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justvibewith · 3 years

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Surprise Visit

Summary: You are a nursing student who just survive a hell week and you missed your husband, Wonwoo who is a doctor at a hospital in another state. Why not surprise him with a visit? Definitely a surprise visit that contains a whole drama.

Genre: fluff, a bit of suggestive (?), angst (more like a verbal fight tho)

Characters: Doctor Wonwoo x Female OC

Word Count: 3052

A/N: Hi! I’m a new writer and I only write for Seventeen atm. The name is Angel or you can call me Ella. English is my second language, so hopefully explain why writing is so bad. I used to write before but I had a writing block for over 3-4 years. Recently, I’m trying to train myself to write again. So I hope that all of you could give me some feedback or might challenge me to write some stories~ All of things happen on the story are fiction and some are real life experience. Enjoy!

"Finally, the hell week is over '' Hana lay her head down on the table. It was called hell week for a reason since the students had to take their final exam while also completing their practicals at the hospital. This is the week where a lot of students stay up, cry and stress together. Hana was also one of the students that pulled an all-nighter. To make it worse, she was not feeling herself. For a positive ball of energy like her, it’s unusual for that to happen.`I'm craving drinks, man. I wanna get drunk.." Siyeon said as she sat next to Hana with her iced americano. "Should we? Hana, you wanna go out tonight?" Jinjoo looked excited as she poked Hana. "I'm tired.." Hana mumbled from her arm. "That is why we should go out.." Jinjoo pouted as she tried to persuade her best friend. Hana sits up and drinks her iced tea in a daze. "Earth down to you, Hana. Are you good?" Jinjoo squeezed her friend's hand. "It must be about your husband, is it?" Siyeon guessed correctly which made Hana pouted. She looked at her sparkling wedding band on her ring finger. Jeon Wonwoo is Hana's husband and also a neurosurgeon at Seoul University Hospital. But currently, both of them are in a long-distance relationship since they are working and studying in different states. "How did you know?" Hana questioned, making Siyeon snicker. "It is so obvious, woman.." Hana pouted as she twirls the ring on her finger. Jinjoo looked at her best friend with a beaming smile. "How about you go and visit him? You know, give him a cute surprise~" Immediately, Hana's eyes lit up at the idea. “I mean, we already started our break. It doesn’t hurt for you to spend your time with your husband,” Siyeon encouraged her friend with a smile.

Hana was preparing her luggage when her phone rang. It is Wonwoo, who face-timed her. Hana scrambled, panicked before jumping on the bed to make it look like she did nothing. "Hi, baby. How are you?" Wonwoo's deep and gentle voice soothes Hana. She could make out that Wonwoo was also having a busy day judging by the tired smile on his face. Not only that, he was still wearing his white coat and his black thin-rimmed glasses subtly covered his dark eye bags. "Survived hell week. How are you? I missed you so much.." Hana beamed at the screen. "Miss you too, honey. Well, I had a few surgeries and I am also on call tonight, which is not fun. Have you eaten yet?" Hana nodded. "I did.. Take a quick nap okay? you look so tired, babe. Take care of your health too, if you are sick, how are you gonna take care of your patient?" Hana nagged her husband. "Yes, I understand, Mrs Jeon." He giggled. "I missed you so much.." Hana spoke softly. "Come here then.." Wonwoo grinned as he stretched. "Oh, I will. Just wait~" He laughed at her cute face scrunched.

"Who did you call?" Wonwoo turned to look at his fellow surgeon, Kwon Soon Young who pushed the door open. He came in with a cup of ramen with Jihoon, tagging along behind him. "My wife.." Wonwoo stood up and took a seat near the men as Jihoon put his ramen on the table. "You are married?" Sooyoung shouted. He was so shocked. He can’t believe this cold and stoic-looking man is already married. Soonyoung’s mind is revving to spill the tea about Wonwoo’s secret marriage to Seungkwan and Seokmin, the friendly nurses that he is close with. "It's obvious. He didn’t even hide that he is married. He even has his wife's picture in his locker and on his phone lock screen.Oh, I've met her once too," Jihoon said as he slurped the noodles. "Wait, am I the only person who didn't know? Can I meet her? Please?" Wonwoo sighed at his friend's persistence.

Wonwoo was finishing his round when he approached the nurses and doctors that he’s close with. "The infamous Jeon Wonwoo. Come and join us.." Yoon Jeonghan, the pediatric doctor called him. "We are talking about going out for dinner together tonight. I know your shift is gonna end today, so join us." Another pediatric doctor, Mingyu, excitedly urged him. "Mrs Jung, do you seriously agree with these nasty boys?" Wonwoo turned and asked the oldest nurse who is like his mom in the hospital, Mrs Jung. "I can't decline if someone is gonna buy me food and drinks. Doctor Min Ah Ra and Nurse Han Seo Jin are also going, so at least there are more women added to the party." She smiled. "I mean Doctor Min Ji seems very interested in you~You both would suit each other very much" Nurse Han Seo Jin wriggled her eyebrow at Wonwoo. Wonwoo looked very uncomfortable at the mention. Doctor Ah Ra is known for her straightforwardness in work and her love life. She always goes all out. Yesterday, she even bought him and Jihoon coffee and cakes. Even before that, she would always buy him food and sit near him. It’s not like he didn’t drop hints that he is not interested but in fact, he always declined and avoided her. Somehow, she didn't get it or she was just being persistent. "Should I be upfront and tell her that I'm married?" He thought. Sensing his discomfort, Mrs Jung said "I don't think that Doctor wonwoo think Doctor Ah Ra that way." Jeonghan also jumped to save him, "I guess it's true that Wonwoo is not interested in anyone.Oh, great news! Soonyoung and Jihoon said that they are going to join us too. This is going to be more merrier!"

Hana was very happy when she arrived at his apartment. When she entered the house, she smiled. The house was very clean despite being a bit dusty. "He must be very busy.." Hana cleaned his house and even stocked his fridge with food. She can't wait for him to come back home. After doing all the chores,she texted him to ask when he is available so she could call him, in order for her to know when he is going to go home. "Sorry babe, I'm going out to eat with the team. Might be home around midnight though." He spoke softly. "Well, I miss you.." He chuckled. "If you want me to call you around midnight, sure~" Hana laughed as she snuggled in his bed. "Well, it's okay. We can talk tomorrow.." He sighed when he heard his name "sorry babe, duty calls.." She smiled. "Take care babe, love you.." He whispered. "Love you too darling". After the phone call, Hana pouted, thinking what she should do to kill some time. " Well, I should go shopping and eat great food.." She grinned as she searched for the restaurants that are popular in that area.

Not only SoonYoung and Jihoon follow them but the nurses, Seokmin and Seungkwan also joined the team. They were having bbq and enjoying the meat. "You know, I'm glad my children are older now. I can enjoy going out with you youngsters without stress." Mrs Jung laughed happily as she ate a piece of meat. "This is so good!" Seokmin sighed happily. Wonwoo nodded as he munched on his food. Doctor Ah Ra, like always, would stick near him. "Here a wrap. Says ahh..'' she tries to feed him a wrap. Wonwoo put his hand in front of him "it's okay. You should eat it.." Jeonghan and Jihoon looked at each other and sipped at their shots, at the awkward drama. Before nurse seojin can try to be a wing woman, Mrs Jung speaks out. "I guess we should play a game.. I really wanna see all of you youngsters play the game truth or dare without dare.. I'm too old for dare.." All of them laughed at her joke.

Hana grinned happily as she walked into the BBQ shop. "Hi, can I have a seat for a person.." The waitress nodded and brought her to a seat. "I'm sorry to inform you that the set comes for 2 people," she smiled at the waitress. "It's okay.., '' she grinned at the waitress. The waitress nodded at her before sitting her down at an empty table. Hana was looking around the BBQ restaurants when a group of people caught her eyes. They were laughing at one of the women's jokes. "I should invite Siyeon and Jinjoo here.." She pouted as she looked at her phone. However, the guy who sits at the edge of the table looked very familiar which made her double take. She looked up again to see the man,clearly. Lo and behold, it's her husband. She quickly ducks her head, hiding her face. "Oh no! I'm going to be caught."

"Which department doctor do you hate so much?" Jihoon asked the oldest nurse. "We all know Mr Kang Ho Jun from the cardiology department. That man is annoying!" Mr Jung huffed. All of them laugh. "Yup I can't deny it." Jeonghan sighed, taking a shot. "So now let us turn the bottle.." It landed on Doctor Ah Ra. "Who is your ideal type amongst the doctors and why?" Nurse Seojin asked her. "My ideal type is doctor wonwoo. He is tall, handsome, and great at his work..." Everyone just wooed at her responses. Wonwoo wants to focus on the game despite his annoyance but the lady at the table in front of him caught his eyes. She was ducking her head awkwardly with a menu in her hands. He narrowed his eyes at the ring on her ring finger that looked awfully familiar. Then, he saw one of the waitresses come to her table. That is when she dropped the menu to talk with the waitress. She looked very hurried."Wonwoo it's your turn." He looked at them. "Huh?" Nurse Seojin goes again. "What nickname would you give to doctor Ji A?" Wonwoo's eyes travelled back to the familiar woman at the table in front and when the waitress moved, both of him and her eyes met. "Baby!"

"Baby!" When Hana's eyes met Wonwoo, she knew she was busted. She waves awkwardly. Wonwoo spoke briefly at them before standing up and walked towards her. Before she said anything, he immediately hugged her. "Umm... Surprised..?" She giggled." When did you arrive?" He looked at her, grinning happily. "This afternoon..." He barked a laugh, "so when you called me earlier.." Hana grinned "I was on your bed.." Wonwoo shakes his head at her and leads her to his table. She looked at the people nervously. Not even wonwoo's hand behind her could soothe her nerves."Guys, this is my wife, Hana. Hana, this is my friend and colleague." She bowed to them "hello, I'm Hana, wonwoo's wife. Thank you for taking care of him while he is working at the hospital." Jeonghan waves "we met again, Hana..." Jihoon also put his hand's up, saying hi to her as they met before.

Hana sat next to Wonwoo. The woman next to him look at her with unreadable expression. "I never know you were married!" Seungkwan bellowed. "I thought everybody knows.. Mrs Jung knows too.. " wonwoo said as his hand wandered behind Hana's back. "How was your internship?" Jeonghan smiled at her. "It was great. I learned a lot at the hospital.." Hana mused. "No wonder wonwoo hides her. She is so pretty..." Soonyoung's word makes Hana hides her face to his side. “You are studying nurse, right? I hope I can work with you in the future,” Mrs Jung smiled fondly at her. “ I hope she can do her job very well then,” the woman next to her rudely. All of the people at the table looked uncomfortable at her statement. “ Oh! Since you never met us formally, this is Nurse Han Seo Jin and Doctor Ah Ra. Both of them worked in neurosurgery too,” Hana nodded in understanding and turned to Doctor Ah Ra. “It’s nice to meet you,” Doctor Ah Ra rolled her eyes and just nodded as she drinks her soju.

Doctor Ah Ra keeps drinking her soju which makes all the people at the table become very nervous. The thing about doctor Ah Ra is, she is very outspoken but she can be much worse when she’s drunk. “ How did you guys meet?” Hana looked at Doctor Ah Ra. “Oh, we were in the same school,” Doctor Ah Ra hummed. “So, you become a nurse because he is a doctor?” before Hana could retort her reason to be a nurse. “Are you stupid? You think that you can date while working if you do that?” Doctor Ah Ra snickered. Hana frowned. She doesn’t understand why this woman is attacking her. “I did not become a nurse because my husband is a doctor. I don’t get why you insinuate things, Doctor Ah Ra.” Doctor Ah Ra laughed bitterly. “I don’t get it. Why does he like you? Because you are cute? We all know cute girls are the most foxy ones. You are not even that pretty.” The others were rendered speechless by Doctor Ah Ra’s words. Hana could sense Wonwoo is heated with Doctor Ah Ra’s statement. “ Doctor Ah Ra, I think you should get home now. You drank too much..” His voice is low and serious. “ I don’t get it. Why don’t you like me back? I don’t care if you are married, you should be with me,” Hana was heated with Ah Ra’s childish words. “Are you even hearing what comes out of your mouth?” Doctor Ah Ra laughed. “Look, a lot of guys left their wife for me. It’s not my fault that they want me. Jeon Wonwoo, I don’t understand what is so attractive about her. Her look is just basic, and I doubt she is that intelligent-” The sudden bang shocked everyone. “ I don’t mind if you insult me but don’t insult my wife. You have crossed the line, Doctor Ah Ra. Excuse us, it is better for both of us to retire for the night. I’m sorry everyone,” Wonwoo stood up and gathered their things. Hana looked at the others, feeling bad for ruining their dinner. “I’m sorry for this Doctor Jeon,” Mrs. Jung looked at him, feeling guilty. He shook his head, “ No, It’s not your fault, Mrs.Jung. See you guys tomorrow,”

“Are you okay,Wonwoo?” Hana sat down next to Wonwoo on the couch. “ I can’t believe Doctor Ah Ra has the nerve to say all of that. I thought that I didn’t drop hints that I was married and uninterested in her. It seems like she was ignoring those hints all along,” Wonwoo sighed. He used to feel so guilty when Doctor Ah Ra made moves on him, even though he, with the help of his other friends, did drop hints to her that he was uninterested and married. “It’s not your fault. It’s not like you give her false hope or anything. Some people choose to ignore things for their own happiness,” “Are you not mad or anything?” “ Why would I be angry about something that you can’t control? It’s not your fault that she falls for you. To be honest, I couldn’t get angry at her for falling for you but I am angry at her for not understanding boundaries,” Wonwoo hummed in understanding. “Anyway-” Hana quickly jumped on him, covering his face and neck with kisses. Wonwoo hauled in laughter. “You really miss me huh?” Hana kissed on the tip of his nose before answering. “ Of course. Who wouldn’t miss their husband, especially someone as hot as you?” Wonwoo grinned before flipping her on the couch. “Well, I guess I should give you all those loving that I missed during our last meeting,”

“ Someone’s glowing,” Mrs. Jung grinned when she spotted Wonwoo walking to their circle. “I guess you have a good night,” Jeonghan lifted his eyebrow, teasing Wonwoo, making the man groan. “ Did he fu-” before the words leave Soonyoung’s mouth, Jihoon shoved the rice cakes into his mouth. “ Have some rice cakes, I brought when I was out of town for conference meeting,” Doctor Seungcheol from cardiology department pat Wonwoo’s back. “I heard about yesterday’s tea. I hope you will be fine today,” he smiled to assure Wonwoo. Before Wonwoo could say anything, Doctor Ah Ra made way for him. “ Doctor Jeon, can I talk to you for a minute?”. Wonwoo nodded before making her way to her office. “Have a seat,” She offered when they got into her office. “I’m fine. What is it?” He spoke coldly. Doctor Ah Ra sighed before apologizing. “ I apologize for yesterday. I guess I’m not good at handling things,” Wonwoo nodded without saying anything. “ I also hope to apologize to your wife directly. It was low on me for blowing my anger at her,” Wonwoo nodded before opening his mouth. “ I accept your apology. I hope we can work like before without any personal feeling attached,” . Hana was surprised when Doctor Ah Ra apologized to her directly when she was having lunch with Wonwoo. “ It is fine. I accept your apology,” she smiled softly at the woman. “ What I did was very wrong, so I am very sorry once again,” said Doctor Ah Ra before she dismissed herself. “ Did she really apologize?” Jeonghan ran and sat near the couple. “Yeah, why?” Wonwoo spoke as he finished chewing his food. “ Very surprised because she has a reputation,” Hana nodded, “ What reputation?” Wonwoo immediately cut, “ No need to worry baby,” Jihoon and Soonyoung came and sat at their table. “ Baby? Gross,” Jihoon snorted as he took a sip of his coke. Soonyoung grinned at Hana “ Hi, we meet again. I have a lot of questions to ask you,” Hana laughed at the man. “ Yeah, ask away” Soonyoung giggled when he got the approval before typing in his Tiger cased phone. “ Does Wonwoo love skinship?” Hana giggled before grinning deviously. “ He does look cold but he loves skinship. He is a very romantic guy despite his looks,” All of the boys wooed at the shy man who’s gaze was straight on his food. “ Ewww, tell me more!” Jihoon giggled.

#Seventeen fluff #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #svt scenarios #svt imagines #svt fluff #wonwoo scenarios #wonwoo imagines #wonwoo fluff #jeon wonwoo

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leam1983 · 2 years

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Placing D&D's Failures In-Context

TL;DR: it isn't because Tolkien and Lewis followed in the footsteps of Chaucer and Snorri Sturlesson that you also need to play out stories involving clean-cut Good and Evil forces.

Y'ain't writing a Narnia redux, so go nuts and do workshop that trusting, gentlemanly and wise Beholder with a wee little top hat. It's your game, and yours alone.

I might be a Marketing-related writer by trade, I still primarily identify as a world-builder. As such, I have to credit Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and other similar roleplaying avenues for helping me come up with my interest in specificity.

I've noticed a few people making note of the inconstant delivery of lore in D&D as of the 5th Edition, and especially of certain bad stereotypes that are being bandied about. I'm not looking to excuse them, so much as to make sure any other theory or lore-crafters understand why some concepts are so deliberately slapdash or offensive.

As with a lot of other things, it all goes back to Tolkien and Lewis, and to the myths and legends they themselves drew from.

You have to remember that The Lord of the Rings and Narnia are both serving as in-fiction national epics of a sort, the storied tale of the Good Guys thwarting the Bad Guys in your usual bout of identity-forging on a national level. You're effectively looking at Middle-Earth justifying its own existence, and at Narnia effectively setting up its main antagonist as someone who's not so much as deserving of nuance.

Nuance isn't foundational, after all. It isn't Biblical. It doesn't inform an etiological project for a greater Society. For the same reason, reading old Natural Science encyclopedias dating back to the late seventeen-hundreds would show us an outdated view of what constitutes an optimal ecosystem. Poke around for old news briefs dating back to the werewolf panic in France (yes, this is a thing) and you'll find no mention whatsoever of what primarily caused said panic, which was a combination of superstition, ergotism and excessive hunting of the local deer population. Wolves won't naturally attack humans, but a starving wolf who's had nothing to eat for days on end might be desperate enough to think otherwise.

Once Gygax realized there'd be more potential in his pen-and-paper jousting model if he freed it from the constraints of History, he felt the need to evoke that specific feel of classic Fantasy. The need to classify distaff character classes as protagonists likely initially edged them towards the Good side of the prototypical Alignment system, while fishing for antagonists obviously called for the opposite approach.

The rest sort of followed. If you're going after a Tolkien-esque propagandistic take on heroic deeds, then you don't need to give much nuance to orc, gnolls, trolls, goblins or what have you; you're entirely free to go as cartoonishly evil as you want. The apex of that approach was probably reached once the concept for Mind Flayers was pitched in 1977: when you're walking in H.P. Lovecraft's footsteps - as the man made it easy to misconstrue unknowable as being a synonym for evil - it's not exactly hard to start pitching the concept that some races are always Evil-aligned, no holds barred. That sort of talk unsurprisingly gives rise to purists.

