#making her dress like elena in the last scene before her death scene where she Died farting???? 😭

[whippedcloudsofcream]

Yareli Arizmendi as Rosaura De La Garza in Like Water for Chocolate (1992)

[fieldsofmoonshine]

Remember Me

Pairings: Elijah Mikaelson x Fem!Reader

Warning: funeral, cancer, death

Notes: this is kinda sad boi hour, elijah spends the day remembering you after you’ve died kinda thing

Word Count: 2064

Elijah leaned against the doorway, watching as you were listening to music loudly in your earphones while putting on makeup. Your mouth as slightly opened as you focused on applying your mascara, flinching every time you brought the tip closer to your eye.

The bright yellow sundress you had picked out for the day still hung on the wardrobe door as Elijah woke up, the suit he was wearing had for a second left red indentations on his skin which healed as he stood up. His eyes stopped at the dress, a sudden wave of feelings weighing down over his chest, knowing that you’d never get to wear it again.

Elijah walked over to the dress his hand bunching the fabric tightly in his hand while he smelled it, closing his eyes as he could recognize your perfume still present in the fabric.

You were sitting in a bench, leaning your head back to look at the sky, the sky was painted in a strong red burn mixed with the white and pink clouds it looked like a painting. Elijah was sitting beside you, one hand thrown around your neck like a pillow while he looked at you, smiling at your amazement at the sky.

“Don’t you two look disgustingly happy,” Klaus strolled into the courtyard with a grin as he watched you two. “Never seen a sky before Y/N?”

“Fuck off,” you answered, not even looking at him.

“I think you’re adorable,” Elijah stated and leaned down to place a kiss against your now blushing cheek.

“Fuck off,” you repeated, this time a mumble as you looked at Elijah.

“I’d prefer not,” he answered. “You could come with me.”

“As I said, disgusting,” Klaus muttered as he watched you blush deeper but answered with a yes, following him up to his room. “At least lock the door this time!”

“Elijah?” Freya knocked on his door, she sounded hesitant, saddened as she waited for a few seconds before opening the door. “Are you coming?”

“This is what she wanted,” Elijah told Freya absently while keeping his eyes on your dress. “The party, the people, down to every little pebble... I want to honor her wish— but all I truly want is to stay right here and bury myself in her dresses and shirts and every stupid little thing she left here.”

“We miss her too, and honestly I’m pretty sure none of us wants to celebrate her death,” Freya stepped inside and placed a arm around Elijah’s shoulder, which he didn’t even react to. “But she told us— very clearly— that we can cry and be miserable at any time but not today, she wanted us to remember her as she was—“

“Happy, fearless, smoking a cigarette while looking at the man she loved after a good round in the hay,” Elijah continued and chuckled slightly. “I don’t want to forget it, that feeling of being loved by her... it’s something extraordinary about it, like you’re drowning and she just pulls you up and you never want to be without her again, yet here I am.”

“Come on, if we leave now I won’t tell Nik you’re wearing the same suit as yesterday,” Freya teased him, noticing the small tug of his lips as he nodded wrapping an arm around Freya’s waist. “He’s been drinking, I never thought they were that close.”

“Niklaus has a funny way of showing he cares, with her I guess it was by endlessly mocking her,” Elijah looked down the hall with a frown. “You know, he fought harder about treatment with her than I did, he said something about making sure she’d be Izzie Stevens. How she’d managed to get him to watch Grey’s Anatomy I never understood.”

Freya chuckled lightly and stroked his arm as Elijah let go of her. “One day, Elijah, than we’ll mourn.”

Elijah sat beside you, looking at the wall above the doctors head, scanning some of the documents. You had been in for a regular check up and mentioned some recurring headaches after a fall down the stairs, (which was actually you ending up in the crossfire of some vampires arguing), and after some testing and scans you had been told to call someone, if you needed it. And you called Elijah, thinking it’d be something like a concussion and you’d need a ride, but no instead you two had been taken to meet an oncologist.

“How long do I have?” Elijah was torn from his focus on the wall. “It’s bad right? You have that look in your eye, like she’s only started her life and now she’ll die, so how long? Five years?” The doctor was about to answer but you cut her off again. “It’s shorter, right? Three? Two? Do I even have one?”

“With treatment, statistics give you a year, some live five but—“

“I am dying, anyways?” You filled in, getting a nod in response. “What’s the treatment?”

“We start with surgery, then chemotherapy and you’ll have to take medication,” you looked over at Elijah who had placed his hand on yours squeezing tightly, you imagined he wasn’t really listening anymore either. Vampires, werewolves, witches, hybrids, ex’s. Somehow you two had been through it all together yet neither of you had thought of this, a glioblastoma. A brain tumor.

“And this will give me, a year?” You asked.

“Some get more some less.”

“My grandmother died from cancer, when I was 15,” you leaned back slightly. “The last thing I told her was that she looked sick, and she answered that she was and that she’d wished she had rejected the treatment because she would die anyways. All she wanted was a little more time— I’ve had time and if I get a year where I can’t really live, I’d rather go sooner.”

“Perhaps you two should take some time to discuss—“

“No,” you answered, squeezing Elijah’s hand to get his attention back to where it belonged. “I’ve decided. Do I need to sign something?”

“Yes, a few papers...”

Klaus had saved seats for Elijah and Freya at the front, looking as miserable as Elijah felt even though Klaus had clearly attempted to clean up for the moment. People were chattering amongst themselves while waiting for the priest.

“I can’t believe she chose a service after all,” Klaus muttered and looked at Elijah who shrugged.

“It’s for appearances, she said something about wanting to be the talk of the town and all her friends and family who hadn’t spoken to her since she moved away from Mystic Falls,” Elijah told him and nodded towards the cluster of Mystic Falls residents sitting on the other side of the church. “She wanted to for once outshine Elena Gilbert and her main character aura.”

Klaus chuckled slightly and looked towards your coffin and shook his head. “I loved her, even though I never told her or you— she was the girl who always saw me as family and the only one I will ever approve for you.”

“She loved you too, that she did tell me,” Elijah informed him and a fond smile spread over his lips. “Sometimes she’d say that had you only been a brunette I’d have a run for my money.”

“I knew she had a thing for brunettes!” Klaus smiled as he looked over at his brother. “Brunettes, suits, and impeccable taste in wine...”

“The ideal man,” Elijah sighed. “I—“

The sound of people talking stopped as a priest walked up to the middle of the church and looked out over the people.

“Today, we have gathered here not to mourn, but to celebrate and honor the life of Y/N Y/L/N...”

You ran down the stairs while holding your hand over your mouth, Klaus and Freya both looked at you as you passed them before making it to the bathroom. The sound of you hulking over the toilet followed only seconds later.

“Y/N?” Freya came after you and gathered your hair in her hands, rubbing your back soothingly. “Should we call Elijah?”

“No, no,” you dismissed her and felt the tears gather in your eyes. “I sent him on Hope duty, he needed some distraction.”

“Do you need painkillers? It’s your cramps right?” Klaus asked from outside, already holding the pills in his hand.

“No, it’s not,” you answered and looked away from the toilet while flushing, the tears were starting to run down your face as you grabbed paper to wipe around your mouth. “I’m sick...” they both nodded, thinking you were getting the flu or a stomach virus. “Cancer, I’ve got cancer,” Klaus stared at you while Freya stopped moving, her hand slowly falling from your back. “Brain cancer actually, which is kinda ironic seeing as we always say I don’t have one.”

“How long?” Klaus asked as he lowered his hand to his side.

“Have I known or how long?” You asked but got no answer as he only looked at you. “Elijah and I were at the hospital two weeks ago, and three to twelve months. Maybe more maybe less...”

“And the treatment, how have you been hiding it?” Klaus asked as you stood up from the bathroom floor and sat down on the toilet with a hesitant frown. “You’re not? You’re not getting treatment?”

“No, it’d would give me a few months in best case but I’ve seen what happens when on chemo, I won’t live a few extra months only to be around,” you told him and felt your heart drop as Klaus only walked away, throwing the painkillers on the ground as he did so.

Damon Salvatore might be the most annoying person on this earth, Elijah thought as he sat in a corner of the room decorated for a party and some were enjoying it to the fullest, like Damon Salvatore. Why Elijah hadn’t killed him? No idea, he should’ve, Elijah thought, back when he had the chance and reason to. Elijah diverted his eyes to the scene where a band was playing as Caroline climbed onto the stage, holding a white letter in her hand.

“Hello, I know most of you don’t know me but my name’s Caroline, I grew up with Y/N and well she was an amazing person,” Caroline smiled nervously as she looked around. “We hadn’t talked in a while when she got sick but when she did she asked me to do something for her, so I am, she asked me to play a recording tonight, so yeah, here it is.”

A click came from the speakers as Caroline connected her phone to them before your voice started streaming from it.

“Hello? I think this is working, it should be. I just wanted to let you all know that I love you, even Klaus, and I want to take one last chance to remind myself,” you cleared your throat, and when you spoke again it was clear you were crying. “remind myself, and everyone else, that being loved in a way that I’ve been by all of you— and mostly Elijah, is something I will never be able to express how thankful I am... so yeah, that’s all, I love you.”

“Dance with me,” you grabbed Elijah’s hand and pulled him of the couch with a smile. Elijah didn’t want to, you knew he didn’t want to but you wanted to, you needed to. Somewhere in the back of your head you knew you wouldn’t get to dance with him next week at the anniversary party you had planned. “I love you.”

“Stop,” Elijah whispered against your ear. “You don’t get to say that yet.”

“I just want you to know that,” you answered, he and you both knew it was more than that. “And you need to know—“

“I don’t need to know anything,” Elijah cut you off. “Not yet, it’s been three months. Not a year.”

“I love you, and when I’m gone, you get to move on,” you stated and swallowed the tears from your voice. “Because you I love you, and you me. You get to move on.”

Elijah didn’t answer, he only stopped dancing and wrapped his arms around you in a tight hug. You felt the first tear drop from his eyes on your head and with a gentle smile you looked up at him, kissing his cheek.

“I love you.”

[damn-stark]

Forever

Damon Salvatore x Fem!reader

Requested by anon “May I request a Damon x Reader where the reader is dying and Damon tries to save them with his blood, but he's too late.”

A/N- :(

Warning- mentions of blood, some fluff, pure sadness

Episodes- 6x21, 6x22

———

“Isn’t a bridesmaid dress supposed to make you look like a freak of nature?”

You chuckle and walk to meet Damon halfway, “Jo went easy on me.”

Damon grinned smugly, “regardless I’d think you’ll look hot even if you wore a trash bag.” You scoff and roll your eyes in a lighthearted manner at his comment before a smirk tugs at the corner of your lips as your eyes study him in his tux.

“You know I think I'm preferring you in a tux instead of shirtless.”

Damon smirks, “sure you do, y’know you can’t resist me without a shirt on.” His smirk falls and his face turns serious except for the softness his eyes contain as he asks, “do you finally have an answer for my question?”

