I Filled Out The Famous Character Bingo For My Favorites! If Anyone's Interested In Doing The Same, Here's

I filled out the famous character bingo for my favorites! If anyone's interested in doing the same, here's the source.

Sophie:

*Rafal:

Rhian:

*I think everyone knows by now that I love to torture Rafal. And he's no stranger to death, so it's like he's made for it. ;)

Rafal Is Literally a Type—Don't Believe Me? Read This:

TV Tropes

Byronic Hero - TV Tropes

The Byronic Hero is a character notable for being sullen, withdrawn, hard to like and hard to know, but usually possessing a rich inner life

He's a Byronic Hero. I am aghast at how accurate these descriptions are.

The Brothers' and the School Masters' Futures & Trivia

Note:

I would suggest reading my role reversal fic, "Masters of None," featuring an AU in which Rhian and Rafal are young, kidnapped, Reader students and Sophie and Agatha are the School Masters, before reading this post as this post may be confusing if you haven't.

Here are links to the fic on:

tumblr

AO3

Wattpad

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A Q&A about the characters' futures.

When I posted this fic to another site, I got some questions about the brothers' and the School Masters' futures, and since I have no plans to write a sequel to this fic at the moment, I offered answers about their and other characters' futures. So, if you're interested, that bonus content is ahead!

Also, thank you to everyone who asked questions! If anyone has further questions, feel free to comment them below.

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Fun fact: Sophie says hydrangeas nauseated her in QFG because they resembled brains, so these ones are part of Agatha's interrogation technique.

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Q: So if they're immortal (Sophie and Agatha) can they just eat belladonna berries or poison without effects?

A: Probably, they'd suffer mild side effects from poison, like an upset stomach, nothing major.

For instance, the undiluted scream of a mandrake root is supposed to kill a mortal man instantly when heard. Sophie just gets an aching, throbbing, pounding headache of massive proportions. In the moat, the root's properties are interfered with, and it's sort of waterlogged, so it doesn't kill Rafal, a mortal, when he hears it, luckily.

Considering how Rafal was capable of feeling temporary, mortal pain in the prequels, even when his magic was at full strength, it would only make sense to not make Sophie and Agatha 100% invulnerable in this context.

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Q: What do the Good students think of Agatha? And does anyone have a teacher crush on Sophie, rather than Sophie flirting with them?

A: The Good students are fond of Agatha, but they see her as the exception, not the rule. She's still very unconventional to them as an Ever, but they hold a certain reverence for her anyway, like she's a respectable Lady of the Lake-figure. (There are Camelot letters on Agatha's desk. For a few years, the king of Camelot (Tedros) has been attempting to court Agatha, and Camelot itself, despite its traditionalism, approves of the match, if only Agatha would agree to it, because her status as Good School Master would elevate Camelot even further.)

Yes, Everboys generally have a crush on Sophie from afar, for the first few weeks of school, until they realize she really is as Evil/fatal as they've been told, and stop viewing her as some kind of damsel to be saved. It's a reasonable mistake to be made. Usually, this happens when they hear the screams from the Doom Room, and arrive at the conclusion that the Evil School Master is kind of psychotic, even if she seems perfectly coy, polite, and demure on the outside. They rarely act on their crushes though. The dimmer few that do quickly find out she's Evil the hard way. If they manage to scale the School Masters' tower, and reach the catwalk, they are caught by Sophie's high-security magical wards. The glitter on the walkway, which looks perfectly harmless, adheres to any exposed skin, and causes horrid blisters. The Everboys usually end up sobbing wrecks at that point, and are taken back to their side by Sophie's Stymphs.

The Evergirls in Beautification (which she teaches in Agatha's stead) look up to her, but they don't entirely approve of her either.

The Nevers don't care about how attractive their School Master is. Some of them secretly don't like her because of how un-Never-like she is.

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Q: Would you say Agatha is the type of teacher that can be strict but is also really good? Like people actually learn a lot by being taught by her.

A: Yes! As a teacher, she's kind of like August Sader. She tries to get her students to figure things out for themselves, teach them critical thinking along the way. Though, she does answer questions as she isn't a Seer.

(Also, the Nevers have a point. Sophie's not exactly representative of them as a whole. At the very least, Woods leaders respect Sophie because they're kind of obligated to, even if she seems silly to them, and they're very afraid of her.