Enter our contemporary era, wherein what isn't dissected or cancelled is revised for the good of Progressive gamers everywhere. You're a DM, you know the later editions pack resources for players wanting to play monsters, but D&D is so rigid in its presentation it might seem difficult to reason out of certain established canons.

What I do for my own campaigns is as follows.

I start by acting as if the Alignment system didn't exist. Githzerai, Aboleth, Bugbear, Illithid, whatever it is you're looking to play, it's just a stat block and a pretty picture. Then, I revisit the background info for your selected species and voluntarily ignore everything that involves agency-stripping "evil forces" shaping your character's native culture. Instead, you're born of a culture that is, as any decent Sociology teacher would tell you, the product of its environment.

Let's pick the Illithids. Canon-wise, they're extra-planar invaders long-since established in your setting of choice, to the point of usually forming a good chunk of your Underdark-esque setting's sociopolitical tensions. Having supposedly escaped annihilation, they're looking to rebuild at any cost and see all outsiders as tools to be put to use. This utilitarian concept goes so far as to inform how they reproduce, and also exposes a society where terminal sociopathy is the norm.

Okay. Let's break that down and keep only what I need to build upon or what I find interesting:

Extra-planar invaders? That's on-the-nose to the point of parody. Seeing as there's an element of survival involved, extra-planar refugees seems like a more cogent starting point. That angle gives me interesting societal hooks to play with, starting with various forms of PTSD, trauma, survivor's guilt, isolationism - or even more positive aspects, like the survivors seeing themselves as messengers warning the natives of a greater incoming threat, and deciding to arm both themselves and their new neighbours - at any cost. That gives the culture a large enough moral range to allow for both Good and Evil-aligned characters.

It doesn't make sense for shell-shocked survivors to effectively take over their new home. You're not looking at a civilization's worth of warriors, especially not with the Illithid - they're effectively betentacled bookworms that might be lucky if they had a few hardened soldiers left. Considering, they could either survive by ingratiating themselves with the local Drow or Dark Dwarf populations - as advisors, strategists, court scientists or sponsored researchers. Warriors in their ranks could make for an interesting spin on the concept of the wandering mercenary...

Ceremorphosis as a concept inspires no possibility for mutual exchange. Purists could argue that Flayers don't need to exchange what they can assimilate, but we're trying to avoid pejorative notions, here. Let's imagine, instead, that ceremorphosis is something they reserve for mutants derived out of the animal kingdom as a point of absolute bare necessity, and that they generally copulate in ways that are either closer to an actual cephalopod's or that follow the usual bipedal body plan. That implies some degree of sexual dimorphism that might go against the visual canons for Flayers, but the Internet's more than amply proved how much the community doesn't really mind that concept. If ceremorphosis has to be used, an easy workaround is to accept that the victim's original consciousness remains, but finds itself altered at the identitarian level. You'd die Bert the Barbarian and wake up still as Bert the Barbarian, except you'd feel a sense of distance from your former comrades and countrymen and would find it difficult not to imprint with your new "parents" or keepers.

Eating brains is an obvious issue. Let's stick with the Mother Nature-approved status of opportunistic carnivores, and leave the usefulness of learning through osmosis as a concept to the DM. If you really need to play up their intellectual capabilities, you can infer that Flayers have species-based total recall, which should make them fearsome or versatile enough in any context.

The end-result is a basic framework that's compatible with the notion of a "good" Illithid, without the need for some hackneyed messianic framework like the Adversary being involved - and that allows the idea of Mind Flayers being individuals in their own right to take shape. If the Elder Brain matters that much, you can retool it to be less a gestalt than a pool of shared knowledge, accessible depending on the subject's proximity to it - sort of like your Illithid colony's own flesh-based Intranet.

Remember that D&D is only a massive collection of suggestions. You're the creator of your own stories, so if you're looking to follow the trials and tribulations of a Gnoll Bard from a setting where the hyenafolk coexist with your distaff Rangers across forests and fields, go for it!

More importantly, if purists tell you the Monster Manual says X or that Mordenkainen's says Y, tell them you're running your own campaign.

It's all that matters.

#d&d #revising monster classes #a playable bestiary #inspired by other posts

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sepublic · 4 years

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King’s Progress

In all honesty, I feel like King is amongst Luz and Amity as having the most clear-cut, sense of progression and development amongst the cast in Season 1?

Thinking back on Really Small Problems, I really love its portrayal of King here… And, well, ALL of the episodes centering on King, really! Some might say that it’s repetitive to keep having episodes where he makes a mistake and apologizes, and while I can see that… Personally, I’m not too bothered because said episodes are always entertaining, I always love King content, but also…

There’s a very clear sense of progression amongst King’s mistakes, as the season goes along? If RSP were Episode 11, King would’ve likely chosen to spray Willow and Gus with ‘Obivioso’s potion and then reaped what he sowed afterwards. But he doesn’t, and King genuinely surprised me with how mature he was in that episode… He was still immature ultimately, but you could tell he was still approaching things in a much more mature fashion than in prior episodes. King actively chooses not to make Willow and Gus disappear, but he DOES still hold onto the potion… And while it was an accident for them to ‘disappear’, King nevertheless takes advantage of the situation now that it’s happened. It’s not entirely his fault, but he still could’ve made amends any time and fixed what happened- Again, even if it wasn’t totally his fault here.

I guess you could say it’s a lesson on how even if one doesn’t necessarily cause an unfortunate situation… It’s still one’s responsibility to help someone out of it, and/or fix that situation- Even if you benefit from it! Because again, even if you weren’t exactly responsible for what happened, it’s still a little unethical to choose to keep benefitting from that incident. I suppose it hearkens back to that ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ quote from Spiderman… How in some versions of the story, Peter chose to look the other way because the robber offered him something for his silence. Peter wasn’t the one who robbed anyone, he’s just a bystander- But he still chooses to passively benefit from the incident instead of doing the right thing, and calling the cops. And as we infamously know, Peter suffers the consequences when the problem directly affects him, too, and kills Uncle Ben.

King’s dilemma in Really Small Problems is a similar situation. He didn’t make the potion, he didn’t take it from Obvioso, and he didn’t willingly use it- But there was still something he could’ve easily done about the situation, but he chose not to because he benefitted otherwise. And as a result, King still shoulders blame and accountability… Which again, ties back into how circumstances may encourage people to do bad decisions (like Obivioso handing over the potion), but it’s still up to an individual to act on those choices in the end… And King acknowledges this, in another surprising act of genuine maturity!

And, I like that- As I said, it’s a sense of progression. A few episodes earlier, and King would’ve willingly caused the mess, instead of just knowingly benefitting from it, when otherwise he could end the whole thing right then and there (or at least THOUGHT he could). This gets me onto Sense and Insensitivity, and it’s an interesting parallel to The Intruder… Both are King-centric episodes, that focus and expand upon the seemingly inconsequential B-plot of the previous episode! In Episode 3, King competes with Eda on who’s the better teacher… And then in the next episode, we see that he’s actually serious about wanting to mentor Luz, or at least feel listened by someone! His motives are given more depth!

Similarly, Escape of the Palisman has King take advantage of Eda’s mental state for his own gain, only to get her into trouble… Then we have Sense and Insensitivity, which focuses on a similar mistake. However, it’s different… Because in the previous episode, King still put Eda into physical danger by taking her outside. Whereas in SaI… Again, what King does IS cold and harsh towards Luz. But in the end, it’s only emotional damage- He’s not jeopardizing Luz herself by getting her into potential trouble with the authorities or anything. I mean, Luz DOES end up getting kidnapped by Piniet and thrown into his Writer’s Block, but that was never part of the agreement King made with Piniet… At least not knowingly. The possibility for this could’ve been in fine print, but in this scenario I feel it’s less the result of King apathetically disregarding others, and more him just being a general dum-dum, so I’m willing to overlook it.

What’s interesting is that King is upfront about how he hurt Luz, to her face. In the previous episode, he took advantage of Eda’s physical prowess. Here, he takes advantage of Luz’s creative prowess… In the previous episode, King learns not to make others do things for him, nor violate their personal autonomy. In SaI, King then builds upon this lesson, by recognizing that even if he isn’t going to make Luz write for him or anything… He’s still being cold and insensitive and hurting her emotionally. Each time King makes a mistake, it’s still a new lesson in its own way, built upon past lessons… Each mistake of his is less and less egregious, and more understandable and mature. He’s a repeatedly-flawed character and certainly not perfect… But what’s interesting about seeing him continue to make mistakes, is that you can still clearly see how King is at least managing to do better than last time! His mistakes become more and more understandable, with each one he makes.

Progress isn’t always smooth. It can be messy, and fraught with constant mistakes. But it’s worth noting that while King doesn’t retain the ENTIRE lesson with each mistake… He still clearly learns something in the end, and applies it. King doesn’t perfectly apply what he’s learned and not to its fullest extent, but you get the sense that he’s trying, and that each lesson teaches him that while he technically didn’t make the same mistake as LAST time, King himself is still liable to certain other mistakes. He’s learning, more and more, how to be more responsible and less selfish. Going from outright using someone physically, to using their ideas… To not knowingly causing a mess, but still choosing to benefit from it when King thinks he has the power to end it otherwise.

Like Lilith, King isn’t perfect. He tries to learn the lesson in a way that’s most convenient to him- Like that time he took advantage of Eda’s cursed state, and when Eda asks him what happened, King denies his guilt! Like Lilith he definitely learned his lesson somewhat and won’t make the same mistake, but he’s going to otherwise pretend he’s innocent to others. King willingly ignores that it’s not just enough that he learned not to cause a mess, but that he needs to also actively improve upon things when he has the power to do so- Ironic, given King’s frustrations with a lack of agency! He tries to retain the lesson in a way where he minimizes the amount of mistakes he made… But even so, King still manages to learn something. He still recognizes that he had to have made a mistake, and so there had to have been something that was learned… And while King can make it easier for himself by trying to minimize the extent of his lesson (and thus the realization of how far his mistakes went), it still says a lot that he keeps on trying and improving, each time.

Speaking of which, I have to wonder if part of the reason why people don’t really notice King’s development is… Well, aside from OTHER things distracting from his progress (like Eda and Lilith’s relationship or the entirety of Understanding Willow, understandably), in hilariously meta sense? King is lowkey dismissed in real life as just being the fluffy, animal sidekick trope… A lot of people don’t stop to consider that hey, he does have legitimate flaws that he does work upon, that King has a clear sense of progression throughout the season, and in many ways he parallels Lilith, of all people! It’s just like how in-universe, King is overlooked and dismissed as JUST a cute and fluffy pet… In real life, a lot of people do the same and don’t bother considering his potential depth!

It’s kind of the reverse of Infinity Train’s Book 2… How a lot of people noted at the beginning that Lake was clearly a narrative reflection of Jesse. But then near the end, one of our main antagonists ends up acknowledging this fact, in-universe, in the worst way possible- By noting how the Infinity Train possibly set Lake up to function as a ‘reflection’ of Jesse in the metaphorical sense, there by transplanting what was acknowledged in real life, and bringing it up in-universe! In this scenario, King brings up how he’s often overlooked and dismissed as just the fluffy, cute sidekick… And lo in behold in real life, a lot of people overlook King and see him as JUST that trope, instead of at least that trope and more!

(Not to cast stones at anyone or imply that someone is less of a fan, or meaner, for not considering King’s potential depth as a character. There’s a LOT this show has to offer, so it’s understandable that some things are missed out upon, because one’s mind can only take in and process so much. I just think it’s an amusing coincidence is all, and I don’t think anyone is actively to blame, or at least not malicious nor terrible for it!)

#the owl house #owl house #the owl house king #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house eda #edalyn clawthorne #the owl house lilith #lilith clawthorne #character analysis #meta

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ukulelecal · 5 years

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marvel!sos - characters and relationships

hey pumpkins, so i made a big post with all the information about the characters in the marvel au that i have so far. obviously there’s more to be explored, but this is what i’ve got rn.

i wanna give a big thanks to @fullblownidentitycrisis for helping me develop this so much, and to everyone who sent ideas and suggestions!! you guys are awesome, i’m so excited, lets go (also sorry the bullet points are so long, i maxed out on the text block limit so i had to combine them):

Calum Hood as Spider-Man

-Your classic geeky science nerd. Follows pretty much the same story as Spider-Man; lost his parents, and then his uncle, and lived with his aunt, gets bitten by a radioactive spider and now has superpowers. Just in this case, he went to college in New York and lived in a dorm, probably lived with his aunt during summers. Went to college for chemical engineering on a scholarship, and is now graduated

-Moved into a cheap little apartment in Harlem after college with three other guys until he finds his dream science job, which he’s struggling with. He kind of hates the guys he lives with because they’re obnoxious but he doesn’t really have a choice. Works at a greasy spoon restaurant as a busboy for minimum wage

-He gets very overwhelmed about his powers, being afraid of them, afraid of possibly hurting someone, and feeling inhuman. It’s just very stressful for him. He has tattoos for his family, and when he gets too anxious about life, his future, his powers, he traces over the tattoos with his finger to remind him that he’s got his family watching over him

Eleanor, Calum’s girlfriend

-Born and raised in Chicago. Moved to New York after high school for college, also on a scholarship. She studies biomedical engineering. So even though she’s a science nerd like Cal, she isn’t awkward like he is. She’s very cool and witty, has a lot of spunk and is very sharp. Also super intelligent and quick-thinking

-She used to want to be a writer when she was younger, specifically a poet, but as she got older she started thinking she wasn’t good enough to do it for a living so she pursued science instead, but she still writes in her free time

-Works as a waitress at the same restaurant as Calum. Lived in an apartment by herself after college, but at some point her landlord raised her rent a lot, and getting paid minimum wage she knew she wasn’t going to be able to pay it, and ended up getting evicted

Calum and El’s relationship

-They had some classes together in college. Cal always thought she was gorgeous but never had the courage to talk to her. He never expected to see her again after college but lord behold, they work at the same restaurant now

-They started talking and hanging out a lot, and being best friends eventually grew into dating. Cal and El are the broke New York kids, living off cheap food in Harlem and leftover fries from the restaurant, always complaining about being broke but they aren’t unhappy, because they have each other. When El gets evicted, she stays with Cal in his shared apartment for a bit, but his roommates aren’t thrilled with the idea of someone else living in their already cramped apartment so they both take extra shifts at the restaurant and save up so they can get their own place. They’re like the groups little siblings (even though they’re not much younger), everyone looks after them

-El doesn’t know about Cal’s powers at first, and she finds out by walking in on him messing around in the suit. She’s hurt at first, about him keeping secrets, and Cal is panicking for three days thinking she’s going to leave him, but once she comes around she shows all of her support and helps him a lot when he’s having a hard time. She also becomes important to the team after that, using her logic to make plans and her medical background to heal everyone

-Cal calls her Ellie-bear, which she pretends to hate but secretly loves

Luke Hemmings as Thor Odinson

-God of thunder, heir to the throne of Asgard. Can be a bit cocky and hot headed, but he’s mostly a ray of sunshine

-Gets banished to Earth by Odin, but not for the same reason as in the movies. He gets banished because he’s in love with a warrior named Freja. The problem is, Thor has been arranged to marry another woman since he was born. And that woman is not Freja. Odin banishes him in hopes that being apart from each other will cause their love to die, and Thor will marry the other woman without resistance when he is allowed back. Obviously, Odin was wrong. While on Earth, Thor developed the name Luke Hemmings for himself. He met a group of heroes and worked with them

Freja on Asgard and Harper on Earth, Luke’s girlfriend

-An incredible warrior. Highly respected on Asgard

-She absolutely radiates grace and is very debonair. Even in battle, she is just the embodiment of elegance. She has a very calming voice, and it easily soothes anyone she speaks to without even trying. She always seems to be calm which makes her a very easy presence to be around. Her best weapon is a sword, but she dabbles a bit in everything

-Never really knew her parents; they were killed at an age when she couldn’t remember them. Raised by an Asgardian warrior leader, thus her becoming a warrior herself

Luke and Harper’s Relationship

-They were playmates growing up. It wasn’t until they were older that they started to have feelings for each other. They both knew that Luke was in an arranged marriage, but they didn’t care. They loved each other

-When Luke got banished, it was so rough for both of them. They had no way of communicating, and they had to go nearly a year without seeing or even talking to each other. Odin’s plan of getting them to fall out of love totally backfired. The first thing Luke did the second he could return to Asgard was look for Freja. He asked her to come back to Earth with him so they could be together because if they stayed Luke would be forced to marry the other woman. She quickly agreed and ran away with him, gave herself the name Harper. They completely put Asgard behind them. And they are so lovey dovey on Earth, making up for lost time. They’re the star-crossed lovers in the typical forbidden love situation. Luke shows her all the weird Earth things he discovered and they continue to discover more together

Ashton Irwin as Captain America

-Kid from Brooklyn. Used to be very sickly and weak. Received a special serum back in 1941, and became a super soldier. Incredible strength and speed. Was frozen for years and woke up in modern times

-Now he’s very brave and determined, and once he’s passionate about or invested in something he can’t back down. And when he sees wrongdoing he can’t ignore it. He’s like the dad of the group and is very protective of everyone. He’s especially protective of his girl, and also Cal and El

-He’s super good at drawing and he used to love it, but doesn’t do it as much anymore

Mila, Ashton’s girlfriend

-A SHIELD agent. People would expect her to be super serious and stoic but she’s the opposite. She’s literally the softest bean ever. She’s soft and cute, full of giggles and big smiles. She’s also very stable and organized, which is good for Ash because he’s always stressed. Super smart, good problem solver

-Also a major badass when in action which leaves everyone shocked. She can do acrobatics well and is strong, and she can handle a gun pretty good. She gets super tough when she’s fighting

Ashton and Mila’s relationship

-They met at some sort of SHIELD meeting that Ash had to attend. He thought she seemed sweet so he chatted her up a bit after the meeting, and they started going out. So she probably knows he’s Captain America from the start

-They keep their relationship pretty private. They aren’t super affectionate in public or anything but when they’re alone? Total opposite. They’re so soft and sweet with each other, and Ash totally babies her. They’re each other’s “person” that they can always trust and go to for anything

-At some point SHIELD forces Mila to relocate overseas, and Ash can’t go with her because they need him in the states. They try to make it work long distance but they just can’t do it, and they break it off. But Ash isn’t himself after that. He suffers in silence, refusing to talk about it, but the others can see that there’s something very wrong. It’s affecting his fighting for sure. The guys help Mila convince SHIELD to let her move back to the states, and once she does they’re both back to their lively selves because they just needed each other. They’ve got such a sweet happy relationship

Michael Clifford as Hawkeye

-Sarcastic and witty. Pretty confident

-Amazing with a bow and arrow. Master marksman

-He became deaf after an accident, and now he uses a hearing aid. A little insecure about it sometimes but he’s got great friends and a girlfriend to cheer him up

-Super affectionate with the girl he loves, even though he doesn’t seem like he’d be that way

Charlotte, Michael’s girlfriend

-She’s a villain; a mutant, like Wolverine but not the same powers as him

-She was experimented on a lot as a child and treated like nothing but a lab rat, which kind of stems her being a villain. She thought the bad guys were her only family at that time and that she had to trust them (I’m going to think more into the villain organization and her powers as a mutant). She always questioned their motives and why she stayed with them but she always felt she couldn’t get away. They took her in, after all, how could she? And she’s internally battling herself a lot

-In her regular life, she can be very intimidating and snarky, but she’s pretty nice once you get to know her. She’s a tattoo artist and has quite a few herself

Michael and Charlie’s relationship

-Their relationship is angsty. It’s fine before Mikey finds out Charlie is a villain and before Charlie finds out Mikey is a hero, but it’s messy after that

-Mikey finds out in a battle, where he knocks her unconscious and her mask falls off, and then he sees her. At first he can’t even move, he’s just so shocked, and then all he can think about is all the times in the past that he shot at her and hurt her, and he just breaks down. But later, he feels so betrayed and hurt. It would take him a while to stop being angry and forgive her. Like once he finds out about her rough past, he tries so hard to understand and see her side. He realizes she needs someone to bring out the good in her. And then he has to assure her that he still loves her and thinks she’s a good person

-But aside from all their drama, they’re such a goofy couple, always messing around and being dumb together

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ringtomb · 3 years

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Ranking narrative artistic mediums Part 2

Ok where we left off was explaining how narrative can exist within an artistic medium, so I might as well say other artistic mediums that will not be on this ranked list. Painting, sculpture, fashion, photography, papercraft, cooking, and graphic design are a few that come to mind. Now lets keep going

LITERATURE

I think this being so low might be a bit disingenuous, because I really haven’t read that many books. But I feel I have seen enough from wildly different genres to comment on how the medium fails for me. The biggest problem is that there are way too many fucking books.

