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lady-of-endless · 4 months

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One Piece fragrance/scent headcanons

Including: Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Usop, Law, Kid, Killer, Ace, Smoker, Doflamingo, Corazon, Shanks, Mihawk, Sir Crocodile, Buggy, Katakuri, Bartolomeo.

Author's Note: taking a small break from matchups to post those headcanons. I'm a perfume enthusiast and this post is very dear to me. In case you need to get a better idea of the examples, I recommend using the site fragrantica to see all the notes of each perfume. WARNING: Long post.

Monkey D Luffy

He doesn't really bother with perfume but he notices Sanji's and he likes the idea. However, Luffy would go for something that resembles some food, of course, something sweet. Gourmand perfumes work the best for him and for how affectionate he is towards everyone.

Examples:

- Milk by Commodity - The name says it all. It smells like sweet milk with an aromatic and ambery base to make it a bit more than just straight-up milk.

Roronoa Zoro

He doesn't really like the feeling of perfume on his skin when he's training or fighting. However, if he has to choose ( because Sanji told him he stinks), he'll go for something fresh, or something that grounds him that anchors him in a memory that motivates him.

Examples:

-Bleu de chanel - Fresh and woody, simple as that, great for training and slicing up some bad guys.

-Matcha Meditation by Maison Margiela OR Blue Tea by The Merchant of Venice - Those smell like a fresh blend of green tea, something that brings him a memory of his past training.

Vinsmoke Sanji

Of course, he wants to smell good, he says that perfume is a part of an outfit. Goes for attention-grabbing perfumes. However, he only puts on perfume after cooking! He needs to smell the food without any other olfactive distractions. He takes a little pride in how good he smells and he should. Also, he's the one to really pronounce the names with the right accent (If the perfumes are French).

Examples:

- Le Male by Jean Paul Gaultier - This one is popular for a reason. It's both sweet, warm and also aromatic and fresh. Plus that lavender note makes you even more drawn to the comfort of his embrace.

- Sauvage by Dior (I know everyone is tired of this one but you have to admit it smells good) - A bit more mature and serious than the first one. It's elegant with bergamot, pepper, wood, and of course, that lavender again so you won't forget his embrace.

Usopp

He wants to smell all cool and great. Can you blame him? Absolutely not. He's going to ask Nami for a recommendation.

Examples:

- Gucci Guilty pour homme - This one is edgy and unique. It's both soft from rose, orange blossom and daring from red chili pepper, salt, and cedar. He gets creative when wearing this one.

- Invictus by Paco Rabane - The name and the bottle won him. Luckily, he likes how it smells. It's much simpler than the other one. It smells fresh, marine, woody, salty.

Trafalgar D Water Law

Not a big fan of fragrances on him, much like Zoro. He thinks it's distracting because of how some smells can evoke memories and feelings. So he'll only wear a basic, masculine scent with nothing striking as unique. He just smells clean, fresh, aquatic.

Examples:

- Kenzo Pour Homme by Kenzo - Sea Water, some white florals, and then musk and vetiver. It is both clean and comforting.

- When The Rain Stops by Maison Margiela - Pretty self-explanatory, it smells like morning rain in a foggy forest. It has pink pepper in the beginning to give some spice to that, it can't be just a perfume that simple though.

Eustass Kid

Here's an interesting scent. Kid's scent usually consists of metal from his prosthetic and from fixing things in his workshop plus something fresh and spicy.

Examples:

- Luna Rossa Carbon by Prada - It's fresh enough to keep him going, metallic, and somehow spicy from the pepper. An edgy perfume. He doesn't care if others like it or not.

- La Vierge De Fer by Serge Lutens - This one is also metallic but slightly more softer because of some white florals. He might wear this when he feels a little more at ease.

Killer

He doesn't go for a bold perfume but he truly wants something unique. He's a man of action so he'll want something that will persist and will be close to his skin.

Examples:

- Phantom by Paco Rabbane - A unique creamy lavender with energizing lemon and hot woody vanilla. Simple notes that become more complex in this combination.

- Most Wanted by Azzaro - Kid got this one only because he liked how the bottle looked but he thought it was too sweet for him. He ended up passing it to Killer who liked it more.

Portgas D Ace

You already know this man smells like fire, spice, and sweetness. Besides, his skin often smells like the sun during summer, like a sunny day on the beach, I don't know how to explain it. However, someone has to teach this man how not all perfumes are all season.

Examples:

- By the fireplace by Maison Margiela - sweet and smokey. It smells like cuddling with someone right next to the fireplace, and that's how it feels when you hug him.

- Under the stars by Maison Margiela - less sweet. Leather, fresh spicy, ambery.

Smoker

He thinks he should smell like something else besides smoke from time to time. Smoker likes to have his coat smell good and he likes to put on perfume right after a shower. He goes for clean masculine fragrances but with a twist.

Examples:

- Blue Moon by Killian (God damn this one is so hot I can't) - fresh citrus, spicy ginger with vodka and musk for a clean dry down.

- Cool Water by Davidoff - It smells like sea water, fresh mint, tobacco of course, and musk again.

Doflamingo Donquixote

Of course, this devil of a man wants to smell expensive and most of all seductive. He's picky with his fragrance. Doesn't get the notion of perfume for different seasons, he'll straight up wear a heavy, sweet, scent even during summer. He doesn't care. He might have a preference for catchy names.

Examples:

- Fucking Fabulous by Tom Ford - This one is sharply aromatic at first and then gets to a seductive vanilla with leather and bitter almonds. Might be smooth and pleasing to some while headache-inducing to others.

- One Milion by Tom Ford - This one fills the room, exactly how he wants. It's a bit aggressive because of the white flowers, salt, leather, and pine. Sweet but sharp.

Rosiante Donquixote (Corazon)

He tends to go for sweeter perfumes as he wants to balance out the cigarette smell that clings to him that might be repulsive to some (not me honey). However, he wants that perfume to be a subtle one that almost gets noticed, he's in disguise after all.

Examples:

-Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford - he had to go for the same designer as his brother so as not to seem suspicious. It's simply a warm vanilla smell with notes of tobacco.

- Smoking Hot by Killian - Another smokey and sweet perfume but more complex. Its sweetness comes from fruits this time and it's accompanied by spicy cinnamon.

(also, the name is way too fitting)

Shanks

Everyone who knows Shanks will say that this man smells so damn inviting and warm. He wears something slightly sweet, just slightly, because he feels the most comfortable. Plus, of course, something boozy.

Examples:

- Angel's Share by Killian - It smells like his cognac, cinnamon, and oak, plus mouth-watering praline and vanilla. No one can resist this one

- Stronger with you by Giorgio Armani - It's like a warm hug that might turn into something more. It's warm, spicy, and sweet.

Dracule Mihawk

An elegant man with a unique taste in clothes, drinks, books, and weapons surely has a unique preference for perfumes as well. He uses something that would go along with his whole aesthetic. He leans more to floral and slightly boozy (wine) notes.

Examples:

-Bloody Wood by Liquides Imaginere - Another self-explanatory one. This is how a vampire would smell, mysterious and romantic. It has red wine, rose and violets, and sandalwood. It's so incredibly enigmatic.

- Side Effect by Initio - This one is heavy. Masculine spicy vanilla with saffron, rum, and jasmine for elegance.

Sir Crocodile

Another fine man with fine taste. Be sure that he's educated in perfumery as well. He has perfumes for different occasions. He might be the one out of all that smells the best. He likes intoxicating perfumes that aren't nauseating but plain seductive.

Examples:

- Herod by Parfums de Marly - This one smells like old money. Warm spicy cinnamon, tobacco, incense, and vanilla. Pretty heavy but so good.

- Black Orchid by Tom Ford - A truly alluring and mysterious smell. It's still warm and also earthy and woody.

Buggy

He likes to smell risky, let's say. Both are risky and alluring. He likes a tricky perfume that is sharp in the beginning and more alluring in time.

Examples:

- Ultraviolet by Paco Rabane, for men - It's an unusual mix of scents. It starts somehow fresh and aromatic from mint and then it gets spicy from pepper and in the end, you get seductive vanilla with moss. This one is clearly not for everyone but anyone can agree that it smells unique.

- Toy Boy by Moschino - This one is also a confusing scent because it starts musky and floral and then it goes into spicy wood and citrus. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

Charlotte Katakuri

To put it simple, all of his scent is concentrated on his scarf. It smells like clean musk because he often cleans it and the sugary sweetness from all those donuts he eats. It's a nice smell but a bit nauseating.

Examples:

- Vanille Fatale by Tom Ford - Sweetness with some wood in there to balance it out in case you get too close for comfort.

- Vanilla Sex by Tom Ford - Straight up smelling like a sweet spicy snack that you can't get enough of.

(its name though and Katakuri...ok I'm done talking)

Bartolomeo

He'll try to find out what each Strawhat perfume is wearing or at least copy that scent. But he only picks up those he likes. Jokes aside, he kind of likes smelling overpowering when he gets ready for a fight and warm, and sweet when being around dear ones he admires.

Examples:

- Allure Homme Sport by Chanel - for when he feels bold and ready to fight. Mandarin, mint, pepper, and in the end victorious sandalwood, cedar, musk.

- Black Phantom by Killian - For when he meets his dear ones, to be perceived as pleasant, and friendly. It's sweet but dark chocolate sweet with a bit of rum and coffee, almonds, and vetiver to balance everything.

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krscblw · 7 months

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ghoul perfume associations pt. 2 (halloween edition)!

halloween ghouls! a little bit murderous, a little bit monstrous. is the slight scent of blood from the perfume or did the ghouls just get back from a hunt? who knows.

(i thought it would be fun to make a Halloween/fall edition of the ghoul perfume list I made before, so here it is! for most of these the first scent is a little bit out there, and the second is more wearable/lighthearted.)

cw: themes of death and injury, a lot of talk about blood and murder

Aeon

Notes: clean linen, lavender, marshmallows, blood. Aeon smells clean and gentle, but that cleanliness is tinged red and metallic on the edges.

Perfumes:

Plutonian -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Soapy cleanliness sullied by blood and ashes.”

