#i love playing pony town it's so fun ease dropping on people i heart seeing children fight

[dissentersbedamned]

hello gamers

[evermoire]

living for the hope of it all | pack.

there was a bit of luck in michonne’s birthday falling on the day of halloween. any talk of parties or surprises were easily calmed with the mention of the town’s ball and how that was more than enough for her. noah always rebelled against the idea, but even he would give up after a while.

it was a little harder to talk lydia greene down but she was, thankfully, easily distracted by a much bigger event: allison’s birthday, just two days before michonne’s. though the redhead swore she would come back to michonne, she devoted the bulk of her time and planning to getting allison’s birthday presents together, which was perfect for michonne.

on the morning of the ball, michonne woke to a fair slew of happy birthday texts, in and out of the pack group chat, and what might as well have been an article from lydia about the outfit she’d sewn michonne for the night. michonne, along with the rest of the girls in the pack, spent the entire day playing dress-up for the wailing redhead and were sent out of the lake house one by one.

some hour or so after being sent away, michonne had yet to find any of the other pack members, and she tried not to stress about that. most years, she dreaded the ball because it meant dressing up and brushing off unwanted advances by whichever guy felt brave enough to hit on her behind a mask. this year, she dreaded it because it was nearly impossible to watch out for everyone she cared about. in a crowd this big, it was easy to hide and easy to overlook something suspicious.

in the golden costume lydia had designed for her and a matching mask, michonne made her way through the crowd, searching for the first familiar figure she could find. she thought she would feel better, just seeing even one pack member. it was a full moon and she knew that most, if not all, of the wolves were controlled enough to attend tonight, but still; she couldn’t help but worry that something would go wrong and she wouldn’t be there to help. thankfully, they all planned to meet up at the dance floor in about thirty minutes, so her worry faded slightly at the promise of seeing them soon.

with the loud music playing throughout beacon hills’ town square, maggie felt both rattled and eased. it hadn’t taken her long to find glenn at all; even in costume and mask –– hers an elaborate re-design of the queen of hearts from alice in wonderland –– she had beelined right towards him, as if there was a gravitational force that drew her back to his side every time.

“it feels weird being here this year,” she told him as they walked through the town square. “it feels more... dangerous.” aside from the large mayor’s mansion and property that would be used for dancing, there were numerous stalls for games and prizes lined up along the streets, as well as a few haunted houses. a block or two off, there were rides of the mechanical and animal kind. her dad was manning the section for pony rides, having volunteered the kindest and most well-behaved horses from the farm for the evening, as he did every year. and, for the more adventurous folks, there was a synthetic corn maze set up, full of actors in masked to chase them around until they were back out.

most years, the corn maze was maggie’s favorite attraction. pulling up her skirt and racing through the fields, throwing looks over her shoulder to check for zombies or axe murderers or whatever the maze offered for the year. tonight, she didn’t even want to look that way.

“why did i let you talk me into this?”

scott threw a grin at kira as they waited in line to enter the corn maze. there was a small group of pack members, those who scott had puppy-dog-eyed into joining him. “come on! it won’t be that bad. we hang out with cora and she’s way scarier than these people.”

“yeah, but at least we know cora isn’t secretly trying to kill us.”

“we actually have no proof of that,” jude snickered. despite scott’s best efforts to dissuade her from going to the maze, she was insistent on the fact that she’d never tried before and what better year to get spooked? she leaned against kira now, a careful placement of half of her weight onto her friend, who didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. more and more these days, scott wondered about kira; she was tiny and shy, but undoubtedly a sturdy little badass that he couldn’t help but admire. “but i don’t think it’ll be too bad, either! especially with your danger sense. in fact, it might be boring for you!”

kira sighed. luckily, her corpse bride dress had enough room to run in. she was almost sure that she’d be scarier than whatever came after her. in reality, she wasn’t worried about being scared or hurt; if anything, she was worried about tripping over herself and being humiliated. but scott and jude seemed excited and kira wasn’t going to ruin their fun. especially not when she was a little interested herself. “this is a bad idea,” she pointed out, though it did nothing to wipe their excitement away. “are we ready to go in?”