That may sound like a strange thing to say, but I want to lay down another point that compounds the issue I have presented. Most authors are inspired by previous books, so they write books that appeal to thier specific interest. Therefore you get books spawned from extremely incestious ideas and most of the time fail to appeal to larger demographics. I was reading a book called Wonderstruck and all I could think was “This person only reads fantasy children's novels” because there is barely a plot and a shit ton of setting description, a factor very prominent in fantasy children’s novels.

Another issue is the way that literature is treated by the academic system, which aggrandizes thematic purpose over narrative strength. Shit like Fahrenheit 451 and Lord of the flies that are terrible books without any appealing aspects outside of the ability to write high school book reports on them. This is why I think most people are turned off from reading, because were tasked with writing about them in a way that can defeat the fun of reading for most people.

There are books that I do enjoy, I’ve read the opening to Swann’s Way over 5 times because it’s so good, but also because it so hard to grasp on first read through, which sucks cause this is a book with about 1.2 million words so it’s gonna take a while to finish. And books like Madame Bovary understand how to describe a setting without being uninteresting. The problem with the medium is that anyone can be a writer, and most are not good at it, which makes me scared to pick up any book at all cause the quality is never immediately apparent.

MOVIE/THEATRE

I would say that this is significantly higher than literature because it’s mostly because I have a much more adept understanding of this medium. With that said I think a good movie is only strong in it’s ability to immerse you in it’s world. I was going to separate animated movies and live action movies, but with the technological advancement in CG greenscreen effects, the 2 are not so different anymore, at least with the financially backing of any of the modern blockbuster publishers today.

I will say that good movies are able to have quippy writing conveying simple ideas, and change which occurs in the character is often too rushed to my liking. That’s why the best movies focus on spectacle, cause what else are you going to do with that money.

I’m going to use Miyazaki for this example, cause for the most part I find a good number of his movies to be kind of boring. And I get there is an exceeding amount of craft that goes into each on of his films, which is outlined incredibly in Digibro’s “How Hayao Miyazaki Maps A Setting”. But too me, none of what was being presented was saying anything of worth, and if the worth is in it’s existence then I guess I will forever remain untapped by his genius.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t find visually stunning moments engaging, but to imply that there is meaning in it outside of spectacle is ludicrous to me. I will say though that well written movies are something else to behold, because the run time elicits a much shorter margin of error when it comes to dialogue, which can make the times it’s pulled off like The Incredibles and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly that much more special. But again with literature, it’s mostly few and far between, but at least it’s more my fault this time.

VIDEOGAMES

Dude I love videogames, I have had some of the most fun playing Pokemon, or pulling off team wipes in Overwatch, or exploring the maze like catacombs of Hollow Knight are some of the most fun I’ve ever had. But do they make for good narratives? Kind of, and to that I’m going to bring up a scale which have two games at each end.

To the left we have Minecraft, and to the right we have Muv-Luv. Both to many are considered masterpiece games, each appealing for different reasons, but the factor that the scale determines is the amount of choice the player has.

In Minecraft you can literally do whatever you want, and the appeal is to literally be immersed by having your actions effect what happens in the game. It’s atmosphere cranked up to the maximum, and it’s a major factor in why Minecraft is one of the most critical and commercially beloved games ever.

Now we have Muv-Luv. Muv-Luv is a really long visual novel where the amount of actions a player can make that would actually effect the experience are few and far between. And even when a playthrough splits, most people seek out the routes they have missed to get the full story. It’s fully dedicated to it’s narrative, which most people find fantastic. And on both ends of the spectrum I am not satisfied.

Minecraft can be fun, but it only feels as much of an extension of me as it is me within the videogame, there’s nothing nuanced or contemplative about it, it’s just you but in the block world. And of course most games like this literally don’t have a story in mind at all, and I can’t fault it for not trying to have one. But in going to Muv-Luv you meet another issue.

Visual novels are usually portrayed in the first person, and this frankly confuses me. Most narratives are told in the 3rd person, and this works 99% of the time. We don’t have to be the characters to get invested in them, rather we understand thier circumstances and sympathize with thier struggles and celebrate in thier successes. So when you are thrown into the first person, you literally have to connect with what the character is saying, and this fails most of the time. If I’m supposed to be Takeru, and he says something I don’t think I would say, my suspension of disbelief is lowered that much and it frankly reminds me that I am indeed playing a videogame, and that’s something a videogame should never do.

So of course there are ways around this, Pokemon literally makes the main character never speak which is kinda lame. But in the realm of RPGs, I think games like Persona do the right approach and literally have the character you play as be it’s own character (showed in the 3rd person) and just allow you to move when the game needs to go from plot point to plot point. It retains the appeal of a videogame while having the ability to be a narrative, and that is where I live.

Videogames are higher here only because I do enjoy games just for game feel, but they do have the ability to pull off strong narratives as well, which is well appreciated.

Continued in the finale

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shadowcatgirl09 · 7 years

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Sins of the Past~Chapter 2

Post Season 8 AU: While in the midst of her travels Abby contacts Bonnie saying she needs to tell her something important and it can only be said in person. Together they travel to Alaric’s new school for the magically gifted so Abby can introduce her to a young woman. A young woman whom Abby kept secret from Bonnie for more than 20 years.

...I’m beyond sorry for how long this took. I’m not even gonna make excuses, I was lazy and lacked motivation for a while. To make up for it, hopefully, this is a pretty long chapter with plenty of BonKai interaction ;) Once again I must thank @fuckitimfangirling for being such a wonderful beta reader and all around beautiful friend. As mention before constructive criticism please, first time fanfic writer here.

@a-bonkai-fantasy225, @bonkai-diaries, @albion19, @l0nd0ninnit, @leianaberrie, @jemiscloisfan, @seasbelow, @respectable-alcoholic, @nys30, @sansatyrionfraser, @thenameismaynard, @shamelessbisexuality, @jordanjanellejoy, @themist-underground, @one-of-the-nine, @reginakc, @creekgal02, @mysticfalls-originals if I forgot to tag anyone I’m sorry.

Bonnie shifted uncomfortably under Kai's not-so-subtle ogling of her. She took a nice, deep breath and then slowly exhaled before walking directly up to Kai. "I need a favor." It took everything in Bonnie to get those words out. She pursed her lips at his facial expression.

Kai couldn't hold it back any longer, he let out a condescending laugh. "Oh I'm sorry, I thought I heard you say you need a favor. You've definitely gotten better with your jokes that's for sure." His eyes danced with mischief, "The last time you came here I learned you can be - what's the word for it - ah right, domineering and oh-so-vicious when you need to be. Though it wasn't all bad, especially when you-" Bonnie gave him an aneurysm.

Her face was twisted with rage. "Shut. Up. Kai." She spoke the words with a deadly calm.

Alisha, who was peeking her head out from behind the mini bar, was beyond bewildered. Sure, they've gotten to know each other over the past week, but seeing her sister's reaction to Kai was something to behold. She didn't even respond to those two intruders like she's doing with him. Whatever happened between these two was - no, is - extremely intimate.

Kai adjusted himself in the chair, smirk still on his face. "So, seeing as you need my help for whatever reason, I'm assuming your oh-so-reliable friends aren't around?"

Alisha snorted and then muttered to herself, "Yeah right, they would make it worse somehow."

Kai laughed and said, "I know right? I wouldn't be shocked if they're just sitting back and expecting her to do all the work as usual." He looked over at Alisha. "Sorry, I didn't notice you there, excuse my manners, I'm Kai." He gave her his signature finger wave.

She waved back awkwardly. "Alisha."

Bonnie turned to glare at Alisha, who put her hands up in surrender, before turning back to Kai. "I specifically need your power. Look I'll...let you out...permanently...if you agree to this."

He sat there staring blankly for a minute and then his eyes became half-lidded. "So, what's the catch? What do I get out of this besides my freedom?"

Bonnie looked like she wanted to kill him. "You get your freedom. What more could you want?" she said through clenched teeth.

Kai stood up causing Bonnie to take a few steps back. He kept walking until her back hit the bar. "I had something else in mind." He stepped closer so now their chest were practically touching. The look she gave him reminded him of when he told her to focus and block out Damon's crap. Of course, she quickly masked it again with anger. A smile slowly etched onto his face and he leaned closer, his lips slightly brushing against her ear, and whispered. "I'll only agree to help you if I get to spend a whole month with you."

She drew in a sharp intake of breath and shivered. "No way in hell is that happening!"

He stepped back a little, shrugged his shoulders, and said in a nonchalant voice, "Well, that's just too bad. I guess there's some more siphoners out there you can get to help you then?" He could hear her grinding her teeth, her eyebrows drawn down in anger.

She let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine."

He leaned closer to her, his index finger on his ear. "Sorry, what was that?"

She snatched him by his ear and yelled, "I said fine!" She roughly let go of his ear, sliding closer to where Alisha was standing, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart.

"Great, so it's decided!" Alisha had to use false excitement to cover up her nervousness. The tension between those two was ridiculously palpable. She almost felt like she was intruding on them.

Kai snapped his fingers in an eureka moment and walked to a corner of the place to grab a large black suitcase and a duffel bag. When he turned around, he came face to face with Bonnie leering at him. He raised a hand to placate her. "It's just necessities, like a tooth brush, clothes, condoms, etc."

Bonnie blanched, eyeing the suitcase distastefully now, while Alisha was staring intently at her phone to try to avoid their awkward thing. Bonnie rubbed her temples while muttering, "Come on." She pulled out the knife, cut her hand, and began chanting with Alisha. Before her sister could reach out to grab Kai, Bonnie gripped his wrist tightly.

He glanced down at her hand on his wrist. "Bonster, if you wanted to hold my hand, all you had to do was ask." A cheeky smile was on his face.

She ignored him and a moment later they were engulfed in a bright light.

As soon as they arrived back at Bonnie's house, both Alisha and her phones went off, implying they had a lot of text messages and missed calls. Both sisters groaned in annoyance.

Alisha swore under her breath, "Apparently, there's some Council members at the school." Her eyes widened. "Oh, crap! My parents called four times..."

Bonnie couldn't even respond before Kai was dragging her to the kitchen looking for something to eat. "Wow Bon, when was the last time you went shopping?" He was rapidly going through her cabinets and then the fridge. "Most of this stuff is out of date, that's just unhealthy." He looked at her in disappointment.

She just stared back at him blankly. "Let's just go to the school."

-----

It had only been a hour at the most since Bonnie and Alisha left, and then these people had shown up. Jeremy stared rather irritably at three people in front of him. They were Council members judging from the insignia on their shirts. He just hoped Bonnie or Alisha got his messages.

The one who looked to be the leader spoke up. "Hello, I'm Bradley. We came here to speak to Mr. Saltzman. We will also like a report with what happened down to the last detail." His voice was clipped and straight to the point. He then adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses before rigidly dropping his hands back to his sides.

Jeremy regarded them coolly and said, "Yeah, that's going to take a while and as for Ric, you guys just missed him." He wished Ric would hurry back already; he was annoyed from the earlier events and didn't feel like dealing these people as well.

The cocky-looking redhead interjected, sounding smug with his Australian accent, "Hey look, we get it. You guys without a doubt couldn't handle the situation here." He gestured to the chaos around them, "That's why we were called in. We'll wait for Ric to get here while you scurry off to go write that report for us." He winked and made a shooing motion with his left hand.

Jeremy's eyes narrowed to slits. Bradley clamped a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "Yuri, that's enough! Don't be rude, even if the first half of what you said was true."

The brunette-haired woman with them laughed quietly.

Jeremy's lips drew back into a snarl. His shoulders were squared back, but before he could say or do anything he heard a car pull up. All four people turned as Bonnie and Alisha stepped out along with a sour-looking Kai Parker. His mood immediately brighten when he saw the newly installed but now broken vending machine though, poor thing never stood a chance.

"Hey, Jer." Bonnie's eyes darted between each of the Council members, lingering on Yuri's face the longest. "What the hell is he doing here? Wait, he's a Council member?! Dammit."

Yuri's face lit up seeing Bonnie and he casually sauntered over to her. "Hey! I haven't seen you since Barcelona! Those days were so much fun, we should do that again sometime." He winked at her suggestively.

Kai's hand abruptly paused from digging into his bag of sour cream chips and he leveled the guy with a menacing glare. Bonnie chuckled and stepped back to put at least a foot of space between herself and Yuri. "That was a one time weekend fling. Nothing more."

Jeremy looked disgusted, Kai's glare worsened, and Alisha felt a chill go down her spine. “If that guy gets any closer to Bonnie, he's gonna become another casualty here.” She stepped up beside Bonnie. "Look, wouldn't it be easier to get a report from Tiffany? You know, the admin? We need to make sure the children are okay, and we have a lot of cleaning to do as you can see."

Yuri seemed annoyed at that. "I'm pretty sure you three don't need Bonnie for that." He went to reach for her, but then he grabbed his stomach and doubled over as if he was in pain. His two subordinates swiftly settled into a battle stance, looking between the four of them.

Bonnie's head snapped quickly over to Kai, who was innocently munching on his chips. He arched one eyebrow. "What?" he said in a nonchalant voice. He looked past Bonnie at the Yuri guy hunched over. "He okay over there? Lookin’ kinda green in the face. He should do something about that."

Said guy mumbled something under his breath. Bonnie leaned closer. "Yuri?"

"I said, where's the bathroom!" he yelled.

Alisha stopped gathering up the bodies and pointed down the hall to her left. "Third door on the right."

He darted off in the direction she pointed to. Alisha's eyes met Jeremy's, "I'm not cleaning that up," she said darkly.

"Yeah, that's gonna be Ric's problem," he said, as he dragged another body over to the left hand corner of the room.

Alisha walked to the middle of the area and began chanting. Slowly, the building started to go back to the way it originally looked, and thus made it easier to get to the other bodies. When she was done she looked around slowly. "Eight more to go." She let out a deep sigh.

Bradley adjusted his glasses again, "Do you know when Miss -Tiffany, was it?- when she will be back?"

Jeremy looked up, fuming. "Gee, I don't know! Maybe when her and the rest of the staff are done calming the kids down!"

He flinched slightly. "On second thought, I'll just go look for her myself," he said briskly. He lightly tapped his other subordinate on the shoulder. "Let's go." Together, they walked through the double doors leading to the student dorms.

"You should've been doing that!" Bonnie yelled out to them as she casually walked over to where Kai was, taking one of his bags of chips. Kai looked offended.

"Hey, I got those fair and square!" He started gathering the rest of his bags closer to him as if to protect them from her.

"The machine was broken, Kai. Not to mention you grabbed enough bags, you won't miss one," she replied, a fake polite smile on her face.

The doors flew open and there stood Alaric. "Bonnie!" He sounded relieved to see her. As he strode over to her, his eyes made contact with Kai's.

Kai waved at him with a smirk on his face. "Long time no see almost brother-in-law! How have you and my nieces been?"

To say things got hectic was an understatement. Alaric pulled out a stake and swiftly advanced on Kai. Jeremy kept moving the bodies, ignoring what was happening, but Alisha accidently dropped one in panic, while Bonnie casually moved out of the way. Alaric swung the stake from overhead and Kai jumped back, then Alaric went to do a roundhouse kick but caught air as Kai vamp-sped near the vending machine. Bonnie, of course, was getting her share of entertainment from watching this.

"Hey Ric, come on now - do you really want to kill the one guy who can defeat the person responsible for this?" he questioned as he ducked from an incoming right hook.

"Bonnie can find a way to deal with this without you." He did a thrust kick into Kai's stomach causing him to stumble backwards into the machine, the metal pieces digging into his back. He went to bring the stake down again, but was hit with a motus. It sent him flying into a bookcase on the other side of the room.

Kai looked over at Bonnie, but she was looking at Alisha. A rather pissed-off Alisha. "Like hell she will! We let him out to help us deal with this problem. Magic doesn't work on this lady, her power cancels it out. If you kill him, the only other people we could use would be your daughters. And seeing how hell bent you are on killing him, I guess you have no problem sacrificing your kids, right?"

Alaric groaned and struggled to his feet. "Bonnie always found a way to deal with a threat. She doesn't need him for this." He pointed an accusing finger in Kai's direction.

"I like how you think my sister is going to be the only one dealing with this problem - like your useless little gang always did." She glared daggers at him. She then went back to placing the bodies along with Jeremy.

Alaric briefly assessed her for a minute, then turned his head away in shame and went to help with the bodies.

Kai twisted around trying to check the back of his shirt. "Shoot, I'm going to need another shirt." He looked at Bonnie. "Bon, I need your car keys."

"No," she said and folded her arms over her chest.

"Aw come on you really want me to walk around with a bloody shirt? Or do you prefer me with it off?" He raised his eyebrows and gave her a lewd smile.

She just facepalmed. Jeremy stood up, wiping his hands on his jeans, "Ric, since you're here you can finish this up. Oh, there's also some Council members for you upstairs." He then turned to Bonnie. "The arrow's behind the front desk. I didn't want those guys taking it as evidence before you could use it."

Alisha looked appalled. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you talking like you're not sticking around!"

"I'm not. I'm going back to my apartment to sleep," Jeremy said, already halfway to the front door.

Alisha ran over, grabbing his arm pleading. "No, no, I need you on this! Those two can't fight physically to save their souls!" She turned and smiled apologetically at Bonnie. "No offense, sis."

Bonnie waved her off and Kai put his hand on his chest in mock hurt. "I can totally fight!"

She sized him up. "Right, okay dude. You have the build but I can tell you mostly rely on magic."

Kai didn’t even try to put up an argument. “Well it’s not exactly a lie.”

Bonnie leaned back against the broken front desk. "She has a point, Jer. I don't do physical combat and Kai can't fight his way out of a paper bag. You're needed on this. The newly formed Council never comes here, they're mostly sent to areas with extreme problems. The only thing that would interest them would be the shapeshifter, but my intuition is telling me that's not the case. Since they're supposed to be, you know, extinct; they came here for that Ness or whatever her name is woman."

