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tiptapricot · 3 years

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tipstie PLEASE tell me about tlb turning human/ human AU

Absolutely my dudes 👁👁 (this is also all hcs about how vampire rules work so just go with it)

So for me a human TLB AU isn’t one where they die and turn human, it’s one where Max is killed after being found out one way or another before any altercation with the boys happens, and they revert back to humans as a result

The reason this happens is because all the boys were sired by Max, and while they are technically full vampires, they aren’t independent vampires

Sires act as a sort of guardian to the vampires they turn, watching over them and guiding them until they believe they’re ready to take care of themselves

This is why they have a certain level of control, influence, and power over the vampires they turn, they have a bond

When sires think the vampires they’ve turned are ready to make it on their own, they sever that bond with a ritual that relinquishes complete autonomy to their vampires

But Max never did this

He wanted a family, and families have to stick together, so until his death he still clung to that small sliver of control over the boys, and that last step to complete and independent vampirism remained incomplete

And so, when Max is killed, there’s a sort of backlash, a glitch

The bond is broken, but broken wrong, and the small piece of the boys that’s still human, the piece that still remains deep down, starts clawing it’s way out

It hits Marko first, since was turned most recently, chills and fever and body wracking pain, like his body is eating itself from the inside out

It’s nothing like any of them have ever seen or heard of before, and they don’t know what to do but sit with him and try to lessen the fever

Paul follows a few hours later, exactly the same, and Dwayne helps David carry the two of them a little over halfway to the Emerson house before he collapses too

David gets them the rest of the way there, feeling worse and worse the longer he goes

He knocks on the door and Michael opens it, and David only manages a raspy “Need your help, Michael,” before he’s pitching forward into his arms

The next week or so is a blur

Michael convinces Lucy and Grandpa to help, and for Sam to keep the Frogs away while they figure out what’s going on

Star calls that night, and says she and Laddie were out when they felt themselves change back, and that she didn’t wait to find out why

She caught a bus to her cousin’s place in LA and took Laddie with her, but wanted to make sure Michael was ok

He says he’s fine, and promises to call again with more details, since “it’s a little hard to explain right now” and they hang up with plans to talk that weekend

Meanwhile the boys are going in and out of feverish half awake states, never lucid enough to do anything except drink water and groan. The Emersons take care of them in shifts, and Michael helps Grandpa research what might be happening to them. They don’t find a lot

Marko is the first to come out of it, after about three days

He’s groggy and confused, waking up to Lucy wiping his forehead with a damp towel

She gives him something to drink and helps him sit up, but there’s something... wrong

There’s a weight in his chest, a thrumming, heavy heartbeat, expanding lungs, heat

He’s breathing again, he’s alive again

He’s human

Paul wakes up in the middle of that night, to Michael in the room this time. After getting the general “you’re human but we don’t know why” pitch, he’s taken to a guest bedroom where he finds Marko curled up on the bed. He slides in behind him and pulls him close, and he knows Marko isn’t asleep because he can feel him shaking

Marko’s always been good at crying quietly

Paul’s pretty personable as they wait for David and Dwayne to wake up. He talks with the family and reads comics on the living room couch, and fetches food and stuff for Marko, who’s basically refusing to leave the guest room

Being back in a human body is bringing back too many memories for him of the shitty life he escaped from, and he’s having a hard time dealing with it

But Paul is there, and the Emersons are alright, and he’s eventually able to be coaxed out to have an actual meals with the family, and that’s nice too

Dwayne wakes up the Saturday after the boys first arrive, in one of the rare times no one was in the room to keep an eye on him and David

He interrupts breakfast by barreling into the living room looking extremely lost and worried, and shakily rushes over to pull Paul and Marko into a hug when he sees them staring wide eyed at him from the table

“Couldn’t hear you...” he mumbles into Marko’s hair. “Can’t hear either of you anymore...”

Lucy has him join them at the table and gets him his own plate of food, and they explain what they know. It still isn’t a lot, but it does give him a reason as to why the mental link the boys had is gone

The following days are strangely quiet. Michael and Lucy help the boys adjust, reminding them to eat and helping them when they forget they don’t have super strength or magic healing

The boys start talking more too, mostly out of necessity since they can’t communicate mentally anymore (which Marko thinks is extremely annoying) but also because life in the Emerson house is... surprisingly comfortable

Michael explains the whole thing to Star over the phone, and after a moment she laughs

“Maybe they needed this,” she tells him, “maybe this is good.”

A week and a half after the boys arrive, two things happen: David finally wakes up, and the Frogs find out who the mysterious house guests Sammy’s been keeping them away from are

David comes to in a dim room, with Michael dozing against the wall

He grunts and pushes himself up, and only just registers the heat of his own blood and the scratch of breathing in the back of his throat when there’s a commotion from somewhere outside

Michael wakes up with a slight flinch, rubbing a hand over his face, and makes eye contact with David right as the door slams open and Dwayne, Marko, and Paul come rushing in, followed quickly by the Frog brothers and a frantic Sam

It takes a bit of explaining, but they eventually come to an understanding

The Frogs are still a bit hesitant to believe the boys are human, but it’s not like real vampires could walk in the sunlight or show up in the hall mirror, so that’s good enough for them

The boys continue living with the Emersons after that

They find ways to help out here and there, with cleaning or dinner or dishes or farm work

Sleep schedules become basically non existent as well, and it’s a common occurrence to find at least one person up at all hours of the night

Each of the boys has... a moment or two, where it really settles in that they’re human again

For Marko, it’s when he pokes himself while trying to resew one of his patches. He hisses when he pricks his thumb, and when the blood beads up on the pad of his finger he just... stares at it. It doesn’t heal right away, and he can’t even smell it. He sucks on it to try and make it go away, and tasting blood again, when it no longer has the same rush or necessity, makes him cringe. He puts a band aid on it, and doesn’t mention it to anyone.

For Paul, it’s when he goes to a concert on the beach. He manages to get lost in the music, in the crowd, in the loud drums and the guitar riffs and the warm press of bodies and the intoxicating energy, and he doesn’t, not once, think about sinking his teeth into anyone around him. He only realizes about halfway through the second song that he’s actually hearing the music, too, instead of it just being the background noise for a cacophony of heartbeats. He goes home that night drunk on sound and life, and doesn’t know if he’s ever been happier in his life.

For Dwayne, it’s when he has his first cup of hot chocolate after turning back. It’s at the beginning of winter, and everyone is crammed together on the couch to break in the TV that Sam finally convinced Grandpa and Lucy to get. Michael and Sam are bickering about what movie to watch, Paul and Marko are having an animated conversation with the Frogs from their place on the floor, and Lucy and grandpa are laughing about something in the kitchen. They come out a bit later with snacks and drinks, and Dwayne is handed a big mug of cocoa with a heaping helping of whipped cream and marshmallows. He takes a sip without really thinking, and then stops. There’s a moment, when he just feels the warmth spread through his chest and belly, and then all at once it’s like he’s hit with this wave of emotions he can’t quite place, familiarity and relief and joy, and there are tears mixing with his whipped cream mustache. The movie is good, but the cocoa is definitely better.

For David, the first time is when he goes outside after waking up. He’d seen the sunlight through the windows, and knew it didn’t hurt him anymore, but feeling it, actually smelling the fresh air and hearing the birds and cicadas and feeling a warm breeze... it’s a little overwhelming. Michael finds him sitting on the back porch wiping at his eyes, and joins him

The second time is when he notices that his roots are showing, that his hair is growing again. Any cutting or dying was effectively permanent when he was a vampire, since their hair didn’t grow, but now... Getting a reminder that his body is living and changing again is strange. He decides to let it grow out a bit, just to see where it goes

The boys are very touchy with everyone. They were already before they turned back, but now that cuddles involve body heat, they happen much more often

So do visits to the mall, oddly enough. Lucy takes them once to get them some new clothes, and they have way too much fun popping in and out of different shops and all trying to fit in the photo booth at once. They may, technically, get banned from a few stores for causing too much of a ruckus, but that doesn’t stop them from coming back

Dwayne and David both get really into cooking, and Paul and Marko experiment a lot with mixing different things to “remember what tastes good” again. Usually doesn’t have the best outcomes, but they’re definitely adventurous

David forgets he has to sleep sometimes, but he’ll be out like a rock if anyone pulls him into bed or lets him lean on them while watching TV

Overall, adjusting is strange for all of them, but there’s a goodness to it too. Even when things are hard they figure them out eventually, and no matter what they always have each other

It feels like a new life, a new start, where they can finally get things right

Headcanons masterpost

#the fruit is talking again #the fruit is headcanoning again #tlb #the lost boys #the lost boys 1987 #michael emerson #sam emerson #lucy emerson #david the lost boys #marko the lost boys #paul the lost boys #dwayne the lost boys #the fruit is answering again

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theyreonlynoodlesmike · 3 years

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Oh, Loverboy: Part 7 (everyone x everyone, Star x Fem!Reader Centric)

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Warnings: roasting Michael, slight angst, anxiety, vampire lore, canon divergence begins here folks, Michael canonically acts like a total dick in this scene so-

Word Count: 1.8k

"And don't tell me it doesn't make her a bad person, Mike!" The little boy yelled as he cowered under his covers. You stood there, staring at the brunette. The tension was thick, and all the adoration and kindness he'd held for you had left. You could see the apprehension in his eyes, and the anger mingling within it.

"Why did you let David take me there tonight, y/n?" He said, and you clicked your jaw. You could've guessed he would've been upset, but you didn't expect him to shift some of the blame onto you. It wasn’t like you had wanted to show him. And what other choice did you have? Cause a scene by arguing with David? Let him go without you?

"Who's David?" The little boy interrupted, and you shot him a look. One that made him clam his lips together and hide his face from you. Your eyes turned back to Michael, and you moved your fingers. You were trying to think of a way to explain, a way to ease the tension. The only thing you could think to say was,

"You wanted to go with them, Michael. What- What was I supposed to say?" But you were interrupted again, and you smelled her before you even heard her voice. You turned your head, just a fraction of a second before her voice rang out,

"Michael! Y/N!" And you swore under your breath. Part of you wondered if she even knew what had happened, but that didn't stop you from turning and hanging your head out the window. She stared up at you, worry clear in her eyes. "I have to talk to you and Michael! Can I come up?" She asked and you sighed. This is why you wanted them to turn. If she was fully one of you, she wouldn't be so out of the loop. But you pushed that argument off for another day and waved her up.

It only took her a second, and, by the time you'd turned around, she was by your side. You reached for her hand, holding it tight. It felt good to have her next to you, to have her hand in yours. Especially when Michael was going to be this way. Even if she might agree with him more than you liked.

"You know where they took me tonight. Don't you, Star?" Michael said, and you felt Star give your hand a squeeze before she was stepping closer. You didn't like that he was targeting her and you moved with her, just a step behind.

"Yes. It's my fault. If you hadn't met me, if I hadn't liked you." And you made a small noise and reached for her waist. It wasn't her fault, but you knew Star had a tendency to blame herself. To let others walk all over her. It wasn't like Michael hadn't followed you around the entire boardwalk. She turned to give you a look, and you didn't say a word. You turned your eyes back to Michael, and she continued, "We tried to warn you." She said, and that part was true. You'd tried to get David to let him leave, to let him go home. Star had even told him that it was blood.

"It was that night at the cave, wasn't it? That wasn't wine they gave me to drink. It was blood." And you gave him a look. It seemed he'd finally pieced it together. Took long enough, you thought. "It was David's blood." You were half tempted to correct him, to speak of your sire, but an earlier command made you bite your tongue. And the kid shrieked,

"You drank somebody's blood? Are you crazy?" And you nearly wanted to give the kid something to scream about. Still, Michael had seen that you'd wanted to speak, and he stared at you. You were too busy looking at the girl besides you, who's eyes had cast down to the floor. You saw the look in her eyes, the regret on her face. You could already imagine what she must've been telling herself.

"Is there anything else I need to know?" He snarked, his eyes trained on you. And that was it. Any resolve you had snapped. Your eyes flicked to him and you took a step forward, passing the girl next to you.

"I know you're upset. I know you're hungry. I know you want someone to chew on." Your words were hard and heavy. Heavy enough to even silence the boy cowering in the corner, and especially the boy standing in front of you. Michael watched you come closer, seeming to lose a little bit of his hot air as you came closer. As if he was remembering what you'd done less than an hour before. You took a step with end of your words, until you were only a few inches from him. "But, it's not gonna be me, and it's not gonna be Star. Got that, loverboy? You followed us the first night, you came with us to the cave, and you drank from the bottle." You punctuated your words with a hard jab to his chest each time, your eyes flickering yellow as you stared into his baby blues. "We're not the ones that tricked you, and we're not the ones that have been hazing you. I went there tonight to watch out for you and I came here to make sure you were okay, because I care about you and so does Star." You gestured to yourself and then to the girl behind you. "So, cut the attitude or you're on your own, loverboy. And trust me, our kind doesn't last long by themselves." The threat lingered in the air, and you watched as Michael clicked his jaw. He smiled for a moment, before looking away and lightly shaking his head. But he exchanged whatever smart remark he had for,

"So, what? I'm just like you and David now?" He asked, and you frowned. His voice had cracked, and his face had changed. A sliver of fear, of distraught, had poked through. You didn't like how he said it. How he seemed to think that this was a bad thing. You looked away for a moment, and Star spoke up behind you,

"No, you're not. You're like Laddie and me. We're not like them until-" But it seemed the kid had no problem cutting off Star.

"Until you make your first kill!" And the three of you were silent. Michael stared at the both of you, but you could feel the weight of his eyes gravitate towards you. You'd never felt like the odd man out before. You had your place, you belonged to the coven. But, now? Surrounded by humans and halfs? You gulped and shifted your feet. You felt Stars hand slide into yours, and you tightened your fingers around her. Michaels voice shook as he asked,

"Why didn't you two kill me last night?" And you stared at him. You were almost shocked that he'd even asked, and the words were leaving your mouth before you could even think about them.

"Because you're one of us, Michael. We would never let anything happen to you." And Michael laughed, like what you said had to be a joke. But it was the truth. Even if the boys hazed him, Michael was one of you. And covens protected their own. You frowned, your eyes quick to turn into a glare. Before you could snap at him again, he said,

"One of you? Why am I even one of you? Why didn't you kill me the first night?" You paused. You had to admit, that was a good question. It was something you'd started to wonder yourself. You looked over at Star. Her mouth opened, but she hesitated. As if she didn't know what to say. And, as you watched the water pool in her eyes, you decided to break a rule. One that you were sure that would bite you later on.