Sleepy Ghost -- Poesie Perfume

“Haunted by insomnia? Let this friendly ghost lull you to sleep with the blissful combination of marshmallow and lavender. You’ll be dreaming in no time!”

marshmallow pillows sprinkled with natural lavender essential oil and absolute for sweet dreams

Aether

Notes: amber, wood, blood. Aether smells warm and golden, resinous and a little bit spicy, like the ideal fall day spent lounging in front of the fireplace. But every so often you catch the edge of something that smells suspiciously like blood…

Perfumes:

Blood Amber -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin.”

The Dead Rise -- Poesie Perfume

“I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika. — Jonathan Harker’s journal”

dark roasted coffee beans spiked with fresh cardamom pods, cubes of brown sugar, ambroxan, cedar

Alpha

Notes: leather, smoke, spices, rot. Alpha smells aggressive and dangerous – and he is. Of all of the ghouls, Alpha is the most likely to admit to his hobby of hunting unsuspecting Abbey visitors for sport.

Perfumes:

Eau de Ghoul -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Dessicated skin coated in blackened ginger, cinnamon, and mold-flecked dirt, with cumin, bitter clove, leather, and dried blood.”

Hellfire -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“A scent celebrating Sir Francis Dashwood’s Order of the Knights of St. Francis of Wycombe, also known as the Hellfire Club. A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass.”

Cirrus

Notes: dark fruits, musk, metal. Cirrus smells alluring enough that you can almost ignore the way her nails are a little too sharp, her smile a little too wild. Her idea of flirting is offering to help you hide a body, and you’re not sure she’s joking.

Perfumes:

The Enterprise of the Night -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Inspired by the opening pages of Circle of Blood. The scent of vice and darkness: flashing neon, oil-tinged petrichor, fading perfume, smeared lipstick, and the faintest touch of gunpowder residue.”

The Witch Queen -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Wild plum, red musk, tuberose, calla lily, heliotrope, pimento, ylang ylang and beeswax beneath a dark haze of sinister purple-hued incense smoke.”

Cumulus

Notes: florals, sugar, poisonous chemicals. Cumulus smells sweet, sugary in a way that gets stuck to your gums and makes your teeth ache. She has the face – and scent – of an angel, but something about the way her eyes follow you makes you uneasy.

Perfumes:

Shelley, Byron, and Keats -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Uncompromising idealism, haunted romanticism, fatal ennui, and a heady amount of scandal and vice: red roses and pale carnation with a draught of laudanum, smears of opium tar, a hint of absinthe, and mercury ointment.”

Tiny Phantom -- Poesie Perfume

“You see it there in the glass, a tiny phantom - a glimpse of white in an otherwise dark room. But there’s no need to scream, and there’s no need to faint -- the thing in the darkness is you.”

innocent pink roses, marshmallow buttercream, pale white musk, antique mahogany

Dewdrop

Notes: dark fruits, smoke, ash. Dew smells like the remnants of a house fire that may or may not have been set on purpose. He smells like if you knew what was good for you, you wouldn’t let him out of your sight.

Perfumes:

Djinn -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Myths surrounding the Djinn paint them as many things: benevolent champions of mankind and slaves to mad sorcerers, malicious incubi / succubi and energy vampires, or malevolent harbingers of madness and disease.”

The scent of black smoke, of crackling flames, and smoldering ashes.

Silent Hill -- Spirit and Venom

“The combination of foggy air, deep fire smoke, dark pomegranate, and hints of overturned dirt and honey. Welcome to Silent Hill!”

Ifrit

Notes: black tea, brimstone, incense. Ifrit smells dark and clinging, slinky in a way that sets you on edge. He smells like going to sleep and knowing you won’t wake up.

Perfumes:

The Chapel -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“In the center of the room, a groveling figure is crouched before a woman draped in purple-black clerical robes. The woman’s eyes are filled with righteous hellfire, and she extends a hand in benediction to the man who has fallen prostrate at her feet. He murmurs, “Libera Te Ex Caelum”, and she gestures for him to rise. As he gets to his knees he winces in pain and moans in a strange expression of ecstasy, and you see small horns growing from his skull.”

Black incense, bitter wine, brimstone, bile, and blood.

Darkness -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Bottled gloom; the essence of oblivion. Blackest opium and narcissus deepened by myrrh.”

Mist

Notes: water, herbs, blood. Mist smells herbal and cold, like the transition of fall into winter. She smells a little bit sweet, a little bit metallic, a little bit dangerous. Her scent reminds you of rain so heavy and cold you can barely take a breath.

Perfumes:

Frostbite with Polar Bear Attack -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Slashes of sleet punctured by a coppery gout of blood.”

Villa Diodati -- Poesie Perfume

“A stately house on the edge of Lake Geneva, ringed by Swiss Alps so picturesque they look painted on the sky, in 1816 Villa Diodati hosted a group of travellers whose time there would forever be marked in history. As storms raged outside, in its candlelit rooms Mary Shelley conceived of her mad scientist and his iconic monster. Down the hall, poor Doctor Polidori (who was hopelessly in love with Mary and possibly Byron), was penning a little story that would inspire another little story. Bram Stoker’s Dracula. You may have heard of it.”

pungent wild rosemary and fresh balsam pine, crystal clear lakewater, dry, dark vanilla

Mountain

Notes: greenery, earth, poisonous mushrooms. Mountain smells like crushed leaves, like little brown mushrooms, like the change in the air when the calender hits October. He smells earthy and damp, as if he spent the day digging holes… for plants, of course. Right?

Perfumes:

Sinister Groundskeeper -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“A menacing figure in grassy overalls and mud-flecked boots, with a wheelbarrow full of sharp yet rust-stained implements. At least, it looks like rust…”

Clods of moist soil, crushed dandelions, and the coppery clove-tang of dried blood.

Death Cap -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“A lethal poison bundled up in a dainty, innocent little package that was oft times found in ancient witches’ flying ointments and astral projection balms. A warm, soft, ruddy scent, earthy and mild.”

Nimbus*

Notes: peach, rose, blood. Nimbus smells sweet – slightly earthy, slightly metallic – but overwhelmingly like peaches that are so ripe they fall apart in your hands. She smells like the thorn bushes that shrikes impale their prey on – but there aren’t any corpses in her garden. Probably.

Perfumes:

Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Off with her head: white roses, tea roses, climbing roses, blood red roses, and a cluster of thorns, blood-spattered and sword-sharp, with clove bud and tobacco flower.”

Astaroth -- Fantome

“Ripe peaches, pumpkin flesh over a bed of red musk, honey cakes drizzled with white chocolate, & roasted pistachios.”

*i headcanon nimbus as a earth/air multi

Omega

Notes: wood, amber, ink. Omega smells like the ghost of a once-warm sitting room. He smells like amber, like polished wood, like seeing something out of the corner of your eye and feeling watched for hours afterward.

Perfumes:

Quintessence of Dust -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“The passing: beeswax and smoke, yellowed paper and well-worn leather books, droplets of spilled ink, faded incense, blood-tinged salty tears, and the metal of the knife that skewers that illiterate zombie philistine’s portrait.”

Parlour -- Fantome

“Parlour is an atmospheric fragrance that is inspired by a 19th century Parlour at the height of the Spiritualism movement. Conjuring the dimly-lit rooms filled with dusty spirt boards, sweet wood, and magic.”

A darkly polished mahogany rapping table, spirit boards, sweet rosewood chests, burning incense, and a hint of vetiver

(i have this one and i love it sm, it's the best woody scent in my collection)

Rain

Notes: seawater, ozone. Rain smells like the ocean right before a storm: murky, almost-sweet, hair-raising. He smells like swimming in deep water and feeling something grab your ankle a little bit too tight for you to believe that it was just kelp. But it had to be, surely there isn’t anything else down there…

Perfumes:

Cthulhu -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“A creeping, wet, slithering scent, dripping with seaweed, oceanic plants and dark, unfathomable waters.”

Circe Individiosa -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Salt-spray dotting an azure cove, its waters swirling with noxious poisons and venom drawn from dreadful roots: a cascade of blackcurrant and crystalline blue-green waters infused with theriac accord, bruised henbane accord, white gardenia, pear, cedarwood, emerald mosses, tuberose, and bitter almond.”

Sunshine/Stratus**

Notes: summer fruits, spices, smoke. Sunny smells like the end of summer, right as it turns into fall. She smells like roasting marshmallows, like sticky heat, like biting into a late-summer strawberry and finding it rotten inside.

Perfumes:

Tongue Wall -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Fleshy and fruity: guava musk, slick strawberry lip gloss, and blood-tainted digestive juices.”

Zombie -- Possets

“You really need a big dose of toasted marshmallow and oude, a bit of burnt stick, and the unmistakable fragrance of the crisp autumn air. The obvious combination, wouldn't you say? Resinous and foody at the same time. Smoky, sticky fun.”

**i headcanon sunny as a fire/air multi

Swiss***

Notes: smoke, musk, patchouli, blood. Swiss smells like darkness so thick that there could be something right in front of you and you would have no idea – or maybe right behind you. He smells like earthy resin, wine the color of blood, and curling smoke. Something about his scent leaves a metallic tang in the back of your throat.

Perfumes:

Dead for Filth -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Raw Patchouli, opoponax, and a coppery dry blood exhale.”

Nosferatu -- Black Baccara

“A rustling of leaves appears before the footfalls as a group of pale vampires emerge from the autumn darkness. They bring with them the aroma of archaic earth, deep red wine, tobacco smoke, and red roses.”

dark patchouli, deep red roses, aged red wine, dirt, tobacco smoke, and fireplace embers

***i headcanon swiss as a fire/water multi

Zephyr

Notes: dust, ozone, dry rot. Zephyr smells like a house long abandoned: dusty, faintly sweet, a little bit like rotting floorboards. It’s a scent that draws you in as much as it pushes you away – like a haunted house that has become so lonely, it will do anything to make you stay.

Perfumes:

Yorick -- Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab

“Grave dirt, bone, decay, angel’s trumpet, and moldering scraps of shroud: the essence of finality.”