“ana!” dressed as a perfectly cheerful cinderella, lizzie’s face broke out into a wide smile as she laid eyes on her friend. her hand thoughtlessly dropped from mika’s and she moved forward, slipping through the crowd to reach the brunette. without thinking, she wrapped her arms around ana, heart racing with joy at the sight of her. “hi. i was worried i wouldn’t be able to find you.”

it felt like a silly fear, but one that she’d dealt with for the past few days. she couldn’t help herself; she loved her friend, easily and wholeheartedly, and looked forward to every moment they could spend together. and times like this, when something great and magnificent was happening, she wanted to experience them with ana. because she didn’t like loud noises, and she didn’t care much for parties, but she did want to see her friend in a happy environment away from the curse of academia.

ana was her moonflower. how could she not want to see her in full bloom?

camden leaned against the fence, watching as hershel guided titania, the horse that carried jeremy for the moment. given that jeremy had never really had grandparents, hershel and natalie had openly and happily stepped into that role, spoiling him with gifts and time with the gentler farm animals. neither they nor jeremy were fully in the know about how camden and lori became such good friends with the greene sisters, but none of them seemed to question it. hershel and natalie were glad that their daughters had quickly gained such a large and loyal group of friends, while jeremy was glad that he had so many good friends.

camden smiled as he watched him now. not far away, daryl and beth were tending to another horse whose name escaped camden now. for someone who had grunted about hating farm work just the other night, daryl seemed perfectly at ease now, feeding the brown horse and chatting to beth. the reason for his ease was slightly up in the air, but camden was willing to bet that it was blonde and blue-eyed.

when derek showed up, holding the hand of ten-year-old damaris talbot-hale, camden threw him a grin, then stepped away to go find lori. halloween was in full swing and though he knew that much of the pack had their apprehensions about the night, he hoped that it was something that they could just enjoy.

[sass-and-stilettos]

“Small Town Politics - A Regal Believer Tale”

the-mayors-kid

@sass-and-stilettos

(Romantic Snow Queen backstory)

Emma had told Regina that Henry was working in the stables that Saturday.  After the incident with Daniel he’d gotten kind of spooked but he still wanted to learn how to ride.  But he was still terribly awkward around the horse he felt like he barely knew which end was which.

sass-and-stilettos

Regina entered the stables, the familiar scent of horses and hay, leather tack and sweet grain was like a welcome home. She really should get out here more often. It was just that so many memories of stables were still wrapped up with Daniel.

Ambling down the aisle between stalls, she paused to pet curious muzzles until she came to the place where Henry was working. He had a brush in his hand and he was tentatively stroking it over the piebald horse’s side.

“You can use a little more pressure on the brush, Dear. He won’t object.”

the-mayors-kid

He was still not that convinced that this stable cleaning and brushing was how to ride and that maybe the adults were playing some sort of practical joke on him, he stopped brushing for a moment…

“Mom…?”  

He looked at her surprised she was there but after a moment he started brushing again a little harder as she suggested.”

sass-and-stilettos

“Hello, Henry.” She smiled at him. “Try this…” Walking over, she took his hand and guided it to give the horse firm, short strokes with a little flick of the wrist at the end.

When he had the hang of it, she let him go, watching with approval. “That’s it. You’ve got it.”

the-mayors-kid

“You know about horses?”

Somehow he couldn’t picture her doing any of this.  Or actiony stuff.  Didn’t she just … smoke cloud places?

“Why are you here?”

Still he tried to stroke like she’d shown him.

sass-and-stilettos

Regina chuckled. “As a matter of fact I do. Believe it or not, there was a time I was considered quite the horsewoman. If you don’t believe me, you should ask your grandmother.”

Which was why she was there. Suddenly she was nervous. “Emma told me that you’d be here,” she said by way of explaining her presence. “I wanted to see how you are.”

the-mayors-kid

“I’m okay.  I think they’re playing some sort of joke on me.  I told Grandpa I wanted to learn how to ride and all I’ve been doing was cleaning stables for weeks.”

He frowned in the way he did when he thought adults were talking down to him.  But he didn’t want to take his grumpiness about it out on his mom.  “Is that why there is all the horse stuff around the house and your office?”

sass-and-stilettos

“Yes, Henry, that’s the reason. I haven’t ridden in years though.” She ran her hand over the horse’s neck, casting a critical eye over the animal. It turned it’s head toward her and pushed her back a half-step, lipping at her overcoat pocket. Regina laughed and pulled the apple out and held it so the horse could take a bite.

