#shanaja

41. Overhearing they have feelings for you

This takes place during season 1 of 3Below.

~

The bathroom door opened, and the other girl who had been in the bathroom walked out. Aja nearly breathed a sigh of relief when other girls walked in. Two of them, if Aja was judging the footsteps correctly.

Kleb, why was this happening?

(This was happening because she had stayed after school to watch a soccer game. It was a lively game, full of running and kicking, but Aja's transduction had worn off.)

Now, she just had to wait until she was alone. Aja curled herself smaller on top of the toilet she was hiding on. Thankfully the door was locked.

"Oh, you should totally ask her out," one of them said. She sounded like Mary.

"Are you sure? I mean, I heard her brother say they're planning on moving again soon." That sounded like Shannon.

"You can always try long distance?"

"I mean, I guess. But does she even like girls?"

"I'll admit, I can't help you with that, but the worst she'll say is no."

"Fine, fine. I'll try asking Aja out on Friday."

It was only because Aja had muscular control from training with Varvatos that she was able to keep from falling off the toilet at the sound of her name.

(taps the microphone)

Day 3 - Mirror or Masquerade @talesofarcadiafemslashweek​ Aja/Shannon (Shanaja) wordcount: ~2k Rated: PG

(Quick note: the reason Aja uses she/her for herself and he/him for Krel is an artifact of imperfect translation. Akiridians don’t have genders as we’d understand them, so their use of gendered terms like ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ really just reflect that the Akiridian language has more than one word for ‘sibling,’ and that Aja and Krel use different terms for each other.)

Aja washed her hands slowly at the row of sinks in the school bathroom - she was not eager to get back to English class. It was, by far, her least favorite class. There were so many assumptions made, so many fundamentals her classmates had spent years learning, comparisons being made to other books that everyone else had already read.

She was forever thankful that she and her brother had Universal Understanding, that the technology had been acquired by her people in trade with the Babelpisces several generations ago. It was essential for interplanetary negotiations, and, now, to analyze eyeball symbolism in The Great Gatsby.

Aja turned off the sink, taking a moment to examine her features in the mirror. She did not know when she would get used to her fleshy human appearance, but she hoped it would be soon. She poked her nose, moving it from side to side, opened her mouth to look at her teeth. She was a girl now, apparently, whatever that meant.

All she knew for certain was that it meant using certain pronouns and not others. Akiridian pronouns did not, so far as Aja could tell, correspond to gender, but she was still a little unclear on what ‘gender’ was, and had been racking her brains - a funny human idiom - to see if she could think of an Akiridian equivalent.

On Akiridian-5, a person’s pronouns told you a lot about them - their approximate age, social rank, and sometimes even area of expertise. They had over a dozen third-person pronouns, but it was easy to know which one to use because they also had a over a dozen corresponding first-person pronouns. In Arcadia, everyone was “I” this and “I” that - it was honestly one of the most startling things about being human, how the same everyone seemed.

Day 6 - first date or last kiss - @talesofarcadiafemslashweek -

Shannaja first date 

Shannon plans a museum extravaganza; art, space and natural history because she knows Aja loves discovering new things

The date lasts a full day

Aja takes pictures of EVERYTHING

Including many pictures of Shannon

Femslash Week Day 2: Time or Space

Ship: Shanaja (Shannon/Aja)

@talesofarcadiafemslashweek

Laying in the dark, side by side, with their arms barely brushing up against each other, Aja can’t help but wonder at the circumstances that brought her and Shannon to be here.  Together.

So many things, so many little moments that, at the time, seemed inconsequential, had added up until their relationship came into being.  It wasn’t like it was something that happened instantaneously.  There was no snap of the fingers, no flash, no moment where they were suddenly together when a second before they weren’t.  They didn’t fall in love because Aja bumped into Shannon at the science fair and Shannon subsequently dropped and broke her fake volcano.  They didn’t fall in love because a leave blew in Shannon’s face while she was riding her bike and she nearly swerved into Aja.  They didn’t fall in love because Shannon went searching for the guitar she’d lost at the bon-bon party and Aja returned it to her (though she had to promise Krel she’d buy him one that was truly his own to convince him to give it up).

Those things all happened at least two months before they fell in love.  They weren’t, in theory, the reason their love had happened.  They were just instances that brought them together, where they could be together, where jokes could pass between them and giggles answer.  Instances that left them with lingering warm feelings in their chests.  Feelings that then led to butterflies in their stomachs almost each and every time they saw each other.  Butterflies that eventually caused Shannon to hesitantly (very, very awkwardly) ask Aja out.

You may have noticed this blog has neither header nor profile pick.  While I’m working on creating a profile pic for it, I want to involve you guys in choosing what the header will be.

So I’ve decided to host an art contest (yay!) to determine one.  Anyone who wishes to can enter an art piece that they’d like to be seen as the header for this blog dedicated to showcasing sapphic content in the Trollhunters fandom.

Rules

-Has to be art related to any sapphic (f/f) ship(s) of characters in Trollhunters/3Below/Tales of Arcadia.

-No NSFW

-No adult/child relationships of any kind.

-any type of art (digital, by hand, etc.) you’d like to do is fine.  This contest is to make this blog a little less empty-looking, but it’s also to reflect this blog’s main purpose of encouraging the creation of and celebrating sapphic art/content, so any and all is good.

-a list of sapphic Trollhunters ships and potential ships can be found here if you need

How to enter

-@ this blog (thesapphicsectionofthelibrary) in your post 

-tag your post with #sapphictrollhuntersartcontest 

-All entries will be reblogged to this blog.

