a real note from my draft: "Right I am coming back to this later after I figure out how to keep Rhy from seducing Hastra ugggh."
Sentences I left for myself when I was drafting: "“You’re Queen look it up woman,’s what, fifth daughter?” “Correct answer here,” Cora said, taking the bottle back."
another note: Holland, Osaron, why are you both like this? I leave you alone with Ned for like five minutes...
Honestly, this is the only duo going as I expected: "Somewhere between their last drinks and second murder, Lila realized she’d grown to actually like Ojka."
Kell: Ravenclaw. Definitely. All those trinkets he collected for no other reason than he wanted to have them? Literally going against direct orders to get all of them? Always trying to think rationally and logically? Learning so much about magic? Being pessimistic? Ravenclaw.
Lila: Slytherin- my girl is the DEFINITION of ambition, like she followed a guy who had every reason to intensely dislike her on a trip she isn't sure she'll survive, entered the Essen Tasch, a whole ass tournament for the best magicians IN THE WORLD just to test her strength, holds grudges, planned to kill a ship's captain to take it as her own and overall was a Slytherin.
Rhy: Hufflepuff. Do I have to elaborate? No. Am I going to? Yes. This is the person who got kidnapped and nearly killed, and his first concern when he woke up was that his brother was hurt, AND THEN literally pardoned the people who were planning to kill him. He is explicitly stated to be extremely trusting and fully loyal to Kell, and stayed with Alucard on that ship even though he had no actual reason too. Also just generally how much he cares for his people, the b e a u t i f u l scene where he goes around with blankets, and how the trait he values in himself the most is how lovable and approachable the people see him as, all just make him the most Hufflepuffy Hufflepuff ever.
Alucard: Gryffindor, but I can't really explain it. I guess it's just how much of a natural leader he seems to be, but how much he tries to seem like part of the crew, laughing at all the jokes, teasing his crew mates, ect.. Also his reaction when Rhy stopped breathing just seems like A Gryffindor Thing.
Holland: Slytherin. So I'm gonna try to keep this unbiased even though i hate this guy with a passion (don't attack me ok i can see why you would like him but i just don't). Anyways I think Slytherin because of how intent he was on helping his city. He was willing to do just about anything for his city to prosper, and this lead eventually to him being reckless. He also held a grudge against Red London his whole life, and was actually willing to give up his body and will a SECOND time for the sake of his London, that's how ambitious he was.
Also the dynamics? I mean sorry if this is just me but I've always thought that Gryffindors and Ravenclaws would get along the worst out of all the possible combinations, while Ravenclaws and Slytherins, and Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs would get along well because they are the pessimistic and optimistic houses respectively.
EXTRA MENTIONS
Tieren: Ravenclaw
Ned: Ravenclaw, he was so eager to learn
Maxim: Gryffindor
Emira: Hufflepuff but this one is the hardest
Ojka: Gryffindor, she's loyal to Holland
Calla: Hufflepuff, she deserved so much better
Astrid/Athos: Slytherin, just like anyone on that throne
Hastra: Hufflepuff, I will never forgive V.E.Schwab
"When Kell had given him the list of places around Boston that Ned could research, he had been humoring the other boy. Just feeding the obsession a little, adding a little fuel to the fire. He figured that as soon as classes started up in earnest, the Englishman would drop the podcast nonsense and they could be normal drinking buddies, maybe friends. That was five months ago. Now, Kell was standing in an asylum’s cemetery, freezing cold, in the dark."
A series of sometimes-related spooky shorts featuring the Shades of Magic crew. I've had these planned for a little while and will publishing them from now until Friday, November 13th.
Thank you to @forthegenuine for betaing this for me :D.
Find it here.
Or read below the cut if you want. It’s your life.
Kell and Lila had been in Grey London for the better part of a week. Not to exchange letters with King George the Fourth. No, those days were over. Rhy had sent them there for a different reason: see if there were any magically inclined people. And make sure they weren’t able to nurture that inclination.
