The bathroom door opened, and the other girl who had been in the bathroom walked out. Aja nearly breathed a sigh of relief when other girls walked in. Two of them, if Aja was judging the footsteps correctly.
Kleb, why was this happening?
(This was happening because she had stayed after school to watch a soccer game. It was a lively game, full of running and kicking, but Aja's transduction had worn off.)
Now, she just had to wait until she was alone. Aja curled herself smaller on top of the toilet she was hiding on. Thankfully the door was locked.
"Oh, you should totally ask her out," one of them said. She sounded like Mary.
"Are you sure? I mean, I heard her brother say they're planning on moving again soon." That sounded like Shannon.
"You can always try long distance?"
"I mean, I guess. But does she even like girls?"
"I'll admit, I can't help you with that, but the worst she'll say is no."
"Fine, fine. I'll try asking Aja out on Friday."
It was only because Aja had muscular control from training with Varvatos that she was able to keep from falling off the toilet at the sound of her name.
Day 3 - Mirror or Masquerade
@talesofarcadiafemslashweek
Aja/Shannon (Shanaja)
wordcount: ~2k
Rated: PG
(Quick note: the reason Aja uses she/her for herself and he/him for Krel is an artifact of imperfect translation. Akiridians don’t have genders as we’d understand them, so their use of gendered terms like ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ really just reflect that the Akiridian language has more than one word for ‘sibling,’ and that Aja and Krel use different terms for each other.)
Aja washed her hands slowly at the row of sinks in the school bathroom - she was not eager to get back to English class. It was, by far, her least favorite class. There were so many assumptions made, so many fundamentals her classmates had spent years learning, comparisons being made to other books that everyone else had already read.
She was forever thankful that she and her brother had Universal Understanding, that the technology had been acquired by her people in trade with the Babelpisces several generations ago. It was essential for interplanetary negotiations, and, now, to analyze eyeball symbolism in The Great Gatsby.
Aja turned off the sink, taking a moment to examine her features in the mirror. She did not know when she would get used to her fleshy human appearance, but she hoped it would be soon. She poked her nose, moving it from side to side, opened her mouth to look at her teeth. She was a girl now, apparently, whatever that meant.
All she knew for certain was that it meant using certain pronouns and not others. Akiridian pronouns did not, so far as Aja could tell, correspond to gender, but she was still a little unclear on what ‘gender’ was, and had been racking her brains - a funny human idiom - to see if she could think of an Akiridian equivalent.
On Akiridian-5, a person’s pronouns told you a lot about them - their approximate age, social rank, and sometimes even area of expertise. They had over a dozen third-person pronouns, but it was easy to know which one to use because they also had a over a dozen corresponding first-person pronouns. In Arcadia, everyone was “I” this and “I” that - it was honestly one of the most startling things about being human, how the same everyone seemed.
Aja and Krel used the royal pronouns for first born and second born, respectively. Krel had once confided in her that he had toyed with the idea of using an engineer’s pronouns, but ultimately his sense of duty to the crown won out. That, and their parents would have thrown a fit if they had known.
Aja had not told Krel that she sometimes disguised herself and used artisan pronouns when she went to the skeltag pits to watch the fights.
(Neither of them had quite gotten the hang of the new king- and queen-in-waiting pronouns they should now be using.)
Mother had implied that gender was a social rank modifier when she said that Aja would be overlooked if she were a girl - Aja had, at the time, assumed it meant something like the suzinx, those who moved unobtrusively through the palace - but Aja was unsure how true that was since Krel was less girl than she was but he was more ignored. (Possibly Aja was just exceptionally bad at blending in and lying low.)
Aja had yet to reliably identify who was and was not a girl in daily life. At first she thought being a girl had to do with clothes, but she had given up on that idea after it turned up so many false negatives. It also had nothing to do with eye color or hair color or how much time they spent talking or whether they liked burritos.
Being a girl seemed to be positively correlated with hair length quite strongly, so that was her current working theory: the longer someone’s hair follicles, the more girl they were.
Aja had the longest hair of anyone she knew; she supposed that made her a full girl. Mary was a close second - 90% girl, maybe? Her best guess was that Krel was at least half girl, about the same as Claire. Aja had been momentarily stymied by the fact that Claire was apparently considered a girl while Krel was not, since both had shoulder-length hair, but then she realized that all the clips Claire added to her hair probably increased her girl quotient.
Aja was startled from her introspection by the sound of rushing water behind her. Shannon stepped out of a stall and blinked at Aja, offering her a tentative grin, before she moved over to the row of sinks.