Jeremy just sighed in defeat.

Bonnie turned, walked behind the desk and reached for the arrow. As soon as her hand made contact with it, she winced in pain and clutched her head. Images flashed by rapidly: A battered woman's blood being taken, a man writhing in pain, and an abandoned building. When she came to, she was looking at a worried Alisha and Jeremy hovering over her.

Alisha was holding her hand. "Bon, are you okay? What was that?" Her voice was trembling.

Bonnie nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just my lovely psychic abilities at work." She suddenly stiffened, realizing whose arms she was in. One would've thought she was accidently burned with how fast she moved away from him. She leered at Kai while getting up, using Jeremy's shoulder as a crutch.

Hurt flashed in his eyes for a split second before vanishing. "Gee, a simple thanks would be nice. Eh nevermind, I'll just let you hit the floor the next time that happens, capiche?" He said.

She just glared at him.

"I think I'm witnessing something I'd rather not see." Jeremy muttered to himself looking away.

Bonnie patted his shoulder. "Thanks for doing this, Jer," she whispered.

"No problem, Bon, you're my friend." He smiled at her.

She glanced around the room, she noticed Ric wasn't there. "Okay, so we should hurry up and perform a locator spell. We don't need the Council following us."

Jeremy raced upstairs to get his equipment. Alisha pulled out a world atlas book and Kai wiped the blood off the arrow, handing the napkin to Bonnie. She chanted a spell to liquify the blood, letting it drip on the book pages, and then Alisha chanted the locator spell.

Kai looked over Alisha's shoulder, his upper lip raised in disgust. "Really? They're in Philly?"

Alisha nodded. "Yup."

Bonnie's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. "How did they-"

She and Alisha locked eyes. "The rogue witch," they uttered in unison.

Jeremy came bounding back down the stairs with his backpack. "Ready."

Kai raised his hand. "Question! Are we using magic to get there or are we taking the car? It takes 6 hours to get to Philly, maybe 4 if there's no traffic and how fast we're going. It'll be late when we get there. Sooo..."

Alisha slammed her palm into her fist. "We can use time magic! It's my coven's specialty. I mean, my adoptive parents' at least."

Bonnie looked over at her. "Okay, we'll discuss it in the car."

As soon as they opened the front doors of the school, they saw a car pull up with Abby and a light-skinned woman who looked to be around the same age.

Alisha flinched. "Shit. It's my mom." She hid behind Bonnie.

Kai laughed while putting his junk food in a plastic bag and Jeremy smirked, adjusting his backpack.

The woman was yelling as she got out of the car, her Jamaican accent thick. "Alisha Marie Warren! Why have you not called me or your father, young lady!? Do you know how worried we were?!" Her mom pulled her from behind Bonnie and into a suffocating bear hug. "Thank god you're okay."

"I'm...sorry...mom." Alisha was smacking her mom's back frantically now. "Can't...breathe!" She gasped the words out. Her mom let her go reluctantly. Alisha had her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath. Bonnie was patting her back with a grin on her face.

All the anger and worry washed off her face as soon as she laid eyes on Bonnie. "And you must be Bonnie. I'm Zora, Abby has told me so much about you. It's nice to finally meet you." Her voice was gentle.

Bonnie smiled brightly. "Likewise."

She looked over Bonnie's shoulder. "Oh hello, Jeremy."

He waved back, eyeing her car with hope in his eyes.

Zora smiled apologetically. “No food today son.”

You could actually see the moment when Jeremy’s heart broke.

"Zora! It feel like it's been ages since I've last seen you! When your daughter mentioned time magic, I was like, no way, she's still around here? I thought you would've went back to Jamaica." Kai excitedly bounced over to them.

"And you are?" One eyebrow raised in question.

"Ah silly me, the last time you and Abby saw me I looked like a frat boy and not like,” he gestured to himself. “- this. It's me Kai, Kai Parker!" His hands were in his jean pockets and he was looking at Zora and Abby expectantly now.

Abby's eyes widened and her lips thinned into a straight line. Zora became as still as statue. Bonnie gripped her mom's arm. "Don't, unfortunately we need him alive to deal with this crisis," she said through gritted teeth.

Abby stared at Kai pensively. "I thought with the help of my mother, Joshua locked you up in a prison world for good."

"Well, you can thank your daughters for letting me out this time. The first time it was Bon, not intentionally though, then she trapped me in another one, and I got out using your ancestor Qetsiyah's blood. Then Bon-Bon stuck me in another prison world, but of course she came back to see me a day later for some-aahh!" Bonnie slammed one of her wedge boots down on Kai's foot. "Ow! Dammit Bonnie!"

"Your gift for gab will keep us here all day and we have places to be." She pushed him towards her car. "Abby, I'll call you when we get there."

"Your daughter is mean, Abby!"

"Oh mom, we need to perform a time spell. The people we're going after already have a two hour lead on us and it's going to take at least 4 to 5 hours to get to Philly." Alisha said.

"Do you really have to do this?" Zora asked.

"Mom, they're my kids! And I honestly don't know which one she's after so I rather just take her out for good," Alisha replied.

Abby, with her hands on her hips, said, "I'm with Zora on this, let someone else make the sacrifice this time."

"Abby, nobody's being sacrificed, we're just making sure this won't happen again." Bonnie side-eyed her mother now. "Let's get this spell done."

They formed a six person circle. Kai clasped Bonnie's left hand causing her to look at him in contempt, while Alisha held her right. Abby seized Jeremy's right hand and Zora's as well. Zora began chanting with everyone else following suit after hearing the words repeated. The wind gradually slowed down, and time itself stood still. Kai squeezed Bonnie's hand a bit too hard.

She hissed, "Kai! What are you doing?!" She tried to pull away but he wouldn't let go.

"It feels just like the prison world."

"Oh." She forgot that was his biggest fear.

He recovered quickly though. "I call shotgun!" He opened the passenger door of her car before Bonnie could protest. He finally let go of her hand as he settled down into the seat. Jeremy was tossing his backpack in the trunk and getting in the backseat on the driver's side. Kai was mumbling a spell to change his shirt.

Abby put her hands on Bonnie's shoulders. "Please be careful." She looked over at Alisha. "Both of you."

"We will." They headed for the car.

"This spell should give you kids at least 4 hours until everything returns to normal! Oh Ali, just so you know, Chase is working at the restaurant now!" Zora yelled.

Alisha froze. Bonnie stopped and looked at her, "Ali?" She reached out her hand, but Alisha flinched from her.

"I-I'm fine, sorry."

"But you're not fine, Ali."

"I'm just tired is all. Been up all day and that spell is taxing on the body."

Bonnie just stared at her blankly. Alisha was hugging herself now. "Chase is - it's complicated. Just know he was a terrible boyfriend, who really lives up to his name. I don't want to talk about it."

"We'll deal with him when we get back."

Alisha's eyes widened in surprise. "Bon -"

Bonnie put her hand on Alisha's back. "Move it, we got places to be. Shapeshifters, rogue witches, and weird siphoner women to take out."

"I'm so sorry, Bon, you shouldn't even be involved in this. We wound up releasing a guy who you prefer to never see again and I just - you shouldn't have to put up with this."

Bonnie just shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, Kai's not a problem, just a pain in the ass. I just chalk it up to being a Bennett. We unfortunately get caught up in stuff whether we want to or not."

"And wind up being unsung heroes."

"Ha! Truer words have never been spoken. Come on."

They both got in the car and Bonnie started the engine. "Finally! I was about to beep the horn for you guys. By the way Bonbon, I never got around to asking, but what make and model is this car?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "First, stop calling me that, we're not nor will we ever be friends. And it's a 2016 Toyota Camry." She saw Kai pout. She smirked to herself and pulled off, heading for the highway.

-----

"Ali, wake up. Ali, wake up!" Jeremy was shaking her to wake her up, or at least trying to. He gave up after a while.

Kai was humming Why Should I Worry while moving cars out of the way with magic so they can have a clearer road, much to Bonnie's chagrin. "Kai stop that! There are people in those cars! When the magic wears off, there's going to be car accidents everywhere because of you."

"So you just want to be stuck on the highway behind time-frozen traffic?"

"I was maneuvering around the cars just fine Kai!"

"Riigghhttt. I've seen old people drive faster than you. What I was doing got us here faster."

"Yeah, you would know, seeing as you're old enough to be everyone in this car's dad."

Jeremy snickered. Alisha finally woke up and Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief. "About time. We're ten minutes away from Philly."

"Oh, sorry. Bon, make a right at the Island Ave exit."

Jeremy looked at his watch. "Bon, we have twenty minutes before the spell wears off."

"Shit Bonnie, drive! The last thing you want to be is stuck in between cars frozen in time in the middle of a narrow street."

"Which way?"

"Keep going straight!"

Kai stopped eating his chips to grip the oh-shit handle. Jeremy and Alisha threw on their seatbelts. After fifteen minutes, Alisha spoke up. "Pull in this parking lot."

Bonnie pulled in the lot and put her forehead on the steering wheel. Time slowly went back to normal, and the sounds of traffic picked back up.

"Well, that was fun while it lasted. It's time to deal with civilization again," Kai said, back to munching on his chips again.

Bonnie groaned. Alisha took off her seatbelt and leaned over. "Hey Bon, switch with me. I'm pretty well rested and I know my way around here. Take a break."

Alisha opened the door on her side and Bonnie got out of the car. Alisha crawled into the driver's seat and adjusted it to fit her longer legs. The car door slammed close, signaling Bonnie was in the car. "Okay, we are heading downtown. We can get a hotel room."

"In my vision, I saw an abandoned building, it looked like some type of power plant or factory."

"An abandoned power plant or factory?" Alisha stopped at a red light. She banged her head on the steering wheel. "That's-Ugh! At least it's narrowed down somewhat."

Jeremy was searching Google on his phone. "Well, there's 7 different places we have to search then."

Kai was still munching on his chips. "Where's the closest one?"

Jeremy craned his neck to see the street sign. "We're on...56 and Chestnut. The closest is between 22nd and Carpenter."

"South Philly it is then," Alisha said, swerving around a car. "Damn Philly drivers."

-----

Meanwhile in Philly Ness walks along Broad Street, taking in the sights of the Avenue of the Arts near the Kimmel Center. A little after 7:30, she comes to a stop in front of the Academy of Music. A man with golden olive skin and dark green eyes, who was sitting on the steps and chewing gum, stood up to greet her. He had a southern drawl in his voice. "Inessa. I would say it's good to see you, but we both know that's a lie."

She sneered at him. "You just don't like the fact that you're powerless in my presence. Literally."

He spit out his gum on the sidewalk. "Bitch."

In the next second, her hand came across his face, hard. "Watch how you talk to me. Remember Vinny, you are expendable. I can easily find another witch."

His eyes darted downwards, his hand on his right cheek, his lip bleeding. "Sorry."

"You better be happy that I find you useful to me, otherwise you’d end up with the rest of your family. Now, give me an update on things."

He looked directly at her face. "I had to get, um, physical with the woman; broke her leg when she tried to run, but I got more of her blood. The problem is, no matter how much magic I use, I can't find the kid. Those bastards are using some damn powerful blocking spells."

"No matter, send the school his father's ear."

"Can it be his mother's instead?" His eyes were hopeful.

"Whatever. No, you know what, send his ear and a finger of choice from his mother."

"On it!" Vinny says excitedly.

"Make sure they're wide awake when you do it, too."

He makes a gesture signaling he understood while running off. Ness turned, heading towards South street, a smile on her face. There may have been a minor setback, but everything else was going according to plan.

-----

Bonnie was resting her eyes while Kai was busy flipping through radio stations. "Which one is the station for alternative?"

"104.5"

He stared at the radio like it was broken. "What in fresh hell?! Yeah no, I'm hooking up my phone. Where's the aux cord?" He turned in his seat to look at Bonnie.

Her face was void of emotion. "No. You had that grunge shit playing all over your house in 1994, I refuse to go through that again."

He whined, "Bonnie!"

"I said no, Kai!" Her eyes narrowed.

Alisha just turned it to 105.3. "There, it's now on a station that plays old school hip-hop, R&B, and soul. So, you two can quit having a lovers’ tiff."

Jeremy had his headphones in, Bonnie looked all types of offended, while Kai just grinned. "Bonster, I think I like your sister." If Kai wasn't necessary for this little mission, he would be dead from the look on her face. His grin just widened more.

"Turn back around now." Alisha could feel her sister's eyes burning holes into the side of her head. "You and me are having nice long chat when we get to that factory." Alisha slouched down in the seat and continued driving.

Thirty minutes later, they arrived in front of the factory. Everyone got out and Kai let out a low whistle. "This place has seen better days. Reminds me of the places my friends and I used to hang around."

"You had friends?" Jeremy said the disbelief in his voice evident while giving him a sidelong glance.

"More like people I tolerated. Since Papa Parker was involved with real estate, I used to sneak into his office, take some documents and explore whatever building he was working on at the time."

"I doubt you just explored."

"Of course I didn't. We'd usually trash whatever building or house he was supposed to show off to a client the next day. Fun times."

"Wow, you were an ass even back then," Bonnie said sarcastically as she stepped up beside him.

"Aww, thanks for noticing, babe.”

Bonnie shot him a nasty glare at the babe comment. Jeremy went first followed by Bonnie and Alisha with Kai taking up the rear. Jeremy easily breaks the lock holding the chains that were wrapped shoddily around the fence. They walked until they reached one of the beaten down doors. He pushed lightly against it and the door fell away.

Kai's face scrunched up. "I smell blood - not the human kind - and barbecue...burnt barbecue."

Alisha sighed. "I'm hoping it's just homeless people." The sound of non-human feet skitter across the floor, kicking a piece of debris. "But I guess that's too much to ask." A howl rang out and everyone went absolutely still.

"We would end up in a place occupied by werewolves." Jeremy bunched up his headphones and put them in his pocket.

"Okay, so she's definitely not here, unless it's the guy." Kai said.

"He wouldn't be here without her." Bonnie replied.

They turned to leave, but two wolves were blocking the door while a man with pale skin and platinum blonde hair stood in front of them. "So, your little crew think y'all can just barge into my pack's place and not pay a price?" His voice sounded grave.

"Actually, we were just leaving," Bonnie stated matter of factly.

"Since you lot trespassed into my territory, I think not."

"So, I'm guessing negotiation is off the table?"

The guy tapped his chin in thought. "You lot broke my chains and my door."

"Get better security then, it was easy to pick that lock, the chain was rusted beyond repair and well you and your pack did pick an abandoned building." Kai sounded and looked annoyed at the fact that he had to point that out.

They all looked at Kai incredulously. The guy sniffed and then his eyes narrowed. "Vampire." The two wolves beside him growled and stepped forward.

"Seriously? I thought we moved past the vamps vs wolves thing." Kai could feel Bonnie's magic crackling. He licked his lips, her magic was always so intoxicating to experience, whether it be through siphoning or her just using it. She began chanting.

"Lost that right when ya broke in." When they charged forward, her hand went up as she finished the incantation. "Prohibere!"

The three of them came to a grinding halt. "You're a witch?!" He gritted his teeth in frustration from not being able to move his body.

"Yes, I am." She waved her hand to the right and they went flying. "I suggest you not move from that spot until we leave."

The guy grunted in response. They strode out of the dilapidated factory. Alisha turned around to mutter a restoration spell so that the door and gate would be fixed.

Jeremy sighed, trotting alongside Alisha. "Well, that was ten minutes that could've been better spent elsewhere."

"That was hot, Bonnie." Kai said as he leaned against the car, smirking.

She rolled her eyes and ignored him. "Ali, where's that hotel again?"

"Oh, it's at Rittenhouse Square, downtown."

"Okay, here's the deal, we're going there to get rooms so we can form a proper plan. Jeremy, are there anymore factories near there?"

He was swiftly scrolling on his phone. "There's two, one on Beach St and the other's on 9th and Callowhill."

Everybody got in the car. Alisha back in the driver's seat. "Rittenhouse, here we come!"

-----

They were on the expressway now. Jeremy was nodding off in the backseat. Bonnie was checking messages.

"I'm going to need a computer or laptop so I can access the Gemini archives."

Bonnie looked up in confusion. "I thought those were still locked up somewhere in Portland."

"They were, but I got a tech savvy buddy of mine from back in the day to transfer most of the files and books onto some USB cards for me."

"And you didn't kidnap him or a family member to force his hand?" Her voice was deadpan.

"No Bonnie, how rude! He was some nerdy kid I saved from some bullies back in the day. It was a debt being repaid among other things."

"You willing saved a kid with no benefit to yourself whatsoever?" She sounded skeptical.

"I needed to vent frustration from the crap my sister and brother pulled earlier that morning. It was an opportunity that worked in both of our favors."

Alisha glanced over. "What did they do? If you don't mind me asking."

Kai sat in thought before shrugging his shoulders. "If I remember correctly, they took some of my mom's documents for a high profile case, locked Chloe in the basement because she saw them - she was the youngest after the twins, and stuck them in my room under my mattress. When she finally found them, I had to go to school with a bruised eye from getting hit in the face with a belt buckle."

The silence in the car was deafening. Alisha made a turn onto Walnut Street and kept driving straight. "Um - well, your mom sounded lovely."

"Eh, she was just as much as a piece of shit as the rest. Of course, she wound up dying from a poisoning two years later anyway. I did make sure to get those little bastards back though. My sister had went shopping that weekend, so I poured bleach on all her colored clothes. As for my brother, I dowsed the diving board with lotion; Idiot broke his ankle trying to show off."

Bonnie didn’t say anything, she just leaned over to gently shake Jeremy awake. He woke instantly. "We're here."

They got out, Kai grabbed the cooler and his suitcase while tossing Jeremy his backpack. Alisha handed the car keys to the valet. Bonnie was tucking her phone back in her pocket. "Okay, so who's paying?" They all looked at Alisha.

"Fine. I was the one who wanted to come here anyway." As she bounded off to the front desk, Kai was absorbing the place in wonder. The last time he was here - in 1994 that is - the building didn't look like this. The lobby wasn't as grand or as bright. Bonnie and Jeremy sat down on the charcoal colored sofas.

"Jer, I never got to ask, are you sure you're okay on working with Kai?"

"I worked with him before and he got stuff done, so I don't really have a problem with it."

She put her hand up to stop him. "Whoa, hold up - when did you work with Kai?"

"To get you out of 1994." He said it so casually, as if it was nothing.

"I thought Damon did that with help from Lucy."

"Yeah sure, he got the blood and low-key manipulated Kai into helping, but that was it. As soon as Elena wanted to talk about their relationship, it was up to Kai and me. Liv had attacked us and he was dying; he could've easily stopped, but he didn't, he performed the spell again. Thanks to that, I was able to leave the map and open the garage door."

Bonnie's face was blank. “That was Kai and Jeremy? I thought that-but Damon said - no! Even if he did that, it changes nothing. He was the reason I was stuck there in the first place... But he in that moment did more for you than even some of your friends ever did.”

Alisha came back over. "Hey guys, I ordered the 2-bedroom suite with a connecting executive king room."

"I call dibs on the king room!" Kai shouted from the other side of the lobby. The people glanced at him in disbelief and strange inquiry.