-The entry with the most notes (likes/reblogs) by the deadline will receive 1st Place, second most notes will receive 2nd Place, and 3rd most notes 3rd place.  Prizes are listed below.

-Entrance Deadline is Monday, November 19th 

Prizes

1st Place: entry will be used as this blog’s header with credit given to you in the blog description and a 1500 word fanfic written on a pairing of your choosing by @im-the-king-of-the-ocean​

2nd Place: a 1000 word fanfic written on a pairing of your choosing by @im-the-king-of-the-ocean​ and being first at the top on a recommendation list of artists who’ve created sapphic Trollhunters content I’m going to put together and display on a page on this blog.

3rd Place: a 500 word fanfic written on a pairing of your choosing by @im-the-king-of-the-ocean​ and being second at the top on a recommendation list of artists who’ve created sapphic Trollhunters content I’m going to put together and display on a page on this blog.

*All who enter will be added to the sapphic content creators list if they want.

If you have any questions, you can send in an ask or pm me (here or on my ocean king blog), whichever you prefer :)

16. taking a photo of the smiling or in their element

"And, smile!" Shannon said, holding up her phone to her friend. Aja smiled for the picture, and Shannon saved it as a contact.

Did Shannon want them to be more than friends? Yes, but she knew that Aja wanted to return home to Cantaloupia, and hopefully soon. Shannon didn't want the heartbreak of being two weeks into a relationship only to break it off because it was easier than going long distance. So, she wouldn't say anything.

"Okay, my turn!" Aja said, grabbing her phone from her pocket. "Smile!"

If you were in the THCC in early April 2019, then you will recognize this AU.

Optional theme song of the AU

Claire first fell for Mary when they were in sixth grade. She's never said anything, because by the time she figured out it was a crush, Mary was already very boy-crazy. Claire's tried to make said crush go away, and it has, but never fully. By the time Mary finds the amulet, Claire is crushing on Jim, but that crush on Mary is still in the background. Because Jim doesn’t get the amulet, he never gains the confidence boost he needs to talk to and woo Claire, and her feelings for him fade.

Mary tells Darci about the amulet, but doesn't get the chance to tell Claire until Strickler spies Mary awkwardly walking around in full armor. She claims she's going to be trying out for the play, and when she gets there she realizes something: none of the female roles would work with armor, and the only male role she knows is that of Romeo.

Claire, of course, has been practicing at being Juliet for weeks, and when she realizes that Mary is trying out as Romeo, it's a bit of a dream come true as well as her old crush coming back in full force. After all, Mary had considered playing the part of the Nurse, but she knows Claire is trying out for Juliet, and would that mean she wants to kiss Claire?

Naturally, she's a bit sad when Mary and Darci reveal that no, this is magic armor and they had to keep the cover, sorry, they were going to tell her sooner if they could, but Claire hides her sadness behind the giant troll chasing them and the fact that Trollmarket is beautiful.

Outside of trollhunting and the play, Claire begins to distance herself from Mary. Not from Darci, though. History will call her Darci the Diplomatic, and this is where those legends start.

Mary doesn’t use the Grit-Shaka. After all, it’s just kissing, something you do as a contractual thing with guys or the person you were cast opposite of in a play. Claire is tempted to. It’s kissing her best friend, the crush she’ll never get away from. But she doesn’t. After all, it’s just stage kissing, nothing meaningful. Nothing like what Claire wants even though it’d ruin the friendship if she tried.

NotEnrique knocks down the photo of Claire, and the goblins go after her. Mary tries to save her, only to find that her amulet was stolen. And so the two of them fight the goblins with makeshift weapons. Mary decides to finally confront Claire about how weird she’s being.    “Look, I get it, you’re stressed about Enrique and the play. We’ll get him back, and yeah, sorry for making things weird. I’ve gotta keep my cover as the trollhunter,” Mary says, looking for any goblins. “And yeah, I know you don’t want to pretend to like me romantically and -”    “Pretend?” Claire asks. She puts a hand on her chest, tears in her eyes. “I’ve been in love with you for a third of my life!” She turns away, unable to look at her friend after admitting the secret she's kept for the past five years. “I’m just tired of always getting my hopes up.”

The two of them are quiet when Darci and AAARRGGHH!!! find them, Mary from shock and Claire from shame.

The play goes off well, though the two leads seem a bit stilted.

Mary has a lot to think about afterwards. She throws herself into trollhunting, but not even that blocks out her thoughts about the idea of a life where she were to date Claire.

In this AU, the Akiridions land early. Darci ends up befriending Shannon and Aja because she wants a sense of normalcy when her two best friends are being weird (neither will mention Claire’s crush). Normalcy is not something she gets. This leads to the Akiridion-troll secrets coming out early. (Note: Aside from Clairy, the next major ship would be either Shanaja, Daraja, or Shandaraja. No matter what, it would contain a lot less drama than our two favorite theater sapphics.)

Alone in the Darklands, Mary is forced to finally confront those thoughts. A life with Claire seems nice, as opposed to the contractual feelings Mary gets whenever she thinks of a future husband. And yet, the idea of living a life with Claire, or any girl, seems terrifying, while a future husband is at least security. But could Mary ever have security as the trollhunter?

In her heartbreak over accidentally pushing away the girl she loves, Claire accidentally turns to Morgana.

Darci frees Mary from the Darklands. Claire can’t bring herself to be happy. She wants to be happy. Mary is back, and so is Enrique. And yet, a darkness grips her heart.

Darci is the one who finds out how to find Merlin, as well as an alternative way to defeat Gunmar. It helps that she has Akiridion allies.

By the time Mary is able to get over herself and confess her feelings to Claire, Mary has a troll form and Claire has become Morgana’s champion.