Eventually, Agatha reluctantly goes on a date with Tedros. But, she can't be queen and School Master at the same time. (Both are demanding jobs.) So, if she ever were to marry Tedros, she'd take on the position ceremonially, and she'd have to delegate to the household in Camelot from a distance through some kind of correspondence because she's constantly busy at the School.)

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Q: What kind of questions is she asked?

A: Two common dilemmas:

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Ever: School Master Agatha, my Ball date left me! What should I do?!

Agatha: First, take a deep breathe and take my handkerchief. Do you have any reason to believe they indeed left you? [First, to make sure they aren't exaggerating when they explain themselves.] Why do you think they left you? [After listening to their response, she'd either re-direct them to fix things, apologize, or tell them it wasn't their fault but the date's. And lastly:] What do you think you should do?

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Ever: What's the answer to this question I got wrong on my Good Deeds Quiz?

Agatha: Why don't you read it over again and tell me? If you really can't come up with any answers, come back and I'll explain it to you. And remember: there may only be one entrance to the kingdom of Putsi, but there are many, many ways to be Good!

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Q: That sounds like a smart way to handle things. How does Tedros feel about that?

A: Tedros tries to be ok with it, but he's clingy, and sometimes, is at the School to see his wife more than he should be. Often, Camelot has to send multiple envoys to the School, to get him to come back and rule!

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Q: Aww poor Tedros. So how does the wedding work? Was school canceled for the day?

A: The wedding takes place on a School holiday, and Agatha takes a leave of absence for their honeymoon.

Sophie is thrilled to have the Schools all to herself, and would've wreaked havoc, if Agatha hadn't given her Dean precise instructions before she left on how to defuse Sophie. The Dean doesn't manage to interfere with all of Sophie's plans however and was tricked into running errands (a wild goose chase, to get rid of him). When Agatha gets back, all the uniforms (including the Evers') have been redesigned, Evil's front lawn has been filled with man-eating yet beautiful rose bushes, the Blue Forest has been turned pink, and Sophie had a new bathtub and chandelier installed in their tower.

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Q: And how does Agatha react to the.. ahem, renovations?

A: She's not too happy, and gives Sophie a lecture about over-spending. Sophie reasons that Camelot can pay for it all, and Agatha is just... at a loss for words.

Agatha permits most of the changes to stay (The Evers like their new uniforms. The Nevers don't, but Agatha can't do anything for them.), except the Blue Forest is changed back, and the roses have to go because they're a safety hazard.

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Q: Aww the roses actually seemed oddly.. cute?

A: I guess they were cute, to Sophie. But, they were relocated to the Blue Forest, to be part of that year's Trial. And, Sophie replaced the empty patches with lavender and honeysuckle instead, to use for her beauty routines. The honeysuckle attracted a lot of hummingbirds, and Reaper loves them too, for that reason. Only the Nevers themselves hate the new gardens.

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Q: Maybe the insomniac Nevers can use lavender to help them sleep..

A: They could... if only they would listen to their School Master. But they don't, and largely continue to be insomniacs.

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Q: Is Sophie Tedros' ex in this?

A: No, she's not.

I guess Sophie and Agatha would have to be from the Woods, not Readers originally, and I'm not sure if they would've attended the Schools themselves. Plus, Tedros is centuries younger than Agatha, even if he's an adult, so they didn't really all know each other during Sophie's prince-chasing phase.

And, it was Sophie who started the Reader-kidnapping tradition (she flew to Gavaldon while looking for a new tailor), soo actually, yeah, they can't really be Readers themselves. Agatha couldn't have found Gavaldon because, as an Ever, she refuses to use blood magic for flight.

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Q: Like Rafal starting it in the og!

A: Yep! In this AU, Sophie is basically him but with her own typical personality. Hence how she was a shadow at the beginning of this fic.

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Q: So what happens with Kyma and all?

A: She's part of a class in the much more far future, long after Rhian and Rafal's class. She's the only Evergirl known to rival the Good School Master's Goodness, and eventually takes the position of Dean of Good under Agatha. No stupid boys like Aladdin for her!

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Q: WILL Rafal eventually kill the School Masters?

A: No. Agatha got through to him, mostly. Well, it takes him a while to change his mind and turn over a new leaf. By second year, he has other goals.