Attic Ghosts - Paranormal Perfumes

“Attic Ghosts is an antique, timeless Victorian mansion. The house on the hill. Flickering lights in the hallways, shadows in the windows. Footsteps. Apparitions. A locked door to the attic.”

dusty wood, chestnut, smoke whisps, vanilla absolute, orange blossom, rose petals, jasmine, vetiver

if you got this far, thank you for reading! this one was SO fun to make, i hope y'all like it too. (and as always i would love to talk more about this/hear other people's thoughts!!)

#please note the formatting is a little weird on mobile #so if there are parts that are cut off you should still be able to see them on desktop #ghost bc #the band ghost #nameless ghouls #ghoul perfume thoughts #nameless ghoulettes

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inkybinkyboink · 1 year

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@salenrooz BET YO

im a SUCKER for scent headcanons i dont even care if its weird

jimmy/saul: k so separated the two for obvious reasons. saul absolutely smells like the worst male cologne in existence. like it’s so strong to the point where it just smells like chemicals. jimmy on the other hand? idk he looks like a clean linen bastard. like it would make sense if it was like the opposite right? like i feel like he doesnt smell like anything, like he smells like fresh laundry and the nail salon he has his office in yknow?

kim: ok ok ok so. kim grew up in what im assuming to be wasn’t the super cleanest house? like pet smells, cigarette smoke, dirty dishes and takeout boxes left on the counter. and i feel like when kim grew up she wanted to become her own person and that includes the way you smell. so i feel like she smells like rose petals, the muted smell of like,,an office filled with paperwork, you know what im talking about, please you have to, and cigarette smoke, because no matter how hard she tries, a part of her will always be stuck in the past.

mike: bruh ok uh like clean laundry, but more muted??? like an old man who lives alone, and he sits in his chair all day watching movies, but he also smells like motor oil and gunpowder and soil. kaylee always thinks it’s just because he goes on hunting trips, and no one ever thinks that it could possibly be because he’s out working for a drug kingpin every day.

howard: like lavender and burts bees hand salve. please i know thats weirdly specific but i dont know what else nails the whole “living natural” more than burts bees and lavender. also slightly like chlorine. though, near the end, maybe more like restless sleep, coffee, and salt.

gus: heres the thing. it depends. i think gus has become very very good at catering himself differently depending on who he’s around. so, if he’s just “gus the los pollos restaurant owner” probably just like old spice shampoo and deodorant. simple. humble. but if he’s “gustavo fring drug kingpin visiting madrigal hq/ cartel connections” then he’s probably wearing just the right amount of cologne, like bergamot or teakwood, something citrus-y.

nacho: like motor oil and leather from working in his dad’s shop, but i feel when he’s at home or if it’s like just him it’s a lot of floral scents, mostly from the girls, but also partly his own doing. not that he uses perfume necessarily, but he’ll light a candle to get the weed smell out of the air and it’s almost always some type of flower. usually rose, or gardenia or something not too overpowering, but still nice. mostly he just smells good, but like,,,not in a comforting way, in a hot way. yknow?

lalo: it’s been like. 2 months and im not over how this bitch would smell. ive said it once and ill say it again, i have and will never meet lalo salamanca because he isn’t real, but the way he smells gives me dysphoria bc you know it’s really good and vv masculine. his grandfather used to burn palo santo because he claimed it helped with headaches. lalo never saw any merit to the claim, but he liked the smell, so when his grandfather passed away he nicked the rest of the burning wood and now his own house just kind of constantly smells like palo santo. has a tendency to use really woodsy scents when it comes to like shampoo and stuff, and he usually smells like spices or cooking oil or something. good god i love him i wanna give him a hug.

chuck: i felt bad leaving him out. chuck smells like plastic and gasoline and like,,,a library in a really weird way. im not saying its good or bad, im just saying it is. kind of probably constantly smells like somethings burning but its not. its just the wires he recklessly tore out of the wall.

bonus!

skyler white: there needed to b more women in this post ok brba and bcs are really bad for the bechdel test and it makes me mad!!! anyways, i think skyler would smell good yo! like god dude idk like she smells comforting in the same sense that your mom was comforting as a kid, and she smelled like home yknow?

lydia rodarte-quayle: the same paper scent kim has but stronger. also like herbal teas and cinnamon. and coffee. shes not one to like douse herself in perfume or whatever, but i dont think shes beyond indulging in an expensive fragrance yknow what i mean? lydia smells good but also you can tell she’s rich when she walks by you.

#better call saul #jimmy mcgill #saul goodman #kim wexler #mike ehrmantraut #howard hamlin #gustavo fring #nacho varga #lalo salamanca #chuck mcgill #skyler white #lydia rodarte quayle #better call saul headcannons

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jokerislandgirl32 · 8 months

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I read one of your character bios for Violet and it’s so funny that she uses Zach’s credit card to shop at bath and body works 😭 Does she buy anything there for him to make up for it? LOL —CCFM

Thank you for the ask, it took me forever, but here it is, and I absolutely love it!!! Now on to the question at hand!!!

She absolutely does! While Violet does purchase items for Zach, most of what she purchases for herself is for Zach’s benefit.

Read the rest below the cut! Sorry it’s long, as usual 😂!

Zach loves when she wears perfume, and she will always lets him pick the scents he likes best for her to use. So, on most of the Bath and Body Works trips he tags along or shows up because she’s taking too long. Violet uses the test strips for the fragrances, gives them to him to smell, and Zach’s very vocal about which he does and does not like. This leads to him insulting the store staff (for scents he hates) and flirting with Violet (for scents he loves).

Zach is a stickler for cleanliness, so she buys hand soap and pocket bac for both of them, Violet usually goes for more clean scents for him, but he’s also a lover of the floral and fruity scents. For hand cleaning purposes, he really likes crisp morning air, turquoise waters, sweet pea, fresh cut lilacs, and Japanese cherry blossom.

Violet buys shower gel for herself, but Zach ends up using it sometimes, so she’s bought him Sweet Pea shower gel on a few occasions, much to his displeasure….

Zach: “I never use that, why did you buy that!?!?”

Violet: “you literally used it this morning, I can smell it on you….”

Zach: “No I didn’t!”

Violet: “Do you want me to take it back?”

Zach: “….No….”

Her go to purchases for him are from the aromatherapy department. She buys him products that help him to relax and unwind after a long day of running his company, trying to outsmart the Wild Kratts, or creating his inventions.

Violet typically purchases items that are Eucalyptus + Spearmint scented to help him relax, and Lavender + Vanilla to help him fall asleep. She’ll get items with these scents in shower/bath gels, shower steamers, candles, lotions, and pillow mist.

She also buys him items from the Men’s Shop. Zach likes these items because they make him feel manly. Zach is prone to coughing at the more “robust scents,” so Violet usually keeps her purchases to the shaving and hair care items. Zach particularly likes the hair gel and beard oil, yes, he uses this only on his soul patch, don’t judge him, lol. He also likes anything in the Black Tie scent because well, it has black in the title, and that’s his color, lol.

And I’d like to end by clarifying that Violet uses his credit card for a lot of things…I kind of headcanon that Zach gave her one of his credit cards when they were still friends so she could get things she needed, prior to her getting a job, and even after when her money was tight, without having to go to her aunt or cousin for the money. Violet is not the type of person who would take advantage of this, and she usually kept her purchases to a minimum.

Even at Bath and Body Works, lol.

#wild kratts #zach varmitech #wild kratts zach #love zach varmitech #wild violet au #violet varmitech #ziolet #wild kratts fanfic #wild kratts oc #bath and body works #bath and body care #bath and body products #asks #nice asks #thanks for the ask!#f/o x s/i #self ship stuff

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not-rude-ginger · 7 months

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Hello! Just reread, "A Little Bit of Hope, A Little Bit of Hurt," again and I was wondering, can you tel us what you imagine everyone's smells to be? Just realized that I'm not quite sure on what they are, just assuming that JC smelled like grapes, WWX smelled like spices, and LWJ smelled like sandalwood.

Anyway I'm so glad your writing an omegaverse story! One of my favorite worldbuilding challenges honestly.

Edit Note: OK, so I read this query and somehow completely misread the title of my own fic - I think because my last few asks were about For What, so I was thinking about that fic when I answered this, hence why I included Jin Ling. Also probably just not fully awake.

However I think my answer still mostly stands, because I don't think scents would be easily 'this smells of bubblegum' or whatever, it would probably be pretty primal smelling, unidentifiable under the layers of whatever incense, perfume and stuff they picked up, so it would never be 'JC's real smell is X fruit or wood' it'd just be 'JC smells of JC'.

Hmm, I can't say I really thought about it that hard -- I know fiction loves a good scent, but even with my own hyper sensitive nose, I only tend to notice someone's smell when it's bad or especially strong. You need to be especially close to someone to notice their scent and usually what you're going to smell first is whatever they've been around that smells the strongest, stuck to their hair and clothes. Or you might smell their sweat - though that usually only happens as the sweat drys and bacteria get involved. Fresh sweat doesn't really have a smell. Plus there is some truth in the cliché 'and something that was uniquely them' because how their body chemistry reacts to a scent will change it subtly.

However, if I had to take a stab at it,

Jiang Cheng: Probably quite fresh and earthy, he's always surrounded by water and humidity, and fresh water like a lake full of plants has a very strong smell of both parts, the damp and the plants. It probably clings to his clothes and skin -- a petrichor scent especially when he's used Zidian. He also uses Lotus oil in his hair to keep it clean, so that would be prominent.

Wei Wuxian: He smells of spices from hanging around cooking stalls, combined with a slight sickly sweet punge from the resentful energy he uses. He'll also smell of whatever incense that LWJ was using that day.

Lan Wangji: He would likely use a very fancy hair oil to maintain his locks, so that may smell of something very light, a barely perceptible thing, but predominantly I think he would smell like agarwood, which is still an incredibly expensive incense ingredient, because he uses it a lot to air his clothes the night before. In fact he does mostly smell of incense, adding to his priestly aura.

Note: Because the Lan live in a cold place and wear so many layers, I would also think they smell of sweat more prominently than others because the sweat is trapped in the folds and can't dry out properly. However they would also be fastidious about their cleanliness so they never reach 'days old B.O.' So they would use a lot of strong incense smells to cover it up.