Lila hadn’t wanted to come back to her home that was no longer her home. Far too many bad memories to mix with the taste of ash on the air. But she hadn’t wanted Kell to leave without her, and he would do anything for his brother. Really, there should be limits as to what brotherly love would do, but Kell agreed right away. So here they were, back at the recently renamed The Stone’s Throw again. Kell trusted Ned to help them with this as well, as the young Enthusiast no longer had a desire to see if he could muster control over elements.
It still hit her, the sense of sadness and loss over Barron. He had been a part of The Stone’s Throw for so long that his absence was something she could feel. Then again, as he had unwittingly become a member of her small family, maybe his absence was just something she could feel anyway. He wouldn’t be there to look at her sternly, telling her she would find trouble if that’s all she went looking for. And he wouldn’t ever get to see what she had become. And that saddened her most, she supposed.
She looked up as Kell came back into their room, once her room, after spending some time downstairs with Ned. He looked at her face, then opened his arms to her. She settled in, leaning against his chest. “You still miss him?” he asked softly. She didn’t say anything, just nodded briefly. He kissed the top of her head, and pulled back to look into her eyes. Blue on brown, black on black. Truthfully, it was getting easier to be there. Easier to accept Barron’s death. And that worried her. If she wasn’t mourning him anymore, was there anyone left to do so?
“What were you and Ned talking about?” she asked, trying to take her mind off of the confusion surrounding her emotions concerning Barron.
“Oh, this and that,” he hedged. She narrowed her eyes at him but before she could say anything he distracted her by kissing her. It shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, but she leaned into the kiss, into him. Before she could deepen it, he pulled away, concern furrowing his brow. He always was too perceptive of what she was feeling. “Are you sure you’re all right?” She exhaled, nodded. His fingers traced her jaw.
“So, how much longer do you think we’ll have to be away from home?” Lila asked. “And how many people does Rhy think could use magic here anyway?”
“Well, his concern isn’t entirely unfounded. I mean, look at you.” She just looked at him. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I haven’t been able to pick up on any signs of magic, even small ones. But my eyes ended up missing you entirely, so who knows what we’ll find. You haven’t seen anything yet, have you?”
Lila shook her head. “No. Though I’m not as used to looking for the signs as you are.” Kell nodded, considered this.
“If we haven’t seen anything by the end of tomorrow, we’ll head back then. I know how you hate to be away from your ship for so long,” he teased. Lila just threw her pillow at him. He laughed, laid down beside her.
“Do you think we should fix the wall before we leave? You know, so Ned can use this room for other patrons aside from us.” Kell looked at the patch of ruined wood where he had trapped Lila the night they’d met. It seemed like a lifetime ago, when really it was only a year and a half.
“If you think so. Personally, I think Ned likes the remnants of magic. But we can fix it before we go.” With that, he pulled her close to him, hands brushing over her dark hair. “Come on. Let’s go to sleep.”
Lila let the feel of his hands brushing over her hair lull her into sleep. Strange to think about, but she still slept the best when Kell was next to her.
The next morning they rose with the dawn, the reds more muted than in Red London, but still bright against the dark blue of early morning. They left The Stone’s Throw once more, still looking for signs of anyone who could sense and use magic. As they continued to wander the streets of Grey London, Lila let her mind wander. She was still watching for more muted versions of what she supposed was like the door Kell had made the night they’d met, but she was also thinking about what it would have been like if she’d never met him. She didn’t know if she would have ever unlocked her magic.
She looked up and caught sight of a tall, slim man leaving a tavern. He had dark hair and a narrow face. She stiffened and froze at the sight of him, and Kell noticed. He turned to follow her gaze as it met the brown eyes of the man. He was shabby, and had the scraggly traces of not having shaved for a couple days. She hadn’t noticed that she’d started shaking until Kell put his hand on her shoulder and whispered, “What is it?” She blinked and took a deep, steadying breath.
