#Being named after a man who died horribly of a vampire attack over a century ago also can't help

[theholmwoodfoundation]

Why is Jeremy's daddy so sour

Events and Circumstances, the usual. (also probably [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], and also his son is a massive disappointment. )

Also thank you for the amazing phrasing of this question. 10/10.

[alllwritenow]

blame it on the stardust

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Elena stared at herself in the mirror, the shadows under her eyes long since covered by makeup and the exhaustion in her bones hidden by the curve of her smile. She knew better than most what time healed and what it didn’t. Her grief was far from spent, but life didn’t stop, not for anyone.

Turning away from the mirror, she tucked the journal in her bag and headed down the stairs for the requisite stilted morning banter with Jenna and Jeremy. Jenna was frantic and Jeremy was sullen and she refused to let her heavy heart weigh them down. She acted as explicitly normal as possible—fake it till you make it—and filled a travel mug of coffee for herself and Jeremy without comment, earning a reluctant smile.

“Ride?” she asked him after Jenna had left, and didn’t argue when he shook his head, ignoring the itch in her hands that wanted to drag him close and hold on until he broke down and cried like he hadn’t since they left the hospital. Instead she flicked his ear, hid a grin at his scowl, and went to wait on the porch for Bonnie.

Her friend’s smile was still careful around the edges, hidden worry in her eyes that Elena forced herself not to grimace at. Bonnie loved her, of course she was worried. Elena loved her back and she wouldn’t begrudge that concern. She returned Bonnie’s hug and held herself to the present by sheer force of will as Bonnie told her all about her Grams and their ancestors and her apparent psychic powers.

Elena knew what Bonnie was, knew the magic and potential, far greater than her own, that lurked inside her friend. She was prepared for this conversation, ready to be supportive and excited by turns. She was not prepared for the crow that slammed into the windshield, the spike of fear and unease that lingered.

She was not prepared for the handsome, chiseled face of Stefan Salvatore staring at her from across the hallway.

Her throat closed and her heartbeat tripled in pace and she knew he heard it, knew his senses, so much more than advanced than hers, could detect the effects of shock and panic and secret thrill of delight on her system. Her lips were numb as she agreed with Bonnie’s assessment of his hotness and listened to her friend’s theories on who he was.

What was he doing here? Who did he think she was?

Katerina had never spilled her secrets to him, had told him only what would make him love her, true or not. He knew nothing of doppelgangers and curses, of endless flight from brutal monsters until you became one yourself. Or he hadn’t, but then, her memories of him were incomplete, second-hand, filtered through Katerina, and over a century old.

The fear and confusion and sense of strained reality lingered throughout the day, enforced by the weight of his focused attention and broken only by her worries about Jeremy, Bonnie’s predictions, and Caroline’s forced cheerfulness. She didn’t follow through with her weekly visit to her parents’ graves after school and instead dug out the journals and sketches hidden beneath the floorboards under her bed, pouring over fragments of dreams and flashes of memories not hers as she scrambled for a sense of control in a world gone spinning off course.

She hadn’t thought she’d be lucky enough to go unnoticed forever. To have a life free of the supernatural other than her own magic and Bonnie’s inevitable awakening to the powerful witch she was meant to be. Not when she’d been unlucky enough to be born in the same town Katerina had fled to, the land where Tatia had once lived. But she wasn’t ready, and she hadn’t expected this. One of the brothers Katerina had seduced and fallen for and left behind. And if one was here, where was the other? Did he still live as well?

They seemed decent enough, in the bits and pieces of memories she had to go on, one more kind and one more sharp but both very human and very in love with Katerina. What would that betrayal, the loss of their humanity, and a century and a half of immortality have done to their natures? She couldn’t trust that her memories or her face would keep her safe, much less her loved ones.

Elena wasn’t just a doppelganger. She was a Gilbert and she knew what her ancestors had done to protect themselves from vampires, knew the secrets that lived in her purely human family tree, had suspicions about her Uncle’s oddly nomadic life.

Elena had been ingesting vervain since she was old enough to be trusted alone in the backyard, enabling her to cultivate a hidden little garden. She regularly dosed her brother and her friends and had become the unofficial punch spiker for school dances specifically so she could slip some in with the booze. Cheerleading and daily runs in the woods kept her fit and stronger than she looked. She knew Mystic Falls, knew the land it had been long before the town itself, could see the bones of what it had been during the Civil War beneath the modern structures. Her magic was limited in power, the curse of her bloodline, but she had centuries of knowledge to draw on in how best to use it. And she knew vampires, knew them as well as any human ever could.

She didn’t want to hurt anyone. Never wanted to kill anyone, even if it wasn’t their first death. But she and Katerina shared more than just a face, and if it meant protecting her family or her friends, she would do what she had to do.

Including going to a party by the falls when it was the last thing on her mind. She used to be good at parties. Used to be the party, her and Caroline and Bonnie. School wasn’t like Mean Girls, even in a status-obsessed small town like theirs. Outside of Founder events, no one cared about your last name. But they were cheerleaders and for a certain limited definition that mostly existed in Caroline’s head in a teen movie montage sort of way, they could have been said to rule the school.

And then her parents died and the legacy in her blood smacked her in the face with an only kind of dead boy and now she was drinking shitty beer laced with vervain and faking an engaged conversation and a smile so wide her cheeks hurt directed at whoever was next to her whenever Stefan looked her way. He had clearly not gotten the memo about her strong desire to avoid any significant interaction with him and his gaze prickled against her skin.

Later she would curse herself for her inattention, for her selfishness. If she’d been less concerned with avoiding an awkward and potentially dangerous conversation with Katerina’s ex, if she’d been more concerned with the danger to everyone else, oblivious innocents with no idea of the danger lurking in their midst, maybe Vicky wouldn’t have been bitten.

When she heard the scream, followed by the unmistakable sound of Jeremy’s voice shouting, her heart stopped in her chest, terrified that she was going to lose him. But he was fine, holding up a rapidly-sobering Vicky. Matt’s sister was bleeding from a wound in her throat, eyes glassy and hands fluttering wildly as she mumbled, barely audible over the commotion of the party. “What the hell?! What the hell.”

“What happened?” Matt demanded before Elena could, eyes darting between his sister and Jeremy as he pulled Vicky away from the other boy.

“I don’t know, man, I just found her like this. I know Tyler was giving her grief earlier, but I don’t think he’d do this.”

Elena stepped closer, wrapping an arm around Jeremy’s as Matt turned to his sister just as she checked back into reality. “Mattie? This guy, he, he bit me, Mattie! I think he was on drugs or something? He bit me and then he got really angry and said something about me being dosed and then he ran off.”

Jeremy flinched against Elena and she grimly hoped that this horrible night would get him to stop stealing her pain medication. “You should get her to the hospital, Matt. Human mouths have a lot of disgusting germs in them,” she told him, completely serious and also hoping that Vicky’s accusation of drugs and her own words were enough to keep anyone from digging deeper.

Matt nodded, still scowling at Jeremy, and Tyler who had joined the circle of drunken students watching the drama unfold, and started pulling Vicky toward the parking lot. Elena caught Stefan watching her again and narrowed her eyes. “Go home, Jeremy, I’ll meet you there. Caroline’s mom will probably want to talk to you, see if you saw anything that might help them ID the guy, and you need to sober up first.”

He shrugged her off, but didn’t argue, and she took it as a win as she stalked toward Katerina’s ex, giving in to the inevitable.

“I know you didn’t do this,” she told him, before he could speak, and ignored the way his eyes widened, leaning closer to ensure only he could hear the deadly intent of her next words. “But if you brought someone with you who did, Damon or anyone else, you need to get them out of my town. Mystic Falls is not welcoming to any vampires who feed without consent.”

She didn’t wait for his answer, if he had one, just turned and left, hoping to find Bonnie or Caroline to catch a ride from.