"I think- I think it had to do with my dad." You started, and you watched as confusion took over Michaels features. He seemed to forget all about that awkward first meeting, and you didn't necessarily blame him. After the feeding, you were sure he wasn't thinking about much else. "He- The boys don't just turn anyone. It's a big, big, decision. Usually. But they," You trailed off. You remembered that night, how you'd gotten a bad feeling. You were starting to feel the same one now. "David talked to my dad that night. They told me to go inside. I thought it was just- y'know, coven stuff. But-" Your eyes were flicking between different spots on Michaels chest, before they flicked up to his eyes. His clear, baby blue eyes. A thought occurred to you then. A thought that made the bad feeling crawl into your throat, as if to stop whatever words were threatening to spill out. "I think my dad told David to turn you."

"Your dad?" Star asked, in just a whisper, but you didn't pay her any mind more than a simple nod. You were trying to piece this together, trying to find an explanation.

"Max." You said emptily into the open air, and the word stung your tongue. Of course, Star knew. She had to. She knew what you were, she had to know what your dad was. Even if he'd tried to keep it from her as long as possible. And Michael knew. He'd met him. So why did it feel like you were disobeying him?

"But he passed the test!" Sam exclaimed, and you turned your eyes towards him then. He'd been so quiet that you'd forgot that he was there. Your own eyes filled with confusion. Test? He seemed to shrink away from your gaze as you finally put together what he'd been saying. How he knew the things he did. He'd known you were one of "them", known about the first kill, and now he was testing your dad? You realized then that you were staring into the face of a baby hunter, and your hand gripped Stars tighter as panic spiked up your spine.

"What tests? What tests, Sam?" Michael asked his brother, and you watched as the little boy pushed himself up. You nearly shrunk back, stepping towards the wall. Blocking the girl next to you half-way from view. The urge to flee filled you as the little boy, now known as Sam, rattled off a series of tests,

"Garlic, water- He even had a reflection!" And you scoffed impulsively. Garlic didn't even work, regular water didn't burn, but a reflection? While that was tricky, it was an easy fix. Before you could stop yourself, you said,

"Well, someone invited him in." And you realized a moment too late that maybe you shouldn't have said that.

#the lost boys #the lost boys 1987 #star the lost boys #the lost boys star #sam the lost boys #the lost boys sam #michael the lost boys #the lost boys michael

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xoxo-nikki-xoxo · 4 years

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Leverage

Elijah Mikaelson x Arabella Castaway-Mikaelson

Authors note: Okay everyone after much planning and thinking I have come up with my own OC! I can’t wait for us to take this journey together learning about Arabella, like who she is, and how she came to be. Do not be afraid to send in asks about her either!

Word count: 2.4K

Somewhat based off of season 3 of the originals. I also joined the calibration for Dom’s 2 years bioversary. This fic is about sire bonds more importantly them being broken.

@xxwritemeastoryxx

———————————

Being involved in The Original family comes with its up and downs. Especially when it has caused the love of your life to pick his family over well his wife. That was about well two months ago, sense then I have not seen Elijah Mikaelson or his family. It is nothing I can blame them for though, the sad thing is I do not even remember who they are! In fact, it is the vampires I come across on during my travels that bring up The Original family. Usually it goes around the lines someone asking me where they are. From my gathering of these conversations I was married to the one they call honorable, the noble brother, Elijah. It never has set well with me though that my so called “husband” has abandoned me. If we are married is not that meant to be forever, that’s the whole point of getting married is not. Asking to many questions is what got me in this predicament, see what I do remember is my whole life. I remember the life I had New Orleans, the fashion the cooking all of it. So, if I was married to someone back then why is there no piecing pieces? I barley know anything about this so-called original family, yet their presentence lingers over my body like a shadow. Too afraid to come and say hello, but it’s like every step I take it’s as though I’m being watched.

“Well if it isn’t the myth, the legend Arabella…. how did you find her? Elijah never mentioned why she left or where she went to in the first place” A male’s voice, it was deep with the hint of smoothness. I have no clue what happened, I just remember being at a local cafe in France then my neck was snapped. It went black for a while after that.

“Well we have our ways of getting what we need. When it comes to the leverage we need, this will be perfect. He’ll do anything it takes to keep his precious wife safe… And that well be the way we lure both him and his brother here, so my witches can perform this spell.” it’s a women’s voice, even though I don’t understand what she talking about I don’t want anything to do with it. “I’ll be back later with the items that Davina needs to finish the spell. Be prepared Marcellus, the strixs are all prepared for this battle tonight.” I can hear her shoes click as she walks away from us.

“Davina! Help me take these ropes off her. I can’t touch them, there soaked in vervain. She doesn’t deserve to be in the middle of this. Aya’s only using her to lure Elijah and Klaus here” the man’s voice I can hear must be Marcellus, whoever he is.

“She won’t die today Marcel… she needs to be here to lure Elijah and Klaus here. When they get here, it’ll be easy one of the other witches knock them out.” Davina say as she unties the ropes that are wrapped around my arms and legs. ” she’s safe here Marcel you can leave. When the spell starts you might feel a little warmth, it’ll pass though once the link it gone.” the girl says, and as she says it the blind fold over my eyes gets taken off and so does the duct tape.

“What if this warmth is the last thing I feel”

“I’ll be careful”

“I get that Davina and I’m game. But we are on a tight rope with the Mikaelson’s right now. Jackson was a friend to them and us. On top of that we have Arabella too”

“I know Marcel. And I know it’s a long shot, but if I can’t save you, and I can’t save Josh, even Arabella, then I can’t save Kol. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you guys.” Davina says as she takes of the last of the ropes from my body.

When I open my eyes the man’s gone and the only thing in front of me is a girl looking at me. “You can’t leave, I put up a boundary spell around you… It’s for your protection Bella” The sweet looking girl says to me as she watches me over

“How do you know me?” I asked

“It’s a long story, just know that you’re my friend… I’m Davina, and that guy that was here a couple seconds ago his name is Marcel.” Davina says turning back to the papers that are hanging on the wall.

“Well it seems like everyone here already knows who I am, so tell me Davina. What is that spell for?”

———-Switch to Elijah———

“And now Aya and her mob of are free to break the sire line. You know, we have made many glorious enemies over the years, brother, but If they sever the link to us, then they well all come for our heads.” Klaus speaks as both of us walk side by side toward the entrance of the compound. This is the very reason why I sent her away, I knew this prophecy was going to be a blood bath. I didn’t need for her to get in the way.

“Not without the white oak brother” I say in a soothing voice as Niklaus stops Infront of me

“Aurora has the last of it” I can the thought swirling in his head, with a smirk forming on my lips I simply say

“Then she dies first”

“You once told me you wanted to use her head as a footstool” titling his head to the side he finished with “why wait”

That’s when my phone vibrates in my coat pocket. I pull it out answering

“Marcel?”

“how”

“Yes, I see” *hangs up the phone*

My face drops looking at Klaus “I don’t know how, but Aya found Arabella. The crescent wolves were able to locate where they are keeping her” I say looking right at Klaus

“Well then let’s get going”

—— back to Arabella—-

“Where is she Aya? Unlike my brother I don’t have the patience to deal with this” the voice is raspy thick sounding as I hear multiple footsteps approaching us.

“Hello gentlemen, it’s my pleasure you have decided to join us tonight” Aya says, so that is Aya!

“Let me out of here!!” I yelled getting fed up with being confined into this circle. I bang my fists on the barrier and both the men’s eyes land right on to me.

“How did you-” The man in the suit says his bouncing from mine to Ayas

“It doesn’t matter now that you both are here” Aya says as she stands tall. There two girls that approach them changing some foreign language I don’t recognize. Both men then collapse onto the floor.

“I told you Davina Claire, Arabella Castaway was the key to getting them to come here.” Aya says glancing at me before some body guards drag the two men’s bodies into the water.

“Ive played my part let me out of here!!” I yelled

“You well soon sweet girl, just a few more hours left. Your role to play is still not over yet.” Aya states as she approach’s Davina

“Were ready to start” Davina stats looking over at Aya

“Then let’s begin”

That’s when all the chanting starts, There’s apart of me deep down that knows this is wrong. This hole I have felt the past 3 months is aching in a way I’ve never felt it do before. This must be him, the more I think about the faster I put the pieces together. Those are the originals, the one in the suit. He is my husband and even if he did abdomen me years ago I won’t abdomen him now.

I scream banging my fists on the barrier again as the chanting continue. Marcel comes into the room suddenly going up to Aya.

“Any problems?” Marcel asks looking into the pool with the two men, at me, then his eyes land on Davina.

“No, we are nearly there. After today one man’s recklessness will no longer weigh on the shoulders of his sires. Thousands of vampires across the world will be free from the tranny of the originals. I’m glad you’re here Marcel. Stay close by when it happens will you?” Aya says walking up to the pool looking over.

“Why are you guys doing this, I don’t belong here” I scream throwing a fit.

I watch in horror as both the men’s throats are cut then thrown back into the water, the chanting gets louder. And the more chanting I hear is when the barrier drops, I rush the closets witch breaking her back. Another women appears besides marcel killing what looked like to be a body guard

“Marcel!”

“I’m Sorry D. We need to get them out of the water now” Marcel states looking at both us girls. But before anything can happen Davina yells “No” and throws all three of us to the end of the room. I hear the screams as the man in the suit sits up taking one of the witches’ under water with him. I stand up making eye contact with him as he leaps out of the water.

“I’m so sorry baby… forgive me, Rememoraeri” He says looking into my eyes, and it’s as if the two worlds collided. All my memories come crashing down onto me. But it’s one inparticular that strikes me the hardest. It’s the night I was turned into a vampire

The street was cold underneath my numb body. This wasn’t supposed to happen to me, not like this. I was supposed to live a life, not dying on the side of the road. The loneness of staring up into the sky not being able to move or cry out for help seemed to be the only thing I could look at. I was utterly hopeless as blood pooled up around me. Soon I began choking on the blood stuck in my throat. I wasn’t in any pain no more, it felt more like I was high up in the sky flying.

“No!” I heard him yell he rushed over to my side picking me up biting into his wrist “Drink Bella… please… no-no-no. Not like this… You can’t die like this” I took my last breath Elijah Mikaeslons arms. The last thing I seen was his beautiful brown eyes and the stars glowing behind him. That was in tell I woke up

“Elijah?” I blinked away the memory as I took in his appearance Infront of me. “Whats going on, oh my god-” There where millions of thoughts running through my head

“I well explain later” Elijah says giving me a small smile tucking a random piece of hair behind my ear, that was before we turn, we turned our attention to Davina as she started to break Klaus sire line link

“Davina No!” Marcel shouts, Klaus opens his eyes leaping out Infront of Davina but she catches him with her powers yelling

“No, you’ve had your time!” She shouts throwing him back down into the water, in the process of her doing his she throws all of us down to. We can hear he finishing her spell as Klaus yells. I scream as a warming sensation comes over my body and before I know it, it stops. Elijahs is the first to get up and come to the rescue of Klaus.

I sit up getting into the water with Elijah as well, I move Niks hair out of his face

He is weak but he would never ambit it. “I felt them leave, my sire line is broken” Nik states his voice shaky.

Elijah and I help Klaus out of the pool “I’ll be in the car soon… I have some unfinished business to attended too.” Elijah says leaving me and Nik in the car.

“You do understand they both have history” Klaus says as he glances at me

“I do, and I tend to end that history right now.” I say excusing myself from the car as I make my way into the building using the back door so I can eavesdrop on the conversation he was having with Aya.

“So, we remain connected, you and I, in spite of everything that you have done” Elijah says as he twirls a gun around his finger. “I can’t let you hurt my family, my wife. And you can’t hurt me more than you already have” Elijah says looking into Ayas eyes. I can feel and see the hurt and guilt he is holding over himself for hurting Aya. It makes me feel somewhat jealous, but I can’t blame him. He’s lived a thousand plus years; he should have had a few epic loves.

“I stood by you Elijah. All of us where willing to die for you, and how do you repay us? Betrayal, abandonment.” Aya spits out turning to face his face. She loves him it’s easy to tell, love can be killer.

“You were not forsaken. Yes, I failed you, for this… I will never forgive myself… But I can’t forgive this. You captured my wife!” Elijah yells as he motioned to all the body in the room

“If your life was chained to a man, who left you despite of your devotion, what choice do I have other than to break free” Aya says this conversation hurts to hear. “ So… End this” Aya says moving as he holds the gun up to her heart. His hand is shaky “End it Elijah!! Or I’ll take that gun and kill you just to be free of you!” She yells tears rolling down her cheek into she grunts, her voice stops her body leans to the side. I stand besides her holding her heart in my hand.

“So, Elijah tell me why did you decided to erase my memory from ever knowing you?” I ask holding the heart as I look my husband right in the eyes

#elijah mikaelson #elijah mikaelson smut #elijah mikealson imagine #the originals #the vampire diaries #niklaus mikaelson #hayley marshall #rebekah mikaelson #Kol mikaelson #elijah mikaelson x reader #xxwritemeastoryxxturns2

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deans-haunted-baby · 3 years

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Curious. What do you mean by Dust till Dawn going against it's Characters? I know I have my own feelings, or confusion, with how they left Kate's story.

From Dusk Till Dawn effectively character assassinated every single character in the very last episode including Kate Fuller. No one is acting like themselves in that series finale it's like some deranged fanfic writer came aboard and hijacked the show while no one was looking. If you thought 15x18 & 15x19 of Supernatural were bad and believe me they really are; those episodes are minorly salvageable against the slaughterhouse that Dusk 3x10 was. It utterly contradicts and ignores everything the show put forward in all 3 seasons. I will never watch that episode again.

