This is the final chapter of my seasons fic. Hey look at me posting the chapter within the actual season time frame. Ignore the fact that it's literally been two years since I started this fic lol.
CW: Misogyny, implied homophobia, implied transphobia, sexual harassment, implied past sexual assault, ptsd, depression, smoking, typical bar fight violence and a mention of almost throwing up
It was another Tuesday night spent aimlessly wandering the streets of Devon looking for bits of life to cling to. A temporary distraction from the aching guilt that worsened every time Tessa smiled at him, or Jem placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, or from the nausea and the breathlessness of waking up from yet another nightmare.
Really there wasn't anything different about this Tuesday, except for the fact that it happened to be Kit's 17th birthday. Hence why he was avoiding Tessa and Jem.
Some might say he was hiding.
Ok fine, maybe he was hiding.
Kit turned the corner on one of the more busy streets of what could be called Ceirnworth's downtown area. Although calling it downtown was a bit of a stretch. A small town only really had streets that were slightly busier and more commercial than others. There was a café Tessa had taken him to a few times, along with one of the only bars, briming with noise and music despite it being a week night.
Kit sighed as he tried to keep his guilty thoughts off his parents.
His parents. It still felt weird to call them that but slowly it had begun to feel more and more true. They insisted on loving and caring for him in more than just minimal and survival focused ways. They didn't just want him to live, they wanted him to thrive and be happy.
And it made him all the more guilty he couldn't. He wanted more than anything to be what they wanted, even when they insisted that they loved him just for being himself. There were no conditions.
The previous year Jem and Tessa had thrown him a surprise party after he casually mentioned his birthday when the topic came up. He also mentioned that he wasn't super familiar with birthday parties because his dad told him they were unnecessary distractions and he was getting too old for that kind of thing anyway.
Tessa and Jem apparently thought this was tragic and horrifying, immediately insisting that they should do something for his birthday. And it was sweet, really. But he felt uneasy the whole way through, like he couldn't trust it. Almost like an illusion or a trick that would come undone if he pulled the right threads.
So this year he was alone. Like an idiot, hiding from the love of genuinely good people.
What the hell was wrong with him?
Kit passed by the entrance of the bar, "The Blue Balooga" (which he had always thought was a weird name, but the Brits loved their stupid pub names) and hovered for a minute. Maybe a drink would help distract him. It would be painfully easy to slip inside and steal somebody else's drink in the chaos of the packed building. Or he could always try charming the bartender.
Or maybe someone else would buy him a drink?
Kit would feel uneasy about the idea of flirting even if it was just a con, if he and Hazel were still together. But she had broken up with him a few weeks ago.
I feel like I don't really know you, she had told him. This whole time, you've been somewhere else, and you say what you think are the right things but it's like you're just going through the motions. Like you don't really want this. Want me.
Kit couldn't even blame her. It wasn't like she was wrong.
He slid his steele out of his pocket and drew a glamor rune to keep mundanes from noticing him as he slipped through the slightly open door behind a laughing couple entering the Balooga and was immediately assaulted with the smell of beer and chips.
Fries, his brain supplied. Christ, he was getting brainwashed.
The couple he followed made their way to the packed bar where a few other groups and duos were chatting and drinking, friends or co-workers finally done with their shifts and celebrating with a pint.
Kit surveyed the room. There were wooden small tables and chairs clustered in an area to the side where a few lone men, some wearing work uniforms sipped their drinks in solem or stern contemplation. Pressed against the back wall, between the bar and the table area was a makeshift stage of sorts. It didn't look like the kind of place that would have live acts but hey, maybe money was getting tight and they needed to drum up some extra revenue.
Kit narrowly side stepped a drunkin trio of giggling young women, completely unable to sense his presence due to the rune. They were most likely already quite friendly with one another unless the alcohol had smoothed the situation. But there was an intamacy in their body language that you don't often see with strangers, even drunk ones. However women tended to get weirdly clingy and friendly when they were drunk.
They weren't college aged. Or traditionally college aged at least. Most moved out of Devon and headed for bigger cities and bigger things. They looked to be all about in their late twenties or early thirties. Well-dressed, but nothing too fancy from the looks of it. Two of them had either wedding or engagement rings on their fingers, but the third one didn't.