The next morning the news showed a very generic sketch, the reporter asking people to be on the lookout for a non-local man on drugs who attacked people in the woods. Elena grimaced and didn’t protest when Jenna turned it off, muttering something about an asshole ex who had a lot of nerve to warn people about other men instead of himself.

School was a mess. Jeremy didn’t seem to be high, for once, but he was avoiding her and so was Caroline, for reasons Elena didn’t understand. Stefan kept trying to get her alone, clearly wanting to know what she knew. She finally escaped with the end of day bell and took a moment to center herself in the bathroom, reaching out with her faint thread of magic.

It led her to the Grill, Caroline crying at a table as Bonnie awkwardly tried to comfort her. “How come he didn’t go for me? Why do the guys I want never want me?”

“Oh Caroline, boys are dumb,” Elena said, dropping next to Caroline in the booth. “So very dumb.”

Caroline whirled on her. “It’s easy for you to say that! You always say the right thing, I always say the wrong thing. I work so hard and got to know him and flirted and he still picked you.”

“Stefan?” Elena asked, shocked and mad at herself for missing this. She’d missed too much lately and it needed to stop now. “Caroline, I’m not interested in him. He just won’t leave me alone and I don’t know why.” She did know why, knew how much he’d loved the last woman to bear her face, but she could hardly explain that. And the rest of her statement stood.

Caroline, brilliant friend that she was, pivoted on a dime from heartbroken envy to protective rage. “Who does he think he is? God’s gift to high school? If he doesn’t leave you alone, we will ruin him,” she said furiously, already pulling out her phone to start the various text chains that would accomplish just that.

Elena laughed, pulling her in for a hug before she could hit send and roping Bonnie in too. “I love you. Can we save ruining for another day and have a sleepover tonight? I’m thinking rum floats and movies about talking pets.”

Bonnie snorted and Caroline giggled a little wetly into Elena’s shoulder before nodding, priorities realigning again. “Definitely. I just got some new gold face masks. We’ll be the fanciest drunk girls in Mystic Falls.”

Across the room, unnoticed by them all, Damon Salvatore reevaluated the usefulness of the blonde as a target and moved on to other strategies. Instead of the first of many nights of horrific trauma that would have lingered in the back of her mind for the rest of her life, Caroline went home with her two best friends and invented a drinking game based on how many animal-related puns were used in a given scene.

Elena fell asleep in a tangled pile with both her best friends, happiness sinking into her bones, warding off the grief and the fear that had been swallowing her. This was how it should be. This was how it would be, and no vampire was going to ruin it.

-

Chapter Three

[geek-patient-zero]

Part 1, Chapter 5

Or: Flavia Becomes an Actual Character

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy Volume 1

Back in St. Louis, Dire McCann’s back in his office by 3 AM.

It had been a long, brutal evening. One filled with more surprises than he imagined possible. Both during the reign of the Red Death... and after.

As he kicks back in his armchair, feet on his desk, the story immediately flashes back to the Club Diabolique. McCann had spent an hour or so in a relatable work predicament: being trapped in a room with your boss while he’s having a temper tantrum.

The room cleared of his brood, Vargoss had spent more than an hour raging to McCann about his progeny’s cowardice. The detective and the Dark Angels had been the only ones who had attempted to save the Prince from the Final Death. Vargoss made it quite clear that in nights to come, the regulars of the Club would pay for their weakness.

“I’m charging everyone extra for drinks! And- And you know what? No more casual Fridays! You come here dressed to the nines or you stay downstairs with the pale human children! Oh, and those jazz men! They didn’t help me either! No more jazz for the rest of the year! Until then it’s 50′s high school prom music, played by the whitest people I can find!”

“But sir, what will you listen to?”

“I’m the Prince of St. Louis, Dire McCann! I obviously have a Walkman.”

Although the Prince didn’t address the issue, there was no question that the Red Death’s attack had frightened him badly. Vargoss had exerted the full power of his will against the monster, without success. The vampire knew he had escaped the Final Death by luck alone. And there was no certainty that the Red Death would not return.

Once the old man finally tuckers himself out, he commands McCann to come back next evening and bids him goodnight, retreating through a secret passage to his inner sanctum in the subbasement.

McCann suspected the vampire planned phoning the other Ventrue elders throughout the United States to warn them of the attack.

Either that or take a post-rage nap.

His exit left McCann alone with Flavia.

“Sir, I’m not good with sexy grieving women. Sir, Prince Vargoss, don’t leave me alone with- Ah shit...”

The other vampires and ghouls in the Club were already long gone by this point.

Tonight, none of them evidenced any desire to wear the Prince’s crown. The Red Death served as a grim reminder of the perils of leadership.

But then maybe there was another reason none of them tried to save Vargoss... Nah, they were just terrified. That’s the thing about this setting. Characters are always plotting against you and each other and having ulterior motives so during those rare moments where someone’s being sincere it’s still easy to be paranoid. Most of the time, you’d be right to be so.

Back to poor Flavia. The whole time during what McCann’s POV describes as “Vargoss’ tiresome outburst” she sat on the floor, holding the burnt remains of her sister’s jumpsuit, unmoving, devastated. McCann, the big softie, feels compelled to say something. They’ve never really communicated before, beyond her and her sister making suggestive facial expressions at him and him trying to ignore them, so he goes with a safe Klingon approach.

“She died fighting,” he declared softly, stepping within a few feet of Flavia. Sympathy was fine, but not stupidity. If the Dark Angel took offense at his words, the detective wanted enough room to defend himself. “It was an honorable death.”

“She died horribly, in pain and screaming, and would have pissed herself if that were a thing vampires could still do, but she died the right way according to your strange and self-destructive warrior culture. W-What are you doi-GAAAAAAH!”

In reality, he’d said just the right thing. She looks at him, her cheeks stained crimson, the narration reminding us that vampires cry blood instead of tears, and speaks to him for the first time ever.

“Your concern for my feelings is appreciated, McCann,” she said, in a mellow, low voice, with a surprising trace of a British accent. [...] She cast a quick glance in the direction of the secret stairs leading to Vargoss’ hideaway. “Sympathy is often in short supply among the Kindred.”

There’s another employer getting a bad Glassdoor review.

“The Prince always lavishly praised the services provided by you and your sister,” said the detective, nervously. The last thing he wanted to do was stir up trouble between Vargoss and the remaining Dark Angel. “He treated you with respect.”

“He even showed you respect when he left the room without looking at you. They say that a real man shows his emotions with his back. I believe that’s a Japanese saying. Maybe Korean? Someone somewhere in the world says that... Please don’t kill our boss.”

Then the narration gets pervy for a paragraph.

In a smooth, catlike motion, Flavia rose to her feet. She was, without question, one of the most beautiful women McCann had ever seen.

Down boy. There’s a time and a place.

She had platinum blonde hair, high cheekbones, and wide, sensuous lips.

I’m aware. Those exact features were described back in Chapter One.

Her white leather jumpsuit accented her full breasts, narrow waist, and long, long legs.

Yeah yeah, I get it, she’s hella fine.

Sex might no longer hold any pleasure for the Dark Angel, but her body defined seduction.

Oh for God’s sake, she was just kneeling in her sister ashes! She’s been crying for the past hour and she still hasn’t wiped the bloody tears off her face! Now’s not an appropriate time!

Flavia laughed bitterly. “Respect? Vargoss never truly cared about us. We were his servants. He enjoyed bragging about our skills because it reflected onto himself.”

She smiled sardonically at the detective. “You understand, don’t you, McCann. He does the same with you.”

Without thinking, McCann nodded in agreement. The Prince liked showing off. And he treated his associates as prized possessions to be displayed whenever possible.