I'll first explain what that piece of shit did to the show's lead protagonists, the Gecko brothers. Regardless of how you or anyone else feels about Supernatural's series finale; that show was a saint to Sam and Dean's storyline beginning to end compared to how From Dusk Till Dawn definitively butchered Richie and Seth. I'm sad saying this because Zane Holtz and DJ Controna are outstanding as these characters. I freaking love their chemistry man, it's a great rival to J2! They're the badass dark clones of the Winchesters. Their arc starts out fascinatingly complex because they went from cold-blooded criminals/bad guys and meanwhile during their escape over the Mexican border with this hostage family the audience is told pretty quick by Professor Aiden Tanner that the Geckos are destined to become these foresworn warriors The Mayan Hero Twins in an ancient prophecy (based on real Mesoamerican lore) who battle the Underworld. So right away the show is telling us ahead where Seth and Richie are suppose to end up in their journey and when you introduce a storyline this big I expect a satisfying payoff.

At the end of season 1, Richie Gecko is *SPOILER ALERT* transformed into a culebra (snake-vampire) while Seth Gecko remains human symbolizing their night and day Hero Twin counterparts from the legend. And they're separated in the first half of season 2 where both try to navigate this new supernatural world they've stumbled on individually. What they find, no different than the Winchesters, is that neither can function properly without the other making their destiny all the more valid. That season is practically constructed like their swan song to the criminal lifestyle since the brothers are meant to become more than crooks; and since Richie's a vampire they can't ever go back to basics. Their adopted father aka uncle Eddie actually says the line "this is my swan song" in 2x07 to Seth and Richie in reference to their final heist together which is not a coincidence. That's the writers telling us that the Gecko Brothers' role in the show is going to shift from anti-heroes to heroes very soon. Eddie and Kate Fuller's fates in S2 act as the primary catalysts for this transition taking shape in the finale.

Going into season 3 it's business as usual for the boys until the prophecy of the twins officially rips a hole in the damn universe via demon queen Amaru. Who's now possessing Kate. Throughout that season Seth and Richie embark on a journey of heroism; find themselves battling monsters, actually saving civilians and dealing with their own personal demons (guilt and remorse over past sins). That year is presented as their redemption arc and final phase into their new role. No one ever tells them about their destiny (despite most of the other characters knowing) but we as the audience are already aware as we watch the brothers in action. The best episode is without a doubt 3x06 the crown jewel of From Dusk Till Dawn because it's about overcoming the darkness inside. And who best represents that than Richie; the show's most important central character whom began the series as a deadly clairvoyant criminal into the tortured vampire hero struggling with his own humanity. Now I won't spoil the whole episode for anyone who hasn't seen it or the show in general but it's an incredible moment of character development for both the Gecko brothers. Not only does it cement their powerful bond it's the episode that defines who these two are once and for all. The ones who lead the battle between good and evil; keep the balance of light and darkness. One day I plan to do an entire analysis of that episode because it's so fucking brilliant and shot so incredibly eerie at the same time 😁

You want to know what 3x10 does to these characters? It shits all over their entire storyline and pisses away THREE FUCKING SEASONS of character development. Just flushes it all down the toilet rendering everything they've ever done up to that point completely pointless! Their destiny which is the WHOLE POINT OF THE SHOW is suddenly dropped last minute and the Geckos hit reset on their former criminal escapades; dragging Kate along with them. I hate that finale with the fire of a thousand suns for what it does to Richie and Seth 😡

Moving on to Carlos Madrigal. He is the best villain character in the history of show villains hands down. I can actually say that without blinking. Wilmer Valderama is phenomenal, he steals the show as Carlos. He's is so freaking awesome, evil and badass! I just want to keep seeing this man tear things apart while being the sexy asshole he is 😈For all intents and purposes I don't want to spoil his whole storyline on the show for those following me in case they're interested. But what I will say is 3x10 destroys this character; so don't watch it if you want to keep the memory of who he was alive. I'm actually depressed over what was done to him as much as I feel sorry for Wilmer having to perform that shitty script. It's laughable in a very bad way. Gotta hand it to the writers and showrunners of FDTD they certainly knew how to humiliate their best characters in this series. Carlos basically goes from charismatic yet lethal Hannibal Lecter to a very captain obvious Gandolf caricature. Yah you heard that right, it's really fucking sad.

Next we have Freddie Gonzalez; the audience's avatar into the series. This character is connected to everyone on the show for a reason because of the crucial part he plays in this universe. The "Peacekeeper" destined to police the line between the supernatural world from the human world. In the beginning he's a Texas deputy on a quest to avenge the murder of his father figure/partner Earl McGraw via the Gecko Brothers. But once he steps in that territory of monsters there's no going back. And FDTD repeatedly tells him and the audience this in the first 2 seasons. But then 3x10 pulls the ultimate fuckery by giving him the most cliched, nonsensical hallmark ending effectively cancelling out his entire purpose in the series. He instantly forgets that he ever cared about Kate, watching her bleed out on the ground, then leaves the Geckos high and dry rushing his family (who isn't injured) to the hospital. And he stays there while the battle continues 😣

Kate and Scott Fuller OMG words cannot describe my anger over what was done to them so I'll make it fast. I'll begin with Kate the bright light and heart of the series. Her arc in the first two seasons is excellent. It's emotionally driven because she begins as an ordinary girl in broken yet seemingly-happy family to a young woman finding her way around the supernatural world maintaining her faith and moral compos while trying to help her brother after he's *SPOILER ALERT* been turned into a vampire; paralleling the Geckos's situation. Scott being only a 16 year old kid, like Richie, struggles immensely after his transformation; searching for meaning as a cursed individual and coping with his duality. He was already different to begin with so being a vampire adds some interesting layers to his character.

Btw Kate plays a vital role in Richie and Seth's lives, though in my opinion is more strongly connected to Richie. The show even goes as far as developing the early glimpses of a romantic arc between Kate and Richie (seeing as they kiss twice) with angst at the end of season 2 that is never resolved. You want to know why it wasn't? Not only does season 3 mute Kate's voice and agency but 3x10 ruins her character and demolishes her whole arc with Richie (who spent all of season 3 trying to save her) at the last second due to fan pressure of those who shipped her with Seth. They don't exchange one word nor barely look at one another it's like seasons 1&2 never happened. This is the biggest fuck you to fans of these characters I've ever witnessed in a series and they did my boys Adam and Michael so dirty in Supernatural. Poor Scott whom the show enjoyed kicking around all season barely gets a thing to do in that series finale either than listening to his sister and Seth gab about prom lol. Yah you heard me I'm not making this shit up I swear. Then he gets abandoned by Kate while she goes off to be a bank robber with the character assassinated versions of Seth and Richie. How extraordinary 😖

Santanico Pandemonium is really the only character in the series who manages to get out unscathed. HOWEVER her arc is handled very poorly beginning to end. They set up an arc between her and Seth that also goes absolutely nowhere. Give her zero closure with Richie whom she sired, dated and used in S2. And randomly throw her in a scene with Kate that makes no fucking sense after these two had nothing to do with one another all series. On top of that Santanico is barely in season 3 so by the time the show wraps her arc feels incomplete.

Other characters go missing that no one notices, the new bad guy whom they've set up at the end is just left hanging. And Richie Gecko, you know the show’s other lead, is horribly sidelined after 3x06 to make way for the Seth Gecko solo show. When I say FDTD series finale is bad I mean it's really fucking terrible and blasphemous.

#from dusk till dawn: the series #from dusk till dawn #richie gecko #seth gecko #kate fuller #carlos madrigal #fdtd #scott fuller #kichie #richiekate #seth x richie #freddie gonzalez #Santanico Pandemonium #anti fdtd 3x10 #the Gecko brothers

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tuwasduwillst · 5 years

Text

Shadowbringers (pt 4/end)

This just has spoilers for everything, basically. :U I finished it and don’t feel like splitting stuff up because I have over 1k screenshots to go through...

Katana-bearing Centurion: Besides, there is but one hand that can make me whole again. My enemy... my friend...

He probably just says “friend” there in Japanese, but I don’t have my whole game switched, so I don’t get to know for sure. Good to know you’re still being weird, Zenos.

Don’t you smirk at me like that, mister.

Here’s Urianger being handsome, as usual

I hated fighting this old dude as Thancred.

1) I still can’t believe he can easily take out the WoL like he did

2) Stop making me be sword dudes!!

3) I get why they wanted people to see the dialogue here, but it was so slooooow and I died once near the end and had to do it all over again and ughhh, just go away

Ryne looks cute with her new hair and eyes, at least. :) Thancred is still a bad dad, but at least he’s doing better now... I guess.

Also, Urianger’s reaction to finding out that Thancred was paying attention to some of his talks about pixies was really good, haha.

...I wanna listen to Urianger give a pixie lecture...

Wow

This was something the game threw together when I asked it to pick recommended gear. It’s... some kind of look.

The Exarch/G’raha Tia is a qt. Y’know, I figured it was probably G’raha Tia, but I didn’t remember him being so short... and the lack of cat ears also made me doubt myself, haha.

I’m really glad I did the Crystal Tower stuff, though, because otherwise I’d... well, I’d still think that G’raha Tia/the Exarch is cute and like him a lot, but it wouldn’t have had the same impact.

I took a bunch of screenshots of Mikh’a. :U

& Emet-Selch, ofc

that one old dude: If you would pass me, you must endure all that I have learned on the battlefield... For I am a weapon forged in the fires of war!

~*oooh, I’m so scared of you and your tiny amount of health left*~

My MP doesn’t even have a dent in it, really. This is why I had such a hard time believing this dude could take out the WoL!! Even the first time we fought, I had tons of MP available to me and could’ve made a full recovery from being brought down to 1 HP. (...well, I have Benediction which is kind of cheating, but still.)

At least this was the last time I had to deal with him. He’s probably the worst thing about the expansion, which I guess I can deal with since the rest of it was so good.

Lots of really pretty screenshot opportunities in this expansion. c:

Mt. Gulg is something I thought was common to a bunch of FF games for some reason, but apparently it was in the original Final Fantasy, FFIX, and some random spin-off games. Weird.

How did Mikh’a hear him talking from that far away??

Emet-Selch has such a good design and you can tell that a lot of work was put into him. The expressions he makes, the way he stands and walks--it’s all unique to him and it makes him stand out a lot.

Even after everything that happened in the expansion, I’m really fond of him. They made the right move in having him kind of forge a more personal relationship with you/the WoL, because if he hadn’t been obnoxious in the background throughout most of the expansion it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as interesting/good as it ended up being.

I obviously chose to say that they were all Alphinaud’s assistants. :P

This little scene was so cute... lali-hos for everyone...

Crystal Exarch: Ugh! I would thank you not to shoot me!

I’m sorryyyyyy ; ~; You were there and I wanted to see what would happen!!!

Crystal Exarch: Ah heh... It may interest you to know that Mikh’a is a great hero in the land whence he hails. Some would say the greatest.

This little venture made me feel like I’d suddenly gotten married and adopted a child

(Which I’d be totally fine with, tbh.)

I loved this thing, actually!! I got to heal G’raha Tia, he healed me, we both healed our new tiny dwarf child, it was great.

I’m still using the Mogrod. I’m never going to stop using it. Give me another thing that has a flower and swirly rainbows all over and maybe I’ll switch weapons, but until then? No.

...unless there’s, like... a really, really pretty plant weapon, especially if it matches Mikh’a’s outfit... but I don’t think there is.

I got to put my bubble on them. :D

He’s so cuuuuuute. And Mikh’a clearly agrees with my thoughts on him, considering the expression on his face when he looks at him.

One of the reasons I keep Mikh’a wearing the WHM gear is because I really like the contrast I get--a lot of the major characters wear black, so it looks nice when they stand next to each other. :D

Katana-bearing Centurion: The whereabouts of my one true friend, however--they interest me greatly. I but hope the beasts of this “First” are providing him proper sport.

Zenos is so funny to me. He just pops up like “did someone mention my friend” while his dad and Elidibus are having a serious conversation.

Innocence has beautiful hair and if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I’d never believe that he was Vauthry.

You can kind of see @tarifu in this screenshot! :D

You can definitely see her here--wait... why is half the party wearing dwarf beard outfits...

This is probably weird to say, but I genuinely like when characters I play in games like this suffer/are in pain. Not, like... constantly. I just like it when NPCs get to express concern and you aren’t some kind of unbreakable hero 24/7. >_>

Obviously I was going to say his name, who wouldn’t.

This made me cry!! I thought he was dead. :C

But thankfully Emet-Selch didn’t want him dead, so he did not die.

...why’d he even need a gun? Has he always had a gun?

I wish I could just float off into the sky after ruining everything and being a big jerk

sad kitty

I died when I came here with Jack and Mari because I didn’t realize I was being targeted by the boss until it was too late. :,)

I got to practice using my shield, though!! I’m not used to having one so I’m not super great at remembering it exists and using it; the tether thing is a good visual for “this specific person is going to be damaged soon and a shield would be Good”. ...unless everyone’s bunched up and I can’t tell who has it until it’s too late, I guess.

I know I’m level 80 now, but there’s still a lot I haven’t done and I’m still trying to figure out what the best way to do things is sometimes... I still need to mess with my hotbars and stuff, actually. I think I might switch some things around more than I already have, because some useful things aren’t as easy to use as they could/should be and I’ve been wanting to mess around with stuff for a while. The Trust dungeons should be a really good opportunity to test new configurations! Or the squad dungeons, I guess. :/a

I’m still not Ardbert’s biggest fan, but I don’t dislike him.

Poor Urianger, getting stuck with the role of the only other person to know the Exarch’s plans. :(

& then everyone died going to the bottom of the sea and the game ended

I got to help put dwarf helmets on sineaters :U

I also remembered that I have fancy wings now, wheee

I got a nice new outfit after doing my last Healer role quest! :D I like it a lot~ The whites are brighter than the last outfit, and the bit in back accommodates his tail much better than the corset did.

I might play around with mixing and matching some pieces once I get newer stuff, but for now this is what I’ve got! c:

...and I refuse to wear the hat. 100%. I’m not making Mikh’a look like a weird nun. :|

Amaurot was really good, even if being there mostly just made me sad. >_> The not-people were so cute and nice, though...

Big

The WoL hanging out on this giant bench is so cute.

I liked getting to talk to Emet-Selch’s friend. c: Well... kind of, anyway. Since it’s not really his friend...

tiny

Emet-Selch: I have broken bread with you, fought with you, grown ill, grown old! Sired children and yes, welcomed death’s sweet embrace.

I still don’t 100% understand how Ascians work, but I guess it’s canon that Emet-Selch fucks :/a

I regret typing that, I think, but it is apparently true

i think your fireplace has something wrong with it

Really though, this dungeon was excellent.

