#along with this one

[delucadarlingwriting]

Wayhaven Regency AU - Part 3

I'm still having too much fun playing with this. Vampires to come in the next part.

Word count: 1,508

Summary: Kira confronts her mother.

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It takes Kira a long moment of breathing through her nose and counting backwards from ten in French (twice) before she has control of herself enough to speak to Janet. The girl seems concerned and confused by Kira’s reaction.

“...Kira?” she asks, voice warbling. “Are you quite alright?”

“Will you excuse me?” Kira asks, unable to help how sharply the words come out. Janet blinks and gives a short nod. 

“Of course. I shall…mingle,” Janet says, looking around with such anxiety that Kira doubts she will speak to a single soul. Kira takes in another deep breath and lets it out slow.

“I’ll be right back,” Kira promises. If this conversation will be anything like most she has had with her mother, it will be brief. Janet nods and Kira turns to make her way through the crowd. 

No one pays her much mind as she elbows her way through the sea of people all standing roughly a head taller than she does. Perhaps Barbara had been right about buying her heeled shoes. It would certainly make trodding on people’s feet to make them move out of her way that much easier.

As it is, Kira doesn’t end up going very far before a hand on her elbow drags her into a small open space near the entrance to the ballroom. She turns and looks into a pair of fierce eyes framed by the same strawberry blonde hair pinned to her own scalp.

“Mother,” Kira says. The Baroness Rebecca Kingston stands before her, tall, proud, and furious. 

“What,” she asks, stiff and cold as ever, “are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same,” Kira says, looking her over. Her mother always dresses impeccably, but she’s really gone all out this time. The dress has been tailored impeccably, well structured with high quality deep blue silk brocade with a wide slit in the front to expose the stark white underskirt beneath. The skirt is a touch more full than fashionable and the hem short enough that Kira can just barely spy the boots her mother wears. A gorgeous outfit, but one that gives the impression of someone ready to run at a moment’s notice. 

Given how Rebecca has avoided society and her own daughter for so long, that is hardly a surprise. 

“You should not be here,” Rebecca hisses, pulling Kira by the elbow to try and pull her further away from the revelry. Anger flashes in Kira’s chest, a burning hot coal clenched tightly, begging to be let go to ease the pain of it. She jerks away, conscious of the many eyes suddenly on the Kingston women, but unable to care. 

“I should be here,” Kira snaps. Somewhere off in her periphery, she sees a honey blonde head turn sharply toward her. As she speaks, it grows steadily nearer. “I should have been here two years ago! I am two and twenty, mother, my debut has been put off long enough.”

Rebecca’s mouth is a hard, fraught line. “You should have told me.”

“I did,” Kira replies, doing her best to not gesture wildly the way she wishes to. Her eyes burn, and that’s just humiliating. “I sent a letter. I must assume it was shoved wherever it is you put the rest of my letters without reading them. Perhaps the fireplace?”

Rebecca reels back as if slapped. “Kira, you can’t believe I would do such a—”

“Why not? When was the last time you bothered replying to any of them?” Kira demands. “How dare you come here and act so hurt that I have decided to live my life? How dare you come at all? You must revel in ruining any chance of me making connections, for how well you manage to do it!”

Chest heaving, coal dropped, it is only then that Kira registers that the music has stopped, as has the dancing and the conversation. Every single eye in the Duke’s ballroom is fixated firmly on Kira Kingston and Rebecca Kingston. With every raggedly drawn breath, Kira realizes her mother is not the only one good at ruining her life. She only just begins to turn away when Barbara is at her side, having not needed summoning at all.

“Come along, Kira,” Barbara says in a low, soothing tone. She glares at Rebecca, slipping an arm protectively across Kira’s shoulders. “I have heard the orangery is lovely at this time of year. Shall we go and take a look?”

Kira might respond with words, perhaps just noises. In either case, she allows herself to be whisked away from prying eyes and ears, and most importantly, away from her mother. 

It may only be her second event since her debut, but Kira had been certain that things were going so well. She has danced to music until she simply could not any longer. With a few exceptions, she’s had lovely conversations as well. It has, indeed, seemed like many of the ton were excited to know she would be joining the rest of society! Few were nosy enough to inquire as to why her debut has been pushed so far back—16 is considered a bit young, but acceptable. 18 to 20 is average. 22 is when people begin to talk. Kira very well remembers the whispered conversations about Barbara debuting at 24 years old two years ago—and Kira had thought it was all going so well.

The orangery is lit beautifully, light sparkling off the multifaceted glass windows surrounding the building. There is a smooth stone path to walk along, sheltered by the dark leafed branches of the orange trees hanging low with their heavy fruit. Other flora fill in the space as well, providing a subtle variety in visuals. Kira focuses on what she can see, forcing herself to mentally construct an outfit with this room as inspiration to better distract herself from what just happened. 

Before long Barbara tugs her down to sit on a low stone bench. Kira leans into Barbara’s side, inhaling the soft scent of her jasmine perfume. 

“I didn’t know she was coming,” Barbara says, voice lowered even though no one else is in the orangery. Kira scoffs.

“Of course you didn’t. When has she ever seen fit to apprise anyone of her plans?” Kira grits her teeth. “I can’t believe she came here to stop my debut.”

“Well, I don’t think she came with that intention, even if it is her intention now.” Barbara rubs a soothing hand over Kira’s back. “I didn’t hear everything, but she seemed shocked to see you.”

“Finally, something we may share in common,” Kira says scathingly. Barbara giggles lightly.

“Oh Kira. It will be alright.” Barbara hums lightly, tunelessly. “Lucas will not let her withdraw you.”

