#apologies if I don’t have Caroline’s character quite right yet
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anonymousboxcar · 1 year ago
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TTTE/RWS Headcanon: Caroline’s Pen Pal
I don’t have any in-universe justification for my thought processes here. All I can say is that I like the idea of Caroline being a long-term pen pal of a 1920s American car.
The car in question is a Duesenberg Model A named Evanora, who worked for a Hollywood starlet. Evanora accompanied said starlet on a vacation to Sodor. There, she was offloaded from a ship so the actress could drive her favorite car around the Sudrian countryside.
It was on these drives that Evanora and Caroline met. Caroline was initially wary; the starlet’s speedy driving and Evanora’s opulent design soured her first impression. But later, Evanora apologized for the recklessness. She proved to be soft-spoken, genuine, and graceful. This disarmed and even charmed Caroline.
Over several conversations, Caroline liked hearing about Hollywood and its big personalities, and grew to respect Evanora’s patience and adaptability. Evanora in turn enjoyed the perspective of a slower, quieter life. And she appreciated Caroline’s willingness to speak her (opinionated) mind.
When the vacation ended, the two agreed to keep in touch. They sent letters to each other for decades. Caroline told Evanora how she was slowing down, how she came to be the cricket club’s car. Evanora told her about the ever-changing Hollywood and the other actors she drove over the years.
They helped each other out, too. When Caroline needed repairs the cricket club couldn’t afford — even after pooling their funds and taking donations — Evanora’s next letter showed up with a check enclosed.
Caroline, embarrassed, tried to refuse the money. Evanora wouldn’t have it.
( “This may be terribly selfish of me,” she wrote, “but I don’t want to lose my friend. Your cricket club doesn’t want to lose you either. Consider the impact losing you would have on us, darling. Consider accepting the money for our sakes if not your own.
“Also, I can’t take the money back even if I wanted to. My driver signed that check. I wish you the best of luck at reaching him on his indefinite vacation in Alaska, at my recommendation.”)
Touched and humbled, Caroline accepted the check, but not without vowing to one day repay Evanora.
That day came in the 1980s. By then, Evanora’s current driver was too old to drive anymore. And any potential new drivers didn’t want her to be a daily driver anymore; they saw her as a collector’s item to hoard in a sterile garage.
Evanora developed a taste for the quiet life in her correspondence with Caroline, but she wanted to be outside, to move. So she took another page out of Caroline’s book and advocated for herself.
Unfortunately, nobody would listen in Hollywood. She considered the Auburn Cord Duesenburg Museum in Indiana, but she would be on static display, fawned over by hundreds of people. And she was tired of the celebrity lifestyle.
Caroline stayed appraised of all these things through their letters. As it happened, she’d appeared by this point in The Railway Series and Thomas the Tank Engine. These were opportunities she took on with Evanora’s advice and industry knowledge in mind — a small taste of the “fast lane” that she found enjoyable. There were also royalties and paychecks in the hands of her generous, loyal cricket club.
In her next letter to Evanora, Caroline enclosed an ocean liner ticket for Sodor.
Thrilled, Evanora beat back the last aggressive offers from collectors before her voyage across the Atlantic. By the time she arrived, Caroline also set her up with an assisted living home, where older folks going into town could get there in nostalgic comfort and style. It was a slower-paced life in a place where she wasn’t known as a rare car, but would still be appreciated and fulfilled.
(“Are you sure this is what—”
“It’s what she wants. I know it,” Caroline told the cricket player.)
When they reunited, Caroline could’ve fussed about the things that didn’t go right — delayed timetables, muddy roads, etc. — but she didn’t. She only expressed her delight and gratitude at seeing her dear friend again. And Evanora did the same, deciding to take this new phase of friendship and life one wheel-turn at a time.
(Bonus: Elizabeth is intensely jealous of Evanora. Evanora is oblivious and thinks it’s all friendly rivalry. Caroline fluctuates between scolding and reassuring Elizabeth that she isn’t trying to replace her.)
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taramikealson · 4 years ago
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What If I Stayed? Chapter 1
I Do Not Own The Vampire Diaries Or Any Of The Characters In It.
Klaroline fanfiction
The crescent moon rose high up in the night sky, stars glimmering from light-years away. She could just faintly make out what seemed to be Orion’s Belt, not that she’d know. She was horrible at finding the constellations. But, nevertheless, the stars were pretty and it gave her mind the clarity it needed. 
Her life strayed quite a bit to what she thought it would have been. If someone had come back and told her a year ago that she’d be in a somewhat stable relationship with Klaus, she would have laughed in their face. Back then, she couldn’t deny to herself that he was attractive and that his voice sent shivers down her spine, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared of him. He was, after all, a thousand-year old Original hybrid that lacked mercy. He was ruthless and went beyond the line to make a point. 
He killed people and she was scared that if she pushed the wrong buttons, her heart could end up on the floor. 
Time. It’s a riveting thing. It changes perspectives.
Slowly, Klaus had gone from complicated semi-villain to complicated semi-friend. She’d gone to him for advice or supernatural knowledge, because, let’s face it, he knew everything about everything. There was a slow shift in the so-called ‘friendship’. Klaus became more bold in his flirtations and Caroline had slowly drifted toward him after she and Tyler had called off their relationship due to the strain of long distance and his inability to balance his time with his pack and his time talking to her over the phone.
Tyler, inevitably, blamed Klaus for their break up, but Caroline knew better.
Then, Klaus had left for New Orleans on a hunt to find a witch that Katherine had expressed was plotting against him. He was then rudely aware that his time flying to New Orleans and trying to find the witch gave Katherine ample time to get out of town, disappearing again. Anger ran through his bones but, instead, concern flooded his system when Stefan called him, telling him that Silas not only went after Caroline’s mother, but also Caroline herself. It didn’t take him long to arrange for a private jet to fly him back to Mystic Falls. 
It took a little convincing on her part, but eventually Klaus agreed to help them take down Silas. Although they defeated Silas, the veil had come down, reeking havoc on the town. At least a few good things came out of it. Alaric and Jeremy came back and Klaus got to see his brother again, although half of that time was spent convincing him not to murder Jeremy. 
Nonetheless, they went on with their graduation, where Klaus, yet again, had to step in to save them from a gaggle of angry witches. After graduation, Caroline and Klaus lingered, walking down the red carpet as the night air bore a clarity. There, he became bold enough to give her a gentle kiss and then left her with her feelings. Caroline was secretly glad that he had left because the kiss nearly winded her. That moment was what had started it all. Then, came summer. 
They’d spent more time together, talking or sitting in comfortable silence. She noticed that his behavior began to change. He seemed more at ease and less... volatile. Caroline wasn’t naive enough to think that it was wholly her influence, no. She had an idea that perhaps Klaus came to the conclusion that since he enjoys Mystic Falls, for a reason that Caroline has no idea, and that hurting the Salvatore’s or anyone in the town would mean there’d be resistance against him. Although, that was just an idea. She still had no clue at this point.
But, one thing had been clear this summer; Klaus cares for Caroline in his somewhat twisted way. Either way, she knew he’d never hurt her or the ones she loves - at least not anymore because if he did, he’d lose her. 
As well as his new behavioral status, he’s made, somewhat, amends with her mother. Liz was extremely unsettled one evening when she’d found one of Klaus’ coats hanging on her desk chair. She would have assumed it were Stefan’s or Matt’s but they were ruled out when the tag stated, ‘John Varvatos’. Even though Caroline had explained that she and Klaus were taking things really slowly, her mother was pissed. It took a rehearsed and thoroughly well-worded explanation from Klaus, one that Caroline nearly had to beg out of him, that he was just simply visiting her and left his jacket after an important call led to him leaving for his house on short notice.
Oh, and did she forget that Stefan left? No call, no text. Not even a freaking email. He just left. Although, Caroline could understand why he’d want to. His ex-girlfriend and brother are shacking up at his house. She wouldn’t think he’d stay there, but she would have thought he’d actually tell her goodbye at least before he left. 
But, Stefan wasn’t the reason she was sitting in the window-frame looking up at the stars, at least not the whole reason. It was the night before Caroline started college. Caroline and Klaus had sat in the living room, talking. He had gotten a phone call and when he came back into the room, Caroline had noticed his posture was stiff. Naturally, she inquired about his dampened mood. He’d been a little short with her, answering that he was on a call with a vampire that may have had some information about Katherine. Then, Caroline’s mood turned sour. She hated Katherine but hadn’t she suffered enough? Elena had already used the cure on her and Caroline doesn’t doubt that it’s been her worst summer ever. She couldn’t imagine how it would have been like to be a vampire for half a millennium and then suddenly be human. In fact, it’d be even hard for her at an early age. She’s just so used to the strength and speed, its instinct for her now. Caroline had stated her opinion to Klaus who narrowed his eyes and explained, a little heatedly, that “Katerina’s betrayal” could not be ignored. She’d crossed her arms and expressed, perhaps a bit too sharply, that she’d been through quite a bit and that Klaus didn’t need to continue chasing after her. Like, it had been five hundred years, right?
Wrong. 
Once, Klaus’ jaw clenched tightly, she knew she hit a nerve. It wasn’t her intention, and she now admits that her tone was a little too harsh, but he had to hear it from someone. Without their knowledge, Caroline’s mother had come around the corner from her room to see the commotion. Klaus had scoffed. Caroline replied, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Katherine’s had enough crap. I mean, she’s human now. I’m pretty sure that’s enough punishment as it is. And, it’s been like centuries. You need to let it go.”
“I can’t, Caroline!” He had shouted, yellow had dripped into his eyes. She remembers how he even seemed shocked by his outburst. Caroline had seen her mother at the corner of her eye, and when she turned towards her, Klaus was gone from his spot. The thud of the door connecting with the door jam made Liz jump a little. 
Normally, when Klaus acted out, he’d be confident and sure of himself. Yes, he would react with emotion but never had she seen him surprised by that. If he did something, he’d take full responsibility and be proud of himself, most of the time. It worried her a little. Maybe he’s feeling burdened?
The cool breeze air swept through her window, blowing her hair back. Her mind came back to reality when Megan, their new roommate, had walked into the dorm. She greeted Caroline happily before retreating into the bathroom. 
So far, Caroline really enjoyed college, except for the unexpected new roommate. She wanted to have the whole college experience which included getting drunk with Elena and Bonnie in their dorm room as they talk about boys. But, that was ruined when Bonnie took an unexpected trip to see her family in Colorado, or was it Nevada? And Megan didn’t make it any better. 
The room door opens smoothly with footsteps following it. She first assumes it’s Elena until she looks up to see, none other than, the Original hybrid. His face was solemn yet neutral. Caroline turned back to look outside with a sigh. Klaus continues forward until he sits down at the head of her bed, a foot or two away from her. 
“I think we are overdue for a chat.” His tone is somewhat light but reveals a sliver of nervousness. 
“You think?” She retorts and immediately regrets it. She shouldn’t have said it like that. He was willingly here, nearly an hour away from Mystic Falls, to personally speak with her. She sighs, “I’m sorry, that wasn’t fair.”
She turns her hard to look at him and she just registers the hurt expression on his face before it disappears. 
He clears his throat before leaning forward, elbows on his knees. 
“My actions Sunday night were unbecoming.” He begins. “Your mother-,”
“Just got a little spooked.” Caroline finished for him. His eyes seem to glimmer with a ray of hope. Her only thought was that he was now thinking he was out of the ‘doghouse’ so to say. He wasn’t entirely wrong. Caroline raises up off the window seal and sits next to him. 
“My mom’s not used to that side of you, she doesn’t exactly know the difference when you’re just pissed or when you’re ready to rip someone’s heart out.” She explains as Klaus looks away from her and towards the window.
“I should not have spoken to you-,”
“Like a jerk?” She questions almost playfully and Klaus lets a smile grace his face as he turns towards her. His hand rises and lands gently against her forearm.
“You are making this apology a bit difficult, sweetheart.”
She produces a smile of her own at his statement. Her heart warmed in the thought that he was so set on apologizing to her, but it wasn’t necessary. “You don’t need to.” His head tilts in confusion. “Apologize, I mean.” She clarifies but that was not the reason for Klaus’ confusion. 
“I’m not quite understanding.” He says, eyebrows furrowed. 
She sighs before speaking. “Well, my mom will probably still need an apology from you, but that’s not my issue. I gave you a little bit of space the last two days because, frankly, you looked as surprised as I was at your little outburst.”
His head drifted away from her in thought. “I mean, it seems like you’ve been on edge for a while. Why?” She didn’t think it had anything to do with finding Katherine because he’d been doing that for all the time she’s known him and he hadn’t acted like that before, at least since everything’s died down. There wasn’t a reason for him to act that way at all considering there wasn’t anything supernatural going on to divert his attention and give him any sort of strain. 
Klaus seems hesitant as he looks away, as if he’s not willing to share something with her.
“Hey.” She cups his cheek, encouraging him to look at her. He does so, slowly, but downcasts his eyes. “Tell me.” Caroline requests softly as she trails her hand down his throat, shoulder, and arm.
He makes a huffing sound before raising his eyes to her’s. “I’m not sure how best to explain this, but my werewolf side has been… stirring. And it longs to be released, thus the reason why I have been recently turning on full moons.”
Caroline blinks. He had been turning? How hadn’t she noticed? And how are there not been any mauled bodies found in the woods? “You’ve been turning? Why haven't there been any animal attack reports?”
“I am in control of my actions when I turn. At least enough to avoid killing any humans. Your mother is the town sheriff but I only get so many chances with her.” His eyes can her’s. “And I knew you’d disapprove if anyone were to be harmed.”
It was a little surprising to hear him say that. Of course, he’d always have the thought of what she’d think in the back of his mind, but it was different when he actually admitted it. 
“What do you think caused it? It couldn’t have come from nowhere.” 
He shakes his head. “I’m not too sure. Although, I wouldn’t rule out basic supernatural knowledge. I’ve only been around werewolves for a short period of my life, and been part one for even less. As much as I know about the species, it doesn’t come with the information of what it feels like.” He explains, Caroline tilts her head in interest. It was funny, she’d never really talked to Tyler about how triggering his curse felt, only how he felt about his vampire side. Although, was it possible about what Klaus was saying? It’s true that he’s only been a true hybrid for a little over a year and she knows that he has a lot more advantages than an average hybrid, but was it possible that he could also have a different disadvantage? Perhaps, heightened emotions, or maybe a larger temper near the full moon? These days, that wouldn’t be as surprising to her seeing as they just put down a two thousand year old psychic. 
“If anything changes, you’ll tell me, right?” She asks with a sympathetic smile. He lets a chuckle escape his lips, the air in the room becoming lighter. 
“As you wish.” He answers and stands from his place. Caroline follows suit, taking hold of his shirt and pulling him towards her. Klaus’ head inches down, eyes sparkling with mischief, knowing exactly what she was about to do. 
Caroline pushes herself up on her toes to connect their lips before pulling his head down, making her feet land flat on the floor. His hum of acceptance makes her heart pound in her chest. Their lips continue to interlock, playing a dance that the both of them know extremely well. His tongue brushes against her lips and teases the roof of her mouth, deepening the kiss. This has most definitely not been their first intimate kiss, nor does she think it’ll be their last. She can vividly remember when Klaus and she had sprawled out on his expensive Persian rug, blanket draped over her legs, and a crackling fire at their feet. They had both shifted from idle chit-chat to a comfortable silence that wasn’t so rare. Her head leant against his shoulder. It all started with a chaste kiss to the top of her head, which grew into a kiss to her lips. Then, soon thereafter, she ended up straddling his hips, their mouths moving together in unison. Caroline hadn’t really enjoyed make-out sessions too much with other boys, but with Klaus, to call it a make-out session would be too crude. It was more of a dance, one that he knew very well. His hands would wander in the right places, her back, arms, neck, shoulders. He understood that they were not yet in that stage in their relationship where they’d take it any farther than kissing. As well as that, he respected her decision. In past relationships, boys always expected her to sleep with them, but not Klaus. Both him and her understood the weight of their relationship. With Klaus, it was all or nothing, so she had to be sure that he was what she wanted and that he’d be a good match for her for a long time. 
The sound of the shower in the next room over has Caroline pull away. Klaus disgruntledly groans in displeasure, opening his eyes almost lazily. 
“Megan will be out here soon, you should go.”
“Megan?” He parrots in confusion.
Caroline rolls her eyes. “Yeah, mine and Elena’s new roommate since Bonnie isn’t here. I guess the school just assigned it to her.”
“Is it so bad that they see me here?” He asks, not spitefully but playfully.
“Yes!” She exclaims under her breath.
He chuckles before bending down and stealing a kiss from her. With his head still close, he whispers, “I’m headed back to Mystic Falls. There is a certain Sheriff that I owe an apology to.”
Caroline smiles widely. “I’ll call you.”
His only response is a smirk and a gust of wind before he was gone. Not even seconds later, the bathroom door opens and clouds of humidity escape the room as a towel-clad Megan walks out.
“Was someone here? I thought I heard voices.”
Caroline shakes her head. “No, it’s probably some people in the hall, it’s right on the other side of the bathroom.” She lies smoothly, heading towards her dresser for some sleep clothes.
She really hopes Megan doesn’t snore.
I intended to have this as a quick drabble but when I had seen the nearly six pages, I was surprised. I thought I would have gotten a little farther into the drabble than I had with it being this long. If I get some good feed back I’ll probably post another part to it, even though I think I will do it anyways. Hope y’all enjoyed! :)
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foreveralwaysanauthor · 4 years ago
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It’s Right
Monthly Prompts Day 15
August 15th - Self-Help
AU Used: None.
Characters: Miles (OC)
Notes: Eleanor, I know how much you like my Miles content, so I may or may not have added a little something for you!
Song: Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day
It was a very last minute decision, leaving his home. Originally, he was going to stick it out and stay until both of his siblings were old enough to leave with him, but after that night, he just couldn’t take it any longer. Living with his father was a nightmare. Miles wrote out letters to his brothers, letting them know that he would be back to visit but that he needed to find someplace safe where he knew he could protect them; a place the three of them could call home away from their father’s control. He left the letters under the boys’ pillows, taking what little he had in his room and taking off in the middle of the night while his father was passed out on the living room couch with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in his hand.
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go.
He found a map in the glovebox of his father’s car, taking a pen and marking out the path he wanted to take. His plan was to head as far south as he could, stay there for a while and then see if he could find a way to the other side of the country. He wanted to be as far away from his father as possible.
Miles stole his father’s car that night; he didn’t have a vehicle of his own to use as he was not yet eighteen and his father would have to sign for the motorcycle he wanted. Miles had saved up enough money to get him out of town and that was all he was concerned about, really. He stopped at the Georgia Welcome Center not far over the South Carolina-Georgia border, sleeping in the car overnight so he wouldn’t have to spend any money. The next morning, a nice trucker named Robert Wilson had knocked on the window of Miles’ father’s car, checking on Miles to see if he was okay and insisting on buying Miles something to eat for breakfast as he had a daughter around the same age as Miles.
That bacon sandwich had been the best thing Miles had tasted in quite some time.
So make the best of this test and don't ask why. It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time.
The trucker asked Miles where he was going and, after Miles told him he was heading to Florida, insisted on having the teenager follow him down so he wouldn’t get lost. Miles asked Robert where he was heading and the trucker responded that he was heading home to St. Pete Beach after doing a longhaul trip to Minnesota. Miles told the man that he would follow him all the way, if that was where he was heading. Going from one beach to another seemed like a good idea as Miles already knew what to expect from a tourist beach town.
After they finished breakfast, the two men got into their vehicles and took off for Florida.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life.
It took the pair almost six hours to reach their destination, but Miles couldn’t help but feel elated. It was his eighteenth birthday and he was starting out his adulthood in a different state, four hundred and seven miles away from his father. The only thing that could make it better would be if his brothers had come with him. Miles brushed it off. He knew that he would have them with him again once he had a place for himself and enough room for his two younger brothers. He was old enough to have legal custody of them now, not that the court system would listen to him as he had just stolen a car and taken it over multiple state lines.
That day, at Robert Wilson’s insistance, Miles met the man’s family, consisting of his wife Lilian and their daughter, fifteen-year-old Gianna. Gianna tried her hardest to stay quiet during Miles visit at her house, keeping her nose in a book and barely talking to the older boy at first. By the end of his visit, however, the two seemed to be good friends, having talked about books for the duration of Miles’ time there. Lilian was nice enough to ask if Miles would like to accompany them to the nearby restaurant that had opened about two years prior and was a hit with most of the teenagers in the area. It was at that restaurant - a place on the beach named Big Momma’s - that he met Butchy, a tall, loud, and overall kind biker-boy with a very fake sounding New York accent. Butchy quickly became Miles’ best friend.
The slightly older teenager decided to offer Miles the spare room in the house he shared with his sister Lela. Butchy even got Miles a job at a workshop near a shopping center on Sycamore Close. There had been no openings at the same garage Butchy and his friends worked at, but the thought was there. Miles was welcomed into the friend group with open arms.
So take the photographs and still frames in your mind. Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time.
By the end of his first year in St. Pete Beach, Miles had made enough money to start looking for a house. With his friends helping him, he was able to get a recently vacated house just two houses away from the trucker that had helped him find a new hometown. Miles sold his father’s car in exchange for the Indian motorcycle he had wanted for years. He started collecting photographs of his new friends, hanging them on his living room walls and putting some on shelves in his bedroom to make it feel more “homey” than it had been originally.
Slowly, but surely he was making himself a new life with new friends and, even better, new family.
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial. For what it's worth it was worth all the while.
After a few weeks of being roped into Butchy’s friend group, a motorcycle group calling themselves “The Rodents,” Miles decided to get a tattoo of the gang’s logo on his shoulder. To him, it symbolized new beginnings and a chance at a happier life. In secret, however, he got another tattoo on his wrist of his brothers’ names, a tattoo he kept covered by a bracelet or a bandana at all times. That tattoo had a separate meaning to Miles as it signified a promise to himself and his brothers.
Miles would get them back, no matter the cost.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life.
A while later, he fell in love. It hadn’t lasted long as the woman he was with, had to leave after the summer ended. Miles felt as though his heart had been ripped out. He had fallen hard for her. Gianna Wilson, now known as Giggles by her friends, had warned him that it was probably not a good idea. While he hated to admit it out loud, he acknowledged that she was right and forced himself to move on.
Not long after, a girl named Mick showed up and fell in love with his best friend, Butchy. He flirted with her at first, yet found himself seeing her more as a younger sister as he watched her relationship with Butchy grow stronger. Mick and Butchy ended up getting engaged after Mick’s eighteenth birthday. Miles believed that he would end up single forever at that point. He decided he would be okay with that if nothing else happened to change his mind.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right. I hope you had the time of your life.
It was around that time, if Miles recalled correctly, that he met her. It had been a rough few days for Miles as his motorcycle had been practically taken hostage by his boss for an extensive list of repairs that would take him forever to pay off. Tanner, one of the surfers that was Butchy’s sister, Lela’s boyfriend, suggested his twin sister, Caroline, could give him a ride to work until his bike was out of captivity.