“He’s a sweetheart.” A calm, schooling horse that would be perfect for her son. “I can only assume David has set you to doing chores so that you can learn to be comfortable with the animals, and vice versa.”

the-mayors-kid

His eyes got big as he watched her, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you relaxed with anyone…” but me.

He shrugged, “He said something like that.  I just thought learning to ride would involve more… riding?”  He said the last with a kind of sheepishness.

He was tentatively starting to accept that there were maybe parts of his mom he didn’t know and the book didn’t say.  “You like horses.  Why didn’t you ride when I was younger?”

sass-and-stilettos

“Horses and I get along rather well. Most will do whatever you ask of them and are loyal as long as they’re well treated. Especially if you bring apples,” she said the last like she was confiding a secret.

“ normally it would involve a lot more riding. I’m sure that he just wants to ease you into everything. Learning how to take care of the horse is as important as riding. Though of course we had stable boys for that.”

Daniel. She sighed softly. “There never seemed to be enough time.”

the-mayors-kid

“Would you go riding with me?  When… I actually get to ride?”

He added.  He took her explanation but still was a bit grumpy.  Though for once not grumpy at her.  “I thought when the curse broke there would be more… sword fighting and adventure and stuff.  Less school and chores.”

sass-and-stilettos

“I would be honoured.” The fact that he’d asked overjoyed her. “Maybe I can give you a lesson myself. I can bring it up with Emma.”

She laughed when he talked about adventure and sword fighting. “Oh Henry, even without the curse, this is not the Enchanted Forest.”

the-mayors-kid

“Emma and Mary Margaret got to go there…”

He said grumpily.  

But he shrugged, “I’d like that.  If you’d give me a lesson.  You would actually get to the riding part.”

His mom never held back on the fun part if he finished his homework and did his chores.

sass-and-stilettos

The old Regina would have chided him for whining about that, but she let it pass with an amused sniff.

“Then I will ask Emma about it when I see her next.”

That avenue of conversation exhausted, she found herself trying to figure out the best way of broaching the subject of her and Snow. She figured direct and diplomatic would work best. Henry was like his birth mother in some ways.

“Henry, I have something I need to talk to you about.”

the-mayors-kid

“Okay.”

He said it carefully because he’d been mad at her for lying so he didn’t want her not to tell him things.  But he kept working the brush now doing much better with the pony.

sass-and-stilettos

“Well, it has to do with the situation between your grandparents. I’m sure that you’ve also heard everyone saying that it must be my fault?” Damn, this was difficult.

the-mayors-kid

“I’ve heard that…”  He said carefully.  “And you are kind of a good suspect.  You have to admit.”

But he didn’t want her to think he was accusing her.  “I mean they’re true love and broke curses it doesn’t make sense that Grandma wants a divorce.  And you did kind of announce to like a billion people that you wanted to destroy their happiness…”

sass-and-stilettos

“That’s true. Everything you’ve just said is true, except I don’t think the true love part holds anymore.”

She took a deep breath and let it out, choosing her next words with care. “It is my fault that your grandmother filed for divorce, but it’s not because I cursed her. It’s because I fell in love with her, and she with me.”

the-mayors-kid

He fumbled and dropped the brush.

“Wait … what?”

He kept trying to think about everything he knew.  “Wait… what?”

But none of it made sense.  Particularly his mom admitting to something like this and telling him the truth.  Because this is a strange lie to tell.  “Are you her …?”

sass-and-stilettos

Well, at least he hadn’t run away or started yelling at her…yet. That was a start.

“Am I her what, Henry?” Better to answer his questions than just volunteering random information at this point, she thought.

the-mayors-kid

“Aren’t you her stepmother?”

He said awkwardly.  “And don’t you hate her… like a lot?  I mean you tried to frame her for murdering Mrs. Nolan to keep her and David apart…”

He picked up the brush but attending to the horse was a bit forgotten.

sass-and-stilettos

Ah, yes, she’d expected someone to bring that up at some point. “I was, but even though we haven’t physically aged during the curse, that was a long time ago. I was never a very good mother figure for her anyway.” It was hard to be a good mother figure when you wanted your step-daughter dead. And that brought her to his next question.

“I used to hate her,” she admitted, “but all of that has changed. I don’t expect you to understand it all, because I don’t understand it all myself. I just wanted to make sure that you heard about all of this from me instead of anyone else. She and I have been talking about letting everyone know, but we won’t do that if you don’t want us to.”

the-mayors-kid

He stepped out of the stall and looked at her skeptically, folding his arms and not realizing that he looked a bit like a mini version of her.  “But you tried to frame her for murder… not that long ago.”