Jin Ling: He will also smell of agarwood often because the Jin love to flaunt their wealth, and probably he would also have access to items from other parts of the world, like frankincense, but he also might smell of something floral and delicate.

That's the best I can figure based on their lifestyles and locations.

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #jin ling #lan wangji

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annonniiiiieeeee · 1 year

Note

I just bought like 7 different scented candles and I need to know what kind of candle everyone likes. Also, who buys one kind of candle consistently, and who likes to change it up with what candles they buy?

Mikey

loves sweet candles. The type you light and the room smells like a frosting container. He loves to play with scents. He will try anything once.

Raph

Loves the earthy scents. He constantly searches for one that smells like rain. This leads to him trying a bunch of different scents.

Leo

likes florals. But he is picky about it. If it smells like a grandmas perfume, where it’s very general and not a particular flower he can’t do it. He likes the smell of hydrangeas, lavender, and roses. (He’s picky about the tips of roses as they are easy to get wrong)

Donnie

He likes clean scents. More specifically he likes on clean scent. He is someone who buys the same type of candle over and over and will burl multiple of the room ever smells wrong. His lab always smells the same. Is a lavender lemon scent. It’s clean and fresh and Leo found it when they were kids.

April

Fruity scents. When she knows Donnie is coming she uses lemon as she knows he likes it. But besides that it’s citrus fruits all the time.

Cassie

Whatever she is in the mood for. She has preferences but has never once turned down a candle. She has scents for her different moods and will change the scent daily depending on her mood.

Casey

Still learning what he likes a mix of Leo and Raph. The earth smells remind him of the safe times I. The resistance and the floral scents remind him of his life now.

The tenshu gang.

They didn’t have a lot of scented candles. They had candles but not scented. The idea of lighting one for the smell and not the light is foreign to them. But they learn quick.

Gen

Fall candles. The type that smell like pie and warmth. He is a fall boy.

Kitsune

Loves them all but has a preference for sweet smell.

Usagi

He likes Leo’s choice of florals as they remind him of home. He also like candles that smell like fruit. But instead of citrus like april he likes apple or berry scents

#a world of samurais and ninjas #asks #rise leo #leosagi #awosan miyamoto usagi #rise raph #rise donnie #rise mikey #rise april #rise cassandra #rise casey #rise brothers headcannons #awosan kitsune #awosan gen

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rexaleph · 5 days

Text

thought i was fully out of my sample of Serge Lutens De Profundis, but no, got a generous spray out of it to compare to Bas de Soie and La Religieuse. and it's so good, just as i remembered. opens very spicy green, i can really distinguish the chrysanthemum. and then it quickly becomes a sweet pollen-y lily. wet and plant-like but still distinctly a perfume, not a nature scent, sweet and attractive. i wish i hadn't sprayed it on my wrist, i need to wash dishes soon.

La Religieuse is just sweet jasmine to me, De Profundis minus the interesting elements

Bas de Soie, upon heavier application, smells strongly of clean bathroom for the first half hour, i think this is what people mean when they criticise sth as soapy. dries exquisitely delicate powdery-fresh though, and lasts and projects fairly well in that stage.

now. given that what i want is to find a soft floral perfume to own a bottle of, the choice is in fact not simply De Profundis my beloved. bc while i think i prefer the scent, Bas de Soie comes with a clear mood, the lingerie fantasy perfume literally called silk stockings. and De Profundis is not straightforwardly pretty like that. it's more sweet, sharp and effervescent, while the name and bottle are very gothic obviously. but maybe affectedly tragic and playful is actually more my version of pretty femininity and i don't need to be getting into deep silk stocking coquette drag. in the drydown they are fairly similar, De Profundis has more woody sweetness and Bas de Soie projects a laundry detergent freshness that expands fuzzily in the sinuses.

what i would like is another sample of De Profundis to wear out and see how it does maybe. but also there is ofc the price for either, unjustifiable

#perfume

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katewalker · 4 months

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hiiiii i wanna ask about delphene!! i have some general character building things i'm curious about! sorry if you've talked about it before and i missed it! what's her favourite colour? does she have a favourite perfume? would she prefer to go to an open field full of flowers, the ocean and beach, or a bustling city? what's her favourite animal - and does she relate to an animal? has she ever had pets - does she want pets? does she want a funeral - to be buried or cremated? ok that's it :D !! <3

oh thank you for the ask <3 i love talking about my short queen. every answers are pre-abduction as i have yet to play a full run with delphene and despite knowing how the game goes in general, i still need to work on how it will affect who delphene is.

surprisingly despite her hair (an accident) or her pendant made of the forgotten realms equivalent of charoite, her favorite color isn't purple but blue-green, the type you can find on chrysoscolla. why? because her grandmother was a pro at cutting and sculpting cameo this mineral.

delphene can't quite shake the perfume of her ex-fiancée from her system, which was a fresh citrus perfume with mandarin scents, very subtle, but which made her heady. delphene herself used to buy more floral perfumes, a bit heavier too, giving warm and cosy vibes, with iris or mimosa scents. she often changed between two or three perfumes, never settled on one. but that was before leaving baldur's gate, she doesn't use perfume anymore, a clean neutral scent is more than enough on the road.

she's a city girl, member of the jewellers' and merchants' guilds, baldur's gate is the only home she has ever known before and that's where she is the most confortable, but now after having seen more of the realms, she loves being near water, there's something calming for her about contemplating the vastness of water.

she doesn't really relate to any kind of animal, she likes animals like most people, but doesn't really have a favorite and if she has to give an answer she'll probably say "dog, i guess". she's a bit more weary of tentacles thingies now, to be honest. she never had pets before scratch and the owlbear (there were some cats coming and going within her familiy's shop but she never took an interest to try and keep them, they were like curious customers who end up not buying anything like many others, except they jumped and napped on the display cases), so she was a bit surprised about how you could get attached to an animal so quickly.

she never really thought about death before leaving baldur's gate, that was not in her mind at all and i think she figured her body will be put to rest in her family vault in a stone sarcophaphus put in the wall, maybe if she was lucky she'd get to be put not far from her grandma. now it's different. because she's persuaded she's going to die once she'll claim back her ancestors land and her patron will claim her soul for good. she wants to die a hero, an inspiration for the other dwarves who got kicked out from their lands thousands years ago by the gobblins. she hopes, when tales of her exploits will reach the city to be buried by her people under the lands she'd have freed, with a cairn the only indication of the duty she accomplished for her people.

#thank you so much for the ask!!! <3 #answers #illithiad #oc talk #oc: delphene

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badstargateimagines · 2 years

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I don’t know if you take requests for anything but I loved your post of the skincare/makeup products the Stargate characters would use and I need to know….what perfume/cologne do you think they would wear? Or types of scents that they’d be into? (Btw love your imagines)

Yay!!! I’m so glad you like my stuff!! Also yessss I do take requests and I would love an excuse to talk about fragrance! My credentials are I worked at Sephora for a year and a half and I spent a lot of time on the frag wall huffing every single bottle. As a general thing I’m very obsessed w genderless, warm spicy scents so that will be reflected in this post.

Jack: By The Fireplace by Replica was my gut reflex for Jack as soon as I saw this ask. I think he’d really love the woody notes and I think he’d also like it because he has the vibes of someone who smells like a campfire in general. A quick side note, I don’t think he’d wear fragrance too much and I think Normally he would smell like Gillette shaving cream. Also heads up, Replica will be over represented on this list because I love all their frags

Sam: not a perfume by Juliette has a gun. One of my personal favourite frags bc it has no base scent really it j mixes w ur body’s natural PH. I think she’d like it because it’s entirely unique to her and also because the brand name Juliette has a gun totally speaks to her

Daniel: Either Jazz Club or Coffee Break both by replica. I really think he’d go for a heavy musky scent as frags like that tend to be both timeless and classy. I think he’s definitely the type to consider names when he buys frags too, so these town seem perfect for him. Also as I’m writing this I am HUFFING Jazz Club like I’m fucking Jeremy Fragrance.

Teal’c: I desperately want him to smell like Carbon by Prada. I think he’d be super into the earthy scents but not the warm earthy. Just a nice cool kind of scent but still heavy. Overall, idk if Teal’c would be 100% into frags but this is my vision.

Janet: Chanel #5 100%. I think Janet would in general go for a light, barely there scent. It’s for that reason that I think she’d go for an eau de toilette as opposed to a full on perfume bc I think she would want it to wear off a bit quicker than normal in case she gets called into work (I’d imagine the infirmary is a scent free environment)

Jonas: THIS MAN HAS 1 MILLION FOR THE MEME!!!! I don’t think he cares about notes or anything I genuinely think that he saw a bar of gold on the Jeremy Fragrance “SEXY SWEET YUMMY” clip and just added it to cart lmao

Vala: when I first saw this ask I had so many ideas for vala that I think she would just be a fragrance addict. Like obviously Black Opium crossed my mind bc I do really think she’d like a heavier scent BUT I also thought about Miss Dior for a bit of a softer more floral moment. Then, I immediately was brought to Burberry Her for a more fruity floral. And, obviously, because she’s Vala, she would 1000% have a vast collection of Victoria’s Secret body sprays. Anyway I think she would have YSL Black Opium as her signature scent but she would be at Sephora every other weekend trying out a new roller ball.

Cam: Dior Sauvage enjoyer and not because he likes it but because it’s what he was told he should like. If I were to pick a fragrance for him, I would stay away from the warmer scents and actually go for something a bit lighter and fresher. I would probably steer him towards Gentleman by Givenchy bc I really think of him as more of a fresh and clean kind of guy as opposed to such a heavy and smell-him-before-you-see-him Sauvage type of guy. Idk I think Cam would walk into my Sephora I would also guide him to Sailing Day by Replica for that fresh goodness.

General Hammond: Tom Ford Noir Extreme. Not only can he afford it but I think he’d really like Tom Ford as a brand. General Hammond seems like he’d go for more earthy and woody scents that can air on the side of overwhelming. Also he seems like he’d like sandalwood but not know it’s called sandalwood. Unrelated I think he’d be a really good client at Sephora and we’d all love helping him. He would have a beauty insider account so he can get points for his grand daughters.