You sigh, “it's a hard choice, Damon. Choosing to be a vampire after seeing what our friends have gone through. It scares me to think what might happen if I do become one.”

“What scares you exactly?” He asks unsuringly. “That you might not—”

“No,” you cut him off, knowing exactly what he was going to say without him having to finish his sentence. You loved him and have for a long time, nothing will ever change that, not turning into a vampire or anything, so no the fear wasn’t because of that; “I know how Stefan suffers with controls and I saw how Caroline and Elena suffered without their humanity. I’m scared of that.”

“If you do, I’ll be there every step of the way, you know that.” Damon tries to assure you with an added assuring smirk, “plus I’m the master of control and make a pretty hot teacher. And if you don’t want me to teach you, then there's also Caroline I guess.” He shrugs, making you laugh.

Your laugh however doesn’t last as you remind yourself of the choice you still have to take, of your question you had that has been invading your mind all night and day. “What if,” you pause and swallow thickly, letting your eyes fall to the elegant rolled out carpet, “I don’t choose to become a vampire?” You look up to meet his gaze and see that the softness behind his eyes has totally dropped and turned assuring instead, choosing to take the couple steps left to cup your cheek.

“Then I guess I’ll have to live with that even if I do want to be selfish and just turn you. I love you and I’ll support whatever choice you make, even if it means that one day I'll have to lose you because you're too old and wrinkly and your heart chose to stop beating.”

Tears roll down your cheeks and you smile softly, “you'll love me even then?”

His lips break into a smile before he pulls you in for a sweet and slow kiss in the middle of the church, breaking away only far enough where you could still see how much bluer his eyes were as the sun peeked through the window and gently kissed his face. “even then.”

——

“Welcome family and friends on this magical evening to the wedding of Alaric Saltzman and Josette Laughlin. Josette and Alaric have prepared their own vows.”

Jo turns and hands you her bouquet as the reverent finishes her greeting, letting you offer Jo an small assuring smile before she turns around to face a very nervous Alaric so he could start his own speech. A sweet one that makes you like many others in the crowd begin to feel tears roll out.

“Neither one of us should be here right now. We’ve spent our lives dodging fate, beating the odds but because we did I got to meet you, the most beautiful, hilarious and intimidatingly brilliant woman I have ever known. You inspire me…”

Your attention wavers mid sentence as you realize with this speech, with this setting of Jo and Alaric getting married, minutes before they’re to become husband and wife, before they’re to share the rest of their lives together that you want this too. That you want to share your life with Damon forever or however long forever last. And the idea of not being to have control still scared you, but it’s like he said, he’d be with you every step of the way. And that thought didn’t scare you. Being with him forever didn’t scare you.

Because you’d rather be with him for however long forever last, instead of losing him when you’re too old to be without him.

“...you’ve shown me that happiness,” you hear Alaric continue saying as your mind wanders back to his vow, “is actually something that I can have in my life.” Albeit your full attention on the vow doesn’t last long as you catch Damon’s gaze, notice the smile on his lips as your eyes meet and the smug way he lifted his eyebrows. The gesture making you smile whilst the attention he had on you made you whisper your answer to his question very softly, but in a way he would hear regardless.

“I’ll do it. I’ll become a vampire.”

His smile widened like yours, sharing a sweet and short intimate moment before the both of you had to pull your attention back to the couple in front of you, hearing as Alaric finished the rest of his vows and slid the ring on Jo’s finger. “And so, I promise to be with you and I love you and to dodge fate with you for the rest of our lives.”

Emotion smiles collectively break through the crowd at the end of Alaric’s speech, all preparing to still hear the vow Jo had to give. “Oh, god.” She wipes the tears off her eyes and giggles nervously, her words making the crowd laugh as well, “that’s a tough act to follow. Here it goes. Alaric Saltzman. You are—” she suddenly and abruptly cut herself off.

“Jo? What is it? Jo, oh my god. Jo?”

She groans out in pain and her hands move to her stomach, making Damon move towards her and Alaric grab her as she tumbles over and screams out in pain. At first you don’t know what caused her to stop and scream out, but your eyes then catch the sight of blood bleeding through her white dress before out of nowhere her brother Kai appears behind her with a bloody knife in hand. You gasp and step back, feeling your lips part as you hear Alaric begin to cry for Jo and Kai talk in front of you.

“I was gonna wait til the “death do us part” bit, but it seemed a little on the nose. Am I right?” Your eyes meet Damon’s to share a concerned look, a tragic gesture that would be the last one ever—you want to move towards him, but you’re left speechless and frozen in your spot before Kai does a spell that makes a sharp ringing break through your ears and a painful headache pound in your head. Making a deafening and painful scream escape your lips and your hands to fly up to grab your head.

Living a short and painful moment that seemed like it lasted hours when it was only minutes. Short minutes of blinding pain before everything turned for the worst and every window in the church broke and every shard of glass went flying inwards; and you were thrown out of your spot and felt a new sharp pain stab your neck. Leaving you only seconds to witness every memory of your life flash through your eyes before you hit the floor with a nasty thud. Being left with only pain and a warm feeling spilling down your neck, onto the ground beneath you and onto your arm where you recognized it was blood. You gasped and let your eyes drift to the ceiling, trying to focus on the tragic sounds around you that slowly began to tune out, only because you tried to hear if Damon was calling to you so could assure him that you were there, alive but in pain.

But as you were trying, every feeling in your body, every pain, all the worry began to drift; just like the lights above you began to dim and the pain in your body which was once immense was now nothing but a dull feeling that began to numb. Letting you realize that forever wasn’t going to be an option, that the life you now chose to live with Damon, the love of your life, was going to be nothing but a last dream. A happy dream though, one you chose to cling onto as your life slowly came to an end and darkness overtook everything forever…

Leaving you to miss the way Damon came to you as soon as he could, desperately trying to hear the sound of your heart beat but missing it as there was no rhythm. A fact however that he could accept as he took you in his arm and cradled your body, using one hand to cup your cheek to try and begin to talk to you so he could hear you respond.

“Come on baby, come on. Please, you’re okay. You’re fine, baby. Come on. Come on!” He cried, again trying to focus on finding the sound of your heart, ultimately finding nothing again. “Baby.” He breathed, moving his hand from your cheek and biting his wrist to break through his skin and have blood spill from his wrist, moving it to your mouth so you could drink and healed. But as he tried, nothing happened, your eyes remained lifeless and your body stiff.

Damon kept trying however, desperately trying to press his wrist onto your lips to have you drink the blood, but nothing happened, the blood just stained your lips and didn’t move down your body. Letting him realize only heartbreaking moments later that it was too late. That he had reached you too late and that you were gone forever, after you had accepted to become a vampire to be with him forever.

He cried and rested his forehead on yours as he began to rock your body back and forth, forgetting about the horrifying scene around him.

[ryttu3k]

Night Road quote text dump, because I've been deluging a friend with quotes and want a place to keep them all.

We're a bit like that, yeah:

They direct you to a hulking Malkavian named Severian, and the sullen giant directs you in turn to Gibberish Mike.

Fortunately, it turns out that "Gibberish" Mike is just Australian.

Practical concerns:

"That's it!" Elena says, leaning over your shoulder. "That's his yacht. Oh, and this is all about him. Very useful." She snaps a picture of the email with her phone, then the two of you get out of there before the technician returns. You head down the elevator and then back to Elena's Datsun.

You're so pleased by how well that went that that it takes you a few minutes to remember you're in Arizona.

"His yacht?" you finally ask.

Fun with bungalow ownership:

After a day of fitful dreams, you throw on your leather jacket and engineer boots and get ready for another night. You step outside to check your Integra. A neighbor parks next door in her Ford Super Duty and gives you a friendly little wave. You've been practicing this. You're ready.

"Howdy, neighbor."

"Howdy!" she responds before heading inside.

Fucking nailed it. You're one of them.

This is legitimately how I got the Messy Critical achievement:

You grab a hoe.

You rip through the underbrush with savage efficiency, staying a few steps ahead of the pushcart as Julian scans. You work in a trance, chopping and hammering. Only when you hear Julian shouting do you realize that you're holding a busted length of wood.

The head of your hoe is buried in the beautiful round black door of Prince Lettow's Rolls-Royce.

Raúlblocked:

You head to Raúl's place, but he's not there. You find a note hidden above the door that reads, "Problems in Phoenix. (Jesus Christ has returned? Stole a car?) Contact me right away for major jobs and I'll come back. Already missing you." And there's a ProtonMail address with some of the security contact codes you agreed upon earlier.

But it looks like Raúl will be occupied dealing with the Lord and His automotive crimes, and he won't be able to wander around Tucson with you.

Pattermuster doesn't get paid enough:

"Hello? What? Well, the blood can't be 'everywhere.' Surely that's an exagger—okay—okay, fine. Okay. Okay, I'll get—okay. Five minutes. What? No, Sissy Spacek. No, Sissy—you're thinking of Rosemary's Baby. No, Carrie had the prom scene. With all the pig's—yes, it was Sissy Spacek, I'm sure. That much blood? Jesus. Okay, hold—five—okay, five minutes."

Valid question:

Do they teach ax fighting at Quantico?

Julian Meyer:

"Man, it's been a while," Julian says, leaning against your door frame. "I remember the nights we spent keeping that elder asleep with offerings of blood, the days curled up together in the desert. Wasn't it romantic?"

"That never happened, Julian. You made up our relationship and tried to sell it as a novel until the old Prince of Tucson threatened to execute you." '

"Vampire romance was big at the time," Julian says with a shrug. "And I changed our names. I still don't know why no one wanted to buy it."

Dammit I thought I was done with uni:

"Awful," Dr. Caul says with a little shudder. "But now your real studies can begin."

Your real studies consist of a syllabus (thirty pages) and a trunk full of books (35,000 pages).

"Are you disappointed, Rook?" she says with a little laugh. "Were you expecting something more mystical? A bolt of cosmic enlightenment? A conversation with your Holy Guardian Angel, who would reveal the answers you seek?" She bangs the trunk as technicians get ready to load it into your car. "Get reading."

An enthusiastic boss:

You reunite with Pattermuster down in the morgue, where he's pumping his fists as a thin-blood on a gaming laptop watches with a worried expression because she can't tell if he's incredibly happy or insanely mad.

"Rook!" Pattermuster shouts, his eyes full of Blood, "you did it! You brilliant child, you did it! We're safe. Oh, thank God, we're safe." He pulls you into an embrace, then punches a brick wall because he's so happy, showering all three of you in dust.

I thought that was Finland?:

You catch all sorts of whispered gossip as you cross the rooftop garden.

"Camp Scheffler?"

"Gone. That Outlander courier had something to do with it."

"I heard the Russians helped the SI burn it down."

"That's ridiculous. There's no such thing as Russians."

