★ MERRY CHRISTMAS SOUTH ★

secret santa

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South,
Firstly, I was super exited to have you, because you're amazing and wonderful, and all of your characters are perfect. And then I was worried, because I realised I can't make graphics and I basically steal all the music I know from your playlists. Either way, I was pretty excited to do something. So something was kind of what I ended up doing. Enjoy ~


Colour Palettes[/b]

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Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen

Letters

Dear Ophelia
I know I shall never send this letter, but I thought perhaps I would write it anyway. So here I am, down below the decks, thanking Ripred that no storm is breaking over us. You become impatient with me sometimes, I know. I worry - I can't help it. It's your job to keep us safe, and I know that, but sometimes I fear that recklessness and adventure carries you away. Somehow, even before Father died, I took it upon myself to keep everybody safe.
I know the younger ones hate me for it, sometimes. Ruining their fun. And you, you're their brave hero, diving into trouble and dragging us out of it without a second thought. They love you. I suppose I'm writing this to let you know that despite my disapproving looks and sharp words, I love you too.
You're Ophelia. Pure and simple, leader, Captain. Indisputably the most ferocious and caring big sister we could ever have. I sound ridiculous, I know, but this letter is never going to reach your eyes, and if it did you'd probably not bother with reading it. Feelings and words are two things that tend not to agree with you. Impulsivity, Grace once said, is your middle name.
It's more than that, dear sister, is it not? It's the ability to cheer everybody up, make me smile when I'm scowling over everyone. You remind me that everything is not so serious. You let the little ones know that adventure is always just around the corner, and it's easy enough to find if you stumble blindly forward and do nothing to avoid it. It's thrilling, I suppose, to be a part of the crew.
It's funny, Pheels, because when you took the ship hostage and sailed out to sea, I knew what you were doing was wrong. I disapproved, but partly only because I had to disapprove, someone had to. In reality, I admire you for doing something to keep us together and safe and prospering. It's when you take it beyond simply us and what we need that I worry. Rory said once that's all I do - that I need to believe in fate and happiness and that everything will turn out okay in the end, it always does.
So thank you for letting her believe it, for sheltering them all from reality, for caring for all of us with a burning passion even Grace cannot match.
Love, Lil.

Dear Kiera,
I'm sorry you died. News doesn't travel awfully fast around here, my dear, and it took me a while to get home. It's strange - right now I'm hiding in an abandoned house, the television almost silent. Of all my cousins, you are the one I wanted to see the most. I know you despised me with every inch of your being, I liked you. Ruthless, cocky, sure of yourself. With a strange streak of honestly I never managed to adopt for myself. I know you hate me, hated me, whatever.
The point is, my dear, that I wanted to say sorry.
Like Kaelen, I admired you and your sisters. Terrifying, all of you, with a streak of insane that rumours suggest extended a little beyond pulling the heads from my dolls. I don't know if you remember the first time we met, but I do. I looked at you, Kiera, and you looked back, and that was when I knew Kaelen had not only shared my secret but made sure I would never be forgiven. That was okay with me. I never did want forgiveness, not from you, not from him.
I'm writing to remind you, dear Kiera, that I just watched you die. Reruns of your Games promise me that you were popular, feared and everything else a Dempsey should be. Listening to the whispers around the District revealed a little more. The murders, the sins.
I'm not sure what happens after death, but I think to think that you're watching me write this, reading over my shoulder. Realising that despite everything, despite the years of following you and Kae around like a puppy trying to seek revenge, I win. I always will.
Love, Elvira.

Dear Kaelen,
Perhaps, dear brother, you thought you had seen the end of me. When you fled the district, did you not think I would follow? Perhaps I would have stayed behind, worked on those cousins of yours - if it wasn't for the investigation that followed your apparent 'murder' and the danger that put me in. I had no choice but to leave, and what better thing to do than follow in the footsteps of my beloved sibling? And I found the girl, don't worry about that. In the future, do a better job of disposing of your leftovers. It allowed me to go home when your name was cleared - not that it ever was much of a home to me. I don't plan to waste my time writing letters to you that I'll never send. I just thought perhaps I should say something. I admired you, once. Worshipped you, even. When I grew up, I wanted to be just like Kaelen fucking Dempsey. The worst thing is that despite everything, I am.
Love, me.