Apophis: Dior Sauvage (Derogatory). Look, to my core I am a hater towards this frag. Everything about it gives me the ick. I knew what Sauvage clients were like in the store and I knew men who wore Sauvage everyday. They were both unpleasant groups of people who bought it because Johnny Depp was the face of the line. Obviously this is a perfect pick for Apophis.

#stargate #stargate sg1 #sg1 #bad stargate imagines #daniel jackson #jack o’neill #teal'c #sam carter #jonas quinn #vala mal doran #cam mitchell #general hammond #janet fraiser #badstargatereplies

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honeyhotteoks · 1 year

Note

Hi Chai :~) Chp. 7 of tnt slapped - I enjoyed it SO much. You develop your storylines so sensitively, it's a such dream to read your writing. I know you said you it was tricky to work out how to write the time skips and connect all the threads together but honestly? I think you nailed the pacing, I wouldn't have ever been able to tell that was something you were having to wrestle with. And apart from those yungi texts (although lol, we love a bit of angst) this chapter was such good vibes.

I'm also loving how mc's relationships with wooyoung, san, seonghwa, hongjoong etc are being developed. And I especially love when you drop in characters' scents. You always drop it in when the relationship dynamic between mc and the character in question shifts a bit... when it gets more intimate - and it's such a lovely touch. Mingi's cocoa and cinnamon, yunho's warm rain and cedar - and in this chapter, seonghwa's freshly brewed coffee and woo's fresh linen and summer salt... *Chef's kiss*

I can't even lie, it kinda makes me a bit emo thinking about how well you craft your stories and how much care you put into them - like it really really shows. And I know you've said it's been stressful for you recently with life/work stuff, so to put yet another banger of a chapter out into the world despite all of that is pretty incredible. I hope you're so so proud of yourself and that you're giving yourself lots of good rest. <3 <3

-☁️ anon (if that isn't already taken xxx)

oh my goodness hello ☁️ anon 😭 this was so sweet of you, the whole review, thank you SO much

i really appreciate your note on the pacing because that's something i'm so concerned about with this fic. as much as i love these characters, i'm trying not to write 35 chapters of this.... so sometimes i worry that i'm rushing or things won't feel earned, and it means a lot that you noticed that in this chapter. thank you for saying so!

also yes the scents is so fun!! i really take my time thinking about them to figure it out, and also use some inspiration from what the boys have said before or things about their personality that might match. for mingi, i picture him having a bit of a sweet tooth so i think that was a natural fit. for yunho, he's been described as having a clean scent, and when i think clean comfort i think of rain. for seonghwa, he uses black opium for perfume and one of the notes in that is coffee so i used that as a jumping off point. for wooyoung.... i'm not sure what perfume he's using now but omegas scents are typically more sweet and less rich, but it didn't feel right to describe him as having a candy scent? so i thought about what about wooyoung comforts me or might comfort y/n, and i just thought about that warm feeling you get after a long day on the beach when you need a nap and what that kind of smells like and feels like, so that's where his scent comes from.

for y/n.... she smells a little different depending on who she's with. for yunho and mingi she has this rich honey scent with floral/herbal notes like chamomile. but as you'll see described in a future chapter, for hwa, woo, and san, the honey is present but it's more like a baked good for them? sugary, vanilla notes, flour, honey, etc.

a lot of my readers for this fic are new to omegaverse, but something interesting that you'll see is that omegas scents change when they are pregnant. i'm not planning on writing that into this story, but typically when an omegas scent changes to something more creamy or milky, that's an indication that they're pregnant. when i was deciding her scent, i wanted something that would be complimentary for that if i ever did take the story in that direction, so for her, in the future she would get the scent of sweet cream added to those honey notes.

anyways thank you so much! i just thought this might be interesting, i don't think i've ever talked about how i determined their scents before and your ask seemed like the perfect opportunity 😊

#answered anon #☁️ anon #this night together ask

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tenspontaneite · 2 years

Text

Boundless (Chapter 4/?)

In which lessons are had, Nyx officially calls off the con, and Callum gets ‘kidnapped’ by old people to talk about his feelings.

(Chapter length: 6.3k. Ao3 link)

---

The lesson was…informative.

Nyx laid out the broken ambler feathers, and extracted a small bottle from the pouch she’d withdrawn. “D’you know if you have an oil gland?”

“A…what?” Callum had obligingly sat down in front of her, Rayla lingering nearby, leaning against the edge of the saddle.

Nyx lifted one wing to demonstrate, and poked herself in the wing-armpit. Or…wingpit? It was a spot near to its base on the underside at any rate, amidst the shorter feathers there. She squished her finger around like she was searching for something, then withdrew it.

Her fingertip was…oily-looking. He stared, not sure whether to be fascinated or grossed out.

“Oil gland,” she repeated, matter-of-fact. “Birds have ‘em on their arses. All told I’m glad we Skywings have them somewhere less weird. Better hope you’re as lucky, eh? Anyway, we need this for preening our feathers. Keeps ‘em healthy, clean, waterproof, whatever. If you’re not preening your feathers will get messed up something proper.”

“You oil feathers?” Callum asked, now very sure that he was fascinated. He leaned in.

“Sure.” Nyx looked very matter-of-fact. “You ever see birds tidying their feathers with their beaks? That’s preening. They pick up the oil with their beaks and then spread it on the feathers.” She shrugged, spread the oil over her first few fingertips, then reached for her own wing. He watched with great interest as she zipped her finger and thumb along the length of one long flight feather, its filaments rippling beneath her fingers. “Glad I get to use my hands. Imagine trying to preen these bastards with your face. Be there all day.”

“I’m surprised you’re not already there all day,” Rayla muttered, reluctantly interested as she spectated from the side. “That’s a lot of feathers.”

“Even more for the wingling here,” Nyx claimed, glancing at his wings. “His wings’re looking bloody big already. I’ve seen Skywings with the same size, but only just. If they’re still growing…” She shrugged. “Going to be a lot of work. That’s the price of being wingborn, eh? Or. Not born, in this case.”

“Ugh,” said Callum, who thought that the way he grew his wings ought to be the entire price of having them, honestly.

“Just in case you don’t have your own oil, though…” Nyx tapped the little bottle. “People make custom wing-oils. Usually they come with nice smells and what-have-you. You can practice with some of this one. Go on.”

“Er.” Hesitantly, he took the tiny bottle and uncorked it, lifting it to his face for a hesitant sniff. It was quite a weak scent, actually. Nothing like a perfume. He couldn’t quite identify what kind of smell it was, floral or woody or anything, but it smelled pleasantly fresh. “What is it?”

Nyx squinted. “Jasmine and something and something else, can’t remember. It’s my least favourite one, anyway.”

“Least favourite enough to trade it?” Rayla asked archly, lifting an eyebrow.

The Skywing grinned. “I could be convinced. What you offering?”

Rayla glanced at Callum questioningly. He frowned, then thought. “Uh. I guess I don’t need my jacket anymore, either? No way I can wear it now.”

“…Oh, now it makes sense why you were wearing that shirt,” Nyx realised aloud. “I just thought you’d been caught somewhere without your proper clothes and had to make the best. But no, you’re actually going to need a whole new bloody wardrobe now, aren’t you?”

Callum winced. He hadn’t considered that, and the thought hurt more than he’d expected. When he went home…nothing would fit. All of his old, comfiest, most familiar clothes were essentially lost to him now. He’d need to have all his undershirts and shirts and jackets and coats and cloaks specifically tailored for his wings for…well, forever, probably. Unless he did something drastic like getting them amputated, and…already, the thought of that felt sickening.

It hadn’t, a day ago. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“…I suddenly feel so sorry for the tailor back home,” he reflected, determinedly putting his internal conflicts aside. He went for his bag and extracted the jacket, oddly sad at the prospect of letting it go. It’d been his favourite for so long now. The colours felt like they were his, the blue a part of him in some way he couldn’t quite put to words.

But, he supposed, he could always get something like it in the future. Something that was actually made for wings. He thought of what Nyx had said about not even knowing what colour his feathers would be, and felt weird about that too. What if they were yellow or green or something, and the tailors made him completely change his wardrobe so his clothes wouldn’t look weird with them? He liked wearing blue. He didn’t want to have to give that up.

He tried not to think about that. The exchange of jacket-for-bottle went smoothly, and then the lesson resumed.

“It can help to wear finger-caps, for this,” Nyx was saying, demonstrating barehanded on her own wings. “Or hard-finger gloves. But bare hands work alright as long as you don’t use too much oil.” She dug in around the bases of her flight feathers, angling the wing so he could see the long shafts of the feathers disappearing into her skin, though wreathed all around by smaller downy plumes. “Make sure to keep the skin clean, yeah? You can do that in a bath or shower. Lots of stuff can get caught in there. Bits of feather, skin-flakes, dust, you name it. Keep it clean or it feels disgusting and you can get feather-lice, and you don’t want that, trust me.”

“Sure,” Callum agreed, and after a moment reached for the ambler feathers she’d probably intended as practice targets. “Sounds gross. Cleaning feathers, I mean.”

“No worse than cleaning hair,” Nyx claimed. “Just takes a bloody long time. Just – keep in mind, if you get your feathers soaked or soapy, you need to preen them all later when they’re dried, and it’s an arseache. ‘specially since if you go too fast you can mess up the feathers. Slowly does it, alright? The idea is to get rid of any ragged edges on the feathers, make all the filaments line up neat and tidy.” Again, she demonstrated on her own wing, tidying up the leading edge of a long tapered flight feather. “Give it a go.”

Obligingly, Callum tried it. The ambler feather was gigantic, and the shaft bent down its length, and the filaments dramatically askew. It took him a few tries to get the hang of how to pull his fingers along the edges to make them all zip together right; it was considerably easier once he started using his fingernails. That would be the reason for the finger-caps, he supposed.

“You’re getting it,” Nyx approved. “It should feel pretty instinctive on your own feathers, once they’re grown in. Or, well, it would if you were an elf. Dunno about on humans. Must do though, right? I’ve seen yours moving the normal ways for your moods and whatnot. Mind you…” She leaned over and peered. “They’re all the way up there, aren’t they. How flexible are you?”

“What?” He hadn’t been expecting that.

“Can you reach behind you well enough to preen your shoulder-feathers?” She elaborated, and then it made sense.

