#sicsig

Starting off by linking these two posts, mostly for myself bc I have lots of headcanons abt the Adalhard family home and I couldn’t remember what I’d shared before

From the trio headcanons one!

After living together for a little while, the boys quickly found out that they were all really into the idea of DIY? Gabriel really likes finishing details of interior design, Luca did a lot of little carpentry projects with his grandda in his childhood/teens, and for Cas, getting stuck in to gardening and exterior work is deeply therapeutic, rewarding, and reminds him of his life in South Korea with his grandparents. The Adalhard family home very much turns into a big renovation project (that takes them like a decade to really “complete”, though there’s always little things to be done, a room to be painted here, a window frame to replace there. They start with the garden planter boxes in the front yard —Cas’s initiative— and this is probably something you’ll see in future Starlight chapters!)

Oh my gosh, where to start?

So, I think I’ve said in SICSIG that Gabriel’s house was weirdly empty/barely furnished, because at one point, he was preparing to sell the house. He didn’t think he could heal from all his trauma and grief while living in the Adalhard house. But he couldn’t go through with selling it! As hard as it was to pack up his family’s belongings, it was also healing in a way to tuck them away gently into storage boxes, pack up their clothing, lay them to rest in a sense. Some of their things were shifted into the attic, others were moved to a long term storage locker/container downtown.

Most of the rooms, he packed up ok, but when he got to Michaela’s room, he just couldn’t bring himself to take her art down.

‘Painting,’ Gabriel said, and the air shuddered from his lungs, his words limned in frost. ‘Michaela loved to paint. She was moody. Clever. She always wore black and acted like she was way too cool to hang out with her little brother, but her paintings were always so vibrant. The back wall of her bedroom was bright magenta. She covered it in layer upon layer of all these colourful paintings and sketches she did…’

Michaela’s bedroom becomes Cas’s art studio. He keeps the pink wall with all of her art, and starts to hang up some of his own as well. There is a half-completed painting of a deer and wolves in the woods that Michaela did, which Cas finishes; the wolves look meek and the deer aggressive, it’s a bit bloody, and it weirdly becomes one of Gabriel’s favourites. They complete renovations in the room to knock out the existing windows and install larger ones, so the room gets better light, as well as ripping up the carpet to re-finish the wood floors.

But, I’m getting a little ahead of myself! After Gabe packed up the house, tried to sell it, changed his mind, etc, he had to buy some replacement furniture so it was at least livable. The few pieces that Gabriel purchased to re-furnish the house were clean, minimal, practical; things in lighter cream/sage green/light brown colour palettes, soft linens and wools, light wood tones, airy decor.

And then, years later (present day in SICSIG), Cas moves out of his apartment!

Cas moving his furniture into the downstairs living areas brought so much more feeling of home to the Adalhard house. As well as him having a lot of houseplants and throw cushions, etc, Cas’s style leans tonally darker (and comfier!) than Gabriel’s; deep browns and blacks, heavier metal accents, leather couches, mohair blankets, rugs, thrifted and makeshift furniture, etc.

There were a number of plants growing on the kitchen windowsill in mismatched glass bottles and jars; a spill of herbs and culinary plants. Across the room, Luca spied several others; a fiddle leaf fig, a peace lily, some other, hanging plant he didn’t know the name of. All were lovingly tended, their deep green leaves rich and strong. The furnishings were sparse, and worn, but well-loved; a deep brown leather sofa with a red and orange knitted throw blanket, a braided jute rug in the shape of a mandala, a steamer trunk in place of a coffee table, a cinder block bookshelf. It was warm, and earthy, and Luca found himself sinking down on Cas’s sofa, flipping open a sketchpad that lay on the trunk beside a jumble of graphite pencils.

When Gabriel starts bringing some select pieces of furniture back down from the attic — his dad’s coffee table, his mum’s armchair, etc— he and Cas start curating an interior decorating style that feels like a blend of both of them.

The chair swept low and wide, a broad, welcoming thing. He knew it now as Art Deco; when he’d been young, it was just that pretty, emerald velvet chair that his mother liked to sit in.

I think they wind up with a design aesthetic that matches the exterior of Crimson Beech? It’s quite dark and earthy, very warm and soft, autumnal. Since Cas likes to thrift stuff, and they are using some of the original pieces of Gabe’s parent’s furniture, it winds up kind of vintage eclectic.

Luca both doesn’t actually own any furniture of their own and also just really likes the hybrid of Gabriel and Cas’s design styles, so they are kinda just happy to let them go ahead and do most of the decorating together. Where he contributes is in the smaller knick knacks and clutter — Luca has a real gift for finding quirky treasures that add to the overall personality of the place.

They frame some of Cas’s art and Gabriel’s photography and hang it throughout the house.

Going level by level….

Outside

Cas set up vegetable gardens and planter boxes, Luca for SURE builds a treehouse, and Gabriel works out of the garage often doing automotive repairs/maintenance on his old classic car.

Lower level

Lounge/living room — mix of Cas’s furniture, and some of Gabriel’s family’s things. They repaint this room a few times over the years, and Gabe has fun picking out new cushions/throw blankets/candles/accent colours.

Kitchen — stays the same with all the old stuff, like a bit of a time capsule of the Adalhard’s old life/Gabriel’s childhood, for a veeeeery long time. Lots of old cookbooks and tchotchkes. I think the walls are pale yellow? Which really doesn’t match the rest of the house’s colour scheme once they are done with the renovations. Cas might eventually convince Gabriel to repaint the kitchen to something more neutral (and less 90s haha). They don’t do much else in terms of updating the kitchen at first, but Luca beeeeeeegs Gabriel to PLEASE let them install a dishwasher, and once that happens, eventually Gabe is like... yeah I suppose we should probably update the cabinetry and stuff huh?