Pot, kettle:

"Julian," the Eagle Prince says, "you will locate Reremouse with the equipment Vane brought. Once we find him, we will strike shortly before dawn. I have prepared a stake sufficient to pierce even his old hide."

"That easy, huh?" Julian says.

"No, but—"

"Your plan is ridiculous, convoluted, and dangerous," Julian says.

"And you have a better one?"

"Absolutely," Julian says. "We use Stonehenge to teleport him to Mesopotamia."

The must-have appliance:

He's a black outline in the glow of a single yellow bulb... and then the bats descend.

And then the bats get torn to pieces, because Pattermuster pulls his two katanas out of nothing and turns into an undead Cuisinart for a few seconds.

But aesthetic:

Leave it to a vampire to bring a sword to a gunfight.

It is pretty cool though:

"Oh my God," Julian says. "You're going to use the car engine to fling Prometheus into Reremouse's heart."

"Dammit, Julian, I am not doing this because it's fun. I am scrambling for every advantage I can because we only have one chance to stop Reremouse, and if we fail, the Second Inquisition will descend on us like wolves on a wounded deer."

"It's still cool," Julian mutters.

A e s t h e t i c:

The Camarilla looks unkindly on vampires who dress like Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, but what's the point of being dead if you can't look the part?

#JustToreadorThings:

You sleep badly and awaken to an aching and acute Hunger that crowds out other thoughts. But when you approach the Rolls-Royce, you find Lettow and Julian seated on a blanket, evidently in fine spirits. They're holding stainless steel mugs as they watch the last purple streaks fade from the western sky. There's something perfect about the composition before you: the two Kindred in their working clothes with their backs to you, the blue-black clouds, the faraway mesas framing the scene.

"I fear we've lost the Aesthete," Lettow muses. "Luka? Luka!"

It's just good sense:

A lot of keypads use 0911 as an emergency override for police and fire. That doesn't work, but a common default password causes the elevator doors to slide right open.

Change your defaults, people.

They draw the line at 31%:

Not all problems can be solved by putting a brick through a window, but at least 30 percent can.

Descriptive:

That's when your Nissan makes a sound like a bunch of typewriter keys dropped in a blender, and the whole truck lurches to a halt.

Munch munch:

"There are tags attached to all the payroll numbers," you say. "FNMA. PFC. What are they?"

"FNMA?" Antonio says. "That's Fannie Mae. The loan commission. Privatized in 1968. PFC…"

"Pavlodar Fried Chicken," Janet says. "Damn Commies."

Courier what did you do:

When you try to start your Mercedes, it vomits black smoke. That's not good. You kill the engine.

"Pop the hood," Julian says. "I'll get it up and running."

He checks the motor. There's a long pause.

"Did you melt a bunch of cheese in here or something, Vane?"

“I remember crawling out of a Nieuport 20 outside Gibraltar," Prince Lettow says. "The engine looked like that. Of course, ours had been on fire."

"Engine looks like Vane fed a bunch of sardine cans into a paper shredder," Julian says.

Almost!:

So Lettow is cute. I'm going to talk to him and see if he might be interested in a handsome young courier who almost has his own car.

Scientist life:

A beaker of cold coffee on her desk has a pencil in it; she flicks the pencil away and drains the entire beaker, then looks you in the eyes.

Domesticity:

"Wow, Vane," the Banu Haqim says, "did you finally settle down. Where's the wife and kids? Why don't you get me a beer, and we can talk about football and quote some Bible verses at each other?"

I really want to know where the fake werewolf came in:

"...so the whole fucking Cadillac is on fire, and I'm kicking and kicking, trying to get the window to break!" Dove says.

"Right, right, because —" You're trying to follow this story, and it isn't easy.

"Because I'm still handcuffed to the guy who was pretending to be a werewolf, right. And I finally kick through the window, rip half the dead fake werewolf's arm off to get free — I'm out of my fucking mind now, with all the fire — and I finally crawl out of the car."

"And get clear before it — do they blow up?"

"Escalades? I dunno, probably not," Dove says. "But anyway, I'm finally clear, so I run across the parking lot, laughing because I'm just thrilled not to have met final death chained up to that guy. And I barely have time to look up before Lettow comes screaming around the corner in a Ford Bronco with the lights off and runs me over. I was in the wrong Cadillac the whole time."

"No!"

"Two black Cadillac Escalades in the parking lot of the Marriott," Dove says. "How was I supposed to know which one — anyway, that's why I don't get to drive anymore. That's why Lettow wants assholes like you driving."

"Driving what?" you ask. "Because I need a car."

Dove shakes her ugly head. "I'll get you something. Give me a few hours to work on it, and I'll send someone to find you."

Cars are everything:

You still don't know how Julian plans to go from "divert a few funds and data streams from the Camarilla" to "transform the global information panopticon in a way that ends the Masquerade but keeps vampires safe," but he has a nicer car than last time, so he must be doing something right.

Guys please be nice to Raul:

"There appears to be a vampire hunter outside," he says, "investigating your electric vehicle."

"Send your bird to peck his eyes out," Julian says. "I'm not going outside until I find my sneakers."

Cheese?:

Over the next few minutes, you cough up a glorious wad of bullshit involving MKUltra, the Philadelphia Experiment, Star Wars (the movie), Star Wars (the Reagan-era government program), Jackson Pollack's CIA connections, the history of federal cheese, and the secret mastermind behind the seventies gas crunch.

In fairness it's a pretty rare sound:

You're way up in Limberlost, near the mall and the Walmart, when Riga settles on the roof of a Safeway. You reverse into the parking lot in case you need to get out fast and scan the cars at the pumps. It looks quiet. Then you hear a faint ringing.

The sound is musical, hypnotic. It reminds you of your childhood, and for a long time you just sit there in the driver's seat, remembering what it was like to be alive. But what is that sound? What memory from…?

Oh, right.

The pay phone next to the ice merchandiser is ringing.

It's a skill!:

Not every member of Clan Toreador joins their august ranks because of their great beauty or artistic genius. Some people end up vampires because of their extensive knowledge of Adobe After Effects.

Big Pirates of the Caribbean energy:

"I'd kind of like to give Lettow here a horse and a sword and let him tear through an entire police barracks," Julian says. "Tell me that wouldn't be fun."

"One thing I learned from Napoleon," Lettow says, "is that the most powerful cannon is useless if you cannot see your target. We know the location of one small encampment. That isn't enough to start shooting."

"You knew Napoleon?" Julian asks.

"Napoleon was my horse," Lettow says.

[bellemorte180]

The First Miss Mystic Falls

Caroline Forbes had not been back to Mystic Falls in over a century. When she got wind of a living doppelgänger, Klaus sends her to check the credibility of their information. Seeing the doppelgänger for herself, Caroline creates a scheme to not only get a missing item back for the Original Family, but to ensure that Klaus and Elijah put aside a decades old feud, all in time for the sacrifice that would break Klaus's curse.

It just so happens that the doppelgänger is a contestant in the Miss Mystic Pageant and Caroline always did have a fondness for it.

She was the first Miss Mystic Falls, after all.

Follow up to - The Madness of Jonathan Gilbert

June 2020 Bingo- Prompt "Miss Mystic Falls" @klaroline-events

Mystic Falls 2010

Caroline sat in the black, nondescript Sedan. The tinted windows prevented her from being seen and people of Mystic Falls bypassed the car as though it was nothing out of the ordinary. Caroline ensured that it had a Virginia’s license plate just to be thorough. She did not want to be noticed nor did she want to make a scene. For now, she was watching and checking on the information Anna re-laid to her and that was easier done if she had no one in her way.

It had been one hundred and forty-six years since she last step foot in this god forsaken town. It had changed over the century and a half; modernized as most of the world was. Gone where the carriages pulled by horses down a dirt road. Gone were the corsets and dresses and southern manners. Yet, the differences Caroline found that the town still remained the same in some ways before she was run out of it.

The founding families, one of them she had once belonged to, still held the counsel against vampires. The only downside is almost everyone on the council did not realize that the Salvatore brothers were vampires, except for one member, and Damon somehow found a way to gain a seat on it. She was surprised; Damon she knew was not exactly one for forward thinking. Then there was Stefan, falling all over the Katherine look-a-like once again; Damon sending longing looks her way as well.

Elena Gilbert. The whole reason she stepped foot in Mystic Falls again. Two weeks ago, Caroline was enjoying a nice blood infused bottle of wine on yacht in the Caribbean when she got the call. Klaus was trailing his tongue down her flat stomach and she almost didn’t answer Anna’s call.

Almost; but she was glad she did.

Now she sat in a hot car staring at a more boring version of Katherine. At least Katherine had been interesting when Caroline had known her as a human. Granted they were not close, for the old vampire was too involved with Damon and Stefan to really get close to Caroline. Not that she cared; her relationship with Damon and Stefan was nothing more than polite smiles and maybe a dance at a formal event when they were human. Neither knew that Caroline had been turned mere weeks after they themselves left Mystic Falls.

Elena was sitting on a bench across the street talking to a young woman Caroline realized was Emily’s descendent. Caroline made a note to stay away from that one. As far as Caroline can tell, Elena was not at all remarkable other than being a Gilbert; a family Caroline decided she hated; seeing that it was Jonathan Gilbert who smothered her with a pillow and ruined all of her and Klaus’s plans for a smooth transition in New Orleans. Fucking Gilberts.

Caroline pulled out her smart phone and raised it in order to take a photo of Elena. She saved it to her phone and quickly typed out a message. She attached the photo and hit send. She did not have to wait long before her phone started to ring. Klaus’s name flashed on the screen and Caroline smiled.

“Hello Love.” Caroline purred into the phone. Her eyes were still on Elena who was laughing at something the witch said. “Receive any interesting pictures?”

“So, it is true then? There is another doppelgänger?” Klaus’s voice was smoldering, and Caroline knew him well enough that she could hear the excitement in his tone. Her smile grew wide, knowing that he was happy. He had all but lost hope on ever breaking his curse long before she met him. She knew it tore at him, having that part of him locked away and Caroline wanted nothing more than to set him free. “I didn’t think it possible.”

“Katherine had to have had a child at some point. Probably before she was tossed out of Bulgaria.”

“Clearly.” Klaus replied. “Well, I suppose I can drive up from New Orleans and be there by morning. The full moon isn’t for another three weeks so there is no rush. I’ll have Greta and Maddox fly in as well.” Caroline bit her lip, a thought passing through her head. “We will have to keep this quiet. The last thing we need is my brother getting wind of this.” Caroline said nothing and by the sigh on the other end of the line, Klaus knew that she had an ulterior plan. “Sweetheart? What is it?”

“What if we asked him, for you know. Help.” Caroline stated and pushed forward before Klaus could reply. “I know things are rocky for the two of you and frankly, I love you, but it was all your doing. Yes. Elijah pushed your buttons, but you really did not need to tell him you dumped the coffins in the ocean. So, I get why he is mad at you.”