“Oh.” He tried to touch his wing-shoulders; first from above, which failed, then from below. “Kind of?” It was really uncomfortable, though. He could barely reach.

Nyx inspected him, shrugged, and said “Looks like you’d manage it eventually, if you had to. But…” A sharp grin pulled at her mouth, and she turned to the side. “You, Moonshadow girl, get down here. I think you’d better learn this too, yeah?”

Rayla startled. She’d just been watching silently, leaning at the saddleside, but now she was blinking to alertness again. “What?”

“You heard me. Thought I saw you touching his wings earlier, right?” Nyx waggled her eyebrows at that, almost leering, like she thought the detail was particularly salacious. Callum flushed red and wasn’t even sure why. “So. It’s a free lesson, take it or leave it.”

She lingered distrustfully, arms folded, as though trying to discern a catch or a trick in the words. Her eyes flickered to Callum’s undoubtedly pathetic-looking spiky wings, then down to the broken ambler feathers. She sighed. “Fine,” she said in the end, and sat down by his side. Some tension in his shoulders that he’d not even noticed just…slipped away, at having her there.

He glanced at her. She was still looking very…closed-off, though. Quiet and unhappy. Trying for humour, he nudged her in the side. “Hey, at least feathers are probably less trouble than cutting my back open, right?”

Rayla huffed, bleakly amused, at the same time as Nyx made a face at them. “Well. Cutting your back open was probably faster than wing-preening, at least.”

“Messier, though.” He thought there was still blood in the hems of his pants, though thankfully the fabric was too dark for it to show very well. “Feathers shouldn’t bleed everywhere.”

“Stars, I hope so,” Rayla muttered.

“…As much as I love hearing all about where those wings came from, gotta correct you there,” Nyx said, and both of them turned to her with dismay. “Your feathers are full of blood right now, actually. See how they’re all dark, ‘specially at the bases?”

Callum moved a wing forwards to stare at it. “I thought that was just how they were coloured?” The shafts of his feathers were mostly a dark brown-grey now, nearly black, though they’d started pretty translucent. The third layer, still short and poky, hadn’t darkened up yet; those were just as colourless as the rest had been in the beginning.

Nyx peered over. “Yeah, a bit. Think you’re just going to have dark feather-shafts, like me. But no, there’s blood in those. Always is, in growing feathers. You can tell where there’s blood supply because it’s stupid sensitive and looks kind of blue at the bottom. Don’t break growing feathers. They’ll bleed like nobody’s business.”

With that, she went off into a short but harrowing guide to dealing with broken blood feathers. In short: don’t pull them unless you’re an experienced wing-doctor, or you could permanently damage the follicle (“The thing the feather grows from, on your wing? Blimey you really don’t know anything, do you. Do you even know what a primary is?”), and the best thing to do was to stop the bleeding with powder or adhesive or whatever you had to hand.

“So don’t go breaking any, alright? Once they’re done growing the blood will come out and then if you end up breaking or pulling one it’s fine,” Nyx concluded, glancing at Callum’s wings. And then the lesson just…kept going.

On feather growth: “The feather shafts will grow to their full proper length with a sort of flaky sheath around ‘em. Once they’re done, the feather filaments start growing out at the ends, and it looks bloody stupid, let me tell you. Like a tassel on a stick. But then they’ll start pushing outwards back down the feather – scratch the sheath off or get someone else to do it, it’ll make it go a lot easier. And then you have a done feather. Er. What else?”

On usual timescales: “Normally a big feather takes a few weeks to a month to finish up, but who even knows with yours, those look like they’ve grown even while we’ve been sitting here. Pretty handy, honestly – the rest of us need to be stupid careful during a moult or we can mess our wings up good and proper, but you’re probably not going to be dealing with that for longer than a week. Lucky bastard.”

On wing and feather anatomy: “The shaft is called the shaft, the full feathery bit is called the vane, done. Now these:” She demonstrated the big flight feathers that grew from her wing hand, then pointed to their bare spiky equivalents on Callum’s wings – the nine feather-shafts growing out from his longest wing digit. “Primaries. These:” She indicated the next group, arranged along the wing’s ‘wrist’. “Secondaries. These…”

“Tertiaries?” Callum guessed, as she indicated the elbow-to-shoulder group.

She grinned. “Depends who you ask. Some’ll tell you those are technically secondaries too. But yeah, tertiaries. Lots of winged things don’t have much past the elbow at all, you know? Don’t need it – they usually fly with their elbows tucked to their bodies, but ours go right out. So.”

Feathers growing from the wing shoulders were called scapulars, and axillaries from the wing armpits. The second row of large-ish feathers growing over the flights were coverts. The small rounded feathers that covered the rest of the wings were also technically coverts, but elves tended to call theirs contours just for easy differentiation. There were a few other types whose purposes ranged from sensory to insulation, but their names started to blur together into nonsense. He already regretted not taking notes.

And then, finally: “Well, that’s probably all you need to know about that,” Nyx announced. “So, preening practice now, yeah?” She pushed some feathers at Rayla and continued the demonstration.

Rayla took them, tilting her head consideringly. Then she dipped her fingertips in oil and gave it a go.

Ten minutes or so later, their Skywing tutor pronounced them ‘ready to deal with wings’. Callum, who could by now feel the steady pulse of blood at the base of every growing feather, wished that he could believe it was true.

---

Immediately after concluding their lesson, Nyx disappeared up to the ambler’s head again, saying “Going to take a kip. We’ll get to the Wonderwall in a few hours, aight? Just – sit around and preen and daydream or whatever.”

Without the lesson to occupy her, Rayla returned to quietly brooding over her thoughts. Callum sighed, and coaxed the shadowpaw over to practice preening his dorsal feathers. The giant dogcat-creature seemed to thoroughly enjoy the attention, producing a rolling, rumbling purr so loud that it seemed to make the whole saddle vibrate. Silently, disdainfully, the moonstrider came close, deliberately turning her feathers to him and then pretending that it was a complete coincidence. He preened her feathers, too.

In the space of three hours, his primary and secondary blood feathers grew from the length of his wrist to longer than his entire arm. He tried, and failed, not to feel unsettled about that.

---

When they arrived at the towering circle of obelisks around the oasis, it was unnervingly quiet. There were bugs, and small birds, but – there were tents out there by the water, little huts here and there, but no sign of people whatsoever.

Until Nyx stood atop the ambler’s back and yelled “Oi! The con’s off, you can all stop hiding!”

There was a moment of silence, and then an elven face poked out of one of the tents. “What do you mean the con’s off?”

Rayla winced at the volume as Nyx and a couple other elves (all wingless, Callum noted) yelled back and forth, all the while they dismounted via the ambler’s tail and threw supplies around. “Here, bedroll,” she said, a little distractedly, clearly about to fly off and confer with what had apparently been hidden accomplices. “That’s a double. You only need one, right?” She stalled at the surprised, indignant noise Rayla made, staring back inquisitively. “What? You’re preening his wings, aren’t you?” The way she emphasised those words, eyebrows raised, made it sound more of a euphemism than just a fact. Like it meant that – like it meant-

It did take Callum a second to get what she was implying. Only a second, though. “That’s – we’re not-“ He attempted, utterly red-faced, but Nyx was already dumping the bedroll at their feet.

“Yeah whatever, I really don’t give a toss, just take it,” she said, already lifting her wings in preparation for flight.

“Nykantia!” yelled one of the voices from across the oasis.

Nyx rolled her eyes; in a single wingbeat she was several metres from the sands. “I’m coming already, hold your amblers!”

Callum and Rayla stood silently in place. Zym nosed at the dropped bedroll and chirred inquisitively.

“Er,” Callum said, face feeling distinctly hot. “Er. Should I – should we try to – er.”

Rayla’s shoulders hunched. “…It’s fine,” she muttered.

“But if you don’t-“

“It’s fine. I don’t care.” Those words were bitten out, prickly and acerbic. Callum fell silent; Rayla went over to tend to the moon-mounts.

Eventually Nyx returned alone. Whatever discussion she’d had with the other oasis occupants apparently hadn’t prompted any investigations, and all the shouting people stayed in their distant tents, now gone silent again. “Originally I was going to sleep down here, ‘stead of on Naïmi,” she said cheerfully. “Would’ve made it a lot easier to grab the little prince. But bugger that now, so I’m going up. See you in the morning, yeah?” With that, she took wing and flapped straight for the ambler’s saddle.

“…Do you think she might still be planning something?” Callum asked Rayla, under his breath, once she was gone.

She shook her head. “I heard her talking with those other elves. Unless she was passing signals somehow…she’s telling the truth, now.”

“Oh.”

“Apparently someone’s first fledge is a big deal, for these people,” she said, glancing his way. For a moment, something that almost looked like a smile twitched at the edges of her lips. “So…good job, Callum. Seems your wings saved us a lot of trouble.”

“Well, glad they’re good for something,” he offered ruefully, glancing at them in the corners of his eyes. They were…well, they were ugly. They looked terrible and, increasingly, they hurt. The least they could do was elicit some sort of weird cultural sympathy in the formerly-hostile natives.

He hoped, kind of, that Rayla would take the opening. Ask how they were feeling. Ask if they were any easier to move, now. But, as much as she’d kept fastidiously on top of their developments over the last days, she didn’t seem to have the energy tonight. Instead she exhaled, very quietly, and said “Let’s just go to bed. In the morning…” She clutched at the moon-opal pendant, eyes distant. “In the morning, we can move on.”

Heart sinking, he nodded, and they took Zym over to a good corner and set themselves up in the sands.

Getting into the same bedroll probably would’ve been a lot more awkward if she wasn’t so obviously depressed. It was still awkward, though…and it only took a brief, painful brush of his feather-shafts against the fabric for him to immediately abandon the idea of getting them under the covers. So: the wings stayed out.

In the chill desert air, the downy baby fuzz wasn’t quite enough to keep them from feeling cold. Inside the bedroll, though…he settled beside Rayla, and that was very warm indeed.

---

When Rayla started crying quietly to herself in the middle of the night, Callum woke. Of course he did.