Kit moved to the side of the bar and surveyed his prospects. The annoying thing about being a guy (and he could practically feel Tessa glaring at him as he thought this) is that it could be difficult to get people to buy you drinks. Women didn't often want to do it because they didn't think they should or could, which wasn't exactly their fault. Men whether they were gay or bi or not were often too scared of seeming gay or having someone question their masculinity. You had to be strategic, and Kit wasn't feeling great about this crowd.
So that left either conning the bartender, who was currently busy as hell, which might work in his favour, or he could swipe someone's drink, taking advantage of his invisibility to most, if not all the patrons.
Although there was the odd chance that someone was pretending not to have the sight.
As Kit weighed his options, a back door next to the stage opened and the young woman who stepped through it immediately turned heads. She was noticably pale with long dark wavy hair and a fire in her gray eyes. She was dressed in clothes that would have been more at home at a punk show in the city than in some tiny pub in the middle of nowhere, and a leather guitar case was slung over her tattoo-covered shoulder.
Kit watched as she surveyed the crowd with a slightly annoyed expression before her gaze finally landed on him.
She saw him.
He could see it in her eyes. She only looked at him for a second, but there was recognition in her expression before she raised her eyebrows slightly and moved on to unpacking her guitar.
Oh well. Hopefully she would be too distracted by her set to pay any attention to what Kit was doing. As Kit began to slink towards the bar, he watched as the young woman readjusted the microphone and took a seat on the barstool positioned behind it. She adjusted the way the guitar sat in her lap and almost in an instant her face was transformed. The sullen irritated expression was replaced with a charming smile.
Around the room, several of the patrons had already started to notice her presence. Confused and suspicious murmers spread across the space like wildfire, rising in volume.
Kit gulped. He had a feeling this girl's performance might not go down well with this particular crowd. Not that this should have bothered him, really. If the crowd turned, it would serve as a pretty good distraction.
And yet, for some reason the idea did bother him.
If the mood of the crowd phased her. She didn't let it show. She balanced the guitar on her hip slightly, adjusting the strap and then carefully began to strum.
Kit didn't recognize the tune right away, but it sounded familiar. It wasn't until the girl started singing that he realized what it was.
Still don't know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild, a million dead-end streets and
Every time I thought I'd got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet.
Kit smiled slightly despite himself. It wasn't that Changes by David Bowie was even one of his favorite songs but there was something about hearing it in this bar, from this oddly magnetic stranger, her deep raspy Alto voice soothing some of his bitterness that had been festering.
She was good. Too damn good for this shitty dive. Which begged the question, why exactly was she here?
A couple of minutes had passed before Kit realized he was missing his window to grab himself a drink without anyone noticing, and the girl on stage was one hell of a distraction. She was slowly winning over the crowd as more and more bar-goers dropped their conversations and turned their heads towards her to watch.
A soft buzz from his pocket drew his attention away from the stage. Probably Tessa or Jem wondering where he was. Kit lingered for a moment before pulling out his phone.
Multiple missed calls from both Tessa and Jem with a few texts from Tessa as well.
Shit.
He really couldn't keep avoiding them.
Kit pocketed his phone and made his way towards the exit. However, before he reached the door there were the sounds of commotion behind him.
"Hey!" One voice rang out over the crowd, louder than the others, also noticably American-sounding.
It was because she was using the microphone, Kit realized as he spun around to spot the girl on stage angrily glowering at the source of a commotion in the crowd.
The source in question was an irritated tall beefy man who appeared to be about in his 30s, flanked by two others. Attempting to inch away from him was an uncomfortable young brunette girl, her arms wrapped around herself.
"Leave her alone dude." The girl on stage had moved closer to the edge, gripping the mic in her right hand.
The man in question attempted to conceal his embarrassment at being called out as he scoffed. "Easy love, we're just talking here. No need to get hysterical."
Oh boy.
"Hysterical?" The girl's voice verged on homicidal as she placed the microphone on the floor of the stage with a gentleness that directly contrasted the sharpness in her voice. She lept down and slowly made her way to face him with the slow purposeful movements of a predator, anger reverberating from her body with steady pulses.
"Well I'd rather be hysterical than a pathetic limp-dick asshole hitting on a girl who looks half my age."
The crowd erupted in noise, some responding with a chorus of ooooo's, some laughing, some protesting and some with murmers of unease. Kit also noticed that the way she pronounced the word "asshole" sounded different from a typical California west coast US accent.