“Caroline-“

“Please Klaus?” Caroline all but begged him. While the relationship between Caroline and Elijah had always been frosty since she was turned. However, he accepted that Klaus loved Caroline and therefore they were a package deal. Since the massive argument between Elijah and Klaus in 1933, neither brother had spoken to the other; no matter how hard Caroline pushed Klaus to reach out to his brother. “For me.”

“Fine.”

*

Two days later Caroline found herself walking down the street heading towards the Mystic Grill. Her heels echoed off the pavement. It was in the middle of the day and she knew that the doppelgänger would be attending classes at the high school, along with Stefan. Caroline scoffed at the idea of going to high school; no thank you. She saw no appeal in the concept, especially when there were finer things in life than mundane lessons from humans who had no real concept of what they spoke.

Caroline paused when she reached the entrance of the Grill; her eyes scanning the only decent establishment in town. Her eyes landed on a flyer that was pinned to a corkboard near the entrance. She pulled it down and smiled; adding a new layer to her plan. She folded the flyer and stuck it in her bag before looking around for her target.

Bingo. Sitting in a booth in the far corner all alone. Perfect.

Caroline strolled over at a leisurely pace, his back was towards her and he did not hear her coming. When she reached him, she placed her hand on his shoulder and quickly moved it down his arm; gracing his hand with her fingertips, removing his ring without notice.

“Hello John.” John Gilbert startled and looked at her with wide eyes. He looked nothing like his ancestor and that pleased Caroline; the last thing she wanted was a Jonathan Gilbert look-a-like. He looked her over and she could see him visibly swallow. He knew who she was and that made her very happy. Caroline sat down across from him and tossed him her favorite Miss Mystic Fall smile; she was the first one after all. “Where you expecting company? No? Perfect.”

“I didn’t realize you had returned. I thought it was just the Salvatore boys.” John replied stiffly, not taking his eyes from her. She reached over and picked up a French fry, popping it into her mouth. “Does Liz know you’re here?”

“My cousin? No. She does not.” Caroline told him. She eyed him and she could see a series of plans calculating behind his eyes. “And she isn’t going to know John. By your reaction, you know who I am affiliated with.”

“The Original Family.”

“Yes.” Caroline leaned forwarded, tossing him a predatory look. “When Klaus and I fled this town over a century ago, we were forced to leave something behind. Something valuable. Now, I‘ve made it my business to study up on the founding families and I know that a certain ancestor of yours passed it down through your family.” John just looked at Caroline, unmoving and unblinking. “Very good, you know exactly to what I am referring.”

“I’m not giving it to you.” John told her and she was expecting that answer. Caroline planned for it and adjugated her plans accordingly. No good plans worked without leverage, so she ensured that she had multiple layers of leverage planned; forcing John to bend to her will. “I would be a fool to give it to you.”

“Then I suppose you will never see this again.” Caroline raised her hand to show John the ring that was no longer on his finger. He tried to reach across the table and take it from her, but she was faster; laughing at his failed attempt. “Interesting things, these rings. Making it so the person who wears it will come back to life if they die a supernatural death. I can understand why it would be very valuable to you. If you want it back, I suggest giving me what I want. And if this isn’t enough of leverage, I understand that you’re rather close to that nephew of yours. I wonder how he tastes.”

“Stay away from Jeremy.”

“Do we have a deal?” Caroline asked pleasantly and John glared at her as though he was contemplating her offer. He wasn’t foolish enough to think she was bluffing; and she wasn’t. If he was not willing to bed to her rules, Jeremy would be dead before the week was out.

“When?”

“Knew you would come around.” Caroline tossed him a wide smile and pulled out the flyer that she had plucked from the corkboard at the entrance out of her purse; sliding it over to him. “The Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Did you know that I was the first ever Miss Mystic Falls? It would be poetic to have our exchange there, don’t you think.” John didn’t respond, his eyes glued to her purse, where she had casually tossed the ring into it. Knowing that her job was done, Caroline stood to leave; pausing just slightly to look at John. “Oh, and if the council gets winds of this and they try and dispose of me. Just imagine the havoc Klaus will wreck if I do not return. Blood will flow and everyone in this godforsaken town will burn.”

Caroline did not have to look back to know that John believed her.

*

The Miss Mystic Falls pageant was scheduled for the end of the week and Caroline kept a low profile till then. She watched the Salvatore brothers continue to fawn over Elena and how everything seemed right as rain. She looked in on her distance cousin, Liz, who was the sheriff and noticed that she seemed none the wiser about her reappearance in town; for Caroline was the Forbes’s family’s dirty little secret. John kept his word and Caroline was almost feeling charitable enough to give him a gift. She wouldn’t kill him; or at least not permanently.

She bought a skintight, short green dress that enhanced her curves. The black lacey lingerie she wore underneath her dress was so scandalous, that she snapped a photo of her partly naked body and sent to Klaus; ensuring that he would be waiting for her when she returned from the pageant. She smiled. It had been over a week since she had been in his bed and it was far too long for either of them. That and if their eventual plans came to fruition, it would be important for him to come to Mystic Falls.

He would come.

Klaus was not a man who could turn down Caroline in lingerie.

Caroline pulled up to the Lockwood manner in a flashier car, a sleep black Maserati, compared to the Sedan she had been driving previously. She no longer cared about blending in or hiding the fact that she was in town. Soon enough, it will be irrelevant and the entire town; or at least in the supernatural ‘know’, will shake with Klaus’s arrival.

As Caroline stepped out of the sports car, she saw Anna standing in front of the porch with her arms crossed and her head shaking. Caroline had run into Anna a few times over the last century. The two had an understanding. Klaus and Caroline let Anna do what she will in exchange for information. If Caroline’s plan worked and Klaus broke his curse, then Anna, nor her mother, would never have to fear anything at all.

“I thought you wanted to keep a low profile.” Anna asked, her dark eyes raising in question towards the car.

“There is no point in hiding now. Klaus is coming.” Caroline told her and the two vampires strolled up the stairs of the Lockwood manner. The mayor was standing by the door, willing to greet any and all to the Miss Mystic Falls pageant. Gaining an invitation into the home was easy and Caroline rolled her eyes. For a town who knew about vampires, one would think that they would not be so cavalier with their invitations.

Caroline was ready to part from Anna, but the latter grabbed ahold of her wrist. Caroline narrowed her eyes at Anna. The other vampire was older and could easily kill Caroline if she wanted but she would not be so thoughtless. Anna knew that killing the blonde was an automatic death sentence for herself and her mother….and anyone else she cared for.

“Our deal?”

“Stands.” Caroline flashed her a smile. “I promise you that if you and your mother stay out of our way, we will let you build this little idealic life you and your mother want.” Anna wasn’t convinced. “If Klaus disagrees with the deals I have made, then I have many ways of persuading him.” A movement from up the stair got her eye and she saw Damon Salvatore go into a room that she assumed belonged to the contestants. Caroline pulled out her phone and shot two separate text messages out. “I have to go.”

“Caroline! Wait, Elena’s brother-“

Tuning out Anna’s plea, Caroline grabbed a champagne glass and walked up the marble stairwell. Not a single person stopped her, and it was too easy to follow Damon into the room. She listened closely enough to hear the conversation brewing between Damon and the latest doppelganger. Apparently, they thought Stefan was missing, probably off on a blood binge and that was something Caroline found interesting. A note to use later down the line. She missed Ripper Stefan. He was more fun as a murderous bloodaholic than he had been human; or this broody version she had been watching for days.

No longer willing to wait, Caroline pushed open the door to Elena’s changing room and strolled right in. Elena jumped in surprise, her brown curled hair bouncing and bright brown eyes bulging. Damon’s jaw dropped in a comical manner, as though he could not process what and who he was seeing.

“Damon! How are you? It has been an age.”

“What?! How? What?”

Caroline ignored him and strolled over to Elena, taking in her appearance. It was one thing to see her from afar and through photos but to be up close and personal was another story. She did not just resemble Katherine; it was as though she was a carbon copy of her. No wonder Stefan and Damon were in love with her.

“They said the doppelgangers were flawless copies of one another, but this is uncanny.” Caroline cocked her head, studying Elena who she could tell was becoming uncomfortable under her scrutiny. Caroline held out her hand, gripping Elena’s in greeting. “Caroline Forbes. I grew up with Damon and Stefan.”

“You’re a vampire?”

“Obviously.”

“Who the hell would turn you?” Damon’s voice cut in and Caroline turned her head to him. The surprise was still written on his face. He was completely taken aback at her sudden appearance and Caroline would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy it. “You were an annoying little twit as a human. If anyone would fail at being a vampire, it would be you.”

“Ouch.” Caroline said in mock hurt, her hand messaging her chest over the place her heart was. “I will have you know that I excel at being a vampire. All those controling tendencies I had as a human were magnified. I mastered being a vampire within a week. Can’t say that for either of you, now can I? Oh, where is Stefan?”

“How are you a vampire?” Damon asked again. Caroline smirked at him, noticing that he was not willing to speak of his brother. Stefan was not important at the moment, but he could come in use later, especially if he was going off the rails.

“I died with vampire blood in my system. That is how vampires are made. Did you not know that?” Caroline tossed him a winning smile. Damon was growing frustrated and Caroline rolled her eyes. “Short version? After Stefan murdered his father...” Elena gapped at her in surprise. “He bit his head off, right from his shoulders, literally. Quite the brut, your boyfriend is.”

“Caroline...” Damon warned her, his eyes full of concern for Elena who was processing the knowledge of news of the man she loved killing his own father. Elena sat down on the sofa, questions running through her mind.

“Still no fun I see.” Caroline drank a sip of her champagne. “The town held the first Miss Mystic Falls pageant after the two of you fled town. I won, of course.” Caroline turned to Elena and did a small curtsy. “The first Miss Mystic Falls at your service.” Caroline turned her head back to Damon, sensing the presences of someone new heading up the stairs. “There were two men in attendance that were not from Mystic Falls. They claimed to be wealthy merchants from Louisiana interested in trading with the town. However, they were not merchants…. where you Elijah?”

Damon, Elena and Caroline turned their heads to see a tall man who was dressed impeccably. He had brown hair, dark eyes and wore a suit that cost more than everything the room combined. He was fixing his cufflinks and appearing bored. He stepped through the door, closing it behind him, his eyes bypassing Caroline and landing on Elena.

“No. We were not.” Elijah moved to stand directly in front of Elena; eyeing her. “My brother and I came to see if Katerina had really locked herself in tomb. Quickly we realized she had not. My brother took a fancy to Ms. Forbes.”

“Who is Katerina? And who are you?” Elena asked, in a small voice. Elijah’s eyes looked at her and Caroline could see a flicker of something behind them. Caroline bit back the urge to groan; especially since Damon noticed Elijah’s focus.

“You know her as Katherine Peirce, but her real name was Katerina Petrova.” Elijah told Elena in a gentle tone. “I’m told that Mr. Salvatore is familiar with her?”