Initially, Miles wasn’t sure he liked the idea. He wasn’t a morning person at all, but the talkative Caroline didn’t seem to mind much. His coffee-less morning made him snippy and, although he felt bad afterward, he was very short with her on the ride to work that first morning. He had regretted his actions immensely and made sure to apologize when she returned to pick him up from work that evening. Then, after a nice conversation with Caroline on the ride home, Miles found himself enjoying the blonde’s company.
It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
A while later, his brothers, Royce and Bentley, came to stay with him, having sent him a letter not long before showing up. They had followed in his footsteps, borrowing a family member’s car and taking it the rest of the way to St. Pete Beach. The family member took a plane down to get the car and drive it home, congratulating Miles on taking the two boys in. Miles felt proud of himself for the first time in a long time.
He had his brothers, he had a family with The Rodents, and, to top it all off, he had the woman of his dreams. It may have taken him a little while, but Miles had finally found himself living the life he had always wanted.
Miles never expected his life to become what it was, but at the end of the day, he couldn’t be happier with the outcome.
I hope you had the time of your life.
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ohjohnno · 5 years ago
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Outrageous Fortune Reviewcap: S1E09 (”When The Blood Burns”)
I’ve been demurring on this one, partly because of real life shit (well, mostly that to be honest) but also because this episode isn’t all that good. It’s an episode entirely centering around Antony Starr’s characters, and I sure hope they paid him double, cos the range he needed for it was tremendous. But, unfortunately, one of those characters (Van) just isn’t all that interesting yet, and the other (Jethro) is ill-served by one of the dumbest and most unfortunate sideplots the show has yet had. So, without further ado, we’ll get this one out of the way, and I’ll try and keep it short. 
We open with a dual appearance from the two most irritating characters in the show: Tracy and Suzy Hong, their differences now thoroughly mended and united in enjoying themselves by tormenting Van.
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Yeah, it’s as insufferable as it looks. An incensed Van finally snaps and threatens to quit; Mr. Hong overhears, but Van finally manages to stand up for himself and it pays off: Mr. Hong makes him manager of one of his local little stores, which seems to sell mostly cheap novelty junk. I’m not entirely sure why he does this, honestly, but it’s a mildly important character moment for Van, so okay, I guess?
Meanwhile, in the West household, things are getting a little crazy.
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Cheryl and Kacey are promoting their new underwear business with a sorta quasi-striptease party, hosted by and for middle-aged women. It’s one of the aspects of the episode I like best, not because the women are sexy but more because they really aren’t; they’re a bunch of trashy fortysomething women, reminding the world that it isn’t just model-type people who like having sex, or who know how to have fun with it. Kacey makes this explicit with a little barb at the morbidly fascinated Pascalle, telling her they didn’t offer to use her as a model because they wanted to use “real women”, which is a nice reminder that toxic standards of femininity cut cruelly in both directions. So, yeah, good segment - made all the better by the horror of the younger girls who’ve been dragged along.
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Van returns, utterly nonplussed at the scene before him, and they all retreat to the bedroom. Antony Starr’s comic acting here is great, actually - he follows the others to the room and finds them using his drugs with an indignant and confused response of “well... don’t!”, and it makes me laugh every time. Draska expresses some clear interest in him, which he once again ignores, as usual. The next scene is where the plot properly begins.
The gist of it is this: the Hongs’ local store has their goods transported from warehouse to shelf by Draska’s clan, the Doslics. Van discovers that there’s a discrepancy between the number of trading cards he was meant to be shipped and the number he actually received; he goes and politely asks the Doslics about it, and they do not take that well.
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   I come from good people - HONEST people! Made strong by our troubles!
Naturally, they think he’s accusing them of thievery. Naturally, this makes Van pretty sure they really are committing thievery, and a raging Mr. Hong agrees. The two proceed to keep escalating tensions, and the rest of the Wests get caught in the crossfire; mama Doslic gets into a fight with Cheryl in a supermarket car park, Pascalle finds her old tyre-modelling photos all defaced with violent graffiti, and it’s all mildly funny but also kinda dull. Eventually, it turns out that Van’s mate Munter has been stealing the cards from the warehouse all along, using the keys Van gave him for safekeeping. This is not the last time Van will find himself victimized by the consequences of his own actions.
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I’m blasting through *a lot* of this plot here really quickly, and that’s cos it just isn’t very interesting for the most part. It’s trying to be a farce, mostly, and it sometimes succeeds; Van’s initial confrontation with the Doslics is really quite funny, and his steadily increasing panic as the situation just goes more and more wrong isn’t bad either. But it’s all a bit too by-the-numbers and predictable, and in the end none of the stakes feel real; we all know that in an episode like this, the Hongs and the Doslics were never really gonna properly come to blows, and they don’t. Van confesses a lot of stuff to Draska in a couple of secret meetings, and while he’s initially paranoid about her loyalty, she proves herself by finding a way to fix the issue; she places all the blame for the break-ins on Eric (who was selling the stolen cards anyway, after buying them from Munter) and the two families come together to absolutely motherfucking whoop the guy’s ass, leaving him looking rather worse for wear. 
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      ...next thing I know I’m getting the shit kicked out of me by half the West                                                   Auckland United Nations!
If I have a favorite moment in this plot, it’s probably near the beginning, when the elder Doslic is first bringing in what he believes to be the full shipment of cards. He’s ranting and raving, the whole time he does it, about how much he just damn well hates the “chinks” and their terrible language skills, not to mention their driving - all while speaking in a heavy Croatian accent himself and also, oh yeah, taking their money. This show really does get quite a lot of comedy out of the idea that solidarity between marginalized groups really just doesn’t exist.
The rest of it, though? I mean, it does contain a couple of important moments, I guess. Van, after initially lying to protect Munter and only making everything worse, is genuinely willing to offer himself up, blame himself entirely, and essentially sacrifice himself in order to save everyone’s hides, and only doesn’t end up doing it because Draska fixes it all before he has to. That’s a nice reminder that Van, at his core, really is a genuinely good person, and that his internal conflict as a character all comes from the tension between that and the toxic masculinity he’s had indoctrinated deep within him by his father and the culture he’s grown up in. Cheryl demonstrates where her loyalties lie and takes Van’s side without a second’s hesitation after mama Doslic shows up with complaints; for all her problems with Van, she really does love him unconditionally. But there’s also too much stuff that doesn’t come off, like Van’s boring interactions with a mildly delinquent kid who likes the trading cards, or Tracy’s ever-one-dimensional mistreatment of Van. 
Still, at least it’s better than Jethro’s plot.
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Remember how Tracy knows now about Jethro’s little rape-by-deception thing a few episodes ago? Well, she still doesn’t seem to be thinking of it as rape, but she is trying to get him to apologize for it nonetheless. Jethro, meanwhile, wants to root her again, and he knows he can’t do that without apologizing. So Jethro’s plot this episode is several scenes in a row of him miserably failing to pull off a convincing apology, and... that’s it, really. Hugh’s back, being annoying as usual (though it’s intentional enough that it doesn’t bother me too much), and Loretta briefly shows up to mock him for how bad he is at apologizing (talk about the pot calling the kettle black!), but for the most part this is all really redundant and dull. The only interesting part comes in Loretta’s video shack, where Jethro straight up lies to Caroline’s face, right in front of Loretta, in order to make himself some free time to go and keep trying it with Tracy. Loretta, of course, is too sociopathic to feel sorry for her, and we all knew a couple of episodes ago that Jethro wasn’t gonna be able to maintain it with her as a regular relationship, but the beginnings of heartbreak on Caroline’s face as she begins to get an inkling, in her subconscious, of what’s going on is genuinely sad.
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But the ending of this plot? It’s awful, and in a really unfortunate way. In the end, see, it turns out Tracy never really wanted an apology; she likes Jethro, doesn’t really care about the fact that he deceived her in such an intimate way, and wants it with him again. She decides he’s ready when... he just refuses to apologize one time, admitting he isn’t sorry because (and this is possibly the worst line of dialogue in the whole show, so brace yourselves): “why would I be, when it was the best fuck I’ve ever had?” 
Eugh.
So they start having an affair, and that’ll stay important. Meanwhile, Van’s plot ends similarly, in the superficial respect: Draska finally convinces him to have sex with her, as a celebration for the two of them getting out of that little escapade with everything intact, and it’s also the start of a relationship. Her toxicity, of course, has been evident the whole time from her unhealthy fixation on him, but if she demonstrated anything in this episode it was her intelligence and resourcefulness, so one suspects bad things on the horizon for Van. Nothing much happens with the rest of the characters - Loretta doesn’t do much other than the aforementioned mockery of Jethro and some mildly funny jabs at Pascalle’s choice of career, and Pascalle doesn’t do much other than get all horrified by what’s been done to her poster. On the whole, then, this is a disappointing episode, and maybe the worst one so far. Van will get good, I promise - the potential is all there already. But we’ve still gotta wait for now. Until next time.
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oskea93 · 6 years ago
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Think of You (Part three)
A/N: Hey guys!  I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who has read, liked, and commented on the story. It really means a lot to me that you all like it! I’m a a nurse and the only type of writing I do on a daily is make nurses notes, which is far from writing anything like this. I really appreciate those that come back each time I post and read the update. I try my best to make it as believable as possible. I promise from now on, Nikki will be featured heavily in every update. I didn’t want the character to just rush into a relationship with him. I wanted to show how their relationship grows with time. This update isn’t the most exciting but I felt it needed to be written so the story can grow and get to the fun parts! Again, thanks for reading and please let me know if you would like to be tagged for future updates! 
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“You got this.”
I gave myself a once over in the mirror, making sure my outfit and hair looked perfect. I hadn’t been on a date in quite a while and I wanted to make sure I had everything in order. This was going to be my first date since moving to California and I was a bit nervous. I had been on dates with a couple guys back in Georgia but Georgia boys were complete opposite of California boys. I quickly closed the light in the bathroom and made my way to the living room. I looked down at my watch as saw that it was nearing the time that he said he would be here. It felt as if butterflies were in my stomach and my hands were shaking like leaves. It’s not like this was my first date but yet I hadn’t been on one since college. How pathetic am I?
Before I could delve deeper into my dateless past, a strong knock sounded on the door. I smoothed down my skirt as I removed myself from the couch and made my way over to the wooden structure. A large smile ran across my face as I saw James standing before me with a bouquet of roses in his hand. “Beautiful roses for a beautiful woman.” He greeted as he handed me the flowers. I’ve never received flowers from a date before. The only people who’ve ever given me flowers were my parents. I took them out of his hands and delicately sniffed them. “They’re gorgeous.” I beamed. “Thank you so much.” He just continued to smile. I motioned him to come inside while I placed the flowers in a vase. I noticed how he stood there awkwardly, looking around at the dullness that was my apartment. Once I had the flowers in the water filled vase, I brought them back out to the living room and placed them on the coffee table. “You sure that’s a good place for them?” James questioned. “I wouldn’t want them to get knocked over.” I looked at him and then back to the flowers. In my opinion, the coffee table was the perfect spot for the flowers. They would be the first thing to catch someone’s eye as they walk in. I would be the only person walking in but it would still be a nice site to see after work.
“I believe they’ll be just fine right there.” I gave him a reassuring smile. My smile however did not seem to calm his thoughts. I heard him mutter a string of words under his breath as he turned to leave the room. I watched in utter confusion as he made his way out of the apartment and to his car without me. Was he seriously upset about where I placed the flowers? This was my apartment- I can place flowers wherever I damn well please!
I had met James at work. He taught middle school English and helped with soccer team. He was sweet, charming, and highly educated. I could tell that he enjoyed his job and that was very important to me. Teaching was my biggest passion. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a teacher. I would even play pretend teacher in my room as a child. Once I started speaking with James, I could tell he shared my passion as well. I think that’s what attracted me to him the most. Plus, he wasn’t bad to look at either. He had gentle brown eyes to go along with his light brown hair. He wore glasses, which made him even more adorable. His sense of style was your typical yuppie fashion. He wore slacks and iron pressed button-down shirts. He was very well mannered. He was nothing like that Nikki guy from a couple nights ago….
This had to be the worst date of my life. 
I didn’t realize the placement of flowers could set someone off. From the moment I entered the car, he immediately started to rant about the cost of the roses. He went on and on about how something could happen and they would end up ruined on the floor. He explained that it would be a waste of money and that his gesture should have garnered more of a response from me. I tried to explain to him the reason I chose coffee table as the location but he wasn’t having it. I was very appreciative of the gift but he had no reason to freak out like this. I figured once we reached the restaurant he would give up but that wasn’t the case either. Adding more fuel to the fire, the restaurant was overpriced and the food was terrible. I took a couple bites of the meal I had ordered but there was no way I could finish it. The meat tasted as if it had expired months ago and they even managed to screw up a Baked Potato.
“Are you going to eat?” James questioned. I looked up from my food and shook my head. He let out an annoyed sigh, placing his fork down a little too harshly on the plate. “I’m sorry, James.” I apologized. “It’s just-“ “Waiter!” He cut me off as he called for the man. The waiter quickly made his way over, a concerned look was plastered on his tired face. “Yes sir?” He spoke. James proceeded to explain to him that he wanted the check and a box for his food. I was in complete and utter shock. Not only was he making a scene but this was not the guy I knew from school. This version of James was an absolute asshole! I decided that I had had enough. I didn’t even bother to say anything to him as I marched my way out of the restaurant. Even though James was my ride back home, I didn’t want to be anywhere near him. I knew there was a gas station up the road and I would just use the pay-phone to call a cab. I don’t even know if he bothered to come after me, probably not since I was a waste of money for him. I should have known this was going to happen. I couldn’t even go on a date with a decent, or who I thought was a decent guy. Maybe I was meant to be alone forever. Growing up in a religious family, my cousins used to tell me that God picked certain people to be forever single. They would always tease me and tell me that I was that person. I was slowly starting to believe that was true….
“Thanks.”
I removed myself from the cab and paid the driver the fair. It was nearing 10:00 at night and all I wanted to do was take a bath and go to bed. Luckily it was a Friday and I had the whole weekend to recover. I knew Mac would want to know how the date went but I didn’t feel like talking to her either. I slowly made my way up the staircase to my apartment. I took each step slower than the other, finally making it to the top. I rounded the corner to my complex but immediately stopped in my tracks.  
Standing right in front of my apartment door was the man I despised the most. I didn’t even know the guy but I instantly hated him from the moment we met. Nikki Sixx was the last person I wanted to see right now. “What are you doing here?” I questioned. He slowly turned around at the sound of my voice and smiled. “About time you get home.” I was taken back. How in the word did he know where I lived? Oh God, what if he’s a serial killer and I’m next on his list? What if he’s coming to retaliate after I pushed him out of the booth? The more important question was how did he know where I lived? So many thoughts were swirling around in my head that I didn’t even notice that he had moved closer to me. “Earth to Caroline!” He snapped his fingers in my face, snapping me out of my thoughts. “You zone out a lot.” He chuckled. I quickly put some space between us noticing how close he was. “How do you know where I live?” I blurted out. “Are you stalking me?” I was in pure panic mode at this point. I had heard horror stories on the news of young women getting kidnapped at their homes and then being found dead weeks later. What if he portrays himself as a musician so he can lure girls in and then kill them?
“Hey-” He reached out for me. “Just calm down, alright.” He seemed genuinely concerned. “I had Tommy get your address from your friend. I figured that I owed you an apology for acting the way I did the other night.” He stated. “Plus-“ I looked up at him. “I kind of wanted to see you again.” His eyes connected with mine, causing me to quickly look back to the ground. He wanted to see me again? Even after I screamed in his face and pushed him out of a restaurant booth, he wanted to see me again? I slowly lifted my eyes from the ground and scanned over his body. I started from the bottom and worked my way up. First thing I noticed was that he was wearing tennis shoes with leather pants. I found that to be a bit odd but I continued to scan the rest of his body. He had an army green, sleeveless shirt on with a black faded shirt underneath. Since neither of his shirts had sleeves, I could his toned arms and the tattoo adorned his right arm. His face had noticeable stubble and was clean of any makeup. His hair was flat against his head and looked to be even longer than the last time I had seen him. He didn’t look half bad to be honest.
“Like what you see?” His cocky question brought me back to reality. “I’m enjoying the view as well.” I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest. I couldn’t believe Mac would give this guy my address. “I think you should leave.” I told him. “It’s getting late and I have some grading to do before I go to bed.” It was all a lie but I wasn’t in the mood for company, especially his company. He let out a laugh, “You don’t get it, do you?” I looked at him confused.
“Excuse me?” I questioned.
Nikki was standing right in front of me at this point. “I want to see you again.” He whispered. He was so close that I had to look up at him. I could feel my face turning red and my heart was racing out of my chest. Nikki wasn’t the type of guy I usually fall for. I usually fall for guys like James, guys that are basically boring and like to read a lot. Nikki was the complete and total opposite of James or any guy that I’ve ever dated. He reeked of lust and bad decisions. There was no way I could agree to see him again. “No.” I simply told him.
He took a step back, “What do you mean, no?”
I just burst his little confidence bubble. I bet I was the only person to ever tell him no. “I don’t want to see you, Mr. Sixx.” I stated. “You don’t know a thing about me and I feel like we should keep it that way.” He looked taken back. “Besides, we’re complete opposites of each other and it would never work.” I gave him one last glance before I made my way to the apartment door. I placed the key into the lock and quickly opened the door. “You know opposites attract, right?” Nikki yelled before I entered my home. I didn’t even bother to look back and answer. I simply closed the door behind me, leaving the raven-haired man standing alone. A part of me was glad to be away from him, yet I was intrigued. There was something about him, something that I’ve never experienced before with a guy. He was the guy parents warned their daughters about. He was dangerous. He was pretty damn cute. And, he was pining for my affection. He was the forbidden fruit and I was slowly turning into the naïve Eve…
@triplehaitches @sighsophiia @fandomshit6000 @divaanya
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softpine · 6 years ago
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hi so i dont want to start anything but since it was brought up again what you said about danny being straight and incidentally gay has been bothering me since you first mentioned it ): someone having the potential to be attracted to same and other genders is the literal definition of bisexuality and labeling him as straight feels like erasure but then calling him “incidentally gay” feels even more disrespectful? idk i didnt want to bring this up while youre already stressed but im hurt tbh ):
i feel like there might have been a little bit of miscommunication here, so i’m going to try to share my thoughts on it, but first i want to say: i’m so so sorry that i hurt you, my intentions have always been to portray bisexuality as accurately as possible (with caroline’s storyline in particular) and i want to do everything i can to make sure no one feels hurt by my story!! so after i’m done explaining, if there’s anything i can do to help, please let me know!
so first, i used the phrase “incidentally gay” because i was referring to the kinsey scale. it was an old scientific way to describe sexuality (on a range between 0 -- exclusively heterosexual, to 6 -- exclusively homosexual, i hate that word btw), based on a survey that you take yourself. a 1 on the scale, which is what i called danny, is “predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual”. that’s what i meant by “incidentally gay”, i didn’t mean to diminish bisexuality at all!! many people who would call themselves a 1 on the kinsey scale also call themselves bisexual, and i completely agree that that’s accurate!! but a lot of those people consider themselves straight too (in high school ap psychology we took the kinsey test privately, but we could share our answers if we wanted, and there were quite a few people who were either 1′s or 5′s that saw themselves as either straight or gay or bi, it just depends!! i hope that makes sense). anyway, i don’t even agree with the kinsey scale as an accurate “measurement” of sexuality, because i don’t think there’s any measurement on the planet that could be 100% accurate. sexuality is something really personal and different for everyone!! even people within one label may feel differently to each other. so i just want to put a little disclaimer that i’m not supporting the kinsey scale, i just used it as a quick way to get information across.
for danny in particular, i’ve tried to make it pretty clear that he sees himself as straight, not bisexual (ie: this post). he doesn’t have any kind of turmoil over it, he doesn’t even give it much thought, and he’s completely fine calling himself straight. like i said in this post, he doesn’t see himself dating anyone besides caroline, so he’s not even like.. fantasizing about other women, let alone other men. in my mind, i didn’t see this as bi erasure, because i’ve like.. been friends with real people who think about themselves this way. but i do understand that when writing a story, your characters automatically become representation of something, and i would hate to harm anyone by making any implications about bisexual people in general!
to finish this off, i want to say that i haven’t said all there is to be said about danny’s sexuality. we’re only like halfway done with the story yet, and i know i’ve already spoiled a lot of things in the plot, but there’s still a LOT that you guys don’t know about yet. it’s like when you’re reading an actual book, sometimes your opinions will change by the end, because new things happen that change the characters’ situations/thoughts/feelings. and since i’m posting this story one post at a time, there are a lot of things that you sort of have to withhold judgement for, until the time comes. saying that, in and of itself, is kind of a spoiler, but i think it needs to be said!
okay i’m so sorry for the essay, and i really want to apologize for hurting you. please please message me if there’s something more i can do right now!! would it help if i just changed his bio to say straight? or would that make it worse? :(
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yoshimickster · 6 years ago
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RWBY Volume 6 Episodes 12/13 “Seeing Red” and “Our Way” Micksterecaps: TWO RECAPS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!
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HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO doggie, youse KNOW I can’t wait to talk about the finale, so you get not one but TWO recaps! Also doing the same thing with Gen:Lock as they released the first two eps of that on the same day-EITHER WAY LET’S GET TO DANCIN’!
THE EP STARTS OFF WITH-
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-the ARGUS MILITARY-watching their boss waste military hardware, while being away from their FREAKING STATIONS-where a threat the Colossus was MADE to fight is coming close to the city. ALL WHILE RUBY-
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-HANGS-in there? EH?! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEH?!
After a nice little cliff climb, Oscar informs the team that the shields go down EVERY time Cordo fires missiles, which is the time to STRIKE! Ruby while on board-DOES-point out the difficulty of it though.
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Ruby:-I’d have to be practically staring down the barrel of her canon.
FORESHADOWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
Ruby than jumps onto their legitimately stolen airship, while Maria does what she does best-
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Maria: HEY CORDO-your mother wears NON-combat boots!
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Cordo: SHUT UP I HAVE ALL THE MISSILES!
SADLY-though-
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-sheeeeeeeeeeee catches on.
*BANG*
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*TING*
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*CLOSE*
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Cordo: SURELY you know Atlas perfected missile launcher door quick-closing technology!
Ruby: BITCH YOU GOT LUCKY AND YOU KNOW IT!
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Cordo: FUCK YOU I HAVE A LIGHTNING CANON!
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OOH-and she WINGS them even, DAMN that’s gotta smart!
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OOH-spoke too soon, Maria got the worst of it! MAN-that’s gotta sting.
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Looks like its up to farmboy to SAVE THE DA-
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*CRASH*
...EH-he’s a 14 year old farmboy, did the best he could with no fly knowledge or help (WINK).
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See that? A NICE clean crash, Launchpad McQuack would be proud!
Ruby realizing how fucked things are, decides to pull a make or break move-RIGHT BEFORE-this scene-
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Qrow: Ruby, stop!
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Ruby: I need you, to trust me.
And he then lets go of her hand. Its a small yet powerful scene, and I really loved it, just wanted to point that out.
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Ruby then makes a passionate speech to Cordo about how they only stole from her because she gave them no choice, especially since their supposed to be on the same side, and hopes she listens to reason.