Sarah Adalhard’s bedroom — becomes the “vampire/supernatural affairs” office. It has bookshelves with Sarah’s research into vampires and any leftover Adalhard vampire hunting lore and documents, any new lore the boys have wanted to collate, Luca’s notes on witches and the O’Rinn family coven, books Cas has stolen from the Nexus for Luca lol. Large desk and chairs, both for working, and for hosting meetings with Lewyn/Astoria/any visiting vampire dignitaries on business that don’t warrant a meeting at the Nexus.

Second Level

Michaela’s bedroom — becomes Cas’s art studio, per above.

Raquel’s bedroom — becomes Luca’s dance studio. There is a family games room/second lounge on the second level that is a little bigger than Raquel’s room, and probably would have suited Luca’s purposes a bit better. But Raquel was a cheerleader, and was always very into sports in general, so her room becoming the area where Luca dances and the boys work out just felt more fitting to all of them? Luca especially likes feeling a little more connected to Gabriel’s sister in this way — yes, Gabriel joins Luca to do yoga in there quite often, and Cas and Gabe occasionally spar in there (though Cas prefers to go to the Venandi fighting pit), it is very much “Luca’s room”. Renovations include ripping up the carpet to restore the wood floors, adding floor length mirrors to one of the walls, and re-doing the windows (because Luca saw how nice Cas’s art studio windows were and got jealous haha).

Family room/second lounge — This used to be a second lounge when the Adalhards were all living in the house; they would play board games together sometimes. It was also the place the kids would hang out when they had friends over for sleepovers and parties and things (it mostly was Raquel inviting people over, being the most sociable of her siblings, but sometimes Gabriel would have friends come over too!). These days, Cas, Luca, and Gabriel have their PCs in the games room, though there is still a sitting area in there (squashy chairs, coffee table, etc) in case of board games/card games. This room is also the overflow for books Gabriel couldn't find room for in the lounge.

Master bedroom — Gabriel took over his parent’s master bedroom as his own years ago for several reasons; the bedroom he shared with Joaquin had sloped ceilings, the master bed has an ensuite bathroom and better views, and he’d hoped that staying in Remiel and Sofia’s room would make him feel closer to his parents. The ensuite bathroom was one of the few (only, really!) renovations Gabriel had made to the house on his own, before Cas and Luca moved in — he installed a new shower (a rather luxurious and spacious one), re-did the tiling, and just updated the bathroom overall (nicer/more modern cabinetry, better storage for all his skincare, anti fog strips behind the mirror, under floor heating, etc).

I don't actually have a clear image of what the bedroom looks like, but the built in headboard above/behind the 3-person sized bed (per the linked post above) is like this sort of thing!

Third Level

Gabriel/Joaquin’s childhood bedroom — Being up in the roof space was fun when Gabriel was a little kid, but this never would have been an ideal bedroom for an adult. The only other thing on the third level landing is access to the attic storage space. They decide to set this space up as their music room! Mostly because Cas wanted to prove that he could carry a piano up three flights of stairs without help, he thought he was being funny. He also loves the mental image of Gabriel doing a more modern version of “angsty vampire plays a pipe organ in his secluded tower”, but its just a regular upright piano in an attic room. Luca’s drum kit goes in here too, as do Gabe’s guitars (electric and acoustic), a couple Marshall amps, the old Adalhard record player and collection of LPs (which Luca loves browsing through and finding weird old music Remiel and Sofia liked). This is the room that is the least polished in terms of aesthetics — its where Cas’s grungier furniture goes, as well as posters and playbills from concerts and events Cas and Luca mostly go to. A lot of Gabriel’s photography that’s less “artsy” and more candid is up all over the walls here. There is also a section of wall that is graffitied with marker pen — anyone who has been invited to visit the Adalhard house as a guest is invited to sign their name on the wall like a guest book. It started with “Luca was here”, and grew into something of a tradition. All the names in that room are people that Gabriel trusts, and who know about his vampirism. It serves as a nice reminder that he isn’t alone any more, and that people love and trust him in turn.

Thank you SO freaking much for the ask, sorry it turned out huge but I got so invested in it haha, I hope you enjoyed these thoughts! 💖 It meant so much to me that there's still someone out there enjoying the Starlight trio 😭💖

This might be the most wonderful thing I have ever seen? They look so happy and safe and content in each other's embrace. I really don't have the words for how much of a GIFT this truly is??? Like, to be given the chance to glimpse my own characters, bearing the marks of the stories I've written for them (like Cas's scars!), all the little details that make me know that this is THEM (there's just something about Gabriel's expression that is making me feel like I know him, like this is specifically MY Gabe, who I have made suffer so much, and put through so much hell, but he's okay now and he's in love and safe and happy and UGH), that is such a treasure!!!!!!!!!!

In fact (at the risk of making myself cry), I'm going to drop all the truly incredible Luca art RJ has done so I can stare at it all in one place and get absolutely overwhelmed with appreciation and awe and gratitude

RJ, thank you so much for bringing Luca to life. I really don't have the words to tell you just how much I love them in your style, there's something you just really seem to get about them?? Whenever you gift me your precious art, it always captures him in a way that is so authentic and, honestly, just cool!! Haha