The man's face turned bright red, as he clenched his teeth and his fists. The two men flanking him appeared to be judging whether to cut their losses and leave or put this girl in her place. The brunette girl who he had been harassing took this opportunity to walk away, making a beeline for the door where Kit was standing.
Kit quickly stepped aside before she could panic at the presence of an unforseen roadblock.
"What did you just say to me, bitch?" The man crowded the singer's personal space.
Kit wasn't exactly sure what possesed him to do it. This girl wasn't exactly a damsel in distress who needed saving. She could clearly take care of herself, and yet Kit still felt compelled to stick up for her. He pulled out his stelle and deactivated his glamor rune.
"Dude come on," he called across the bar as he made his way closer to where they were standing. "Just apologize and walk away. You started it."
If the patrons of the bar were bewildered by Kit's sudden appearance, they didn't seem to show it. They were most likely too fixated on the spectacle in front of them. The man however, sneered at his presence.
"What's it to you?" He jeered, giving Kit a distainful once-over, taking in his black skinny jeans and pierced ears. "Fucking fa-"
Before he could finish his sentence there was the sharp thwack sound of a fist making contact with flesh and bone. The singer didn't look like much, she was a scrawny little thing but clearly packed one hell of a punch.
The pub broke into chaos. Shouts erupted from all around as the man crumpled to the ground clutching his jaw, and one of the man's friends made the effort to return the punch. However before he could, the girl grabbed his wrist and yanked him in the opposite direction, sending him flying.
That confirmed what Kit already suspected. This girl wasn't a mundane. She couldn't be.
Some of the younger patrons had whipped out their phones and started filming as the next man managed to get a shot on her as the man she first insulted swung wildly at her, seething, and missed. However, she barely reacted to the punch to her stomach and kicked him back with a smirk.
The first man tried grabbing her from behind as he had gotten up from being tossed onto the stage but she was too fast, too fast for them and almost too fast for Kit's eyes to keep up anymore.
And that's when he saw it. She bared her teeth in a snarl after she dodged another hit, and just barely visible were the hint of fangs.
A vampire.
Kit really needed to do something, or somebody was gonna get seriously hurt. Not that these men didn't deserve it.
But she had stuck up for him. When she threw that punch she was defending him.
A stranger.
A lump appeared in Kit's throat. When was the last time that had happened?
Probably never.
"Hey!" Kit yelled to get her attention before one of her injured opponents could stupidly attempt another attack. "We need to go! Somebody's gonna call the cops."
She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "We? Since when is this a we situation?"
Good fucking question.
Rather than waste time pondering this, Kit sprang forward as he noticed the bigger of the bunch rushing towards the girl with a knife in his hand. Kit grabbed a beer bottle off of the nearest table and threw it at the man's feet, staggering him backwards. A shot to the head could give him permanent brain damage which seemed just a tiny bit unethical.
"Come on!" Kit yelled, waving her over and gesturing to the door.
The girl rolled her eyes but complied, leaping across the room to where Kit stood, soaring through the air in an effortless glide.
Great. Real subtle. Totally something normal people can do.
But there was no time to worry about that now. Kit made a mad dash for the exit, feeling a woosh of air behind him.
__________
As soon as they arrived outside, the vampire grabbed his hand and before Kit could protest, sped them down the street at a supernatural level of velocity. His surroundings were an incomprehensible blur before she stopped several blocks away from the pub near an abandoned building.
Kit stumbled backwards, nearly wiping out on the concrete as he willed his stomach to settle.
A cackle erupted from the girl in front of him.
"Oh I'm sorry," Kit said sarcastically. "Is my pain and suffering amusing to you?" He tried to keep a straight face but couldn't help letting a small smirk slip through.
"No," the vampire stifled her laughter. "No, it's not you. It's just-" she leaned back against a brick wall with a grin. "That was fun."
Kit's eyes must have widened significantly, because she gave him a playfully chastising look.
"Oh come on, don't tell me that wasn't fun." The smile slipped slightly. "Or are you just a stick in the mud like all shadowhunters."
Kit wasn't that surprised she figured it out. He had been invisible to presumably everyone in that pub except for her, until suddenly he wasn't. He was also significantly faster and had better reflexes than a mundane.
He snorted. "OK fine you win. Maybe it was kind of fun."
"Hell yeah it was!" She fiddled with something in her pockets which turned out to be a lighter and pack of cigarettes. "I'm Janessa, by the way," she said casually. "People call me Nessie. You want one?"