Pros for Alexander Vargoss:

Not above entering dirty alleyways when the situation calls for it

Huge balls (metaphorical)

Confidence in his employees’ abilities

Owns a sweet nightclub

Casual Fridays

Cons:

Brags about how he’ll outlive you

Old man opinions about rock music

Likes Stalin

Hour long rants

Unsympathetic toward his employees’ personal problems

Treats his employees like possessions

Tacky fashion sense

As fun as talking shit about the boss is, Flavia without warning changes the subject to her backstory. She and her sister were born Sarah and Eleanor James (she doesn’t say which was which, but next book we're told she's Sarah) in 19th century England. They were traveling around Europe for their fifteenth birthday when a Kindred kidnapped them.

“Our blonde good looks, lightning-fast reactions, and notorious taste for cruel delights caught the attention of a traveling Assamite assassin. He arranged our abduction and had us brought to Alamut.”

I don’t know what to focus on here: that only one of those qualities has anything to do with being an assassin, that the two sexual ones are being used to describe fifteen-year-olds, or how racially charged this whole scenario is with the presumably Middle Eastern man kidnapping two white girls.

“A taste for cruel delights?” repeated McCann.

“What, did you torture small animals to death or something?”

“Did we- No!”

“Oh I know. You’d befriend other rich girls, than systematically ruined their lives by spreading rumors and framing them for major scandals.”

“No! Why are you assuming these horrible things about us!?”

“You’d make your guards beat up random peasants-”

“It’s a sex thing, you wanker!”

“Fawn and I dallied in what now has become commonly known as bondage and S&M,” said Flavia, chuckling. Her long tongue circled her wide lips. “As sisters, we often shared our lovers. Even after we were embraced.”

“...Not at the same time, right?”

“What do you me- Ew! No! Separately!”

“‘Cause I know a lot of men have twin fantasies, but when you really think about it...”

“Well don’t, because that’s not what happened!”

...Wait, what was that about having lovers after they were embraced? I thought Kindred had no interest in sex.

“Despite what you think, McCann, vampires can still enjoy sex. Especially if the stimulation is mental as well as physical.”

The detective took a step back. He definitely did not like the Dark Angel’s tone of voice. Or the hint of an implied invitation.

Hey, you’re the one who wanted clarification on “cruel delights.” Ask a horny question, get a horny answer, Dire.

At Alamut, the twins trained for ten years at a mountain fortress, presumably Alamut Castle. I like to think that after executing the weird pedophile that kidnapped them, the Assamite elders figured “Ah screw it, these girls are already here, let’s teach them to fight.”

“The Assamite elders marveled at our skills. We fought well separately. However, as a team, we were unmatched. It was there that we earned the title The Dark Angels.”

“Unlike some people, we actually earned our nicknames instead of giving ourselves one.”

“For the last time, my name really is Dire.”

They were Embraced at age twenty-five and served the clan for over a century. They worked for many masters all over the world and stayed together the whole time.

“Thirty years ago, we performed several minor executions for Vargoss. Impressed, I suspect, more by our appearance than our skills, he agreed to a long-term contract with the Assamite elders. In three decades, we never failed in our duties to our lord. Until tonight.”

“And that one incident with the True Mime, but that doesn’t count. You can’t kill a True Mime.”

“I doubt stopping the Red Death constitutes a failure on your part,”  replied McCann. “I don’t think a Kindred in existence could have dealt with that monster.”

Flavia nodded. “Perhaps. I hope to meet the Red Death for a second encounter.” She paused, her expression turning grim. “Fawn’s Death will be avenged. I swear it.”  

Sensing that Flavia’s done with her backstory dump, McCann does his private eye thing and, playing dumb, asks her if she knew what discipline the Red Death was using.

“I’ve never heard of a Kindred who could control fire.”

“Nor I,” said Flavia. “I suspect he travels on the Path of Evil Revelation.”

Paths of Enlightenment are what the Sabbat and other not-very-nice vampires use to control their Beast. If they stuck to the Humanity scale like the Camarilla do, then all their mass murder and mustache-twirling villainy would degenerate them into barely sentient blood-crazed monsters in no time. Instead they use Paths, many of whose morality could be, at best, described as “alien”, and at worst, “It is Right and Good to wear a cloak made from the hide of virgins, for it is in the nature of vampires to do so.”

I suspect a Path follower would be the source of the most obnoxious “We are The Dead, we are Monsters, we are Fueled by Blood and must Accept it” speeches one could imagine in the World of Darkness.

The Path of Evil Revelations is an actual thing in the lore. If you don’t want to click the link, the story sums it up:

The Path of Evil Revelation was a secret discipline practiced by many members of the Sabbat. It taught that evil was good and that vampires were the agents of corruption. Followers of the path routinely dealt with demonic forces.

Though it’s less “dealt with demonic forces” and more “pledge servitude to the Lords of Hell.” To sum it up even more: You’re Evil, Obey Demons.

McCann then says that he once heard of a forbidden rite called the Body of Fire (presumably from a friend of a friend, right McCann?) and asks if she’d ever heard of it. She hasn’t, but- Oh goddamn it, more things I have to define. She says she only knows of Fires of Inferno, which she says is one of the “Paths of Dark Thaumaturgy” practiced by the Corrupters (a name for followers of the PoER). 

Despite Flavia using the word “Path”, Dark Thaumatergy isn’t a Path of Enlightenment. It’s blood magic learned from demons, unlike regular Thaumatergy, which the Tremere learned by doing mad scientist shit to other vampires. Honestly, origin-wise, I’m not convinced Dark Thaumatergy is the eviler of the two.

Fires of (the) Inferno is the Dark Thaumatergy version of regular Thaumatergy’s Lure of Fire, which allows a vampire to summon “unnatural fire” thought to be from Hell itself. Fires of the Inferno is green, definitely from Hell, and according to the wiki “has only one use: destruction,” meaning you shouldn’t make a campfire using it.

What we get from this is that while some vampires can summon a magic otherworldly fire, they can’t control it and use it as some kind of death aura like the Red Death can. And, y’know, considering that the guy’s not calling himself the Green Death, he likely isn’t using Fires of the Inferno itself. Whatever the case, Flavia says she intends to find out more.

She stepped closer to McCann. “You are an unusual human,” she declared. “Even for a mage, you are aware of too many of the darkest secrets of the Children of Caine.”

Uh oh! The Master Schemer isn’t as good at playing dumb as he thought!

Without warning, Flavia’s right hand lashed out at McCann, second and third fingers stiff and aimed directly at his eyes.

Ah yes, the Moe Howard Strike.

Luckily, our would-be Curly saves himself from a humiliating death by grabbing her wrist using super fast reflexes equal to her own. Wait, using...

Dire McCann, you dumbass.

Flavia laughed, a wild, untamed sound. “No ordinary man could move that swiftly, McCann. Nor stop me from making contact.”

McCann fell for the old “attack the hero in a way that reveals their powers” trick. He tries to backpedal by being all, “Well yeah, I’m not ordinary, I’m a mage!” while mentally cursing himself and realizing that Flavia’s more cunning than he assumed. Flavia’s not having any of his excuses. She got him.

Flavia shook her head, grinning. “No Kine could have halted that lunge. Nor any mage. Don’t worry. I won’t betray you to Vargoss. He pays for my fighting skills, not my thoughts.”

“What are you babbling about?” asked McCann, fearing the worst.

“The hell’s going on? The fanservice bodyguard isn’t suppose to be smart!”

The narration’s been coy so far about what exactly McCann really is. Now, Flavia tells him her theory.

“There are rumors,” said Flavia, “of certain fourth-generation Kindred with incredible powers of domination. They are called Masqueraders. Their minds are so strong that while they lie in torpor, they can reach out and overwhelm a mortal’s personality. They literally possess their victim, body and soul. In this manner, these Methuselahs again experience true life. Puppet masters, they masquerade in mortal form--eating, drinking, sleeping, making love. For safety, they endow their marionette with some of their powers. Enough perhaps for the person to claim to be a ghoul—or a mage.”

