#she's much more like the protagonist Malk in her mannerisms

[victorluvsalice]

Happy Birthday LiddellVxnDort!

@liddellvxndort, it may not be the skinny tall white guy/girl you were hoping for, but have something Bloodlines-related to celebrate your nineteenth year upon this planet. :) The context is, it’s just after the Giovanni raid, with Alice, Lizzie, and the others getting settled back into the apartment, and Lizzie has a few questions for her sister. . . Hope you enjoy!

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"So, um – who exactly is this mysterious third sister of ours that I've only just met?"

Alice snorted. "She does look strangely similar to us, doesn't she?" she agreed, glancing over at Madeline. Her friend was currently making a fuss over Emily's hair, picking it up in handfuls and telling a bemused Emily how it "shined like the spun gold of Rumplestiltskin." Hopefully that doesn't become the poor girl's nickname now. . . "I've sometimes wonder if she's some relation from an obscure branch of our family tree. . .anyway, yes, that's Madeline, Maddie for short. No last name – she doesn't recall it, unfortunately."

"Doesn't recall?" Lizzie echoed, frowning. "What happened?"

"The Embrace, from what I gathered in our first conversation. It – affected her a lot more strongly than it did me." Alice sucked in a breath just to fuel a sigh. "You see, when you become a Malkavian, your head. . .well, if it isn't already 'wrong' somehow, it becomes wrong very fast. I was reliably informed I was one of the lucky ones of the clan."

Lizzie's frown deepened as she watched Madeline pile Emily's hair atop her head, trying to make some sort of elaborate hairdo. "So that's why she talks the way she does? All roundabout metaphors and weird nicknames?"

"Mmm – whatever the curse did to her mind, it basically destroyed her ability to speak plainly," Alice confirmed. "She knows how to get her point across, more or less, but it can take some mental gymnastics to decipher."

"Well, good thing you're good at that." Lizzie ran her fingers through her own hair. "And frankly, I'd rather have a vampire like that – bouncing off the walls and calling us things like 'jewels for eyes' and 'birch boy' – around me than some Giovanni smirking at me through a barred window and saying unflattering things in Italian." She huffed, scowling. "Bastards – I suppose I should be grateful to them in some small way, as without them I'd still be a lost and angry phantom stuck in the remains of our house, but. . .you heard what they wanted us for. You know what they were trying to do."

"I do," Alice confirmed, gritting her fangs as she recalled Nadia's cracking voice explaining, "They weren't supposed to have their personalities! They were just supposed to – you know – do what they were told. . ." "Hence why I don't feel particularly cut up about slaughtering good old Uncle Bruno."

"Yes, well, you know what it all reminded me of? Bumby. Him cornering me and droning on and on about how I had to be with him, how we were destined to marry and make lots of little Bumblets, how loving him was my goddamn purpose." Lizzie's fists clenched, nails digging into her palms. "And I just – tell me caught him after the fire," she begged, face pained. "Tell me they prosecuted him to the full extent of the law and then some."

Alice pressed a hand against her undead heart, trying to support it against the guilt. "Oh, Lizzie – I wish I could," she whispered. "But he managed to convince enough of the right people that it was Dinah's fault. It wasn't until years later his role in the fire was discovered." She allowed a cold smile, fangs fully on display. "Which was after I finally remembered the truth myself and shoved him in front of a train, so. . ."

"Well, that's – a train?!" Lizzie stared at her. "How the hell did you get away with that?"

"My victim was kind enough to use that portion of the Underground for his sordid activities and thus had the security camera that would have caught me in the act disabled," Alice explained, smirking. "And by sheer luck, we were the only two people on the platform that day. I managed to spin the incident as an accident, and once his crimes came to light, no one seemed particularly keen on looking into the matter." She clasped her hands behind her, rocking back and forth on her heels. "Still, worry over some overeager bobby poking their nose into how much I actually had to do with his death is the whole reason I'm here in California. I was looking to leave my past behind – make a fresh start."

"I guess dying and being turned into a vampire counts toward that," Lizzie said blandly. "Our lives are something else, aren't they, Alice?"

"Oh, they are." Alice looked back over at the others. Victoria had joined Madeline at Emily's head, and was now showing her how to braid the other woman's hair, to Madeline's delight. Behind them, Victor and Sam leaned against the kitchen counters, chatting – probably about music, given what she new of both. "But – it's not as bad as I thought it might be, when I first turned. I found Madeline and got her away from those terrible sires of hers; found Victor and saved him from dying in the clinic; found Victoria and – well, I guess getting Tommy Flayton to stop harassing her so much counts for something. And now I've found you, Emily, and Sam, and saved you all from Giovanni servitude." She smiled at her sister, warm feelings filling her undead form. "I hate to say it, but – being dead seems to suit me."

"It is pretty awful that we seem to be doing better after we've both been violently killed than we were before it," Lizzie agreed, before casting her own soft smile at the tableau nearby. "But if this is our new normal, I think I can – er – live with it, so to speak."

"Jewels for eyes! Keymistress!" Madeline waved them over, pointing at Emily (who was trying very hard not to giggle). "Come help!"

Lizzle binked, then raised an eyebrow at Alice. "Keymistress?"

Alice held up her necklace, Lizzie's old room key swaying at the end of it. "I did tell her this was yours."

"Ah." Lizzie shrugged and headed over to the impromptu hairdressing session, Alice by her side. "Well, maybe I can get her to call me Gatekeeper instead. I always fancied myself as badass as Sigourney Weaver ."