“Mr. Bard,” she said coldly by way of greeting. Thomas Bard. Her father. The man who had sold her for some coin when she was fifteen and whom she hadn’t seen since that night. She had killed the man who bought her, of course. And then she began her life of always watching out for herself. It had been four years since she’d last laid eyes on him but he looked the same, eyes bloodshot and teeth yellowing from too much drink.
He frowned as recognition seemed to take over. Of course, she now had a black eye as she was meant to, but he still frowned. “I took great care to make sure your sign of devil possession was removed. Even stole the regular looking one. Why’ve you gone and put it back?”
Lila shook with anger and a little bit of sadness. She willed him to stop in the street. He gasped as he couldn’t move his limbs.
“You see, Thomas,” she began, “it turns out I went and found what that mark really was. And hello to you too, you bastard.” She ended on a growl.
“You’re Lila’s father?” asked Kell incredulously. “I thought you were dead. She alluded to that anyway.” Thomas couldn’t hear the subtle shift to anger in his voice but Lila heard it loud and clear. “Don’t,” she whispered softly, but Kell continued. “What kind of man sells his own daughter to a sleazy man just so he can get a few coin? What kind of man cuts out his daughter’s eye.” His teeth were clenched now, both in anger and in pain as the ground rumbled and he used his magic. He could still feel Lila tremble, but with what he wasn’t sure. He was too angry. He thought he knew all about not great fathers, growing up with one who favored his biological son over his adopted one, but seeing this man here in this London, where Lila had starved and stolen and frozen just to get by made him angry.
Thomas opened and closed his mouth repeatedly like a fish. “And who might you be?” he finally managed. The shock of not being able to move combined with the tremors in the ground had him a little spooked. And then he frowned upon looking into Kell’s eyes. “You’ve got the same affliction she has,” he said, rather stupidly in Kell’s mind, considering Lila had willed his body still and he could feel magic rising in his blood, demanding to be used. “Unhand me. What the devil is wrong with you two?”
Kell scoffed. “What’s wrong with us? I’d say you’re ahead in who’s more messed up. Thomas, was it?” Thomas nodded briefly, that being all he could do, with Lila’s hold still on him. She had gone very pale, and was still trembling. Kell could tell she no longer wanted to be here with the man, so he strode forward and punched him in the jaw. He crumpled to the ground, and Lila hurriedly strode away to the next street. Kell leaned down over the man, saying in a low tone, “You are lucky we are leaving your world behind. You didn’t deserve anything as good as her, ever. You bastard.” He turned and walked away, trying to catch up to Lila. He knew she wasn’t far away.
He found her in an alley, crumpled against the back of a shop, arms wrapped around her stomach. He strode next to her, crouching down so he could see her face. She was still shaking, and breathing hard. “He shouldn’t matter. He shouldn’t fucking matter,” she said, voice breaking a little. “Why does he fucking matter?” she asked, a couple of tears slipping passed her control. Kell reached out to cup her cheek, brushing them away with his thumb. And then he pulled her into his arms, offering his shoulder if she needed it to cry into.
“He doesn’t matter,” he whispered into her ear. “Nothing about that man in that street matters. The only thing that matters is you and who you have become.” He rubbed her back, and wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed softly. “Lila,” he whispered in her ear. They stood like that for a few minutes, before Lila pulled away, angrily swiping the tears from her eyes. She sniffed.
“I thought he was dead. I thought he had died long ago, long before I held a piece of Black London hostage so you would take me on an adventure. I never went looking for him after that night, and I never gave him a second thought. Barron was my only family. Why is he alive while Barron is dead?” She looked at him with eyes shimmering with unshed tears, her brown eye impossibly dark under the sheen. He held her face in both hands, and leaned his forehead on hers.