“So no, your name really isn’t fucking ‘Dire’.”

...Huh. That’s a doozy. Not what I would guessed, and not a concept I’ve seen in recent V:TM media.

McCann laughed, trying to appear amused. “What utter nonsense.”

Flavia smiled. “Protest all you wish, Dire McCann,” she said. “If you didn’t, I might be worried.”

Then, because this is a nerd book written by a guy, she french kisses him.

Slowly, seductively, she leaned forward and pressed cold lips to his. Her tongue, a sliver of ice, darted for an instant into his mouth. 

Despite her movements being deliberately slower than her attempted eye poke, and her now being well into murder-you-with-my-hands range, something tells me McCann didn’t try very hard to avoid her kiss here.

Also, McCann’s 6′4. Either she’s also really tall or she’s standing on the pile of ashes that were once Fawn to reach his lips.

“I would be very grateful for the patronage of a Methuselah.” Her lush body pressed against him, her taut nipples hard against his chest. “Extremely grateful.”

Hang on. He can feel her nipples through a leather jumpsuit and his own clothes? Can vampire nipples even get hard? Is it a discipline? 

McCann forced himself to remain quiet. He had said too much already.

Since McCann’s shutting the fuck up for his own good, Flavia decides now’s the time to say goodnight. She says that she has to go see Vargoss before he notices she’s not around and gets pissed at that too.

“Do not expect me to address you aloud unless we are alone.” She chuckled. “Vargoss prefers his bodyguards never speak. He enjoys the air of mystery it creates.”

“Although now that I think about it, since he hired us mainly for our looks and doesn’t want us to speak, I’m starting to think he’s just a pig.”

With that, the flashback ends and we’re back in McCann’s office. You forgot that most of this chapter’s technically a flashback, didn’t you?

McCann, sitting behind the desk in his office an hour later, furiously masturbated banged his head against it repeatedly yelling “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” vowed never to show sympathy to anyone ever again sighed heavily. The detective folded his arms across his chest. For all her grief, the Dark Angel had not stayed in mourning very long. He trusted Flavia not to reveal her suspicions to the Prince for as long as it suited her purposes, and not a second more. If not handles properly, the Dark Angel could prove to be as dangerous to him as the Red Death.

McCann’s POV doesn’t out and out say that Flavia’s right, but it doesn’t deny it either.

McCann finally shakes the Flavia incident out of his head and gets to work on finding out more about the Red Death, starting by making some calls. We also get this gem:

A careful man reacted immediately to any threat. And McCann liked to think of himself as very wise.

...No comment.

McCann moves some money around and issues instructions, and when he’s done he’s got teams of researchers studying both the Path of Evil Revelations and whether there are any Nictuku that match the Red Death’s description. Not much is said about these researchers, but hopefully they’re vampires or ghouls, or backed by such, or else McCann’s committing a serious Masquerade breach.

He believes that the Nictuku rising and the Red Death’s arrival are connected, and he opens his desk drawer to get the letters he read back in Chapter 2.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand they’re gone. Someone broke into his office while he was away and stole his letters.

McCann cursed, steadily, in seven languages, including two that had not been spoken on Earth for over three thousand years, until he was out of breath. Angrily, he slammed a fist into the side of the desk. Wood splintered, delivering a small amount of satisfaction along with a strong recognition that he was acting foolishly.

Careful and wise? Maybe. Mature? Eh, that’s up in the air.

He swears not to make the mistake of underestimating his unknown adversary, or adversaries, again. Chapter 5 ends with one last reveal:

It was then that he noticed, resting on the edge of his desk, almost like a calling card, a bright green sequin.

You think Rachel Young carries a jar of those around, or does she just tear them off her dress?

[considergoldenkamuy]

forever - two

well here’s the second part, following after forever

You found yourself bound heavily to a steel chair welded into the ground, restraints wrapping around your waist and neck, arms kept constantly crossed to the opposite shoulder by a tight, white straightjacket, legs bound tightly to your metal throne.

A muzzle was attached to your face, a thick black cloth always over your eyes so you couldn’t see. They were overdoing it, and while both sides knew, some reasoned that they couldn’t be too sure. You supposed that made sense, seeing as they knew what DIO had been capable of so you, one of his kind, could be just as and maybe more dangerous than he.

The only things you could use freely were your ears, listening intently to your surroundings, never moving, never struggling, barely breathing. Always so still, never making any move or physical implication you were going to attack. They brought you food - the blood of slaughtered animals from the farms, which tasted good enough to swallow - but other than that, you didn’t as much as twitch.

That is, until you heard the door of the room right next to yours open. You were settled in a cell, brightly lit, constantly facing a plexiglass wall with a few holes for sound, a bench on the other end for anyone who felt like interrogating and verbally abusing you on a daily basis.

You never answered any of their questions, though. You sat still as stone as they shouted, screamed, threatened you. You didn’t move even on the occasion one would get so angry they would drive a knife into your leg or chest. The pain was nothing compared to the emotional turmoil you were still neck-deep in, knowing your lover was dead and gone. Forever, this time.

“Forever.” That world almost made you laugh now. It no longer meant everything to you, but it wasn’t just any other word. It stirred resentment and bitterness from within you; just hearing it within your own head stung at your chest.

tap tap tap

A short silence.

“See? She doesn’t even respond when you hit the glass,” came the voice of one of the guards, but he made a soft sound. Hushed by this other presence, she assumed. You took a subtly deeper breath, listening to the sound of low-heeled shoes clack against tiles, soon followed by a heavy form sitting on the stone bench not too far from you.

“...Jotaro,” you greeted calmly, voice still smooth and silky despite your throat not having been used in what felt like months but was likely to only have been weeks. “I’m assuming you came to ask questions.”

“She talked...!” the higher male voice panicked, but made a sound of protest a second later before footsteps reluctantly left the room.

Again, a short silence.

“Questions, yes,” he confirmed, tone just as level as your own. A tense air descended, filling both chambers for a few seconds before you heard a soft sigh leave him. “They must have been really stupid to think such thin restraints would actually hold you back.”

At this, a laugh left you, so cool despite yourself.

“No, it’s enough.”

“Don’t bullshit me,” Jotaro’s tone grew lightly irritated and you thinned your lips into a line, quieting down. He waited a few moments before asking his first question. “Why haven’t you bothered to escape yet? You can do that with minimal effort, kill all the people on the way out.”

“What would I do once I escaped?” you retorted. “You’re forgetting I’ve got no real reason to live other than try and atone for all the wrongs my fiancé committed. Getting away would be going back on that, and I’d be left with nothing. And nothing is worse than losing everything, feeling like there’s nothing left to live for, knowing that the one who meant the world to you is dead - killed, no less.”

“...did you have a family? How did you turn to DIO’s side?” You paused to think.

“I had family, but we were never close. I didn’t necessarily turn to DIO’s side; I met Dio when we were young - still kids, probably - and we became friends. We lived in the slums of London, y’see. You needed whatever help you could get to survive. I guess at some point we grew on each other and he confessed when we were in our later teens. Then we both used the mask to turn into vampires, and we swore to spend eternity together,” you briefly explained. You could tell what his next question was before he even opened your mouth:

“The Dio I loved is dead. The reason I struggled through several war-torn countries, so many decades, almost a century, was to be with him. But he’s gone now, gone in the snap of your fingers. As much as I hate you for how much pain you’ve caused me, I know DIO has wronged so many people. The only reason I ever kept any information to myself is gone. The least I can do in his memory is atone for his sins in his stead,” you said all this so passively, but from the tightness of your jaw, you guessed he knew you were still angry with him.

You sat in silence for a moment before you relaxed, rolling your head over to lean on your other shoulder. “Are your mother and grandfather doing well?”