It's hard to picture him in a job other than School Master, so I think, when he graduates, he either goes off and does his own thing, extorting money, gaining power, assassinating important dignitaries in his way, and maybe, taking a fortress for himself, or he works at the national Bank of Putsi, or becomes a member of the Kingdom Council. Something else that affords him power.

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I don't have any plans for a part two at all, but if inspiration ever strikes, I might write some kind of follow-up. However, if you'd like to know anything about the characters' futures, I can just tell you what I have in mind!

Q: I can imagine! Do tell me what you have in mind. :D

A: Sophie and Agatha continue on as School Masters for the rest of time. No wars are fought. The Woods remain in balance.

By the time the brothers' fourth year rolls around, Sophie is harboring a bit of a petty grudge against Rafal because they had a platonic, student-mentor friendship for a bit, and then he rejected her very outrightly in a no-nonsense, undramatic way, so like any prodigious witch or woman scorned, she sets him up to fail and with luck, end up in a watery grave. So, their dynamic is closer to Tedros' and Sophie's in canon, like friendly-enemies, not even "frenemies" but worse.

Agatha is a little miffed by this turn of events as Rafal had always been such a promising student for his side, and she thinks it's such a waste for Sophie to squander her best student. What on earth was her sister thinking? (Hint: She wasn't. She'd rather settle a score than lead Evil as a whole to greater victory on the shoulders on a boy she "despises." And that small-scale pettiness is probably the greatest Evil of all, denying her side that chance to win.) Nevertheless, Evil students are not within Agatha's sphere of influence, so she can't truly do anything about Rafal's fourth-year questing assignment, which is to parlay with the infamous Night Crawlers that have already killed many a man for centuries. How her sister expects Rafal to confer with inhuman creatures that cannot talk is beyond her. Then again, that must be the point: a roundabout death sentence over Rafal's head, engineered to be a no-win situation for a mortal.

Meanwhile, Rhian is frantic over Rafal's unfair questing assignment and doesn't pay much attention to his own. He literally throws himself at Sophie's feet, but she will not yield. Even Agatha tries to bribe Sophie with jewelry to re-assign Rafal's quest considering that it's causing one of her students severe emotional distress, but Sophie will not reconsider. At all. She does take the diamond earrings though.

Rafal is less worried than Rhian, but everyone (including his own Never classmates) suspects it's a facade, some kind of false bravado, or sheer overconfidence as Class Captain. He's more mad than afraid, actually. Because, he's devised an ingenious way to game the system against all odds. While teaching him sorcery, Sophie had shown him the flesh-over spell (from TLEA), good for mild blemishes and pimples and such. However, he adapted that spell into a regeneration spell, so he would continually have more blood to give and could manually "heal" (temporarily patch up) his wounds so he wouldn't bleed out, meaning, that if he couldn't secure an unfortunate stranger as a decent hostage to trade to the Night Crawlers, he'd be able to use himself as bait/part of the exchange in a controlled manner and still live to tell the tale.

Eventually, tales of his regeneration spell, as the best-known substitute for immortality, are bandied throughout the Woods for decades, but no one ever manages to replicate it. And since he's the only one known to cast it successfully, having withheld the knowledge for his own gain, only a few intrepid souls approach him every year with requests, often, veteran soldiers to gain back a limb, who bring him their weight in gold that they scraped together. So, Rafal is mythologized and becomes a Baba Yaga-type figure because he passes his judgments on the people that seek an audience with him, and either murders them instantly or helps them. The decision always seems sporadic on the outside, but Rafal has his reasons/intuition around who he sees as fit to live.

Anyway, somehow, Rafal negotiates incredibly well, and in return, agrees to help the Night Crawlers reach their lightless paradise at the bottom of the sea, probably below the seafloor. And he does it so well (partly by tricking them/using "exact words") that he is crowned The Sorcerer King of the Night Crawlers and Master of the Inagrotten. Of course, when this news reaches Sophie, it infuriates her, but she finally decides to leave him alone.

She also takes some of the credit for teaching her best student, saying she knew he'd succeed all along and had faith in his talents, but not everyone believes her. The Rot eats up the story when they interview her though. And hers is the only version of the story they have. Rafal doesn't care and flat-out refuses to be interviewed. His refusal does make headlines though. He encased a very talkative reporter in solid ice for his troubles.