Alisaie decided that she wanted to LB right as one of the bosses was doing one of those “hide behind a rock Or You Will Die” things so she died & I accidentally walked right off the edge near the end of the last boss fight (oops), but other than that things went okay!

ardbert could you please clean your axe somehow before you point it at me like that. tia

This was a really neat moment :U

I’m not calling Emet-Selch Hades ever. Sorry, Emet-Selch.

I was kind of afraid to do this trial and almost waited until someone would be able to do it with me, but it really wasn’t that bad in the end!

...except for when I died five times to the same attack... orz It was that arm-sweeping one, too, so it’s not like it’s not obvious that it’s coming. My problem was that I kept getting Raised in bad places right before it happened, so he basically just kept smacking me down over and over again.

(Which was partially my fault, because I should’ve waited to accept the Raise until I knew it was safe to be alive, but... I don’t like leaving the other healer alone and I don’t want to just be lying there uselessly if I can avoid it.)

Fortunately(?) the party wiped due to something completely unrelated (a failed mechanic I had nothing to do with) and I didn’t die at all the second time around! So at least there was that.

I liked this bit in the dark. c:

I also liked when I got trapped in the bubble and didn’t have to do anything. Thanks, Emet-Selch!

Genuinely though, it was a nice little chance for me to calm the hell down because my anxiety was getting real bad before/during this fight. >_>

Poor dude. :c Obviously he’s responsible for some absolutely terrible things and I’m not going to try to deny that or anything, but he’s lived for so long and he’s had to deal with the loss of basically everyone he ever cared about for that whole time. He recreated that entire city and all of its people, that’s how much he cared.

Still no excuse for basically trying to kill all of the people he didn’t consider “real”! But also still sad, IMO.

This made me go “awww” out loud and start to tear up, haha...

I didn’t want to leave him ; ~;

Estinien said a full sentence here about how these guards were dead, too (in a way that implied he assumed that’s what they’d find), and the localization translated it as “hmph”. Kind of a weird choice there, but okay.

Zenos basically went Full Yandere since he killed his father just because he could potentially get in the way of his thing with the WoL, so... that’s something that’s going to have to be dealt with at some point.

I’m interested in seeing how things go, but I’m also a wee bit concerned that other people might get caught up in whatever this obsession is. I don’t want anyone to get hurt or killed because of Zenos’s yandere tendencies. :(

Elidibus is being Boring on the moon.

But who cares about that! I got to lead a Girl Scout meeting for my level 80 WHM quest.

Oh! Almost forgot about the story I got to tell the girls: “The tale of a man who crossed time and space to save the world... and me.”

I think the second one is about (original) Minfilia, maybe? :/a I wanted to tell them about G’raha Tia, though.

Aaaand that’s all I’ve done! \o/ I unlocked a new dungeon and I know there’s more than one post-80 dungeon, so I’ll probably check those out when I get a chance... but I finished the main stuff.

Which is kinda weird, because now I’m done again, haha... but I’ve got plenty of stuff to do before the next new stuff comes out. Especially since I discovered that Vamo alla Flamenco is the “dancer’s theme”, apparently. Need to dance ASAP >:O

#game: ffxiv

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littleredinmotion · 6 years

Photo

live through this and you won’t look back by royalklaroline

(ff) (ao3)

Caroline left Rousseau’s determined to keep it together. Determined not to cry because if she did she’s afraid she’d never stop.

It wasn’t until the frantic drive down to New Orleans a few hours before that she realized that the reason Klaus dying affected her this much was because somewhere deep down she always knew that they’d end up together. Like fate.

But apparently, she was wrong.

Now it seems that fate is ripping them apart before they’d barely begun.

She’d lost a loved one before. Quite a few times actually. But this time was different. She thought losing Stefan, her newlywed husband, on their wedding day was as bad as it could get. But Stefan was human. Part of her knew that someday he would leave her, she just hadn’t expected it so soon.

Losing Klaus was different. She always imagined that once all her loved ones were gone, she’d always have Klaus. But now…

She felt like she’d lost her future. Her forever.

Klaus was the one who’d helped her embrace the joys of being immortal. Now the thought of a future without him felt empty and uncertain and scary.

In an attempt to keep from falling apart and to keep any last bit of him that she could, she turned and headed back to find the street painter they’d admired together earlier. She found him sitting in the exact spot with the now finished painting at his side while he started on a new one.

“I’ll pay you however much you want for that painting,” she inquired to the man.

“Sorry miss. It’s already been sold.”

“Please. I’ll pay double whatever they paid. I’m begging you,” she pleaded now on the verge of tears.

“I wish I could help you but the owner was very specific that it had to be this painting. I can paint you one like it, if you wish.”

Defeated, Caroline thanked the man but declined. She was once again reminded of how much she regretted shredding the drawing he once gave her.

She took her time making her way back to her car before leaving New Orleans with nothing but the fading sensation of the man that promised her the world on her lips.

Two weeks had passed since she had gotten back to Mystic Falls. Two weeks since Klaus had successfully sacrificed himself for his daughter. She had hoped that returning home to her girls would help her fall back into the same routine that she’d had for the past 7 years. She’d gone 16 years without seeing Klaus up until a few months ago, so she thought that going through life without him now would feel like normal.

She was wrong. Being back at the boarding school now made her feel like she was just going through the motions. A school filled with history of the Salvatore’s also meant a school filled with the history of the big bad Klaus Mikaelson.

Everywhere she turned, something reminded her of him. The snowflake painting hanging in the dining hall. A hummingbird outside the window. The British accent of one of the new werewolves she’d recruited to come the school.

With each day, she felt a rising panic that time was going by too fast. To her, it felt like only yesterday that he was chasing her all over town, but now she is the mother of two teenage girls. What happens when they grow up and she doesn’t? When Alaric, the girls, Elena, Bonnie, and all her other friends die?

Even after his death, she began to understand how loneliness had been his biggest enemy.

“Mom, there’s a package here for you!” Josie yelled from the front door downstairs, jolting Caroline out of her racing thoughts.

When she reached the door to find a large package, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu. “This isn’t…” she whispered.

But it was.

She ripped the paper away to find the painting from New Orleans. The last memory she has of him. A piece of artwork to remind her of the man who introduced her to the beauty of it.

But that wasn’t all.

Stuck to the back was an envelope. Sealed with the all too familiar Mikaelson crest and penned with the handwriting she’d know anywhere that only said “Caroline”

Her breath caught. The little voice in the back of her head said “Maybe he’s still out there…” but she knew that couldn’t be the case.

With shaking hands, she opened the letter and read.

My Dearest Caroline,

For almost eight centuries, whenever I defeated an enemy all I would take from them were their love letters. I guess somehow, I thought stealing the love from their letters would help me to find some of my own. It never worked. Yet after a thousand years on this earth, I find that the tables have turned. Now I am the one writing the letter with death waiting on my doorstep.

When you came into my life, I was a shell. Fueled by greed and anger with no care for life other than my own. Until I met you. A mere eighteen years old and you spoke to me with more honesty and strength than I’d experienced in centuries. You never cowered in fear of my darkness because your light turned it to shadows.

I know that I once told you that I intended to be your last love, alas fate had other plans for us. But know this. I always intended for you to be my last as well. I find comfort knowing that you were. And you being here for me today, just as you have been for the past few months, means more than you could ever know. Your presence somehow makes everything I do easier and harder in equal measure.

My biggest regret is that I never got the chance to show you the world like I told you I would someday. Rome. Paris. Tokyo. But I keep my promises. Included in this envelope are four tickets to London Heathrow. For you, Josie, Lizzie, and, if I may add, Hope. Caroline, I beg that you be the one to bring her to these places. Though I know my family could very well take her, I’d like her to experience it with you. And don’t worry about hotels or any other requirements of the sort, it’s all been taken care of my love.

Also attached, I would like to include a list of a few tips for your travels abroad.

There’s a small pub in Blackfriars called Williamson’s Tavern where Elijah and I lost quite a bit of money once while gambling after a few pints. Still I’d do it all again. Though I hear they’ve cleaned up the place and it’s more family appropriate now.

Located on a far wall on the second floor of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg you’ll find a landscape I did of the view outside our home in southern Italy in 1475 titled “Landscape of Fallen Leaves”

In Berlin, look up a man named Alexander Schütze near the East Side Gallery. Tell him I sent you and I’m sure he will show you the best of the best. He owes me a favor.

San Miniato al Monte has one of the best views in Florence. Though I did sire one of the nuns for fun, so if you meet a woman named Silvia tell her that I finally got what I deserved.

The only way to explore Rome is on a Vespa.

The best flavor of gelato is pistachio. Trust me.

At the Louvre, the painting across from the Mona Lisa titled “The Wedding Feast at Cana” is an incredible piece by an old friend of mine Paolo Caliari. I visited him often as he was painting it.

Be sure to rent a bike to ride around Luxembourg Gardens.

When at Versailles, go as deep into the gardens that you can. Spend the whole day if you must. Get lost. That’s the fun part, love.

Lastly, once back in London visit the Tate Britain and go find the painting entitled “The Hummingbird.” I think you may find it quite amusing.

There are a million more things I would have liked to show you but I don’t have enough time left to write them all down. So, I’ll leave the exploring to you in hopes that you find everything that I did and more.

If you were anyone else, I’d end this by saying I wish to see you again someday, somewhere, somehow in whatever there is after all this. But alas, I won’t. More than anything I want you to live your life to the fullest. I hope you have a thousand more birthdays and that you get everything you ever wanted out of life. I pray that my daughter learns as much from you as she ever learned from me. Please look after her as you always did for me. May your lifespan far outnumber mine and that they tell great stories of the mythical Caroline Forbes who loved with her whole heart to everyone she encountered, even those who did not deserve it.

Forever yours,

Klaus Mikaelson

She spent that summer exploring all that Europe had to offer. She’d brought her girls and Hope with her just as Klaus had wanted. They had ticked off numbers 1 through 9 on Klaus’s list and added much more to it over the past few months. On their last day in back in London where they started their trip, they were set to finally visit the Tate and knock off the last sight on the list.

She wasn’t sure if she was ready to finish the list and head back home. Being in Europe had made her feel closer to him in a way that she didn’t know was possible and he wasn’t even here.

Over the past couple of months, she had become quite an art enthusiast. She thought he’d be proud. She finally understood how art had this ability to transport the viewer somewhere else and fill them with emotion with just a glance. Now she knew that’s why he loved art so much. It was his escape.

They’d been exploring for just over an hour, hoping to stumble upon “The Hummingbird” on their own. The looking was always the fun part.

“Oh my God. Mom. Over here,” she heard Lizzie say from around the corner.

She’d expected just some picture of a hummingbird. She should have known better.

Wide eyed, she gasped because there, in the middle of the Tate, was her.

Blonde hair. Blue dress. It was the night of the Mikaelson Ball. The portrait of her wasn’t looking at the viewer. She looked calm, collected, and confident. Surrounded by other party goers that blurred in the background. She was the only focus.

It was then that everything clicked into place for Caroline. She’d finally gotten the thing that she’d always wanted.

She was finally the one.

The one for Klaus.

Now that Klaus was gone, she was surprised that she didn’t feel sad at this revelation. She felt thankful. Thankful to have known him and that he’d given her everything she’d ever wanted. Culture. Art. Beauty. The world. He’d given her the world. But most of all, she felt thankful that he was intelligent enough to know that she loved him too. Even if she never had the guts to say it to him aloud. He had to of known.

She walked over and read the description.

The Hummingbird (2011) by Niklaus Mikaelson

“This portrait is for a woman much like a hummingbird. Small and beautiful yet fierce. She showed me how satisfying life can be every day with her. I’ll wait for her to fly back to me someday. However long it takes.”

#klaroline #caroline forbes #klaus mikaelson #kcedit #klaroline fanfiction #klaroline oneshot #the originals #to #tvd #this is the first piece of fanfiction I've ever written so I'd love feedback #sorry for all the sadness #i know this is hella sad but in my headcanon Klaus comes back to life so it's fine I'm fine #I may come back and edit this later once I post it to ff.net and ao3 #my stuff #mine #my writing #live through this and you won't look back

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peopleandrhythm · 7 years

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Episode One: What Are You Afraid Of?

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess, much beloved by her family, especially her parents, a king and a queen. The princess’s family fought day and night to keep her safe, to protect her from the darkness in the kingdom. But the family had countless enemies, spanning centuries and continents. After bloody conflict and tragic defeat, the princess’s family was lost, all in one fell swoop. Only the princess and her mother, the Wolf Queen, remained. They alone bore the burden of scouring the earth for the means to make the family whole again.

This quest proved quite the challenge for the Wolf Queen, and as years passed, the princess grew. She grew not only in mind and body, but in power, for she had been blessed with potent magic. The Wolf Queen loved her daughter and raised her well, but found herself unable to finish the task of saving the family. Fifteen years have passed, and the princess is no longer a child—and for the first time since her family’s fall, she finds herself with the chance to complete the quest and save them, once and for all.

Tallahassee, Florida

The Monroe house is small, with yellowing sideboards and a patchy front lawn. Still, it’s cute; Mrs. Monroe likes to spend what little free time she has tending to a flower patch just off to the side of the two-person porch. Her azaleas are having a particularly good season, despite the terrible Florida heat.

Mrs. Monroe is in her flower patch, floppy hat cocked at just the right angle to block out the sun, when a redheaded girl walks up her driveway. She smiles and straightens up a bit. “How you doin’, Hope?”

Hope waves. “I’m great, how are you?”

“Just tryin’ to keep these flowers from shrivelin’ up in this damn heat.” She points at Hope with her trowel. “Have you got sunscreen on? Skin like yours, you’ll burn like that.” She tries to snap her fingers, but her gardening gloves muffle the sound.

“Don’t worry about me, Mrs. Monroe. It’s just a few blocks from my house.” Hope gestures to the front door, a fading confederate gray. “May I go in?”

“Sure thing, hon. She’s in her room. Finally got her to clean out that old trunk of hers. Bet it’s mostly junk in there.”

Laughing, Hope says, “Have fun with your flowers!” and heads into the house. She knows the layout well by this point, makes a turn at the kitchen and walks all the way to the end of the hall, where the last door on the left is ajar. Inside the green and white bedroom, a girl sits cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by piles of papers and clothes and trinkets. Her back is to the door, so Hope tiptoes to her and, without warning, begins to tickle the girl’s sides mercilessly.