(Splitting hairs into clumps seemed to have a similar effect as adding clips, because Shannon’s hair looked like it might be shorter than Krel’s but she was also a girl.)
She looked on in curiosity as the other girl washed her hands - Aja quickly realized that she’d forgotten to use any soap, and hurried to correct her mistake, washing her hands a second time while carefully imitating the human’s motions.
“Oh!” A flash of color had caught her eye, and she abandoned her own sink to try to get a better look, reaching over with the intent to pull Shannon’s hands from the faucet for closer inspection - but the girl eeped and jerked her hands away. “Sorry, sorry.” Aja held up her dripping hands in apology. “I was just admiring your colorful fingers. How did you do that?”
“You mean my nail polish?” She finished rinsing the suds off, revealing dark blue fingernails that seemed to shimmer in the light. For some reason her face got very red, like Aja had seen on some humans in gym class when they breathed in and out more than usual. “You, you like it? um.”
“Yes, very much! Very lively!”
“Oh, thanks.” Her face got even redder, and Aja started to grow concerned. “Um, I could - I could do your nails for you sometime? If you want?”
Any color she added to her nails would not survive her transition back to her Akiridian form, but as she thought about what ‘doing her nails’ would entail, going to Shannon’s house and sitting down together, spending time with her, she decided that it didn’t matter to her that the finished product would not last longer than a day.
“Yes, I would like that very much. Thank you! And oh! Maybe you could help me with a problem I have been having. Could you help me understand what a girl is, please?”
“You - you what?” Shannon sputtered, wide-eyed.
“We don’t have girls on Ak - on Cantaloupia. Being here is very confusing. I would like to learn to be a girl, please.”
“Oh, I thought you meant - nevermind what I thought.” Shannon looked at her for a very long time, the red color slowly fading from her face. Aja was not sure what she was looking for, though she had an inkling.
She tried to reassure her, “I know my hair is tucked up right now, but I promise you, it is definitely long enough to be a girl.”
Shannon’s expression seemed to… crumple, and she bit her lip. “Are you just… wanting to learn performative femininity because it’s expected of you?”
“Per-for-wha?”
“Sorry, my mom’s a therapist. I meant, do you just want to learn to act more like a girl because you think it’s expected of you?”
“I am supposed to do what people expect of me, it is part of being in hiding and remaining unnoticed. Ah, I mean…” Aja blanked on trying to explain away her slip-up, decided to ignore it and hope Shannon didn’t notice. “Yes, I suppose it is a little bit what you said. Mostly, I think I am just curious. I have been watching the television and there are many girl things I would like to try - like your fingernails! They are so colorful and lively! I would like to do that.”
Shannon still did not look satisfied with her answer. “You can do girl things without being a girl, that’s okay too.”
Not be a girl? Was that an option? “But I am a girl.”
“But you just told me you don’t know what a girl is!”
“Yes? What is yout point?” Aja was a girl now and that was why she needed to know what one was.
“Do you want to be a girl?”
“I… I don’t know. That is why I want to better understand what a girl is.”
Shannon rubbed at her temples. “Okay, okay, I think I understand. You’re exploring your gender identity, and you want to see if being a girl is right for you; is that about the gist of it?”
Aja did not particularly understand the question, but she thought she could guess at the answer. “Yes?”
Shannon nodded. “Okay, alright. Yeah, I’d be willing to coach you in girl stuff, hang out and show you the ropes. But, um,” she wrung her hands together, “while we’re being open and honest, I want to say that… I’vegotacrushonyou.” She immediately buried her face in her hands. “Argh, why did I say that?! Stupid Shannon, stupid.”
“Oh. Was it mistake to say that?” Aja cocked her head to one side.
Shannon peeked at her between fingers still firmly affixed to her face. “Do you…” she began hesitantly, “know what a crush is?”
Aja waggled her hand back and forth in a so-so gesture she learned from watching her classmates. “I have been observing hu-uh-hyour culture and I know it does not mean flattening someone with a zorkgast. I think,” Aja picked her words with careful deliberation, “it means the same as like-like, yes?”
“Yes.” Shannon removed her hands from her face, and drew herself up to her full height. “Aja. I think you’re cool and amazing, and I like-like you. Do you want to go out with me?”
Aja gave that some thought. She knew what ‘going out’ meant, and dating - she was a princess, she knew all about courtship. She had never expected to have the freedom to do so without political consideration, and it gave her a heady rush.
