Work Text:
so for context here, the school has this whole “fairy hill” larp setting thing a bunch of people are involved with and it has a TON of interesting lore, with one big bit being that you’re not supposed to like, actually study it? I’m not really involved with the game, but I’ve been taking pics and writing down occasional good/funny/interesting bits and things I hear and see around school, and I figured I’d actually put them somewhere I can keep track of.
sooooo yeah, I’ll probably add to this over time if I hear more
random study room announcement
Hey FYI, the titty fairy’s set up shop in the quad! They’re buying AND selling today and their prices are super good, so if you’ve been wanting a change in any direction you might want to head down before the knights chase them out again. Tell your friends! Especially the trans ones!
(this girl just ran into the study room and interrupted everyone lol, most of us rolled our eyes but a couple people got up to go see. I left like five minutes later and saw nothing tho so, whatever scene they were talking about must’ve dissipated quickly)
Reve’s sword monologue
”Oh hey! Sorry I’m late for class, I got kidnapped by fairies because I stepped on a sidewalk crack? Anyway, just spent like three years fighting my way out of the light dreaming dancing halls, finding solace only in the brief puddles of dark the unseelie leave as refuge to lost travellers. Long was I there, snow-blinded by the truth-lying Seelie Sidhe, told I could leave if I did this, and this, and never reaching the end of the task. Until finally I realized my weariness, took note of my dance-bloodied feet, found salve for my eyes for to see past the glamour. Then I saw the frenzy, the toothed eyes, then I saw the charm, the child bones on the floor, but still I hid, for to tell Them I know their truth is to court death.
Then I found strength, stole magic and Sight where I could find it, learned the pattern of the shadows where Their light cannot reach, dug my way up out of the light, and took those who I could with me. Three years I fought. I don’t know how long I was there before that, a year? Two years? Four years, danced to the bone, following every command of the Sidhe? Then three, fighting, my ally the Friendly Dark, friendly only compared to the light. The dark Unseelie will not mislead you. The dark will eat you up, swallow you whole, but it will tell you that’s what it’s doing, not hide it like the Seelie Fey. The dark does not pretend to be your friend. You can work around honest hunger, find agency and places to hide. The light will blind you slowly, tell you pretty tales, take small bites and keep you for later, and only after will you notice the bleeding wounds. If there is an after.
Seven years was I underhill. But I fought my way out. Follow the remnants of the world above: the broken-glass tower, the ruined mall, the pitted road. Iron leads to the surface. Marked trees show the way, patches of shadow hide doors. The Sidhe do not lie: if you can bind them in a promise, they will help you. The Sidhe can not lie: trade with them, they will always be fair, as fair as their words. Watch their words. Humans are less reliable, though there are many in the Under Realms: most are dream-deaf, snow-blind, but some are awake and hiding. There are children a thousand years old, knowing nothing but the dappled shadows of the maze between worlds. There are old men with long beards who were young yesterday, who speak of sheep and essays and mushroom-picking and don’t know when they are. There are people who will give anything to escape, and there are those who will sell you out for the approval of the Fey. I found many, old and young and both and neither. Some of them I managed to bring with me, out to the complexity of the human world. Some of them knew nothing but the safety of the dream. Some of them I had to leave.
So here am I now, with my iron sword and tangled hair. I have traded away too much, but I have learned tricks and secrets that have served me well, and stole children safely home. I am here, am I not? Though I have spent too much time Beneath. I have eaten fairy fruit, and I have eaten human food, and I cannot live on either alone. I slip between the floorboards, see the cracks in the walls of the world and find myself in another. I have grown so good at running, fleeing, hiding, that I can’t stay in any one place for long. I slide in and out and between, and sometimes I can find good in it. Sometimes I can rest. Sometimes I can help.
Anyway yeah so that’s why I’m a half-hour late for class. Sorry!“
(Reve apparently got REALLY into the larp over a weekend mid-semester and must have organized some sorta thing with the prof to excuse late homework or something, they rushed into class late in FULL costume, sword and everything, delivered this monologue, and then sat down like nothing had happened, like, they just slung their sword prop (in scabbard) over the back of their chair like it was a purse. I think they’re a TA now? seem to have picked up some kinda authority position anyway, idk, I don’t know them super well)