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raayllum · 8 hours

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I HAVE BEEN LAUGHING AT THIS FRAME FOR 5 MINUTES

"MY GIRL!!"

#s5 #5x09 #little details #rayllum #him tunnel visioning and ignoring claudia's tentacle #arc 2

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raayllum · 9 hours

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Callum is so gentle and soft at the core. Like this man has a “I love my best friend and my baby brother means everything to me. They are my whole heart and world” voice 😭😭😭

#he really does #two pillars #he loves them so much #callum

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raayllum · 9 hours

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the S6 puzzles are gonna be fun!

#fandom history #hiatus hoedown #(affectionate)

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raayllum · 11 hours

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Spoiler puzzle for the 6x02 episode title - three words, each correlating to the picture. We also know the S6 episode titles tell a story of their own with "Startouched" being the title of 6x01.

Here are some potential avenues for each one!

First picture options: heart, light, together, reunion, reconciliation

Second picture options: war, battle, attack, divide

Third picture: mushroom, healing, a collection of mushrooms is also called a cluster or troop

Light Divides and Heals maybe? Love Wounds Healing? Hearts, Wars, Healing?

the good news is that we will be getting the actual title tomorrow

#s6 spoilers #twitter #s6 #6x02 #s6 speculation #twitter puzzles #tdp #the dragon prince #tdp spoilers #Just in case

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raayllum · 12 hours

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a/n: bc king atticus (ez's grandfather) invited claudia to sit on the throne and i haven't stopped thinking about it

The first time Claudia sits on her throne as queen—after the spat they'd had about her having one (that Ez had won)—and settles, dress rustling by her feet, she laughs.

Ezran quirks a brow. They've been married for under a month, and while he knows her quite well (she's been his high mage for quite some time, and his partner the past year and a half), well... Claudia never quite stops surprising him. It's one of the reasons he loves her.

"What?" he asks at last.

"Nothing." She goes to hide her smile with her hand, eyes strangely dewy. "I assumed I'd think more of my father, but... I'm thinking of yours—your father's father."

Ezran's brow furrows deeper. "King Atticus?"

It's been twenty-five years since he passed away, only knowing Ezran about six months. Ez has no memory of him—even Callum doesn't have much—and unlike with their mother, there's no melancholy there. Harrow had been determined to be a better king than his father; it seems to run in the family. (One day, the children he and Claudia have will want to surpass them. It seems fair.)

"Mmhm." Claudia tucks her black hair behind her ears, more trailing down her shoulders. She looks so pretty like this it's almost hard to concentrate (newlywed bliss, as Soren would say). "He invited me up on his throne when I got in trouble for doing dark magic. I even offered to fix it for him because it was so uncomfortable. A child's pride, huh?"

Ezran steps closer, leaning over and resting his hand over hers on one of the throne's arm rest. "Most children are too well meaning to be prideful, don't you think?"

She brightens a little, the mistiness fading from her eyes. "Maybe."

"You've always wanted to help people," he says, squeezing her hand. "And that's what you'll be able to do as queen." He kisses her forehead right below her crown and then pulls back, smiling gently. "How does the throne feel? Comfortable?"

Claudia's lips twitch. Her gaze is steady when it meets his and he knows she means it. "Just about."

#claudiez #my fic #ficlet #headcanons #crack canon quartet #after the war #fic #puzzle house #queen claudia is something that can be so personal to me

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raayllum · 12 hours

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NOT A HEART

HERE WE GO!!

#that's so rude #heart light maybe #s6 spoilers #6x02 #this is so (potentially) specific to #key to his heart theory

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raayllum · 12 hours

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176.

**Reminder that the crack quartet can only ever happen years and years into the future when everyone is a fully consenting adult**

Opeli sees it happening early.

She has known Ezran since he was born. She was the one who anointed him on his name day, and she's been guiding his leadership since he took his father's crown and watching over him for longer still. She knows what he is like, and she knows what boys are like when they fall in love, and she knows, almost immediately, when Claudia catches his eye.

It's a shock to her as much as it would be a shock to anyone. It hardly makes sense: Claudia, the traitor, the witch, the mage that almost brought forth the end of the world, with her bone-white hair and her bloodied hands, and Ezran, her youngest ward and noble king. She almost can't fathom it.

