nexvsvorti

[nexvsvorti]

she could. they're right- she could easily bend her morals and her judgements, stand with wyatt and the emissaries. likely to be welcomed by few but none would dare argue the switch, not when it makes their leader happy. would she be expected to bend the knee? submit to wyatt's singular leadership and follow orders? she was the person once, maybe she could be that person again. a simple role, perhaps to make life all the easier to swallow. these are all thoughts she's had before, quietly and to herself since the days the followers of the twice-blessed child started cropping up, started being more than a nuisance and became a threat.

didn't she once argue how much fate sucked, how she would rebel against it each and every time? only to be made it's puppet with ease, to see the ending and not be able to stop it. one lesson learned is that fate, nature, whichever word you want to use, will find it's balance one way or another. it will bleed, and sacrifice, and damn anyone who stands in the path of the endgame.

"i wish i wanted it too."

" you could. " she who was as much prophecy and bloodline as they. she who was just as tangled up in her fate ..... oh , how long they'd spent rallying against it , and for what ?? here they were : destiny had come home to roost and neither of them were left unscathed. it grew roots , curling and spreading till they were blinded with inevitability. wyatt knew what it was to come to , what it had always been meant to come to ( a blight to blot out a blight , unleash one sickness to kill another ---- in other words , annihilation ) , but was it so wrong- ..... what had nature done for them ?? why need they be vessels of it's whims , this thing that never had any love for them ?? if they were to be abominations ( monster , loophole , omen , mistake , wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong- ) let them. let them carve a path anew. let them live. " -i want you to. i want you to stay " i want you to stay with me.

[nexvsvorti]

she notes the twitch of the other's hand, though does she know the meaning of it? instead the tribrid tenses, if only slightly, expecting the other to lash out first. when no magic comes crackling her way, hope allows herself to relax just a bit, shoulders coming down from their perch. she does expect josie to make the first move for the offensive, at least. force hope into a fight she doesn't want, place her on a chess board with no viable win. this will be a long game, a marathon to win back her josie.

killing her is a possibility but hope is tired of sacrificing friends, family, those she loves for the greater good. for the cause, she justifies to herself. a way to help carry the guilt of those that have died by her hand— both directly and indirectly. she certainly doesn't want to kill josie of all people, regardless of what side of the girl is present.

so she bluffs. "if that's what it takes. i helped josie find herself once, i will do it again." it can't be that different can it? an infection of dark magic that tainted her, that brings out the worst parts of her friend. it's just a way to cope, a system the siphon derived out of fear— no different than how josie saved hope from herself all those years ago.

"i know you're in there, jo. i won't give up."

no longer were they as strong as they were when the curse was first thrust upon them. dark magic flowing so freely through her body had been too tempting not to tap into. the feeling of power had blinded her to the weakening of magic that kept them fronting. the josie inside had found a voice inside the head, a twitch of bodily control for a fraction of a second at times. there was it now, a spasm of her hand muscles. something faint and almost unnoticeable, done without dark josie's will.

that's what the mikaelson did. what lizzie, caroline and chris did. give hope and ambition to that ever growing force inside her. an unfamiliar, tiny feeling of fear at the thought of losing her grip on the situation. josie's gaze never leaves hope's, continuing to ignore the internal struggle. " you going to kill me, hope ? " if not time out, what was the alternative ? dark josie had an ego surely, but she wasn't delusional enough to think that she could overpower the other. " have i earned that ? shitty way to repay a friend for saving another. "

because that's why they were standing here in this manner now. an act of good will on josie's part to spare chris. if they had anything to exploit, it was that very thing. was pressing the buttons of the tribrid a good idea ? if only she were concerned.

[nexvsvorti]

he isn't wrong so she shrugs as the heart is dropped from her fingers, letting it land with a thump. an echo of it's previous beat. "not used to things going to easily. thanks for the help."

" -and it may have gone much worse. let us count our blessings , yes ?? "

[nexvsvorti]

"it's clear you don't know me at all if that is all you think i do." sure she might have a martyr complex, a carryover from so many sacrifices made for her, because of her. maybe she's still learning that balance of selfish and selfless. hero and villain. "why are you even here, akasha? shouldn't you be with your family."