"Guess I'm taking the sofa then?" A tired smile formed on Jeremy’s face.

"If it helps it's a sofa bed." Her face shifted to a look of concern and she crouched down. "Bonnie? You okay?"

Bonnie blinked in surprise. "Y-yeah. I'm okay. What floor are we on?"

She was staring at her curiously now. "5th floor, room 513." She handed the keycard to Jeremy. "You guys go on ahead."

Jeremy hesitated for a moment, but when Alisha waved for them to go on, he got on the elevator with Kai. Before the doors closed she saw Kai tilt his head quizzically, gazing at Bonnie. Alisha put a comforting hand on Bonnie's. The woman had a small smile on her face. "I'm good, I just learned some events in the past didn't go the way I thought they did."

"That's what, twice now?"

She let out a sad chuckle. "Go figure."

"More with being a Bennett?"

"No, more like having a terrible best friend."

"Oh, I could've told you that one."

"Hey!"

Alisha put her hands up in surrender. "I'm just pointing it out from an outsider's perspective. Your friends were kinda shitty, sis."

Bonnie sighed. "Let's get to our room, I need to charge my phone."

-----

Bonnie opened the door; their room was nicely furnished with cream colored walls, plush carpet, and windows with white lace curtains showing the park. Jeremy was passed out on the couch, his backpack thrown hazardously on the floor beside him. The adjourning room door was open, with loud grunge music playing. Bonnie went into one of the bedrooms and closed her eyes - when she opened them, her luggage was on the bed. She then hooked her phone up to the iPhone charger.

Alisha came in and plopped down on the bed. "So, what we eating?"

"I'm not hungry." Her stomach growled. "Okay, maybe I am. What's a good place around here to eat? The last time I was here, I didn't stay in this hotel."

"The Cheesecake Factory, in my opinion."

Bonnie assessed her quietly for a minute. "If the food is nasty, I'm ignoring you for the rest of this little trip."

Alisha feigned mock hurt. "How cruel!" She smiled. "All joking aside their food is really good." A little booklet appeared in Alisha's hand. She spread it out on the bed. "I already know what I'm getting, so I'm just waiting on you."

"Hmm." Bonnie silently flipped through the menu. "I'll take a caesar salad andddd stuffed mushrooms."

"Okie dokie!"

"I'll take a grilled rib-eye steak, medium rare, thank you." Kai was casually leaning in the bedroom doorway, dripping wet in only a towel.

Bonnie flinched while Alisha let out a yelp and grabbed her chest in shock. "Dude, make your presence known next time!"

Bonnie frowned at him. "He has a nasty habit of doing that."

"You know me so well." Smug grin on his face. "I suggest you get something to write this down."

"I - Fine." Alisha dug in the drawer on the side of the bed and pulled out a small notepad with a pen. "Go ahead."

"Besides the rib-eye steak," he walked over to the bed, positioning himself next to Bonnie. "I'll have two mushroom burgers, everything on them," he flipped a few pages. "Some parmesan-garlic cheese bread, and a slice of toasted marshmallow s'more cheesecake." His smile changed from smug to genuine.

Alisha stood up. "Let me leave now, because this order is going to take all night. I'll be back sometime soon, I hope." She left the hotel room.

-----

As soon as Alisha was out of earshot Kai grinned at Bonnie. "I got my hands on a laptop by the way."

"Kai." Her voice stern, she put her hands on her hips. "Where did you get a laptop from?"

"I compelled it from the guy in room 514," he said it as if it was something done normally.

"Kai!" she hissed.

"Oh relax, he's watching tv. Though after you see what's on his computer, you might want him thrown under a bus." Kai strode from the bedroom to his room. He turned, making sure Bonnie followed behind. She dragged one of the armchairs over to where Kai was now seated.

She eyed him with disdain. "Are you going to put some clothes on or what?" She immediately regretted those words because Kai - without an ounce of shame - stood up and dropped his towel. He then strode over to the bed where his black sweatpants were and put them on, slowly. Bonnie admitted to herself that he had a nice ass.

He sat back down. "Ready?"

"So help me, if I see something disturbing -"

He quickly cut her off. "Whoa no, I was talking about the Gemini files, not that stuff. I was going to show you that later." There was a lot of folders on the USB card; he clicked on one titled Callista, scrolling down until it read 1872. "Remind me to send Saeed a thank you basket when we're done, his organization skills are to. Die. For. Anyhoo, here it is; it says my ancestor worked with an Erzah Bennett to lock up a shapeshifter in Silver Spring, Maryland."

Bonnie leaned forward, eyes glued to the screen. "Erzah...Bennett? That date, he had to be Emily's younger brother. So he managed to escape to Maryland." She patted his arm. "Keep going."

"Hmm, they didn't get his name, just why they imprisoned him. Apparently, he enjoyed the taste of human flesh a little too much, in and out of form. FYI, this includes children and old people."

Bonnie sat back with her arms folded, in deep thought. "This just tells me the Gemini Coven and my family have been working together for centuries. I want info of every Bennett that worked with your coven."

"Got it. Oh yeah, I meant to show you this." He clicked on some images, and a man and a boy popped up in one, a woman and a little girl in another.

Bonnie was sick to her stomach. "Compel him to turn this into the authorities."

"Nah see, I'm thirsty, so I was thinking I could just feed on him, thus killing him ‘cause those blood bags only do so much, and killing two birds with one stone."

"What the hell, Kai!? No! You can't just go around killing people!"

"Get off your moral high horse! Your friends do it all the time! You really want someone like him to still be around?"

"We don't just kill humans!"

"I'm a vampire - okay half vampire - and that's what we do or did you forget? I need blood and the guy is scum."

Bonnie bit her bottom lip.

"I also found these as I was looking for his wireless mouse." He threw what had to be at least 6 different ID cards on the desk. "As you can see, he has quite a few identities. And there's a mother and child a few doors down in 510. It's a win-win situation, Bonster."

She blanched. She didn't want to kill anyone if she didn't have to, but she couldn't just ignore this obvious threat. She put her head in her hands, her mind in turmoil.

Kai's head inclined to the right. Kai got up and walked to the hotel room door; he opened it as quietly as possible and peeked his head out. The little boy from down the hall was knocking on the man's door holding a toy car in his hand. Kai motioned for Bonnie to come over with urgency. She peeked her head out from under his arm - the child had to be no older than nine. She took a sharp intake of breath.

The boy’s shoulders sagged in disappointment. Bonnie moved Kai aside and stepped out into the hallway. "Hey little guy, what're you doing out here by yourself?"

He jumped due to the unexpected voice and pivoted, facing Bonnie. "The man said I could play with his car collection after showing them to me earlier."

She kept her face in a perfect mask. "I saw the man leave an hour ago." The boy looked crestfallen.

"Do your parents know you're out here?"

"No, my mom's in the shower."

Bonnie thought to herself. She had her hands behind her back, mentally chanting an incantation. A model airplane appeared; she offered it to the kid. "How about you play with this instead?"

His eyes lit up. "Really? I can play with it?"

"You can keep it, I have more."

"Thank you, miss!" He ran back to his hotel room.

Bonnie straightened herself up. She stared at Kai blankly, he had a smirk on his face. "Do it."

He did a mock salute. "On it, boss."

"Hold it, I'm going with you."

He grunted in response. Kai pulled out a keycard and together they snuck into the man's room. He was sitting on his bed watching tv. Her stomach was churning at what she was about to do. She quietly whispered a silence spell over the room and nudged Kai. "Compel him to tell everything."

Kai raised his eyebrows in question. "I want to hear exactly what he did," she said quietly.

Twenty minutes later, Bonnie was bent over a trash bin, hurling. Kai was finishing up his feeding; no one would miss this sick creep. Kai licked his fangs. "Have to admit, his blood tastes pretty good. Nice and healthy, which is just all types of wrong. So which one of us is doing the honors?"

"I'll do it. Help me with the body."

"Don't mind if I do." Together, they dragged the body to the bathroom.

She looked down at the man in disgust. "Phasmatos Incendia." The body burned until it became ash. Kai swept the ashes up and threw them in the trash. "Done."

"I can't believe I just - I need a shower and a drink." She wiped a sweaty hand through her hair.

"Ooh, you should let me join you, to help save the environment and stuff."

"I'd rather bathe in acid."

"Your loss," he said as he turned and opened the door.

-----

An hour and a half later, Alisha arrived with their food. "Hey, I'm back!"

Kai was the only one sitting at the table waiting. "Where's Bonnie and Jeremy?" She sat the food down. He started sifting through the containers until he popped open the one with his burgers. "They're asleep. Okay well, I put Gilbert to sleep, Bonnie's-" He leaned back in the chair. "Tossing and turning."

She rolled her eyes, turned around and came face to face with a peeved Bonnie. Bonnie plopped down in the chair across from Kai. "I can't sleep. Everytime I close my eyes, those images keep flashing in my head."

Alisha looked between the both of them. "Did something happen?"

"Me and Bon Bon teamed up to kill a guy."

"WHAT?!"

Bonnie kicked out her foot, but missed. Immediately, it became a weird game of footsie between them. Alisha glanced at them, bewildered. "So in the span of two hours, you two decide to commit a spontaneous murder?"

"To be fair, the guy was a pedo and planning on going after the kid down the hall," he said before casually taking a bite of his burger.

"Oh? Well, you two did the world a favor then."

Bonnie leaned back in the chair, looking how she felt, exhausted. There was a rustling noise and Jeremy's head popped up. He stretched and then laid back against the couch. "You guys are so loud." He shot up. "Food!"

"Yeah, I got you three smokehouse burgers with fries."

"Thanks!"

Bonnie managed to eat some of her salad, but was poking at her mushrooms. Alisha tapped her shoulder, nodding her head toward the bedroom. The door clicked softly behind them, Alisha was positioned against it. "Get dressed."

Bonnie looked at her confused. "What? Why?"

"You need to blow off some steam and what better way to do that than to go clubbing?"

"Hold up, we have people to find and catch."

Alisha waved her hand in dismissal. "Ness and her little crew are still in the city." She slightly winced at Bonnie's facial expression. "Just call it a gut feeling."

"No. I don't really do clubs anymore."

Alisha pouted. "Aw, come on! It'll be a good way to get you tired."

"Ali, if you want to go just say so, don't use me as an excuse."

"What I want is to go with my big sister. Please, please go with me."

Bonnie flopped down on the bed, glancing at her phone. It read 10:36 pm. "Ugh fine! Stop with the puppy dog eyes already," she groaned.

"Yes! You won't regret it, I promise!" Alisha began digging through Bonnie's clothes. "Let's see what we have to work with."

------

Two hours later, Alisha was putting the finishing touches on Bonnie's hair. She had it in a wavy half updo hairstyle with a few tendrils of hair cascading down her face. Alisha had picked out everything for her to wear, from the black high close-halter neck blouson mini dress, to the matching pair of black Anne Michelle ankle-strap, open-toe stilettos. The jewelry too - a pair of gold dangle teardrop earrings and a bracelet. She stepped back while motioning for Bonnie to get up and slowly turn in a circle. "I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself."

Bonnie looked at herself in the mirror, a smile on her face. "I dare say I agree."

"Sweet!" Alisha replied happily as she was trying to get her hair up in a high ponytail. She was already dressed with a stylish black sleeveless backless cowl neck top with a tube top underneath, dark denim skinny jeans and a pair of matching black Zara ankle boots.

Bonnie was busy putting her heels on. "So, what's the name of this club?"

"Coda. It's like two blocks down from here. They had some renovations done, so now it can hold like 4000 people," she said in a huff. She was becoming frustrated with trying to get her hair into a proper ponytail.

"Sit down, I'll fix it." A minute later and Alisha's hair was in a perfectly curly high ponytail.

After applying lip gloss (pink for Alisha) and lipstick (nude for Bonnie) they were ready. When they came out Jeremy was sitting on the couch wearing a dark green graphic tee that said ‘I ran out of fucks to give’ and cargo jeans with camo Chucks. "Wow, you two look - wow!" His eyes lingered on Bonnie's legs before meeting her eyes and then looking away sheepishly.

"I know right? She's already super gorgeous, so I only had to do her hair." Alisha was bouncing on her heels. Bonnie blushed. Alisha abruptly stopped. "Oh." Her gaze was on Kai in his outfit. "You clean up nicely, Kai!" He was wearing a gray, short-sleeve button up with black trim, the two top buttons undone, loose fit skinny jeans and white Adidas sneakers. She nudged Bonnie with her elbow, causing her to look directly up at Kai.

Bonnie sucked in a breath. His shirt fit him to the point almost nothing was left to the imagination - not that she needed it because of earlier - he did look good, but she wasn't telling him that. And of course, Kai's gaze was transfixed on her like she was the only other person in the room, his gaze appreciative. There was something about the way Kai looked at her that simultaneously made her skin crawl and tingle. So, she did what she would normally do, knowing it would bother him; she ignored him, turned on her heel, and proceeded to walk out of the the hotel room with everyone following behind.

-----

Their arrival at the club set Bonnie on edge. While the place was simply gorgeous, the club was a melting pot of supernatural people. Faeries, kitsunes, vampires, you name it - it was probably there. As they made their way to the bar, everyone's eyes were on them; okay, moreso on Kai. Some were still dancing while others stopped and stared. It was like they could sense his abnormality. She felt their apprehension and curiosity as most of them were all wondering the same thing: How could he be both a vampire and a witch?

"I just love being the center of attention," Kai sarcastically whispered in her ear. She just walked faster.

"We make quite the little group," Alisha said as she maneuvered around a dancing couple.

"That we do," Jeremy said, squeezing passed two werewolves. Bonnie was already downing a shot as they reached the bar. They all - save for Kai, who got gin - ordered a shot of tequila. The DJ shouted that it was time for the early 2000s hour. Alisha was already heading to the dance floor as Gimme the Light came on.

Two young women came over to Kai, one blonde and the other a redhead, asking if he wanted to dance. He couldn't get a response in edgewise because Bonnie's glare sent them on their way. Kai casually sipped his drink while looking at her. "Didn't take you for the jealous type."

She snorted, busy nursing her third shot glass. "I did those girls a favor keeping them from you. You're unpredictable and I trust you as far as I can throw you."

"Ouch. So harsh."

Her brows furrowed. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"That you nearly died helping Jeremy get the map to me so I could get out of 1994?" Since Jeremy brought it up earlier she thought she might as well mention it.

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you - I don't -" She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Why didn't you tell me that or at least mention that if you died, so would your coven?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "What difference would it have made Bonnie? You told me you would melt my face off if you saw me again. Your hate for me ran that deep. If Damon had told you the truth, would you have even came back for me? If you knew, would you have forgiven me, or at least given me another chance?"

She leveled her gaze at him. "Yes. I would've come back for you if it meant saving countless innocent lives. And avoiding what actually wound up happening." She thought the last bit to herself. She knocked her third shot back straight. He sat, mulling over his drink. She turned to face him fully. "Just out of curiosity - if Damon had never contacted you, what would you have been doing?"

"Processing my emotions. Weeding out the assholes who locked me up, stripping them of their power, exiling them and then rebuilding the coven with new rules.” He locked eyes with her. “And thinking about you." The look he gave her was smoldering.

She hummed in response, got off the stool and headed for the dance floor. Her thoughts were becoming scrambled, like everything else that happens to her involving him. Those three shots of tequila weren't helping either. Aaliyah's Rock The Boat started blasting out of the speakers. Hopefully, cutting loose on the dance floor could help get him out of her head.

-------

Vinny sat in his car outside of Barnes and Noble, debating on if he should tell Inessa about Bonnie and her little crew being in the area. On their plane ride back, she had described the two women and the young hunter, but there was no mention of this other dude. As he looked up from his phone, he noticed a Council agent walking through the area. He waited for her or him (he couldn't tell) to turn the corner before getting out of the car. Making up his mind, he headed into the club, handing the bouncer a hundred dollar bill.

Vinny smirked to himself. "It's time to have some fun."

-------

It didn't work; in fact, it somehow made it worse. No matter how far she moved away from him, she could still feel Kai's eyes on her. She was pretty sure he was still sitting down and chasing off anyone dancing near her. Get Low came on.

Kai got up and made his way to floor. Bonnie felt his approach and prepared herself accordingly. She didn't expect another witch to start dancing with her instead. Quite a few people moved away at Kai's approach, but not this other witch. Bonnie had to admit he had balls, too much apparently. His hands were on her thighs, slowly rising higher.

She burned him. She then spun around to face him with a glare. "Don't touch me."

He backed up with his hands raised in surrender, right into Kai. "My bad, man." As soon as the man's eyes landed on him, they widened.

Kai felt the guy's magic itching to the surface. He raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem?"

The man snarled. "No." He then stalked off.

Kai shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well." He stepped behind Bonnie.

She went back to dancing. "Just because I said he couldn't touch me doesn't mean you can, Kai."

He leaned in close without touching her. "Oh Bon, we both know I don't need to touch you. Just being in proximity to each other brings a reaction out of you."

Her breath hitched and her skin started tingling. "Wow, can your ego get any bigger? I can control myself around you just fine."

His eyes were glued to the swaying of her hips. "Prove it then."

She whirled on him, her eyes flashing in anger. "I do not need to prove myself to you," she said through gritted teeth.

"You kind of just did." He gazed at her coolly.

"You have this natural ability to piss people off."

"Dance with me."

"Can you even dance? You probably have two left feet." Though she was being a smartass, her eyes danced with curiosity.

"Only one way to find out." Get Low faded into Get Me Bodied.

"Fine, but you better be able to keep up."

Bonnie gave Kai a half-lidded stare, beckoning him to her. He gripped her forearm and pulled her flush against his body. She spun around, her back facing his front, and began to gyrate her hips. His hips matched her movements perfectly. She bent over still shaking her hips and slowly came back up. Pretty soon, they were starting to get into it, Bonnie put her hand on Kai's neck and he placed his hands on her waist.

Kai had his nose nuzzled in her neck inhaling her warm vanilla, honey, and natural earth scent. He felt his fangs itching to come out. The lights around them began flickering wildly as the two of them danced in sync to the music. The music started to become distorted and sparks started flickering from the lights.

Bonnie felt Kai pull her closer and then a prick on her shoulder. She immediately came out of her trance, spinning to face him. The music slowly went back to normal. When she looked at him, she saw Kai's face was slowly starting to transform. Bonnie quickly glanced at the people dancing around them and then back at Kai. "Seriously? You just tried to bite me."

"Purely by accident. It was excitement induced."

She looked exasperated, "Didn't you drink before we left the hotel?"

Kai looked slightly sheepish. "Yeah but...” He just let the sentence trail off.

She pursed her lips and they stood there in silence, with only the sound of the heavy bass party music playing in the background. Bonnie calmly raised her arm, offering her wrist to him. He gazed at it curiously before letting his eyes meet hers.

“Well, I rather it be me than some innocent person and I prefer to keep you in my sights,” she said.

He arched one bushy eyebrow. “Now, why does this feel familiar? Oh yeah, it’s like that time in the woods. Ever the martyr, always willing to make the sacrifice so no one else has to."

She ignored his statement and urged him on. “Do you want my blood or not Kai?”

He gently took her wrist in his hand. “You sure about this?”