With his new, hard-earned, fearsome reputation, Rafal has enough leverage to take up a fight with the Kingdom Council now because no Ever kingdom in the Woods is willing to utter his name for fear of summoning him (an urban myth that's cropped up). So, they call him "Rothbart the Second" as a pseudonym, or refer to him by his illustrious title. Rhian finds all this very funny, but he goes along with the bit whilst in polite company, so no one makes him throw salt over his shoulder.

And, Rafal does Rhian a favor after Rhian wraps up with his more typical fourth-year quest: campaigning for equal marriage rights for all in Pifflepaff Hills (the pink and blue kingdom). More on that later.

Rafal pays off Seers to be one step ahead on rare occasions, extorts money from various emperors, kings, and regents, and doesn't have a permanent fortress/address because that would be too vulnerable to attack, an unchanging place. Soon enough, everyone would figure out where he is and bother him, and he can't have that. (The only person who is aware where Rafal is at any given time, or who knows where he "lives" is Rhian because they post each other letters on the regular.) Rafal lives inside his own Celestium, in a black cloak he enchanted, which is only accessible to him. It's also the only place in the Woods where he's not paranoid because several Ever kingdoms have put a bounty on his head. No one ever manages to kill him though, which is a fact he's extremely smug about. He learns blood magic, and can fly off from any threats, if he has to. And, he takes a life-extension elixir of blood-and-gold to prolong his life even further. He still ages mortally a bit slowly, but Rhian worries that he's cheating death too much and that it might catch up to him one day.

As for Rhian, he never does find the perfect, imaginary True Love that lives up to his ideals, but finds that he's contented by Rafal's monthly visits, especially considering how after his quest reached a successful end, Rafal got him a position on the Kingdom Council (the favor), as a biased "in" for him to exploit (the cover story), but secretly also so he'd know Rhian would have a relatively safe job for the rest of his life, so he wouldn't have to worry about Rhian dying while he's away.

Eventually, Rhian rises in the ranks and becomes a judge of some kind of inter-kingdom court, at Four Point, which is funny because his brother is technically an outlaw, not that Rhian would ever pass a verdict against Rafal, because he can't oversee a trial where someone he knows personally is involved anyway (it's against the rules), but still, it's really strange to see the strait-laced, gold-robed judge have tea with his brother in black. Without fail, the foreign Ever dignitaries scatter from the courtroom when they spot the Inagrotten docked at the nearest port because they know exactly who's arrived.

The END.

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Q: Very curious! What were Rafal's reasons for rejecting Sophie?

A: Like Rafal in Rise, this Rafal has no interest in romance, and probably, still has part of his original impression of this Sophie in his mind, which is "annoying" and "too fussy/difficult/high-maintenance" for him to deal with. He's got enough on his plate with Rhian already, so he doesn't want another "Rhian." He doesn't tell her his reasons though. But, he would like his life to be drama-free, for once.

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Q: That's what I thought! Honestly, I'm not a fan of Rafal x Sophie in general, but I can see how TLEA's Rafal works with her.

A: Yes, they're my favorite ship, but wouldn't have worked well in this context, so they couldn't end up together. Personally, I think they balance each other well, but not in all circumstances. (Probably, because I view Rafal and Agatha as similar, and Agatha and Sophie also balance each other well (platonically).) And TLEA Rafal and Sophie I like because they're in love and in pain, which is just... entertaining and devastating, kind of. They have chemistry there too, I think. The TLEA banter is basically some of my favorite dialogue in the whole series. You can really see contrast in Sophie's line about tea parties and sunlight. Though, I'm just kind of attached to the idea of the ship, haha.

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Q: What happens with Agatha and Sophie after the twins have their own careers and so forth? Hopefully they don't kill each other..

A: Well, like usual, they get another class of students, and the cycle repeats. It's less tumultuous this time around because Sophie is not infatuated with the students. She's probably learned her lesson, but in a couple of centuries, it may just happen again...

And, no, they don't kill each other. There are some close calls, like the time Agatha broke a mirror, the time Agatha fed one of Sophie's leather handbags to a Stymph in retaliation for Sophie's flower arrangements aggravating her hay fever, and the time that she accidentally let Reaper into Sophie's closet (resulting in torn hems and clawed curtains). But, luckily, Sophie does fundamentally love Agatha, so Agatha is never actually murdered. Sophie just screams at her, and gives her the silent treatment for a couple days. Then, Agatha brings her a lavish present, and all is well again.