“I know he is an earl, Barbie,” Kira says, fidgeting with her gloves, “but she is my mother. That gives her rights to me over him.”

“Perhaps, but Lucas is the Earl of Peachtree now,” Barbara says. “The Earl of Peachtree took you in as a ward 18 years ago. Even if the man has changed, that is still the case, is it not? That will have some sway, should we need to plead your case.”

Kira hadn’t thought of it like that. The former Earl of Peachtree was…an unkind man. The countess continues to be an unkind woman. She still isn’t sure why they ever volunteered to take Kira in when Rebecca proved to be entirely hands off with her after the death of her father, though she does suspect it would have something to do with the way taking in a sad child might make them look far more generous when they have had a reputation of being stingy. Barbara’s parents would never go so far as to draw attention to themselves by publicly spatting over a mother’s right to choose when her child enters society though, hence Kira not having been able to do so while Barbara’s father was still alive. 

Lucas, on the other hand, would probably revel in it. 

“...You’re right,” Kira says with a growing smile. She may just get to have the season she was hoping for after all. Barbara pulls out a silk handkerchief and dabs at the corners of Kira’s eyes.

“As usual,” she jokes, eyes sparkling as she tucks the handkerchief away into a pocket. Then Barbara tucks Kira’s hair back into place, adjusts all her jewelry, and makes sure Kira’s neckline is laying correctly. Kira’s face goes warm, but she allows herself to be fussed over. “Now, shall we rejoin the ball? We’ll just pretend nothing has happened and I’ll have Lucas whisk you off to the dancefloor for a few turns. That should fix this.”

“Okay,” Kira agrees, taking Barbara’s hand and squeezing tightly as they stand. Through the open doorway they can see clear across the yard to Duke’s manor. People are milling around, laughing and eating and dancing, as if nothing has happened at all.

Brushing off her skirts, Kira’s shoulders relax. Nothing will ruin the season of her debut.

[mushroom-through-the-stargate]

Mythbusters have 3 categories of myths

the general public doesnt know how physics works

the general public doesnt know how lying works

oh crap this ones real

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Expertise can't help you here.

[stevenrogered]

AGATHA ALL ALONG | 1x07, "Death's Hand in Mine"

[anti-anticheese]

AUBREY PLAZA and PATTI LUPONE on Hot Ones Versus

[psychokatrixxxy]

Love when the Justice League thinks Batman is a cryptid. This believe is only further enhanced by the face his sidekick, Robin, is clearly a shapeshifter, what with changing their height, hair style, skin tone, and even gender.

Batman clearly thinks that by having Robin look different every couple of years, it will show that they aren't cryptids like it would if Robin didn't age.

But the Justice League is too smart for that. They figured it out! But they are good friends (colleagues) and won't spill Batman's secret, but they will drop hints to him that they know, to show that they are smarter than he gives them credit for (they aren't.)

-

When the batkids learn that the league thinks this, they start periodically going to the Watchtower with Bruce, taking turns dressed up as Robin.

The League is surprised as Robin seems to prefer taking the form of a child, perhaps to have villains underestimate them? But they just assume Robin is trying out something new.

The batkids definitely tell eachother about what was said/happened as to further sell the act of Robin being a shapeshifter, because clearly it has to be the same person, Robin knows what happened, so it couldn't of been someone else dressed as Robin.

[arttuff]

my little man

[ionomycin]

Maiden of Light

[chloesimaginationthings]

The Vanessas and Mikes if they met sooner in FNAF..

[theatrebooknerd56]

Watching the new Agatha All Along episode: "why am I gasping I knew who he was"

[callisteios]

Hi, feel free to take my new uquiz to discover what kind of vampire you are!

[persicipen]

₊ ˙ ⊹ .

[savanir]

DP x DC prompt [15]

Danny accepts that because of his half dead status he won't be able to become an astronaut and he has to find a different way to feed his space obsession.

He decides to get really into astromancy (yes, the magic. He already knows everything about astronomy). He gets himself the more spiritual star charts, old surprisingly authentic tomes about the art and divination cards to go with it all and gets to learning.

Tbh he kind of went into this not expecting much but it turns out he had homo magus heritage from his Nightingale roots and he actually manages to call upon the power of the stars.

He figures he can blame the vaporized wall on ghosts.

Meanwhile, a foreboding feeling like cold shivers run down the spines of several magic users that they can only describe as "a child having figured out they need to switch off the safety on their mini nuke launcher in order to fire it"

The JLD is scrambling to locate the source of the surge in magic power before someone with bad intentions can get there.

[jubshead]

Does Kathryn Hahn ever play a straight woman?

[poppy5991]

Would have been so funny if All Might had promised to give Izuku OFA after cleaning up the beach and then after Izuku was done, told him “There is no quirk. We just train until we get so ripped that everyone thinks it’s super strength.”

[tobiasdrake]

My understanding of evil, age 0-10: MY NAME IS SMOG SMOKESLY AND I RUN THE POLLUTION FACTORY, IT PRODUCES POLLUTION!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

My understanding of evil, in my teens: You can't really boil things down to good and evil. People are complicated. Everyone is the hero of their own story, and someone who seems evil to you is actually doing their best from their own perspective. If you could walk a mile in their shoes, you'd understand. There is no such thing as evil.

My understanding of evil, in my twenties: Look, it's basically just tribalism. We are all necessarily thrust into competition with one another. There are always going to be winners and losers. Whining about evil is just being upset that you lost the game.

My understanding of evil, in my thirties: MY NAME IS SMOG SMOKESLY AND I RUN THE POLLUTION FACTORY, IT PRODUCES POLLUTION!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!