But it would be selfish to say yes just because she could, just because she wanted to learn what this girl could teach her, just because it sounded like an adventure. She could see that that would not be fair to Shannon.
And yet. Shannon was nice. She told funny jokes, and she carried extra pencils to loan to anyone who needed one. She read a lot of books that looked a lot more interesting than the books they had to read for class. Thinking about it, Aja realized she would like to spend more time with her, find adventure together, learn more about her and hopefully more about herself.
“Shannon,” Aja began, uncertain if she would be able to find the right words. “I like you too. I do not know if I like-like you - there is a lot I do not know, yet - but I am willing to find out, if that is okay.”
Shannon smiled softly at her, “Yeah, yeah that’s okay.” Suddenly she squealed loudly, “EEEEEEIH! Sorry, sorry, I’m just so excited, I couldn’t help it!” She glanced at the door, shifting her weight back and forth. “We’ll talk more later, yeah? We should really be getting back to class - Ms Janeth hates long bathroom breaks, she’s gonna give me the stink eye.”
“I do not think Mr. Clemens is all that fond of them either,” Aja admitted ruefully.
“Here,” Shannon pulled Aja’s arm towards her and fished a blue pen out of her pocket with her other hand. She wrote a string of numbers on the inside of her forearm. “Call me, yeah?” Her face had gone that funny red color again.
“Yes, I will!”
Aja felt lighter than she could remember feeling, the prospect of figuring her life out seemed less like a weight she had to bear and more like journey she could share, and she skipped her way back to class.
(Mr. Clemens was very unhappy with the length of time she had spent in the bathroom, and said she would not get any more bathroom breaks in class for the rest of the week, but Aja did not particularly care)
Laying in the dark, side by side, with their arms barely brushing up against each other, Aja can’t help but wonder at the circumstances that brought her and Shannon to be here. Together.
So many things, so many little moments that, at the time, seemed inconsequential, had added up until their relationship came into being. It wasn’t like it was something that happened instantaneously. There was no snap of the fingers, no flash, no moment where they were suddenly together when a second before they weren’t. They didn’t fall in love because Aja bumped into Shannon at the science fair and Shannon subsequently dropped and broke her fake volcano. They didn’t fall in love because a leave blew in Shannon’s face while she was riding her bike and she nearly swerved into Aja. They didn’t fall in love because Shannon went searching for the guitar she’d lost at the bon-bon party and Aja returned it to her (though she had to promise Krel she’d buy him one that was truly his own to convince him to give it up).
Those things all happened at least two months before they fell in love. They weren’t, in theory, the reason their love had happened. They were just instances that brought them together, where they could be together, where jokes could pass between them and giggles answer. Instances that left them with lingering warm feelings in their chests. Feelings that then led to butterflies in their stomachs almost each and every time they saw each other. Butterflies that eventually caused Shannon to hesitantly (very, very awkwardly) ask Aja out.
Aja stared up at the constellations projected on Shannon’s ceiling. Her girlfriend’s light projection device wasn’t nearly as good as anything they had on Akiridion-5, but still she found it wondrous.
“Aja? You’re still—you’re listening, right?” Shannon’s glasses reflected the light, so Aja can only see the slowly rotating reflection of stars and comets rather than Shannon’s eyes. “It’s okay if you’re not interested in this stuff,” Shannon goes on. “We…we can talk about something else.” She turned away from her.
“No!” Aja jumped up, bouncing on the bed. “That is, I am very interested in this ‘Doctor’ of yours. They sounds unusual and I like unusual.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to pretend to be interested to make me feel better.” Shannon switched her lamp back on, drowning out the stars.
Aja blew a raspberry. She knew Shannon has self-doubt issues. She knew Shannon didn’t really mean to get so negative. She knew Shannon was working on being more trusting. But still, she just kinda wished sometimes that Shannon could already be more trusting now.
“I’m not lying. I really like space and adventures too.” Aja sat up. “I was just thinking. Out of all of time and space, all the potential plot lines and parallel universes and paradoxes probably, you and me came to be here together.”
“Well, when you put it like that…”
“It sounds super romantic, right?” Aja laughed. She looped an arm around Shannon’s shoulders. “You know I love you.” They’d first said that statement to each other about a week ago. It still made Aja’s heart flutter to say. “And I would never lie to you.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry.” Shannon pushed her glasses up her nose. “I’m just not used to people really liking me.”