The girl shrieks and curls in on herself, twisting to get a good look at her attacker. “Oh my god—Hope!” She manages to swat Hope’s hands away. “You ass!”

Breathless from laughter, Hope plops down on the ground. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” Then she puts a hand on the girl’s neck and pulls her in for a kiss, which is received with a begrudging hrmph. After the kiss, Hope says, “I missed you, River.”

“We were at work together yesterday.”

“Well then fine, I take it back.”

“No, wait.” River kisses her girlfriend again. “I missed you, too.” She furrows her eyebrows, pats at Hope’s face. “Did you put on sunscreen?”

Hope rolls her eyes with a groan. “Not you too…”

“Hey, white girls like you do not tan. I can go out in the sun just fine, because I’ve got that melanin to protect me—”

“Only from the sun,” Hope interjects slyly.

River snorts. “Ain’t that the truth. But for real, I don’t want you to burn. Red is not your color.”

“I have red hair!”

“Exactly.”

Hope sticks out her tongue. “My mom can tan.”

“Then you got your daddy’s skin.”

“I wouldn’t know.” They both fall silent, the mood officially killed. After a minute, Hope asks, “So what are all these piles?”

River starts pointing. “Those are old clothes that I need to donate, those are old toys that I need to donate, those are some photos and things that my mom might want to scrapbook—”

“Ooh, I love your mom’s scrapbooks.”

“Mhm. Oh, and those are just important papers that I probably should not have been trusted with.”

Hope peers at that pile. “Like what?”

“Oh, some bank statements, school records, my birth certificate. Things like that. No idea why I have any of them.”

Spying the birth certificate toward the top of the pile, Hope picks it up with a grin. “Aw, baby River. Born 3:21 am.” Hope smiles up at her girlfriend. “I was an early morning baby, too.”

River’s inspecting a shirt for any wear. “Oh yeah? What time?”

“Not sure. I don’t have a birth certificate.”

River freezes, then slowly turns her head. “I swear, your family is sketchy as hell.”

“Tell me about it.” Hope looks back down at the document, where something strange catches her eye. “Hang on.”

“What?”

Hope’s eyes dart between River and the birth certificate a few times before finally settling on the former. “This says that your last name is Malraux, not Monroe.”

River wrinkles her nose. “Oh yeah. Speaking of sketchy families…” She settles her body into a more comfortable position. “Look, I don’t know why we left Texas when I was little, but I know it was sudden, and I’m pretty sure it had something to do with our family. I just remember my dad telling me over and over, ‘You’re a Monroe now. Remember that. River Monroe.’ I was five, so I wasn’t, like, attached to the name or anything. We even got it legally changed. You’re holding onto the original.” River bites her lip. “Look, you cannot tell my folks you know about this. They will flip their lids if they found out you knew. They made me swear to keep it a secret. Promise me?”

“Yeah.” Hope’s voice is hollow, like she’s hearing it from the opposite end of a tunnel. Her skin is ashen as she stares, unblinking, at the ink on the paper in her hands. Three words sound on repeat in her head, deafening in her ears: Malraux. Texas. Shit.

New Orleans, Louisiana

Vincent bursts through the penthouse doors, never breaking his stride until he reaches Marcel, who is reclined on a sofa, reading The Times-Picayune. “We can’t do another year of this, Marcel.”

Barely sparing the witch regent a glance, Marcel says, “Good morning, Vincent. How’s your day going?”

“I’ll tell you how it’s going. I got nine covens of witches screaming for your head. You’re supposed to keep the vampires in line, Marcel.”

With a sigh, Marcel folds up the paper and sets it on the coffee table. “What exactly have we done this time, huh? Poor attendance at the Fête des Bénédictions last week?”

Vincent takes a deep breath. “We are comin’ up on yet another anniversary of the fall of Klaus Mikaelson, and yet again hundreds of vampires are gonna flock to New Orleans to celebrate. They gonna decimate the local population, Marcel! The witches want an end to this.”

“And what exactly do you expect me to do about it?” Marcel stands up. “I don’t control all the vampires in the world, just the ones in the Quarter. And yeah, when the out-of-towners come, they tend to wreak some havoc, but my guys do our best to keep them in check.”

“Last year fourteen locals were killed by members of Klaus Mikaelson’s sire line. Fourteen. That’s fourteen families destroyed. We been keepin’ the peace best we know how but I’m tellin’ you Marcel, if you don’t put an end to this yearly slaughter of locals, we will.”

Marcel’s eyes narrow. “What exactly is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you may be the biggest bad goin’ in New Orleans right now, but never forget, no one is unkillable.” He turns on his heel and marches for the door. “‘Specially not in this city.”

The sun is on its descent when Hope walks through her front door, mind a million miles away. She passes the living room with her eyes on the ground, so she misses her mother on the couch, reading. “Hey.”

Hope stops, turns. “Oh hey.”

Hayley’s eyes narrow a bit, and she stands. “What’s up?”

“Um.” Hope fixes her face into something brighter. “Not much. Just gotta go get ready for work.”

“How was River?”

“Fine,” Hope answers too quickly. “You know, the same. I’m running late, I should…” She gestures toward her bedroom, and then starts to head for it. She only makes it a step before she stops herself. She turns back to her mother. “Hey, um. I was wondering. How close are we…what more do we need to get before we can, you know, bring the family back together?”

Hayley sighs, looks down and adjusts the hem of her shirt. “Hope, look, I know we’ve travelled basically everywhere trying to find the cures for everyone upstairs—”

“And I never minded, honestly.” Hope approaches her mother. “All I ever wanted was my family, too.”

With a smile, Hayley tucks a piece of Hope’s hair behind her ear. “You were always the bravest of us all, you know.” Her smile fades a bit. “I brought us here because I was told someone at the university might have information about a wolf pack whose venom we need to cure your uncles. But that lead didn’t pan out, so…I don’t know where to turn next.”

As innocently as she can, Hope asks, “What wolf pack?”

“Um, the Malraux pack. They were originally from Texas, but vampires wiped them out years ago. I’ve been trying to track one down ever since.”

“Right. I knew that.” Hope gives a fake smile. “Well, I should go get ready.” She hugs Hayley. “Everything’s going to work out, Mom. I know it.”

Hayley kisses her daughter’s head. “I sure hope so.”

“Just toss the trash and you can head out.”

Hope nods at her manager. “Sure.” She weaves her way through the restaurant, pulling trash bags from the bathrooms and the bar area to take outside. Once she’s replaced all the bags, she heaves the collected trash over one shoulder and cuts through the kitchen, where the only cook left for the night is tossing dough.

“You close tonight, Rowan?” she asks.

Rowan nods. “Bullshit.”

Hope hums in agreement and pushes open the back door, heading down the alley toward the dumpster. She twists her body around and chucks the bag atop the others. After wiping her hands on her shorts, she pulls her phone from her pocket, opens an app, and clocks out.

“Nine-oh-nine,” she murmurs to herself. That leaves too much time to think about River before bed. She heads for her car, a late 2000s Honda her mom picked up on Craigslist, but freezes when she hears something shift in the alley behind her. She spins around, fingers typing 91 on her phone screen.

“Hello?” she calls into the darkness. Silence. She starts to turn back around, but hears another noise. “If you come any closer I will blow you straight to hell!” Hope shouts, hand outstretched defensively.

More silence, and then a quiet voice behind her: “I wouldn’t recommend that.”

Hayley’s cross-legged on her bed, an open trunk facing her at the foot. Laid out neatly on the comforter is everything, all of the vials and spells and potions needed to cure the people sleeping in coffins in the attic. She runs her fingers over a collection of small glass bottles, each labelled in her own fairly messy scrawl. Six of the bottles are filled with a transparent amber liquid. She picks up the bottle labelled 1 – Crescent and gives a little smile. The smile wanes as her eyes fall on the seventh bottle, empty and labelled 7 – Malraux.

Hayley heaves a heavy sigh. “Oh Elijah,” she whispers to the room. “What am I supposed to do?”

She thinks back to a day eight years ago, Hope napping in the front of the moving van as Hayley met with an old wolf friend from Appalachia, Meredith.

“I don’t know what to do tell you, Hay,” Meredith had said, leaned up against the side of the truck, her blonde hair twisted into its usual braid. “Everyone I’ve talked to said all the Malrauxs are dead.”

“They can’t be,” Hayley had insisted. “I just need one. Someone has to be left.”

“The vamps in Texas got them pretty good about four years back, so I’m told. Some kind of race war. I mean, it’s Texas, so not altogether a shocker. If any of them made it out, they would impossible to find.” She gave a small, sympathetic smile. “Sorry, Hay.”

Hayley focused on the sound of her daughter’s breathing inside the van, slow and even in her sleep. She took a deep breath of her own and said, “Thanks anyway, Mer. If you hear something—”

“I’ll call, no doubt.” Meredith hugged her friend and then said goodbye, leaving Hayley to climb back into the van. Hayley looked down at her daughter, long red hair falling across her face, more peaceful in sleep than she could ever be awake. Hayley wiped a tear away aggressively as she started the truck.

“Fifteen years and no sign of a Malraux wolf anywhere,” Hayley says to the air, empty venom bottle in hand. “I promised my daughter I would bring her family home, but Elijah…” She slides off the bed, letting the Malraux bottle bounce onto the comforter, and makes her way into the hall of their little rental home. She deftly pulls down the ladder to the attic, climbs up, and takes the few steps over to the silver coffin she has spent countless hours kneeling beside. She lifts the lid and sees him, just as perfectly laid in his suit as he was fifteen years ago.

“Elijah, I don’t know how much longer I can keep searching. I’ve been moving Hope around for a decade and a half. She’s never had a home, never had stability. At what point…” She stops, uses her thumb to catch the stray tear running down her nose. “At what point do I give up a lost cause? I love you so much, Elijah, and the thought of never seeing you again...but I need to move on. Hope needs to move on.” She bring two fingers up to her lips and then touches them to Elijah’s. “Please forgive me.”

Hope whips around to see someone walking out of the shadows. She raises a shaky hand. “Stay back! I mean it!”

“Hope Mikaelson…” That gives her pause. “You’ve grown, kid. And your hair! You were a blonde baby, but damn if you aren’t a redhead now.”

“Who the hell are you?”

The man stops, hands raised in placation. “My name is Vincent Griffith. I knew you back when you was a baby. At one point I even had your uncle Finn inhabiting my body. Yeah, you and me go way back.”

“So you thought it’d be cool to approach me in a dark alley?” Hope lets some energy roll off of her, shaking the branches of the trees that line the back of the alley. “That was stupid, if I’m being honest.”

“Look, Hope, I’m not here to hurt you. In fact, I’m tryin’ to do you a favor.”

“A favor,” Hope repeats, skeptical.

“How would you like to be reunited with your father?”

River’s always loved a good night run. Sure, running during summer nights in Florida is like running through a swamp, the air thick and wet and impossible to move through, but River likes the challenge, likes the way the sweat sizzles off of her skin. Tonight it’s Kendrick Lamar’s back catalogue that’s soundtracking her run, the beat echoed in every slap of her shoes on the pavement. Her path carves a chunk out of downtown Tallahassee, under the neon lights of the Strip and through the patchwork streets of Frenchtown. She’s never afraid, even though she’s by herself at night. She feels powerful, invincible as she flies through her city.

As River approaches a well-lit area, she brings her water bottle to her lips, but despite all her tugging with her teeth, she can’t get the top open. She gently jogs to a stop at the mouth of an alley, giving herself a minute to fiddle with the bottle.

Just as she gets it open, a hand clamps around her elbow and yanks her into the alley, where in the darkness she is pinned to the brick of the wall. “Hey!”

“Hey you too.”

Her wrists held above her head, River has to strain to see her attacker’s face in the dark. The stench coming off of him is wretched, Fireball and cigarettes. She can tell he’s not that much older than her, probably one of the students at the university. She wriggles against his grip. “Let me go!” she shouts, hoping to attract attention.

Her attacker pulls her away from the wall just to slam her into it again. “Shut up, bitch. Look at you.” He brings his nose to her neck and breathes deep, and her heart is shuddering a mile a minute. “Love to get a taste of you, girl.” He grins at her lecherously.

As if on autopilot, River springs into action. She knees him in the groin, and when he staggers backward, she cocks her head back and knocks it into his. He howls in pain, and she makes a run for it—but a hand closes on the back of her shirt and jerks her backward. Her body clangs against the wall, but she rolls with it and, with a rage she has never felt before in her life, pushes the creep away from her. Eyes wide, she watches his body fly to the opposite wall, much farther than she ever thought she could shove someone, and his head cracks against the brick. He slumps to the ground, motionless.

The world freezes. “Oh god.” River forces her feet to move. She approaches him slowly, as if he might catch on fire. Trembling, she crouches, presses her finger to his neck.

No pulse.

“Oh god. Oh Jesus. Oh no.” Her breath starts coming faster and faster, and without warning, a flash of indescribable pain washes through her body, a crackling ache that shakes her to her very bones. She curls in on herself, knocking into the body, but just as suddenly as it started, the pain vanishes. She uses the wall to pull herself to her feet, looks down at the man who tried to attack her, and does what she knows best.

She runs.

Freya finds him in the garden most days. He stands among the flowers, always in bloom, and watches the artificial sun carve a path through the everblue sky. Fifteen years in and Elijah still puts the suit on every morning, but she’s been watching the cracks form at his edges for some time now. At least his stoicism is easier to deal with than Kol’s explosive anger or Rebekah’s yo-yoing between aggressive optimism and hopeless doubt.

She approaches him with quiet steps. “How are you, brother?”

Elijah takes so long to answer that Freya wonders if he even heard her. “I’m finding it…ironic that the person who brought our family together is named Hope, and yet I feel as if I have never had less hope in my life.”

Freya steps up to her brother’s side and rests her head on his shoulder. “It does seem as though the task we left to Hayley is…taking longer than we expected, but I have no doubt that after all this time she still continues to search for our salvation.”

“Yes, sister, that is the fear.”

Freya looks up at Elijah, confused. “What do you mean?”

Elijah examines his hands, avoiding eye contact. “My wish for her has always been something greater than this family’s salvation. Hayley deserves freedom, happiness…a life with her daughter. I just hope—” He cuts himself off.

