#twila.

→ general details

name ; twila apollon

age ; appears 24 || actually 508

gender & sexuality ; female, bisexual

race ; high fae

do they hold a position or title? ; lady of the day court, princess of phaoryze

loyalty ; the day court

face claim ; hailee steinfeld

→ in depth

→ aesthetics

the rosy glow of a soft sunset. gold jewelry against tanned skin. a sprawl of half-read ancient texts. barefeet and fine bejeweled gowns. heart of gold, eyes of gold. the adrenaline of free-falling. dark, brown curls that bounce with each giggle. untapped potential. i read that somewhere, but i don’t remember where. seeing the moon when it’s still daylight. a moment lost in the shadows.

→ headcanons

books ; while twila loves to read and uses books to sate her ever-eager curiosity, she often finds herself reading several different books at one time. her room, more often than not, is littered with ancient books that are each opened to a different page. there is no rhyme nor reason to which books she reads at what point and how long it takes to finish one.

parents ; twila never knew her parents very well. in fact, she only met them a couple of times in her life before they passed away. she loves to hear stories about them, but there is some animosity in her heart that they chose to be away from her for the entirety of her childhood and then never came home. twila always wanted to be like them and feels a bit like a disappointment to be so little like either.

sweet & sour ; twila has a deep love of anything sweet or sour. she can be found in the kitchens sneaking sweet snacks or fruit any time of day. her favorite thing to eat is lemon cake, and she will eat an entire one by herself if left to her own devices.

→ powers

Twila is very capable of basic magic such as glamouring, summoning, and healing. Her bursts of magic often comes as a second nature to her, and due to the minor nature of this magic it is rare that she ever deplete her stores. She does have the ability to winnow in a flash of sunlight. It has been noted that as many members of the High Lord’s family, Twila possesses the ability to glow like the sun. However, instead of the bright and overbearing light that her cousin possesses, Twila glows the soft rosey color of a sunset. Some have noticed that the princess can often work around very powerful wards and spells with seemingly little effort. Twila does not think much of it, as it is nothing she ever attempts to do, but there is the promise of a cursebreaking ability that she has not discovered in five hundred years.

→ personality

ebullient ; despite the tragedy that she’s seen in her life, twila has always been happy and fun-loving. she tries to never let things bring her down for too long. although it has become more difficult in the more recent years, twila has become better at hiding any negative feelings behind her bright smile.

loquacious ; it goes hand in hand with her pleasant nature. twila does not often know when to stop talking. unlike many in her position, she had never been very good at games of politics and manipulation. she says whatever comes into her mind without much filtering.

intrepid ; fearless and curious, twila is happy to jump feet first into any situation. she never had much use for caution or fear and never learned the need for them, either. 

guileless ; some believe twila’s innocence to be a farce or a strategy to throw them off of her trail. however, they soon realize that it is genuine in nature. she has no desire to trick people, but it often leads her to forget that not everyone has the same outlook on life.

amiable ; twila has always been friendly and warm in nature. there is little that could sway her from being that way. it gives her a strange sort of charm even though she often leaves people at arm’s length.

impetuous ; being fearless goes hand in hand with being impulsive. twila rarely thinks her actions through to their entirety. instead, she relies heavily on her own instincts.

→ biography

Endymion Apollon was the youngest brother of the High Lord of the Day Court. He was well known in all of Prythian for his magnificent ability to weave spells. There were few who could manage to craft them so impervious to breaking as he. At a young age, it came to light that he would be engaged to the daughter of a High Fae from the Dawn Court named Maricela in order to strengthen the alliance between the two courts. The marriage eventually grew into one of great love and admiration. While Endymion spent most of his days perfecting his particular skill set, Maricela proved herself as a general for the armies of the Day Court. They were each absolutely indispensable assets to the High Lord.