You didn’t see, but Jotaro raised his brow at your question. “They're fine. Why do you ask? It’s not like they hold any importance to you. Just two more people who could have died during DIO’s reign.”

“...I don’t know,” you confessed, chuckling with a little self-loathing and frustration, unable to understand even yourself. “All those people whose lives DIO ruined...I barely knew any of them, if at all. The most of the ones I’d seen were the Stand users he made into soldiers and sent after you on your way to Cairo. That, and a few of the bastard children DIO had with other women.”

“Is that why you’re so willing to spill so much information?” Jotaro asked, and you heard the shuffling of cloth. He must have adjusted his position. “Because he wasn’t loyal, that is.”

“He did this to take their blood, and to sate himself. I alone wasn’t enough for him, I’d imagine. He still loved me, but I began to lose a little faith in him. I remember, a few months before you started to come here and eventually kill DIO, there was a half-Japanese child he’d conceived. The child’s mother, she never introduced herself, left him with me because she knew I was DIO’s actual lover.

“‘Haruno Shiobana, that’s his name,’ she told me.” A soft smile graced your forever-youthful face for the first time in weeks, the infant’s laughs playing in your ears. “DIO refused to acknowledge this child, but...when he was off sleeping with other women, trying to find more Stand users to stand between you and us, I took care of him. I really can’t help but wonder how he’s doing now, now that I’ve left him alone. I just hope his mother had the decency to take him back.”

“...you’re awfully kind despite being at DIO’s side for so long,” Jotaro’s tone was accusing, which made you frown, the upturned curl of your lips disappearing.

“I spent a long time without him, Jotaro. I had to learn how to make it on my own. Humans are attracted to kindness and an open heart, so I made myself possess both of those things. I suppose after seeing something so...young, so innocent, so fragile, that side just came back to me. He wasn’t even a year old, he didn’t know the harshness of the world yet. He didn’t know of all the horrible things his father did. I didn't want someone like him to suffer so young.”

“Why are you telling me about Haruno when, for all you know, I may plan to go kill him because of his relations to DIO?” he squinted, but you couldn’t tell from your gaze being completely blocked out, no light reaching your eyes.

“Because, Jotaro...”

A sly grin crept its way onto your face.

“I know you won’t.”

 Stepping out of the chamber, the Japanese male let out a breath, releasing tension in his shoulders he hadn’t even realized was there. Something about you put him off, but he couldn’t quite tell what it was.

But that kid, Haruno Shiobana. What about Haruno made him so special compared to all the other children DIO had created over the past few years? One out of the many you knew existed, one out of the many you had likely met.

“I know you won’t.”

A scowl appeared on his face, fist clenching in his pocket as he recalled your words. He hated those words, he hated that satisfied and smug look on her face. Because no matter how much he wanted to tell her she was wrong, she was right, and she knew it.

“How did it go?” Perking at the familiar voice, he gave a sidelong glance to his approaching grandfather. “Did she give any useful information?”

“...other than a short summary of how she met DIO when Jonathan was still alive, no.” He found himself withholding the news of Haruno’s existence, for reasons he couldn’t quite figure out himself. Joseph sighed at Jotaro’s response, likely disappointed.

“You’d think she’d be more compliant after what she said to you,” the older man grunted, but Jotaro shook his head subtly.

“...no. She’s compliant. Very compliant. I just wasn’t asking the right questions.” Without another world, leaving no room for Joseph to demand what he meant, he spun on his heel and briskly walked off, down the hall, ignoring the frustrated calls of his grandfather.

Forever, eternity...what strange concepts. Something without end, something that would remain with you until you ceased to exist. But that end came before yours, and he felt the smallest empathetic twinge in his chest but quickly smothered it.

You were a vampire - DIO’s lover no less - and he a descendant of the Joestar bloodline. You were meant to be his enemy, it seemed to be what fate had dictated. And yet here he was, keeping the cover over something you of all people held dear.

He reached the door and stepped outside, barely acknowledging the moon that had risen high into the sky above. After a moment of taking in the fresh air, Jotaro simply tipped down his hat with a sigh.

“Good grief...”

[primordialgod]

adventures in the byzantine empire

A list of things she did while in the 6th century in the Byzantine Empire (and other places in the world) in an alternate universe. On that version of Earth, the supernatural is not hidden and so it’s considered normal and natural. This is the very first time she ends up in an alternate universe. She is 16 when this happens. List will be updated as I think of more things.

Moodboard link here.

Stopped the volcanic winter, plague, and famine in the year 536. In that universe, it had started in early 535. All three events were far worse and on a far greater scale on that version of Earth than on our own. She healed all the sick people and killed all the fleas/lice/ticks/mosquitos/flies/parasites in the world. She went a step further and entirely got rid of all the disease-causing germs.

Saved a young girl named Zoe from dying; she had been attacked by wild dogs. Everyone else in her village had died already from various different causes. Alyona buried everyone in the village herself. She got on a horse and took Zoe to a neighboring town where her relatives lived.

That town was being attacked by a horde of rabid corpses and vampires when she arrived. They were being controlled by the sorcerer Anastasius. She incinerated the corpses and vampires, healed the injured people, and led the survivors to a city. Zoe’s relatives had in fact survived the attack.

She tracked down Anastasius. He was in a large town and was about to sacrifice all its citizens in a massive blood ritual. She fought him and killed him but unintentionally  destroyed a large part of the town in the battle. She healed everyone who got injured and helped them rebuild the town. No one died. The townspeople were extremely grateful and declared her not just a hero but a living saint.

Rescuing a dragon and other mythical or ’exotic’ creatures from a man who ran a traveling circus; the dragon ate the man and she flew off into the night on the dragon’s back after relocating the other creatures (as in, tearing open dimensional rifts to send them back to their homes).

Saving a herd of unicorns, winged horses, alicorns, and golden-antlered stags from a group of hunters.

Breaking into a castle to rescue the souls an old sorcerer had stolen; he had been planning on using their life energy to make himself immortal.

Stopping a war between two cities; they were fighting over a holy healing spring located between their cities so she made two more healing springs so they’d both have their own.

Gods don’t die in the same way mortals do so different laws apply to them; this is what allowed her to bring many “dead” gods back to life by converting her own energy into pure life energy and giving it to them; they were so old that they had existed long before even the homo sapiens.

Stopping a war between four clans; they were fighting over an orb of energy that was held in a mountain shrine. She separated it into four equal parts to end the war. They used the energy to help their lands and people. Heal the sick, purify the waters, make crops grow faster, etc.

Freeing people who were trapped in a pocket dimension that was inside a painting; she went inside the painting and then tore open a dimensional rift for them to escape through (imagine Charmed’s The Painted World episode or W.I.T.C.H.’s The Last Tear comic).

Saving what are now the Slavic countries from a strange mystic blight that was responsible for many horrible things; the blight had corrupted the forests and animals, cursed both the land and people, made people’s dreams and nightmares literally bleed into reality, caused literal darkness to enshroud the area (imagine the Shadow Fold from the Grisha Trilogy), etc.

Calming and healing a sea dragon that was causing a massive storm; she sang to the dragon and her voice calmed it down since her voice has a hypnotic quality.

Killing an ancient prehistoric death god (from a long-forgotten pantheon) who was abducting many mortals to his underworld in order to feed on their blood and life force because he was growing weak from lack of worshipers and he needed to find a new way to sustain himself and maintain his strength (he would not have died from lack of worshipers, just gotten severely weak); she rescued all the mortals and souls from that specific underworld and they later moved on to a different afterlife. Despite being killed, the death god still exists because energy cannot be created or destroyed but only converted.