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Cordo: Hm....
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Cordo:...NAH-I’ll just kill you.
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CAROLINE CORDOVIN FOLKS-the defi-NITION of excessive force!
But does THAT scare Rubelubes?!
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FUCK NO-she dashes herself RIGHT in there! SEE-foreshadowing!
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She sees the target-
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-LINES up the shot-
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-while Cordo reevaluates recent life choices-
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-gives herself a nice SNIPER breath-
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-SHOOTS THAT FUCKER-and with-in a SECOND-
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-PETALS HERSELF AWAY! Ace huntress right here! ALL right before-
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-THAT FUCKER GETS CRYSTALIZED-good on you Ruby!
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OOH-still got that aftershock crackle though! Thankfully Weiss uses her reverse gravity glyphs to slow her down ‘cause she’s a GOOD girlfriend, either figuratively OR literally(Bumblebee is canon fo sho, but STILL not sure on Iceflower, BUT still hopeful).
Qrow then catches her, and Ruby smugly replies with-
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Ruby: ...toldja.
Oh Ruby, you SASS!
End the scene with a bit of Maria sass-
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Maria: OH-don’t tell me I MISSED it!
AND CUT TO OUR FAVORITE NEW POWER COUPLE!
7:25
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BEHOLD the holding of the hands, FEEL the gay energy it creates, while pissing off Blake’s creepy predatory ex, who was probably a creepy senior like Daniel Tosh when they started dating and needs to die(WINK).
Blake then says she and Yang are gonna KICK HIS ASS, because she made a promise to stick with the people she cares about-PROMPTING ADAM-to say this-
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Adam: Y’know, she made a promise to me once, that she’d always be at MY side. HA-and look how well she’s kept it.
Your ex likes girls dude, GET OVER IT!
Either way it prompts Yang to say THIS badassery:
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Yang: Did she make that promise to you? Or to the person you were PRETENDING to be?
Fuck yes. Either way, time for talk is over-ITS ACTION SCENE TIME-
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-OOH-start out with a splitscreen, NICE!
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Blake and Yang keep hitting him from both sides-
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-and uses her shot-gauntlets to get distance, as a STRATEGIST does!
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Blake goes in on the offensive, but ADAM ATTACKS-
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-HER SHADOW-because he keeps forgetting how her semblance works like the dirty bitch he is!
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Blake somersaults over him-
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-KICKS-him back in the best pic I could get, because it happens in like a MICROSECOND-
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-to a Yang Xiao Long that’s RARING to go with her shaunt-gauntlets-
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-AND YANG KNOCKS HIM BACK...trust me, she did, this fight has a LOT of quick action and getting the pics I want is a nightmare.
The battle is INTENSE y’all, either way Blake gets ENOUGH distance-
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-to get her partially broken gunsword back-
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-tttttttttttthrows it over to fuckface magee-
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-OOH-but he blocks it, no goal for you Blake-BUT-
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-YANG GETS CONTROL OF THE BLADE-they may just make this count-
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-she flings her over withe classic “infinitely stretchy band of stretchiness” to INITIATE-
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-BATTLE CLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH-but WAIT-
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-OOH-knock back on both sides-
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-Adam lands on his feet while Blake-
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-OOH-she got crackle folks, we’re nearing the endgame (copyright Marvel studios...nah just kidding, RWBY’s a DC property). It ALSO almost knocks her off the cliff-
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...I feel there’s a joke about a cat poster I can make here, but I’m not sure if right now is the right time to say it.
Yang is of course READY to save her-
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-WHILE giving Adam an obvious deathglare for obvious reasons(MURDER HIM).
SADLY though Adam uses his greatest power of all-
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Adam: MOMENT of truth Yang, do you think your faster than you were at Beacon?
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*GASP*
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EMOTIONAL manipulation( MURDER HIM, MURDER HIM). ALSO-sorry for the arrows, they wouldn’t go away and I couldn’t edit them out without ruining the gravitas of the shot.
Then a punch, A KICK, Yang’s on the ropes, will her aura hold out? CAN BLAKE HANG ON?!
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OOH-apparently she can! MAN-the endurance these young women had, she lost a forcefield and now she’s climbing a MOUNTAIN, made of STEEL that one!
Adam than acts like the most OBVIOUS psycho-ex ever-
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Adam: What does she even SEE in you?!
Yang: A person who doesn’t let their psychological baggage be an excuse to be an abuser!
Blake: Someone in my own age group who isn’t a creep who peaked his senior year of High school!
Adam: YOU SHUT UP I’M A PERFECT SUNFLOWER!
Adam then uses MOONSLASH on Yang but if you don’t know our girl-
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Yang: Gotcha.
-you’d know it’d be NOT very effective y’all-SUPER SAYAIN YANG ACTIVATE!
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FUCK YEAH-punch him OUT!
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-AND HE GOT THE CRCKLE Y’ALL-its aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallmost over!
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OOH-but so does Yang, BUT she’s got his sword so ADVANTAGE Bumbleby!
EITHER WAY-everyone’s running on fumes, its SUDDEN DEATH SMASH TIME Y’ALL!
And dear lord...its amazing-
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-Yang THROWS that shit off a cliff-
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-Adam goes after it-
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Blake: SHURIYUKEN!
Yang: Wait I saw you climb UP the mountain, how’d you get back there-
Blake: WHATEVER-let’s kill this guy!
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She sees the broken sword at her feet-
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-she grabs ONE half-
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-Yang graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaabs the other-
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Yang: RAH!
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Blake: EYAH!
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YANG/BLAKE USED DOUBLE STRIKE-
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Adam:...oh-
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*SPLASH*
-and its SUPER effective-CRITICAL HIT! RPG BUZZWORDS! AND THEN BUMBLEBY-
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-gives themselves a tender cry scene while both promise to be there for each other. DAMN that was a fight scene, emotion, action, DEATH, I love this show!
Blake: *SNIFF* I just really really-REALLY-hope he stays dead!
Yang: Don’t worry, he can’t get maiden powers so he’s gone for good.
Blake: I love you babe.
Yang: I love you to.
A THEN CUT TO-
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-CORDO-dealing with the consequences of her actions in MORE ways than one!
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Nubuck: HEY UH M’AM-
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-Godzillallegory is on the horizon- 
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- and it brought a BUNCH of friends, we could REALLY use the giant Collossus mech made SPECIFICALLY for fighting giant Grimm!
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Cordo:...I am SO fired.
AND THAT’S ep 12, SEE YOU...in 2 SECONDS for the next Micksterecap as this is a DOUBLE feature!
The FINALE starts off WITH-
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-with a VERY nice airship! Look at that woodwork, now THAT is craftsmanship! The ship opens TO REVEAL-
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-NEO-and her SNAZZY new look! Look at that jacket, just FULL of snazz! SPEAKING OF SNAZZYNESS-
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-HOT DAMN-I never thought wearing a cape the wrong way could look GOOD but Cinder proved me wrong! After the minor fashion show-ITS SHIP SHIFTING TIME!
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Cinder:(DAMN I am im-PRESSED by this, SO glad we’re friends now!)
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We get it Neo, your semblance is OP, QUIT SHOWIN’ OFF!
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Either way, our girls are looking fly as hell and are READY to fight Team FWBYQOMJNR....NEXT volume. Yeah, turns out it was one of THOSE build-ups where its for next season. I know, I’m pissed of too.
But enough about that-A CUT TO-
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GOJIRA-slowly making his way to Tokyo bay to REEK ATOMIC TERROR!
This is the time when one could REALLY use a giant robot with a laser canon-
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-if not for the fact that a senile old racist wasted it on minor offenders like a crazy person.
After the team realizes that they had a SLIGHT hand in ruining Argus’ defenses against a kaiju level threat, they decide to FLY OFF! Right before CORDOVIN-
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“This is YOUR fault, your fault....
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....your...fault”.
-ADMITS her own guilt in this to herself! Didn’t expect character development from her, NOW all she has to do is apologize to Blake for casual racism and it’ll be AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL good!
MEANWHILE-on the ship-
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-Blake apologizes for her psycho Ex stalking them, ALL while only her, Yang, Nora and Maria(off panel) are sitting down. YOU ARE IN A PLANE-I do not believe that they are hogging all the seats!
Despite the obvious chaos, Maria basically suggests this-
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Maria: Okay...what if we just BAIL?!
Everyone:...
Maria:...YEAH I know, gotta be superheroes and what-not, I just REALLY want Cordo to die.
They then all decide to get up close and personal with the thing, Ren and Jaune plan to do their combo move a.k.a. the ONLY semblance Jaune will boost this season-BUT THEN-the monster resurfaces!
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*RESIN COATED GLOVE AGAINST A BASS GUITAR!*
Look it up bitches. Its ALSO at this point that Mrs.Terra Cotta-Arc-
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-regrets recent life choices that inadvertently lead to her brother in-law and his entourage to destroying Argus’s last defense...also what’s up with that girl in the background? The one with the diamond logo and the bare mid-riff? She a superhero or something? If so...GET TO WORK-there’s a monster to fight!
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AW-she’s there for her family and...I’m sorry I just can’t get over that background character’s design, I mean LOOK AT HER-does she have ANY hips to speak of?! I know its just a background character, but STILL bad design.
BUT LUCKILY FOR ARGUS-
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-THE SHIELDS GO UP-which I’m sure won’t be damaged at all!
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SEE-look at that, COMPLETELY impenetrable!
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BAM-even blocks the beast’s elemental attack, NOTHING can break this shie-
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*BOOM*
...w...WAIT A MINUTE-the SHIELDS are impenetrable but the pylons MANAGING the shields AREN’T?! That is...a HUGE design flaw, DAMMIT CORDOVIN, this is what you get for spending your defense budget on your Gundam hobby!
This is when everybody just wants to get the HELL out of there but Ruby calls it in-
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Ruby: EVERYBODY-me and my scrappy team of rogues is gonna take on that beast, we JUST need you to back us up!
Nubuck: UH-no thank you, we’re nameless soldiers in a fantasy story, WE KNOW what happens to us in this situation!
Either way Ruby is ready to use her magical laser eyes to slow down the beast, by her OWN dang self!
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Ruby: Fine, we’ll do it alone if we have to.
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Ruby: Let me repeat, I-A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL-am going to fight a monster ALL by myself...with NO military support...alone.
Look at Cordo, see the GUILT emanating from her!
Either way the plan is set-SUPER TEAMWORK COMBO-
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-EMOTION MASK TIMES TWO! Seriously, the ONLY semblance he enhances this season.
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They then fly undetected through the chaos while ONE plane gets hit! Exactly ONE...no lie, maybe this army isn’t as bad as I thought if only one plane got knocked down so far.
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After just NARROWLY avoiding the blast-
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-the beast takes out the SECOND barrier due to the worst design flaw in the world-
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-DESTROYING THE TOP TO EXACTLY ONE BUILDING! DAMN-lucky Argus, this is a generally destruction free monster attack!
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OOOH-but also RIGHT at the moment Ren and Jaune get crackle, CLOAKS DOWN PEOPLE-cloak is DOWN!
But have no fear-OUR LEADER HAS A PLAN!
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Weiss:...giant bee?
Ruby: GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIANT BEE!
Yang: You rang?
Blake: Oh YOU!
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Nora and Yang give cover fire while Blake just...stands there, because her weapon broke. Hey, sometimes your ex smashes your gun-sword in half, it happens.
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SEE BLAKE-you just upgraded yourself to Weiss...holder, way to seize the initiative and HOLD THAT WEISS!
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Ruby: I know this is stressful but riding a giant bee is still FREAKING AWESOME!
Nora: I CALL NEXT!
Yang: Aw man, I wanted to fly next.
Qrow: QUIT YAMMERING AND KEEP SHOOTING!
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Rubalubes than squares up with the great beast and then-
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-STARTS A CLIP SHOW TO PSYCHE HER POWERS UP! She ALSO-
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-throws that PESKY earpiece RIGHT into the ocean...because turning it OFF is impossible apparently(freakin’ Atlas tech, TOO many design flaws). Either way-CLIP SHOW TIME!
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What NICE memories, nothing that would trigger feelings of doubt which would mess with her hea-
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SHIT-memories of the dead almost girlfriend-SHIFT FOCUS!
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YES-memories of the vomit boy-FOCUS ON THAT!
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Nooooooooooooooooooo-
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-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
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Focus focus focus FOCUS!
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NOT ON THAT!
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NOR THAT!
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Stay calm, STAY calm-
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-AND she’s boned.
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Ruby: DAMMIT silver eyes, WORK WHEN I WANT YOU TO WORK!
The beast is in her sights, her powers aren’t working, only ONE thing that can save her now!
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Ruby: JINN!
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*SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW*
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Yang: Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
DEUS EX MACHINA-because TELEVISION! Also really wish I could show the illusion of time slowing down better in simple pictures
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Pouty Jinn is pouty. Either way she tells her that she’ll only allow her to summon her this this ONE time without asking a question.
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Jinn: I must admit, this WAS clever.
Ruby: Heh, yeah, to be FAIR I wasn’t sure if you ACTUALLY slowed down time, or if that was like a “Bill Cipher” style illusion, but yeah I’ll have a real question next time.
Either way-CLIP SHOW RESTART!
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Time re-starting is ALSO hard to show with still pictures.
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*WAVES MOVE SLIGHTLY FASTER*
You enjoying this so far? You COULD be re-watching the show instead of a slow clip-show of it but O-kay!
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Yes, GOOD memories of Pyrrha, GOOD ones!
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*MORE SUBTLE TIME RESTARTING*
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OH YEAH-she’s still in front of a monster! DAMN-that’s a good timestop, full on ZA WARUDO!
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That’s right, good memory of Penny, DON’T PSYCHE OUT!
And just when you thought they weren’t gonna hit us with a feelsbomb-
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SUMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER! ALSO-confirmation that Ruby knew what her mom looked like, I wasn’t sure as she died when Rubes was REALLY yong, either way HUZZAH! ALSO-this shot-
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Summer’s eyes-
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RUBY’S EEYS!
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“THERE’S A LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT THERE TO SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE-
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- “ AND ITS POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWER IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!”
Bless you Casey Williams, BLESS you!
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Look at the well designed background characters being showed off by Rooster Teeth, THEY ARE PLEASED! Also, look at that glasses wearing mother fucker in the purple jacket, he a WIZARD or something? We coulda used a WIZARD y’know, just saying.
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Nubuck1: YEAH-that girl we refused to help stopped the beast!
Nubuck2:...are we terrible at our jobs?
Nubuck3: Just shut up and keep cheering!
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Ruby then marvels at the site of a major city that SURVIVED a kaiju-class Grimm attack for once-BUT ALL IS NOT WELL-
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*CRACKLE CRACKLE*
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*ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!*
Ruby: DAMMIT-I meant to fire DISINTEGRATING beams, not FREEZING!
Maria: I now, its LITERALLY the most fickle super power.
But worry not-FOR ALL IS NOT LOST!
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Cordo: HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERE I COME, TO SAVE THE DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
Ruby:...okay, thanks for the help, but HOW did you rip your mech’s arm off?
Cordo: HM?! Oh nothing fancy-
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Cordo: JUST A BAD ASS DRILL THAT I WILL USE TO PIERCE HEAVEN!
Ruby:...why the HELL didn’t you use that on us before?
Cordo: Honestly I forgot it was there...as well as SEVERAL functions on this mech. Really I shouldn’t be in charge of anything.
Either way-
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-she drills the FUCK out of that thing! KILL IT! KILL IT WITH SPINNING!
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Man, that’s some NICE dusting! 
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Once again, the background characters are pleased, including lady hipless over there! Oh lady hipless, I will NEVER understand you.
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And even 2/3rds of the Cotta-Arc household are completely enjoying it, while Terra is REALLY hoping this mess won’t come back to her.
Ruby then thanks AND apologizes to Cordo because she’s a NICE young lady, while Cordo gives her team the go ahead to fly out tho Atlas. DOESN’T make up for her mean comment to Blake, BUT progress is progress.
A THEN CUT TO-
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-BEAUTIFULLY PAINTED CLOUDS! MAN this show loves to show off and I LOVE IT!
INSIDE the ship-
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Ruby’s mentors give her WELL deserved props and Qrow celebrates BY-
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-NOT drinking! GOOD ON YOU Qrow, PROGRESS!
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D’aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw.
The mentors than have a NICE quick moment.
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Maria: For a depressed drunk, you make a great uncle and huntsman.
Qrow: That is...LITERALLY the best compliment you can give me.
Speaking of sweet moments-
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FUCK YEAH-hand holding! Now let them KISS dammit!
ALL WHILE-
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-RUBY deflects praise like a body does, EVEN points out how Oscar landed a clean crash...OR DID HE?!
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Oscar: I...DIDN’T land the plane on my own.
YUP-Ozpin helped him, in a scene that’s BASICALLY this-
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Oz: The force Oscar, USE the force!
The team briefly discuss the fact that their creepy wizard principal is most DEFINITELY spying on them before Qrow points out-
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THE UNIVERSITY OF CAROLINA IN THE SK-I mean-THE CITY OF ATLAS! Anyone...old enough to get that reference? Scott Pilgrim? Its a story about a guy who dates a 17 year old, dumps her for someone cooler, and we’re supposed to see him as the hero? WEIRDLY good read despite the what the synopsis will make you believe.
We also briefly see-
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-THE UNDERCITY OF MANTLE...which...looks like its near an active volcano I think! NO WAIT I see, that’s where the floating city came from...still feel BAD for the poor people of Mantle though.
Either way, they get up there and EVERYTHING is fi-
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-ZOOP military blockade, never mind. And we end the adventure of Team RWBYQOMJNR with a MYSTERIOUS line-
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Voice: Manta 5-1, welcome home.
Oooooooh, Weiss is in TROUBLLLLLLLE!
And that’s it for them, credits start rolling-NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVERMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE- and then a we get a TEASER because Joss Whedon!
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Mercury: I like being depressed in here, it makes me look DEEP!
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Emerald also walks in to slightly foreshadow her defection from the Legion of Doom but notices how FREAKED he is...why?
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Cause Salem’s making flying MONKEYS that’s why! We ALSO-get a Hazel cameo!
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Hazel: There’s an old saying, if you want something done right-
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-do it yourself.
WELL-team RWBY’s boned. EITHER WAY, a fantastic season, personally I feel episode 12 had better finale energy than episode 13, BUT outside of a malfunctioning force field still good. I’m also KINDA mad that Neo and Cinder, and pretty much EVERY member of Salem’s faction didn’t get many times to really shine, BUT there’s always next season! 
AND WITH THAT-I’l see you either next season of RWBY, or on my Gen:Lock recaps on MICKSTERECAP! Peace out folks.
18 notes · View notes
lalainajanes · 6 years ago
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@thetourguidebarbie and I were complaining about the Polyvore alternatives and I found this truly awful dress on one. Celeb AU fluff was born.
Lookin’ Sharp
She’s exhausted, the consultation she’s walked out of had been a battle, one she’d had to smile through. Caroline’s dealt with difficult people before, had eagerly tackled this latest job. She’d never been one to back down from a challenge but then she’s never met a woman who thought a shapeless shiny mint green caftan was a good look for a Golden Globes after party.
Until today.
She really should have listened to Kat when she’d warned Caroline that socialites were the worst people to style. Caroline had brushed off the words at the time, figuring that her client’s reputation – sweet, agreeable, super committed to using her dad’s money to help ex-cons – would mean she’d be an easy paycheck. She’s mentally listing jewelers who like her, hoping she can find a necklace spectacular enough to distract from the chosen dress’ awfulness. She’s thinking diamonds the size of golf balls might do the trick.
“It’s a lost cause, you know.”
Caroline’s heart lurches when the words ring out, her body tensing. She whirls, dropping the armful of garment bags she’d been lugging out to her car. She hadn’t recognized the voice – she’s never heard Klaus Mikaelson say so many words at once. At least not in real life.
He’s a few paces behind her, hands up and a contrite expression on his distractingly handsome face. “Apologies,” he murmurs.
She relaxes, but not completely. She’s pretty sure Klaus isn’t going to stuff her into a trunk but he’s still a very big deal for a girl trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood. Caroline presses a hand over her chest, takes a deep breath. “You scared me. Do they teach you how to walk like a sneaky ghost when you sign up to play a superhero or something?”
He smiles, “I wasn’t making an effort to be silent. Perhaps you were just preoccupied?”
That’s possible. The fitting she’d just left had not gone well. A client who flat out refused to listen to sense, who appeared to see something vastly different than Caroline did when she looked in a mirror, was proving to be really freaking frustrating.
But she couldn’t exactly tell the client’s boyfriend that, could she?
She pastes on a sunny smile, “Well, award’s season’s just about to go into full swing. I have a lot on my plate. I’m sure you’re very busy too.”
Caroline hopes that’s a subtle enough hint. She’s curious about why he’s followed her out, hadn’t been lying about having an extensive to do list. She’s positive she hadn’t forgotten anything, that the four trips between condo and parking garage haven’t been in vain. She can’t exactly go making demands though, not from a guy whose next movie is projected to have a 100 million dollar opening weekend.
“Not for a few weeks yet,” Klaus says, crouching to gather her scattered things. Caroline hurriedly follows, brushing off the pebbles and dust from the bags he hands her. “I’m just supposed to smile for the cameras and look pretty. Make people forget about the… incident in Las Vegas.”
She chances a glance at him, unsure of how to react to that statement. She’d never have thought he’d make such a direct reference.
Caroline knew there’s no way she’d be able to be blasé if photos of her naked body had been splashed all over the internet. Then again, she’d never play strip poker with total strangers.
It hadn’t quite been a full frontal shot - Klaus had been lucky, and a champagne bottle had been left on an end table - saving the pics from being fully NC-17. Had circumstances been different they might not have even caused a stir. Klaus Mikaelson’s resume had a couple of racy film and TV appearances from before he’d left England on it, not that Caroline had googled him.
Okay, fine. She hadn’t googled him recently. And she definitely hasn’t watched the compilation of all his sex scenes on YouTube since she’d met him in person.
Unfortunately for Klaus (and really unfortunately for his publicists) the timing of the photos of his drunken debauchery leaking couldn’t have come at a worse time.
He’d been voicing a character in an animated feature when they’d come out, a gruff but loveable lone wolf who learned about the power of friendship. That, plus a superhero blockbuster on deck, meant he had to appeal to the broadest audience possible.
The pictures were the opposite of wholesome, damage control was necessary. He’d been volunteering with soup kitchens, had adopted a rescue dog. Had gone public with a relationship, one with a textbook good girl, and had been seen holding hands and getting fro-yo and generally being snuggly.
In public, at least. In private, from what Caroline’s observed, the relationship isn’t the warmest. Klaus has usually been in the background, glued to his phone and making noncommittal grunts when asked for an opinion.
Caroline’s not sure how to address the Vegas incident without putting her foot in her mouth so she decides to go back to his original statement. She straightens, folding the stack of dresses over her arm, “What did you mean about a lost cause?”