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Q: What does Rafal's Celestium look like?

A: In this AU, Rafal's Celestium has a deep, velvety, black, midnight sky, and spangles of "stars," white pinpricks of lights, like holes in a swath of fabric, so he can breathe. There are dark, stormy clouds, but all is silent, like he's in a vacuum, like he's safely tucked in the eye of a major storm or within an inkblot. If he wants to, he can adjust the lighting, so it's not too dark. The second light source is these beautiful, phantom flowers that grow from vines that encircle the clouds. They're not real, physical things, just offshoots of magic, ghostly and golden, like some kind of residual effect from spending time around Rhian. There are often more of them when Rafal's close to Rhian, during his visits. And, he likes to watch their constant glow, like nightlights. It's a comforting reminder that Rhian is alive after all. Though, he never touches them or prunes them, just lets them continually take over, or wither in their own time frame because he once found that when he touched one himself, to attempt to pick it and bring it to Rhian, it instantly crumpled to ash in his hand. They're inaccessible to him, the way Good is figuratively inaccessible to him, like a symbol of what he cannot be, but can only do.

(In the universe of TOTSMOV41, his Celestium has more movement/clutter, and a different appearance, but that will be revealed a while later. It does come up in one of the sequels I have planned to TOTSMOV41, if I ever manage to finish it.)

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Q: If Rafal has a Celestium, does Rhian have one too or did he not take up magic as seriously as Rafal? If he does have one, what does it look like? I would imagine he would have something associated with Rafal in there as well.

A: Rhian wouldn't practice his sorcery as frequently as Rafal would. As an Ever, he doesn't have as much cause to, except when he needs to discern the truth at trials, or judge the souls of the convicted. Otherwise, he uses his sorcery for frivolous things, like manifesting clothes, or levitating his luggage and books through the air.

Rhian's Celestium would be found in his gold, judicial robes, or when he's in a pinch, he can access it via his heavily-embroidered cravats.

The robes have mesh-like embroidery embossed on them, with some dimension and real heft to the needlework, from thread of pure spun gold, mostly at the sleeve cuffs and about the wide borders at the bottom hem. This would translate to a fragile-seeming, mesh-like, geodesic dome in his Celestium, that looks as if it could be toppled by a strong wind, as part of its "sky," with very intricate lattice-work done, wrought in twisted gold, the way palace gates often are, with hammered gold leaves and flowers, to match the embroidery work. The space wouldn't exactly have a ceiling, considering how the whole thing is a dome, but a paneled atrium ceiling would also be a similar image to what I have in mind.

Usually, his Celestium would be sunlit and warm, and the voluminous folds of his robes would make up the sky, usually reflecting a sky at sunrise through the gold wire structure, in pale blues and oranges, which would carry over from the deep blue and orangish, bronze-colored, brocade inner lining of his robes. The lighting within the dome mimics the Golden Hour at all times unless he were to tamper with it.

Some of the panels of his sky-dome are just mirrors, like shimmering fish-scales embedded in the sky, so he gets a good view of himself from many angles. Typical Ever vanity and hubris.

Rhian's sign of Rafal in his Celestium are soft, slick feathers, black swan feathers that rain down slowly, floating in the atmosphere, like wisps of smoke. Some just hang there, suspended in the air or blown about by airstreams. They brush Rhian on their way down, and at times, tickle him when they fall past.

If all the feathers were to drop to the ground at once, he'd probably have true cause to worry, believing that Rafal is gravely wounded or even dead. It hasn't happened yet though.

Here are some images, of a geodesic dome and of the gold wrought quality it would have, if you're at all curious:

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Once again, if anyone else has other questions, concerns, or thoughts, I'm perfectly willing to answer them in the comments section!

When you encounter someone you haven't seen for a while and they ask you how you're doing:

“I loathe hydrangeas, Aggie. They look like human brains. Just being around them makes me faint—” 

my friend has quests for glory now so i feel like i can finally make art of it but actually this is the only part i care about right now

the narrative: *starts the third act by repeating a scene from the first act but now it has a totally different context*

me: ohoHOhohoHOHOhoHO