“Unfortunately.” Damon muttered and Caroline heard the distinct sounds of the words lying bitch reach her ears.

“As charming as Katherine is, shall I continue? I do hate being interrupted. Elijah’s brother and I began having an affair. We had planned to marry and leave town before he turned me, but Jonathan Gilbert discovered that I was having sex with a vampire and smothered me in my sleep. I had vampire blood in my system and here we are. Official story is that I ran off and eloped. Truth is I was run out of town when my father, who was the sheriff at the time, learned I was a vampire.” Caroline drank from her glass again, watching as Elijah gaze at Elena who was becoming uncomfortable under his scrutiny. “She looks like her. Doesn’t she? What was the one you loved named? Tatia? Is it unnerving to see the face of the woman you love but it not be her at all?”

“Do not speak of things you do not understand Ms. Forbes.”

“A hundred and forty-six years with Klaus and I understand a great deal.”

“Do you have what you promised me?”

“Not yet; but it will be here soon.” Elijah turned to look at Caroline, as though to retort but a knock sounded at the door and the imagine of Carol Lockwood appeared. She was wearing a nice dress and her hair was done in a fashioned that gave off the aura of a wealthy wife.

“Elena honey... oh, I did not realize you were not alone. You really should not have guest up here. The pageant is just about to start.” Carol told her, giving a false smile at the guest. “I think it would be best if you wait downstairs with the rest of the guests.”

“I’m sorry Mrs. Lockwood.” Caroline moved towards the older woman. “We just wanted to come up and wish Elena good luck. We will be out of your hair.” With a flash, Caroline was upon Carol, tiling her neck to the side and savagely biting into her neck. Her hand was pressed against Carol’s mouth; preventing her from screaming. Elena screamed out and Damon moved to stop Caroline, but Elijah gripped the young man by the neck; stopping him from moving forward. When Caroline was done feeding, she let Carol’s body drop to the floor. Caroline turned back to the others and smiled. “Damon, put the body in the closet please.”

Elijah dropped Damon as Caroline made her way over to the vanity. She sat down and cleaned her lips in the mirror. Elena was staring at her and Caroline caught her eye. Caroline refused to break the gaze between them in their reflection as she cleaned her lips of Carol’s blood. Damon dragged the body and stuffed her into the closet.

“Must you make a mess everywhere you go?” Elijah asked, giving her an insufferable sigh. Caroline spun around on the stool and crossed her legs. “My brother seems to have corrupted you even further.”

“That is just your bitterness talking Elijah.” Caroline pulled out her phone and began typing; she pulled up a series of photos. She handed the phone over to Elijah and waited. Elijah scrolled through each of the photos, his eyes growing wider. “If you look at the date on the newspaper, you will see that they were taken just this morning.”

“He said-“

“The two of you were fighting and you know how he likes to lash out. He would have said anything to get under your skin. I swear I have never seen brothers fight the way the two of you do and I grew up with them.” Caroline snapped, pointing at Damon; who looked as though he wanted to be affronted. However, Caroline did not allow him the chance. “Do you honestly think he would drop them in the ocean? That I would allow him to?”

“Niklaus does what he wants.”

“Klaus does what I want if he ever wants sex again.” Caroline snapped at him. She aimed to continue but stopped when she heard the creaking of the stairs. A knock sounded a few moments later and the door pushed open. John Gilbert stood in the doorway with a box in his hand, viewing every single person in the room. “Right on time John. Do you have what I want?”

“Uncle John?” Elena muttered in a small tone, fear still etched on her face. John looked at her and then back to Caroline; knowing that she had Elena there for a reason. He took in the rest of the room and stiffened at the sight of Elijah.

“Do you have my ring?” John replied before looking at Elijah. “Who is your friend?” John asked, seizing Elijah up. There was a flicker of understanding in John’s eyes and a healthy dose of fear echoing in them. Sensing it made Caroline smile. She gazed at the box and stood from her seat, walking towards John in an almost seductive manner.

“Do you honestly think that I would not show up without back up?” Caroline taunted. “Show it to me.” John did not move, and Caroline rolled her eyes. She pulled at the chain around her neck, revealing the ring that was resting in her cleavage. She removed the chain from her neck and dangled it in front of him. “One ring that will bring you back from the dead. Now open the box.” John did as he was told and opened the wooden box. Nestled inside was a silver dagger and a small bottle of white oak ash. “Elijah. Is this it?”

“You have seen the others. You know that answer Caroline.”

“Very well.” Caroline took the box from John and tossed the ring at him. If she wasn’t so focused on the silver dagger, she might have laughed at seeing John scramble for it. “Although, I would be careful John, those rings are dangerous.”

“You’re only saying that because my ancestor was the one who killed you.” John replied, feeling braver now that his ring was firmly back on his finger. Caroline turned to him and glared. She did not like being reminded of her death. The end result was the same, but it ruined her perfectly laid plans. Not only that, she wanted Klaus to be the one to take her life, not Jonathan Gilbert’s “Maybe I’ll have the same pleasure.”

“Doubtful.” Caroline reached out and stroked his cheek before gripping his chin and snapping his neck. John’s body fell to the ground and Caroline had to give Elena credit; she did not shriek this time. Instead she just jumped into Damon’s arms; who did not seem put off by it. It was not like John’s death would be permanent.

“You’re a monster.” Elena hissed out through clenched teeth.

“Oh honey, I’m the queen of the monsters.” Caroline gave her a smile before turning back to Elijah. She handed the box to him and he took it easily. “It’s yours. We will never ask for it back nor will it be used again, unless you use it one someone else.” Elijah smirked at that and she is winning him over, she can see it. “Will you help us?”

“The others?”

“I’ll try and convince him to pull them out.”

“I thought you said Klaus did as you commanded.”

“Mostly. I might have embellished a little bit.” Caroline smiled at him, fluttering her eyes; knowing that it would not work on him. She was never able to get what she wanted completely from him like she could from Klaus. “Pretty please.”

“When is the full moon?”

“Two weeks. Klaus will be arriving tonight. I sent him an incentive.” Caroline smiled. “I have a feeling Katherine will be in town soon. She is never one to ignore the chance at freedom. Klaus will be willing to consider it in exchange for the stone. Once we have that, everything will be in place.”

“Very well. I will come and speak with my brother in the morning. I’m sure the two of you will be occupied tonight.” Elijah told her but sounded grave. He turned to both Damon and Elena. “It was a pleasure making your acquaintance. I’m sure we will be seeing each other soon. Caroline?”

“Coming.” Elijah extended his elbow and Caroline happily looped through it. “Elena, I’m sure you will win the pageant. I do hope you enjoy wearing the crown. I most certainly did.”

“Wait!” Damon called out, still baffled at the exchange and the two dead bodies in the room. Neither Caroline nor Elijah paid him any mind; choosing to ignore his outburst. “Who the fuck is Klaus!?”

[chaoswillfallrpg]

MAREN LINWOOD  is TWENTY-TWO YEARS OLD and a BARMAID at THE FOUNTAIN OF FAIR FORTUNE in HORIZONT ALLEY. She looks remarkably like LILI REINHART and considers herself aligned with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. She is currently TAKEN. 

One of the most beautiful performers in the wizarding world, Maren Linwood is a relatively undiscovered gem living and working at The Fountain of Fair Fortune in Horizont Alley. The youngest born of single mother, CHRISSIE LINWOOD, Maren was raised in Barnet at the wild and bohemian Linwood Lodge. Ran by her mother, grandma AILEEN LINWOOD and her eldest sister ADAIRIA when she was home from boarding school, Linwood Lodge was the perfect playground for a young and artistic child. Each new day brought strange travelers into her home and allowed Maren to pick up tricks from the outlandish guests. Maren was taught how to sing in French and Italian from an opera singer who took up a residency with them for a while and pirouette and plié from a famed travelling ballerina who stopped in from time to time. Their grandma constantly lectured Maren and her older sister LAUREL about bothering the guests, but with each new person came a wild story they always seemed more than happy to share. As guests rotated and Maren grew, she learned more about herself. She was a passionate entertainer, regularly running around the boarding house, singing and dancing for the guests and her family. 

Whenever Maren began pulling her costumes out of her dressing up box she saw a hesitancy in her mother she never quite understood. Her grandma and her sisters embraced the creative side of the youngest member of the Linwood clan and although Chrissie clapped and smiled, there was something missing. Due to her confidence Maren was the lead in all her school plays, from nativities to fun productions she organised in her later years at Cherry Tree Primary School. Whilst all the other parents laughed and cried, Chrissie always seemed still. It was a similar stillness she had whenever Maren asked about her father. Whilst Adaria remembered him and refused to speak about him and Laurel had fading memories, Maren had nothing. Not even a name. Her grandma referred to him as ‘that man’ or ‘the mistake’ which could only gesture in a negative opinion. Despite the fact that Laurel was mostly just as curious about their father as she was, Laurel had no interest in asking questions about who he was or why he left. As Maren would walk to school each day, hand in hand with her mother, she wondered what had happened that would make her dad want to run away and leave them. She briefly questioned if it was something to do with her before Chrissie quickly shut her down on the topic. 

Her father was a bad man and that was all she needed to know. It was this “badness” that swirled in Maren’s mind and created pictures and scenarios of who he was and why he left. Much to her horror, one day Maren believed she had found the answer. As she argued with her grandma about the television set, the glass vase on the mantelpiece broke. Cracking clean in two and dropping to the floor. It was an odd occurrence but one which regularly happened whenever she got angry. Given her family were normal Maren had chalked it up to her dad and his “badness”. Maren worried about it constantly, so much so that one day she wailed and worried so much she tripped out the electricity in their house and ran to her mother in floods of tears. Maren had been right about one thing. Her strange gifts were from her father but it wasn’t a badness, it was something far more magical. The day Maren found out she was a witch time stood still. Despite what she had experienced, Maren was completely caught off guard and when she discovered her sisters were also witches. The youngest of the brood, Maren was the last to fly the nest to Hogwarts, a school which existence had been kept from her. Believing her sisters had simply been attending boarding school in Scotland, arriving at the castle was like nothing she could have imagined. 

Sitting under the sorting hat, Maren waited for quite some time as the hat debated where to place her, whispering in her ear about her talent, creativity and legacy before announcing her proudly in Gryffindor. Having been given a crash course on the train of the houses by Laurel, she was happy to be joining the same house as her sister but was surprised to be placed in a house of bravery. Nevertheless, Maren was happy with her placement. Gryffindor was filled with friendly and loud personalities, though amongst them she found fellow soft flowers in the form of GILFRED ABBOTT and AURORA SINISTRA who became her best friends. Gilfred and Aurora understood Maren and were her rocks during the difficult years that followed. An artistic soul, Maren loved to perform and was a staple in choir from first year where she became the subject of bullying by older student ELEANOR YAXLEY. The former star of the show, Eleanor didn’t take too kindly to Maren stealing her limelight and quickly branded her as enemy number one and bullied her mercilessly with the help of VIOLET BULSTRODE. Although known for her kindness, Maren was not afraid to stand up for herself, making friends with fellow choir members ELENA DIGBY and EMILIA GREY, letting the comments roll off her as best as she was able. 