She nodded her head, but then her eyes widened. “Wait Kai, find a secluded area first. I don’t want people having a freak out over blood on the dance floor.”

He smirked. “Ha! Nice MJ reference.” He turned and pulled her with him through the nightclub to a secluded seating area with a divider curtain surrounding them.

-----

"Man, am I tired," Alisha said as she sat down on a stool next to Jeremy.

"That little nap from earlier must've worked wonders. You were everywhere," Jeremy said into his cup.

"So, how come I didn't see you on the dance floor?" Chin in hand, eyebrow raised in question.

"Oh, I was out there with a faerie and an elf, but I decided to sit here and observe instead." He replied, with his eyes searching the area like a hawk.

"See anything of import?"

"Nothing too extreme, but I did see a guy watching Kai's every move after he and Bonnie started dancing together."

"Wait what? Bonnie and Kai?" She waved her hand in dismissal. "Nevermind, that can be discussed later, where's the guy?"

He pointed to a man standing next to the DJ booth. "Over there, with the sandy blonde hair and cup in hand, glaring menacingly at where I'm guessing they are."

"You think he knows Kai?"

"Maybe. Or he could be like everyone else here and doesn't like him on the fact that he's different."

Alisha became oddly somber-looking. "Yeah. Hey bartender, give me a Zombie and Blue Lagoon mixed."

Jeremy looked at her like she was crazy. "Whoa, you're not drinking all that! Hey bartender, split that between two glasses."

The bartender just shrugged her shoulders and went to work. Jeremy was still eyeing the man that was watching Kai. The bartender handed them their drinks.

Alisha patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, I know a spell so we won't get drunk. We'll still be able to keep an eye on him."

-----

Kai felt her tense behind him. He turned his head to look at her. “Having second thoughts? Or is it because you're alone with me?”

Bonnie shook her head. “No. I can handle you with little to no problem. I just didn’t think you knew who MJ was. I thought you only listened to that grunge crap.”

He fully turned to face her now. “You wound me, Bonster! I listen to other types of music, I just love that “grunge crap” as you so nicely put it, above all else. That, and my sister Hanna would blast his music all over the house.” He was still holding her wrist and his eyes connected with hers again. “You ready?”

She nodded her head again and braced herself for his fangs to pierce her skin. When they did, she shuddered and let out an involuntary moan. She backed up until her calfs hit one of the couches and she sat down. Kai brought his left leg up so that his knee could rest beside her left leg and he could get better access to her wrist. He bit down even harder for more blood.

Bonnie hissed in pain. “Kai, that’s enough.” She was starting to feel light-headed from the blood loss. She underestimated just how much blood he needed.

He pulled away, his fangs coated in her blood. His eyes were dilated and focusing on her neck, then they gradually went lower until they reached her thighs. He was still hungry. Kai bit his wrist and placed it on her lips.

Bonnie wasn't ready for the onslaught of images that flashed around in her head. A tan skinned little boy with big gray eyes excitedly running up to Bonnie with his report card, Kai following behind him equally as happy with a little girl in his arms. Kai sitting in a meeting with other witch covens as the Praetor of the Gemini Coven with Bonnie at his side, a ring gleaming on her left hand. Her being turned and sired by him as Damon looks on in shock. Every vision had him and her together in it. Bonnie quickly threw his arm away from her and scooted back.

"What the hell was that?!" she yelled. She felt like her mind was spiraling into chaos, seeing into Kai’s mind freaked her out; There was so much going on in there, so much information, things she felt better off not knowing. What scared her the most was that she was at the forefront of his mind; That he wants her mind, body and soul.

"What was what?" He asked in a daze. He was still reeling from drinking Bonnie’s blood. It was as addictive as a drug, so rich and extremely fulfilling. A drug that gave him weird visions of a lame ass british accented dude being too close to Bonnie. That definitely wound up snapping him out of his blood induced haze.

"I saw - I was - We were together, married in one, kids in another!" She scooted further back now.

Kai tensed. "How-Oh, I forgot, you said you're psychic. Those were things I saw when I was in hell."

"I don't see memories Kai, I shouldn't be able to see yours," she said, in an obviously repulsed voice. "I have precognition not-" Her nostrils flared. "No, no, no, no! That's not possible! My powers are just advancing, that's it!" Grams words trickled through her mind about her finding peace and being sent to Kai's prison world.

His eyes narrowed. "I don't know, Bonnie, I mean didn't you feel my presence when I got out of hell?" He grabbed her leg and pulled her closer to him. "Try as you might to ignore it, there's something between us, Bonster."

She kicked at his hand and he let go with a yelp. He slapped his hand back on her leg quickly siphoning her. His eyes narrowed his mouth twisted in a nasty sneer. "Cut that out."

"Why? Isn't that a thing between us? Hurting each other?" Bonnie replied sneering back at him.

"Pretty much." He gave a nonchalant shoulder shrug. "I admit you're the first person to truly match me blow for blow. Like a weird game of chess."

"That I beat you at, what, three times now?" Her face was smug and she saw his jaw clench.

"Haha, very funny."

"Did you really plan on -" She was cut off abruptly by the arrival of Alisha. She seemed to be out of breath, her face flushed.

"Sorry to interrupt, but the guy you two encountered earlier is beginning to move."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "And this is urgent because?"

"Because after Jeremy followed him outside, he overheard him talking to a woman about following us. And how he didn't expect a fourth person."

"Dammit!" Bonnie jumped up fixing her dress. "Where's Jeremy?"

"Still tracking him." She darted out of the area with Bonnie and Kai on her heels.

-----

They ran into Jeremy outside of the club. "He went down Walnut Street." They took off running.

Bonnie was muttering something under her breath, a few seconds later her heels turned into a pair of black sneakers. Kai looked behind them. "We got company."

Two Council members were following them. Kai recognized one of them as one of the girls who asked him to dance from earlier. Kai chanted an illusion spell to make the girls follow what they thought were them. They came to a stop at Broad Street, the guy on the other side smirking at them. When the last car finally passed, they took off again.

Alisha was panting. "I'm going to strangle him when we catch him."

Kai side-eyed her. "You're pretty violent."

"Comes from years of bullying. You either become withdrawn or get a hair-trigger temper. I got the latter.”

The guy made a sharp turn onto 13th Street, he then made a stop at Market Street turning to face them. He put his hand out, making a portal appear. They came to a screeching halt to avoid accidently going in and ending up in somewhere else. Kai jumped back just as another portal appeared under his feet. The guy was trying to split them up.

Bonnie used magic to upend a newsstand and toss it at the guy, followed by a news kiosk. He barely managed to dodge them. Jeremy had his throwing knives out, flinging one into the guy's shoulder.

"HALT!" It was the two Council members that were chasing them earlier. "By order of the Council, you all are under arrest for attacking a civilian!" One had a crossbow in hand, ready to fire, while the other seemed to be wielding brass knuckles.

"Oh, come on! You two had to see he clearly attacked first!" Kai yelled.

"I won't repeat myself." Said the woman with the crossbow readying herself again. Two more members walked up, one Kai recognized as the guy with glasses from the school.

Kai rolled his eyes and Alisha swore under her breath. Bonnie had the guy they were after locked in a Prohibere spell. Jeremy was slightly turned so he could view both oppositions, he had a throwing knife in one hand with the other one on his sheathed dagger. Ignoring the Council members, Bonnie muttered an Elido spell to break the guy's right leg. The guy managed to utter another chant for a portal spell, causing Kai and Alisha to jump away from each other and leaving Bonnie wide open.

The girl with the crossbow fired. Before it could reach Bonnie, Kai's arm shot out to grab it. He threw it back like a javelin into the girl's left calf, shattering her tibia. Bonnie, with her back still facing them, reached out her arm and hit them with a motus. All of them, save for Bradley, crashed into each other, landing on the ground in a heap, hard. Bradley darted toward them, but ran directly into a barrier placed by Alisha. He staggered on his feet, holding what was probably a broken, or at least fractured, nose.

The guy from the club broke free of Bonnie's spell and was attempting to escape, heading for 12th and Market. Jeremy aimed and flung his knife into the guy's other leg, causing him to collapse ungracefully on the ground.

Bonnie turned to Alisha. "Kai and I are going after him. I want you two to make sure they don't follow before meeting up with us."

Alisha and Jeremy went to protest, but she put her hand up. "I'm trusting this to you two to get as much info out of them as you can." Her voice brook no argument.

Jeremy put his hand on Alisha’s shoulder and nodded. "We’ll get it done."

"Bonnie." Kai tilted his head in the direction of the guy. She took off running with Kai behind her, tackling him just as he made a portal to escape.

----

They crash landed in an uncomfortable pile in what appeared to be a semi-empty parking lot. Bonnie was sandwiched between Kai and the other guy. "Kai, get off!"

Kai got up reluctantly just to piss her off further. She straightened herself up and looked around. They were in - judging from the signs in Chinese - Chinatown or near the entrance of it. “What possible significance did this place have? This has to be a trap,” she thought to herself.

"Bonster, check it out." Kai toed the guy onto his back. "Doesn't the guy we were chasing have sandy blonde hair?" He bent down to check his pulse. "This guy has gone to a higher plane of existence. He also didn't have any magic." Kai tapped his chin lightly. "He used an illusion spell. Cloaking spells and illusions are a Gemini specialty. Could he be one or did he somehow get access to my grimoires?" He made sure to store that info for later.

Bonnie took out her phone. "Wasn't one of the abandoned plants we were looking for around here somewhere?" She turned to face Vine street. "It says we should find the Willow Street Generation Plant if we head this way."

Kai's head snapped to the left, hearing a noise that sounded like something was being uprooted from the ground. He had a few seconds to tackle Bonnie to the ground, narrowly avoiding a No Stopping sign that was thrown at her.

Bonnie heard Kai's voice in her head: Her skin is so soft.

She stared up at him with an unreadable expression before they both turned their heads in the direction of more noise. Carlos was standing just outside of the parking lot, casually extracting a short street pole, preparing to toss it at them. Bonnie, still lying under Kai, reached her arm out and chanted another Elido spell, breaking his arm and causing him to drop the pole on his foot. He let out a howl of pain while still clutching his arm and simultaneously reach for his foot. Kai then used a motus to fling him across the street into the window of a hair salon.

"I'm going to hazard a guess that the location you mentioned is the right one."

"I would assume so, now move." She pushed him off of her and quickly scrambled to her feet. She started forward and then let out a shriek as Kai came and chucked her over his shoulder. "What the hell are you doing?! Put me down!"

He lightly patted her thigh. "Nope, I'm faster, have better reflexes, et cetera." They both heard an animalistic growl and saw a cheetah leaping out of the debris. Kai wasted no time hitting it with another motus, then vaulting to the iron fence that separated the casual streets from the highway. He switched to holding Bonnie bridal style, making her cling to him for dear life, then took another leap, landing on the sidewalk gracefully. Her face was still buried in his shoulder with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. It has been a while since she was vamp-sped anywhere.

They heard a few wolf whistles coming from behind them. Two guys were staring at them in amazement. "Yo, you saw that?!" One of them asked, nudging his friend.

"Yeah, that was crazy."

"Man, he landed like an action hero who just finished saving his girl! All he needed was an explosion behind him to complete the image." The two guys walked off, laughing amongst themselves.

Bonnie let out an annoyed grunt. "Put me down now." Kai let her legs go since he was still crouching. She immediately dropped her arms from around his neck and straightened her dress out again. She touched her phone screen so it could light back up and began heading straight for Callowhill street.

Kai was taking in his surroundings, assessing the area. When he tried to make small talk, Bonnie kept shutting him down, so he gave up for a moment. A few minutes passed before she spoke. "Thanks for earlier."

He matched his pace to hers. "Hmm, what was that? It sounded suspiciously like a thank you."

"I'm not repeating myself." She was gazing at her phone screen intensely.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I'll take what I can get.” He went back to surveying the area. “It's jarring how dilapidated the area becomes the further we walk."

"Hmm." She was texting their location to Jeremy.

Kai sped up so he could walk backwards in front of her. "You're ignoring me again."

She scoffed, "I thought I always did that when it came to you."

"Nah, you normally give me a scathing remark. This is more...like you're trying to avoid me or something." He peered at her questioningly, his head tilted to the left. "Something on your mind?"

"I'm just trying to figure out why you're talking to me like we're friends."

"Right, because that's the problem."

They arrived in front of the building. She put her phone in her sneaker. Ever since the visions she had been debating asking him about the siring. She just threw caution to the wind. "You're right, I did want to ask you something. Did you really plan to sire me to you?"

He smirked. "Yeah, I did. If mostly to prove a point, you being a vampire would force your little friends to rely on themselves for once."

"So, it would've been for my benefit? To see the errors of my friends' ways?" Her eyes narrowed in skepticism.

He laughed. "It would've also been to piss you off. What's worse than being turned into vampire, sired to a man you hate, and losing your magic in the process? What better way to get back at the ever so judgemental Bonnie Bennett?"

She sent him a death glare and watched him reel back as if he was in pain. "What the hell was that?!"

"What was what?" She asked genuinely confused.

"You used something that wasn't magic to hit me." He gazed at her quizzically.

"I -" She stopped immediately upon seeing a portal appear. Carlos and the blonde guy stepped out.

Carlos snarled at the man. "You took forever Vinny. Ness is going to be pissed. And to make the situation worse, this is not even all of them." He gestured to Kai and Bonnie.

Vinny waved his hand in dismissal. "Calm down, I have them right where I want them."

Bonnie and Kai edged closer to each other. Bonnie spoke first. "So, are you going to explain what this is about?"

Vinny's eyes narrowed on Kai maliciously. "Him." His lip curled in disgust. "Gemini scum."

Bonnie looked startled and then side-eyed Kai. "Well damn, Kai, what did you do him?"

"I love how you just assume I did something to him. I don't even know him."

They could practically see the steam coming from Vinny's ears. He gritted his teeth. "My name is Vincent Vitali, your father wiped out my entire coven due to his paranoia."

"Okay and? He's dead. And that still doesn't explain who you are to me."

“Ironic how his coven name means life but they're all dead,” Bonnie thought to herself.

Kai smirked at her. "I know right? I wonder what they did do or planned on doing for dear ol' dad to kill the entire coven."

"Wait, what?!" Bonnie was gaping at Kai in horror.

Kai stared at her with a mixture of perplexity and wonder now. Her face flushed and she turned away from him. "No! I cannot be that, not with him of all people!" She nervously made eye contact with him again.

He was staring at her intently now. “That was a rather rude thing to say Bon-Bon.” His eyes widened, “Oh.”

She was able to hear his thoughts as clear as day. That shouldn’t be possible. She’s not a vampire nor was she turning into one. Realization dawned on her as the color drained from her face completely. "Oh god, we're mentally linked."

-----

Watching Jeremy in combat was like viewing art in motion. Alisha stood by holding two members to the ground with a gravity spell. He performed a spinning sweep kick to the girl with the brass knuckles while pulling out his crossbow and smacking the other member that arrived before with Bradley in the face. He then delivered a swift roundhouse kick to the guy's temple, knocking him out and shooting the girl in the leg with his semi-auto crossbow.

"Nuh-uh, I wouldn't get up if I were you. You're under a gravity spell; if you try to move, I can guarantee you, your bones will be crushed."

Jeremy had his crossbow pointed directly at Bradley. "Start talking. Who is the kid she's after and why?"

They were interrupted by a wolf howl. Bradley smirked in triumph even though it was rather short-lived. Alisha reached her hand out and flung the wolf in front of them with a sickening crash. She then began chanting to forcibly turn it back human. It let out a whimper and then a cry of pain in it's human form. Correction: her human form. Her dark messy hair covered her face from their view, though Jeremy could see Alisha’s shoulders tense up.

Bradley looked dismayed. "Please, let me give her my jacket."

"Fine." Alisha released the gravity spell.

He shrugged the long jacket off and handed it to the girl; Okay more like he threw it on her. He then, rather wobbly, stood up. "The woman we're after is named Inessa Novak. She had first joined the brigade three years ago."

"Dude, we don't need a history lesson, make it quick." Jeremy hissed poking Bradley with his crossbow.

He looked annoyed now. "She's after a boy named Kyle Romero. She apparently wants to get back at his family for sacrificing hers in a ritual ten years ago."

Alisha and Jeremy exchanged looks. "And the shapeshifter?"

It was the girl who spoke up now. "We can barely find any records on him. Normally, with people like him, the Gemini coven would've stepped in to deal with it, but after the wedding massacre... well, you know."

"Yeah," Jeremy replied.

They turned to leave, but the girl yelled out. "Alisha! She's anti-magic, not a siphoner."

She waved her hand in acknowledgement. "I got it." She looked at Jeremy. "We're going to have to steal a car. Do you know how to hotwire one?"

"Yes."

"Okay, then let's-"

"Ali!" The young woman was jogging up to them.

Alisha rolled her eyes. "What?" she snapped. Jeremy raised an eyebrow at Alisha’s actions.

"Here." The girl handed her a set of car keys pushing her hair out of her face. "They belong to Brad. It's parked on Clover Street."

Alisha avoided eye contact with her. "Thanks." The girl just gave them a sad smile and headed back over to Bradley.

They took off back towards 14th and Market. As they were running, Jeremy had his phone out. "They're on 9th and Callowhill." They heard the alarm disable on a white Cadillac Sedan.

The pair came to a halt in front of the car. “Isn’t she the same person on your phone’s wallpaper?”

“Don’t.” She looked down at her feet. “Please.”

He looked at her sympathetically. “Consider it dropped. Toss me the keys, I’ll drive this time.”

She slid the keys over to him on the roof of the car. He snatched them up and they got in and drove off.

-----

Bonnie's mounting anger at the attack on the school, dealing with Kai, barely having info on anything, killing an innocent man and now being mentally connected to Kai caused her anger to officially reach its boiling point. A whirlwind started to form around them, picking up all types of debris and cars.

Carlos appeared mildly irritated; Vinny, on the other hand, looked ready to bolt at any moment. He put his hands up as if to placate her. "Now, wait just a minute-"

"NO! I'm tired of this!" she bellowed. Vinny was heaved like a rag doll into the side of the building. She glowered at Carlos' attempt to charge her by sending two cars in his direction. He evaded one, but the other car's front end smacked into his left side, knocking him to the ground violently.

Kai was content with just reveling in Bonnie's destructive force. Being mentally connected to her made it better, it was exhilarating. Of course, he couldn't do that because Carlos was back on his feet again. Kai vamp-sped over, delivering a rib-shattering kick to his stomach and then jumping back to avoid the car Bonnie used to crush him. Carlos managed to roll out of the way in time, but came in contact with Kai's foot again. Kai punted him into the fence this time and once again, he was already back on his feet.

"Tenacious bastard," Kai muttered.

Before Kai could react, Bonnie sent Carlos flying a few yards away, along with a huge amount of debris to keep him occupied. The whirlwind began to calm down as Bonnie walked over to Vinny with Kai in tow.

She stood over him with her arms folded. "Spill."

Vinny chuckled and then started coughing up blood due to a piece of metal pipe stuck in his side. "I'm not telling. Especially not to someone who sides with a Gemini," he snarled.

Bonnie casually tapped it with her foot causing him to let out a pained shriek. Kai crutched down on his hunches. "You're only making this worse for yourself, pal. We just want to know where your boss is."