❝  ⸻ really ? how so ? Because I think better ironic than hypocritical . ❞  Akasha lightly laughed as she shook her head at the tribrid . ❝ Stop thinking about others , hope . don't burn yourself to keep others warm . ❞

[nexvsvorti]

this is the first she's hearing of this and were it any other situation, hope might not have the air of suspicion but with him being a hybrid of her sire line— well that brings in certain complications. "what kind of questions?" the balance between past, present, future is becoming more and more precarious as they meddle in things. she's already broken the story herself, having lifted the crescent curse herself instead of hayley doing it (the first time). "have you told anyone you're a hybrid?" not that she'd expressly forbidden it as the story of klaus mikaelson had spread quickly once his own curse was broken. "there isn't a manual for it. i've only known two." one really, considering how absent klaus had been most of her life, some of it not to his own fault.

he gave a shrug with a grin. "you always give me the best blood bags though." if it was ANY consolation. it also wasn't the weirdest conversation. landon was after all his best friend. "thank you. i'm not complaining. speaking of blood bags --," rafe turned to look at her better, "the amount of werewolves in this place asking me questions that vaguely mention you is pretty high. i don't know why i didn't think to ask. they're all convinced i'm gonna fee fi fo fum all over town. am i not doing this hybrid thing right or something?"

[nexvsvorti]

"because you've stepped into something that you're not ready for." doppelgangers, overly zealous vampires, the occasional witch problem. those are mystic falls problems. "new orleans is different than 1920." things are unstable. the crown is fragile. the future came crashing down. "you mean a lot to people-" to josie and lizzie. "i want to make sure you're prepared." there's no uncertainity in the softness of her voice, in the familiarity she expresses with him. after all, hope feels as if she knows stefan salvatore.

GOLD was the color of a werewolves' irises, the same color of klaus's when the original hybrid reached a particular level of anger that stefan had only scarcely seen. "... i see." witches and vampire hybrids, okay, that was new. the werewolf part wasn't information the young woman mentioned, but stefan was relatively certain in his assessment to their state of being. he debated calling them out on it, but decided against it, there would be a better time and place. he was already learning a lot more then he'd been prepared for. "sounds like a fun coven." he said with no little bit of sarcasm. "but why are you telling me this?" where was the benefit in sharing this was a stranger? what did stefan's own awareness offer to this person he didn't even know the name of?

[nexvsvorti]

shed always thought her love of sweet foods had come from klaus, their shared love of beignets simply the beginning. but had it perhaps come from hayley too? a shared characteristic from both parents, something equally them in their daughter. how many other things had hope yet to discover about her parents that lived on in her? or things she missed, that would be gone with their deaths? the thought of that has her lip quivering and hand reaching for the offered popcorn with a whispered gratitude. "i get the snark from my parents." the words feel weird in this context, speaking to said parent as if they're strangers. though to hayley, hope guesses they are. "dad perfected sarcasm, might have invented it even. mom had more bite in her words but just as bad as dad."

hayley raised an eyebrow at the someone else comment . Clearly whoever they were , the small one was not fond of them . Either way , hayley was more concerned on taking a break off her feet . who knew being pregnant would come with the complicated perks like swollen ankles . at least she didn't have much of a morning sickness as before . digging into the bag she had , hayley looked the other over when they asked .

something about the girl seemed familiar . something in her felt like stirring . as if compelled and drawn to her ... but she tried to push it down ? she didn't know what to make of that feeling .

❝ ⸻ No , but they smell and look pretty good . although , they seem a little messy ... Like jelly donuts . ❞ although , they might be better . holding out the bag for the kid , hayley easily offered . ❝ ⸻ popcorn ? the only good thing my adopted parents taught me was that sometimes something sweet helps for a moment ... you have that doom and gloom look aside from a bit of snarky bite ❞ hayley referred to her words when she first spoke up .

[nexvsvorti]

"you simply exist." having been in a particularly bad mood the last few days, seeing another of the trinity just piles onto the problems causing such a mood in her. knowing they need to hide who they are is against their base instinct, having leaned into the tribrid thing far too much and far too often. she simply wants to flex it now, show him his arrogance means nothing to her. "but then again not many people know about you and the other two. the trinity, you call yourself." just instead drop all the knowledge you have about him instead, then, hope. that's a great strategy. "or do you align more as the leader of the strix?"

@nexvsvorti / tristan & hope

it wasn't often tristan took note of a child's unruly glare upon them. they typically kept caution intertwined in each movement, but children didn't think much of them sans a pause at how well dressed he was ( it wasn't thinking better of himself, rather tristan noted that he lacked that same attention without one but ultimately preferred to be sharp anyway. an imprint of elijah mikaelson, probably ). indubitably a vampire, because they'd been alive too long not to notice one. but any vampire was a child in comparison to him ultimately. "did i do something to offend you?" he asked, never one to beat around the bush.

[nexvsvorti]

interrupting chris has become a specialty of hope's over the months. it feels like years. "what are you looking for? how to beat my evil sibling without killing them, part 3?" leaned against the doorframe, the tribrid looks over a their co-leader, their friend, with something akin to pity. she doesn't envy his predicament with wyatt, though she can partly understand it. "i think we're past that point, chris." they don't like saying it any more than he enjoys hearing it.

chris groaned, pen in his mouth as he flipped through another book that was much of the same from the last. "how is it that every single one of these 'ancient texts' are the exact same information in a different font? like, come on."