But it's something she should investigate. Something to bring up with Ezran, probably, and something she should bring up with Claudia for certain, because Ezran's safety is paramount, and it's not a good look at all for him to start courting a pardoned criminal. Opeli believes in him and his judgement, but her concern around Claudia is not unfounded. To be so close to power is a dangerous thing, and even if Claudia means him no harm, his reputation hangs precariously in the balance.

(Hypocrite, she calls herself. How rich of her to be concerned about Ezran's reputation for his burgeoning relationship with Claudia when she's been gambling so wantonly with her own. No matter—)

She puts her foot down when she catches Ezran helping her tidy the barberry hedges. He looks very pleased to be doing it. It's not at all his job to do so but he has been seen helping in the kitchens and in the stables too, and this is not out of the ordinary for him. It's Claudia that strengthens Opeli's resolve: it's that quiet little smile and that barest hint of a flush and the way Claudia lets her elbow brush his as she clips away stray branches, even as the spines in the hedge catch against her sleeves.

"Opeli," greets Ezran happily. "What are you doing out here? I thought you and Soren were supposed to go and oversee the harvest in the vineyards this morning."

Opeli keeps her face determinedly straight. "We've been," she says evenly. "They're going well over there. One of us will check in again this afternoon. I wanted to have a word, actually.'

"You're welcome to it, as always," says Ezran, but Opeli shakes her head.

"With Claudia."

Claudia blinks. Ezran furrows his brow.

"We talked about this," he says, a warning in the pitch of his voice, but Opeli offers him a (wan) smile and insists.

"I don't distrust your judgement, Your Majesty," she says carefully. "It's just a word."

Claudia meets her eyes, and to her credit, doesn't waver. She touches Ezran's elbow and nods. "It's fine, Ez," she says quietly. "Just a word, right?"

"Yes," promises Opeli.

Ezran glances between them warily, but nods all the same and sets down his secateurs. Opeli waits until he's out of earshot before she turns to Claudia, her lips pressed thin.

A pause passes between them. Claudia does not look away.

Opeli clears her throat. "I don't want to pry," she begins, "but you and His Majesty have been... rather close since your pardon. My loyalty is to him and all things aside, there are other things that must be considered. I have to ask: is there something I should know?"

Claudia sets her jaw. "That depends," she says quietly. "Is there something I should know about you and Soren?"

Opeli's heart thuds heavily in her chest. Her face warms. Her throat closes up. Something like panic wells between her ribs because no one is supposed to know, and surely Soren wouldn't have said anything, and yet—

"He didn't tell me," says Claudia. "He's my brother, and I know him better than he wants to believe."

Opeli bites back the cold in her chest and wills herself to be calm, to be collected under Claudia's stare. "And Ezran might be king, but he is still one of my wards," she says levelly. "I don't believe I have to tell you but he's lost enough."

Claudia wrinkles her nose stubbornly. "So has Soren," she points out.

Opeli bites back a scowl at that. "Yes, I know," she says sharply. "He came to me to work through it. He mourned your mother, and your father, and you when he deserved more than what any of you could give him and I'd rather be dragged through the mud myself let him lose anything else. What can you tell me about whatever it is that's going on here?"

Claudia ducks her head at last, and Opeli tries not to feel too much satisfaction in it. But when Claudia looks up again, there is only honesty in her eyes.

"He's safe, Opeli," she murmurs. "I don't have it in me to betray any of them again, but him most of all. And if I did—" She snorts and shakes her head. "Ez is kinder than I deserve. I'll owe him that debt forever and I would die before I let anything else happen to him. I know you don't trust me but—you have to trust that, at least."

"How can anyone possibly trust that at face value?"

"You can't," says Claudia. "But I—" She cuts herself off, but she does not need to finish the sentence for Opeli to know how she'd wanted to end it. "You know what it is," she says. "You know what it feels like."

Opeli says nothing for a moment. She looks away. "Perhaps I do."

"Then you know I could never hurt him," says Claudia. "Not again. The same way I know you would never do anything to hurt Soren."

Another pause. Another breath. When Opeli looks back at Claudia, she is staring at her shoes helpless in the same way Opeli is when it comes to her brother.

"We understand each other, then," she says primly.

Claudia nods. "Yeah," she says. "We do."

Opeli nods back. "I'll leave you," she says. "And I'll send Ezran back to you when I find him."