Kit shrugged, "sure, what the hell." He reached over and took one from the pack. "I've never met a vampire who smokes."
Nessie put a cigarette between her painted lips and made a noise that might have been a word, but Kit couldn't catch it.
"Huh?"
She lit her cigarette and took a drag before speaking again. "Yeah, it's not super common. Technically nicotine doesn't effect you unless you drink from someone who smokes. But I like the ritual. Habit, I guess. Used to smoke before I was turned."
She raised her lighter to his hand and gave him a look. Kit nodded and pressed his cigarette to his lips as she flicked the lighter on. He inhaled the smoke and did his best not to cough.
"So, you got a name? Or is that top secret shadowhunter information," she teased, sliding her lighter back into her leather jacket pocket.
Kit choked a little as he blew the smoke back out, causing her to snort. "It's Kit. And thanks by the way."
Nessie took another drag, blowing the smoke out of the corner of her mouth. "Nah don't mention it. All else fails I can just pickpocket someone. Sucks that I probably won't be getting paid for tonight though. Assholes."
There was a practiced nonchalant way she carried herself. A careful lack of caring. But Kit noticed the slight tension in her jaw.
Kit smiled slightly. "No I mean, for what you did at the bar. Just... thanks." He trailed off awkwardly, taking another drag.
There was an exhaustion in her gray eyes now as she nodded with a grimace. "No problem. Guy was a dick. He deserved it. She twirled the cigarette between her fingers before she took another drag. "Besides it was getting ugly anyway. Better to make the first move."
"What exactly happened?" Kit couldn't help but ask, shifting his weight on his feet. His cigarette was already half gone and he debated dropping it and crushing it beneath his heel. "I didn't see. I had my back turned."
Nessie let out a groan that morphed into a growl. "These dudes were crowding her. I didn't hear what they were saying at first while I was singing but then I heard her say stop over and over again. One of them kept trying to touch her and I just...snapped." She rested her head back against the bricks, glancing upwards at nothing.
Kit felt cold all over, the cigarette a distant memory in his hand. The street, the bricks and the girl in front of him began to fade away as painfully familiar phantom touches seeped into his skin.
Distantly, as if he was in a dream he heard the sound of Nessie's voice. Kit willed himself to focus on the present, taking a stuttering breath.
"Hey dude you ok?" Nessie was staring at him with furrowed brows.
Kit's cheeks flushed red. God she probably thought he was some kind of basket case.
"Yeah!" Kit tried to school his expression into one of nonchalance, just like her. "Yeah I'm fine."
Nessie's face clearly told him that she thought this was bullshit, but she let it drop.
"Anyways, I've dealt with assholes like that my entire life in one way or another," she finished off her cigarette and let it fall, stomping on it with her Doc Martin. "Now I'm powerful enough that I don't have to take anyone's shit ever again. But some people don't have that luxury."
Kit nodded, wrapping his arms around himself. His leftover stub of a cigarette had completely gone out. He let it fall to the ground.
Nessie pushed her hair back with her right hand. "So, what were you doing at that pub? Usually don't see your type in places like that."
Kit raised his eyebrows. "My type?"
"Shadowhunters," Nessie filled in like it was obvious.
Maybe it was.
"It's a long story," Kit deflected with an apologetic smile. "I don't really wanna get into it right now if that's ok with you."
Nessie grimaced, making a hmm sound. "I hear that. Don't worry. It's cool."
Kit was searching for another topic to bring up when her eyes suddenly went wide and her body froze.
"Fuck! My guitar!" Nessie shouted gesturing with her hands to emphasize the point. "I left it at the fucking bar!
Kit instantly felt guilt curdle in his stomach. He was the one that pushed her to leave.
"Fucking shit fuck!" She exclaimed.
"Well, we're just gonna have to go back and get it, Kit blurted out.
Nessie looked startled, almost as though she had forgotten he was there. Then she scoffed. "Yeah I don't think I'll be welcome back there Kit-Kat."
The nickname threw him off guard, but not in an unpleasant way. He wanted to protest it on principle, but it honestly amused him.
Kit left it unaddressed. "Well, what if I go? I could always use a glamor rune just in case."
Nessie snorted. "So what, you're just gonna make off with my floating guitar and hope no one notices?"