“You hope she hasn’t spent the last fifteen years focusing solely on bringing us home.” Elijah’s silence is confirmation enough. “Unfortunately, brother, if I had to guess?” Freya walks in front of Elijah, forcing him to look at her. “Hayley’s desire to be with you has been her life’s purpose since you were taken from her, second only to raising Hope.”

Scoffing, Elijah starts to argue. “It is not just me she wishes to save—”

“Of course not. Hayley loves all of us, even Niklaus, and I am sure she would stop at nothing to bring each of us back. But to ignore her love for you, to dismiss how keenly she must be feeling your absence, does no justice to your memory of her.”

After his older sister’s scolding, Elijah is silent. He studies the flowers that color the garden, their elegant dance in the breeze. Eventually he admits, “There is the other fear, of course.”

“The other fear?”

Elijah looks Freya in the eyes. “That she has died in her quest to save us.”

Freya grips her brother’s hands tightly. “No. Banish this fear from your mind, Elijah. Hayley is strong and capable, and would never allow her daughter to be orphaned like that.”

“You and I both know it is not so simple.”

“It does you no good to think like this, brother. Hayley is out there, and she is fighting for us.” Freya kisses Elijah’s cheek, and then tips her head onto his shoulder once more. “We just have to have hope.”

Hope and Vincent sit across from each other in the brightly lit Dunkin’ Donuts on the university campus. It’s empty save for the bored cashier poring over an Italian film history textbook and a young guy on a MacBook surrounded by empty coffee cups.

Hope spins her own cup—frozen coffee, because even at night summer in Florida is hell—and asks, “So. How do you know who I am? How did you know where I live? Why do you want to help me find my father? How did—”

“Whoa, slow down!” Vincent raises a hand to stop her. “I’m gonna tell you everything, don’t worry.” He gives the shop a quick glance to make sure no one is listening, and then continues in a low voice. “I’m a New Orleans witch, just like you. I’ve lived in the city my whole life, and I’ve always sworn to protect it from whatever threat comes its way. That’s why I’m here. I need your help.”

“How did you find me? My mom and I, we move around so much—”

Vincent shrugs. “Simple locator spell.”

“Using what?”

“The blood of your closest relative: your daddy.”

The breath leaves Hope’s chest. “What? You just—you just have access to—he’s in New Orleans? Still?”

“Yeah, yeah. And I want your help breaking him out.”

The edges of Hope’s vision are starting to blur. “This is a lot to take in.”

“Well, sorry kid, but I don’t got a whole lotta time. You see, every year, right around now, hundreds of vampires come from all over the world to party in New Orleans. Vampires who fifteen years later are still celebratin’ your dad’s downfall. And when they come, they leave death and destruction in their wake. The only way I can think to get them out is to remove the thing that draws them there in the first place.”

So many thoughts are jumping around in Hope’s head that it’s impossible for her to know what to focus on. “Was he really that awful? That so many people are celebrating, still?”

Vincent is silent for a beat, nodding to himself absentmindedly. “Yeah, yeah. I don’t know what your momma told you now—”

“Nothing…concrete. I know he liked to paint, like I do. And that he loved his family. That he loved me. But she doesn’t talk about the kind of person that he was.” She inspects her coffee lid. “I guess that sort of answers the question, doesn’t it?”

Vincent reaches out to pat her hand. “Kid, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but your daddy was the biggest bad there ever was.” Hope closes her eyes, processing. “But if it helps, nothing made him more…human than you. Everyone in the Quarter, hell, everyone in the damn world knew: if there was one thing that made Klaus Mikaelson weak, it was his baby girl.”

Something hollow tugs at the pit of Hope’s stomach, so, eager to change the conversation, she says, “Okay. You need my help getting him out. How exactly do you propose we do that?”

Settling into his chair more comfortably, Vincent begins to explain. “The boundary spell keeping your father trapped is strong, but I think our power combined should be able to break it.”

“Are there no other witches in New Orleans who could help you?”

“There are, but hardly any of ‘em want to see Klaus Mikaelson roaming free, and even if they did, none of them are going to be as powerful as you.”

Hope’s brow furrows. “Me? I’m not that powerful.”

“Oh, no, see, that’s where you’re wrong. You may not be very well-trained, but if you really honed your abilities…kid, you’d be able to set the world on fire.” Hope’s eyes widen. “Not to mention the fact that your very existence is a source of power. The only child of a hybrid and a werewolf? Yeah, that’s a magical occurrence rare enough to power almost any spell.”

“Okay.” Hope looks out the window of the Dunkin’ Donuts; the campus is silent, the moon hanging swollen in the black sky. “Okay.” She looks back to Vincent. “You know I’ve never been to New Orleans? It was the one place that my mom said we could never go.”

“Well, there’s good reason for that. You almost died there more than once.”

After everything Hope’s heard in the past half an hour, the only thing she can do is laugh. “Yeah…yeah, that sounds about right.” She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her keys. “Alright.” She stands. “Let’s go.”

Vincent’s confused. “What?”

“If we’re going all the way to New Orleans—” She shakes her keys. “—I’m driving.”

When the doorbell rings, Hayley looks up, confused. She glances at her watch; it’s nearly eleven, which is when it hits her that Hope should have been home a long time ago. She leaps to her feet, leaving Elijah’s coffin propped open, and flies down the attic ladder. She whips open the front door, fearing the worst, and is surprised when she sees her daughter’s girlfriend, wide-eyed and a little shaky, her breath coming fast. “River?”

“Hey, Ms. Marshall.”

“I told you, call me Hayley.”

“Right.” River’s eyes slide past her, inside the house. “Is, um. Is Hope here?”

Hayley sighs heavily. “No, she’s late coming from work. I was just about to call her. Do you want…” She trails off. River’s eyes are ringed with red, and she looks as though she’s about to disintegrate. That’s when Hayley catches an all-too-familiar scent. She looks down and spies spots of blood on the strap of River’s tank top. “River? Did something happen tonight?”

With that, River’s face crumples. She pitches forward with the force of her tears, and Hayley catches her in shock. She stands in her open doorway, holding her daughter’s sobbing girlfriend, completely at a loss for what to do next.

They’re speeding down I-10, halfway to Pensacola, when her phone rings. Hope shoots Vincent a look that clearly reads, Here we go, before answering. “Hey Mom.”

“Hope, where are you? Do you know how late it is?”

Hope takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry, but—”

“Look, I’ll be mad later. You just need to get home. River’s here and…something’s wrong.”

Hope nearly slams on the brake. Vincent’s eyes widen in warning, but she ignores him. “What is it?”

“I’m not sure. She showed up looking for you and…Hope, there’s blood on her.”

The car jerks with the force of Hope’s reaction, and Vincent’s hand flies out to steady the wheel. “Is she okay?”

“I’m going to check her out in a minute, but she just keeps asking for you. Get home, now.”

Hope is silent for a long moment, eyes staring out at nothing as trees whip past in a dark blur. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?”

“Tell River…tell River that I am so, so sorry, but I can’t come home right now. In fact…I’m gonna be gone a couple of days.”

Hayley’s voice is low and dangerous. “Hope, where exactly do you think you’re going?”

“…New Orleans?”

On the other end of the phone, she hears the front door open and shut, and the unmistakable sound of summer cicadas. “I’m trying very, very hard not to lose my shit right now, Hope, mostly because your girlfriend is in our living room, currently losing her shit. Now I don’t set a lot of rules with you, because you’re smart and you’re capable and I trust you, but I thought I made it very clear that we were to never set foot in New Orleans again.”

“I can save him.”

A moment of silence. “What are you talking about?”

“My dad. I can save him. I can bring him back. At least…” She glances at Vincent who, with wide eyes, is shaking his head no. “…that’s what Vincent told me.” Vincent tosses his hands up in the air.

“What the—Vincent is with you?”

Vincent rolls his eyes and motions for Hope to put the call on speakerphone. When she does, he says, “Listen to me, Hayley, you know I’m not gonna let anything bad happen to your girl.”

“Your witches have tried to murder Hope more than once.”

“Fair enough. But right now we need her help, and she needs ours.”

“I’m going to go get him, Mom,” Hope says, “so please, please take care of River. Tell her I’m sorry, and I’ll be home soon.”

“No, Hope, you—”

“I love you.” She hangs up, drops the phone in the cup holder with a sigh. She looks over at Vincent again, who just shrugs. Eyes back on the road, she settles into her seat, and then, without another word, the pair continue their midnight drive to Louisiana, following the moon west.

#the originals #to #originals #originals fic #to fic #tvd #people and rhythm #pr 1x01

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chicagocityofclans · 4 years

Photo

Aleksander Mazur → Paul Wesley → Vampire

→ Basic Information

Age: 578

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Bisexual but Demiromantic

Birthday: May 10th

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Religion: Deism

→ His Personality

(one to two paragraphs)

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: Guardian and Liaison

Scars: None

Tattoos: Questioning

Two Likes: Blood with Lemon Juice and Hanging Out

Two Dislikes: Being called Alex, Alec or Zander and Sunlight

Two Fears: Limbo and Unhelpable Shadow Vampires

Two Hobbies: Feeding and Nightlife

Three Positive Traits: Schmoozer, Confident, Unreserved

Three Negative Traits: Irritable, Manipulative, Deceitful

→ His Connections

Parent Names:

Orphaned

Sibling Names:

Unknown

Children Names:

Thomas Altidor (Son): Thomas was born out of wedlock and raised by another man; he didn’t know Aleksander was his real father. While he was still young and human, Aleksander had a one night stand with a girl, Aleksander doesn’t remember her name, who got married less than a fortnight later. Aleksander knew as soon as he saw Thomas that he was his but could do nothing about it. After Aleksander was turned into a vampire, he tried to talk to Thomas and befriend him but Thomas' upbringing turned him sour and unappealing to Aleksander. Thomas died before he could have children of his own which Aleksander had once hoped for, wanting a piece of his son even if he had to wait for a descendant.

Romantic Connections:

None (Aleksander prefers to sleep around. He has yet found anyone to connect with on a ‘romantic relationship’ level and doesn’t consider his partners mentionable. Aleksander doesn’t sleep with anyone he considers a friend/enemy or ones he calls his family because they share the same sire).

Platonic Connections:

Scorpius Getta (Sire): Getta found Aleksander when he was at his lowest on the streets of London. Aleksander tried to rob Getta and failed. Instead of killing him or turning him to the authorities, Getta fed him, gave him fresh clothes and offered him a new life; Aleksander is forever grateful. He sees Getta as an older male role model. Alexsander does not wish to run his own seethe one day but he feels trained and confident enough to hold the second position if it is ever offered.

Raphael Caron (Vampiric Brother): Aleksander was unsure about Raphael when he was first changed. He was a little too perfect and good at everything. Aleksander would not call it jealousy but suspension. It has been nearly two centuries and Rapheal has gained his trust and respect. Rephael is the little brother that Aleksander never had.

Fiona ‘Fi’ Marz (Vampire Sister): Fi annoyed the crap out of Aleksander when he was younger. She served as his keeper and taught him everything he knows today. His protective streak and attitude comes from her. Over the years they have grown to be really good friends and have living quarters across the hall from each other.

Richard Fili (Vampiric Nephew): Fili is entertaining and fun to be around. He is older than Aleksander and is considered his vampire nephew but Aleksander sees Fili as a brother and good friend.

Dan Prior (Vampiric Nephew): Alek was not nice to Dan when Winona started bringing him around. They did not really connect until after Winona was killed. Aleksander sees Dan as family and no one can tell him otherwise.

Sadie McCoy (Friend): Sadie and Alexsander clicked automatically and have been friends for decades. Aleksander was once interested in Sadie romantically but she had friend-zoned him in the first few weeks of meeting each other.

Chiara Ricci (Friend): Aleksander is very protective of everyone in the seethe. Chiara knows how to push his buttons but she is a perfect ball of misunderstood energy. Aleksander has tried to take her under his wings and considers her a bro.

Briar Rose Gale (Friend): Aleksander is very protective of everyone in the seethe. He easily befriended Briar and the two often watch horror films together whenever The Drive-In is showing them; especially double feature night.

Amy Colt (Friendly): Fi introduced Aleksander to Amy. He was hesitant of the female hunter at first but he has grown to like her and enjoys flirting with her.

Simon L Weyden (Friendly): Simon and Aleksander started to form somewhat of a friendship after Simon threw a nasty curse at a young Stone hunter instigating a fight with a fledgling.

Rachel Sloane (Acquaintance): Dan introduced Aleksander to Rachel. He hears stories like Rachel’s all the time and cannot help but feel a little protective.

Petra Chak (Complicated): Petra is tough and unforgiving. Aleksander understands it takes a lot to help run a seethe but she could do it without the attitude. They are friendly with each other but it does not go beyond that.

Hostile Connections:

Farrokh Alvi (Hate): Farrokh and Aleksander bump heads a lot. They have a love hate relationship which is currently set to hate this decade.

Greta Bow (Plaything): Aleksander loves annoying Greta, a beautiful human shifter, and often tries to force her to take bribes whenever he is bored.

Pets:

None

→ History (paragraph(s) on background) → The Present (paragraph(s) on how the character connects to the plot)

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Paul Wesley [1][2][3][4]

#Aleksander Mazur #OM #Open #OMV #OV

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lpdwillwrite4coffee · 4 years

Text

CHILDREN OF LILITH CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“I guess… now we wait,” Boz said, threading his fingers together and pressing his elbows into the tops of his thighs.

Lisa shifted, the hard plastic chair squeaking as she moved. “What about… when we can’t wait anymore?” She asked quietly. “We only have twenty-four hours to get out of the city. To pack up our lives…” She bit her lip. “What do we tell the others?”

“The truth?”

“But how do we convince a whole group of Hunters to leave a city. Their city. Especially if Griffin’s still…” She couldn’t finish the thought. Couldn’t imagine trying to do any of this without Griffin.

Boz took a deep breath and leaned back, staring at the ceiling. “We need a plan.”

“Griffin’s family is still in Massachusetts,” Lisa offered. “We could go there.”

Boz shook his head. “He never wanted them to know he’s a Hunter. It’s why he’s stayed away this long.”

Lisa thought a moment. “Doesn’t he have a friend in Connecticut?”