When she noticed people thinking about children being eaten and people going missing, she decided to investigate. She discovered that a drakaina was living in a cave near a small coastal fishing village with a population of 500 people. The village had already lost several people to the monster; they had tried to kill it but failed. She killed the drakaina with her hellforged blade but not before sustaining several bites. The people helped her the best they could by using leeches to try to remove the venom --- and it helped, if only a little. She stayed in the cave which overlooked the village; she refused to stay in the village because she wanted to avoid accidentally hurting or killing anyone (the venom was making her both hallucinate and unintentionally start fires). One night, while the venom was overwhelming her with pain, a group of 50 raiders attacked the village. They pillaged and raided the village, burning and slaughtering all its inhabitants. She tried to reach the village to save them but the venom was too much for her body to handle and she fainted from pain. When she woke up hours later, it was too late. Everyone was dead. She buried all the bodies herself in one large grave. She tracked down and killed the raiders --- killing them by impaling them with ice or freezing their blood. To this day, she feels immense guilt and grief over what happened and blames herself for failing to save the village.

Sailed the seas with a group of immortals for several years. They weren’t pirates or marauders. They were only explorers and adventurers. She kept the seas and skies calm and used her control over the wind and water to make the ship move faster. They found many phantom islands, discovered treasures, fought off pirates, etc. 

She soothed and calmed the Flaming Dragon of Lake Baikal thereby preventing him from flooding the world. She sang to the dragon and telepathically spoke to him.  She also met the other dragon of Lake Baikal. The Black Dragon (黑龍 Hēilóng), also called "Dark Dragon" or "Mysterious Dragon" (玄龍 Xuánlóng), is the Dragon God of the north and the essence of winter. His proper names are Ao Shun (敖順) or Ao Ming (敖明). The two ancient dragons live in peace with each other and get along wonderfully. 

 ((Here’s some background info: A legend says that one day at sunset, a fiery dragon came. A smash of his tail cracked the earth, and his breath melted snow and ice on mountaintops; the water filled the crack that became Lake Baikal. Flowers and trees sprouted everywhere, birds sang and animal roamed around the lake, and the dragon went to sleep at its bottom. Every 120 years the dragon would come out of the lake, and people would greet him with festivities. But there was a year when people forgot about the Fiery Dragon, and in his wrath, he flooded everything with water. Nobody has heard about the dragon ever since; only Lake Baikal remained.))

Somewhere in the north in the area of the Saxons and Germanic kingdoms, she came across a village. She healed the sick people there and got to know the people. She became a mentor of sorts to a group of younger kids and taught them some things. After a few weeks, she left to go wandering again. A few days after she left, a group of soldiers came through and took the children. They were taken to a training camp in order to be taught to fight and kill the monsters that roamed the forest. Many children from nearby villages and towns had been taken over the last few years. Why? Because most of the adults had gone off to fight the monsters but there still wasn’t enough so the local army’s leader decided to start using the younger people too. She only heard of this because she returned to the village after realizing she lost her prayer ring (she found it there). She promised to free the children and stop the soldiers. She found their training camp --- a fort several miles away from the village. She killed the soldiers, freed all 500 children and took them home, then decided to get rid of the monsters roaming the forests. There were many monsters roaming the forests, she couldn’t hunt them down and kill them individually. So she killed them all at once through reality warping.

Over the years she stole things from royalty, nobles, and other rich people from all over the world. Clothes, jewelry, scrolls, weapons, magical artifacts, anything that caught her interest.

She stopped an army of monsters from another plane from invading the human world. They weren’t demons. She didn’t know what they were back then and still doesn’t know now. They were sentient and intelligent but weren’t interested in having a conversation so she had to stop them. Their leader was the Mother of Monsters, named Kalisinra.

She saved 100 people who had been kidnapped by a group of sorcerers and were being experimented on. The sorcerers had turned them into blood-drinking creatures similar to vampires but far stronger and more feral and bloodthirsty. She turned them back human and healed them. She killed the sorcerers.

She slayed a barghest, vukojarac, manticore, nachtkrapp, and several jötnar in the northern forests. 

She later met a lot of elves (the Svartálfar, Dökkálfar, and Ljósálfar). She got along well with a lot of them and disliked only a few of them. She enjoyed sword-fighting with them. 

She killed a lich-king and stopped his army of draugar from destroying several towns and villages. 

She traveled throughout the world for many years. She slayed many different monsters and saved a lot of villages, towns, and cities from destruction.  

She stopped a network of poachers who were capturing and selling various rare animals such as dragons, gryphons, chimaeras, hippocampi, unicorns, alicorns, phoenixes, firebirds, etc. 

She found that universe’s version of Ignatios at some point. She told him about her universe’s Ignatios and showed him his alternate self’s life. The two of them got along and traveled together for a few years. She later came across Smaragdus and several other people she knew on her version of Earth.

[buffster]

Doomed (BTVS 4.11)

This is part of my ongoing Buffyverse Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the shows. You can find the BTVS list here and the ATS list here. Gifs are not mine.

Doomed opens exactly where Hush closed--with Buffy and Riley silently staring at each other. There’s a distinct difference in the question they each have for the other: Buffy wants to know who Riley is while Riley wants to know what Buffy is. It’s already obvious that Riley has a job while Buffy has a calling. 

Of course, Buffy already knows much more about the Initiative than Riley knows about the Slayer. She does learn the official name they have for supernatural creatures: HSTs, or Hostile Sub-Terrestrials. Hard to take them seriously with that name. 

Buffy: I'm the Slayer. Slay-er. Chosen one? She who hangs out a lot in cemeteries? You're kidding. In every genera--You know, I really don't feel like doing the routine. Ask around. Look it up: Slayer comma The.

Amazing that Buffy’s ran into a group less competent than the Watcher’s Council. Buffy isn’t exactly thrilled Riley isn’t the normal guy she thought he was. After Angel, she’s just not looking for drama. Right now she’s looking for “not Angel” more than she’s looking for “new guy”. 

For some reason (the inconvenience of moving him, perhaps?) Spike is continuing to live with Xander. I can see where all the Spander fics launched because they’re definitely arguing pretty bad. I’m assuming Xander’s parents haven't noticed their new house guest or they’d be demanding more rent. Spike is basically useless around the house and Xander demands he step up. Surprisingly, he tries...but ends up shrinking his clothes and having to wear Xander’s. I guess all-powerful vampires don’t have to bother with laundry. 

Xander: No. You're not a guest. You're a vampire and you have no soul and I don't get exactly why we're not making you into Spike-on-a-stick.

Spike: Wish you would, if it's gonna be like this.

(breaks something) Property damage I can do.

Xander: That's it! I am way past through with you. Hate to break it to you, Oh, Impotent One, but you're not the"Big Bad" anymore. You're not even the "Kinda Naughty." You're nothing but a waste of space. My space. And as much as I always got a big laugh watching Buffy kick your shiny, white bum, and as much as I know I could give you a little bum-kicking myself now, I'm here to tell you...you're not even worth it.

Buffy has this habit of keeping her problems bottled up post-Angel. I think the confusion of her friends being traumatized from Angelus plus her still having feelings for him caused her to shut down. And honestly she never goes back to the way she was (I’m referencing her not talking to Giles or Willow about Riley being a commando, here). 

Buffy: I've so got a reason. Pretty darn good one. The last time we had an earthquake, I died.

Giles: Yes. I know that. And therefore completely understand your anxiety.

Buffy: Oh, good. Hate for my little"untimely, horrible death"concern to be ambiguous.

Now that I’m thinking on it, Buffy’s death was brushed under the rug a bit. Thinking she was going to die had to be horribly traumatizing and probably left scars akin to being a survivor of a brutal attack. But BTVS doesn’t have time for PTSD. 

Forrest: Well, the way I got it figured, Slayer's like some kind of Bogeyman for the Sub-Terrestrials. Something they tell their little spawn to get them to eat their vegetables and clean up their slime pits.