Aja had looked up the possibility of seeking out Shannon’s former bullies with her serrator once. But, unless she became an ambassador and gained diplomatic immunity (or something like that), she’d run into some issues with Earth laws there.
“Well, I really like you.” Aja smiled at Shannon reassuringly. “And I want to hear all about space.” She fell back on the bed, and then smirked at the ceiling. “And what kind of adventures you’d have with the Doctor in their blue box that defies physics.”
Shannon settled down next to Aja, but lies on her side so she can look at her. “Well, first, we’d go to Mars and rescue Oppy.”
“Oppy?”
“Opportunity. The Mars Rover.” Shannon sat up again, grabbed her laptop off her desk, opened it, and brought it back over to Aja with an opened webpage. “NASA sent her to Mars in 2004 and she’s been exploring and taking pictures to send back to us since then.” Her grin fell from her face. “But she stopped responding months back and recently they’ve given up on her. But, if the Doctor and the TARDIS were real, we could go to Mars and save her or repair her so she can explore some more. It would be so great!” Shannon stopped and looked at Aja, at the frown on her girlfriend’s face. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Aja started slowly. “It’s just I…there’s something I need to tell you. Something important. Now, seems like a pretty good time.”
“Oh. What is it?”
“What if I told you we could go to Mars? Although, I cannot guarantee a blue box, it is possible.” Aja was already thinking of what she’d say to Mother to convince her to take on such a disguise anyway. Surely it wouldn’t be too hard and the mothership would definitely seem bigger on the inside than on the out. “Mars is the next planet over, yes?” She asked. Krel had been wanting to do a short flight to test the repaired engine. Going one planet over in the star system and back should certainly qualify.
“Yes, but it’ll take us years to become astronauts.”
“That’s not what I mean.” The corner of Aja’s mouth twitched up into an almost smirk.
“I don’t get it. You know the Doctor’s fictional, right? There’s no way we can go to Mars.”
“Not in an Earth ship, no.” Aja couldn’t help but grin. “But it’s a good thing I’m not from Earth then.” She closed her eyes and willed her disguise away. “Shannon, I would like to tell you about a planet, one very far away from here, called Akiridion-5.”
You may have noticed this blog has neither header nor profile pick. While I’m working on creating a profile pic for it, I want to involve you guys in choosing what the header will be.
So I’ve decided to host an art contest (yay!) to determine one. Anyone who wishes to can enter an art piece that they’d like to be seen as the header for this blog dedicated to showcasing sapphic content in the Trollhunters fandom.
Rules
-Has to be art related to any sapphic (f/f) ship(s) of characters in Trollhunters/3Below/Tales of Arcadia.
-No NSFW
-No adult/child relationships of any kind.
-any type of art (digital, by hand, etc.) you’d like to do is fine. This contest is to make this blog a little less empty-looking, but it’s also to reflect this blog’s main purpose of encouraging the creation of and celebrating sapphic art/content, so any and all is good.
-a list of sapphic Trollhunters ships and potential ships can be found here if you need
How to enter
-@ this blog (thesapphicsectionofthelibrary) in your post
-tag your post with #sapphictrollhuntersartcontest
-All entries will be reblogged to this blog.
-The entry with the most notes (likes/reblogs) by the deadline will receive 1st Place, second most notes will receive 2nd Place, and 3rd most notes 3rd place. Prizes are listed below.
-Entrance Deadline is Monday, November 19th
Prizes
1st Place: entry will be used as this blog’s header with credit given to you in the blog description and a 1500 word fanfic written on a pairing of your choosing by @im-the-king-of-the-ocean
2nd Place: a 1000 word fanfic written on a pairing of your choosing by @im-the-king-of-the-ocean and being first at the top on a recommendation list of artists who’ve created sapphic Trollhunters content I’m going to put together and display on a page on this blog.
3rd Place: a 500 word fanfic written on a pairing of your choosing by @im-the-king-of-the-ocean and being second at the top on a recommendation list of artists who’ve created sapphic Trollhunters content I’m going to put together and display on a page on this blog.
*All who enter will be added to the sapphic content creators list if they want.
If you have any questions, you can send in an ask or pm me (here or on my ocean king blog), whichever you prefer :)
16. taking a photo of the smiling or in their element
"And, smile!" Shannon said, holding up her phone to her friend. Aja smiled for the picture, and Shannon saved it as a contact.
Did Shannon want them to be more than friends? Yes, but she knew that Aja wanted to return home to Cantaloupia, and hopefully soon. Shannon didn't want the heartbreak of being two weeks into a relationship only to break it off because it was easier than going long distance. So, she wouldn't say anything.