Kit rolled his eyes, even though he knew she had a point. "Well, you know I'm not hearing any other suggestions."
Nessie sighed. "Whatever. It's cool. It's not like this is your problem anyway. I can figure it out myself." There was that same stiffness in her jaw again.
Kit almost considered just cutting his losses and leaving. If she said she didn't want his help then there was no point in staying. Besides, Tessa and Jem must have been worrying like crazy.
But the truth was he didn't want to. The truth was that he had missed having a friend now that he knew what it genuinely felt like, before he lost it. Because sometimes Kit thought that was the genuine tragedy of what happened with him and Ty. Yes he was horribly in love with him, but also Ty had been the closest friend Kit ever had.
The truth was he still felt compelled to stay and help, just like back at the pub, compelled to stay with this girl. This strange, talented, brave and genuinely captivating girl, with her armour and her cigarettes and her laughter. The truth was despite the bile and the grudge and the fear, there was this itch. This nagging sensation that kept whispering to him ever so softly.
Why don't you try again?
Maybe he wanted this to be a we situation.
This must have been what the person who opened Pandora's box felt like.
Kit took a step towards Nessie, slowly not to startle her. "Look, let me try and get it ok? If it doesn't work out then you can say "I told you so" and we'll come up with something else.
Nessie's brow furrowed, eyes studying him carefully before she finally smiled. "OK. Let's see whatcha got, shadowhunter." She extended her hand to him.
Kit was confused for a moment before he realized what she was referring to.
"Oh absolutely not," Kit shook his head vehemently. "I almost puked last time!"
Nessie groaned as if he was being completely unreasonable. "Come on Kit-Kat! It's faster this way! You'll get used to it."
"I'm being manipulated," he protested melodramatically even as he grasped her hand in his. "This is manipulation. Manipulation is taking place!"
Nessie rolled her eyes. "Come on don't be a baby," she teased. Kit pouted at her in place of an actual counter-argument.
"Or actually..." Nessie paused, withdrawing her hand. "I might have another idea."
_______
If you had asked Kit when the day begun how he thought he would end up spending his 17th birthday, carjacking would not have been one of his guesses.
Nessie found a fancy convertible, most likely belonging to someone with money and picked the lock, hotwiring the engine with the ease of a practiced pro. Kit really needed to remember to ask her about that at some point.
She let Kit drive partly because her license was a little out of date on account of her being dead, and fiddled with radio until some indie rock band he had never heard of came on. Nessie insisted that the song "fucked severely" and Kit needed to listen to more of their stuff.
"I'll make you a mixtape or something. I know people don't really do that anymore but hey I think they should. It's such a lost art form or whatever the fuck."
They spent a solid hour or so joyriding and nearly forgot about the guitar all over again. By the time they made it to the pub it was nearly closing time and Kit had the realization that they probably should have just planned to break in and steal it after closing time. If Nessie could break in to cars then surely she could pick the locks on doors.
Not to mention, so could Kit.
"You know you're really good," he told Nessie while they hovered a safe distance away, waiting for the pub to close. They had ditched the car about half a block away and now Nessie was balancing on the top of a chain link fence around the back of one of the parking lots.
"Like with the guitar and everything."
"Oh," Nessie snorted. "I guess. I mean I could always be better."
"No seriously," Kit worried he ran the risk of sounding like a gushing fanboy, but hearing her be so dismissive bothered him. "You're like, really really good! I love your voice, and you have this way of getting through to people on stage. When I first heard you I couldn't help but smile."
Nessie studied him for a minute. Then he blinked and she was standing in front of him.
"Jesus fuck!" Kit jolted backwards.
"Thanks Kit-Kat," she replied as if she hadn't just scared the shit out of him, but her smirk gave her away.
"Some of us need our hearts to keep beating!" Kit whined. "And that can't happen if I'm having a heartattack!
"Drama queen," she teased. "Shouldn't you be saying by the angel anyway?" She moved onto balancing on the edge of the curb on her tiptoes.
Kit bit his lip. "I don't really live around other shadowhunters anymore. I was adopted by a warlock and someone who stopped being a shadowhunter."
Nessie paused her movements on the curb and glanced at him. "I didn't know that was a thing."
"Usually no," Kit replied carefully. He didn't want to reveal too much information about himself or Jem without his consent, but he didn't want to be avoident with Nessie. "So, how did you get into the whole live performance thing? Getting paid to perform at bars and stuff. It uses like a cool gig."