He tried to spit on Kai, but the siphoner moved his head to the right in time. Kai jammed the pipe in further, then snatched it out. "You know, in my 18 years trapped in the prison world, I had a lot of time on my hands. So out of boredom, I studied a ton of things, and one of those things was human anatomy."

He leaned closer to Vinny. "I know exactly where to stab you without you dying. Or would you prefer to be siphoned?" He was flipping the pipe in his hand, eyeing him coolly. "Your choice."

A loud scream from inside the plant caught them off guard. Vinny let out another laugh, his wound almost closed. "We're going to make you lot suffer!"

Kai grabbed his arm. "Yeah, I don't think so." He siphoned him until he passed out. "That's one problem solved."

"That was a woman's scream."

"It came from the fourth floor."

Kai went to grab her legs. Bonnie facing the building, said, "Don't you dare."

"It's quicker, Bonnie." He beamed at her. "But I mean if you want to storm the place from the first level, be my guest. I'll just be on the fourth level. Probably dealing with the dead body of that poor woman."

She gritted her teeth. "You're just-ugh! I hate you. Hurry up, before I change my mind."

She swung her arms loosely around his neck as he scooped her up into his arms. He re-adjusted her before taking a running leap and landing on the second floor fire-escape stairs. Kai dropped her legs and she quickly let go of him and started up the stairs. It didn't take much to open the door. Once they were in, she then let Kai lead because he could actually see in the dark.

"Good grief they couldn't find a better place to hole up in? Saying this place is a pigsty wouldn't do it justice."

"Yeah." She started coughing. "Ugh, I can literally taste it." Her voice was muffled due to covering her mouth with her hand.

"At least we're on the right floor. Imagine if we had to traverse this place from the first floor." Kai said wandering around another corner.

She just pursed her lips in frustration rather than admit he was right.

"Let's just hope she didn't drag the person to another floor." Kai thought with a smirk. He was getting a kick out of being linked with her.

They both came to a stop at that comment though. Bonnie side-eyed him. "Don't joke like that."

"Better hurry then."

They took off down various corridors, ducking and dodging moss covered pipes and other hazardous contraptions. Kai made a left turn down another hall until they reached a lone door at the end. Instead of opening the door slowly, he used magic to blast it off it's hinges and into the room. Bright light seeped out of the room, illuminating the corridor they were standing in. Stepping inside, they could see a generator had been moved and the floor was done over with new slabs of concrete. In the middle of the room sat a man in a fold up chair with a bloody bandage on his head, passed out. Beside him was Ness, wearing a casual form fitting t-shirt, skinny cargo pants, and combat boots. Next to her feet lied an unconscious woman.

"Hello, Bonnie and her vampire companion."

He stuffed his hands in his pockets. "It's Kai."

She ignored him. "I should've known you would come out here, Bonnie. You Bennetts with your hero complexes and self-righteous judgment, always playing God. Where's the other two?"

Bonnie chose to keep silent just folding her arms and raising her chin in defiance.

"Oooh, so what did you do to her, Bonster?" Kai thought excitedly.

"Nothing. I only met her earlier today when she attacked the school."

"Interesting." His thought voice lacked emotion.

The man in the chair groaned while coming to. He made eye contact with Bonnie, "No. Get out of here. She'll...kill..you...too."

Ness elbowed him in the face. "Shut it, defect."

Kai's eyes narrowed and he inched closer to Bonnie. "I hear more footsteps approaching."

She shifted slightly. "Damn, she did say she planned ahead.”

Ness, wiping her elbow off on the man's shirt, smiled at them. "How about I tell you two a story?"

Bonnie and Kai just looked at her incredulously.

"Anyway," she nudged the unconscious woman with her foot. "Thirteen years ago, a young man and woman meet, both witches. Everything was fine until the wench wants out of her coven. Except well - the coven leader won't let members just up and leave. Now, cut to my family: We were living in Roanoke peacefully, but in isolation because my family's powers weren't exactly well-liked. The young couple, in a bid of desperation to get away from her coven permanently, lured out five of my family members to use them as a ritual sacrifice. They were innocent -"

The guy with the bandage cut her off. "Bullshit! Your family got its kicks off killing witches! They got their just desserts."

Ness' eyes flashed with pure malice. She pulled out a butterfly knife and pressed it to his neck. "You know, I was going to originally kidnap your son and make your family watch as I killed you slowly. But I think these two are good enough." She roughly kicked the woman in her side. "Wake up wench." The woman groaned and then coughed up blood.

The footsteps from earlier grew louder until Bonnie and Kai were surrounded by vampires lead by Carlos and a limping Vinny. She and Kai backed up closer to each other.

Ness was grinning like a Cheshire cat. "So, Jacob Romero or - should I say Bennett-Parker - are there any last words you want to say to your cousin, Bonnie? Or how about you Melissa, anything for your cousin, Malachai?"

Jacob's face held confusion, staring at Bonnie and Kai. Melissa's went through wonder, confusion and after settling on Kai's, shock and realization.

Bonnie's eyes widened while Kai's face had an unreadable expression. "Oh my god," Bonnie uttered in astonishment.

#bonkai fanfiction #Bonnie Bennett #Kai Parker #Alisha Warren (OC)#Jeremy Gilbert #BonKai #One of these days I'll make an attractive gif for this fic

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orangeeveningsky · 5 years

Text

On Getting Hitched and Its Dissociation with H.E.A

My dearest TUMBLR,

I’ve missed you so bad ever since you’ve been blocked by my country in 2018!

I know, I know.

I'm sorry that I've made promises that I would be a diligent writer and I failed it yet again because I’m such a lazy chit.

Anyway, it came as no surprise that the one thing that I would post after I went M.I.A for many moons is some food for thoughts. I wrote the initial premise back in 2018 and was planning to post the whole thing before the "positive internet" strike.

It's been a while since my first draft--originally it was a review of some sort for Because This Is My First Life, the 2017 K-drama--so, I decided to edit the draft.

It all started with some questions that I had in mind after watching the drama series and experiencing some turbulences that happened in my life during the same time:

"What is marriage?"

Is it the union of two people in love with each other and want to cherish their love for the rest of their passing breaths, in the eyes of God and all his mortals?

Is it merely a status that will ensure convenience on both parties involved, for a very long time?

Is it an old, outdated, ancient concept created by our ancestors’ to bind two people for the rest of their lives together, for them to sire legitimate offsprings?

Which one is the true definition of the holy matrimony?

Those were the questions and I have yet to find the answers. It's been two years, and it still stayed at the back of my mind. It crawls out of there every time someone mentioned marriage or weddings or starting a family, basically any marital kinds of stuff.

Well, truth be told, marriage is not for everyone.

My 16 year old, sheltered, and sickeningly romantic self would gasp in horror to that statement. It's true. I grew up in a society that viewed-- hang on, it still does--marriage as some sort of life achievement, especially for women.

The ideal life viewed in this particular society is something like this:

Growing up -> go to school -> go to university -> get a job -> get married -> have kids -> have a harmonious happily ever after a.k.a H.E.A.

In real life, that ideal life usually went down to the nearest bin, as reality sucked and bit all of it to shreds.

You know what, some people aren't keen enough to commit and be responsible for their choices, let alone to be committed to something permanent like holy matrimony, for the rest of their lives. The alarms would go off for them.

However, even those fellas might still get married. It could be because of social pressures, the need to have a "successful life", some serious case of F.O.M.O., or they just fell in love with someone and felt that they have to marry them because that's what people do after some time of dating, right?

Have a lovely wedding, go on a honeymoon to some exotic place, procreate, have lots of cute kids, and boom! you're guaranteed a wonderful life ahead of you.

..or probably not.

Most of the time, people become disillusioned with the H.E.A stories often shown in fiction, mainstream media, and even social media-- which ahem, consists of well-curated feeds-- to a point where they ignored the shenanigans and horrors that will come after the wedding ceremony. They jumped to the wedding with flowery path expectations, and when the marriage started after the wedding, they were unprepared for the rotten buds.

Those fellas who got married just for the sake of it, might crash their marriage as they were not yet ready for the responsibilities and hard work that comes with marriage, and will end up hurting their spouse (and children), through marital affairs, abandonment, or just general neglect.

It's actually very sad and disheartening that many marriages end in a divorce and most of them are for the best. Certainly, it's happier to end a broken marriage rather than keeping it afloat just for the sake of the children or just for the sake of keeping their social status, their family name, you name it. Sure, the children will suffer a lot, but I personally think it's better the parents separated earlier rather than trying to keep the broken marriage and ended up raising their children in an already ruined household.

On the other hand, we've got lots of people who are decent responsible adults, but they don't want to get married. They decided to stay single for some reasons, and hey, that's fine too. Sadly, society is harsh on them, especially if they are unmarried women. They get all sorts of names (ever heard of "Old Bachelor"? why do we only hear "Old Maid" all the time?), they get pigeonholed in the society as well, they hear hearsays and all sorts of rumor spread around about them. It's as if they had committed the biggest crime or sin just by not being married.

In my understanding, it's mostly rooted in the "marriage is an accomplishment" belief and the more religious one, "marriage is one of the pinnacles of your good deeds to your faith" as if we don't have other good deeds options. Ironically for the latter, many people did get married just to be able to get laid with their lover and not be seen as a heathen or an adulterer in their religious comunity--I'm not kidding, it happens all the time! those poor couples just happened to be dating for some years, but then some gossipy neighbors started to put fuel to the fire and lo and behold, those couples were immediately married off by their parents, nevermind that they haven't reached the legal age.

The hardcore religious people hid behind the good deeds excuse and reduced the holy matrimony into something to legalize-- halalize if you will-- their sex. Very opportunistic and dirty, indeed.

It's disgusting that it's what many people campaigned for, nowadays. Well, at least in my country they do. They even made some social media accounts, blatantly promoting marriage as an excuse to deflower some girl--gosh, I sounded like my granny here. In such campaigns, they even dared to put a list of what an ideal wife should have...in the patriarchy book. But they never put any emphasis on decent husbands.

Mostly those social media accounts just posted some corny analogies that ended up insulting females in general. It's maddening that they have a massive following and they just keep growing, even after so many backlashes.

Anyway, in another spectrum, there are also people who got married because they were in love or at the very least, can tolerate each other even during their worst moments, and they’re sure that they were meant to conquer the world together--this would be one of the coolest motivations.

Viva world domination, baby!

In all seriousness though, I think many people did get married because they liked or even loved each other at some point before they decided to wed. You see, most of us dreamed of having a marriage out of love--again, all those fairytales and fictions weren't helping.

For me personally, I used to be such an extreme hopeless romantic and would go out of my way to make sure that I would have to be head over heels with someone and they would have to be hopelessly in love with me as well before I decided to get married.

See? That's some ridiculous naivety right there.

However, it all changed--and in retrospect, I can never be more thankful-- after I’ve witnessed with my own eyes, that marriage can't last through any kind of disasters, if it's only based on love alone.

Love will fade.

That's a pity, but it will happen sooner or later in the marriage. The flames might still be around somewhere, but it needed some sort of fuel to keep the marriage blazing. That fuel might come in the forms of trust, commitment, honesty, good communication, and other secret ingredients of a long-lasting and tolerable marriage that was never mentioned in any fairytales alike, yet available to procure just by observing other people's marriages around us.

For the world domination part, let's imagine if there is no mutual orientations or visions between the couple in their marriage.

If there is no foundation for a home, it will easily fall apart.

Everyone needs a purpose in their life.

Everyone needs a purpose to keep doing what they do. They need to have some sort of goals to accomplish, or else they would give up all too soon. It's easy to break one's promise if one doesn't have enough reason and/or motivation to stick to.

Well, world domination might be hard enough to accomplish, but there are plenty of other goals that can be mutually agreed by the couple. Supporting their spouse in their aspirations, listening to each other's deepest fears and cheapest thrills, be the life companion for each other.

Raise the family if they want to have children, taking good care of their kids, make sure to provide a safe environment and good upbringing for them. Even if they were not yet ready, or not planning to raise any children and just want to adopt a pet, they need to make sure to be caring parents to their pet. And the list is endless. Good communication and transparency are important in setting these mutual goals.

Oh, one last thing, meddling families can be a chore, sometimes.

This is something that can cause problems in the marriage. However, I still think that the couple will need help from their families from time to time-- which was actually one of my issues with how BTIMFL resolved their big families hullaballoo. In real life, avoiding families and/or in-laws' is no easy feat and it's something that if it’s done, could come across as rude and disrespectful.

When we married someone, we married into the family as well. We got a new spouse and a new family all at once, how convenient!

However, maybe not so much.

Not all of the family members will welcome the new member with the warmest and biggest hugs. But still, we became part of the flock and it's important to reach an understanding with our spouse of how far our big families will be involved in our marriage.

I think most of the family members, especially the parents, only want the best for their children's marriage. The intention is noble most of the time, but the manner of their assistance combined with their ego and other dilemmas might be a recipe for a time bomb in their children's marriage.

Furthermore, overbearing family and in-laws do exist in real life, albeit many of them is a more toned-down version of their dramaland's counterparts. Thank God.

In the end, after writing this post, there are some realizations that I discovered for myself:

a) I still believe that the kind of so-called relationship goals--in regards to marriage, not dating-- that I aspire to have is the marriage of justice RBG and her late husband, Marty. Their equal marriage is way ahead of their time and is not something that many people are lucky enough to have, even in this day and age, more than 60 years after their wedding.

b) I will probably most likely get married when/if I met some guy who liked me enough, could tolerate my random ramblings, and might be willing to participate in my convoluted mini world domination plan, despite all the shortcomings and hustle bustles that awaits in the marriage jet coaster.

c) I will have a hard time to re-create something like a) but perhaps, given the right spouse--whoever he might be-- maybe I will be able to at least have a decent marriage where my future husband and I can laugh at my follies in this tumble until both of us felt giddy and breathless, in the future. Who knows.

#from me #musings #life journey #quarter life crisis #marriage #not dating

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bertievi · 7 years

Text

Mun ramble and it's a biggie! Sorry!

I woke up and had this strange twisty time thing where I was convinced that I was still part of that group I've mentioned before on here and was mad at myself for not having left already. It was a wired ass feeling!

Until that hand over of power from the first admin onto the new plot, everything felt like it had been fine and dandy. We were all friends, sent Christmas cards, talked on whats*app and sk*ype until the early hours, you know the general rp experience after years of writing together and helping to build a world and develop characters so much that I was convinced my muse would remain a pernament muse. He's since gone, alas but he truly was my best developed muse because I played him for hours on end in realtime chat, night after night after night. He had so much backstory, elements the show didn't explore that were fundamental parts of his nature, it was great fun!

Thinking back though, while the IC was five years worth of pages and pages of rping every night, the OOC was horrendously toxic. I was in this group through my uni years, I worked in retail through uni too which left me limited time as it was to actually do university work, but I felt like I needed to rp for my sanity’s sake. Unfortunately this sort of dependency on the group meant I was the coward who turned a blind eye when the admin, who I thought of as a close friend, turned on fellow group members viciously. She would vague about a characters actions that were, well in character and rage out when her victim picked up on it.

Her plot was a good one, don't get me wrong she was a brilliant writer, but when things didn't go her way or someone disagreed with something she said in the OOC she would disappear for a couple of hours or even days, which is just a no-no for an admin of a realtime group. When she returned, she would sulk with this person, ignore all attempts of their apology and then after a few days say she was sorry herself and insist that the whole thing be dropped without discussion, which naturally deprived the other person of even defending themselves.

She was matriarch of the group and it was probably a missed opportunity to study the psychology of an online hierarchy because damn did I fall into that mentality. I was beta and didn't want to risk losing that position in the group. What's terrifying, it's only in looking back do I realise this even happened at all. I'm mad at myself for not seeing it sooner or doing something about it!

As the years went on though, she had turned on me once or twice, she and another of her favourites would discuss my character’s actions in the public chat in full view of me and everyone else, making up reasons for his behaviour that I did not agree with but spent too long going without saying a word for fear of this sulking retaliation. Lord, if you did argue it out she would do all she could to guilt trip you into believing that it was you who was at fault, not the character or her for not allowing you to defend your characters actions. We lost over ten people to this retaliation and quite often at points in the plot where it would impact on how things would work out. If the other Mun beat her to the vanishing act, she would post some gabble about how she was upset and had to step back for a bit before doing so. This seemingly turned her into the victim and people, including myself, were on her side when this happened.

Those that did leave, she would then claim they had been abusive to her in private messaging, demanding even in texting or generally a psycho that she was glad to be rid of and that the group was now a safer place to write in. I didn't notice at the time but quite often those that she argued with the most didn't actually announce they were leaving. It was only after getting admin passage in the chat itself that I could see they had since been blocked, though even in messaging them via whats*app they did not respond to me. Which in hindsight was completely understandable since it seemed as if I was entirely on the admins side. But these accusations of abuse would last for the duration of the chats life, convincing people after years of talking with them that these stories had to be true.

Of course as time passed, I became wise to this act and when I saw the tension building between her and another Mun, I would warn them and then message the admin privately. This allowed her to rant about this other Mun via a private message instead of in the main group for all to see, this prevented OOC drama so often that people just seemed happier and we seemed to grow closer as a group. We lost no one during this time, people could come to me if there was an issue and I would offer them advice on how to fix it or confront the admin myself and make it seem like I had noticed it before the other Mun had said anything. Though by happy accident, this was the start of a shift in power.

When I was online, others felt as if they could talk more about their characters, what they were doing and how they were reacting. As an admin to the chat, I gave all of them the power to delete their posts, to re-write them, and as the original plot drew to a close, I was nominated to run the next plot, all of which I ran by the original admin (without revealing method) to which she agreed. My plot needed certain things to happen in order to work, but they were things I could put in the daily starters and when I retired to bed, the plot could easily continue without me while the characters worked on putting the pieces together. I had a muse in the ‘good guys’ group to pick up on things they missed when they consulted with him if they were really stuck on the clues and puzzles. The chat was never quiet, people were writing near constantly but there was always time to catch up on what had happened, things at least felt to me like they were much less pressured.

As my plot got to what was basically the the first major turn in events though, one brave soul the former admin turned on publicly while I was asleep, told her she wasn't the admin anymore and didn't get to throw her weight around about how a character that wasn't hers should behave... well things took a serious turn in the wrong chat!

The plot took off with eight people, one of which was a new comer to the group. After this incident, I began to notice that there was much less discussion in the OOC chat, that what was said was more about solving the puzzles of my plot rather than anything it used to be regarding personal things be they good or bad. The new comers character was a little problematic with the plot but I tried to adapt to allow them to play, though they wined OOC that I was hindering their muse... but they couldn't just find my villain because they were an angel... no one even knew who the villain was. I started to notice that the former admin and the afore mentioned favourite would be online together in the chat at ungodly hours, the chat silent but informing me of activity on the page regardless, which was informing me of private messaging. I could sense a tension and a shift. One person which used to bubble with excitement when she had cracked part of a code stopped talking to me altogether, chatting in the group but not to me.