I found it a bit weird Riley doesn’t know about the tales of the Slayer while Forrest does. Riley ranks higher than him. Perhaps it’s alluding to his blinders when it comes to what he’s working for? Forrest, on the other hand, has narrowed everything down to black and white thinking: the HSTs are just animals. Riley hasn’t really looked into the Initiative while Forrest has and likes what he’s found just fine.  I feel like I’ve seen this mentioned before, but I’m definitely getting Forrest-has-a-crush-on-Riley vibes. He’s super dismissive of Buffy and extremely jealous anytime Riley worries about her over him. 

Willow decides to head to a party alone in the hopes that Buffy will eventually show. I hated when Willow overheard Percy mocking her. I really wanted to have some faith in humanity and believe the “jock” saw the “nerd”’s value. Willow ends up crying in some random dorm until she realizes she’s next to a dead body.

Buffy: Wow. See, I was kind of unsure about where the party was. And then I saw the flashing red lights and the ambulance, and it's like... oh, right, of course. Carnage. Death. It's a Buffy party.

After some research the gang and the Initiative realize something big is coming. We get to see that both sides have their advantages: Team Buffy has more knowledge of the occult while Team Initiative has convenient gadgets. 

Giles: It’s the end of the world.

Willow: We did this already.

Xander: it is losing its impact a little.

Giles: End of the world. Divisions break down, Hell itself flows into our lives like a sea of fire. Loss,tears and heart-rending pain without end for every human man, woman and child on this earth. Death ten times over. For each of you and everyone you love.

Xander: Hmm. Feeling the impact again.

I love when a television show is able to make fun of itself, so I loved the exchange above. After the world is supposed to end multiple times you stop believing the heroes won’t stop it. 

Buffy and Riley run into each other while on patrol and finally have The Talk.

Buffy: Can't... any of it. Can't be with you. It's a mistake, it's a huge black pit of a mistake and I can't go there again.

Riley: Again? You've dated me before?

Buffy: No. But I've been involved with...you don't know what my life is like.

Riley: And I'm dying to find out!

Buffy: Operative word: dying. There's too much risk -- there's too much... It's just doomed, okay, and I can't do doomed again right now.

Riley: I don't understand where this is coming from. I know you like me. And it's not like we don't have anything in common.

Buffy: But it's --

Riley: Buffy. I'm thrown by this. I'm confused. But I can feel my skin humming -- my hands, my... every inch of me. I've never been this excited by a girl and I'm not trying to scare you, not gonna force myself on you but I am by God not gonna walk away because I think it might not work. I don't know what's happened in the past --

Buffy: Death. Pain. Apocalypse -- none of them fun. Do you know what the Hellmouth is? Do they have a fancy term for it, 'cause I went to high school on top of it. For three years. We don't have that much in common. This is a job to you.

Riley: It's not just a job --

Buffy: It's an adventure, great, but for me It's destiny. It's something I can't escape, something I can't change. I'm stuck.

Riley: You don't have to be. You're not in high school anymore. You can change things.

Buffy: Riley... No.

Riley: I know it seems like --

Buffy: My answer is no.

Finding out Riley knows about the supernatural upped the intensity of their relationship in a way Buffy just wasn’t ready for. In the back of her mind I think she imagined slaying would stall and eventually end her relationship with him, which made him safe. She didn’t have to worry about going through something real again. But now that they could really fall for each other she’s running scared.

Xander: Is too. For one thing - that's my shirt you're about to dust. And for another - we've shared a lot here. You should have trusted me enough to do it for you.

Willow: Xander-

Xander: What? He wants to die. I want to help.

Spike attempts suicide (badly). I get they were trying to throw in a comedic moment there, but I don’t know...it feels like Spike hasn’t tried sufficiently hard to get the chip removed to throw in the towel. And I haven’t really seen signs of depression up until this point? I guess it must be difficult to change your lifestyle and not just forcefully take what you want after centuries, though. I’m not going to get into the politics of suicide here because the show kind of toys with what’s okay when it comes to vampires. It’s okay to murder them because they’re just things, so it’s not surprising it’s okay to mock their attempts to kill themselves.

Forrest: I don't know about this girl, man. She's got you whupped something fierce, and you haven't even--

Riley: You'd be wise not to finish that thought, private. Now carry on.

Forrest is gay Forrest is gay Forrest is gay

Riley: You've got this twisted way of looking at things. This -this doom and gloom mentality. You keep thinking like that, things are probably going to turn out just the way you expect.

Buffy: You know, there is nothing more dangerous than a psych grad student. 

Riley: Buffy -- where's the bad here? It just turns out we're even more well matched than we thought we were. I mean, you're a--fry cook. And so am I.

Buffy: Right. But you're an amateur... fry cook and I come from a long line of fry cooks who don't live past twenty-five.

Riley: Which is exactly the attitude I'm talking about! I know the risks of what we do. I also know it's more rewarding than any other job on the planet. And fun-

Buffy: Fun? Right. The last person I knew who believed that is in a coma right now because she had so much "fun" on the job.

Riley: I'm not saying you shouldn't take your work seriously-

Buffy: But just turn my frown upside down, is that it? I wish I could - but this isn't the kind of gig where you hang it up at the end of the day and snuggle with your honey.

Riley: But why? Why can't it be?

Buffy: I've tried it, okay? And every time, things fall apart - and I get sucked right back into the uber evil.

Riley: Welcome to the story of the world! Things fall apart, Buffy. Evil - it comes and goes. But the way people manage is, they don't do it alone. They pull each other through. And, sometimes, they even enjoy themselves. If you weren't so self involved, you'd see that!

Buffy: You don't know what you're talking about. You barely know me. 

Riley: I know that it's not just the job thing. I'm sure there's some good looking guy that done you wrong in there too but mostly I think you want to stay down in the dark place.'Cause maybe it's safer down there.

I’d like to point out that Buffy has picked up Angel’s habit of trying to run off in the middle of things. Or maybe they were just well matched there. I’m also going to go out on a limb and say at this point Riley hadn’t lost anyone on the job. He says he knows the risks like he doesn’t really know, know what I mean? Doesn’t this make you wonder if Riley was on the other side of this conversation with his future-wife post Buffy?

Spike: I should think you'd be glad to greet the end of days. I mean, neither one of you is making much of a go at it. You. Kids your age are going off to University -- you made it as far as the basement. And Red here. You couldn't even keep dog boy happy. I mean, you can take the loser out of high school-

Willow: I see what you're doing. You're trying to get us to dust you-

Spike: Am not. I just don't want pity from geeks more useless than I am.

Willow: We are not useless! We - we help people. We fight the forces of evil-

Spike: Buffy fights the forces of evil.You're her groupies. She'd do just as well without you. Better, I'dwager - since she wouldn't have to go about saving your hides all the time.

Xander: That is so not true. We're part ofthe team. She needs us.

Spike: Or - you're just the same 10th grade losers you've always been - and she's too much of a softy to cut you loose.

Man, Spike. Cut right to the heart of things why don’t ya? It makes sense we’re finally acknowledging Willow and Xander’s inferiority complex. It’s been in the background for awhile. We see from Spike’s smirk that he doesn’t really mean the things he says; he’s just trying to cause conflict. But he knows exactly how to do it. 

I’m a big fan of nostalgia so I loved the scene back in Sunnydale High. I read in the script that we see Amy’s mom there but I missed that. I’ll have to look again. During the fight scene Spike learns he can fight demons, which is a great revelation for him that allows him to take out some aggression and feel strong again. Buffy and Riley team up to save the world. 

Riley: Well, hey! Willow. Xander, right? What are the chances, huh? I was just passing by - and I thought I heard people inside-

Willow: You were just passing by...in your GI Joe outfit? 

Buffy: No offense - but you are looking wicked conspicuous.

Riley: I am? But it's... paint ball and then the aftershock and I-

Xander: So you're one of the commando guys, huh?