“Yeah, Cheryl, out in Hartford,” Boz said. “Except…”

“What?”

“Well, I don’t know if I’d really call them friends.” A small grin played at the corner of his mouth. “She’s Griffin’s ex-girlfriend.”

Lisa huffed out a laugh. “Good ol’ Griff.” She paused, looking at her hands. “Do you think they’d help us though? If they knew the situation?”

“Yeah, maybe.” Boz ran his fingers through his hair, glancing down the hall. “Hey, I’m gonna get some coffee from the cafeteria. You want anything?”

“Coffee sounds good.” She watched him stand up. “I’m gonna go make some calls.”

Boz nodded, starting to walk away when he stopped and turned back. “Ah, don’t tell them how bad Griff’s condition is…” He winced faintly. “Not yet.”

“Okay.”

When Boz rounded the corner, Lisa pulled her phone from her pocket and stood up. Phones weren’t allowed in the ICU but there was a small outdoor area the floor below them she figured would be private enough for a call, so she headed that way, already scrolling through her contacts.

* * *

Lilith’s white satin flats muffled her footsteps as she strode down the hospital corridor. The pull at the center of her chest drew her around the corner, where she hurried past a brunette woman looking down at her phone. Griffin was close… close enough for her to feel his heartbeat under her skin.

She stopped short in front of a closed door and she glanced at the chart hanging on the wall next to it. O’Connor, Griffin, she read.

Looking to make sure no one saw her, she slipped inside and locked the door. The glowing heart monitor was the only source of light, but Lilith moved easily through the shadows. Going to the window, she opened the blinds, fragments of ever-present city lights illuminating the room. She glanced over her shoulder, watching Griffin sleep. It made that pull in her chest ache.

She could feel his agony, pressed right underneath his skin, threatening to drain the life from him. But his pain wasn’t from the beatings he’d taken, though she knew each one of his injuries as if they screamed out how they’d been ma No, his anguish marred his soul, and that was far more dangerous than the wounds to his flesh.

Lilith slowly settled on the edge of his bed, white cotton dress fluttering around her legs. Brushing his right cheek with her knuckles, a trail of healed skin appeared where she touched, sickening purple fading away to nothing. She ran her index finger across the jagged cut at his hairline, knitting the torn skin back together. With her thumb, she sealed his cut lip and repaired the small fracture in his jaw.

At that, Griffin stirred, eyes dancing behind his lids. With considerable effort, he blinked at her.

“Don’t be afraid,” she whispered.

He glanced all around her, trying to understand. “Are you… Are you an angel?”

Lilith breathed a laugh, ducking her head. A lock of hair fell in her face and she tucked it back, looking up at him. “No. I am not an angel.”

“Oh. Okay.” Griffin swallowed, throat painfully dry. “You’re a hallucination. I can handle that.”

Cupping the side of his face, Lilith said, “I’m not a figment of your imagination, Griffin.”

“Then who are you?”

“This may be difficult to understand, but I’ll try my best to help you comprehend,” she told him, pulling her hand away. “My name is Lilith. I’m your first mother.”

Griffin stared. “My mother lives in Boston.”

Lilith shook her head, smiling ruefully. “You misunderstand. I know I’m not the one who birthed you.” She faltered, playing with the hem of her shawl. “My story is… complicated.”

“Try me.”

Meeting his gaze, she inhaled deeply and nodded. “Have you read the book of Genesis?”

“Yes.”

“There’s a part that was left out. My part. I’m Adam’s first wife.”

Griffin’s brows drew down. “You’re the Lilith?”

“You’ve heard of me?” She asked, surprise coloring her words.

“Um, yeah, actually. A lot of people have.”

The corner of her mouth quirked up but the smile soon faded. “The interpretation of my existence is… muddied. Convoluted at best. As I said, I was Adam’s first wife. But I wasn’t a very good one.” She paused, twisting her fingers together. “I fled from the Garden, leaving everything I had been given behind. It was a mistake. One that still ripples out, affecting everyone to this day.”

Griffin watched as memories shadowed her eyes. He cleared his throat. “They called you… a demon,” he said, afraid of offending her with the word. “Said you turned against God and became this… horrible creature.”

Lilith met his gaze with no heat in her eyes, only sorrow. “That’s because I did.”

The muscles in her delicate throat worked before she spoke. “I was found by a fallen Angel. Some theologians speculated it was Lucifer, but in fact it was a comrade of his in the war of Heaven. His name was Samael.�� Her eyes fell to a spot on the hospital issued blankets. “I joined him, and we dwelt together, commiserating in our hatred and anger towards God. He promised me everything I had been denied before. All I had to do was give myself to him.” Inhaling a shaky breath, she forced herself to look up at Griffin. “Samael didn’t turn me into a horrible creature. I turned myself into one.”

Lilith fidgeted at the edge of the mattress, and Griffin wanted to reach for her, but his arms were too heavy to move.

“He made me immortal,” she murmured. “Gave me freedom. I became his queen. And I gave him children. Seven of them; four sons, three daughters, and they were all monsters.” Her voice broke, eyelids fluttering. “They were the first.”

Realization gathered in Griffin as he watched her. “They were Vampires.”

Lilith dipped her head. “Yes. But they weren’t like the ones you know. They were… a plague. More demon than human, they ravaged everything. If it breathed, they devoured it, and nothing satisfied them. And then they discovered their ability to create.”

“They sired more.”

She nodded. “They weren’t the same as my children, but they were still monstrous. And the scourge multiplied.” Her fingers tightened in the fabric of her dress. “I saw what was happening, what they did, and I begged them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen. And Samael… He thought it was funny. He said, that if God could throw them out of heaven, then they were allowed to rape the earth and take whatever He put there, as retribution. He used my children as a weapon against the divine, and all I could do was weep.”

Lilith was silent for a long time as grief flowed out of her so tangible Griffin could taste it at the back of his throat. When she spoke again, her voice was soft and trembling.

“Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I walked into the desert, crying out. Not for me, but for the people wounded by my sins. I screamed for days, wailing into the sandstorm around me, begging to be buried alive. Instead, I was rescued. Gabriel found me and gave me shelter.”

Griffin faltered, staring at her. “Gabriel… the Archangel?”

Lilith nodded. “The Messenger. The mouthpiece of God.” Absently, she touched the carved moth broach pinned to her shawl. “He wasn’t sure what his purpose in being there was- he hadn’t been given a vision- but that didn’t deter him. He stayed with me, watched over me. I couldn’t go back to Samael, and the Garden no longer existed. I was homeless and afraid, but Gabriel persevered.”

A small smile curved her lips. “I thought he would hate me for what I had done. I was already well aware of my reputation. But it didn’t matter to him. Somehow, he saw past all that. He saw my ugliness, and loved me more for it.” She shook her head, as if still confused by it all.

Griffin attempted to push up on the bed, still watching her. “You said… you were my first mother,” he started. “What does that mean?”

Lilith averted her eyes, playing with the corner of her shawl. “Gabriel had shown me something I had never had before: unconditional love. And I found that I loved him too, just as much. I honestly hadn’t thought I was capable of it.”

Griffin could see where this was going…

“That spring, I gave birth to triplets.”

Yup. Definitely saw it coming.

“So, you and Gabriel were, um…”

Bright green eyes met his. “Lovers. The one time, at least.”

“Right.” Griffin cleared his throat. “Guess you got a lot of bang for your buck,” he muttered and immediately cringed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean-”

Lilith laughed, truly laughed, and it was one of the most melodic sounds Griffin had ever heard. A blush tinted her cheeks and her eyes sparked.

“It’s alright,” she said. “I’ve heard worse.”

“So… your triplets…?”

“Two girls and a boy,” she said with a smile.

Griffin nodded, beginning to understand. “They were special, weren’t they?”

“Unlike my children with Samael, they were mortal, but obviously different. They grew fast, were stronger than other humans, and they had gifts very similar to Gabriel’s.”

The biggest puzzle piece imaginable thunked into place in Griffin’s head.

“They were Hunters.”

“We didn’t know that at the time,” she said. “Like I said, we only knew they were different. We didn’t know the extent of it until much later, after we had given them up.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t safe to raise them ourselves. I knew Samael would come looking for me, and if he’d found them…” she trailed off. “It was better for them to go where they did.”

“So you gave them to normal families?”

“Yes. We split them up thinking that if Samael tried to find them it would make it more difficult. But Gabriel kept watch, just like he always did.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “They grew up happy and healthy, and soon had families of their own. And with each generation, more of Gabriel’s traits came through. And soon they found a purpose for those gifts.”

The heaviness in her voice made the explanation clear, but she still uttered the words. “I gave birth to monsters,” Lilith whispered. “And to those strong enough to slay them.”

There was a beat of mournful quiet before Griffin said, “You never told me why you came here.”

“Gabriel asked me to,” she replied. “He said there was something I could give you… something I could do for you that no one else could. Unfortunately, he didn’t tell me what that is.”

The morphine must have been wearing off, because Griffin felt torn asunder by pain. His eyes watered and he couldn’t breathe.

“Shh,” Lilith murmured, leaning closer. “It’s alright…”

She laid her hand over his, and the puncture wounds at his wrist healed.

Griffin gaped down at the new pink scars on his arm. “What did you just do?”

“I healed you.”

“How?”

“It’s one of my few gifts that have lingered,” she explained. “I can heal my children.”

Griffin went from not being able to take in air, to taking it in too quickly, and he vaguely noticed the uptick on the heart monitor.

“You can… You can heal me?”

Lilith frowned. “Yes, I-”

“If you heal me, I can get out of this hospital.” Griffin looked around for a clock. “What time is it? Do you see the time?”

Lilith glanced above his bed. “Not yet ten,” she said. “Why-”

“There’s still time. It hasn’t been twenty-four hours yet,” he said, trying to sit up.

Her hands planted on his chest, holding him still. “What are you talking about?”

“Nikki. She made a deal with an Alpha to save my life. They gave her twenty-four hours, and then…” His throat closed up, cutting off the words. Inhaling through his nose, he tried again. “After that, they plan on killing her.” He locked eyes with Lilith. “But if you can heal me, I can get out of here, and go back for her.”

“Griffin…”

“Please. I can’t let her die in there. Not like that.” He gulped. “I love her,” he said firmly. “I love her, and I can’t leave her to die, scared and alone, at the hands of-” He broke off, suddenly aware he was talking to both his mother and Rex’s.

Lilith seemed to know, however, and she understood. “I applaud your bravery Griffin, but your injuries are severe…”

He felt himself sink inwards. “You can’t heal them.”

She shook her head. “No, I can, but the price-”

“I don’t care.”

“Griffin, I can heal your wounds, but the pain… I can’t take all of that away, not when you’re so badly hurt. Maybe some of it but not everything. And the scars…”

“I don’t care,” he cut her off again. “I don’t care about the scars or the pain.”

“It wouldn’t be as bad if you let your own abilities heal you-”

“Please, I’m begging you. Just get me up and mobile, so I can get out of here.”

Lilith’s mouth fell open as her own realization hit her. “This is what I was supposed to give you,” she whispered, barely audible. “This is why…” Her eyes widened as she stared at Griffin. “I will heal you-”

“Thank you.”

“But I must warn you,” she added, shaking her head. “Healing you like this… It will not be pleasant. In fact, it will probably hurt as much as it did when you received these wounds.”

Griffin wrapped his hand around her wrist, holding her tight. “Lilith, if you are who you say, and you can do everything you’re talking about, then please, do it. Help me get back to her. Please.”

Lilith leapt up and bent over him, cupping his face and kissing him gently on the forehead. When she pulled back, she looked close to tears.

“I will help you, Griffin,” she murmured. “I will help you be with her.”

“Thank you,” he whispered.

Flattening her hands on his chest, Lilith caught his eye one more time as reassurance. He gave her a short nod and inhaled deeply.

“Good luck, Griffin,” Lilith said before pressing down.

Sheer agony thundered through him, and Griffin was plunged back into darkness.

* * *

Lisa stepped out of the elevator and rounded the corner just as she heard mechanized alarms going off. Three nurses jogged past her, shoving into Griffin’s room.

“No,” she breathed, taking off after them.

Through the scrub-clad mob she saw the top of Griffin’s head and the pale gown falling off his shoulder. He was upright.

And then she heard his voice.

“No, I don’t want to lie back down,” he said to one of the nurses. “I’m fine.”

Griffin was yanking at the tangle of wires he’d found himself caught in, swatting away anyone trying to ease him into a horizontal position.

“I don’t need to see the doctor, okay? I’m alright. I just want out of this,” he said, waving to the web of cords.

When one of the nurses tried to put his blood pressure cuff back on, he glared at her and tore it off.

“I’m telling you, I’m fine,” he snapped. Jerking his thumb towards the ringing monitors, he said, “Can somebody please turn that off? It’s driving me nuts.”

“Griffin,” Lisa called over the other voices. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” he said, pulling off one of the leads from his chest. “I took myself off the heart monitor and the damn thing went off.”

“Are you kidding me?” She asked, pushing past one of the nurses.

“Does it look like I’m kidding?” Catching the same nurse trying to replace his BP cuff a second time, he stopped and stared at her. “Really?”

“Griffin, please, just relax,” Lisa said. “You just woke up.”

“I am relaxed,” he said. “But that noise is pissing me off.”

Sighing, she strode to the electrical outlet and pulled the cord out of the wall. The beeping continued.

Griffin rolled his eyes. “These things run on batteries Lisa.”

Cursing, she went to the monitor and tried to find the right button. “Can someone just turn this damn thing off before he goes full-on Frankenstein’s monster and chucks it out of a window?”

An older nurse with a deep set frown stepped over and pressed a series of keys, turning the alarm off.

“Thank you.” Lisa and Griffin said together.

“Frankenstein’s monster? Really?” He said, arching an eyebrow. “I’m not gonna go on a rampage through the hospital, Lisa.”

“Well that’s what it looks like right now,” she said, gesturing to the mess he made. “Griffin, what are you doing?”

“Leaving.”

All the nurses began talking at once, ordering him to stay.

“Mr. O’Connor,” a voice called over the chatter.

Doctor Chen came over with his chart in her hand. “What’s this I hear about you taking yourself off the monitors?”

Griffin stilled, his lips pressing into a tight line.

Doctor Chen motioned to the door. “Give me the room, would you?”