“I don’t know, Lila. I don’t know what sort of justice that is. All I know is that you are strong. You are alive. And you are so incredible, in spite of everything that he is.” He kissed her then, once. Just deep enough to show her how much he loved her. She had stopped shaking, and she sniffled once more. “Do you want to go home?” he asked softly. She nodded, and then pulled away.
They looked around, trying to gauge where they’d be in Red London. They would come out somewhere near the eastern edge of the Night Market. “Do we need to say goodbye to Ned?” asked Lila. Kell shook his head, and dug out his Red London token. Lila cut her hand, and spoke the words that would bring them home. “As travars.” They stepped through, and made their way up to the palace to tell Rhy that they hadn’t found anyone magical enough to warrant concern.
A small, spooky-season themed drabble for Shades of Magic. This takes place in a modern college AU (same as The Brightener) where Kell occasonally helps Ned Tuttle, an international student, with his a paranormal podcast “The Enthusiast”. Kell agrees to spending time with the other boy, but will not ever admit they might be friends.
Special thanks to @pinkcupboardwitch for building this whole AU and the whole premise of Ned Tuttle’s podcast dreams. Much obliged, friend; you’re the best :)
~*~*~*~
Kell crossed his arms tightly over his chest, scowling at his coat collar repeatedly flipped up in the late October wind. “This is the worst idea you’ve ever had. The. Absolute. Worst.”
“I told you you could wait in the car, Kell,” Ned called from somewhere behind him. The last Kell had checked, the other boy was stepping from headstone to headstone, checking each name with a flashlight. “And you didn’t have to come. You offered to drive.”
“Because you’re terrible at driving on the right side of the road.”
“It’s the wrong side of the road.”
“Right.”
“Wait. Right as in the right side or right as in I’m right?”
“Right side, Ned.”
“Oh… Wrong then.”
Kell let out a harsh breath and tucked himself further into his coat. He should have brought a hat. He should have worn thicker socks. He should have stayed in the car. He should have said no when Ned asked if he wanted to go on a research trip with him to Danvers on a Saturday night. Kell should have known better than to think it was for something class-related. He couldn’t count on one hand the times he had seen Ned Tuttle working on anything other than his podcast.
The Enthusiast.
Kell had given him the title after two drinks at the Stone’s Throw and he had regretted it from the next morning on. Ned had loved it. He even had a little logo for it now to go with the eight unpublished episodes he was waiting to put out into the world.
When Kell had given him the list of places around Boston that Ned could research, he had been humoring the other boy. Just feeding the obsession a little, adding a little fuel to the fire. He figured that as soon as classes started up in earnest, the Englishman would drop the podcast nonsense and they could be normal drinking buddies, maybe friends.
That was five months ago.
Now, Kell was standing in an asylum’s cemetery, freezing cold, in the dark.
“Why the fuck are we even here?” Kell whines, bouncing on his toes to try and warm up. It’d be fine if it weren’t for the wind, he told himself. It’d be fine if he had a hat, maybe gloves.
“Language, Kell!” Ned calls back.
No matter how much Kell groused and complained, Ned always answered in a polite, somewhat kind way. As if Kell’s bitching and moaning wasn’t ever going to be enough to get out of this sometimes friendship.
“Language for who? There’s no one here but us!”
“No one living perhaps! But how would you feel if you’d spent your last years in anguish only to be buried in the middle of the woods with no real marker, and the first person you get the chance to talk to in a hundred years is a redheaded wanker, yelling about how you aren’t there?”
“How would I feel?”
“Yes, Kell, how would you feel.”
“Probably nothing because death is the end and I will fight you on that, Tuttle,” Kell shouts back. The wind picks up viciously for a few seconds. Tree limbs shake and sway against the dark sky; leaves twist on the wind, smacking into Kell’s face and hair. He hears leaves crunching under shoes as, he assumes, Ned walks back to where he stands.
“Looks like you’ve upset someone,” Ned hums as he moves around Kell to inspect the other half of the graveyard. “You should apologize before things get really out of hand.”