He’s edged closer when he stands. She keeps her eyes trained on his face, not on the way the fine weave of his shirt clings to his shoulders. “Just that your work’s not going to end up on any best dressed lists. You’ve tried to steer her towards flattering and age appropriate but she’s remarkably convinced her perspective is the right one. It’s not just clothes, if it’s any consolation. It’s everything.”
Wow. It certainly seemed like there was trouble in paradise. Caroline does her best to be diplomatic, “Personal style is a funny thing, I guess.”
He grins, head tipping to the side, “That’s an impressive non-answer. My publicist would be proud.”
“It’s a gossipy industry. Badmouthing clients is going to lead to fewer opportunities not more.”
His eyes sharpen, “Ah, speaking of opportunities, I’d wondered if you might do me a favor.”
A favor? That seems suspicious. “What kind?”
He laughs softly, “Nothing nefarious, love. I’d merely like a ride.”
“A ride?” she repeats, eyes shifting over to the black SUV she knows belongs to Klaus.
“In your backseat. Covered in a few of the bags you brought with you. Passed the paparazzi that are staked out on this block. They need to think I’ve spent the night, you see. And I’d really rather not.”
This conversation just got weirder and weirder. “Did you… I mean, it’s not any of my business if you guys are fighting but maybe talking it out would be better than fleeing?”
He looks at her as if she’s said something crazy. “We don’t talk. Well, no more than necessary.”
“Sounds like a healthy relationship,” Caroline quips. Her eyes widen and her teeth snap shut in horror. Had she seriously just said that? She’s so freaking fired.
Klaus surprises her though. He laughs again, louder this time, the sound echoing off the concrete walls around them. She’s confused, and frozen, unwilling to say anything that might make things even worse. When he calms he shifts closer, relieving her of some of the bags. “We’re not in a relationship, sweetheart. Not really. It’s a contract. A mutually beneficial agreement. I raise her profile, she makes me look like a fine upstanding citizen. Everybody wins.”
Huh. While Caroline knows those kind of arrangements happen, at least intellectually, she’d never expected to be a party to one. “That sounds…”
“Awkward?” Klaus supplies, “tedious? I can assure you it’s both. We’ll have an amicable breakup in April, pledge to stay friends. I’ll be done with press and can disappear for a bit.”
A thought occurs to Caroline, one that she doesn’t like. “Wait, did you fake adopt a dog too? Because that’s not cool.” She’d seen snaps of him walking the dog, some kind of Labrador mutt, and it’s really freaking cute.
“No, Munch was legally and truly adopted. He’s likely being given too many treats by my assistant as we speak.
Caroline nods sharply, satisfied, and fishes out her keys so she can pop the trunk of her car. “Good. If you were a faking a dog adoption I’d have to assume you’re a garbage person and I would not let you in my backseat.”
“Big fan of dogs, are you?”
“In theory, yes. Not in practice just yet.”
She begins loading up, carefully arranging things for maximum space use. She feels Klaus watching her carefully but she focuses on her task. Now that she knows he’s single the little devil on her shoulder is urging her to flirt. Whispering that the worst thing that would happen is that he wouldn’t reciprocate.
And if he did? Well, Caroline wouldn’t mind seeing him naked again. Would be seriously onboard with touching him while he was naked.
“Perhaps you’d like to meet him? You could come in for a bit once you’ve dropped me off?” he asks.
Caroline rears back, nearly hitting her head on the open trunk.
Klaus makes a soft noise, concerned, and his palm brushes over the back of her head, lowering to settle on her shoulder. “Careful. No need to injure yourself. I’d much rather we have dinner than take a trip to the emergency room.”
Maybe she had hit her head. “Dinner?” she parrots. “Like, together?”
He nods, a smile curling his lips. His thumb strokes her neck, an absent gesture that’s unfairly distracting. “You, me, the dog begging for crumbs. We’re working on it but his manners aren’t the best just yet. If that goes well I hope you’ll agree to do it again sometime.”
Clearly, Caroline hadn’t needed to talk herself out of flirting. Klaus didn’t share her qualms. Unless this was another step in his image rehab. She shifts back until he’s no longer touching her, crossing her arms. “Is this another contract kind of thing? Dating someone who’s not super rich so you seem down to earth?”
Klaus denial is immediate, “No, nothing like that. I’ve just spent an awful lot of time studying your face, wondering at the comments you’ve been holding back. Your face is remarkably easy to read when you’re frustrated.”
Whoops. Caroline makes a note to work on that. Her clients were a self-absorbed group but it’s possibly someone would notice her inner screaming at some point and she couldn’t have that. At least not until she’s more established. “I suppose I could eat,” Caroline says slowly.
Klaus expression warms, his pleasure evident. “Lovely. Just let me program my address into your phone.”
Caroline hands it over willingly, doesn’t shy away from the brush of his fingers against hers, letting her body brush against his more than necessary as she returns to packing up.
Half-assing things isn’t in her nature. If Caroline’s going to flirt (and oh boy is she ever) she’s going to do it right.
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kiss-my-freckle · 3 years ago
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Damon Salvatore: Family Ties
Damon was done the moment Elena slapped him for trying to kiss her. He goes straight to the source of his hate to hand him a dream. "You really need some human blood. It might even the playing field." His comment is every bit what the writers do, but understand this works both ways. Stefan will even the playing field in his Ripper arcs, Damon will even the playing field in his humanity arcs. That's why the field isn't truly even until 3x1. That's when Elena sees the whole of both brothers. And she needs to see them because her character is written in denial. Seeing is believing with her.
Damon gives Stefan reason to reconsider caging him. He's no longer leaving bodies for the council to find. He's ready to lay low because he always had plans to stay, he just wanted to cause chaos for Stefan before he got serious with rescuing Katherine. His promised eternity of misery. Stefan doesn't trust it, so he still plans to cage him. "Well, the vervain keeps me out of her head. Maybe that's not my target." Trust when I say Stefan did Damon a favor by giving Elena that necklace. Seducing her is a threat, but not one to take seriously yet because Damon isn't being serious. He doesn't start seducing Elena until Miss Mystic Falls.
His conversation with Caroline is every bit showing what he's compelling. Her fear. Reminiscent of Katherine and Stefan. She asks questions about his vampirism. Questions Elena won't be asking until she finds out Stefan is a vampire. Again, the difference between brothers. Damon has no reason to hide the fact that he's a vampire. "Go about living my life. See, therein lies your eternal struggle. You're dead, dude. Get over it." Damon's mentality, as I've mentioned before. Dead people don't live, they exist. That's why he asked Stefan if it's working... being around Elena, being in her world. If it makes him feel alive. Damon has to feel it to believe it. Right now, he truly believes the closest he can get to humanity is by ripping it open and feeding on it. It's a dual thing for Delena... making eachother feel alive in death. "I have to go to the party angry. Who knows what I'll do?" Exactly what I've been saying of his character. He's driven by emotion. Anger becomes rage, and Stefan knows this.
Damon is using Caroline's nose, which is always where it doesn't belong. He handed her a lie to feed Bonnie. Bonnie then fed that lie to Elena. An obvious lie, but purposeful. It's not the lie he's pushing, but a simple concept. As I said in a previous post, Stefan doesn't talk about the past unless and until it's convient for him. His desire to keep the past buried gave Damon the idea to push this concept. Sell a lie that Elena wouldn't like. It's one thing to have both brothers date the same girl. Quite another if one of those brothers is a calculating, manipulative liar. Elena tells Bonnie Stefan is none of those things. Bonnie asks, "How do you know?" Point of concept. How is Elena to know Stefan isn't any of those things when he refuses to talk about Katherine every single time Damon brings her up in conversation. This will cause Elena to push Stefan for answers. Damon doesn't like seeing his brother happy when he's been promised an eternity of misery. Thanks to Caroline, the soil is ready.
Stefan gets upset when Damon helps con him into a dance with Caroline, so he uses Caroline to vervain him... the very same way his father used him to vervain Katherine. "My therapist says I'm acting out, trying to punish Stefan." A shame he cuts jokes about therapy because I actually think he needs it  to deal with his emotions. I'm glad he apologizes to Elena for trying to kiss her. I love the narrative he gives her about their attempt to save Katherine because that would be the seed, now he's ready to watch it grow. "This is my fault. I planted doubt. I'm a doubt planter." 100% effective until Elena sees Caroline's bite marks. "But with mystery comes secrets, and this thing with Katherine." Damon pointing out the very flaw in their relationship. It's built on secrets and lies. Their collapse is inevitable, it’s just a matter of time. Stefan isn't Elena's boyfriend, he's playing the role of Elena's boyfriend. There's a difference.
This episode iis just the beginning for Jeremy. Right now, he's trying to hold onto his father. It starts with the pocket watch, shifts to the Gilbert journal, then pushes forward to the moonstone and wolfsbane. "When I'm with him, it feels unpredictable. Like I'm free." Damon is the only one that doesn't treat Jeremy like he's 12. He wants to be fully involved. I believe that's why he reaches out to Damon after he snapped his neck. A vampire on the council. One that's as honest as he can be. Jeremy saw an opportunity with Damon, and in that, the chance to discover who he is. That's why he talks to him about his father.
"I did what I had to do. To protect Elena. To protect everyone." Stefan isn't protecting Elena. If Damon wanted to kill her, he wouldn't be throwing it in a fake dream, he'd be killing her because he's already been invited in. "Believe it or not, Stefan, some girls don't need my persuasion." I think Stefan took Damon's threat seriously and knows his brother is capable. 
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thebennettdiaries · 7 years ago
Text
a thousand souls crossed over (17/?)
Premise: Bonnie is finally settling into life as the bridge between the living and the dead. That is until Kol Mikaelson shows up and refuses to leave until she does him a favor: give a message to his family in New Orleans. Of course, that is just the beginning. Set in Season 5 with shades of AU, crossover with The Originals.
Characters: Bonnie Bennett, Elijah Mikaelson, Klaus Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson, Kol Mikaelson, Celeste Dubois, Kieran O’Connell and a few new faces.
Author’s Note: Apparently I either go months on end without an update or throw out a couple in closer succession.  I am hoping that I can adhere closer to the few weeks between updates method as I bring this tale closer to its end.  I appreciate all the kind words --- thank you for leaving feedback.  It is so important to an author to hear it! You are all lovely!
A table of contents and cast list can be found here
“I’m staying.”
Her voice is quiet, hardly palpable in the chaos around them.  She hasn’t even realized she said it aloud until she catches the way Kol looks at her. For a moment, she feels uncomfortable, like he has placed her under a microscope but then she finds her voice. Repeats her statement.  She can’t decide if Kol looks relived or if he is just glad to hear something other than his brother and Marcel trade barbs over dead vampires (she is quickly tuning them out ).
“I have to admit, little witch, you surprise me,” Kol tells her.   She watches as he places a hand on the balcony railing and curl his fingers around the cold iron.  She wonders if he has gotten used to it --- being able to touch something but not quite.  It is such a strange sensation really and one that she does not think she will ever be fully able to explain.
Bonnie takes a deep breath. From their vantage point, they can watch as the rest of the Mikaelsons argue their way in circles to make sense of all this.  It is not something she should actively choose to be around.  Yet here she is.  “Sometimes I surprise myself.”  She too curls her fingers around the railing and then shrugs.  “In the Square, before you showed up…I told Caroline I couldn’t go back to Whitmore just yet.  I had some things I needed to do first.”  
It dawns on her that she hadn’t waited around to see what Caroline’s response was.  Her eyes widen and she pulls her phone from her pocket. True to her nature, Caroline has filled the screen with her thoughts on the news.
What kind of things?
Bonnie?
Bonnie! What kind of things?!
I swear to God if you are doing anything dangerous I will anchor-nap you!
She raises an eyebrow, knowing that she shouldn’t have left Caroline hanging like that.  However, she hadn’t expected Kol’s arrival, or the army of vampires waiting to cross over either.  She quickly sends Caroline another text, promising a more in depth discussion of it soon.  With the message working its way back to Caroline, it feels final.
She is staying.
“I thought for sure that the first second you saw an opening, you’d take it,” Kol admits.  “I half expected you to get right back on that bus after the first night.”
“Oh, I would have,” Bonnie retorts.  “If someone hadn’t threatened to haunt me for the rest of my days.” He is given a pointed look; a reminder that in the beginning of all this she had no choice really.  She had to play by his rules.  Now, she has a choice.  She had completed her task of warning the Mikaelson family of the impending threat (of course, it had not exactly gone to plan --- nothing ever did in her life). There is no tether that binds her to this situation and she has gone out of her way to make sure that others know how she feels about the Mikaelsons.  She owes them nothing.  In fact, if she were to walk right up to Celeste and pledge her loyalty, no one would question it.  Add to that, she truly had precious little she could offer as they plunged themselves into a war.  
Yet here she was.  
“I need to see some kind of end,” Bonnie admits.  “For Davina. For myself.  I couldn’t keep that promise I made to her --- so I am looking for the next best alternative.  Making sure that no one else finds themselves pulled into this fight unnecessarily seems like the closest I’ll get.”
“You can’t seem to help but want to appease that guilty conscious of yours,” Kol quips and then refuses to wither under the look that statement earns him.  “I am not trying to rile you up, Bonnie. So before you burn me with that tongue of yours, let me say it again: what happened to Davina is not your fault.”
Bonnie doesn’t say anything in return.  She doesn’t try to explain to him that is far more complicated than assigning herself blame. She sees so much of herself in Davina’s story.  Maybe she had been looking for a chance to set it right for once.  Having failed again, she finds herself determined to have any kind of victory.  Maybe she just wants revenge for the pain Celeste’s master plan has caused her (a plain and simple explanation and much more to Klaus’ liking).  
A change of subject is needed so she plunges ahead with the other thought that has been running around in her head.  “I need you to do something for me,” she tells him, her tone all business.  She doesn’t wait for him to acknowledge her (or more likely protest the thought).  “I need you to find Davina…”
Kol does just what she expected him to, furrowing his brows as he speaks.  “Hold on…”
She continues to barrel her way through the conversation, figuring it is the best way to get her point across before he digs his heels in.  “She could be alone.  You know what that’s like.  You might not want to admit it because you’re far too proud to do so but you hate that about the Other Side.  You don’t have to say it --- I know.” He won’t argue with her on that point. “Maybe she’s found others.  The other Harvest Girls.  Her family.  I don’t know…but I just, I would feel better if I knew she had someone.”
He appears to think it over. “And if she doesn’t?” There is something in his tone that tells her he has already predicted her answer.
“Then, just…show her the ropes or something.  Spend some time with her?” She doesn’t go as far as to say comfort her even though the thought has crossed her mind.  He looks as if he is ready to buck against the whole idea as it is.
“I am not a babysitter to a dead teenage witch,” Kol says.
“I didn’t ask you to be,” Bonnie replies immediately.  “I am asking you for a little payback for everything I’ve done here.”
He grimaces. “Fine.  Fine.  Should I come across Davina I’ll be sure to give her the grand tour of the afterlife.”
That is the best she can ask for.  
Things have gone dead silent below them and they look to see Klaus, Elijah and Marcel all stride off in different directions.  The black cloud that looms over the space tells her that nothing has been accomplished.
This is the so-called team she has hitched herself too.
X
Bonnie finds Elijah with a glass in his hand.  He appears to be studying its contents intently, as if he can force it to give up its secrets.  She hesitates in the doorway, feeling a sharp reminder of the last time she had intruded on his personal thoughts.  She thinks she is better off retreating to her room once more.
Her room; she lets that sink in for a moment too long and he catches her.
“Bonnie,” he says quietly and she jolts out of her thoughts.
She decides that running in the opposite direction would seem ridiculous at this point.  “Elijah.” There is a simple nod of her head as she moves into the room.  “I didn’t mean to intrude…”
“That is a change of pace for you,” Elijah retorts and she is too caught up in widening her eyes to notice the subtle way his mouth curves upwards.  He raises a hand.  “Only a joke.”
“You have a sense of humor?” She remarks before she can even stop herself.  She makes a face.  “You know what?  I should just go back the way I came.  It’s probably safer for the both of us that way.”
“I would prefer if you stay,” Elijah tells her.  He sets the glass down and focuses his attention on her.  “There is something I wish to say to you.”
Bonnie wonders if she has a skeptical look on her face.  Any number of topics of conversation spring to mind but she is having trouble actually snatching the correct one from the air.  
“I feel as if I owe you an apology…”
Now she knows she has a skeptical look on her face.  “Look, I know you want to make amends for what happened in Mystic Falls.  You don’t have to keep…”
He shakes his head. “Not for that.  For last night.”
Bonnie’s features tighten. She thinks of the night before. Of Celeste.  Surely he is not insisting he is to blame for any of it.  “Because of her? You don’t have to apologize for her.”
Elijah’s eyes find the floor for a moment and there is a quick shake of his head.  “I may not be directly responsible for her actions but I do feel l have played some part in bringing them about.”  She knows he is thinking how things would have turned out had he chosen her over his brother.  Or had he even been able to save her from the mob that Klaus had unleashed on her.  “But that is not what I want to address.  I am talking more of my behavior…”
Her mouth forms a silent oh.  It had certainly been a side of Elijah she had not witnessed before.  He had seemed almost in a trance, responding only to Celeste’s voice, her touch.  So unlike the quiet but commanding presence she is used to.  In all the time she has known him he has presented himself as an architect, wholly responsible for every move he makes.  Last night, she had seen precious little of that.  “You…don’t like losing control do you?” The look on his face tells her she has hit the nail directly on the head.  “I don’t know how you expected yourself to act given who you were looking at.  It is not every day that someone that important walks back into your life.  You can hardly be blamed for reacting as you did.” It dawns on her that he has mulled over this for nearly twelve hours now and in the end decided that apologizing is his best approach.  She wonders if he has even properly begun to process it.  She waits a beat, trying to decide if she should ask the obvious question or not.  “Are you okay?”
Elijah swivels his head to look at her intently.  She shifts her weight from one foot to another in response.  She thinks that after he saw her at her worst, writhing in her bed in the aftermath of the Harvest, that they have entered a new stage in their interactions.  She doesn’t enjoy this awkwardness that comes with it.  It is so much easier to stand opposite him and hate him.  However, she knows that does not ring true anymore --- at least not the all-consuming hate she once felt at the mere sight of him.  She can’t even bring herself to fake it.
“This is not the first time that my life has taken a sharp turn in an unexpected direction,” Elijah tells her.
She gives him a look. “Nice dodge and weave on the question.”
That small smile returns to his face.  This time there is a sadness about it and she thinks that speaks volumes.  “She meant a great deal to me.  More than my siblings can understand.  I held her in my arms after the life had left her body.  She was cold, a shell of whom I knew her to be. I will never forget that.”
Bonnie bows her head. “And now she is here.”
“Wanting to do harm to my family,” he finishes even though she had intended to leave that fact out for now.  “I cannot celebrate her return under those circumstances.”
She thinks of Elijah’s sense of duty to his family and his heart (and how complicated that must be right now).  “It’s okay to feel conflicted…”
He shakes his head immediately.  “Make no mistake; no one will hurt my family.”
If there has ever been any question where Elijah’s loyalties lie (not by her, but perhaps others), Bonnie thinks that statement clarifies things nicely.  
“Oh good, you’re here,” Klaus announces, booming into the room and effectively sucking all the warmth from it as he does so.  “I had wondered if you had skipped off to find you newly resurrected girlfriend…”
“Klaus,” Elijah warns.
Obviously Klaus hasn’t been eavesdropping (or maybe he has and decided to be an annoyance anyway).  
“Brother, now is not the time,” Rebekah chides as she too appears in the doorway.  “Remember what we just discussed.”
Klaus looks slightly chastised.  
Rebekah moves to stand between her brothers.  No doubt this is a position she has taken up many times over the course of their lives. “We thought it a good idea to formulate some sort of plan, Elijah.  There is no sense in running into this headfirst.  We should take some time to discuss possibilities.”
“Good thinking, sister,” Elijah states and Rebekah practically beams.
The siblings move to leave the room and Bonnie stands there like an afterthought.  Thinking of what she has just told Kol, she follows them. It is Klaus that turns swiftly, attempting to level her with a stare as if she hasn’t faced worse (in the past few days actually).  
“What on earth are you doing?”
“Are we making a plan or not?” Bonnie retorts immediately.
“We are; you are not,” Klaus answers, and points a finger at her.  She is so very tempted to swat it to the side but instead she remains just as she is.
“Look, I realize this family is its own tightknit cult but I am honestly trying to help here.  I think you owe me a seat at that table --- considering what I have been dragged through,” Bonnie begins, and her chin tilts just so.  She is going to stand her ground.  “Add to that, I’m going to get up close and personal with whoever the loser is.  I’d at least like to have some idea why I am in pain.”
Klaus considers this for a moment.   “And just what can you offer us?  You are without your power…”
That stings and she doesn’t even try to pretend otherwise.  “I am not a witch.  We established that when I first arrived.  But I know what is going on here.  I’ve seen it play out enough to offer a different point of view.  Emotions are running high now or did I dream that screaming match that just occurred with Marcel?  I won’t even try to deny that I am completely objective either --- I am offering to throw in with you after all.  That speaks volumes of my state of mind.”  She is not above throwing a jab back at him.  “The way I see it, you need everyone you can get.”
“She has a point,” Rebekah says.  “I say she’s in.  Elijah?”
“She is welcome,” Elijah immediately chimes in.
“And like that, you are outnumbered,” Rebekah says simply.
It takes a great deal of inner strength not to gloat in the wake of Klaus’ loss.  Instead she moves past him, preferring to stick close to Rebekah. They all make their way to the same study she had spent her first night in.  Funny how that feels like it happened ages ago.  
She takes a chair, ensuring that she does not have to share space with any one of them.  Rebekah and Elijah take the sofa, leaving Klaus to drag another chair to complete the circle.  There is a moment of silence; no doubt each one of them is recognizing how absurd this seems.  
“Perhaps it would do us good to take stock of what we know,” Elijah suggests.
Klaus jumps on the opportunity.  “An ex-lover of yours has returned from the dead, bringing with her a whole host of those who wish to do us harm.”
Elijah flinches.
“Let’s not forget she’s targeting you,” Bonnie adds, turning her gaze on Klaus.  No doubt he is being callous to cover up his fear but she is not interested in listening to it.  “Probably because you got her killed to cover your crimes.”  Klaus glowers but she is not deterred.  She likes Elijah’s idea.  “Celeste has had over a century to nurture her need for revenge --- as well as find others in the same boat.  It would be good to actually figure out who those ‘others’ are.  Know your enemy, right?”
Rebekah nods.  “Do you remember any details of those who pushed their way back from the Other Side?”
Although she would rather not, Bonnie puts herself back in the cemetery, moments after Davina had died. There is the Harvest girl (Cassie).  Then Celeste, who appears haughtier than Bonnie first remembers (maybe that is a by-product of what she knows now).   After that, it becomes a blur of hands.  She can’t pick out any details.  Sadly, she shakes her head.
“Already proving your usefulness,” Klaus states, which earns him a look from Elijah.  He seemingly retreats.  “As it were, I think I know who attacked Marcel’s nightwalkers.” He leans forward a little, his eyes solely on Elijah.  “Araceli.”
Elijah pauses, and then closes his eyes.  There is a nod of his head.  “A fitting soldier.”