The news that they would soon give birth to a child made the couple overjoyed. Twila was born midsummer. She was the light of her parents' life. The babe wanted for nothing. She was doted upon and fiercely loved every single day, not only by her parents but by anyone who knew her. However, this all changed with the War began. The Day Court had been one of the most staunch supporters of human liberation which meant that the seven years the war raged on had  Endymion and Maricela called to the front lines with their High Lord. There were few times in those years that Twila’s parents had the opportunity to return home and see their child. They could not risk losing any moves. The majority of Twila’s time was spent with her aunt and cousin, who happily raised her while her parents were away. 

During the last year of the war, The Day Court made a stand against the King of Hybern. The battle lasted for two weeks. On the final day, Endymion was struck down first, and then Maricela on her way to her husband’s side. The High Lord did everything in his power to fight his own way to both of them, but was tragically too late to save either. He personally left the front lines of the war, which was nearing its end, to tell Twila what happened himself. He swore to her that she would always be taken care of, and that her place was with her family. The High Lord adopted her as if she were his own daughter and raised her as such. 

Twila had been a child filled with kindness and compassion from a very young age. From the first days that she could speak and walk, she used her time to help others. The little princess would find her way down to the kitchen and help to pour drinks or sift flour. She would always follow around after the maids with a rag of her own despite their constant objections. As she grew older, she gave into her curiosity and loved to explore the far reaches of the surrounding cities. If there were ever a face to look at her in need, the girl did not hesitate to even pull the jewelry from her neck to give away. Why should any go without when she had so much? Her aunt always claimed that she got this trait from her father who was much the same. All that being said, Twila was an equally wild child. Twila would convince her cousin to run through the halls to play tag or hide and seek with her on any given day. She was often found climbing the trellises and statues about the palace. A healer needed to be called in on multiple occasions because she would fearlesses jump from any heights just to see if she could land. Oftentimes she would discover that she could not. 

Twila was truly treated like a daughter to the High Lord. Never once did anyone question her place in the family. However, she always felt as though she did not quite belong. Although no one would verbalize it, Twila could always tell that it was expected that she would one day either grow into her mother’s natural ability to strategize and lead or she would mature into her father’s ability to spellweave. However, Twila was always a strong pacifist. She had no desire to lead people into war when it had done nothing but take her parents from her and leave those she loved scarred from it. When she matured, there was no sign of that spellweaving ability either. In fact, it appeared that she only inherited the traditional magical abilities of those in the family of the High Lord of the Day Court in very small doses. Twila only felt more discouraged by this. She wanted to find a way that she could be of use to the family that had raised her so lovingly. She did not wish to be a burden to them.

That’s how Twila came to the decision to begin studying the ancient tomes housed in the Day Court libraries. The Day Court was well known for having the greatest collection of books in the known world, and Twila was denied access to nothing. She would wake up with the rising sun and spend hours reading through book after book. She would even read well into the night occasionally. Against the rules, Twila would frequently sneak the books away from the libraries to read out in the sunshine, too. This is how things went along for more than a century. Until she was caught by one of the librarians. 

The librarian was a young male by the name of Cato. He’d only recently come into his position and was still in training when he caught the princess sneaking in one of the books that had been previously borrowed and preparing to winnow away another. Cato had been incensed. He could not believe that anyone would be so incredibly short-sighted. He lectured her for nearly an hour afterwards and insisted that she never be left alone with the books again. No one listened to him. Yet, he could always be certain to watch her while she was in the library to ensure that she did not break the rules again.

Before long, the two became friends. Twila admired how strongly he stayed to his convictions and laughed frequently at his sense of humor. Cato realized that Twila was merely passionate and invested in doing for others. They spent nearly every single day together as Twila continually came back to his library. Eventually, they found ways to seek one another out when they were in the company of books. Twila invited him to parties and nights out dancing. Cato invited her out to picnics and to shop in the market. Throughout the following decades, their friendship grew into a deep fondness and then into a blossoming love. Cato asked the High Lord for permission to marry her and was granted it with no hesitation. Twila was overjoyed to have him as a husband. While no mating bond ever slipped into place, Twila was unconcerned with that fact. Her parents had not been mates, either, but they’d been very much in love.