Unexpected Inspiration Connection: Blythe & Dray


Blythe grabbed the smoldering pillow from her bunk and hurled it to the floor. Dray couldn't help cackling as she stomped up and down on it, covering the floor in singed feathers. That would teach her to disregard what they had to say. Maybe now she'd--

Blythe had Dray pinned against the wall by the shoulders before they knew what was happening. How could someone slipping on feathers lunge that quickly? Dray prided themself on their dexterity and grace, but she'd come out of nowhere.

She lifted Dray higher as they struggled to get their feet back on the ground. Her voice was a sharp hiss to match the sharp scowl of her eyes when she said, "You idiot. Are you trying to get us kicked out of the troupe?"

The knobs of the cabinet dug sharply into Dray's back as they twisted in her grip. They hadn't planned for this to happen. Blythe was supposed to feel unwelcome and leave. She was the healer's apprentice– she wasn't supposed to pick fights!


- excerpt from "Stuck With You"

There was a theme this week for Moodboard Monday of "sisters" and this is the perfect time to share one of Blythe's relationship boards! Blythe also has a sister role to Sol, but I decided to go with Dray today because the two of them have had a sibling-by-choice relationship for much longer. Even though that excerpt above is from a soulmate AU I wrote earlier this year, this part of it is 100% accurate to how the two of them met. It was fiery and explosive in a way that had nothing to do with Dray setting Blythe's bed on fire. As much as the two of them would hate to admit it, they're too similar and this means they tend to bring out the worst in each other. They're both stubborn and quick to anger, with very short fuses on their tempers. They both have snark in abundance and consider any situation they come across a battle that they have to fight. Needless to say, when they joined the carnival at the same time and were thrown together as roommates, things didn't go well.

Yet their shared stubbornness saw them through. Neither wanted to admit that the other had won by requesting a new roommate, and being forced together... well, they got used to each other's presence. By the time the troupe had returned to Concordia, they'd reached an understanding, or at least an agreement that they wouldn't target each other in their battles. Or they'd try harder not to, anyway. They became the family that the other needed– neither of them having anyone they could call family– which lasted until Dray realized Blythe was getting too close. Dray's past experiences with family was that they would leave Dray and break their heart, so rather than wait and see this happen and get hurt again, Dray left Blythe and the troupe, giving the excuse that they wanted to be a solo performer.

Two years and barely any contact later, they run into each other at the start of book 1 (Colorweaver). It goes about as well as you would expect. Eventually they do become close again and this time Dray sticks around, but they're always just a few interactions away from an argument. Oh, who am I kidding. They argue on a daily basis.

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For the moodboard I went with their personal colors of green and red and tried to match up the images to show how alike they are. Part of their original argument was that they thought they were competing for the same job at the carnival: blade dancer. They ended up sharing this act instead, coming at it from two different directions. Blythe grew up as a Protectorate, the group of people who guard art and artists, and Dray had been a dancer for several years. I love the silhouette pictures because that so perfectly shows this. As for the Slytherin and Gryffindor thing, it always makes me laugh that Blythe, the most apparently heroic character in these stories, is absolutely a Slytherin, while Dray, the practical joker with an often malfunctioning moral compass, is the Gryffindor. What you see on the surface with them isn't all of who they are and I feel like them being in opposite houses than you might expect really brings this point across. (I have Opinions and Thoughts about which house each of my dorks would be in and for what reasons lol.) These two tend to see their worst traits in the other and I'm pretty sure that's the cause of most of their fights. They love each other, but it's definitely not as healthy as the sibling-by-choice relationships Blythe has with Sol or that Dray has with Adair.

CONVERSATION

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