Confusion is evident on both Bonnie and Rebekah’s faces.  “Who?” Bonnie asks.  
“A hunter --- a particularly vicious one at that,” Elijah explains.  “Quite capable of inflicting the damage done today.”
“And how do we know her?” Rebekah questions.
“We crossed paths a few hundred years ago.  You were…sleeping,” Klaus says delicately but Rebekah still scoffs and throws up her hands.  “She was quite keen to end our lives and despite our near indestructible status, it was a hell of a fight.  It took me and Elijah together to put her down.”
Bonnie swallows back her gut reaction to such news.  She has to remain objective here.  Or at least keep her mind on the end goal.  She can judge them when it is all said and done (she will judge them when it is all said and done).  “You know it is her how?”
“Based on what Marcel tells me,” Klaus states in a matter of fact manner.  “We know it was a woman.  We know she used a blade…”
“Quite thoroughly,” Bonnie confirms and there is a twinge in her shoulder (an aptly named phantom pain).  
“The aftermath sounds very much like what we witnessed in our travels.  She relishes in causing damage because as she once told me, it sends a message.  Fitting given our current circumstance.”  He is all business now and Bonnie is grateful to that. If they are to come up with a plan they need to be on the same page; or at least not bickering themselves into a corner.
Rebekah appears to be mulling over something in her head and finally she pieces it together enough to say it aloud.  “Hold on, if this Aricellis…”
“Araceli,” Elijah corrects.
“Whatever,” she says with a wave of her hand.  “If she is a hunter, what is she doing on the Other Side?  I thought that was reserved for the supernatural only.”
“She comes from a long line of hunters put on this earth for the sole purpose of ridding it of supernatural beings.  Given her abilities, one would suspect she had some mystical help in the matter,” Elijah explains.
“And then she ends up on the Other Side with the very things she had set out to kill,” Bonnie concludes, and she makes a face.  She can’t decide if that is poetic in some fashion or simply a version of hell. “That would make me pretty pissed off and looking for revenge.”
“Okay, so we have Celeste. We have Araceli.  That’s two,” Rebekah points out.  “I don’t know about you but I would rather have a more rounded idea of what we are up against.”
“As would I,” Klaus readily agrees.  “We need to call on Marcel’s network throughout the city.  It is amazing what one can overhear in a dark corner.  He’s motivated to help --- given the loss of his vampires.”
“And Davina,” Bonnie adds. She is surprised when Klaus nods in agreement.
“We have to be careful not to rush into this blindly,” Rebekah says.  “Marcel’s spies are a good start.  It may help to have a witch or two in our corner.”  There is a pointed look in Bonnie’s direction.
“You’re talking about Sophie,” Bonnie concludes.
“Also properly motivated,” Rebekah counters.
There is sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.  She is loathed to drag any witch into this but she knows there is something in having magic in their corner --- especially given Celeste is packing power of her own. “If a witch gets involves it is because she wants to be there,” Bonnie says evenly.  “Not because one of you twisted her arm.”
“We will need to divide and conquer.”  Whether he is ignoring Bonnie’s warning (because what can she do to back up that statement?) or simply moving the conversation along, Klaus is the first to put forth some kind of strategy.  Even if it is an obvious one.   “The moment we discover an ally of hers, we take them out.  The sooner we send the lot back where they came from the better.”
“It sounds very straight forward,” Bonnie points out.  “Which we know it won’t be.  Witches, vampires, wolves, hunters…it could be any combination of people.”
“Therefore we must be sure to evaluate any potential threat to ensure we are not walking into a trap,” Elijah adds.  “I agree with you, Niklaus.  Cutting Celeste’s faction into pieces is better than a head on approach.  We just need to remember to take a breath before we do so.  There is no harm in weighing out the consequences.”
Bonnie sits back in her chair, her eyes solely on Klaus.  He has basically been told to ask questions first and bite later --- she can’t see that sitting well with him.  In fact, she is just waiting for him to argue against such a ploy.
Instead, he smiles. Nods.  “As for the head of the faction itself --- I gladly volunteer to lop it off.”  He seems to relish the idea.  “To save you the pain of course.”
Bonnie thinks back to the night before, to Rebekah telling her that she can’t possibly understand the history between the siblings.  There is truth to that because all she sees now is a petty attempt to get under Elijah’s skin.  He is a better person than she in that regard for Elijah manages to sit there without showing much reaction.  
Rebekah launches herself to her feet.  “Well, that settles it.  Should we conclude the very first meeting of…”
Before she can finish a voice echoes through the courtyard below.
“Klaus!”
The man in question stands and in a blink is gone.  Bonnie doesn’t even think, she stands and rushes to the balcony.  Below her she watches Klaus approach a man in a white collar (a priest?).  She gives Rebekah a confused look when the blonde comes to stand beside her.
“Kieran O’Connell,” Rebekah states.
Then she is off for the stairs, leaving Bonnie to play catch up.  Elijah is the last to enter the fray.  Now that she is closer, Bonne can see that Kieran looks a little worse for the wear.  The sleeve of his shirt is ripped and there is blood at his temple.  However, he doesn’t seem to pay any mind to that.  He is too busy staring down Klaus.
This can’t end well.
“I was very clear with you a few weeks ago.  I told you to leave my niece of out of this,” Kieran seethes.
His niece?  Bonnie’s brows push together.  O’Connell --- Cami, the bartender.  She feels something sink to the pit of her stomach.  If her goal is protect innocent people from being pulled into this mess, she has a feeling she has failed already.  
“I compelled Camille to leave town.  Safe and sound,” Klaus counters.  “It is not my fault that Sophie Devereaux saw fit to undo my instructions.”
“And now she’s gone.” Kieran’s tone makes it clear just how close he is to snapping.
Klaus goes rigid, any need for superiority stripped away from his voice.  “What?”
“Some vampire took her,” Kieran began.   He swipes a hand through his hair causing it to shoot out haphazardly.  Bonnie can see the blood matted in it now.  “He walked into Rousseau’s and right up to her like she was his mission…”
Because she was.
“I was there, hoping to catch a peaceful moment with my niece.  I tried to stop him…” Kieran’s face breaks now, showing pure rage before slipping into heartbreak.  “I weighed nothing to him.  She fought back.”
“And?”  When the answer is not immediate enough, Klaus grabs Kieran by the shirt.  “And?”
“He sunk his fangs into her neck until she stopped struggling.  Then told me to come here and tell you what happened if I wanted to see her again.”  Kieran shoves back at Klaus now, his teeth clenched.  “She’s gone because of you.”
Klaus does not argue. Instead he releases Kieran, paying the man no mind as he stumbles away.  Bonnie wonders how they went from attempting to formulate a strategy to this in a matter of minutes.  Celeste is working fast, using their lack of knowledge to her advantage.  
Elijah is watching his brother closely.  “Klaus…”
He’s already moving towards the door.  By chance or providence, Marcel meets him half way.  Klaus slaps a hand in the middle of Marcel’s chest.  “They have taken Camille.”  The pair shares a wordless glance and then they are gone from sight.
“Oh good, I am so glad we decided to follow that think first, act later plan,” Rebekah retorts with a heavy sigh.  She looks to Elijah for guidance.
“I will follow them,” Elijah says immediately.  “And try to stop them from walking directly into the trap that Celeste has laid for them.” Before Rebekah and Bonnie can agree, he too is gone.
Rebekah throws up her hands. “Bloody fools, every one of them.” She takes a deep breath and then glances towards Bonnie.  “I suppose we are to wait here until the menfolk return.”
Bonnie glances towards Kieran, who has slumped against the wall.  She thinks of Cami, and her friendly welcoming nature --- and envisions the hell she might be going through at this very moment.  Then she presses her lips together and takes a step towards the door.  
Next to her, Rebekah groans. “I may as well come too.  Since we are all thinking with our emotions tonight. I could use a good fight after all.”
Bonnie decides to let Rebekah lead the way.
X
“What’s the deal with Klaus and Cami anyway?” Bonnie asks after they are a few blocks away from the Abattoir.  “I always got the feeling that she hated him.  Makes sense if he compelled her.”
“I think Nik liked having her around.  She listened to him, compelled or not.  She is studying psychology and I think she tried to help him.  Poor thing --- if ever there was a lost cause.”  Rebekah clucks her tongue but keeps her eyes on the road ahead of them.  Bonnie knows she is waiting for the worst to happen and she’d be lying if she isn’t expecting the same.  “Marcel fancied her too.  Probably because she is blonde and pretty.  Reminded him of someone he already knew…”
Awkward.
“Klaus may have compelled Cami to spend time with Marcel. Back when he first returned to New Orleans and was looking for a way in,” Rebekah explained.
“And that is all I need to know.  Don’t blame Cami for practically telling Klaus to shove it every time she sees him,” Bonnie states.
“I know.  I enjoy it too.”  Rebekah smiles but it doesn’t last long.  She tilts her head to the side, her body going rigid as she does so.  It is obvious that she hears something Bonnie cannot.  “Trouble.”  Before Bonnie can even lift a foot to run, Rebekah disappears.
“Oh great,” Bonnie mutters to the empty space around her.  She has no clue where to go and no preternatural senses o guide her along.
“This way.”
Her head turns sharply to the side and she sees Kol standing there, a sense of urgency on his face.   Together they move quickly away from the Quarter.  She briefly notices that once you remove the historical allure of the French Quarter (with its many bars and balconies) New Orleans loses some of its sheen. Here things are more industrial, more run down --- she can still make out signs of the power Mother Nature once held over this city.  She has no time to dwell on the contrast.  She can hear it now --- the unmistakable sound of a fight.  
Does she really want to run head first into this?
As it is, she doesn’t exactly run into it.  More like skitters to a stop at the edge.  
Klaus is closest to her, a growl low in his throat and as he eyes their foe.  She does the same and gets her first look at Araceli.  This is her right?  They haven’t been mistaken in picking her out of the lineup of Mikaelson enemies.  Of course, she is nothing like Bonnie expects --- because in her mind, if takes two Original vampires to take you down than you must be made of something.  Instead, Araceli is small in stature with almost delicate features (although there is something unholy about the smile on her face). In her right hand she holds a long blade that she is currently let drag along the pavement.  The scraping sound goes right through Bonnie and she instinctively recoils.  Then realizes something.
The Mikaelsons are on the defense.
Her eyes shoot around the space finding Elijah pulling himself back on his feet and Rebekah swiping blood away from her mouth.  Marcel too is staggering, and looks as if he has already met the wrong side of the blade more than once.  It seems wrong to her somehow.  Yes, this hunter was supernaturally strong but this is three Originals and a vampire who has fought since the day he was born. She shouldn’t be able to toss them all around so easily.  
“Come on, hybrid,” Araceli says, her voice quiet but airy.  She is clearly enjoying this.
Klaus obeys, as if her sword sings a siren song.  He lowers his head and Bonnie can see the wolf.  When he moves forward he does so with a burst of strength that is no doubt meant to knock her off her feet.  Instead she sidesteps him at the last possible second, spinning around to bring the sword down on the flesh of his back.  He arches his back instinctively but it is too late.  Blood soaks through the ruined material of his shirt.  
“He can do better than this,” Kol hisses next to her.  She turns to see his fists clenched.  How badly he must want to enter the fray.  
“She’s a supernatural being,” Bonnie tries to reason but flinches as Araceli uses her current position as an advantage, burying the heel of her boot in Klaus’ fresh wound.  He falls to his knees and Bonnie can see the frustration on his face.  
After watching their brother fall, Rebekah and Elijah try a joint attack, coming at Araceli from opposite sides.  She raises her sword at Rebekah but Elijah wraps a hand around her arm, yanking it back until a sickening crack echoes through the space.  Instead of crying out in pain, Araceli clenches her teeth and somehow manages to maneuver her arm until she can throw her elbow square in Elijah’s face.  
(Bonnie decides that if she was not opposed to Araceli winning that she would appreciate a move like that)
The hit throws Elijah backwards and he seems baffled by it.  Frankly, so is Bonnie.  From her outsider perspective, she feels as if she is watching new vampires being easily overcome.  An hour ago, they were questioning what she could bring to the table.  Now she is questioning what they can bring.
And then she can do nothing but watch with cold horror as Araceli buries the sword to its hilt in Rebekah’s midsection.
Kol is the first to shout, his voice cracking.  Of course, only Bonnie can hear it.
Right now she can’t even seem to breathe properly.  Can Rebekah die like this?  Is it white oak only or can you take off the head of an Original?  She suspects that no one has ever gotten close enough to find out.  They have always been stronger.  
Thankfully before Bonnie has to find out, Marcel throws himself into Araceli’s side.  With her concentration solely on Rebekah she doesn’t see him coming and loses her footing.  Together they fall to the hard pavement and the sword slips from Rebekah. Her hands immediately go to cover the wound and she stumbles until she lands on her backside.  Klaus is there, his hand too moving to inspect the wound. For a moment his forehead presses against his sister’s and then he turns, eyes a lurid yellow to stare Araceli down.  
“I killed you once,” he spits.
“And look how that turned out,” Araceli says from her seated position.  Her fingers are still curled around her blade and she pulls to close to her. Her eyes slide to Marcel.  “I didn’t get your sister --- but I will take your protégé.”
Klaus is like an animal, pouncing from his prone position.  He obviously has it in mind to rip her to shreds, his mouth closing on the first piece of flesh he can find.   Elijah moves to join his brother and perhaps history will repeat itself.  
Until she throws them off.
She stands, looking worse for the wear.  She has not made it out of the pile unscathed.  But still she is standing while the others are not --- and she has her sights on Marcel.  “I’ll be quick.  Your death is meant to be a punishment to him.  Not you.”
Bonnie surveys the scene. Klaus and Elijah stunned on the ground, Rebekah still bleeding profusely when she should be healing and Marcel valiantly trying to stand as his death draws nearer.  She turns her head sharply, deciding she can’t watch (but she will feel it).  Her eyes find the brick wall of a building instead.  
And there is a hitch in her breathing.
Her hand reaches to tug on Kol’s jacket to call his attention away from the carnage in the making.
“Look,” she says and already she is moving towards it.  The simple symbol sprayed in white.  She has seen it before --- her first night in the city.  
“There are more,” Kol tells her and he is right.  There is one on the building opposite them.  One on the corner and another to match right across the street.  In the middle of it all is the impossible fight.
“She’s got a little help,” Bonnie concludes.  “It has to be damping their strength, their ability to bounce back…”
“If they can draw her out of there,” Kol reasons.
A quick glance tells her that Marcel is not winning this fight.  He is on his knees now and he is not giving up despite how it looks to him.
“No time,” Bonnie points out.  She is frantic in her search of the debris at her feet.  There is a cry of triumph as she finds a metal pipe (someone somewhere has her back).  She raises it and swings with all her might, crashing it into the middle of the symbol on the wall.  The brick shudders beneath the impact and she feels it vibrate painfully up her arm. Instinct wants her to drop the pipe but instead she swings again.  And again until finally the brick has had enough.  It crumbles, breaking the clean loop of the symbol.
She hopes it is enough. Surely taking out one will kill the makeshift circle.
She turns her head back to see Klaus go for Araceli once again, ripping her victory from her seconds before she could see it through.  This time she is not able to shake him off as easily as she once had.
“Yes!” Bonnie cries, adrenaline still pumping freely through her.  
With the playing field more even (and about to be tipped more in the other side’s favor now that Rebekah seems to be getting back on her feet), Araceli is not as sure of herself. She swings her sword wildly, just missing Elijah.  Marcel is back on his feet and looking to redeem himself.   He looks to the rest of them.  “On three…”  The Mikaelson siblings nod.
“One…” Marcel’s voice is loud, his anger clearly coming to the surface.  
Before he can shout two they all drop to their knees, hands moving to clutch their heads.
Bonnie’s brows push together.  She took out the symbol.  The circle should hold no more power.  She gives Kol a confused look but he has his eyes beyond the fight.  She follows his line of sight and there she is.
Celeste.
Her lips are moving as she walks and Bonnie knows just the spell she is reciting.  She had used it many times herself.  Simple but effective, no matter what age the vampire is.
Celeste comes to a stop in the middle of the street.  She is not alone either.  Standing to her left is a dark haired man; to her right a redheaded woman.  Bringing up the rear is another man; one who radiates power.  In his hand is a curved blade which he seems to delight in showing off given the way he holds it.  Bonnie realizes with horror that it is made of bone.
Nothing good can come from that.  
Araceli stands among the fallen.  Blood is streaked across her face and she seems to be limping as she moves to join her comrades.  With their warrior safe, Celeste drops the spell.  Each of the Mikaelsons slump on the ground and Bonnie cannot stop herself from moving towards them.  She can’t actually help but she wants it made clear just where she stands.  
Celeste smiles.  “Good evening, Miss Bennett.”  There is a simple incline of her head which Bonnie feels compelled to return.  Gone is the bright red dress, replaced by a more utilitarian look.  Bonnie thinks she gets it --- she had dressed to declare war and now she is dressed for battle.  
“Well, that didn’t go quite as planned but we are prepared for multiple outcomes of course,” Celeste states.
Klaus is the first to stand, fitting since Celeste’s eyes are on him.   Marcel and Elijah follow suit but Rebekah stays on the ground. Bonnie wonders if she is still healing from her intimate introduction to Araceli’s sword.  However, Bonnie finds that instead of tending to her wound, she is pale and wide eyes, staring straight ahead.
Right at the redhead.
Bonnie’s gaze slides to the redhead as well only to find that she has a simple smile on her face. Still, Rebekah looks to the ground instead, clearly shaken.
“I think it is time for us to be clear,” Celeste begins.  She is still speaking only to Klaus.  “I cannot kill you.  Unfortunately.  Your mother was a clever witch.  The spell she weaved was nearly perfect and left you with very few true weaknesses. Of course you and yours would work to rid the world of them.  No white oak to be found --- so I cannot kill you.”
“I do apologize,” Klaus says and Bonnie thinks the smugness in his voice should not be there. Celeste is not admitting defeat.
“I can make you wish you were dead though,” she retorts immediately.  “And that is exactly what I am going to do.  I am going to take everything from you.  The vampires who do your bidding --- already have a head start there.”  Behind her, although wounded, Araceli taps her sword against the street as if to cheer Celeste on.  “The pretty girl that you told your secrets to…”
“Where is Camille?” Klaus asks, his tone a confused mixture of authority and desperation.  
“She’s alive,” Celeste states.  “For now.”
The man to left smiles (it is not a welcoming sight).  “She tastes exquisite by the way.  Vervain aside.”  There is an accent there although Bonnie can’t quite place it.  She is filing away the details (a redhead that makes Rebekah cower, a bone knife, an accent) for later.
Klaus lungs forward and Celeste sends him flying backwards with a flick of her wrist.  “I am not done talking.  Don’t be rude, Klaus.”  She looks to Marcel.  “The protégé --- I’ll take him too.  We came close tonight.  Next time we’ll do better.”  She takes a deep breath, her eyes flittering across Elijah.  For a brief second, her features soften and then she is all business once more.  “What does that leave you with?  That monstrosity you call a home?  We’ll burn it --- and whatever you consider to be your kingdom as well.   That leave your siblings, also indestructible but I will take them too. You do not know how yet but trust me I wouldn’t tell you this unless I was sure I could follow through on it.  I will break that precious always and forever of yours into so many pieces you will never be able to put it back together again.  And you --- you will be all alone in this world and wishing that I had found a way to kill you after all.”
Elijah comes to stand next to his brother, a hand falling on his shoulder.  “Celeste…”
“Spare me the sweet talk, Elijah.”  Celeste effectively silences him.  “In the end, when you are free from him you will see that I did you a favor.  It will take time for you to fully understand but one day you will thank me for this.”
“Oh enough talk,” Klaus scoffs.  “Why are we drawing this out?  Let’s just end it now.”  
Celeste shakes her head. “Not everything is won by a street brawl.”  She closes her eyes, mutters a few words.  
Even Bonnie feels it (and that terrifies her; a magic that can touch her in her current state).  A fog seems descend in her mind, leaving her trying to stay on her feet.  Once again she finds herself grabbing onto Kol’s jacket. He doesn’t seem to mind keeping her afloat.  No doubt he is too busy trying to work through Celeste’s opening shots to truly think on the gesture.  
The rest are rooted to their spots.  This is all Celeste and her disciples need to make their exit.  As most turn, the dark haired vampire stands his ground.  “I will be in touch,” he says with a wink in Klaus’ direction.  “About Camille.”  Then he too joins the rest of them.  
It is only when they are out of sight that Bonnie feels completely herself again.  She releases her grip on Kol and surveys the scene around them.  The rest are battered and dazed.  Elijah has his hands on both sides of Rebekah’s face and she still looks shaken to the core.  Bonnie knows it goes beyond the physical damage she suffered.  
Marcel is the next to reach for Rebekah and it is the first time Bonnie has witnessed that connection between them on display in full force.  Klaus finds an excuse to look elsewhere.  “I suggest we regroup.  We can discuss details.  Or not. I do not care either way --- I just need a drink.”
Bonnie doubts he is craving alcohol alone.  
Elijah nods in agreement. With Marcel stuck close to Rebekah, Elijah once again moves towards Klaus.  This time he faces Klaus with both hands on Klaus’ shoulders.  He dips his head as if he wishes to speak only to his brother.  “We will stop her.  She will not be able to enact whatever plan she foolishly thinks she has put together.”
“Of course we will,” Klaus replies and there is most definitely false bravado laced in his voice.
Together they began to walk away from the site of their defeat.  Marcel and Rebekah remain and for the first time Bonnie notes that they are deep in discussion.  She stays there, waiting until they notice her.  
“Who is the redhead, Rebekah?” Bonnie asks.
That look of sheer terror that Bonnie had witnessed earlier makes a return.
“Oh sister,” Kol breathes in disappointment.  He must know that nothing good will come from Rebekah’s answer.
Rebekah looks towards the retreating figures of her brothers and then back to Marcel.  She completely ignores Bonnie’s question.  Instead she reaches up to clutch Marcel’s face with her hands.  She dips her head and closes her eyes.  Marcel mirrors her and he seems to be clinging to her as much as she is him.  
“When Nik finds out, he will kill us.”
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zalrb · 7 years ago
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Everyone sucks at lying {2x05 Review}
1. I now find this fight scene between Mason and Jimmy poorly acted and corny. I don’t think I particularly liked it when I first watched it either.
2. Mason is also extremely calm when he tells Tyler the story like it’s the most obvious thing in the world that he ended up killing someone who was supposed to be his friend.
3. And Tyler is also hella calm about the fact that his uncle killed someone and i also love how Mason’s emphasis is on YOU DON’T WANT THE CURSE and not KILLING SOMEONE WILL COMPLETELY MESS YOU UP. IT’S WRONG.
4. OH MY GOD, JEREMY, FIX YOUR HAIR.  I thought his hair was fixed. WHY is it like this still?
5. Oh his hair is sort of fixed just that angle was terrible. Did him NO favours.
6. I love the Stefan and Elena hug scene, it’s really cute and it’s like they’re creating a safe space within the safe space of her room and I like their secret code but the dialogue of this scene always annoyed me because it’s clunky exposition about why they have to fake fight and it could’ve been done a lot smoother.