Despite herself, Claudia cracks a smile. "Thank you," she murmurs. "And—" Here she pauses, and Opeli waits, wondering what else there is to say. "Your secret's safe too," she says at last.

"That is much appreciated," says Opeli, incling her head. "You've done lovely work on the barberry hedges, by the way. It must help that the spines are not as sharp as they seem."

#hell yeah #crack canon quartet #claudiez #sorpeli #ficlet #fic #jellyjay #delicious as always #opeli #claudia #brotp #after the war

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raayllum · 22 hours

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Absolutely drives me wild that one of rayla's first and most significant scenes is "Your Let Him Live but You've Killed Us All" given the direction this series is going

#GOD I KNOW #i need you to kill me #rayllum

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raayllum · 1 day

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No wonder he loves that toy

#tdp soren #soren #end credits #4x07 #5x02 #arc 2 #parallels

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raayllum · 1 day

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we really gotta to back to the drawing board if people are starting to think that "character a is upset and believes that character b did something wrong" means the exact same thing as "character b actually 100% did something wrong"

#fandom nonsense #'callum hasn't put other stuff above his brother'#yes. and? you think ezran is just too good too pure to ever be Unfair?

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raayllum · 1 day

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i remember seeing someone talk about how callum's design favors blue more than anyone else in katolis to show how out of place he is and that being said

wowww that ain't even subtle 💀 sticking out like a blue thumb

#i have seen speculation it's a link to sarai (bc amaya is mostly blue)#but i lean more towards it distinguishing callum's path as one that isn't decidedly royal / it's magical #+ perhaps a connection to his birth father #cause sarai is always in katolis colours so like. it's not for her #character designs #tag ramble #callum #this takes me back to idk if it was an early post s1 meta? but yeah this has been in the fandom pretty consistently #which is neat

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raayllum · 1 day

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"i let you go into the nexus alone and i knew right away i made the biggest mistake of my life. i could have lost you" 🤝 "but i became so obsessed with revenge that i risked losing the best thing i ever had: you"

#rayllum #the biggest mistake of my life. the best thing i ever had. end me #rayllum parallels #mine

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raayllum · 1 day

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you can think someone's an idiot and not hate them. anyone who doesn't understand this has never had a coworker

#sorvus

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raayllum · 1 day

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Ever since we learned in the Season 4 Discord Q&A that Queen Aanya has an adopted older brother named Grark, I've been wondering, what is his role in the story? Why give Aanya an older brother at all?

As adopted-older-sibling-to-the-monarch, Grark and Aanya's relationship is an obvious parallel to Callum and Ezran's. What if Grark was present and supportive to Aanya, to serve as a contrast to Callum, a similarly protective and devoted older brother, but one who is repeatedly missing in action when his younger sibling needs him:

Shout out to Soren for stepping into Callum's place to support Ezran in both of these examples; but particularly Soren's exhortation to Ezran that "You deserve time to do kid stuff."

I don't think it's a stretch to imagine that Ezran would feel resentful toward Callum for his serial absences (and the implied emotional unavailability), or that he might perceive that his brother is indifferent to his struggles and has abandoned him, leaving Ezran to shoulder the burdens of ruling alone.

I'm having fun imagining Ezran and Aanya trading gripes about their overbearing older brothers who treat them like little kids... and then Ezran sadly, painfully realizing that his brother hasn't been there for him like he should be, while Aanya's brother is.

Broyals angst is delicious, of course, but why let Callum and Ezran have all the fun? Because this is where Aanya and Grark's relationship could get extra interesting:

--Tales of Xadia, p. 34

The two phrases in particular that caught my eye: internal treason and isn't old enough

So, hear me out: Grark will be the protective older sibling who steps up, but eventually oversteps, in a misguided attempt to relieve Aanya of the responsibilty of the throne.

Oh yeah, political intrigue plus broyals angst? It would be SO GOOD.

#it's ezran being repeatedly let down and then more so incensed that other ppl don't value the same shit as him for me #ezran #s6 speculation #the duren royal family #broyals #s6 #arc 2 #queen aanya #neolandia and duren being Close before aanya killed their crown prince u say. woof #i think about soren being the one to run to ezran and get angry on his behalf in s4. all the damn time

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raayllum · 1 day

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