“We are outside in the dark, Ned. What’s going to get out of hand besides wild animals?” Kell rolls his eyes.
Ned pauses and shoots Kell an irritated look. “Why must you be so impolite? You don’t talk this way to anyone else.”
“Because those people are alive.”
“They were alive once too!”
“Fine then! Because those people are real.”
“How do you know they aren’t?”
“What would you say if I said I just know?”
“I’d say you're deflecting and that I’d still like you to apologize, even if you don’t believe.” Ned stuffs a hand in his pocket, shining his flashlight in a bright circle between them. “Seriously, Kell. You could have done it nine times over by now. If ghosts aren’t real, you’ve wasted two words’ worth of breath. If they are, well… basic human decency.”
Despite the dark, Kell squints at him. He grits his teeth together and scowls at the circle of flashlight. Another gust of wind hits him in the face, shivers running through his skin, and Kell finally relents. “Ugh… fine. Fine! I’m sorry. I’m cold and tired--.”
“And generally have a bad attitude about most things.”
“Sure, Ned. I’m cold, tired, have a bad attitude, and am sorry if I offended you. It was rude of me,” Kell finished with a huff. He levelled an annoyed stare at Ned. “There. Happy?”
Ned smirked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I am, thank you.”
Kell sighs and steps forward. “Whatever. Here, let me help you look.”
“You want to help now?”
“Yes.”
“It’s because I have the flashlight right?”
“Shut up.”
“Kell?”
“Shut up and show me the name. The faster you find what you need, the faster I get to make you buy me Vietnamese take out.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 2/31
Fandom: Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kell Maresh/Holland Vosijk, Alucard Emery/Rhy Maresh, Talya/Holland Vosijk, Delilah Bard & Kell Maresh, (they're just friends here guys but she does make appearances!)
Characters: Kell Maresh, Rhy Maresh, Delilah Bard, Holland Vosijk, Edward "Ned" Archibald Tuttle III, Nasi (Shades of Magic), Talya (Shades of Magic), Alucard Emery, Maxim Maresh, Emira Maresh, Athos Dane, Astrid Dane, Beloc (Shades of Magic)
Additional Tags: August 2020 Writers Prompts, Tumblr Writer Prompts, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - 1940s, Alternate Universe - Victorian, seance, Spirit Mediums, Alternate Universe - World War I, World War I
Summary:
This is a collection of short fics I’ve written within the Shades of Magic universe for the August Writer’s Month prompts for 2020. These pieces have all ended up circulating around several AUs -- a modern AU, a 1940s AU, a Victorian AU where Antari are spirit mediums, and some extra pieces in the same Great War AU as Amid the Ruin -- plus a few odds and ends. This collection has everything: fluff, drama, angst, romance, some darkness at the edges to keep it interesting. Since a coherent order is not a thing, I’ll be marking each chapter with whatever storyline it is plus whatever characters appear in it. So you all can pick and choose whichever strikes your fancy!
CW: I make no guarantees about the content of these chapters. I've outlined all of them, but am essentially writing on the fly. The rating I’ve given reflects the variety of content in here, including some pretty dark stuff and/or nsfw situations. Since the content varies greatly from chapter to chapter, I will be including individual warnings at the top of each chapter, as well as updating the tags as this project goes on! Stay safe and enjoy!
Edward Archibald Tuttle III -- known to his friends simply as “Ned” -- was only expecting one man to arrive on his doorstep that night, not two. His group of friends and acquaintances had already gathered in the formal dining room, rearranged substantially to accommodate the crowd. Word of Master Kell Maresh’s spectacular previous performance had spread through spiritualist circles like flame through a match factory, and suddenly the whole of polite society was beating down his door for an invitation. With some rigorous vetting and Kell’s express approval, Ned had handpicked the lucky few to attend that evening.