He furled his brow.  “How can you be in love with her?”

He didn’t ask how she could be in love with his mom.  His grandmother had a big heart and he loved his mom too.  The idea of her being unlovable wasn’t a question.

sass-and-stilettos

She laughed softly at the picture he made, standing like that and giving her that look. “It may not have been that long ago, but I’m a different person now. I told you that I would try to change for you, right?” When he nodded, she went on.

“Your grandmother didn’t believe it for an instant. She tried baiting me to get me to crack, but I didn’t.” Well, that wasn’t quite true, but he was too young to hear about the ways that she had. “Even so, she was convinced that I was still the evil queen, just that I was pretending to be good for you. It turns out that she’d had feelings for me for a long time and she was sad that I’d never changed for her. We started talking more and I began to teach her about city government. Feelings grew from there.” That about summed it up for the G-rated version.

the-mayors-kid

He accepted the story she was telling except he still didn’t understand something.

“But isn’t true love forever?”

It was the thing he didn’t understand when Emma told him her parents were getting a divorce.  But Emma hadn’t had the answer.

“I love grandma … I don’t want you to hurt her.”

If this was some sort of trick.

sass-and-stilettos

“Under normal circumstances, I believe it is. Both parties have to feel that way though, and Snow doesn’t feel that way about David anymore. Believe me, Henry, I don’t want to hurt her either.”

He was taking all of this so well and asking intelligent questions. Regina was proud of him.

the-mayors-kid

He pressed his lips together and kept trying to think about it.  “Will you be hurt if I tell you I… don’t entirely believe you don’t want to hurt her?  It’s … kind of your thing.”

sass-and-stilettos

Regina shook her head. “It’s not my thing anymore, Henry. You can ask her if you won’t take my word for it.” She really wanted him to believe her though.

the-mayors-kid

He tried to think about why he shouldn’t believe her because he knew she lied to him before.  Instead he looked around and than sat down on a hey bail.  “Why do you love her?  When you hated her …”

He was trying to understand.  He wanted to believe her.  

sass-and-stilettos

When he sat down on the bale of hay, she walked over and sat beside him. “That’s a really complicated question to answer, Henry. Why does any person fall in love?” She thought about it for a moment. “Hatred is a really strong emotion. It happens when a person feeds it because they are mad, or hurt, or sad. When they stop feeding it, it can start to fade away. That’s what happened. I didn’t know it was love right away…I only realised it after I realised Snow loved me.”

the-mayors-kid

“No…” he shook his head, “Why do you love her?”

He wanted to see her say it so he could look into her eyes and decide of she was lying or not.

sass-and-stilettos

Regina frowned. “The specific reasons, you mean?”

the-mayors-kid

“Yeah.  If you love her you should be able to tell me why.”

He looked at her, “I want to believe you.  You’ve changed so much.”

Help me believe you.

sass-and-stilettos

She met Henry’s eyes, a shimmer of unshed tears suddenly in hers. “I have. I promise. I love your grandmother because she lets me be who I am. She doesn’t want me to play a role or pretend to be a certain way. Snow understands me. She knew me before I became the queen, and she still loves me despite it all. What’s not to love about that?”

the-mayors-kid

He nodded.

“That is a good reason to love someone.”  He tilted his head, “Thank you for telling me.  You wouldn’t have before.”

Not lying mattered most to him after what had happened with the curse.

sass-and-stilettos

“I know I wouldn’t have, but this is important. You are important and I love you. Which leads me to the question…do you want your grandmother and I to keep all of this secret, if we can? I don’t want you to be teased about it or have mean things said to you.”

the-mayors-kid

He thought about that for a long time, “I think… that it’s wrong to ask people to hide that they are in love.  Love is supposed to be a good thing.”

He looked at her to see if he got that right.  “It wouldn’t be okay for me to ask you to hide who you are I don’t think.”

Besides no one dared tease or say mean things to him at school now that people knew who his mother was.

sass-and-stilettos

She gave him a grateful smile and pulled him into a hug against her side. “Thank you, Henry. That is a wonderful way to think about it. I just hope your other mother thinks the same thing.” She wasn’t about to hold her breath for that to happen.