"Okay, my turn!" Aja said, grabbing her phone from her pocket. "Smile!"
If you were in the THCC in early April 2019, then you will recognize this AU.
Optional theme song of the AU
Claire first fell for Mary when they were in sixth grade. She's never said anything, because by the time she figured out it was a crush, Mary was already very boy-crazy. Claire's tried to make said crush go away, and it has, but never fully. By the time Mary finds the amulet, Claire is crushing on Jim, but that crush on Mary is still in the background. Because Jim doesn’t get the amulet, he never gains the confidence boost he needs to talk to and woo Claire, and her feelings for him fade.
Mary tells Darci about the amulet, but doesn't get the chance to tell Claire until Strickler spies Mary awkwardly walking around in full armor. She claims she's going to be trying out for the play, and when she gets there she realizes something: none of the female roles would work with armor, and the only male role she knows is that of Romeo.
Claire, of course, has been practicing at being Juliet for weeks, and when she realizes that Mary is trying out as Romeo, it's a bit of a dream come true as well as her old crush coming back in full force. After all, Mary had considered playing the part of the Nurse, but she knows Claire is trying out for Juliet, and would that mean she wants to kiss Claire?
Naturally, she's a bit sad when Mary and Darci reveal that no, this is magic armor and they had to keep the cover, sorry, they were going to tell her sooner if they could, but Claire hides her sadness behind the giant troll chasing them and the fact that Trollmarket is beautiful.
Outside of trollhunting and the play, Claire begins to distance herself from Mary. Not from Darci, though. History will call her Darci the Diplomatic, and this is where those legends start.
Mary doesn’t use the Grit-Shaka. After all, it’s just kissing, something you do as a contractual thing with guys or the person you were cast opposite of in a play. Claire is tempted to. It’s kissing her best friend, the crush she’ll never get away from. But she doesn’t. After all, it’s just stage kissing, nothing meaningful. Nothing like what Claire wants even though it’d ruin the friendship if she tried.
NotEnrique knocks down the photo of Claire, and the goblins go after her. Mary tries to save her, only to find that her amulet was stolen. And so the two of them fight the goblins with makeshift weapons. Mary decides to finally confront Claire about how weird she’s being.
“Look, I get it, you’re stressed about Enrique and the play. We’ll get him back, and yeah, sorry for making things weird. I’ve gotta keep my cover as the trollhunter,” Mary says, looking for any goblins. “And yeah, I know you don’t want to pretend to like me romantically and -”
“Pretend?” Claire asks. She puts a hand on her chest, tears in her eyes. “I’ve been in love with you for a third of my life!” She turns away, unable to look at her friend after admitting the secret she's kept for the past five years. “I’m just tired of always getting my hopes up.”
The two of them are quiet when Darci and AAARRGGHH!!! find them, Mary from shock and Claire from shame.
The play goes off well, though the two leads seem a bit stilted.
Mary has a lot to think about afterwards. She throws herself into trollhunting, but not even that blocks out her thoughts about the idea of a life where she were to date Claire.
In this AU, the Akiridions land early. Darci ends up befriending Shannon and Aja because she wants a sense of normalcy when her two best friends are being weird (neither will mention Claire’s crush). Normalcy is not something she gets. This leads to the Akiridion-troll secrets coming out early. (Note: Aside from Clairy, the next major ship would be either Shanaja, Daraja, or Shandaraja. No matter what, it would contain a lot less drama than our two favorite theater sapphics.)
Alone in the Darklands, Mary is forced to finally confront those thoughts. A life with Claire seems nice, as opposed to the contractual feelings Mary gets whenever she thinks of a future husband. And yet, the idea of living a life with Claire, or any girl, seems terrifying, while a future husband is at least security. But could Mary ever have security as the trollhunter?
In her heartbreak over accidentally pushing away the girl she loves, Claire accidentally turns to Morgana.
Darci frees Mary from the Darklands. Claire can’t bring herself to be happy. She wants to be happy. Mary is back, and so is Enrique. And yet, a darkness grips her heart.
Darci is the one who finds out how to find Merlin, as well as an alternative way to defeat Gunmar. It helps that she has Akiridion allies.
By the time Mary is able to get over herself and confess her feelings to Claire, Mary has a troll form and Claire has become Morgana’s champion.
Send me a potential AU and I’ll tell you a minimum of five fun facts (anon is off)