Dear Callum,
I would never write this in a letter I intended to send, and yet these are the things I am thinking. I plan to toss this onto the fire once I am done - but yet write it I do, perhaps in a bid to sort through my feelings. You are beautiful. I never was one for judging people on what they looked like. Then I saw you, and what you looked like was the only thing I had to cling to. Forgive me. You were the boy in the coffee shop - a mystery, slightly familiar, tarnished by the memories of the past few months. Surely, I passed you a long time ago, before I was anyone. Back then, I didn't feel as though it was my duty to notice everybody just as acutely as they notice me.
And then eyes began to bore into me, voices called my name. It wasn't fair to pass without at least trying to make every one of these faces mean something to me. Apparently, I mean something to a lot of people, at least for now. The Victors say it will fade. That's the funny thing, Callum. I don't see myself as one of them. They are brave and famous and strong. Perhaps that was what I first liked about you.
I met your eye, and for the first time in a long time didn't feel like I was supposed to be anything. I was me, and that was okay with you.
For a long time, I set my alarm for you. I knew you were going to be there - my contant, the only thing stopping me from becoming like so many before me. I do not care for alcohol or drugs to numb the pains of my past. I suppose, in a way, you became my addiction.
You could have been anyone, really. And then we began to write to each other, and it turned out that you were everyone and everything I could have wanted. It's strange, the way a coffee shop and a long string of silence can bring people together.
I just hope that when you see my library and we finally talk, the spell isn't broken. It seems that the idea of something can sometimes be an awful lot more perfect than the something itself. I'm terrified that when we finally say hello, you'll break, or I'll break, or both.
Love, Klaus.


Most Frequent Words

Jacklyn: One, something, Septima, Mother, maybe, never, give.
Riley: One, time, day, hand, first, guitar, children.
Arwen: Hand, keep, follow, heart, spirit, around, sea.
Corinne: Train, life, good, get, want, few, time.
Lyla: Know, never, pretty, trick, friend, first, system.
River: People, hat, real, work, district, usual, father.
Luke: One, make, never, just, life, little, year.
Aria: Never, mirror-girl, over, good, slight, same, work.
Helena: People, very, although, one, little, long, year.
Lydia: Know, something, over, feel, Zane, through, look, think.
Jace: Just, get, never, thing, something, world, time, still, real.
Kaelen: One, look, way, over, through, hand, Dahlia.
Maddox: Way, people, never, thing, one, little, see.
Tristan: One, thing, far, boy, maybe, far, world.
Phoenix: Know, think, around, sound, over, look, away.
Hornet: Time, little, never, Skid, Batty, remember, street.
Auggie: Never, one, thing, life, star, ever, time.
Eris: Home, life, hand, Moreno, children, coin.
Kiera: Know, one, Dempsey, people, something, world, Taverson.

Apparently, you will like...[/b]

Thriving Ivory
Civil Twilight
Sara Bareilles
Allie Moss
Modest Mouse
Mayday Parade
The Hush Sound
The Smiths

Fluff[/b]

Board Games and Tea
The arrangements weren't particularly entertaining for neither Kaelen nor Elvira, and the two children had already spent two long days waiting for their father to finish. Today, as he sorted his affairs and did his best to prise his late wife's family away from her possessions, the half-siblings played. It wasn't that either of them liked each other. It was more that the overwhelming feeling of bordem had become too much. The game was laid out carefully, the tiny pieces set in place by the steady hands of a six and a half year old boy. Elvira bit her lip, slipping the rules beneath the table. "I go first, because I'm the youngest."
"I go first, because I'm legitimate and you're not."
Elvira considered this for a second before handing the dice to her elder brother. He rolled a six, and moved his pieces over a couple of spaces before tossing the dice back to the small girl.
"You can't do that!" she protested, pouting.
"I can."
She crossed her arms over her chest, stuck out her bottom lip in defiance, and then thought better of it. She rolled a four and sent a couple of her tributes chasing after the ones her brother had just moved. It went on this way for a few minutes, before Kaelen sent four pieces tumbling over the edge of the table and Elvira decided that board games were too childish for a girl of her age. The kettle sat on the stove, and she was quite sure she knew how to turn it on.
After a few more minutes of dangerous argument and narrowed eyes, two steaming mugs of boiling water had been poured. "Now what?" Elvira asked, blinking at the clear liquid.
"You put the tea in it."
"Oh."
So they sat on the tiled floor and sipped at hot water, surrounded by cards and small figurines, with their backs to each other.
"I think I won," the boy declared after a long, long moment.
When their father emerged from the next room along, clutching at his hair in frustration and reaching for his flask, he laughed.

merry christmas!

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