She shook off his attempts at comfort. She shook off the bedroll. She ran, and he couldn’t think of anything but following straight after her. Things…kind of…went from there.

In the aftermath, Callum stared after her with his face hot and his lips tingling and an overwhelming awareness of how much he’d messed up. He followed Rayla back as far as the abandoned bedroll, where Zym was still sleeping, and then couldn’t quite imagine getting back in and just…going to sleep again. Instead he turned and wandered away, hardly even aware of where he was going, until he tripped over some kind of rope and narrowly avoided snapping several blood feathers on the way down.

When he looked up, hands scrabbling in sand, he discovered…a tent. A tent with two worn, wrinkled Skywing faces peering out at him.

“Oh,” he squeaked, and then “Sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you, I was just – I didn’t look where I was going?”

Both of them, resembling nothing more than the most ancient grandmothers he’d ever seen, stared at him inscrutably. Then the one on the left receded back into the tent, and the one on the right remained, speaking in a thickly-accented voice. “…You are Nykantia’s strange human. The one who travels with ke agilatavin.”

“Er.” He eyed them desperately, then pushed himself up. “I don’t – agilawhat?”

“The child dragon,” they said.

“Oh. Yeah, that’s. Yeah.”

The old Skywing stared at him for a few long moments. “You are upset.”

He blinked, and immediately tried to wave it off. “What, me? Pssh, no. No, I’m fine.”

“You will come in and talk about it with this one,” they said, matter-of-fact, and held the tent flap open beside them as if in invitation.

Callum wondered, faintly, if he was being kidnapped. “Er. I’m fine? Thanks?”

“You will come in and talk about it,” they repeated, immovable.

He looked at the elf. The elf looked implacably back at him. They didn’t seem threatening. “Yeah, okay.”

Within moments, he was ensconced in the cosy shadows of the tent. The other old person was sitting on a bedroll, sewing by the light of of a tiny lantern hung from a hook on the tent’s frame. They utterly ignored Callum, but didn’t protest his presence either.

The elf who’d invited him in didn’t bother introducing themself, but watched him as he awkwardly settled his wings as he sat on the ground-sheet, having to angle them uncomfortably outwards so the feather-shafts didn’t poke against the ground. He wasn’t sure how long they were now, and…wasn’t sure he wanted to check, honestly. “Look at you,” the elf said eventually, almost pityingly. “Meuavisa. Pitiful young thing, not even knowing how to hold his wings.” Despite the words, he noticed that they didn’t have any wings. Neither of them did. None of the Skywing elves he’d seen aside from Nyx were winged at all, and he wasn’t sure what that meant.

His shoulders hunched a little. “…In my defence, I’ve only had them a few days.”

Neither elf looked surprised. Either Nyx had told them, or they just weren’t easily startled. “Miraculous,” proclaimed the elf. On their bedroll, not looking up from their sewing, the other elf nodded to themself, as though agreeing. “Sacred. Such a fast bloom of Ke-Iharat’s blessing, on one whose kind has never known it. You are a special little creature, so I will help you. Tell me what is the matter. Tell me what separates you from your foreign love tonight.”

His face burned. “I’m not – she’s not – it’s not like that!”

Patiently, the old elf stared back, waiting.

He fiddled with his fingers. “Or…maybe it is?”

“Tell me about it, vina,” invited the elf. “What troubles you?”

Callum lifted his hands to his face. Was he really going to talk about his romantic screw-ups with an old Skywing elf whose name he didn’t even know? …Apparently, yes; he could feel the words bubbling up in his chest.

“I don’t know!” He bemoaned at last, throwing up his hands. “I just – I messed up? I – I don’t know.”

“Perhaps start from the beginning,” they suggested, while the other one muttered something quietly in another language and passed over a small bottle. They took it with aplomb, not even looking.

He sighed. “I don’t even know your names.”

The old Skywing didn’t look amused, because there was almost no trace of emotion on their face at all, as though time and wind had worn everything away. Their voice hinted at humour, though. “Will you find it easier to speak, knowing?”

“…Yes?”

They nodded, regal, and uncapped the bottle, reaching for a slim paintbrush to dip it inside. He was momentarily distracted by thoughts of art, eyes keen on the brush as it was withdrawn, tip coated in something silver-white that didn’t look thick enough to be paint. “Then I am named Batese. This one beside us is Iykani.” They fell silent again, waiting expectantly.

It did help a little. He sighed, staring up at the flickering patterns of light on the canopy of the tent. “I…I don’t know. Things have been kind of crazy lately. Like, four days ago I didn’t have wings, and now…” He waved expressively towards the limbs that, even now, he could feel on his back. They were so sensitive now. The pins-and-needles and numbness of before were almost completely gone, and now it was all tender feather-roots and new skin.

“That is very fast,” Batese agreed, and reached out unhesitatingly to take his hand.

He blinked rapidly, caught off-guard. “Er?” His hand twitched against the instinctive urge to snatch it back, but he held warily still, waiting to see what they’d do. Pull off his glove, apparently. His hand twitched with alarm.

“Peace, velavin. It is only the blessing,” they said, and with that set the paintbrush to his skin. He stared, bewildered, as without any warning or explanation whatsoever the elderly Skywing started painting strange, looping designs up his hand. The ink or dye or whatever was a solid, opaque white that seemed to glow before settling into his skin.

Callum stared, baffled. He considered whether or not to ask. In the end, he just sort of…shrugged, went with it, and conceded to the confused jumble of thoughts that were still clamouring at his tongue. “Right. So…um…me and Rayla have been travelling for a while, now? And…and we’ve got pretty close. But something bad happened to her the other day, and she’s been upset about it ever since, and she wasn’t talking about it but…”

“We heard it, yes,” Batese said with perfect equanimity. “Over by the water. Too far to hear the words; we are not like her kind, with their keen ears to hear everything spoken upon the air. But the voices. There was weeping.”

He hadn’t considered that anyone might’ve heard, and flushed. “Uh. Yeah.” He stared at his arm as the old elf carefully painted up along it, now drawing what looked like the stylised edge of a wing on his forearm. It was…pretty, actually. Oddly soothing to watch. “Um. So, I was just…trying to make her feel better, you know? But…” He stopped, abruptly aware of how strange it was to be talking about this with someone he didn’t even know.

The elf didn’t prompt him to continue, just…kept painting. They wrote strange foreign runes at the edges of the designs, so tiny he had no idea how they managed it with such a large brush. Eventually the brush stalled at the leading edge of one of the poncho’s folds, and they tugged at it. “Remove this, velavin. I must reach your shoulder.”

He hesitated, and found himself unwilling to obey that without some explanation. “…What are you painting? And…why?”

“It is the pattern and blessing for the blooming of wings,” they said, matter-of-fact. “All kinds here whose wings bloom, have their ways to honour it. It is a rare gift; so few of us are born in such favour with the Sky, and it must be honoured. But you are human. Your people have no ways to honour your great blessing. It is only worthy that I give you ours.” Again, they tugged gently at the fabric. “Remove this?”

Callum swallowed; abruptly, there was a lump in his throat. His eyes prickled with sudden emotion. “I…yeah. Okay.” He reached with suddenly-unsteady hands to unfasten the buttons and unwind the poncho until it was in a heap at his lap, and he was wearing only the backless undershirt. Batese kept painting as if there had been no interruption, and silence fell within the tent’s confines. They didn’t ask him to keep speaking.

He did, though.

“…We’re not…together, like that,” he tried to explain, after a few minutes of silence, watching the white patterns loop across his skin. “Me and Rayla, I mean. We’re good friends – best friends, but. Not like that.”

Batese hummed. “Nykantia had implied that you were lovers.”

“Well, she was wrong.” Callum would’ve folded his arms, but one of them was being painted on. He cleared his throat. “Well. Maybe.”

The silence seemed very expectant, then.

He sighed. Might as well just say it. “She kissed me,” he bemoaned, and it was weirdly relieving to say it out loud when it had been buzzing loudly around the interior of his skull for the last however-many minutes since it happened. It all came out in a rush, after that: “But I was so surprised, I didn’t – I didn’t do anything, and now she thinks I don’t feel the same way and she’s upset and I don’t know what to do.”

There was a huff from the elf painting him; an amused snort from the one sewing on their bedroll. “So you do feel as she does, no? If you say it like this.”

Callum blinked, then thought about what he’d actually said. Now she thinks I don’t feel the same way… “Uh.” His face went red. “Maybe? I don’t know! I haven’t – really thought about it!”

Except…that wasn’t really true, was it?

“Velavin,” Batese spoke, almost affectionately. “Meuavin. Poor creature. All aswept in your first love.” Iykani said something as well, but in that strange other language, voice warm and creaking like an old tree. His cheeks burned, not even knowing what it meant. “Think of it now, then.”

He groaned, both sets of shoulders hunching at once. “Do I have to?” He asked, plaintively.

“Yes,” the elf said. “One must know what is painted on his skin.”

It was a weird phrase, and Callum suspected a bad translation was afoot. He glanced at what was actually currently being painted on his skin, but doubted it was relevant, since that was supposedly about his fledging wings.

He kind of understood what the elf was getting at, though, if vaguely. So he followed the old Skywing elf’s wisdom and actually thought about his feelings for Rayla for once.

It really didn’t take long for him to reach a conclusion.

Batese seemed to notice. “Well?” They prodded, while actually prodding him around to take his other arm, apparently done with painting the first.

He sighed, finding himself embarrassed but…happy, too. There was a flutter in his chest that made a lot more sense now. “I think I’ve been kind of stupid.”

“Children often are,” said Batese, matter-of-fact. “It is a part of growing. Do not worry on it.”

“…Thanks?”

They patted him on the hand, then went back to painting. “You will sit here until I have finished your blessing, and then you will go to find your love.”

Helplessly, a smile slipped onto his face. “…Okay.”

---

The full ‘blessing’ was painted with astonishing symmetry up both of his arms, over his shoulders, and then down across his upper back to loop around the bases of his wings. “It is strange, painting the pattern for one whose wings are so high on the back,” Batese commented, dryly. “I have never had to adapt the design like this.” In order to have room for some of the writing, they trailed down a little way from the wing-shoulders, with the longest lines reaching his mid-back.