7. Also super cute that Elena keeps her hand on Stefan’s chest throughout this dialogue.
8. And I just booked that she clasps his hands when he explains their secret code.
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9. I still don’t get how Liz would be an absentee mom because she works so much when supposedly nothing happened in Mystic Falls in their lifetime until Damon showed up and started murdering everyone.
10. Paul has such broad shoulders *sigh*
11. I find it hilarious that Tyler had more character development in one minute than Damon in an entire season.Jeremy goes over to him to say hi and see how he’s doing since his father’s funeral and Tyler brushes him off and then sighs and has this look like maybe, maybe we don’t have to be a dick today Tyler, and calls Jeremy back to apologize and its a pointed apology, like it’s clearly something new that Tyler is doing and then he thanks Jeremy for being cool during the funeral. Then he’s Tyler again inviting girls over to his house to party because he’s still Tyler.
12. “I *know* Damon Salvatore, do you know what he’s done for this town?” Liz, the first time you met Damon he was “dating” your underage daughter and it just so happens that when he comes to town people start dying?
13. “Think about it, when did the vampires attacks start happening?” THANK YOU MASON.
14. Damon’s hair is stupid and Liz is a terrible liar. Can anyone in this town actually lie? Like even Caroline who seems to be the best at it isn’t because she’s extra pushy and talkative when she lies.
15. I wanted to write a thing on this but longing is actually associated with SE quite often, “Uh oh, longing looks are being exchanged” and in the next episode Elena warns against longing gazes and in season 3 I think Damon mentions how they look at each other longingly all the time.
16. “No, I’m saying this isn’t up for discussion right now because we have ears on us” *Caroline and Damon turn away a second too late* ALL OF YOU ARE BAD AT LYING AND POKER FACES.
17. “Relationships are about communication” funny, Damon considering you communicate with Elena by killing her loved ones.
18. This party is also super awkward. Tyler and Jeremy standing and drinking while two girls dance awkwardly in front of them, I don’t believe anyone is having a good time.
19. Also this girl asked for a margarita in the Grill not bourbon or scotch or whatever it is you’re pouring her.
20. “I’m really embarrassed about slutting it up with you that day at the swimming hole, I’m really not like that, I promise” ---> Guys, THIS is slut shaming. And also an example of why slut shaming is specific to women. Tyler was doing the exact same thing but the writers didn’t feel the need to have him apologize for his behaviour because he’s a dude and that’s what dudes do but she needs to apologize for exhibiting sexual appetite.
21. Girl whose name I don’t remember starts looking at Jeremy’s drawings of wolves,Tyler looks extremely uncomfortable and suspect and Jeremy is staring at him, not even glancing staring, BAD. LIARS.
22. Also Tyler doesn’t know about vampires yet so he wouldn’t know that Jeremy would be in the loop about supernatural stuff so if he sees a whole bunch of sketches on wolves, Jeremy could just like wolves, Tyler, the fact that he shoves him against the wall and chokes him demanding to know why he’s drawing about wolves is disproportionate and stupid. It would’ve been more interesting if Tyler was just on edge learning about all of this and someone who actually didn’t know about wolves was talking about them or drawing them and he loses his shit.
23. I actually really love that Damon knows Stefan and Elena are having “faux drama” in their relationship because he knows they aren’t that couple.
24. Yeah, Caroline didn’t last like two days lying to Elena.
25. Damon, you’re making a scene in a public place. You’re a fucking mess.
26. Also I find this was an oddly touchy episode for Defan. As in they kept touching each other, shoulders and necks and stuff, which just starts in this episode and kind of only happens as much in this episode.
27. “Curse about what?” TYLER, MY GUY, he ALREADY told you he knows about werewolves, this is just redundant.
28. I remember my friend and I watched this episode and went to the mall to copy Caroline’s wardrobe. I still like it but I’d change the top.
29. I know I’m supposed to be like aw, Damon won’t kill Liz because she’s his friend but like um, no? He abused and terrorized her daughter, proceeds to try and kill her ex husband in the next season and just murders everyone. It’s Damon’s MO to not kill you/hurt you just the people you love.
30. Caroline’s fear of Katherine is the only one that makes sense since Katherine suffocated her with a pillow
31. Also Paul is really great in the scene when he and Elena fight over human blood. His eyes are expressive af.
32. “What you did for Caroline’s mom that’s the Damon who was my friend.” He gets brownie points for not killing her? Seriously, this show reaches.
Thanks for reading!
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taramikealson · 4 years ago
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New Orleans Is Such A Sight (Pt. #1)
Rain poured down in large sheets, running down the gutters in small waves. The hood to a black rain-coat was tugged tighter to conceal the blonde curls from the harsh winds. Her feet take forceful steps towards a small side street where a lone, cracked open, metal gate stood. Delicate fingers push the gate open a few more inches to allow her access to the inside. At the halt of water that the structure provided her, she pulled the hood off of her head, looking around the space as she did. 
The building was beautiful. The high arches, open court-yard, tan walls - bricks revealed where the drywall was missing. It was obvious that the house was old and worn in, but it was kept well enough that it became part of its character. 
She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t even be on this continent but leave it to Damon to angering a pack of werewolves a few hours before a full moon. 
Caroline hadn’t stayed in Mystic Falls. A year after her mother died, she left. She needed time to cope and space to figure out what she wanted out of life. At first, she was a little scared, staying state-side. Ultimately, after visiting a few states, she braved up and traveled to Italy, and then France. Then Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Germany, Greece, Ireland, and finally, London.  Caroline spent quite a bit of time there, liking the culture and feel of normal British life. Although, after a while, she became bored with the gloominess of the British city and wanted to move onto more sun-filled places. One of those areas happened to be The Bahamas. The tropical paradise gave her a chance to relax and take in the abundance of sunlight. Caroline enjoyed it quite a bit, laying out on a towel, sunglasses resting on the arch of her nose as she watched the waves fold onto themselves. 
She’d barely noticed it, but before she knew it, she’d spent a few months there. Caroline had only meant to stay there for a few weeks for a little breather from the large cities that she had been visiting but had come to enjoy the beach town there. At a local cafe, she had made a friend of the barista and had been subtly flirting with one of the daily’s that came in often, conveniently the same time she always went to grab her morning coffee on Saturdays. One day, she listened in on one of his orders; black coffee and the name he uttered to the barista was David. He was attractive in the average model-ish way. Dark brown hair, square jaw, calm eyes. David was nice and… normal. But, she knew she couldn’t get involved with him. But on the other hand, she couldn’t refuse to go on a date with him. There wasn’t a harm in that, right? 
She was a half-hour into the date when she’d gotten a call from Stefan. Normally, she would have ignored it but it was the second time in the span of ten minutes and she knew Stefan doesn’t call more than once unless it’s important. So, she took the call, apologizing to David before walking out of the restaurant. Apparently, a gaggle of werewolves found themselves in Mystic Falls, something about Damon threatening the alpha right before a full moon. When Stefan had explained it, she was confused about why they were calling her, she was thousands of miles away. Then it clicked. Damon got bit and he needed a cure. And her friends knew that she had a personal connection to the cure. Caroline was so close to telling Damon that if he wanted the cure to a werewolf bite, he should have to go to Klaus’ door to beg for it himself, but she knew Klaus wouldn’t budge. In fact, it was probably even a low chance for her to convince him to hand it over to Damon, of all people. 
So, what was she doing here? In New Orleans? Saving one of her friends. 
A pair of rushed footsteps took her out of her musings. Raising her head, she caught sight of a boy. Light brown hair that was in a fringe up style haircut, slim build, maybe in his late teens. He was jogging down a pair of stairs in the courtyard, looking down at his phone as he did so. Sensing her presence, he looked up to see her, pausing for a second before realizing he was still in the rain. He took a few steps to be under the roof, his head tilting as his blue eyes inspected her. 
A similar smirk graced his lips. “If you’re here for Rebekah, you just missed her. Took a flight out to Florence an hour ago.” Something about this boy was familiar. The facial structure, his eyes.
When Klaus had left for New Orleans all those years back, it had been for some sort of rising against him that turned out to be a pregnant girl. Caroline had gotten all the backstory from Tyler in a more biased version but basically, Klaus had slept with Hayley, getting her pregnant. Then, he’d apparently accepted it, having a kid. Klaus had a child. A kid.
He had a kid. This boy was Klaus’ son. The hair, the face, the eyes, the smirk. 
Caroline faltered for a moment before catching herself and casting him a small smile. “Do you flirt with all of Rebekah’s friends?”
He laughs softly. “Only the really pretty ones.” 
“Trenton.” A voice calls, an all too familiar voice. 
Looking across the courtyard, she spots the owner of that voice. He looked the same as always, black jeans, long sleeve Henley, boots, blonde hair subtly pushed up. The Original’s eyes were first trained on his son but picked up on the other presence in the room, looking at her. They widened and dilated a hair before returning to normal, smirk growing on his face. 
The boy sighs, shoulders drooping in a defeated manner. His jaw tightening before turning around to face his father.
“Sneaking out, again?” Klaus walks through the courtyard, ignoring the rain as it dampened his hair, before pausing once under shelter and out of the rain. 
Trenton clears his throat, glancing towards Caroline then to his father. “I was, uh, I heard someone come in. Thought I’d greet our guest.” Caroline had to give it to him, the boy was quick on his feet and used similar tactics as his father did; charm and deviation. 
It was extremely odd and very interesting to watch Klaus act a little fatherly, but not too surprising. He seemed to instinctively have the trait, unlike a lot of human men. He had the capacity to be mature, elegantly answer hard questions, entertain someone with stories of the past, and he knew what the image of a bad father was, surely making sure he was the exact opposite. Caroline could only imagine that his artistic abilities had come into play in the early years of Trenton’s life. But, just seeing both of them, seeing alike they were, was intriguing. If someone hadn’t known that the two weren’t supernatural, they’d most likely assume Klaus to be Trenton’s elder brother. Although, when Caroline saw them, she could clearly see a father with his son. May it be the wisdom and centuries of age in Klaus’ eyes or his mature style in clothing, he looked old enough possibly be Trenton’s father. 
Klaus arches an eyebrow in disbelief. “I’d believe that if it weren’t for you prattling on to Rebekah about going to some high school, alcohol-filled gathering. One, in which, I profusely refuse you acceptance to be a part of.”
“You have to be kidding.” Trenton scoffs, saying in that basic teenage-y way. “I’m not some human that’s gonna get wasted easily. I’m a hybrid.”
The Original’s eyes turn serious, indicating that his decision was final. “You prate on about being a hybrid, but have yet to learn to control your bloodlust in densely crowded areas without me or my siblings by your side. I will not risk the local’s lives nor my standing on the city council for you to have one alcohol-fazed night.” Trenton rolls his eyes and Klaus takes a step forward, now intimidating the boy. “We have an assortment of liquor here. If you wish to drink, it will be within these walls. Am I understood?”
“Why can’t-,”
“Trenton, am I understood?” Klaus interrupts, voice low. 
It takes a few seconds, but eventually, Trenton bites his tongue and gives his father a curt nod. The boys eyes were filled with aggravation and disappointment, she was sure Klaus saw it and understood that Trenton was hoping to have a little fun tonight. Klaus’ eyes softened as he placed a hand on his son’s shoulder.
“You’re lucky that I don’t plan to tell Elijah about your little scheme. You know how much he values your education. He’d be quite displeased to hear you were planning to stay out late on a school night.” A small smile graced Klaus’ lips as Trenton looked up to him. “Perhaps, even make you re-read that dreadful play, Hamlet.”
Klaus' words seem to make the boy puff out a laugh and inch a smile on his lips. “Thanks, for not telling Uncle ‘lijah.”
“Now, go on. I have a few words to exchange with our guest.”
Trenton nods and then glances to Caroline with an awkward smile. “Night.” He says before turning around and jogging through the rain-filled courtyard and up the stairs. Both Caroline and Klaus watch as he disappears into one of the second-story hallways.
After a moment, Klaus turns back to Caroline with a wide smirk. 
“This is quite a surprise. I wasn’t expecting you for nearly another decade and a half.”
She sighs, feeling the weight of his words and the intenseness that his eyes bore. “I’m not here for that.” Her voice a little too soft, the subject weighing on her a little bit more than she thought it would. Klaus recognizes her now uncomfortable stance and raises his arm in the direction to a set of french doors, a fancy ‘M’ insignia on both. 
“Then, perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere more private, rather than the courtyard?” He suggests and Caroline nods, thankful that he can still read on some of her subtle hints. 
Klaus leads her through the double doors and invites her to make herself comfortable in the living area. As Klaus went to pour them both drinks, she looked around the magnificent room that she was in. Two expensive looking, brown leather, sofas sat across from each other, a fireplace on the back wall, fancy chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and a mini-bar where Klaus was pouring their drinks. 
Before she knew it, Klaus had placed the drinks down on the coffee table by her legs and was now behind her, reaching for her wet jacket. “May I?”
She nods and shrugs the jacket off. He takes it, walking over to one of the stools near the mini-bar, and hanging it on the back of it. 
“I’m sorry for catching you at a bad time and so late at night.” She apologizes and he shakes his head. 
“No need for apologies, love. I’d gladly make time for you.” He says, sitting down on the sofa, taking his drink in hand. Caroline also sits, not yet picking up her drink. 
His eyes seem to analyze her and take in every detail that he could read off of her, trying to put together pieces in his head. His familiar mechanism and habits gave her a sense of reassurance that he hadn’t changed that much. She could clearly see the wheels turning in his head as he thought of situations as to why she was here, sitting on his couch in his New Orleans home on a very late Thursday night, a rainy one at that. Klaus must have caught her biting her lip because his intense gaze turned into concern. “You seem vexed, what’s happened?”
She swallows and looks away from him. “Damon ran into some werewolves.”
Klaus leans back as he huffs out a laugh. “And I imagine he is now sporting quite a nasty werewolf bite.” The Original’s amusement is not lost on Caroline, she knows how much he dislikes the eldest Salvatore brother, but that is why she was here. Now, he knows her reason for coming to New Orleans. 
When his expression showed a hint of disappointment, she felt utterly horrible. It was her that told him that she didn’t want him in her life, it was her that said that he needed to leave and to never come back. Now, she’s intentionally inserting herself back into his life just to leave again. Caroline couldn’t imagine what he would be feeling. Anger, disappointment? “Thus, you need my blood.” He utters, taking a thoughtful sip of his drink. 
“Yes.” She answers almost guiltily, her heart heavy. 
There’s a moment of silence where neither of them speaks. Klaus seems to ponder his situation as he runs the side of his index finger along his bottom lip in thought. For a moment, Caroline thought that he was going to turn her down, tell her that he wasn’t going to help her and that she had to leave, but that changed when he sighed. Placing his glass of amber liquor down on the coffee table, he stood from his seat and fished his sleek black iPhone from his back pocket. 
Klaus tapped a few times before pulling the cellphone to his ear and turning so his back was to her. 
“Joshua, do come by the Compound, I have a proposition for you.” He states quickly and then ends the call after he received a reply to his request. 
Pushing the iPhone into his back pocket, he turned back around without a glance to her and headed for the mini-bar. From Caroline’s perspective, he seemed a little tense but not angry, although she could be wrong. “Klaus…,” she begins as she gets up from her spot on the sofa and takes a few strides towards where he walks behind the counter, taking out a small vial and cork from underneath. Within an instant, he had already bit into his wrist, his blood now dripping down into the vial. His eyes wander up to hers when he comes out from behind the mini-bar. 
Caroline blinks, confused., sure that he was set on not giving his blood to her. In fact, she’s even more surprised that he hadn’t even tried to negotiate with her to have something to gain for his blood. “You’re not asking for anything in return? Won’t even try to negotiate with me?” She asks, clearly perplexed by  his actions. 
Klaus sighs. “I’ve come to realize that by negotiating between lives and the opportunity to have time spent with you, it hadn’t shown my understanding of the weight of the negotiations that I was making. And I have also come to realize that,” he takes a pause and Caroline swallows as he pushes the cork into the filled vial. His eyes stayed trained onto her as he pushed the vial into his front pocket of his jeans before stepping closer to her, “I don’t wish to negotiate our time together. Years ago, when I had coerced you to spend your time with me, it had given you a small glimpse of the better parts of myself but, yet, I’d be a fool not to notice the burden you had felt to be there in those moments.”
Klaus takes a cautious step forward, analyzing if she would shy away from him or not. When she stayed still, he gently placed his hands on the sides of her shoulders, the heat from his palms radiating like beacons through her clothing and into her skin. 
“Caroline, I don’t wish for you to feel burdened or obligated, by my actions, to spend time with me. It is your choice from now on, and it always will be.”
Her heart lurched in her ribcage and a flutter began in her stomach. His smooth voice, the eloquently and thoughtfully spoken words hitting her hard. Caroline’s thoughts swirled for a moment. Those two sentences that he had just spoken were not just talking about her feelings burdened to spend time with him, no. There was an undertone that she had caught. He didn’t want her to feel obligated to go to him, to be with him. In all honesty, it’s quite the sentiment. It shows her how much he has changed or, rather, bettered himself. This also tells her that he had been thinking a lot about their past and the wrong turns that he had taken to have an opportunity to win her over. 
And then, she remembers that he’s still waiting for her response. His eyes had begun to shift, analyzing her’s carefully and taking in the information that they bore. 
She gives him a reassuring smile. “I don’t feel obligated or burdened to spend time with you. Not anymore.”
His head tilts in that impossibly cute way that it does and smirks.
A pair of footsteps interrupt them, echoing through the hallway. Klaus lifts his head and looks over her shoulder towards the two french doors that had just opened. Caroline pulls away from Klaus’ warm hands and turns to see who had entered. 
“Joshua.” He greets a dark haired vampire that physically looks like he’s in his mid-twenties. 
“Well, I’m here. A little if-y about this whole ‘proposition’ thing though.”
Klaus smiles as if he knew something the other two vampires didn’t. “Yes, about that.” He begins, producing the vial of his blood from his jeans pocket. “Take this, carefully would you, to a small town in Virginia.” 
Josh furrows his eyebrows in suspicion, looking at the vial of blood like it was poisonous. “Why would I do that for you? Can’t you have one of your lackeys do it for you?” 
“Well, young Joshua,” Klaus begins as he takes a few steps closer towards the young vampire, “under these circumstances, it is precedent that this gets delivered in an expeditious manner, thus is the reason I present you with a proposal.” 
Caroline watches as Klaus takes another step closer to Josh, almost invading his personal space as he speaks. “Do this for me, and I will not only make an effort to look past your misdoings towards my family, but as well, that of your friend, Davina Claire.”
Klaus’ proposition clearly had struck a chord with Joshua, making him swallow in nervousness. Caroline could see how the boy’s mind was churning in thought, considering certain possibilities. After a few, long, seconds, Josh plucks the vial from Klaus’ fingers. The Original doesn’t make an effort to contain his satisfied smirk as Joshua looks at him with a hint of caution. “Fine.” Josh utters. 
“Brilliant. I’ll contact you with the necessary information.” 
Joshua sighs and takes his leave.
Once the vampire is gone, Klaus turns to Caroline, swiping his tongue over his lips with a smirk screaming how satisfied he was in getting his way. His eyes did that little thing that they always did when he’d look at her; his eyes starting at her feet and then moving up her whole frame, taking in very detail as if it’s the last time he’d be able to do so. When his eyes connected with her’s, his blue orbs seemed to sparkle. A small shiver went down her spine at the intensity of his gaze. 
“You didn’t have to do that. I could’ve just taken it back myself.” 
His eyebrow arches. “Well, I’ve already set up for a plane to take off from Louis Armstrong International in a half hour. Your friends should have the cure in no later than four hours.”
Caroline raised an eyebrow, knowing there was something he was not telling her. Klaus looks away from her almost bashfully and then returns his gaze towards her. “I, as well, was hoping you’d like to take one of our rooms.”
She’s a little confused at first, not understanding what he had meant by ‘taking a room’. “I’m sure you’ve had quite a journey here. A flight from the Commonwealth of The Bahamas and then a longer drive to New Orleans. I can only assume you’re exhausted and it’d be terribly unmannerly of me to not offer you hospitality.” He explains, tilting his head. “Perhaps, it’d give you time to recuperate and maybe… take in a few sights in the morning.”
His tone is hopeful, filled with possibility. She’d be lying to say that his behavior and words haven’t been a little tempting. Everything from the last few minutes has only shown her that Klaus is the same man that he’s always been. She wasn’t really expecting different, but deep down she had an idea that maybe he’d grown up a bit. This, right here, proves that he has. The man before would have threatened Josh instead of negotiating and he would have not had given up his blood so easily without a fuss. Would it really be such a bad thing to stay the night, in a different room than him? It’s not as if she’d be sleeping with him. Plus, it’d be for only one night.
“I’m not sure.” She trails off, still debating the decision in her head. 
“I’ll be sure to make it worth your while.” He states with a grin, knowing gleam in his eyes. 
Caroline laughs, the air in the room now becoming a little lighter. “I’m sure you would.”
He raises his eyebrows for a moment, silently asking her for an answer. She bites her bottom lip timidly. “One night wouldn’t hurt.” She states and a wide smirk grows on his lips, showing his thorough satisfaction. 
“Well, then. Shall I show you to a room?”
She nods, not finding the right words to say in that moment. He immediately begins to walk towards the french doors that they had entered in and opens them wide for her to pass through. It didn’t take long for them to bound up the stairs to the second story and then travel down a long corridor where a series of doors were on each side. Klaus, then, opened a mahogany door, revealing a gorgeously decorated room with a queen bed, antique dresser, small desk with a chair, and a door that lead to an adjacent bathroom. He’d been thorough in explaining the certain accommodations of her room and how his room is only a few doors down. After, he had left her to look around to gather her some clothing. When he’d come back, he’d placed a pile of clothes on the end of the bed. 
“I’ve procured most of these from Hayley. I’d doubt she’d mind much and I assumed you’d be closer to size with her rather than Rebekah. And my sister has a nasty habit of killing whoever touches her belongings.” Klaus states as he turns towards her.
She smiles at him. Her thoughts going past the topic of clothing. “How’d you know I was in The Bahamas?”
“I’ve kept tabs.” He mutters a little playfully, knowing that Caroline wouldn’t approve. She gives him an equally playful look and then rolls her eyes. 
“Of course, you have.”
Klaus chuckles as she goes to sit down on the end of the bed. He does as well, making sure to keep a foot’s distance away from her to make sure she stays comfortable and not overwhelmed by his presence. “Tell me, now that you’ve begun to stray from that desperately small town, how is it? Exploring the unknown?” 
Caroline hesitates for a moment, thinking about her experiences in the past decade and a half of exploring. They’d mostly been pleasant but nothing extraordinary. Yes, she’d been extremely impressed by the culture, architecture and environment, but it wasn’t as exciting as she had ever hoped or imagined. Although, she imagines that’s because she didn’t have anyone to explore it with. In the beginning she had thought Stefan may have joined her, but he’d been too swept up with a few problems in Mystic Falls and trying to make his brother into a ‘better man’. Like that would ever happen unless it was by Damon’s own incentive. Elena and Bonnie were too wrapped up in college and in their own love lives as it was, so that was a clear ‘no’. So, that just left herself. After her mother died, she’d needed a break and took the opportunity to branch off a little. In the long run, it has paid off. She’d met a few people here and there, as well as giving her a new perspective of the world. 