@hellsmouthstarters

[nexvsvorti]

have you ever wished you weren't a mikaelson?

"i've wished to die. i've wondered if i was ever meant to exist." a shrug. "but i've never questioned being a mikaelson, being klaus and hayley's daughter."

[nexvsvorti]

"i'm not made of brick." hope is exasperated. exhausted. anything else in the extremes that could describe her might just apply. "you're not going to hit me hard enough to break anything." were this anyone else, anyone but chris and wyatt's little sister, hope would have walked away and let melinda be satisfied with what she could do now. "take this seriously and i'll leave you alone." they won't but it's an easy enough lie to tell.

" right, you said hit me, and i did. you didn't say how hard, " melinda counters easily. the girl knew well enough how to fight, how hard she needed to hit when the time called for it. this moment wasn't one of them. " not trying to break my knuckles. "

[nexvsvorti]

khc: wade, jed, ethan

"cuddle wade, hug jed, kiss ethan."

[nexvsvorti]

"that's where you're wrong." she can. she will. the witch need not die for his sake, for his reasoning— no matter how deserved it might be. things are tense in the city and sparking an all out faction war on top of everything else is the last thing this bustling supernatural hub needs.

speed unmatched, the tribrid yanks the knife from his fingers, taking chance of his casual hold on the blade. she stands between him and the witch though a simple sleeping spell as her dropping like a corpse to the ground.

"like i said: you were wrong."

Klaus laughs at her self-assured order, trying to think back to the last time anyone convincingly ordered him to do anything. The dagger in his hand glinted in the light as he continued to twirl in between his fingertips. He paid no attention to the blade as he met her gaze, raising an eyebrow. "At the risk of sounding childish, you can't make me, love."

[nexvsvorti]

"it's funny. you say you never wanted us in danger but where were you?" hope knows caroline was looking for a way around the merge, a way to save both her daughters. "you were never there. so don't stand there and tell me that isn't what you wanted because you weren't there to change it."

❝  ⸻ that's not true . you're not a weapon . you're just a girl . I never wanted you or any of the kids to be in danger while I was away . the school was suppose to keep you all safe . ❞

[nexvsvorti]

"if you want to get technical, my grandmother started it." hope couldn't help but wonder just how much of the mikaelson story katherine really knew. though hope doesn't refer to the doppelganger curse as the start, she does refer to the role the petrova line held in the history of their family. of tatia, the jealousy of brothers, and the bloodlust of a new species.

she's certainly right. hope isn't scared of katherine, certainly not scared of anything the vampire could try to do to her. "just like i said: curious why you're here. has my- has klaus found out you're here?" she tries to recall the stories of the great katherine pierce, the fearsome katerina petrova. where did she go after her family returned to new orleans? did she stay in mystic falls or continue to run? her father's curse was broken so he had no used for her anymore- vampire blood of the doppelganger can't be used to turn hybrids. "surprised to find you here. alive, at least."

"was it mommy, daddy, grandma?" the kills under her belt were vast and none without purpose. her only goal for over 500 years had been to survive, if only out of pure spite of the man who had slaughtered her entire family. Regardless of their disownment, they had been the only family Katherine had ever known and then they were slaughtered. "that'd be a first." she was the petrova doppelganger always on the run, the bitch who would throw anyone under a train for her own self, judgement was inevitable. "why's that? i know you're not scared of lil ole me." katherine knew what fear looked like, this wasn't that. she did like, however, that the whole humanity thing wasn't too spread around. made it a lot easier to talk in the beat she was comfortable with, even if her bark didn't hold the same bite as it once had.

[nexvsvorti]

will you buy oliver dinner tonight, yes or i'd love to

— there's a sigh before she nods yes. "but i'm picking where to go."

[nexvsvorti]

what's worst : death or forgetting ?

"being forgotten." loneliness isn't foreign to a mikaelson. perhaps a uniqueness all to themselves, monsters at the peak of power and some of the loneliest things to ever exist. when you've experienced the emptiness that is death, when you've passed beyond that veil into the world of the half-alive and lingering, well it's not quite as scary as it might once have been. she doesn't know what it's like to forget though. she tried, she almost succeeded, but the truth was there. you can't forget that pain that comes with your life, no matter how much you try to run. "looking at your friends, your family, and knowing they don't see a face they recognize is the worst of it all." it's not quite death, it's not that generous. to be forgotten is like mourning something that never existed, instead of clinging to something that was. "it's a special kind of alone."