“What does it look like?” He asked, when it was done, and Iykani fetched two palm-sized mirrors. Batese obligingly held one in place while he angled the other one in his hand to see.

The stylised feathers and wings were everywhere in the design, but also spiralling patterns that reminded him of the aspiro rune. Beneath his wing-shoulders, the last of each of those swirling patterns terminated in an elegant, curling line; one on each side.

“It is a blessing in the name of Ke-Iharat,” Batese told him while he looked. “It-that-breathes. The Sky. The writing says: Ke-Iharat blesses you. Ke-Iharat breathes in you. Ke-Iharat rises beneath your wings.” They sat back, eyes gentle. “This pattern, in full or in piece, is yours to wear for however long you wish, for as long as you breathe. Yours, velakan; you are not my kind, but your wings are sacred. The breath of the Sky fills them, knows them, lifts you high. They are to be cherished.”

Unexpectedly moved by the words, Callum blinked rapidly. He kind of wanted to hug this weird elf. He refrained, though. He didn’t know what that would mean in their unknown culture. “That. Um. Thank you. That…means a lot.” And it did. He wasn’t really sure why, right now, and didn’t really have time to unpack it, but…

“It is only honourable,” Batese said, expression faintly satisfied. “Go then, blessed in your wings. Speak to your beloved.”

Beside them, Iykani said something, again in that other tongue.

Batese nodded, and translated: “’It is worthy and fitting to celebrate new love at the time when your wings bloom.’ A good thing, yes. A time of new things, new beginnings. Go.”

Embarrassed just as if he’d been teased by an old beloved family member, and dangerously close to crying, Callum went.

---

Up until he actually saw Rayla, Callum was feeling emotional and earnest and like he might burst with sappy feelings at any moment. Once he saw her, he was still feeling emotional and earnest and ready to burst with sappy feelings, but in a considerably more awkward way. A very pronounced affliction of nerves materialised and lovingly draped itself all over him.

Rayla was sitting slumped back against the shadowpaw’s side, white hair spilling like a halo around her head, sharply contrasted against the animal’s dark fur. Zym, nearby, was curled up deep asleep between the creature’s great saurian paws.

She looked up at the sound of his approach, then sat straight up. “Callum,” she greeted, and looked relieved. “Where have you been?” Then: “What’s with the arms?”

It somehow hadn’t occurred to him that she’d be concerned at his absence. “Oh, er,” he attempted. “I, uh, ran into some Skywing elves?” He extended his arms to display them. “This is some kind of…blessing for fledging wings, apparently?”

“Oh. That’s…nice?” Rayla offered. In the next second, with the worry dispelled, she abruptly seemed to remember their most recent interaction. Her shoulders went tense, her posture defensive, and she averted her eyes from his.

“Er,” Callum tried, suddenly not at all sure of what to say. Even that awkward attempt at talking seemed to pain her, and she turned fully away, looking ready to collapse back into the shadowpaw.

“Don’t,” she said, tightly, hand settling in the animal’s dorsal feathers. “Don’t say anything. Just take the bedroll, alright? You can sleep ‘til morning.”

“Er,” he said again, all at once much more sure of what to do. What he wanted to do. “I, think I do want to say something, actually? Just…” He saw her glance towards him, so briefly he might have imagined it, then shook his head. Something warm and fond fluttered in his chest at the sight of her, all prickly and defensive, so very Rayla that he couldn’t help but love her more.

He smiled, and closed the distance between them in a few confident strides. She looked up at him, wary. He extended a hand, its skin newly-patterned with the sweeping lines of his wing blessing, and she just…looked at it. “…What?”

“Come with me?” She hesitated, uncertain. “Please?”

She looked at him for a long moment, then sighed. She took his hand, and allowed him to pull her up. He beamed at her, watching as she flushed and looked away from his face again, shoulders hunching. So, she was feeling awkward and tense still. That was fine. He held her hand in his and led her away. “Where…?” she tried, voice as terse as the rest of her, but didn’t finish the question. It was pretty obvious, after that second, where they were going.

He led her back to the same water’s edge she’d retreated to earlier, stopped with his feet just where they were before, and appreciated the beauty of the surroundings in a way he’d been too busy for the first time. The lights of the desert flowers and the glowing motes in the air were brilliant on her skin, casting a dozen colours into her hair, reflecting softly on her wary eyes as they glanced around. He didn’t let go of her hand.

“Callum, what-“ she started to say, then finally looked at him. He was smiling at her, and the sight of it seemed to have struck her silent.

“This is what I should’ve done,” he said, and leaned in to kiss her.

She didn’t try to push him away, or retreat. Tentatively, her fingers laced between his own. In the moment he drew back, she was staring at him, cheeks flushed and eyes wide. “Callum…” She murmured, still hesitant, like she suspected a trick.

The reality of kissing her caught up with him then, along with his nerves. He blushed to match her. “You just kind of surprised me earlier,” he offered, self-conscious. “I wasn’t – I didn’t mean I didn’t want-“ He cut himself off, abruptly flustered. “…I like you,” he confessed, finally. “I like you a lot.”

A smile fluttered tentatively over her lips. There was a beautiful lightness in her eyes. “Callum,” she said again, exasperated and warm at the same time. He could almost hear the relieved, half-chiding words she didn’t speak, asking why he couldn’t have figured that out before he went and made her think she’d royally messed up. She opened her mouth as if to actually say it, then shook her head at him instead, the smile widening on her face.

“Hopefully you’re okay with this as a do-over?” he asked, more confident now as she tugged him closer, setting her other hand on his arm. He couldn’t help but beam at her for it. Then, teasing: “I mean, I can try again, if you think that would help…”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, so fondly that it made his heart hurt. “It’ll do,” she said in the end, lips twitching like she was trying not to grin. “But let’s have that other try anyway. Just in case.”

He was more than happy to oblige.

---

End chapter.

(NOTICE: Episode 1 of Season 4 of TDP is streaming a week early, tonight, 27th October 2022. I can’t watch this until tomorrow or possibly later, so please do NOT mention anything relating to it in your comments, tags, or asks unless it's vague uninterpretable screaming. Vague uninterpretable screaming is ok!)

I like this chapter a lot, actually. Probably because I got to wipe wing biology and weird cultural shit all over it. Also, the Rayllum do be cute. I think this might actually be the first time I’ve written an Official Rayllum Get-Together? Wack.

Just a reminder to anyone who happens not to know: Boundless is a casual side bitch of a story and my actual main tdp writing project is PIAJ, which I have been working on for like three years now. It’s approaching 400k published and considerably more unpublished, and I constantly use its extensive worldbuilding in my other tdp fics, including this one. My second most favoured child is The Ceracurist, which I think is very neat. This has been a PSA.

So: in my PIAJ worldbuilding, one type of Skywing society consists of a bunch of nomadic clans called Ibrevikan (Literally: The Kind That Wander) or just Brevili, and I have a conlang for them. I ended wiping way more of that worldbuilding over this story than anticipated and I regret nothing. Some stuff and translations:

Ama: (from last chapter) Parent; informal.

Ke: Honorific prefix from the word ‘kema’, sacred; the highest possible honour. Only to be used for holy figures, like clan matriarchs or Sky archdragons.

Agilatavin: Child archdragon. Composite of the composite word Agilata (high dragon; agila ‘dragon’ + ata ‘high’) and the diminutive ‘vin’, child.

Velavin: Child wing; wingling. A term of endearment, especially for Skywing children. Also the term for a fledgling. A composite of ‘vela’, wing, and the diminutive ‘vin’, child.

Meuavisa: Little pitiful. Sort of the equivalent of calling someone ‘poor baby’. Composite of ‘meua’, pathetic/pitiful, and diminutive ‘visa’, small. (Pronounced moy-ah-vee-sah.)

Ke-Iharat: The holy entity that is the Sky Primal; generally not seen as sapient or a person, but deified anyway. Translates literally as Sacred Breather, Sacred It-That-Breathes, or similar.

Velakan: Winged-kind, winged one. The more usual word is velnatakan, wingborn-kind, but Batese changes the word to acknowledge that Callum wasn’t born with his. (There is also a word specifically for people capable of casting magewings: velherakan.)

Skin marking: Most Brevi clans have a tradition of commemorating significant life events, either cultural rites of passage or personal changes, using markings or writings on the skin. Some clans use ink, some scarification, some a mix of both. For wingborn children, the first growth of ‘adult’ flight-capable feathers is considered a significant event, on a spiritual and personal level, and the pattern Callum receives this chapter has some variant or other in pretty much every clan.

‘One must know what is painted on their skin’: references the complex Brevi concept of kora – skin/heart/soul/truth. Brevi nomads keep personal marks on their skin, so it is considered a reflection of the self and heart. What Batese says essentially means, in this context, ‘if she is important enough to you to have changed your life and heart, you have a duty to know about it and acknowledge it’. Or more plainly, ‘it is important to be aware of and do honour to the things that mean most to you’.

Genders: Batese and Iykani were described using they/them pronouns because Callum wouldn’t know anything about Brevi genders (which are weird), but could probably tell that they don’t have the kind of gender presentation he’s familiar with, so he defaults to they/them. In fact, Batese uses she/her pronouns in Common, and Iykani does use they/them. (The pronouns in their language are si/sini and va/vani respectively.)

Non Brevi stuff:

Oil glands: Generally called either oil glands, preen glands, or uropygial glands, the vast majority of flighted birds have these. They’re located at the base of the tail, and have variable mechanisms for dispensing oil when the bird puts its beak there. The only flighted birds that don’t have a preen gland are generally ones who use feather powder instead, like pigeons. While there aren’t a lot of very conclusive data about it, it is generally accepted that preen oil promotes feathers health and longevity, helps to waterproof them, and may potentially have antimicrobial effects.

Speculating wildly, I’d say that an elf’s native wing oil probably smells similar to the skin oils in our scalp/neck – which is to say, they smell strongly of that person, enough so that our pitiful noses are capable of picking it up as something unique to them. Beyond that, there isn’t a particular goodness or badness to the odour, it’s just neutral. Scented wing oils remain an option for anyone who wants their wings to smell pretty.

#tdp fic #rayllum #tdp #tdp callum #tdp rayla #wingfic #boundless

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