The pink and teal group filed out and the doctor shut the door behind them. Tossing his chart on the foot of the bed, she folded her arms and stared at him.

“Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll be straight with you, if you’re straight with me. Okay?”

Griffin nodded, giving his full attention to the doctor.

“Good.” Pointing at the folder, she said, “Would you like to know what kind of shape you were in a few hours ago? Broken bones, severe lacerations to your back and torso, extreme blood loss, and oh yeah, the tiny detail of us having to shock your heart back into a healthy rhythm because you were going into shock.”

The frown on Doctor Chen’s face stayed firm as she gave him a cursory glance.

“The fact that you’re awake, and not still in the medically induced coma we put you in is already cause for concern and a hefty dose of suspicion.”

Griffin cleared his throat. “Look, doctor-”

“Did I say I was finished?”

“Sorry,” he murmured, ducking his head.

Doctor Chen continued. “Now, I should sedate you and put you on lockdown for your erratic and aggressive behavior.” Her glare softened. “But I won’t.”

“What?” The question fell from his mouth.

She tilted her chin towards his right wrist and glanced at Lisa’s.

“I’ve seen those tattoos before,” she said, noticeably quieter than before. “A few times actually, in my twenty odd years of working here, and every time the people who had them were the biggest pain in my ass.”

Lisa snorted a laugh and coughed to cover it up.

“I don’t know what you do,” Doctor Chen said. “I don’t need to know. But somehow, miraculously, the injuries you came in with-the ones that should have taken weeks to heal- look to have healed in less than an hour, since the last time I made rounds.”

Lisa blinked, her brain finally catching up to the present. She had just been so relieved to see Griffin alive and awake she hadn’t noticed the extent of his condition. She felt like an idiot.

Yanking at the back of his hospital gown, Lisa arched over him.

“Lisa,” Griffin muttered, trying to move away from her.

“Oh my God.”

Her fingers traced over one of the scars along his shoulder. It was solid, as if he’d been wounded years ago, not earlier that day. She’d seen him heal fast before, but never like this. She didn’t think it was possible…

“How…?” She started to ask.

Griffin pulled the fabric back over himself. “I’ll explain later.”

“Yes, you will,” Doctor Chen interjected. “But you’re gonna save that discussion for when you are far, far away from here.”

“You’re letting me leave?” He asked.

She nodded. “I’m going to give you a quick check just to be sure you’re not going to split at the seams and spill your guts in the hallway, and then I’m going make a few very illegal alterations to your records. You are then gonna sign the hell out of some paper work because I’ll be damned if I get sued for malpractice because of you.” She picked up his chart and leveled her gaze on him. “And then you are going to get out of my hospital, without causing another scene, and you’re going to go do whatever it is that’s so important to you, that you inked it on your skin.”

Turning, she headed for the door and glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t usually say this but… I’ll pray for you Mr. O’Connor.”

She jerked open the door and was met with Boz on the other side, his arm raised like he was about to knock.

“Oh,” he exclaimed, dropping his hand. “Sorry, doctor.”

He skirted around her and kicked the door shut, balancing the tray of coffees he had. His eyes lifted and the soles of his boots squeaked on the tile as he halted. For a moment Boz didn’t even look to be breathing. Finally, a smile broke over his face.

“So those pissed off nurses in the hallway were talking about you,” he said, moving closer to the bed.

“What?” Griffin frowned.

“Oh, just ranting about some belligerent jackass taking himself off the heart monitor,” Boz said, smirking as he handed Lisa her coffee. “And I thought ‘huh, that sounds like something Griff would do,’ and whaddya know!” He waved a hand at Griffin, chuckling.

“I wasn’t belligerent,” Griffin muttered. “In fact I think I was pretty civil given the circumstances.”

“Yeah but ‘civil’ coming from an overly muscled giant like you is still pretty intimidating,” Lisa commented over the lip of her cup.

Griffin rolled his eyes but caught the gentle look Lisa gave him. Boz handed over his coffee to Griffin and tossed the cardboard tray.

“Seriously though,” he said, pushing his hands into his front pockets. “Glad you’re up man.”

Griffin nodded, fingers closing around the warm cup. “Thanks.”

It was real. He was awake, alive. He was whole again.

Lisa hummed, gesturing to his back. “And you’re gonna fill us in on the details of this when exactly?”

“Once we get me the hell out of here,” he said.

“I’ll go get an extra set of clothes out of the van,” Boz said, starting towards the door. “Don’t want you having a hospital wardrobe malfunction. ‘Cause buddy, I love ya’, but that’s a boundary I’d rather not cross.”

Griffin chuckled, lifting his coffee and taking a sip. Quiet enveloped the room and he felt Lisa staring at him.

“What?” He asked, looking up.

Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “We thought we were gonna lose you,” she whispered. “We thought…”

Griffin caught her hand in his, squeezing her fingers. “Hey… you haven’t lost me yet.”

Lisa swallowed hard, inhaling shakily. She opened her mouth to speak but no words would come. So she just nodded and tightened her grip around his.

* * *

Lilith paused outside the hospital exit, looking to the sky. She wished she could see the stars…

A shadow behind one of the concrete pillars near the ambulance bay shifted, whispering to her it was angelic. Tilting her head, she waited for him to step into the light.

The zipper on his leather jacket glinted, and Lilith’s heart plummeted.

“Hello, Michael,” she said, trying to calm the tremor in her voice.

There was no warmth in his eyes as he scanned her face, expression teetering on indifferent and cold. The longer he waited to speak, the more the muscles in her legs quaked.

“Lilith,” he said finally. Reaching into his jacket pocket for his Marlboros and gold lighter, he stared as if able to bore a hole through her.

She forced herself not to glance away from him. He would have taken it as a sign of weakness.

“Did Gabriel send you?” She asked, though she already knew the answer.

Michael placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it. “No.”

“Then why are you here?” She tightened her shawl around her arms, pretending it was the night air that caused her chill, and not the darkness that skirted across his eyes.

Holding his cigarette between his knuckles, he gestured behind her to the hospital and leaned against the pillar.

“I’m keeping watch,” he said. “You know, doing the whole guardian angel, Roma Downy routine.” Exhaling a cloud of smoke, he continued. “I’m making sure your great, great, great, great, grand-whatever makes it through the night.”

“I healed him,” she said, feeling a hint of confidence return. “He’ll be fine.”

Michael chuckled darkly. “A few broken ribs are the least of his worries.”

“What are you talking about?” Lilith frowned.

Flicking ash on the ground, he smirked. “You just auto-tuned your boy back into fighting shape. And that’s what he’s gonna go do. He’s barreling towards a war at lightning speed, and he has you to thank for that.”

“He’s going after the woman he loves,” Lilith countered. “I consider that a just cause.”

He gave a quick derisive snort and shook his head. “You would.”

Anger flared in her chest, hardening her stare. “Does Gabriel know you’re here?”

“Nope,” he answered casually. “I told him I didn’t want to be involved anymore, and I made with the disappearing act.”

“So you lied to him.”

Michael narrowed his gaze on her. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s something you know a little bit about, huh?”

Bitter rage rose in her throat, but Lilith refused to spew it forth, no matter how badly she ached to.

“Good night, Michael.” Turning on her heel, she strode towards the parking deck of the hospital.

“Tell me something,” Michael called after her. “Does it hurt you too?”

She halted but didn’t face him.

“Seeing him,” Michael continued. Pushing away from the concrete, he tossed his cigarette on the wet ground, following after her. “Does it kill you? Tear you up inside for months, years, afterwards?”

Taking a full breath, she slowly turned to meet Michael’s gaze. Her skin burned from the heat of his anger.

Unflinching, she whispered, “And then some.”

Michael nodded, satisfied with her answer. “Good,” he said, starting towards the building.

Lilith’s resolve fractured. “You can hate me as much as you want, Michael,” she called. “But it was Gabriel’s choice too.”

He paused, shoulders stiffening, before twisting to look at her.

“You’re right,” he said, icy indifference returning to his expression. “I can hate you as much as I want.”

The angel strode back into the same shadow he had emerged from and with a pop of electricity, he vanished.

Lilith exhaled until her sternum ached. Touching the moth pinned to her shawl, she started walking again, and didn’t stop until the hospital, with all its shadows, was far behind her.

#Children of Lilith #free fiction #free novels for pandemic times #THIS CHAPTER IS *THE* CHAPTER FOR UNDERSTANDING THE TITLE AAAAHHHHH #I LOVE IT SO MUCH #I LOVED WRITING IT #I LOVE THE CHARACTERS #I'M FEELING A LOT ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW #anywhooooo #enjoy #my writing #my work

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mtwy · 7 years

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Record Mirror

UK January 7th 1984

By Simon Hills in New York

It was love at first sight. But Madonna and Jellybean were both being far too cool to admit it.

The rising disco singer first met DJ John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez when she was taking her demo tape around the New York clubs. However it was only much later when he produced her ‘Holiday’ single, which is now released in Britain, that true live flourished.

‘I know that record companies wouldn’t listen to my demo tape, so I started taking it round the clubs and giving it to DJ’s.” says Madonna.

“At the time I started hanging out at the Danceteria - I love hanging out in clubs and dancing, and my dream was to make a record that I would want to go into a club and dance to myself. I met the DJ in the Danceteria, and he thought it was really great, and everyone danced to it. He was an ex-A&R guy and knew a lot of other guys in the business and I ended up signing to Sire and made my first album.

“I met Jellybean when my first record came out. After ‘Everybody’ was released he took me round to all the DJ’s in the major clubs - the Garage, the Funhouse, Studio 54 and those places were playing my records.

“he liked me but nothing really happened in the beginning - we were both a bit cool. A lot of people bring him tapes and stuff, and I thought I’m not going to play up to that, I won’t make him think that I’m playing up to him to help my career.

“after that I had to remix ‘Physical Attraction’ and I was aware of the work he was doing. My album was almost finished and I decided to get Jellybean to produce one of the cuts - and he turned into my producer and my boyfriend. Everything happened at the same time.”

Now the pair share an enormous loft in New York’s fashionable SoHo area. Enormous, in fact, is an understatement.

Madonna and I are chatting over a fresh orange juice at opposite ends of a small table in the wooden floored flat, which is about twice the length of a school classroom. The table is the only piece of furniture and it overlooks the street below.

Various people bellow up to attract her attention six floors down. The doorbaells don’t work in the converted warehouse, and when they are functioning, they get vandalised.

Madonna sits and talks quickly and precisely with her head in her hands. every now and then she has to take a phone call and bursts into life, running and slipping down the length of the vast apartment. This is the centre of the Madonna/Jellybean partnership, Jellybean doing his famous DJ work down at the Funhouse, and Madonna concentrating on music and now films.

It’s a far cry from when she first arrived in the Big Apple from Detroit.

“Although I took to New York straight away I was really lonely,” she say “ I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t have any money and I didn’t have anywhere to stay. you’re really confined, you’re a small fish in a big sea instead of a big fish in a little pond.

“I was getting lost on the subway trains all the time and things like that. You really have to gear yourself to your work, that’s your focal point and that’s your secuirty. Slowly I got to know it and became secure, and now it’s odd to think how scared I was in the beginning.”

Madonna’s work intially was as a dancer, taking her into a Broadway musical because she could sing as well. From there she got picked up by a management copany and went to spend six months in Paris, but that got blown out when she realised that there were other artists who were breaking, who would obviously get more attention than her.

Back in New York again, she settled down to learning every instrument in the book, and ended up drumming for a garage band. She quit when she decided she wanted to be at the front, and eventually decided to chuck it all in and make a demo tape single with the help of an old friend from Detroit she came across by mistake. The tape was taken to clubs, and that brings us back to the beginning of the story.

So why should Madonna have been so successful? ‘Holiday’ has shot up the charts in America and she’s had some acclaim here, although ‘holiday’ still has to prove itself.

“I think I’m one of the first disco personalities,” she says. “A lot of it is rather cold dance music, there’s no personality to it, and the people are really forgettable. That’s the difference wth British music. I think. There’s a group and with it there’s fashion, there’s a look, there’s something for people to attach it to. It seems there’s more coherence.

“There’s already a big British invasion here because of that, I think, especially as there’s a bit of a glut right now as all the big people choose to put their records out and it doesn’t leave room for anything fresh.

“Being brought up in Detroit and having older brothers who played soul music, it was my main influence, of course, I never listened to heavy metal or rock music. So my sound is the result of the kind of music I always liked.

I’m approaching it from a very single point of view because I’, not an incredible musician. I want to keep it that way, I want to be direct.”

Jellybean has been an influence as well, of course. Down at his club Funhouse, he mixes everything behind a pounding bass drim which dominates the huge club.

Everyone goes there to dance. There aren’t groups of people drinking or trying to pick up. Dancing is king. People gyrate in front of the mirrors which are set up on all pillars supporting the huge warehouse on New York’s West Side. The more confident are up on stage doing their thing, and if anyone’s really hot on the dance floor, a small group will stand round and watch.

Disco is not Madonna’s only talent. The singer has trained as an actress and a dancer, and has recently worked on a film about a wrestler who comes to the city to make it big.

“It’s a small part I have as a singer in a club where the boy goes with this girl,” says Madonna. “Each song is symbolic. One is from the girls point of view, as she’s not really attached to this guy. There’s a slow song where they dance together, which is the nearest they get to being really together and there’s one from the guy’s point of view where he knows he can’t have her and she’s leaving.

“The film is a coming of age movie. The boy’s working out training for the Olympics and at the ame time he’s trying to fit in. In the end he wins the big fight, but looses the girl.

“It doesn’t sound much, but it’s really a very good movie.”

Isn’t Madonna in danger of losing out by tring to do too much? So many people who have crossed from one medium to the other have had a job making it in either field.

“You can cross over - Judy Garland did it,” she exclaims. “I don’t see how it’s not possible. If Sissy Spacek can be a country singer, why can’t I be an actress?

“I don’t see it as being so diverse, expecially with video becoming so strong. Certain things are central to any performer and one of those aspects is being able to watch them. After you’ve done an album you often have to wait around for six months until it’s promoted, so I might as well act in that time.

“There aren’t any rules that say you can’t. Music is very important to me, but the thought that I can only make records for the rest of my life fills me with horror. I think people who are talented at something are good at a lot of different things.”

Photo Credit: Gary Heery

#1984 #recordmirror #magazines #madonnaera

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