Buffy, your Faith love is showing. Riley doesn’t recognize Spike (which, really? They really do view them as animals). 

The episode ends with Buffy and Riley kissing. She’s decided to take the leap.

Character Notes:

Buffy Summers: She is a “Capricorn on the cusp of Aquarius” making her birthday January 19. She labels herself (somewhat sarcastically) as passionate, artistic, and inquisitive. When she patrols she gets bored and memorizes things on masoulems like cereal boxes. 

Riley Finn: His code name is “Lilac One”. 

Willow Rosenberg: She’s very bothered by Percy calling her a nerd because she thinks she’s distanced herself from that. She was even dating a guitarist. 

Xander Harris: When they need to leave Sunnydale High, Xander runs to help Spike out because he’s fallen down. 

[g0atmama]

so earlier I mentioned that if I remembered I’d make a thing about the info for my self insert, so. yeah here’s that. And about her stand. Cut for length because oof

In Phantom Blood, her name is Irene McDermott. She lives on a sizable goat farm and delivers milk to the Joestar manor weekly. Irene sees Dio as a major source of happiness in her life as their relationship grows because of the problems she has at home that she feels she can’t escape from. She’s the youngest of five but one of the only one of the kids that actually does any work.

Regarding the events of Phantom Blood, she’s at the manor the night Dio becomes a vampire and ends up getting a severe burn on the small of her back. That scar remains and is extremely visible even a hundred years later when she’s Michelle. She became a vampire bit long before Jonathan and Dio had their battle before Wang Chan removed his head.

Over the course of the next hundred years, she learned and adapted to her new powers at her own pace, which was slow. She was slow to learn and master each power before trying to master another. She wanted to be able to control them so she wouldn’t lose control and get killed by people finding out what she is. At one point, she couldn’t handle being Irene anymore. She decided she wanted to be someone else, someone unconnected from Irene. She became Michelle Brando, taking Dio’s last name despite the fact that they never actually got married. That didn’t really matter anymore anyway.

Come SDC, she’s only getting a stand a little before Star Platinum manifests in Jotaro. Her stand, though, is Mummer’s Dance. It’s a support stand with abilities that stem from altering the frequency of the infrasound it’s able to control. Primarily Michelle uses it to support those around her but given that it uses infrasound, it’s highly dangerous to everyone around her, whether they can hear or not.

Mummer’s Dance’s primary ability is to weaken or enhance the abilities of other stands, hence it being primarily a support stand. If Michelle is alone fasting a group, however, she might enhance the abilities of one stand, and use a secondary ability on it that causes it to obey but disobey the user, it does attack but not in the right direction, often hitting allies instead of foes. That ability is easily counteracted if you just figure out how to make your stand do the way you want it to. The final ability, technically speaking, would be just a blast of infrasound that’s loud and low enough to make your heart explode in your chest. But, given how dangerous that is, Mummer’s Dance is unable to get loud enough for that. It can get low enough so you might feel chest pain in a battle, but it can’t reach that volume. Because otherwise, this stand would be horribly OP.

Michelle has a lot of different timelines. I use these timelines to explore different personalities for her or just different outcomes for SDC. They are as follows, skipping the Canon timeline and the one that’s for my fan part.

- Fear and Comfort. Tbh I'm thinking of renaming this timeline, but basically what's different here is that she was not at the Joestar manor the night Dio turned into a vampire. She is still a vampire, but also she's terrified of him. She found comfort in Vanilla Ice, therefor Vanielle is the primary ship for this timeline.

- 8-Bit Heart. Something just made Michelle and DIO kind of ... drift apart. She's started growing fond of the butler, though. The ship for this timeline is Telle

- Alester Brando. Irene and Dio were married before everything went wrong. They had a son, whom this timeline is named after. He's become a vampire and his stand is called Black Gold. It's a purely defensive suit stand.

- Gio Mom. I often combine this timeline with the one above, but in this timeline, Giorno is Michelle's son. He was born a little earlier than he actually was, being about four when Dio died. His canon backstory is intact for this timeline, because he was kidnapped while Michelle took her hand off him to get plane tickets to Italy. This is really a Vento Aureo timeline for Michelle.

- Black Gold Experience. Take the two above timelines, combine them, and shove Michelle at the Speedwagon Foundation. Alester was in charge of protecting Giorno after their father's death and their mother being taken by the Foundation for the study into vampires. This timeline is used to explore their relationship and puts Alester into Vento Aureo and has his stand being used to protect Trish.

- The Moon Rises. Michelle achieves heaven in this timeline. Because Dio never actually cared about her, she was just a means to an end. A way to prevent Jonathan from hurting him, someone to be at his side. She let her emotions get the better of her and she attacked him. And killed him.

- Deep Deep Blue. So you know how the coffin had two compartments? Yeah, that was intended for Irene and Dio to be in there together but not right on top of each other. Erina messed that up, so they were trapped in the bottom of the ocean together. Michelle decided to be called Michelle while they were under the water together so Dio doesn't forget as often.

- A Dance in Time. Stands are already a thing by the time Dio comes back. I alter it a little bit because I want to, shush. So Michelle already has Mummer's Dance and understands her stand's abilities a lot more by the time Dio arrives. She approaches him with the stand arrow pretty quickly after he's returned, and The World's time stop also lasts longer.

- Roleswap. This timeline is hard to explain but the basic thing is that Irene is now Dio and Dio is now Irene. Their backstories and roles in the story switch, as well as their stands later on. Specific details are changed a bit, like it's the Pendleton family not the Joestar family. This timeline is shared with my friends and their OCs too.

- These Chains. Irene's family moved back to the US when she was young, tearing her and Dio apart forever. A century later, her great great grandson is in service to Dio. Dio only realizes it when he sees that the man has the locket he gave Michelle 100 years ago.

Now that that's done, I guess the last thing to do is mention her ships.

Irene is shipped with Dio as Diorene

Michelle is shipped with Dio as Diochelle, Vanilla Ice as Vanielle, and Telence T. D'Arby as Telle.

Fun Facts

- I tend to refer to Dio as the sun to Michelle’s moon. I like giving him a sun motif and her a moon.

- Michelle and Dio have one more child, a daughter named Ariel Brando. Her stand is basically King Crimson but in reverse, she moves everything backwards in time and is the only one who remembers what happened.

- In the Gio Mom timeline, Michelle doesn’t really care about the rest of the team. Protecting Giorno is the most important thing to her because he’s the last piece of Dio she has. She is proud of her son either way.

- Mummer’s Dance is actually horrifying if you know what infrasound does. I didn’t even mention above the effects of it getting low enough to make your heart vibrate. It can cause hallucinations and make you feel scared for no reason. You wouldn’t even know what’s going on if you can’t hear it, which you usually can’t.

- Michelle is bi and has asked Dio to let her join in while he’s fucking other women. He’s let her.

- Michelle loves Dio above all else in most of the timelines unless otherwise stated. Even in The Moon Rises, she was in love with him. She just lost control of her anger and grief over dedicating over a century to someone who didn’t care about her.

- Black Gold’s ability is adaptability. It adapts to the last stand power to effect it and protects Alester, and anyone he’s touching, from that ability. It can’t protect from more than one ability at a time, and the protection only lasts for 30 seconds between uses of the enemy ability. Most of the time he’s holding Trish and Giorno nearby to protect them since he can’t leave Coco Jumbo’s room.

- Alester loves Trish like he loves Giorno. She reminds him of Giorno when he was young and didn’t understand why they couldn’t go get their mom.

I do have character forms for both Irene and Michelle if you’d like to read something that’s a little better sorted and actually talks about her in a more informative manner. These links go offsite.

Anyway, thanks for getting this far. (Irene’s backstory is based on my life but there are some liberties taken to sort of help it fit better within the series.)