But Eleanor and Violet were simply the tip of the iceberg, a gang of purist Slytherins regularly descended upon Maren, doing their best to make her crack and crumble. Rather than doing so Maren fought back, joining CARADOC DEARBORN and POPPY HOOKUM in Sorcerers for Equality, using her voice to speak up about her experiences as a Muggle-Born. Although her activism caught the eye of many Pure-Bloods who put a target on her back, it also caught the eye of her first boyfriend SIRIUS BLACK who admired Maren’s strength. The pair began to drift apart towards the end of school, deciding they were better as friends as they both focused on issues within their families. By the time Maren left Hogwarts she had dreams of moving to London to perform on the stage like her idol RUBY GOLDSTEIN, but after the death of their mother and her older sister’s purchasing of The Fountain of Fair Fortune in Horizont Alley, Maren put her dreams on hold to run the pub with her sisters. Singing in on Friday nights and working the bar, Maren tried to enjoy the time with her sisters for what it was, though a higher calling soon found her when an old friend from school MARY MACDONALD joined their bar staff. 

After one to many times Mary had asked to swap shifts, curiosity got the better of Maren, following Mary to a secret meeting where they were cavorting with Caradoc, Poppy, Sirius and a number of other Gryffindors from their year at school. Understandably, Maren was hurt, confronting the group and demanding answers. Working with Sorcerers for Equality, Maren knew people like her were in danger but she had no idea the extent of just how in danger they were. Without a second thought, Maren proclaimed her allegiance to the group and quickly got to work training with the order. It was difficult for a time lying to both her sisters, but eventually they found her out and joined the ranks of the group. Currently investigating a number of people she believes may have links to THE DARK LORD, Maren is focused on Eleanor Yaxley and Violet Bulstrode, seeking the help of crime scene photographer REMUS LUPIN to help her. Though they knew each other well at school, Maren has enjoyed getting to know Remus more as they try to navigate their place in a world who doesn’t seem to want to get to know them. Despite her set backs, Maren is determined to do her part and fight for equality, taking down one bully at a time and making the world a safer place. 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Blood Status → Half-Blood Muggle-Born/¼ Veela

Pronouns → She/Her

Identification → Cis Female

Sexuality  → Bisexual

Relationship Status → Single

Previous Education →  Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Gryffindor)

Societies → Sorcerers for Equality 

Family → Adaria Linwood (sister), Laurel Linwood (sister), Victor Yaxley (unknown half-brother/adversary), Eleanor Yaxley (unknown half-sister/adversary), Corban Yaxley (unknown uncle)

Connections  → Gilfred Abbott (best friend), Aurora Sinistra (best friend), Elena Digby (close friend), Emilia Grey (close friend), Cassiopeia Kim (close friend), Cressida Abercrombie (close friend), Caradoc Dearborn (close friend), Poppy Hookum (close friend), Mary MacDonald (close friend/colleague), Remus Lupin (close friend/potential love interest), Sirius Black (close friend/ex-boyfriend), Peter Pettigrew (close friend/object of flirtation), James Potter (close friend), Marlene McKinnon (close friend), Lily Evans (friend), Dorcas Meadowes (friend)

Future Information → N/A

MAREN LINWOOD IS A LEVEL 5 WITCH/VEELA.

[amandajoyce118]

Agents Of SHIELD S7E01 “The New Deal” Easter Eggs And References

In the season seven premiere, most of the team ends up in 1931 New York thanks to some time travel shenanigans. We love shenanigans, right? The is the last season premiere ever, and it’s bittersweet, but I’m diving right in.

As always, if you don’t remember this from the last few seasons of me writing up Easter eggs (posts are tagged aos easter eggs if you want to read old ones), this list assumes you have seen the episode. There will be spoilers.

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Again, spoilers. Turn back now if you don’t want them. Okay? Good.

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The Episode Title.

It’s a reference to FDR’s political work. I mean, Coulson even references it and says the episode title in the show. I kind of love when show’s do that? This show didn’t used to, but they did it a lot more the last two seasons, so maybe it’s a thing now.

The Title Card.

I feel like it’s unfair to call this an Easter egg, but if they didn’t put a 1931 timestamp on the top of the episode, the title card could have told you what era the team was in. Whoever was in charge of designing it did a great job making it look like a classic film title card.

Faceless People.

Okay, so the chronocoms erase the faces of the people they wish to resemble. This isn’t really a thing in the comics, but there is a character called “Faceless One.” He happens to be an alien who wants to conquer Earth as well, but is basically a big yellow ball with legs, so I doubt there’s any connection other than the cool effect.

Coulson’s Data Flood.

Okay, we get that literally everything Coulson says when he’s not talking to Daisy, Mack, and Jemma are quotes from previous seasons, right? Good. He even downloads the information on Ghost Rider, his own death, last season, etc.

Deke Has A Workstation.

Okay, not an Easter egg, but I think we need to take a moment and appreciate that Jemma built Deke a workstation and Fitz left him the tool we saw way back in season five. Why? Because Deke never feels like he belongs and he wants so badly to be close to his family, and now, we see that they thought of him while upgrading their ship. He has a place. And it’s right next to Jemma.

Elena Is Quarantined.

That’s because she was infected by the shrike in season six, not because the writers are psychic and knew there would be a massive epidemic going on when the show premiered. (Sorry, typed that before I realized Jemma was going to actually say it in show, so it’s staying in.)

Gemini And Koenig.

Gemini is actually a pretty popular name/codename in Marvel Comics, so it being used as, supposedly, the code name for the person in charge of the speakeasy made me laugh. It’s much more likely here that the bartender didn’t react wrong to the use of the word, that it’s used to weed out pretenders, hence the double barrel shotgun he affectionately calls the twins. I also like that it’s a tease for a Koenig appearing since we initially thought the Koenig siblings were twins and it turns out there are too many for us to count at this point (not really, I’m exaggerating, but great that grandpa or great-grandpa Koenig looks exactly like the modern day Koenigs. I mean, come on, they’re clones or something, right?).

“It’s not exactly your first time being separated by space and time.”

Okay, look, if you have to keep inserting meta humor into a show about how often you separate your main couple, maybe you should stop separating your main couple. (Yes, I know, Iain de Caestecker had another job he was working on in seasons six and seven, but seriously, it’s not funny. Your audience is tired of it.) I mean, to be frank, Fitz is one of my favorite characters in the show, but I didn’t really miss him in this episode? That might sound bad, but I don’t think they needed to comment on him being gone so much considering Jemma told them at the end of season six she didn’t  - and couldn’t - know where he was.

Wilfred “Freddie” Malick.

Daisy explains who he is, but look, it’s the father of Gideon Malick, the same Gideon who became the leader of Hydra after a broken SHIELD (and the Avengers) decided to squash all of its heads, the same guy who got Ward interested in visiting an alien planet where he ended up as Hive. He’s, like, ancient school Hydra, not just old school Hydra. What doesn’t make sense here is that they’re saying the SSR forms in response to Hydra. Technically, the SSR forms, and then they learn about Hydra, unless I’m misremembering, which is totally possible.

The Substance.

So, I gotta wonder… what’s in the test tubes? The earliest we go in the MCU is Captain America, which is still a whole decade after the events of this episode. Prior to that, Hydra experimentation did create the Red Skull, but… still not sure what’s in the tubes. I don’t really have a frame of reference from the comics to speculate either since Hydra was into literally anything and everything. 

New York.

Okay, so I’m curious if anyone knows where they filmed their 1931 New York scenes. I have questions. Because they use the same couple of blocks for all their outside scenes, which makes me think it’s a studio backlot (which would definitely help keep the script quiet) and they’re going to use a different part of the lot next week. A friend asked me if I thought it was the same as the one used for Captain America when he’s in Brooklyn in his first movie. Cap’s first movie’s Brooklyn scenes were filmed on a Universal Studios lot where they had New York building facades and street signs. If you’ve been to the theme park, you basically know what it looks like without the 30s/40s dressing. I think it’s the same lot, and I say this because I actually kept thinking that they used the set pieces Disney used for The Newsies movie in 1992 while watching the episode. Do you know where that was filmed? On the Universal Studios backlot’s New York street set up right after it was renovated in 1991. Huh.

So, Mark Kolpack basically answered this on twitter when discussing VFX. They filmed their New York street scenes on the Warner Bros. backlot, not the Universal one, so I guess the people in charge of designing the set pieces did a great job because they look pretty much the same.

This Picture.

This boxing poster was shared by Jed Whedon on instagram. Honestly, I didn’t spot it in the episode, but that could just be because I have a small television screen and I can’t read the signs unless I pause on a computer and zoom. I have bad eyes, guys. Sorry. Usually signage is something I spot on a second or third watch, but according to Whedon, this is set dressing in the episode somewhere. Probably on the street the characters walk down multiple times. 

Let’s break down the names. Kitson is George Kitson, a story editor, writer, and production assistant on the show. He wrote this episode, and, actually, next week’s episode. The planet Kitson was also named for him. Titley is Craig Titley. He’s a producer and writer for the show, probably best known for writing “4,722 Hours” at this point. Brown is such a common name, but I’m going to guess it’s for Garry Brown who has directed a handful of episodes and is also a producer on the show. Bell is, I’m thinking, Jeffrey Bell, one of the producers and writers on the show. Tancharoen is for Maurissa Tancharoen, one of the showrunners, or you know, maybe her brother, who has directed several episodes (including this one!), or her father, who is in charge of transportation to sets. Gierhart is, I’m assuming, Billy Gierhart, who has directed a lot of episodes of the show, though I don’t think he’s directed any since 2017. (If you look at the matchups, it ends up being writer vs writer, producer vs producer, director vs director when you assume the Tancharoen is Kevin.) It says there are four main events though, and only three are listed?

Not sure if the October 15 date is intentional, but if it is, that’s the day “Eye Spy” aired in season one? Steve Roger’s mother dies on October 15, but in 1936. Not sure if that’s even canon since it’s in a promotional comic, not in anything on screen.

I’m sure there are more, and if you guys spot them and tell me, I’ll add them in. If I notice any on a rewatch, I’ll add them in as well. Who’s looking forward to the time traveling this season?

[in-dire-need]

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge- My Chemical Romance

The only 2004 album that could even come close to giving American Idiot a run for its money is Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. My Chemical Romance’s second full-length album shot the band out of its familiar water. Its numerous hits continue to reach billboard charts, such as opening track “Helena” and world-renowned “I’m Not Okay.” According to frontman Gerard Way, Revenge stands as a “pseudo-conceptual horror story”. Every track on the album ties into this twisted and supernatural story of the two lovers featured on the cover, which was created by Gerard Way.