If she noticed the intentional redirect, she didn't comment on it.
"Oh. I actually used to be in a band but it didn't work out. She began to slowly walk across the curb, placing one foot directly in front of the other. "Apparently I'm "difficult to work with" or whatever." She put her fingers in quotation marks for effect.
"That kinda surprises me," Kit remarked. "You seem pretty easy to get along with."
"Yeah well, you say that now..." Nessie's voice took on a darker edge before she trailed off. "When it comes to music, I always think I'm right and I always want things to be a certain way." She paused for a moment and sat down.
"It just really matters to me. It's the only thing that keeps me going most days."
Kit started to speak but she cut him off.
"You don't have to say anything, it's cool." She said with a shrug.
Kit hesitated. He could have just taken the out and changed the subject, but something stopped him.
Pandora's box. Either the person who opened it again to let hope into the world after they had unleashed all the horrors was either very brave, or very stupid.
Or both.
"It's my birthday today," Kit blurted out. "I was at the pub because I was avoiding my family because I don't know how to tell them that sometimes their love hurts. Sometimes it feels suffocating because all I can do is think about how I'm screwing it up by being a piece of shit."
Nessie nodded slowly. "Yeah I feel you. Birthdays can be... complicated. Life sucks sometimes. But you're still here. You're still alive and that's a pretty big fucking deal."
Kit swallowed down a lump in his throat.
"By the way, kinda crazy that this is how you're spending your birthday, breaking into a pub to steal back some girl's guitar," Nessie joked. "I feel like I should apologize, like damn."
"Are you kidding?" Kit heard how his voice came out exceptionally fond but made no effort to change it. "This might be the best birthday I've ever had."
It was only about a half an hour later when they had successfully liberated Nessie's guitar that Kit realized Tessa and Jem were probably going nuts with worry and he should really get home. And also probably call them first to let them know he wasn't dead.
But the idea filled him with significantly less dread than it had hours ago.
And as he finally made his way home, with Nessie's number in his contacts and Changes by David Bowie stuck in his head, Kit realized that he felt lighter than he had in months.
It really wasn't a bad birthday.
Christopher (Kit) Herondale:
Born April 14th 1997, Los Angeles, California, United States
Aries sun, Taurus rising, Cancer moon
Tagging: @sandersgrey @the-bee-graveyard @spooky-drusilla @littlx-songbxrd @petalsofaflower-shutupthomas @grrrl-help @amchara @wagner-felll @arangiajoan lmk if u wanna be added/dropped
there's been some criticism on the lack of sapphic rep in tsc (we did get bridgewood in tlh, but apparently everyone hated that, and heline is unfortunately very underdeveloped)
CC did say Thaís would get her 'own romance plot', but didn't mention the gender of the person she would have it with, only that we 'might guess who it is in tlkof'
EXACTLY what I was thinking. He seems to be planning to kidnap clary since the events of TDA, and it was so easy I can't imagine why he had to wait for 4 years to do it
The first chapter to my kitty fic is posted (finally!)✨ It will be two chapters in total (the second chapter will be posted later this week), and it's the first fic i've ever dared to post... Hopefully it's readable lol
read it here ✨❤️
// i promised to tag @spooky-drusilla & @of-paper-rings-and-stars ❤️ thanks for showing interest !!
He looked down at her, something that was not quite a smile curling the edge of his mouth. "You'll find out," he said. "You might even come to hate me for it."
•••
brb hyperventilating over this scene from the newest tlkof sampler 😩
No you're right and I 100% feel the same way. The giant information dumps are especially jarring, and im also not trying to criticize because that's something I've struggled with in my own writing, but I'm not a published author. I don't think it was always that way? But idk.
Fr!! As amateur writers it's easy to feel like we can't criticize a book unless we write better than the author, but thats not true. And most times the first things we notice that sound off are things we struggle with our own writing and are trying to get better at it.
As someone who likes clothes and has very detailed visions of what every character is wearing, I frequently over describe their outfits in awkward ways and have to pull back a bit, so that was the first thing I noticed lmao
Anyway, I don't think it was BAD bad, but it really felt different that what I remembered. I thought that about a few chapters in BiB too, but since it wasn't a main book and it was mostly about silly, non plot important stories, I didn’t think too much of it. I definitely didn’t imagine that I would see that in TWP too