“It was kind of a quick decision. At first, I wanted to stay in the States and just London but the rest of Western Europe was too tempting to pass up.” She states and Klaus seems pleasantly pleased. “But, I kinda wanted to go somewhere hot, so I ended up in The Bahamas.”
“I imagine you enjoyed it there?”
She nods.
“And you?” 
Klaus tilts his head in interest to her question. “What of me?” He asks, genuinely satisfied that she was interested in how his life had been going. 
“Well, I was a little surprised that you were still in New Orleans. I expected you to move on. I didn’t suspect you as a person that stays in one place for long.” 
He smirks. She is, generally, correct. “I’d quite a bit of business to take care of here that took a little longer than I had anticipated and raising a child was one of the things I was most definitely not expecting.”
“I’m sure changing diapers didn’t fit so well into your plans for world domination, huh?” She asks teasingly, giving him a radiant smile.
Klaus chuckles, amused and glad that her penchant for over-exaggeration hasn’t changed. He’d always enjoyed the innocence within her and the light she projected off of herself and onto others. 
“You’d be correct.”
He smirked and they’d fallen into a silence. Caroline suddenly felt heated under his gaze, the intensity of it not lessening but a gracefulness communicating through those beautiful, blue orbs. 
In all reality, he hadn't changed that much. Of course, she can see that he’d become less prone to using violence as a first resort, but the way he regarded her was the same. He still looked at her with that look in his eyes that just screamed that he knew exactly what she was thinking. In the beginning, it was a little scary, she’ll admit, that he knew more about her than he let on. Although, after all this time, she’s come to realize that it’s not necessarily the worst thing. 
He understood her. But, it wasn’t just a one-way street. She knew him quite well, too. A decade ago, she would have said that she knew exactly the man he was, a monster. She’d pegged him for a man that had no heart. How wrong she was. After some time, she’s noticed that all the horrible things that he had done were because he cared. He’d always been pinned as the enemy, although sometimes he genuinely did something bad to get the advantage, but that wasn’t strictly true. Klaus was an extremely complicated man. He has many sides of him and has an extremely dark past that comes with them. His father brutally abused him, his mother locked half of himself off for spite, his siblings cast him off for trying to protect them. In fact, she’d condemned him and slung harsh words at him just because she didn’t truly understand his real intentions behind his actions. 
Now, she realizes him for the man that he was. He was an abused son, an abandoned brother, a misunderstood friend, a passionate artist, a good father. 
“Well, I’ll leave you to settle and call your friends. I’d rather not have them thinking I’d taken you against your will and have to deal with them knocking down my door. I’ve just gotten it re-painted.” 
His tone is light-hearted and filled with playfulness. Caroline smiles again as he stands from the bed, walking towards the door.
“Goodnight.” 
He pauses at the door and looks over his shoulder with a smirk.
“Goodnight, love.”
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blu-b · 7 years ago
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Cornish funny farm, a review (Poldark S3 E8)
I usually don’t do this kind of comment / summary, but after today’s episode let me chime in with a few things….
Behind a cut, for reasons.
Ross & Elizabeth 3.0: Oh finally, those two get to talk in private, and like adults. Yay! Now everything will be rectified…right? Right?
Ooooh far from it! They talk and talk and…. never come to the actual point?? Elizabeth hints at Valentine’s parentage, Ross asks if he’s his, Elizabeth says she doesn’t know - cue a brief hysterical fit where Ross accuses her of not wanting to tell (to what point and purpose should she?? Also Ross, mate, if you have any basic knowledge of how reproduction works, you’d know that this is not an exact science, at least not in your times), Elizabeth once again defending herself for something that is not her fault, Ross wanting to know what exactly George suspects…and the conversation starts all over again. Hello?? Get to the fucking POINT, people!
OK Ross basically apologizing for what he did was VERY relieving, as was seeing that they still have some sort of fondness for each other, albeit a sad one; but what was that bullshit about “never injure the woman I loved” - remember you kicked in her door and broke into her bedroom? Also, I’m not a fan of his borderline aggression when he says “You WON’T tell!”…too many bad memories of that one night™ .
And then, the weirdest and wildest thing ever: So the only way to save her marriage to George is by “giving him another child” and make it look like it’s premature as well. “When there’s some confusion about the date…” Yes Ross, really, are you happy to help out again?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME, DEBBIE H.?? What’s this bumfuckery?? Why is Ross suggesting such a thing to her?? I can’t believe it…I was literally yelling at the TV like: “Ross…..Roooooss…..no, you didn’t..ROSSSSS ROOOOSSS NOO ROSS!!” What in fuck’s name did I just witness???? This can’t be serious. I’m still speechless.
Also, Ross, your many “all in good friendship” kisses to Elizabeth’s face are cute, but did you check if she really wants that? No? Ah, I’m smelling a pattern here. 
And, what’s all that guesswork about who told George of their night together? 
R: Have you never hinted to him….? E: How could I?? But maybe you said something to him….? R: Asjsalmnkbjamff!!! E: Oh, but who could have told him? Hmmmmm. Who else was in the house….. ………… ……….. ……….. Both, looking ominously out to the graveyard: ………………..could it be? Agatha….?
I mean, how stupid is that? Agatha basically told Elizabeth on her dying bed (stool) that she had spilled the beans to George, so…..dafuq?
I liked what they did with Ross “confessing” his feelings to Demelza, it explains a lot about his later actions and why he’s trying to hard to stick to his promise. It doesn’t matter that he didn’t say it in the end - of course he should, but for his character development it’s not important whether he says it out loud or just in his head; the main thing is that he has reached that conclusion and is coming to terms with his own feelings that were so unclear to him not too long ago. I really like season 3 Ross so far with the exception of the above examples, so yeah…there’s still hope.
Insert obligatory timeline glitch: “And for the first time in years, we talked. ” - Ross meaning Elizabeth. Ummm. Years? Valentine is like what, 2 years old? And there was that incident with the horses at the cliffs, he spoke to Elizabeth there, albeit briefly, but he did speak to her. “For the first time in years” makes it sound like they haven’t talked for a decade. Meanwhile, Jeremy Poldark has aged one day. 
So, back to the talk. So the plan is to seduce poor George every day so that no one can tell exactly when a possible new baby was conceived? Very clever. Good luck with that.
Speaking of George….and ok yeah I’m biased here, but still….my poor precious darling boy! :’( The small victory of the election is tarnished by his family affairs. He so wants to believe little Valentine is his, but he just can’t get over old Agatha’s cruel words. Played to perfection by Jack, the internal struggles of a man who doesn’t know if he’s being lied to by the woman he loves, or has just been led on by an old woman’s spite. I liked to see that his nervous little habits increase, and it’s also quite telling in this context that it’s George who first loses his nerve in the dispute with Ross, not the other way round as usual (note to self: I do love when George results to cursing, shouting, or a threatening purr ^^). And that image of him sitting alone in his carriage almost broke my heart :-(
What was stupid though was that they put the confrontation in after Ross spoke to Elizabeth. He knows that George is suspicious of her and of Valentine’s parentage, and still he says something stupid like “…and so is her son!” - meaning Geoffrey Charles, of course, but it’s just such a cheap and obvious way of creating suspense. George very obviously and understandably thinks Ross is - in anger - referring to Valentine, and how can he not think that? Ross of course doesn’t say it with that intention, but it’s just stupid because he usually either says “Francis’ son” (because that’s what makes GC a Poldark in the first place), or simply “Geoffrey Charles”, not “Elizabeth’s son”. It would have made A LOT more sense to put this BEFORE the conversation with Elizabeth, so that Ross actually realizes that he has said something incredibly stupid to George and put Elizabeth under even more suspicion. The way it is, it’s just another cheap “Poldark vs. Warleggan” moment.
Then, Demelza. I almost felt sorry for her when yet another man tells her “You’re not perfect, but I’m not looking for perfection anyway…” - like seriously? Is Hugh actually getting her with the same superficial crap that Ross told her? Ugh. Don’t get me wrong, Hugh is cute and I like him, but I’m not sure I like / understand the way his attraction to her is portrayed. It’s all a bit too obvious and too much and…well, yeah. I don’t really care enough to delve deeper into it.
Morwenna’s storyline is finally getting a bit interesting, after endless hours of her looking at Drake like a moon calf and swooning over some flowers and standing at the window looking longingly out to…whatever. Worse that what they did to Elizabeth in s2, imho. She still doesn’t do much but sit there and suffer, but this time I’ve actually shed a tear for her because I’m finally beginning to feel a bit more for this character than just “ugh…!”.
Also, I get that Osborne is a horrible man that we shouldn’t come to like, but I’ve got to admit that he does have some comical moments, and especially perfect timing, so kudos to Christian Brassington for this portrayal.
Also, I kind of like Rowella. I wasn’t too into any of the “young generation” and I still don’t care a damn for Sam Carne and his what’s-her-face, and neither for Drake for that matter, but the way Rowella plays the fat vicar’s vices is kind of entertaining (and makes one wonder why her sister never thought of similar tricks, but she was possibly too busy looking out the window…). 
Final conclusion: Almost every marriage in Cornwall is beyond botched.
One ray of light though, Dwight. Dwight is always right. Hahaha, I loved how he stuck it to fat Ossie ^^ But in general, he and Caroline don’t get nearly enough screen time in this season. 
Elizabeth was again reduced to little else but holding Valentine and looking ominous, but I did love how in two scenes she got to actually decide something for herself, and how she takes on responsibility, not only of Morwenna, but in general. She seems more like the lady of the house now and issues commands, and she’s not afraid to use the differences in their rank to put Osborne into his place. Well done, lovely lady! *applauds* Also, I like how her feelings for George seem to have developed into something more than convenience.
Finally though, Ross and Demelza. Oh my. What a clusterfuck of bullshit. It all boils down to:
“My heart will always and forever belong to you…but, actually, trying out another man for a day would be kinda cool, and once I did that I’ll happily return to you and go on as if nothing happened, also btw you cheated on me so you are morally obliged to grant me this favour." 
Wow. Kudos to Ross for his self-control and his patience with her. I’m not getting into the discussion whether cheating out of revenge is okay or not, and neither into any other for that matter, and while I admit that Ross has some horrible flaws and did abysmal things in the past, he’s trying so hard this season, especially with Demelza. That he makes a few remarks the like of “Not every man in Cornwall is in love with you” doesn’t really come as a surprise after the Fucky McMustache episode, but all in all and given that it’s Ross we’re speaking of, he’s basically snuggly as a kitten. Whereas my understanding for Demelza shrinks with every episode since season 2 tbh. OK so he doesn’t write her poems, so what? He doesn’t care what dress colour she wears, so what? She could be stuck in a FAR worse marriage with a far worse man (think Osborne), and also some of her antics are really rather pointless and just feel like random bitching because she doesn’t get what she wants (a large part of which seems to be the “ploughing” of a certain “field” if I’m reading this correctly; at least that seems to be what the script is hinting at). 
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that they’re working through a difficult time in their marriage, and both of them are not easy persons, but - citing the books - all of this is about eventually understanding that there’s more to love and marriage than what convention teaches us and that in order to understand a partner and truly love them, you need to let go of them sometimes. And there would have been so many more ways to bring that across in film, instead of having Demelza be randomly angry with Ross and paying him back by cheating with the next best man who babbles romantic nonsense at her. 
This was one of the more powerful episodes in s3, and still the overall feeling I’m left with is one of being sorry for all the persons who’d deserve more happiness than what they’re currently getting: Elizabeth & George, Morwenna & Drake, and Ross….
Oohooo and edit: No Ross, Elizabeth is actually not "the only person" who can do something about this spiderweb of lies you're both entangled in (especially not by telling another lie!). YOU could walk up to George and tell him face to face that Elizabeth is innocent, that you slept with his fiancée against her will and that you're sorry for what you did, and if Valentine should turn out to come after you, that you'll help support the child (even though George and Elizabeth surely don't need the money). That would come very close to a suicide mission, but it would be honest for once and you'd not be using Elizabeth to cover up your own mistakes.
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sixmorningsafter · 8 years ago
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How Gabi Ruined Me: A SMA Review of Ch. 15
GUESS WHO’S BACK AND READY TO REVIEW THE EFF OUT OF THIS CHAPTER BECAUSE OMG THIS IS STRAIGHT GOLD.
It’s me, hi Gabi, you’re a blessing.
REPLY:
Hi Cassie, it’s me, you’re hysterical. Also, I’m going to start indenting my parts instead of y’alls parts because I’ve realized that’s way easier and I’m dumb.
Overall, I really like this “episode” style you’ve got going on. I know it’s problematic word-count-wise (it’s actually not a problem at all, I have no idea where you got that from, but if you say so). And your style is really unique, so it’s always a delight to see what you’ve created.
REPLY:
lmaoooo I’m glad you benefit from my misery. (No but real talk, this format’s new for me so I’m super happy it’s working for you, man.)
Steroline Sex
Nice. But also, unrelated to the actual sex, how you wrote it without being cringey or too graphic is a great feat. Like good job dude. And forget the sex again, but the intimacy was also nice. Like nice. Like, in the carnality of it, I find it interesting that in this moment, you read Stefan for who he is—the guy who looks for intimacy over physicality, the guy who craves the relational over the carnal. Like, nice, dude, A+ with extra credit. It’s hard to pull off, I think, but it so mirrors what the real world is like? Also your writing style, again, is some really great stuff. Like, maybe you should quit your day job?
REPLY:
LMAO idk why but every time you say nice I just imagine you doing this dude bro nod and the 👌  emoji and I love it. Tyler approves. But also, GIRL, writing smut was friggin’ uncharted adventure time for me so you don’t even know how happy this feedback makes me. I’ve been pulled right out of stories before because things suddenly take a really porny turn (and I start laughing because I’m an infant), so I really wanted to avoid that without skimping out too much on details. And gah, all of your notes on Stefan and his instinctive search for something deeper (even in the face of a sex contract and hot girl on his lap) are so perfect, and I’m happy as hell that’s what came across because that’s definitely what I was aiming for. And AW, girl, psh - right back at you re: writing style! Like I’m pretty sure this review is funnier and better written than the fic itself but whaaaaatever.
Beginning of the Bonkaimon (is this the right ship name???) Date
Kai’s apartment: lol, much like Damon, I was no expecting this Christmas wonderland (horror) either. But also, LOL at what Damon was expecting lol.
REPLY:
lololol I sat in Starbucks and stared blankly into space for like 20 minutes to come up with all the things someone might expect from Kai’s apartment, and I’m pretty sure I terrified at least three people because I’d just suddenly start villain cackling. Imagining a room full of nothing but shelves of blinking furbies made me laugh for like five minutes. 
Kai + Pinterest: not a big factor, but I find it hilarious that he was even on it??? Like could imagine, between gutting a swan, he’s casually scrolling through DIY Christmas décor?
REPLY:
‘between gutting a swan, he enjoys casually scrolling through DIY Christmas décor’ is totally on his online dating profile somewhere
The Bamon back-and-forth is too much. Like way too much, in the best way possible. They are literally children. Bonnie’s “villian origin story” quip is literally my fav. Damon’s “our thing” is sooooooooooooo like him what the heck, you pegged it; Damon saying “Like I know we have a thing and all, but—“ just made me laugh so hard.
REPLY:
Aren’t they the dumbest? So happy you enjoyed that part because it was fun as hell to write. If writing was just zippy dialogue I’d have finished this fic 200 years ago.
KAI’S FREAK OUT ABOUT THE COATS: dude you did a good job with that. Like a really good job. You can really see the distraught.
Kai’s “the stuffed mushrooms are fluffy and delicious… just like me” bit was very cute, like too cute for a psychopath.
The chit-chat: yes, it was a sneak peek, no, it didn’t affect the hilarity of it within the chapter at all.
Sniper love, I kind of love it. Like that Kai has a date at all? Like how did he even manage that? Omg and is his date just as crazy as him? Idk if you watch B99, but Holt and Kevin lol, that’s what I’m imagining.
REPLY:
HOLT AND KEVIN YEEEESSS. Love that. I think in this case, Kai’s pretending to be breezy and confident about his date in front of Bonnie and Damon, like ‘happens all the time just another Saturday in Kai-town’, but he actually has literally no idea what he’s doing and is a little panicky about it, lololol. He was probably just at work looking all cute and brilliant and some hotshot sniper made the mistake of thinking he was just a quirky nerd instead of a legitimate threat to the planet. I have a plan for Kai in terms of romantic entanglements down the road that I think’ll show just how painfully awkward he is in those situations, loooool. Should be fun for sure.  
Bonnie’s true self coming through, and Damon noticing? Damon noticing in general? My heart can’t handle it. You know bamon is my main ship, main otp, main everything? But like, this part is everything (and another part later). I like Bonnie’s true self tbh. Like yeah, she made some mistakes with it, but it’s also a little more interesting than the self she created.
REPLY:
Bonnie’s such a messy tangle of flaws and virtues, and I think her problem is that she’s spent so much of her life living in extremes. Like she’s either pure light or a total eclipse - she’s never actually let herself exist as a collage of light and shadow, or rather, doesn’t realize she even can. I think a lot of that has to do with the degree to which she indulged in her darkness during that teen rebel phase, like her anger and hurt were so all-consuming (and the people she surrounded herself with were so intent on stoking the flames of it) that she feels like she can’t let any part of that in without it taking over. She’s afraid of that darkness being all that she really is, and that’s why her mom left, that’s why her dad was a checked out alcoholic - they somehow saw that in her and it’s only a matter of time before everyone else does, too. I think where Damon comes to play is that he’s an instinctive observer of people, and he’s obviously taken an interest in Bonnie and making sense of her. So far, he’s picked up on the light (brave, empathetic, optimistic, kind, a fierce instinct to help) and he’s picked up on the dark (angry, self-sabotaging, competitive, a taste for danger) and at first glance, the two seem so wildly different that he’s like ‘which one’s real’. But I think what I’m really trying to build toward with Bonnie is that she’s not one or the other, she’s both. In harmony. And that ultimately, letting in her ‘dark side’ wouldn’t take anything away from her compassion and optimism and impassioned drive to make the world a better place - if anything, it’d just make her light side shine even brighter, you know? 
And likewise, Damon’s a character with a similar but inverted complex - he’s somehow grown up with the idea that he’s not a good guy and doesn’t care about anything, but he’s actually done some pretty heroic shit? Like, he turned in his own parents because of the things they were doing to people - parents who grown ass hardened criminals were terrified of. And he was ten. He went through foster home after foster home of neglect and abuse, all of which calcified his alleged numbness to the world, and yet couldn’t help himself from becoming a constant buffer between Tyler and his abusive dad. He was more in love with Katherine than she ever was with him and yet his awareness of that never stopped him from being there for her, even when he kind of hated her, because the weight of their shitty lives mattered more than the weight of his feelings. When he accidentally pushed Bonnie into a spiral, he dove in to deal with it, in large part because it was his fault, but also because he knew he was the best option for her, and he didn’t want to see Caroline and Stefan take that on. And there’s more hero-revealing things ahead for him in the story, which kind of begs the question, ‘why are you so convinced you’re this hedonist who doesn’t care when you actually do more good than a lot of people who do care?’ And Bonnie is absolutely starting to piece this all together, so it’s a similar dynamic on either side.  Anyway, that’s my dissertation on how to go into an entirely unsolicited rambling meta in response to wonderful and pertinent feedback. 
Kai’s “you two must have a crazy sex life”, I think it’s funny ‘cause he could have left it at that and gotten away with it, but continuing with details just killed those chances (and it also killed me).
REPLY:
looool right? Kai’s one of those characters that’s always right on the cusp of having a normal moment and then nope, never mind, hail mary throw to loony land right at the last second. 
Caroline’s Freakout
I love how chaotic you write Caroline’s internal struggle. Because, like she realizes, she’s being irrational, and that’s exactly how her thoughts come across. Excellent work with that. “Everything about him was a goddamn error,” superb line, dude. That’s how exactly how I pegged the sma Steroline relationship (and the sma Bamon one, but on the side of Bonnie being the error anomaly to Damon). Like, honestly, when Caroline’s like “he’d known what he was doing”, I’m like,” y’all were having sex? You must’ve looked like you were liking it???” Caroline frustrates me sometimes, but like, she’s frustrating herself (and Stefan), so that makes sense and also kudos.
And then she lashes out at Stefan, and Stefan’s like, “I know”. Yikes.com. And I like how she realizes the physicality of what they did isn’t much different from what she and other guys did. It’s just him that’s different. And oh man, I love how Stefan’s like, “I didn’t mean to hurt you”, and she’s like “dude wait stop you’re not supposed to apologize for this”.
So many emotions dude. Mainly ‘cause I can relate to avoidance thing (yikes), but also ‘cause you can tell she’s trying to figure herself out, trying to correct her behavior (kinda), but then she reverts. A+.
REPLY:
Gaaah, all of that makes me so happy because that’s exactly what I was going for. You’re frustrated with her, but you know you’re supposed to be frustrated with her ‘cause even she’s frustrated with herself, you know? I’ve always found that I’m really forgiving of flawed characters when they’re aware of their flaws (and when other people are allowed to get fed up with their shit), so going into that scene, that’s what I tried to keep in mind - she’s going to be irrational and defensive and I need to make sure everyone knows that I know that this isn’t cool. It isn’t intriguing or exciting. It’s frustrating and repetitive and I know it, Caroline knows it, and Stefan knows it, and because of that, it’ll be confronted, you know? And yeah, that ‘he knew what he was doing’ line was exactly for that reason - Caroline clearly played a role in what happened, like it takes two to tango gurl, so I hoped that would hammer in how unreliable her narration was in that second. That, and the fact that when he starts apologizing, like you said, she’s like ‘stop’ because obviously he really didn’t do anything that bad and she knows that. Super, super stoked that the scene played out for you the way it did, man. Best feedback ever. Eloquent af. A+ goes to you.
Bamon’s first trip to Wine Cellar
Touching + promixity + commentary = horny Bonnie + smug Damon + heaps of hilarity
REPLY:
They’re like X-rated toddlers.
“You’ve been in love?” conversation was really good. I mean it was short, but I loved it. Like, called out much?
REPLY:
I literally had no idea I was going to write that until it just showed up on the word doc, but it ended up being one of my fave exchanges, so I’m so happy you liked it, too!
And then the “earthworm” argument: LOL.
“Like your entire face is rebelling against it—you look like you’re about to have a stroke.” LOLOLOLOLOLOL. What’s even funnier is I imagine Damon coming back with a doctor comment lol.
REPLY:
‘Uh-oh, better give me a full physical.’
The kiss/attack. Kai’s probably right, their sex life is will probably be crazy.
REPLY:
Definitely won’t get bored.
Bonnie’s flashback. Gotta know more dude. Like, in theory, you wrote it out a bit, but more more more.
REPLY:
More ahead! I have an ask about it that I’m going to answer but more’s coming in the actual fic, too. I think. So excited you want to know more, though!