It had been arranged through Kell’s brother, a genial but precise young man whose cash allowance and parentage were often the subject of gossip. Ned liked him well enough and did well to follow through on all the demands -- One table with one chair, no hand-holding or humming from audiences, no requests from guests (they can make personal appointments for that), and absolutely no scientists with a mind towards disruption.
Only Kell and a focused audience.
So Ned was indeed very surprised to see Master Kell on his doorstep with a second man. A man who only weeks before had tossed his front parlor beyond recognition. Not as tall as Kell, but broader and more alive than Ned recalled him being. His eyes actually had color to them -- a lightly faded evergreen. His hair, on the other hand...
“Good evening, Mister Tuttle,” Kell began with uncharacteristic cheer. “May I introduce my partner for the evening, Mast--.”
“Holland Vosijk,” Ned supplied in a faint voice. “Yes, I recognized you from before… I thought you said he was dead, Master Kell.”
Kell blinks, eyes flickering as he thinks. “I don’t believe I did.”
I’ve been working on a short adsom fanfic collection featuring Holland Vosijk as a kid from West Virginia. You may have seen the moodboard yesterday and the little blurb accompanying it. The title at the moment is The Brightener, but I will often be referring to it as the Rust Belt AU. Special thanks to @pinkcupboardwitch who gave me the permission to run with this idea -- it’s been so fun, and has given me a crazy good excuse to just lurk through lots and lots of family history, so thank you!!
So, here goes nothing. Let me know if you hate it.
~*~*~*~
“Do you have something you, um, that you’re going to read from…” Ned watched him warily over the wire frames of his glasses. “Or…?”
Holland shook his head. “I thought I’d just ramble. Make the editing process absolutely miserable for you.”
“Ha, thanks. Well deserved, I suppose.” Ned clicked a few more laptop keys and messed with a stray audio wire. “That, should, do it. Okay. Ready?”
“Ready.”
Ned smiled, pressed another key, and gestured for Holland to start.
Holland took in a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to unfold the burden of thirteen long, lonely years.
Transcript: The Enthusiast podcast, ep. 127, “The Brightener”
Recorded: January 19, 2017; Cambridge, Mass.
Subjects: Holland I. Vosijk; Edward “Ned” Tuttle; crosstalk Kell Maresh and Talya Verreaux. **Speaker denoted within the transcript by first initial only.
Holland: My name is Holland Vosijk. You’ll probably know me better as Ilya Ivanovitch Vosijk, which is a mouthful. My father’s family was Russian, so the naming convention stuck for me and my brother, but my parents always called me Holland. This doesn’t matter, you can cut that out, I just wanted to, to say it… Thirteen years ago my mother, Margaret Ruth Vosijk, left home to run a few errands and never came home. She was going up to the church to drop off some crafts for Sunday school, then the grocery store, then home. It would have taken an hour… *heavy sigh on the recording*
After she died, disappeared, my family fell apart. They’re all gone now. My mother’s body was never found, my father and brother are gone now too. They’re buried in the same grave, their coffins stacked on top of my mother’s place holder box at the bottom. We could only afford one, after all. I’ve… I’ve been on my own since I was eleven and I’ve never talked before, about this, to anyone. I didn’t even know you could Google her, the case, or that anyone knew or cared out, outside of West Virginia -- What, Ned?”
Ned: Nothing, nothing, I’m fine, keep… Oh fine. Fine. What do you mean you’ve been on your own?
H: I mean I’ve been on my own, what do you think I meant? My mother disappeared right before my eight birthday. My dad died in his sleep two years later, then my brother drove away one morning two years after that. I stayed in our house for a few months, but then the neighbors started getting wise to what was going on and I ran too.
N: Where did you go?
H: Nowhere. I slept rough for seven years.
N: Homeless?
H: Homeless. Until college, which I never thought I’d get into. The house is still there, I could have gone back whenever, once things had cooled off but I just… didn’t. I hated being the last one left, so I didn’t. I had already taken everything I could pawn that would get me any cash so… Never mind.