“Helena (So Long and Goodnight)” opens this story of Three Cheers with a heartfelt yet twisted dedication to the Way brothers’ grandmother, Elena Rush, had passed away under circumstanced unknown to the public during the band’s tour of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. Elena had heavily influenced the brothers from a very young age and inspired them to pursue their dreams. When she passed, Gerard Way was sent into a spiral of anger and self-destructive behavior. He wrote the song to be somewhat of a letter to himself, expressing the hatred he felt for himself at the time. Despite the dark theme behind the lyrics, “Helena” continues to be a radio classic on rock stations everywhere. 

The story element behind the album begins during the second track, “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid”. A man has been divided from his lover after the devil resurrects him from the dead and, in order to resurrect his wife as well, he must kill one thousand evil souls and present them to the devil. While he ventures out to accomplish this, his wife wonders where he has gone and is clueless of his plans. She is livid at him for wrecking their marriage that began when they were young and dumb. In the next few tracks we listen as the protagonist crashes a wedding in order to kill the guests. He begins to question his sexuality and if his wife is worth one thousand souls. Continuing the double-meaning, the “To The End” is also based on the short story “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner. In this story, a rich wife begins suspecting that her husband may be a homosexual, so she poisons him before he cheats on her or leaves her. 

“You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us in Prison” features Bert McCracken, frontman of The Used, with whom all of My Chemical Romance was extremely close with at the time of Three Cheers’ release. Gerard was also featured on their 2004 album, In Love and Death, which toured with Three Cheers after its debut. Since then, the bands had a falling-out and didn’t speak for years before heavily hinting that The Used would be opening for My Chemical Romance’s reunion tour that was scheduled for 2020. This information was never officially announced, though, seeing as COVID-19 has ruined every hope and dream that it could lay its greasy paws on. Anger aside, “Prison” continues the protagonist’s journey to kill one thousand evil souls to resurrect his wife as he is arrested in a restaurant gunfight. Once in prison, he begins falling for an inmate of the same sex, which confuses and upsets the protagonist who had assumed he was heterosexual for his entire life. He still dreams of his deceased lover, whom his journey is all for. The other inmates begin to take advantage of him, forcing him to dress in drag and give blowjobs to accommodate to their sexual desires. He begins to lose his sanity and believes that he might as well be executed since he will not be able to fulfill his mission from prison. He decides that when he leaves, he will burn down an entire hotel to quickly raise his body count.

Another track that has gone down in history is number four, “I’m Not Okay (I Promise”. It follows a girl who struggles with dealing with the problems in her life. She vents and complains to her boyfriend, who is dealing with his own problems. He puts them aside to comfort his girlfriend time and time again. She does not take this into account and simply continues to wallow in her own pain, attempting and failing to relate to sad songs with deeper meanings. He has finally had it with her by the end of the song and explodes, telling her that he is not okay and he is done with her melodrama. “The Ghost of You” is another smash hit produced by this album, which continues the story already present. The protagonist expresses the grief he experienced after losing the lover he is trying so hard to save. Later tracks emphasize this as the protagonist begins to doubt his ability to bring his lover back.

Standing as a message of inspiration and a sign not to give up, “Thank You For The Venom” has become very popular within its target audience. Critics began to blame My Chemical Romance for making music purely to become famous, to which the band responded saying that the fans are a huge impact on their music. They never wanted to be on the front covers of magazines and at the head of the rock scene, but at a certain point they could no longer fight the inevitable. The song narrates what is possibly a nun attempting to convert a horrible sinner, then being murdered by the man. The sinner could be the protagonist continuing his killing spree, knowing that no amount of preaching could save him. In the following tracks, he questions again if his lover is really worth kill one thousand evil souls. After a woman representing his lost love holds him at gunpoint and tells him to stop his killing spree, he considers shooting himself and therefore dying for her instead of killing. He trudges on still and vows revenge on this woman as his story nears its end. After killing nine-hundred ninety-nine evil souls, he realizes that the last one he must take is his own. He begins hallucinating that his wife is there with him and even holds conversations with her before remembering that she is not there. It is heavily suggested that his lover committed suicide after getting drunk, though the means are unknown. The protagonist finally comes to terms with the fact that he is destined to die and that he would never have been able to resurrect his wife. 

In the final track, “I Never Told You What I Did For a Living”, the man completes his transaction with the devil. He accepts his fall from grace, but knows that once he is with his love again it will all have been worth it. Once he kills the last soul, himself, it is revealed that the devil tricked him. As a result of his astounding body count, he has been damned to hell instead of being reunited with his lover. His final realization is that it was all for nothing and that he has simply become a monster. 

Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge’s final lines are a callback to the group’s first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, or Bullets for short. Dozens of lines throughout the album reference Bullets, and the lovers featured are even referred to as two “Demolition Lovers”. Initially, fans and critics believed that the two albums were linked as one continuing story, but that theory has been denied. Past its horrific tale, many songs actually send a buried positive message- keep going. Specifically “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Thank You For The Venom” have worked to debunk the band’s stereotype of being a suicide cult. Ironically, these songs have also become symbols of this said suicide cult, given the references to death and self-destruction, which leads many younger listeners to fall prey to this cult mentality that the media has created. That very concept was something that My Chemical Romance vehemently spoke out against, seeing as the very reason they began making music was to help people. Even despite being twisted and forgotten by the media, that is still exactly what they did. Although fame wasn’t what they wanted, in the end they achieved exactly what they wanted: to help people. Their worldwide fame simply allowed them to reach farther and wider than ever imagined. 

As previously stated, all tracks on the album not only tie into the crazy narration of two dead lovers, but into the real lives of the bandmates, specifically Gerard and Mikey way. For example, “The Jetset Life is Gonna Kill You” personifies Gerard’s struggle with alcoholism and cocaine addiction in the form of a woman. He says that he could stay with her for hours even though she will eventually kill him. He was able to sober up and toured for Three Cheers during his first full year sober, which he described as extremely difficult. “The Ghost Of You” helps paint the picture of how the brothers were grieving after the loss of their grandmother, Elena.

Elena was one of the most powerful influencers behind the creation of My Chemical Romance and continued to inspire them throughout their entire career. Thanks to her, the band went on to inspire millions of young adults worldwide. Had she not supported her grandchildren like she did, so many more influencers would have never developed the confidence to take their first steps into the sunlight. These influencers include Palaye Royale, Twenty One Pilots, Post Malone, and Yungblud. Who knows how many more celebrities truly are that wouldn’t be where they are without the influential messages of My Chemical Romance? Who knows who the next possible star will be? I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. Go enjoy yourselves, internet.

“And we'll love again, we'll laugh again We'll cry again, and we'll dance again And it's better off this way, so much better off this way I can't clean the blood off the sheets in my bed!”

[vaultofqueenorion]

It is time to introduce you all to my favorite series of all time by my favorite author of all time, that is the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. 

This also means that the whole review will basically be one giant hype-train, even if I will keep spoilers to a minimum. 

So let’s take a deep dive into the story of Adarlan’s greatest assassin, Celaena Sardothien, the most sassy character that I have ever met, and one of the badass women in the series.

The Title

The title is dramatic, it’s got flair, and it also portrays something entirely terrible that had me actually getting chills when I started reading about the villain of the story. 

The castle is made completely of glass. That doesn’t seem particularly practical you say? Well you would be right, and Celaena would agree with you. It’s extravagant, just like the nobles of Adarlan who give no thought to the people that the King of Adarlan has oppressed for a while now. 

It’s also kind of the perfect metaphor for Celaena - extravagant and beautiful, but hiding a fragility, a fear that could bring it all crashing down. 

The Characters

See Celaena might be the Adarlan’s (and maybe even the world’s!) greatest assassin with blood on her teeth and a sharp tongue, but there are hints to her fear, to her utter self depreciation and escapism throughout the whole book.

She is, simply, a hero who doesn’t want to be one.

It’s quite aptly summed up in the picture above. She doesn’t believe that she’s fated for anything - not after having been through what she’s been through. 

But she puts on a mask and smiles through it all, ridiculing those around her and lavishing in the finer things in life. 

This was one of the things that made me connect so much with her (not the lashing out part, the hiding your true self part - the fear). Her past has left her so broken, so afraid of failure and of the world around her that she simply stopped trying to save it all. 

And yet.

Because as the above shows, she still does save people. She saves a puppy from being killed for being the ‘runt of the litter’, and she saves a man from falling to his death. She keeps saving those around her, keeps trying even after she says that she’s done.

Even though she has troubles surviving on her own as it is.

That’s also what’s so interesting about Celaena - she manages to be vibrant while hopeless, kind while self-preserving. She’s a full-blooded killer, but she doesn’t kill those who don’t deserve it. There are so many opposites within her, and they all serve to make her an incredibly fun character to follow. 

She’s also very flawed, and she’s got a horribly fiery temper that leaves her with thoughts such as the ones below.

See? That’s not the voice of a kind and soft spoken woman. That’s the voice of a fighter that has walked through hell and yet still manages to come out the other side. 

A Nehemia so aptly puts it:

Her spirit remains as it once was - she is scarred and she is hurt, but she kept her defiance going. She kept getting up after being knocked down.

I think that is one of the things that had me relating to her the most. All of those feelings, all of the despair and fear and pain and yet she still manages to get onto her feet one more time after she gets knocked down.

Celaena is a hero who had me getting back on my own two feet long after I finished her story. 

Nehemia is the second character that I want to talk about. The princess of Eyllwe, the land that the Kind of Adarlan has practically enslaved for their rebellion against his power, Nehemia Ytger is stuck in an enemy capital, walking around the torturer of her people at all times. And yet she still manages to keep her chin up, her spine erect.

She’s a powerful woman, the light of her people, and the dearest friend of Celaena. She’s fierce and Celaena has the idea that she’s fighting to free her people, even as she walks among her enemies, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

She’s also the one to bail Celaena out at many points, their friendship deepening with each horrifying secret that they uncover. She’s clever enough to keep her things relatively hidden, but there’s also a hint of sadness to her whenever she talks about her people. As if she knows that she cannot ever do enough.

Chaol is the captain of the Royal Guard. He’s cold, he’s calculating and he’s suspicious of Celaena and her intentions. That is, until you get to know him. He can seem stand-offish - imagine an old grumpy man with a golden heart. The thing is that this old man’s heart (he’s young in the book btw, so don’t take the metaphor too seriously) has been encased in ice and it takes him a while to thaw.

He does, however, appreciate hard work, and I have the sneaking suspicion that he’s proud of Celaena after a while as she goes from hollowed out husk to powerhouse again.

The above is not a particularly nice part of the book, but it does signify their relationship at first. Chaol sort of tolerates her, he doesn’t really praise her, but he comes to care for her. A lot.

And it was really really nice to have a hero that had to be retrained again, because that is the most realistic thing that I’ve seen in regards to a hero who has come back from a long time of inactivity.

Dorian Havilliard, the Crown Prince of Adarlan, is a softie. At least he seems like that - naive, doesn’t go against his fathers wishes, womanizer. The standard douchey no-good straight guy who has it all.