Two of the others said they were involved in another plot on tumblr and left suddenly and together. Another stopped interacting in the OOC chat completely, just focused entirely on the IC and nothing else until she stopped signing in too. Down to five members I wondered what had gone wrong and asked the remaining what they thought. Apparently the main concern was that my mastermind villain was human and therefore couldn't possibly be best their inhuman muses in a game of cat and mouse, that regardless of the muses intelligence, a power to locate anyone existed and they would use it even though they didn't actually know who they were looking for... and that's was it, that was their reasoning. I explained that they were up against Moriarty, that the NPCs they had met were all former muses of mine adapted to the plot and that Moriarty had buried himself in a hierarchy and hidden behind his reputation, they had actually met him several times and confided in him which of course he had used to cover his tracks. This was not liked at all and an argument erupted over Moriarty as a character.

Now... I have always been fairly good at spotting a writing style. I used to be able to identify an online user by how they wrote very easily, less so now because there are soooo many people. But in a group of five, including myself noticing that two of the four I was talking to were the same person was... well, startling. The admin had created another identity, a new muse and had joined the group, the false Mun had been invited in by the former admin so really I should have put the pieces together sooner. I can't think why she would have done it, I allowed for multiple muses from the same Mun so there was no reason for IC purposes, which meant there was only OOC reasons.

I'm not that much of a wiz at computers but given the resources I had as admin of the group, I could look up an IP address and low and behold! I was right. Bizarrely the former admin defended me against her alter ego but I had already seen it was her behind both names. The two others, the afore mentioned favourite and the Mun which used to message me about cracking the codes were what were left. I was falsely outnumbered. I warned the code cracker what was happening and then set the plot up to finish in the IC before walking away. Years worth of writing wasted and gone because of one poisonous person.

I'm not proud of what I allowed to happen in the past, I don't like that I never confronted the former admin head on and I hate that I let her beat me. I know for a fact the chat is still open, likely I am another name on her ‘psycho’ list and will be discussed for years to come by people who don't even know me and are going on the admins words alone. I had once considered her a friend but if I have advice for you all it's that some people are simply looking to control not just your character but your online presence too, even friends are selfish and it is SO EASY to fall into a mentality that what's happening is normal.

If this sounds familiar, don't make my mistake, stick up for yourself and walk away from that crap. My experience changed me, I'm less trusting but I sure as hell am determined never to let that happen again, not to me nor anyone I see on the dash.

#ooc #phew that needed out!#Sorry mobile users!

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shiarts · 7 years

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Untitled Naruto SI Work-in-Progress Scrap/Fic

Notes: I was trying to work on a certain fic for FF, but despite getting a little farther into it, I still haven’t managed to do much. Curse you, writer’s block...

And yet, I managed to do enough of a scrap to consider posting it. Originally, I thought about posting it to scraps on my FF account, but, well. I figured it might be better to post it to tumblr since it’s still just a scrap and not really something I want to post just yet. I do need to prove and remind myself that I’ve been posting something, so... well, here we go. A Naruto AU with a twin!self-insert. It’s not what I was planning to post, to be honest, but, well, yeah. It’s one of two things I managed to work on today.

I wanted to post something, so here we are.

Basically, Naruto is born with a twin that’s an SI, and since I only have one ‘scrap’ for it right now and some ideas, I don’t want to post it to FF yet. But anyway, here you go.

Untitled

Fandom: Naruto

Summary: Mito hadn’t always been Mito. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s (Namikaze-) Uzumaki Mito now. Armed with incomplete knowledge from another world, and a connection that keeps her from falling too deep into despair, she learns to truly live her life in a way that her other self never got to.

Characters: Sarutobi Hiruzen, Uzumaki Naruto, OC (Uzumaki Mito)

Rated: T (For Later Language if Continued)

Word Count: 3,322

Warnings: SI/OC-insert, Naruto has a twin, slow-going, some time-skipping and P.O.V. changes.

Prologue

Two children squalled, blonde infants with three, whisker-like marks on each cheek (the result of being born to a Jinchuuriki, as those who knew the truth might tell you). These two were all that stood between Konoha and the two halves of the Nine Tailed Fox that had caused so much death, destruction, and terror to its citizens. And they were the only remnants of the legacy that were Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.

Sighing as he turned away from the window, Sarutobi Hiruzen felt his expression pinch as he tried to come to a decision. What would be the right thing to do here? It wasn’t as if he’d expected to ever have to step back into this office in official capacity, but… but, seeing as his successor was now dead, what else could he do but to take the mantle once more? Laying weary eyes upon the two infants that had been brought to him after Minato had finally managed to seal the Kyuubi away (and into his own children no less, it was unfortunate that calling upon the Shinigami meant that he’d only been able to take on enough of the Bijuu’s chakra to seal the half of what remained into his newborn son and daughter respectively), Hiruzen rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

“Just what am I going to do with you, Naruto, Mito…?” He whispered, voice heavy with weary resignation. He knew what he was supposed to do, what he wanted to do, and they were both so, so different from what he had to do. Or rather, would have to do.

He could only hope his trust in the people weren’t misplaced. Something that would be proven incorrect not too long after, when things took a different turn. Something he probably should have expected, But Hiruzen was getting old, and had originally retired for that very reason, having done so as soon as a suitable successor could be chosen. But for this to happen, for the Kyuubi to somehow be released; for Minato and Kushina to both die…

Well, at least the twins wouldn’t have to worry so much about being lonely since they’d have each other, at least…

Two blonde children half-skipped and half-walked, hands swinging like a pendulum between the them as they distracted themselves from the dark and mistrustful stares aimed their way. Neither was truly immune to the looks and whispers, but that didn’t mean that, together, they couldn’t pretend to be so, smiling and creating a facsimile of joy (that would one day, perhaps, become real) as the two laughed and sang.

Of the two, the loudest was the shorter haired child, hair a vivid yellow and styled into short, uneven spikes as if either he, himself, or another child had taken a pair of scissors to his head. Bright blue eyes crinkled as he and his partner sang a little ditty that they had come up with so long ago. It was childish and simple, but it was still something that they liked to use to pretend that everything was fine, better than fine, even.

Catching sight of the equally cheerful and nearly identical, effeminate version of himself, Naruto couldn’t help the bubble of joy that welled up inside as he thought about the few precious people he had. A short and measly list that might have saddened any sane and logical person, but for the four -almost five- year old, it was still quite a list to behold. Something that brought awe to him whenever he thought about it. And to think, only a few months ago he’d only had one -maybe two- people on his ‘Precious People’ list. His sister and the old man Hokage that sometimes visited them. Of course, he could maybe count some of the masked people that would mysteriously appear and disappear, but they never stayed long. Nor did they really interact with the twins unless absolutely necessary. Besides, they were apparently the old man’s way of keeping them safe. Said masked people had saved them a couple of times when things got particularly...rowdy.

In fact, said person was who they were off to visit now! Aside from his twin, the Hokage was the most important and precious person in his life, in fact, the man had been the one to introduce him to the amazingness that was Ramen! Just thinking about ramen made the blonde cheer up (when he wasn’t sulking or pouting because he’d been denied said treat), and he was sure that Hokage-jiji wouldn’t be against having Ramen for lunch, considering how busy he always was. Or, well, Mito had said so. But Mito was smart. And while Naruto knew he wasn’t the sharpest Kunai in the pouch, Mito was always so calm and patient for the most part even when Naruto knew he was being completely clueless.

She was kinda weird sometimes, but then, maybe that was part of being really smart? He knew the old man Hokage was super smart and he sometimes made weird faces and giggled over some weird orange book. He’d asked about it once, but the the old man had been quite evasive about it. It was too bad, though. Naruto thought it must have been an awesome book if it was orange! Because Orange was super awesome! He didn’t know why so many people wouldn’t believe him. I mean, surely they could understand the power of orange? And Ramen! Couldn’t forget the holy goodness that was Ramen, of course!!

Clasping hands with the only living remnant of her family in this world (as far as she was aware, in any case), Uzumaki Mito kept pace with twin. Her arms swinging in just as wide an arc as her brother’s as she tried to keep up the facade that she was entirely unaware of the mutters and whispers that followed them wherever they went. She did her best not to flinch or shrink, if only for the sake of her brother, but even with years of extra memories in her head, there wasn’t much she could do about the fact that it still hurt.

Still, even if it wasn’t exactly a good thing, at least she had practice in the few years she’d been ‘aware’ in this world. As far as she could tell, it was simply the way things worked in this world, though. Physics and Biology were apparently different from what she remembered, especially in that children seemed to develop much more quickly than their counterparts in her world. Then again, such things as ‘Chakra’ and ‘Bijuu’ existed, so that wasn’t surprising.

Or, well, so she’d assumed at any rate. Either way, once she’d come to the conclusion that there was really nothing she could do about any of this, and after panicking enough to nearly have a panic attack, as well as realizing that keeping herself from ‘reacting’ in this world was much more difficult than it had been when she’d been an adult (not too surprising once she thought about it later on, after calming of course. Children weren’t quite so able to repress their emotions, after all), she’d finally accepted that she was stuck with her situation.

Even if it were just a dream, what could she do about it? Even if it were, she wasn’t exactly suicidal or masochistic enough to try to ‘commit suicide’. Rationalizing might have worked, if not for the fact that things clearly worked differently in this world. It was difficult, and to be honest, if not for the ever optimistic ray of sunshine that was practically stuck to her like glue, the girl now called Mito would likely have succumbed far sooner to her more negative emotions.

It might have seemed to others that she was far calmer than her brother (something she’d had to cultivate, to avoid saying or reacting too strangely), and perhaps more responsible and reliable than the other child, but that was only thanks to the memories she’d retained of another world full of other memories. (Even in the future she still couldn’t be sure if she’d simply been given another’s memories, or if she had been that person that had somehow ended up in this world. And if so, how she had managed to keep her memories through whatever reincarnation process her soul had gone through was a question that she would probably never find the answer to.)

Still, the truth of the matter was that she was the one who needed Naruto. The small ray of sunshine that was her twin, that refused to let himself think too negatively, and by extension, herself, had been what had kept her afloat in even the darkest of days. It probably didn’t (or perhaps did) help that she had been an older sibling once too, even if she’d never been the best one. (She’d resented her family, once upon a time, even if she’d loved them just as much as well. But then, they’d always said there was a fine line between love and hate…)

Even if they never knew who the actual elder sibling was, that didn’t change the fact that they were siblings now. And even if the murmurs of disgust and hatred still managed to filter through no matter how much she tried to ignore them, that didn’t mean she couldn’t still push them aside. (They still hurt, though. What had they even done to deserve such hate? As much as she could understand the reason why, she also couldn’t. Because what could possibly justify the people of an entire, large village turning their hatred to two, young orphans? Orphans who knew absolutely nothing -or were supposed to know nothing- of their circumstances?)

And so she allowed herself to be distracted. She let herself fall into her brother’s pace while simultaneously doing her best to take care of him. Because even if she was still a child in this world, she also had the memories of another that, if counted, would put her at an adult’s level, even if only in the recesses of her own mind.

(She might have been taking advantage of being allowed to a child, even while simultaneously being frustrated by it. Whether this new life was supposed to be a punishment or a purgatory, well, what else could she do but to use what she had to do what she could…?)

Sarutobi Hiruzen was old. Much older than he’d been when he’d retaken the hat, and even older than when he’d retired. The stress of taking back the hat and having to run a country when he should’ve been able to retire and live alongside his grandchildren had very much taken a toll on the man that could be considered a fossil even by civilian standards.

Still, even with all the darkness in his life, there were a few bright spots. His grandson, for one. And while he and his remaining son were somewhat estranged, he still cared about those members of his family. Aside from that, however, well, it was mostly the little things that gave him joy nowadays.

No doubt Konohagakure would have flourished even more under the hand of his chosen successor. But as much as he regretted the events of that night, there wasn’t much he could do aside from to move on and to try honoring the lives that had been lost that night.

Of which included the new jinchuuriki of the nine tailed fox. A demon of chakra that had had been sealed into the very children of the one who’d defeated it. Two children that would be visiting him soon enough. Honestly, he still wasn’t quite sure what Minato had been thinking, to seal the Kyuubi into his two children, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now, of course. Still, he wondered how they were doing…

No doubt Naruto would want to have ramen for lunch again, the old man mused, chuckling to himself as he took a moment to take a break, pipe already in hand as he lit its contents with a small flicker of elemental chakra. The boy was rambunctious, much like his mother, though he definitely took more after Minato in coloring, he mused. Bright, blue eyes and a shock of vivid yellow hair the exact shade as Minato’s. If not for the whisker-like marks that were proof of being the child of a Jinchuuriki, it likely would have been far more clear that he took more to his mother in body. Of course, he wasn’t unique in the markings, it was something he shared with his sibling, after all. And what a surprise, that Kushina had been pregnant with not one, but two children! And a girl, at that. Rare enough that she’d been carrying twins, but for them to be of different genders, well. That they...would have survived… was already a miracle as it was.

Mito, who’d been named after the woman who’d taken Kushina in. Mito who seemed to take more after her mother in appearance than her father, color and eye shape aside. While Naruto had his mother’s eyes with his father’s coloring, Mito’s were more like her father’s, colored similarly to Kushina’s, though they were slightly bluer in hue than the emerald grey that the vivacious red-head had sported. Blonde hair that was already beginning to turn more a golden-red or amber color in the sun, and a somewhat shy personality much like Minato in his earlier years. No doubt their parents would have been full of joy at the seemingly perfect mixing of their traits.

As a seal flashed in code by his door, thanks to the AnBu who pretended to be his secretary, Hiruzen was taken out of his musings, as he was alerted to the arrival of the twins. No doubt Naruto would have charged straight in, if not for the more conscientious Mito at his side. Chuckling to himself, he called out, pressing a finger with some chakra to the seal under his desk so that his voice could be heard from outside.

“Come on in, Mito, Naruto,” standing as he spoke, Hiruzen straightened his back, wincing a bit at the cracking sound that echoed in the otherwise silent room, as he stepped around the paperwork piled desk to greet the two young jinchuuriki before something got knocked off his desk.

“Gramps, Gramps!” Came the excited chatter of the male of the two siblings as he zoomed in to a stop before the man, his sibling taking a more casual approach as she sighed, a small smile on her face. “Can we get ramen for lunch this time, please, please? I’ll eat all my vegetables, so can we go? Pretty please?” He pleaded in lieu of a more polite greeting that his sibling gave.

“Good Afternoon, Hokage-jii-san,” she greeted somewhat more shyly, stopping closer to the doorway then into the room as her sibling had. Though her addressing of the man was likely a bit strange (since it probably translated more to something like ‘Grandpa Hokage’ than anything), it didn’t seem to bother the man. Rather, it seemed to amuse him as he smiled genially at the two.

“Just Jii-san is fine, Mito-chan. Or better yet, you can call me Jii-chan, instead,” he mused, knowing that Mito would likely never be as casual (or to some people, as ‘rude’) as Naruto had a tendency to be.

Clearly hesitant, Mito nodded, re-greeting the man in a soft voice, “Th-then, good afternoon, o-jii-san,” she said at last. It probably wouldn’t last, but for this visit, at least, she wouldn’t be calling him ‘Hokage-jii-san’. Because while he was the Hokage, he wanted the two to think of him more as family than someone to be exalted as many of the citizens seemed to.

Smiling warmly at the two, he chuckled, seeing that Naruto was getting antsy even as he waited for them to be done so he could get his answer. “As for you, Naruto-kun. I’m sure that it was supposed to be Mito-chan’s turn to decide?” he half-chided, knowing that ramen all the time wasn’t very good for the boy, even if it was more balanced than other options. (Not to mention cheap.)

Shoulders sagging, Naruto’s entire countenance dropped, “O-Oh… Right,” he frowned, “Sorry, Mito,” he’d clearly forgotten who’s turn it was, before he turned back to a smile so that Mito could pick. “So what does Mito want for lunch then?” he asked. There was a chance that she would choose ramen, and he had been ‘good’ after all… Or, well, as ‘good’ a kid as he could be. Even when Mito did boring things like sitting around or trying to practice to write or do maths.

Eyes wide at being put on the spot, Mito hesitated, looking between Naruto’s attempt to hide his kicked puppy look, and the amused looking Hokage, she bit her lip, thinking about it. “W-well… Naruto did say he’d eat his vegetables…” She said, clearly thinking about it, though looking at Hiruzen for what seemed to be permission.

Honestly, that girl could be a little too nice, sometimes, the old man mused, blowing a puff of smoke in a ring shape as he looked at her. “And, is that what Mito-chan wants for lunch, then?” he asked, knowing that the girl would more often than not end up spoiling her brother if not for the fact that it was more difficult to when so many people seemed to hate them simply for being them.

Clearly torn, Mito frowned to herself, even as Naruto perked up, clearly doing his best not to wiggle too much since the boy definitely had a more difficult time trying to stay still or in one place for very long. Finally, the slightly red-tinted blonde seemed to come to a decision, “I...don’t know what I want to eat so… instead, Naruto could choose this time and I...could choose next time, instead?” She decided, apparently having no preference, but knowing better to simply just let her brother get what he wanted every time.

Though he hadn’t scolded her for it, he had gently chided her for not choosing for herself at times, making sure that Naruto could hear and thus understand that ‘it wasn’t fair’ to Mito if she simply let Naruto choose every time.

It seemed to be working, though, since Naruto perked up and nodded vigorously, eyes bright as he turned to Hiruzen. “Can we do that then? Uhm, please?” he asked, eyes wide and bright as he tried not to jump in place, the two clearly looking to him for acceptance of the ideas.

Taking a moment to hum, as he pretended to think about it, Hiruzen nodded. “Very well. Then, in exchange for letting Naruto choose this time, Mito gets to choose next time,” he concluded, pretending not to notice as Naruto cheered and Mito let out a small, relieved exhale. A tiny smile appeared on the girl’s face as she nodded in acceptance of the fact.

“Ichiraku’s, Ichiraku’s~~!” Naruto exclaimed, jumping and cheering as he hugged his sister and then the Hokage, just managing to remember to say his thanks, as he tried to calm down so they could get going, though it was clearly taking some effort. Taking his sister’s hand, the two started walking, knowing that the old Hokage would follow behind them at a more leisurely pace.

Hiruzen chuckled, patting the boy and smiling indulgently at the little show, as he did exactly that, watching the two as he walked, as Mito did her best to keep up with her excited twin, while asking that he slow down, and Naruto tried to walk (or rather, power-walked) as fast as he could to get to the ramen stand that much sooner.

Ah, yes. It was good to see that their children were still doing well enough despite the hate of certain village members for the two innocents.

Ending Notes: Starting and Ending with Hiruzen’s Perspective, with a look into Naruto and Mito’s along the way. Probably a bit confusing since it’s only the prologue/very beginning, but if I manage to continue it, well... Hopefully I do, anyway. I have a few ideas, but this is more of a...er, well, slightly stress relief and self-indulgent fic to be honest. So, yeah, I’ll leave it at that for now.

If anyone’s interested in it, please do let me know <3 Reviews/Notes/Likes are always appreciated. Thanks! And Happy New Year, guys!

#shi writes #fanfiction #naruto au #naruto fic #scraps #untitled #twins #uzumaki naruto #uzumaki mito #mito's named after the mito that married hashirama and later took kushina in by the way #we'll see if I continue with this later #naruto #fanfic writing practice #currently posted to tumblr only #tumblr only #scrap #Happy New Years

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