“Merriam Webster” lol
OKAY HERE’S THE OTHER LIFE-GIVING PART: “Are you worried about me?” and “She turned around to leave and he caught her wrist again./’Seriously. Anything at all.’” YOU’RE MURDERING ME GABI HOW DARE YOU (please keep it coming).
Jesus Crisco lololololololol
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:D
Soon-to-Be Ms. Cuddles
It’s kind of scary how much of myself I see in Caroline lol (that’s kind of fucked up right?) especially when her eyes are shut because the cat is near her omg.
REPLY:
lmaoooo a little scary but she turns out alright so *bonnie voice* there’s hope for you.
My heart at “none of it was worth it”. At first, I was like Caroline’s not worth it? But then he’s like Caroline’s fear/hurt isn’t worth it, and I’m like, Stefan you IDIOT STOP HURTING ME.
REPLY:
LMAO ISN’T HE THE WORST.
And then him realizing what the real issue is with “Like maybe that contract hadn’t just been for him”.
But then him fucking it up with “something stupidly, recklessly hopeful”. BOY BYE WITH THIS DISNEY PRINCE-NESS.
REPLY:
Disney Prince-tervention. 8 o’ clock. Scott McCall can come too.
“It means is there anything on the planet you don’t avoid dealing with?” YIKES STEFAN DO YOU LIKE PLAYING WITH YOUR LIFE LIKE THIS OR
REPLY:
LOLOLOL I laughed when I wrote that line. I was like eating Smart Pop and going ‘BOY’ as if I wasn’t the one writing it, it was all super sane.
Avoiding!Caroline #relatable dude.
“Easy to mistake for serial killers” LOL STEFAN AGAIN ARE YOU READY TO DIE OR
REPLY:
Danger Zone Stefan.
The part with the cat coming near her, lol, is so damsel-in-distress, and it makes me laugh so much at how cliched/tropey this is, but I also love it, and I tried to imagine her with either Bonnie or Damon in the same situation, and Bonnie being similar to Stefan but taking her out of her misery, but Damon being a shithead about it. Ah yes.
REPLY:
LMAO that scene is pure, unadulterated, damsel-ly TROPENESS and I love forcing Caroline I’m a Force to be Reckoned With and Need No One Forbes into those scenes because she tries so hard not to be that way and like, for what? Girl, be afraid of the dark. Run away from cats. Be jumpy and hide behind people. None of that means you can’t singlehandedly take down the Emory football administration, you know? You can run away from spider-rat hybrids in the same stilettos you slam into the toes of drunk dudes harassing girls on the subway. Do you. And LOOOL to Bonnie and Damon in Stefan’s place - Bonnie would definitely let it go but would be subtly trolly about it, like putting the cat on her bed when she’s in the shower or buying it a bunch of costumes to wear around the apartment. Damon would probs be every inch as insufferable as you’d imagine. 
The Not-All-Animals conversation. You don’t have to answer this, but is this supposed to be a foreshadowing, because the window was wide open for you (or Stefan) to state it clearly. And lol I cried when he says “there’s a cuddly little fur ball who seems really interested in getting to know you” and I’m imagining him talking about himself *dies of laughter*
“You’re going to love this cat”. Subtle, Stefan. Subtle.
REPLY:
CAN YOU IMAGINE HIM CALLING HIMSELF A CUDDLE LITTLE FUR BALL ON PURPOSE #BYE. I mean, it’s true, but still. I did the parallel on purpose, which I’m sure you know by now because I take forever to reply and have answered tat a few times, but I think it was more subconscious on Stefan’s part. Like his dedication to getting her to open up to the cat was definitely motivated by his own frustrations with her in that department, but I don’t think he saw the direct parallel or anything. Muahaha. I kind of want him to now though because CUDDLY LITTLE FUR BALL. That’s his street name. 
Bonkai/Damon’s return from the cellar
Kai flirting
Bonnie feeling bad for Kai for not having any friends. (can I just note that Kai doesn’t seem bothered that he doesn’t really have friends—or rather, he seems the type not to mind it. Like I’m sure there’ll be a part when Kai says something ‘jeez Bon, stop being so obsessed with me’ when she tries to be his friend)
AKA ME now feeling bad for Kai, just in general (or that might be the copious amounts of Bonkai fics I’ve been reading recently…)
Bonnie teaching Kai to “flirt” AKA just be a human being
REPLY:
lololol Kai’s just a dude doing his best impersonation of humaning and failing miserably and not being too bothered about it.
“Maybe a little less… carnivorous” lol
Damon calling Kai “bud” (like, him actually picking up on the fact Kai enjoyed that). Too sweet.
REPLY:
I didn’t get a chance to get too into it in 15, but if all goes according to plan, Kai x Damon should be a pretty unexpectedly adorable brotp, so I’m super happy you picked up on that!
Bamon kiss #3 : “his stare was dark, humming, glinting with a hint of self-satisfaction” hehehehehe
“but I feel like maybe I should’ve asked you instead. Cool move.” lmfao Kai is a cutie pie (I know what I said, I’m not taking it back).
“Honestly, he could go back to the murder cellar now” lolololol. You’ve got a lot of golden lines in this one.
Almost Bamon kiss #4: nice
“She exhaled slowly, trying to ignore the buried, messy part of her that was turned on by the idea, that buzzed from the risk of it all.” Same, Bon.
Bless Bonnie’s insane self-control.
REPLY:
Damon’s a smug little shit. There’s just no getting around it, tbh. And YAY for cutie pie Kai (it even rhymes! Destiny.) - definitely trying to hone in on the more delightful sides of him from canon. And lmao, Bonnie must be so tired.
 Caroline vs. the Cat
Obsessive Caroline is something familiar and safe to all. I like obsessive Caroline a lot lol.
Okay, unrelated, but can you expand a little bit on the Maroline situation again because, from what you’ve already explained (sorry if this is ruining the story, you obviously don’t have to explain if it is) Matt was sweet when it suited him, not sweet when he was angry or whatever. So, like, Stefan has none of these telltale features, like not even lowkey. I mean, he gets mad at her that one time, but it’s not malicious, you know? But it also triggered her to breakdown, but I read that as she’s already dealing with internal shit, so the internal is being external, and has very little to do with Stefan. So, I guess my question is, why is she not realizing Stefan is a Disney prince and he’ll always be one? Or is it just the overwhelming fear that’s clouding her judgement? I’m rambling.
REPLY:
GIRL, join the club. Rambling is a way of life. Re: Matt, I think a key thing I haven’t gotten to in the fic yet is that Matt started off as a bit of a Disney Prince, too. He was this humble, small-town star quarterback who was a little shy around girls and didn’t know what to do with all the attention on him, and when he met/got to know Caroline, he fell hard. Like haaaard. She was this confident, brash, outgoing ray of light that drew him in and made him laugh and added so much joy to his life, and he was just totally smitten. Built her things, wrote her crappy love letters that made her smile, etc., and for a year or so, they were this fairytale of a couple that everyone in town loved. And then Vicky got into drugs and his family situation went from not great to really bad - his mom was constantly off with some new guy, so a lot of the responsibility fell on him - and things just slowly started changing. He was angrier. Stressed out all the time, and he wasn’t someone who did well under pressure. He started checking out from school more and more because he didn’t see it as a priority. And in that context, larger-than-life Caroline with her sunny optimism and big ambitions went from endearing and inspiring to naive and a lowkey reminder of everything he didn’t have the luxury of being. Resentment started creeping in, and it’d come in the form of him being snide or putting her down, and it just kind of spiraled from there. Like you said, it wasn’t all the time, he could still be every inch as sweet and loving as he was when she first met him, but the bad moments started cropping up more and more often, and Caroline was just kind of frozen because they had years of magical history to indicate that this wasn’t the real him, and she just needed to wait it out and be supportive. And if she’d only done that to a certain degree, I think she would’ve been okay, but she stayed for way, way longer than she ever thought she would’ve. And she started coming up with insane ways to justify everything because their relationship meant so much to her. And all in all, that’s the real damage for her - the fact that she can’t trust herself to one: see people for they are when she has feelings for them, and two: know when to get out of something. Not when she’s in love. Any other context, sure, deuces, bye, but she doesn’t trust herself in love. So that’s why Stefan, without really showing any real Matt-like flaws, is scaring the hell out of her, if that makes any sense.
SPEAKING OF RAMBLING HI HELLO YES WHERE IS THE SUPPORT GROUP 
Caroline and the cat is really cute. We don’t see many soft moments of Caroline, except the baroline apology scene, so it’s cute to see her just calm down a little bit. Calm in the storm.
And her being like “You’re lucky Stefan’s here.” Oh, dude, that really got me. Like, before she goes into the physicality of him/them, I read that line as like, “he’ll take care of you, he’ll be good for you” and that struck me.
REPLY:
So happy you liked that softer side of Caroline! Definitely going to be seeing more of that now that she’s gotten most of the defensiveness out of her system (in large part because I’m just tired of writing it, lmaaaaaoooooo #authoroftheyear). And yeah, that’s exactly how she meant that line, which I think shows just how much her opinion has changed of him over these past few days. Progress!
“And it was terrifying, because for that brief glitter of a moment, for better or for worse, she’d been Caroline Forbes in all her complete, defenseless, messy glory”: nice.
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👌
“And closed hearts, apparently”, awwwwwwww. You know my general feels about steroline, but this fic, man. Well played, Gabi, well played.
REPLY:
lmao you know mine too. thanks, boo. 
Bamon Snooping
Initial and overarching reaction: LOL
Damon saving Bonnie’s life: *heart eyes*
“I’m not talking to you”/”Why ‘cause I didn’t feel you up in the kitchen?” LOL Damon knooooooows, Damon’s got you cornered (you’d like that wouldn’t you, Bonnie) (but also, same)
REPLY:
#READ
Like this idiot really thinks she’s fooling anyone? She’d totally like that. Let’s make another support group.
The flamingo tarts LOL
AND AND AND “Stefan’s not even going to be able to look at yo—“ crying
Kai going to hunt swan. Again.
REPLY:
So rude, pulling the judgy Stefan card. And yeah, Kai’s really into casual evening strolls with crossbows. 
The snooping. Okay, so first, Bonnie’s reaction of “yeeeeeeeeee” and Damon’s reaction of “k let’s do it”. I love it so so so much. This is a moment I can see Matt Daddario being Damon (I started watching Shadowhunters, pardon me). But also the things they find??? Like, if this were a tv show (where’s the petition, my pen is ready), then this would be that one weird/sci-fi episode. Like a musical episode, but sci-fi-y.
Damon “how much you want to bet one of these opens a hidden passageway”/I’m a big nerd too Fell/Whitmore (who tf is this guy)
REPLY:
LMAO coming up with the things they find was another case of me staring dead-eyed into space for 20 minutes and cackling at random, so I’m glad it was entertaining. And yessss, I can totally see Matt pulling off that line. I see him as a slightly sleepier Damon, like his blithe charm goes from obnoxious to a little slyer and lowkey, and he has more of a playful laziness about him. It’s a really fun/unique fit, especially since some of the other actors I’ve imagined as Damon have more of a brash/sharp quality to them that would enhance the showman aspect instead of downplaying it.
Bamon talking about Damon’s job: real bonding about real things!
REPLY:
WOOT. More of that ahead :)
Steroline Avoiding
“He could navigate picky eaters like a pro”:  I love that you made him this way, and that you made her that way, and that their ways are like puzzle pieces.
REPLY:
Ahhh, I love that you put it that way. That’s their new tag line.
And also for this beaut: “the Human Grimace” lmfao.
“I feel annoyed”/”Why?”/”I don’t know.” – is that their tag line or?
REPLY:
JK that’s definitely their tag line. 
Steroline bonding in general, bless.
“I can’t do this”: yikes. At first, I thought this was going to be a repeat of every sexytimez moment these two had before the ultimate one
but I really like how you placed that bit about Elena in there. Nice. Like how he can’t handle not knowing, and that’s very Caroline of him, and he could just tell her this please that’d help everyone???? I’m not ranting.
REPLY:
IF EVERYONE COULD JUST TALK IN THIS GODFORSAKEN FIC IT WOULD’VE ENDED TEN CHAPTERS AGO AND MADE MY LIFE SO MUCH EASIER. lmao but I’m glad you liked the Elena nuance - I’m trying to build their experiences in bits and pieces so that when they finally talk about everything re: the exes, it’s not too much of an information dump. 
Damon’s Panic Attack
Jesus Christ, Gabi. Right in the heart, dude. Like chill out. His avoidance of the very inevitable killed me. And Bonnie not picking up on the signs. Omg and Damon’s “I’m fine”, parallel to Caroline’s, and the whole “I can do this, I can get through this, I’ve only had myself before, and I only need myself now”, but Bonnie’s there and she’s all “I got you, you can do this, we’ll get through this together” and she’s talking him through, but he’s doesn’t want to even talk and  she’s just trying to bring him out of him successfully, but ultimately fails and goes with the distracting that is an old Stefonnie story. BUT THEN, her fourth-grade poem reminded me of The Punisher’s “one batch, two batch, penny and dime” in Daredevil (you watched that right?) and I was like oh shoot, you right. What you were right about, not sure, but it worked, and Bonnie did a good job (but also YOU), and Damon’s “she was a ridiculous person./Tangled and dark and simple and light.” And my heart wept. “He let himself stay”. Oh my poor baby. You wrecked me, Gabi, you really did.
REPLY:
‘and I was like oh shoot, you right. What you were right about, not sure, but it worked’ - LMAOOOOOO, dead. Like 50% of my excitement for posting this review is just people reading it and realizing how hilarious you are and then going to check out B&B. (GO AND CHECK OUT B&B). For real though, gaaaaah, everything about this is making my friggin’ day because this is always the toughest stuff to write for me. I never know if I’m building it well or if the emotions are transitioning fluidly and it makes me want to break my laptop (jk it’s already broken JOKE’S ON ME), so I’M SO HAPPY I WRECKED YOU. All of your observations are perfect. I didn’t even think about The Punisher but shoot, YOU RIGHT, that’s such a great parallel. I’ve always found that angsty situations are super unpredictable in real life, like the things you expect to happen seldom do and it’s always the most random thing that ends up shifting the mood, so I tried to translate that into this scene. Like Bonnie’s pulling out all the stops, all the things she’s trained to do, but what ends up cutting through the air is a random ass poem from fourth grade. And it’s just thoughtful and spastic enough to grab his attention, especially once he realizes why she went for poetry, and suddenly, the situation’s quelling. So I’m super, super happy that it worked for you, and that the ‘tangler and dark and simple and light’ stood out. I think that’s one of the first instances of him starting to realize she’s not one or the other, she’s both at the same time, so yeah, this feedback is all wonderful and now you’re wrecking me so we’re even.
Steroline Confronting
Is Caroline… confronting the problem? Is Caroline… actually fixing this? Is Caroline… actually being a person? Nice, good job, I’m proud of you, girl. Slay.
REPLY:
LOOK AT HER GOOOOO.
I like how she gets how fucked up the whole thing is. Like, she knows she’s being irrational, and that he shouldn’t have to put up with this mess, and damn, I feel for her.
REPLY:
Yesssss, totally what I was going for. Like the person most done with her shit is herself, and she’s likely going to be way harder on herself about it than you or me or Stefan or anyone else, really. So happy that came across.  
“Would it make you feel better if I told you that wasn’t the first time that’s happened to me?”
“What did you do? Actually—don’t tell me now.”/“I’m not telling you ever.”
”Tell me when it doesn’t hit so close to home.”/”Or never.”
”It’s still too soon.”/”It’ll always be too soon.”
These are gems.
REPLY:
Gotta sneak some fluff into every scene you know how I roll.
Oh goodness, but Stefan wanting to know her as a person. Ughhhhhh.
And the ruse of “for the sake of Bonnie.” I’m calling bullshit.
“Who was he, Nicholas Sparks?” Lol, I mean, it worked out, though, dude.
REPLY:
Stefan’s a lost cause.
As always, my friend, you’ve done a phenomenal job. Your writing style is so unique and fabulous, and it just adds to the storyline itself, like, it’s own entity in this whole thing. Bless. So excited for the next chapter. Did I hear more sexytimez for the bamon babes? 
REPLY:
GIRL I COULD SAY THE SAME DAMN THING ABOUT YOURS. Like even in this review alone - hysterical and eloquent af. I know you probably know this, but no one ever thinks that of their own writing (or at least I don’t think they do lmao, if they do LEMME HAVE A HIT OF THAT CONFIDENCE BOO ‘cause I didn’t even know I had a style), so it’s legit amazing to hear that the style stands out to you, and know that I’m boomeranging that comment right back atcha. Next chapter is sloooowly chugging along, by which I mean I’m writing at a regular pace but I’m trying to cram a legitimately concerning/insane amount of scenes into it. Like 15. LMAO. RIP Gabi. But hopefully it won’t take me too long! Also, it’s the last of the intensely emotional chapters for a while (just a lot of big moments I need to get right), so even if this takes forever, the rest should be a little faster. I feel like I say this after every chapter and nothing changes, looooool. BUT ANYWAY, you’re a marvel, this review is everything, I’m feelsy, you’re hilarious, write a book, bye. 
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picklepinkest-blog · 6 years ago
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Private Affair ⇻ ⒑
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This wasn't working.
The woman Klaus held in his arms as he danced across the ballroom floor was lovely and charming. She was an old family friend. Someone he was comfortable with and admired. And he was bored out of his brain.
Unfortunately, she could tell. Hayley leaned back to look him in the eyes. "I'm sorry I'm not her."
"Not who?" he asked, more out of stubbornness than anything else.
Hayley smiled a little sadly. "The woman you wish you were with instead of me."
Klaus gritted his teeth, angry with himself for wallowing. And more angry with Caroline for denying them both. "I don't—"
"Of course you do. You don't have to pretend otherwise for my sake. When a woman's invited to a party less than twenty-four hours before the event, she assumes she's not her date's first choice."
The orchestra began another song and they kept dancing without missing a beat.
"I'm sorry," was all he could say.
"There's no need to apologize," she reassured him with a smile. "I had no illusions to begin with and I'm getting a nice evening out. I just hope you're able to work it out. You've been alone too long, Klaus."
"It's over between us."
Hayley tilted her head sympathetically. "Then she's a fool."
"What makes you think she was the one who ended it?"
"If you'd ended it, you wouldn't be looking quite so grim, would you?"
"It was mutual." Somehow he couldn't stand Hayley's gentle concern. "We wanted different things from our relationship."
"Maybe it'll still work out."
"No." He shook his head. "She made her choice."
Understanding lit Hayley's gaze. "Let me guess. You pushed her too early in the relationship and she bolted."
Klaus stilled, pulling back from Hayley. "You make it sound like I'm the bad guy here."
"Not the bad guy, maybe just the overeager one. You've always known exactly what you want. It's served you well in business, but when it comes to personal stuff, you have to give the rest of us mere mortals a chance to catch up."
"You think I should give her another chance," he summarized.
"I think Caroline would be a fool not to ask for one and you'd be a fool not to give it to her."
"How did you know it's Caroline we're talking about? I thought all the gossip was about you and me."
"I never listen to gossip. But I have noticed the way you look at her. It's obvious to anyone who knows you that you're in love with her." Looking over his shoulder, Hayley suddenly grinned. "Besides, she's the one who's shown up here looking for you."
Klaus spun around and searched the crowd. He spotted her instantly. Which wasn't hard to do given that she was dressed completely inappropriately in jeans and a flowing shirt. Still, she looked beautiful. Her long blonde hair was loose about her shoulders. Sure, her skin looked a little splotchy, like maybe she'd been crying earlier, but her eyes held an appealing determined glint and her jaw was set at that stubborn angle he so loved.
She spotted him and began to stride across the room. Watching her, everything else faded into the shadows. Hayley, the music, the other dancers, they all disappeared.
That's the moment he realized Hayley was right. He really did love Caroline. It wasn't just that he admired her dedication to Mikaelson Enterprises. It was more than his appreciation of her beauty or her strength of will. Those things were true of Hayley also, but the sight of Hayley had never filled him with such joy.
No, he loved Caroline, plain and simple.
He'd planned to never give her a second thought, let alone a second chance. Despite that, he was thrilled to see her now.
But she didn't look particularly thrilled to see him.
She stopped before him, her expression fierce. "You are being completely unfair."
"I am?"
"Absolutely! You think just because you're the boss at work that you get to be the boss in our relationship, too. But you're wrong."
"I am?" he repeated. He was smiling now, so pleased to see her it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms and kiss her soundly. But she hadn't noticed yet and he was enjoying her tirade too much to stop her.
"There's no CEO in a relationship. You're not in charge. You don't get to decide it's over just because things aren't moving according to your timetable. If you've got a problem, we need to discuss it. Like—"
"I agree."
"—adults. Like... Wait a minute. You agree?"
"I do."
"I..." She blinked in obvious surprise. "I... I didn't expect you to give in so quickly." Her eyebrows crinkled in confusion even as a smile teased her lips. "I had a whole speech worked up. About how I loved you and how I knew you loved me, too. And how I was determined to win you back no matter what."
Unable to resist the temptation, he swept her into his arms. Needing an excuse to hold her so close in public, he moved onto the dance floor and began to waltz, reveling in the way her body fit perfectly against his.
"It sounds like a great speech. You can give it to me later."
"You don't want to...I don't know, discuss it or anything?"
He shrugged. "I got the gist of it. I love you. You love me. We belong together. Anything else we'll sort out later."
"Oh. Well then." Her body seemed to melt into his.
"There's only one thing."
She pulled back to look up at him, a frown marring her features. "What?"
"There are a lot of people here from Mikaelson Enterprises. I think the days of keeping our affair private are officially over."
Her frown vanished in the wake of her grin. "That was a bad idea anyway."
"You sure you don't mind?"
"It would probably be hard to keep things a secret now that we're engaged anyway."
He pulled her tighter against him. "Good point."
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#DailyDeal ↠ The Originals: The Resurrection
In this stunning conclusion to The Originals prequel trilogy, Rebekah, Klaus, and Elijah are pitted against each other as they attempt to take on New Orleans. Each sibling's loyalty is put to the ultimate test, and they must decide how far they are willing to go to keep their family promise to each other.
What I love most about this novel are the epic choices the three Originals face. All of them are tested in the one area they are weakest. Klaus has power, yet he continues to want more. Rebekah has once again found someone she may love, but she must decide how blind love will make her. Elijah has nearly given up on his family, but he must discover if that is really what he wants. Throughout the series, they have faced many conflicts, but it is in this final story where they face them more alone and separated from each other than ever. Elijah in particular has fallen far, and his character is the hardest to bounce back.
The plot builds excellently throughout the story, though I do wish more information had been given about the primary antagonists. The visualization of the story is great, making it feel like a live motion picture in your head as each scene unfolds. The fighting scenes in particular bring the perfect blend of heated emotion and slight gore to fit the supernatural creates.
All in all, this is a wonderful series perfect for vampire lovers and avid watchers of The Originals and The Vampire Diaries. Julie Plec brings their world to life in The Resurrection, and readers can truly see how strong and unstoppable this ancient family is.
Order yours HERE, available on Kindle, Paperback, or Audiobook ♥
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