tell if you’re asking about the decorating or the patrol,” signed Janai back as she spoke. She smiled. “But both are going well, without a hitch.” The mood permeating the air was less about what people said and more how they looked. No one’s armor or weaponry was ceremonial. Their wedding would join together humans and elves for the first time in lifetimes, but the potential threat of the party being crashed by Aaravos had everyone on edge. The heightened security wouldn’t be a good look for their foreign human visitors to encounter either, but it couldn’t be helped.

[thrandilf]

It used to be easy to figure out who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. Now, Callum has his doubts. Aaravos visits him in his dreams, and the more he hears, the less he knows. Their conversations are far from the subtle whispers Aaravos apparently relied on, yet Aaravos almost seems to relish each one. What Callum thought was a one sided power dynamic turns into much more, including a bargain Callum can't refuse. After his release, Aaravos's plans involve more people than just Callum, and before Callum knows it, he's swept up with his least favorite people in the world: Viren and Claudia, alongside the rest of their little group, repressing his doubt that his worst enemies can change. Yet, as Callum learns new magic and unravels the truth of each of his companions, the world on high alert as every nation faces what Aaravos's return means. Perhaps Aaravos isn't the only one with surprises lurking inside.

Updated summary and info post for my ongoing fic, The Devil You Thought You Knew. At this time, it's at 113k words and projected to finish around 200k. Both Aaravos and Mage Fam make up the main cast in this fic, which is mostly from Callum's POV. There are shifts to other characters such as Rayla and Ezran.

There's also world building/expansion in later chapters in regards to humanity's relationship with magic and Aaravos, focused on Evenere in particular. Worldbuilding, relationships, and downtime to process the emotional rollercoaster are all given focus, but there's plenty of plot twists ahead yet!

Main Ships: Rayllum, Viravos, Clauderry.

Side/Later Ships: Sorvus, Janaya.

"Dark Mage. Primal Mage. Human mage. I'm not so sure these labels mean as much as you think they do."

[thrandilf]

Prediction somewhat achieved in that one time my Aaravos had to tone down his illusion disguise because he was too hot so. I mean:

[thrandilf]

TDYTYK Terry to Aaravos: I bet being connected to the world again is really overwhelming. Are you okay? Is there anything I can do to help? Take as much time as you need to get your bearings Canon Terry to Aaravos: You're too big, I hate you, and I want to go home