It’s shown in the dumb question below (which makes Celaena have the most amazing response later on the page, but go read the book to see that one!).

Because Endovier is the Death camp. It’s been made to kill and to be unescapable. And yet he asks her the unthinkable. Celaena, with her sass and smart assery, gives the perfect response and her escape plan was almost perfect. 

Dorian learns, slowly, to stand up to his father. He learns what it means to care for someone other than himself and his best friend Chaol, and he actually seems to maybe not despise it, but at least rein back on the courtly stuff. But boy oh boy there’s a lot of character development here, and the potential is amazing.

The King of Adarlan was terrifying. He’s a peripheral character, most of the time, but he’s very much prevalent in all of their minds. Sort of a dark presence that never moves, never blinks, he seems to watch their every movement. 

He’s cruel, he’s dark and we have no clue how much he knows. That lack of knowledge is terrifying and it was nice to have a hero that actually feared their adversary rather than felt like they could defeat them, because Celaena, Dorian, everyone feels powerless against him. 

The quote below from Celaena is one that I am especially fond of.

Cain is ... wow. Don’t even get me started. He’s a brute and he’s just plain cruel for fun. I didn’t like him because he was a bully, but he was never that prominent for me. He was a villain like any other. 

Elena, who is another pretty good but also a bit meh character for me, warns Celaena of this regarding Cain and whatever is going on.

Elena is not a character that I will go into. She’s sort of the friendly ghost that hangs back and swoops in once in a while, and she seems to want to help Celaena, but you have to take a look at her for yourselves.

The Plot

Ever wanted to read a murder mystery slash assassing tournament slash love and friendship story that takes place in a fantasy world that once held magic but is now dried out? Then this is the one for you.

That is a huge simplification, of course, because reality is so much better. I was in suspense until the end - not about who was the evil one, but rather what is going on. There’s a whole level of suspense going on in figuring out what in the world is happening alongside Celaena, who needs to discover everything for herself.

And gosh. The whole retraining programme in which Celaena finally gets to eat like the noble she feels like, and the way she has her sassy spars with Chaol. 

Just everything.

Also the ball seen at the Yule ball is so worth it and her dress description gives me life.

Then we move on to the tournament. I was in love with the challenges and whenever one presented itself, my eyes were glued to the pages. The way Celaena can easily outmaneuver most of them, but she needs to keep it a secret is priceless.

Also the poison challenge in which the participants need to rank the poisons from the most deadly to the most harmless and then drink whatever they placed as ‘without poisons’ is amazing. Partly because Celaena actually doesn’t identify all of them, and partly because there is just so much confusion among everyone but one (who’s basically a poisoner) and when they drink it. Man did I enjoy watching all the characters that Celaena hated writhe on the ground before they could get the antidote.

Next comes the murders. They are gruesome and terribly well written, and the worst part is that no one can figure out what is doing it. Organs are removed, brains carved out and they are surrounded by strange marks. 

Of course Celaena finds out, which results in one of the most intense scenes in the book, which I very much loved.

The last part of the plot is the actual tournament. It is tense, and it is glorious. A hero who struggles so much at the end will always be appealing to me, and then the scene where she thinks I will not be afraid (below) is one of the most character defining moments for me.

Because that is who she is. She denies her fear room, she fights on through it, and she says that she is Celaena Sardothien, and she will not be afraid.

It gave me courage, too.

The Language

Gorgeous, stunning, fierce. Can I end the segment there? That’s not enough to convince you? Alright, then let’s take a deep dive.

This is my absolute favorite quote, so much so that I got a version of it tattooed, so the below is really the star of the book.

It’s got fate in it and it’s got power and it is so beautifully written that I am in awe. The fear part got me - that she is so powerful that she would be able to change the course of the world, but she is too afraid to do it, because of her past, because of the world around her.

Geez that hits right in the feels. 

The stars and darkness and unknown is a huge part of this book and there are so many beautiful quotes that it is hard to narrow it down. The thing is that while the characters carry the book, the language is paced perfectly with snippets of these gems hidden between the pages and it just makes you want to keep coming back, again and again and again.

I found myself trying to emulate her writing style after I had read it (I quickly dropped that again because I kept slipping back into my own style which is honestly the best), and it stuck with me long after I put down the book. 

In conclusion

Do you get the feeling that I could talk for days and days and days about this book? You are very much right. It is my all time favorite, and I devoured it whole in one sitting when I first got it. I simply couldn’t tear my eyes away from the pages and the wonderful world that Sarah J. Maas has built within. 

So do yourself a favor and check it out. I’ll be giving it five paws, in any case.

[dramaclover]

Ending & Thoughts: Line Walker: Bull Fight

This is my most highly anticipated drama of the year. I’ve always loved the Line Walker series and Raymond Lam returning was just the cherry on top. It wasn’t bad but something was just missing. Line Walker is known for polices going undercover to solve cases. And one of the most prominent aspect was “figuring” out who is the hidden undercover. This aspect was missing in this sequel. I understand it in a way cause how many series can you make focusing on finding a UC? But the mystery of it was what made it fun. So I thought alternatively they could focus the mystery on finding who is the “black” cop. They didn’t do that either though. This is probably gonna turn into a very long post.

The Characters

In this sequel we see the return of Bao Seed (Raymond Lam), Cheuk Sir (Michael Miu), Tin Tong (Benjamin Yuen), Shuk Mui (Priscilla Wong), Foon Hei (Benz Hui), and guest appearances from Sin Ching (Elena King), Yuk Huen (Shiga Lin) & Wing Cheung (Tony Hung). And then there’s the new cast joining this sequel in Madam G (Mandy Wong), Lam Lam (Serene Lim), Ah Dou (Sisley Choi), Ho Yeung (Owen Cheung) and of course Ngai Tak Lai (Kenneth Ma). Wow this is a huge star- studded cast and I didn’t even include the numerous special guest stars that appeared in this series. It’s an attractive cast for sure but due to it being such a huge cast a lot of characters ended up getting sidelined.

Foon Hei was a huge character in the first and second, but for this one he was just there. He helped Cheuk sir and the others to solve cases but he doesn’t offer much other than that. The only thing that would’ve made him interesting is if we saw the return of Lok Siu (Pakho Chau), who he saved in the prequel. Unfortunately we don’t find out what happens to him in this version. I’m hoping that the TVB version that airs on tv will show him cause until then it’s up to our imagination.

Another pointless character was Ah Dou. Which is such a pity cause she was soo exciting to watch in the beginning. From episodes 1-10 she was interesting but after that it just went bad. It started focusing on her going undercover and falling for Ho Yeung one of the triad leaders. Boy, that was sooooo boring. It was love at first sight for him while Ah Dou just fell in love with gentleness I guess? After that it was just Ah Dou moping cause she feels extreme guilt & wants to quit. And goodness that bothered me so much. Cause love was all it took for her to want to stop pursuing justice that she wanted when she first joined the police force. After that she was mostly in the background. She didn’t help solve anymore cases and just talked when spoken to. At the end she helped find a chip that incriminated Tak Lei but even then he got away with it. I have no idea why the writers didn’t do more with her character. She wasn’t even there for the final villian gun shooting show down. Her potential was literally wasted in this. Also off topic, but she’s always wearing short-shorts in this series whether undercover or not and that’s how she dresses. I have no problem but yet when Rachel Koo from Al Cappucino dresses formally everyone disses her saying how she shouldn’t be dressing like that cause she’s a cop. Yet here Ah Dou is always dressed in that and no one says anything? I guess when you hate someone, you’ll also hate them over the dumbest thing.

Ho Yeung is literally a supporting character yet he managed to get more screentime then Bao Seed and Tin Tong. WTH?? Another unfair tactic used by TVB to promote Owen. Now this character isn’t bad but he’s pretty bland. And I’m not gonna lie, when he found out that Ah Dou was actually a UC and he had a standoff with her. That scene was pretty touching, he was so hurt but at the same time he couldn’t hurt her. It felt sad but too bad I just wasn’t invested in their love story. His performance here wasn’t that special. He was just mono-toned the entire time- so I don’t get where the praises is coming from? He was waaaay better in Al Cappuccino.

Tin Tong. One word WHY?? What happened to you? I loved you in the prequel. You were that comic relief playboy. You were hilarious and full on flirtatious. But in this sequel you were way too bland and wooden. I don’t even get what happened. This was a horrible character development. And before you say “he was only flirty cause he was undercover”. That ain’t true when he met up with Cheuk Sir and the rest he would show his true form and there he was still playful! Also there were flashbacks from before he went undercover and he was suuuper serious there too. So he went from serious to playful to back to serious. And it’s a pity cause Benjamin only excels in fun roles and becomes wooden with other ones.

Madam G was a failure. And even more of a disappointment then Ah Dou. She starts off amazing too! A cop with a great sense of justice, and quick witted. Yet, the writers messed up her character as well. Her character is literally a rehash of Madam Yuen from Brutally Young. Where she gets used by people around her and her being so dumb to not figure it out. It’s worse here because once she realized her sister is evil, she does nothing. She leaves the police force and huddles herself alone. While more crimes are committed, & more people are dying. She criticized Cheuk sir so hard when he betrayed the force to save his wife. Yet she’s doing the same thing with her sister but worse cause she chooses to keep this information to herself. If she had revealed what she knew, more people could’ve been saved & honestly her sister could’ve survived too. In the end the only reason she got evidence to arrest Tak Lei is because HE CHOSE to let her go or else she would’ve been dead. Another waste of a potential smart character. Another bland performance by Mandy but it could also be because the character faltered in the end.

Ngai Tak Lei, why are you so indecisive? You’re like evil and then you’re not. You’re just like going back and forth before going fully on evil mastermind. It took him way to long to even begin to avenge his brothers death. Kenneths protrayal was pretty bad and uninteresting. I was never scared of his character in the show. When I watched Death By Zero I was literally terrified of Brian Tse. To be a good villain you would have to be able to invoke fear from the audience. I never felt that way with this character. He was just annoying but at the same time he was only annoying cause the other characters were too slow to realize how evil he is.

The Plot

Episodes 1 - 10 were AMAZING. This arc featured selling organs in the black market. And wow it was great. Bao Seed became a handler for Chu Sin (Mayanne Mak) and worked together to find the mastermind behind this trade. In the process Chu Sin dies while saving someone else. Bao Seed is overcome with extreme guilt as she died under his watch. The sadness I felt was no joke. Chu Sin only appeared in the first episode and dies yet I felt such huge anguish & pain when she died. She died a hero and when Bao Seed avenged her death it was done with great justice. Along with this arc Cheuk Sir opens a coffee shop with his wife Sin Ching but she is later diagnosed with liver cirrhosis. Cheuk sir in order to save his wife betrays the police in order to get a liver transplant for her. Unfortunately after going through all that Sin Ching passes away anyways. It was so touching to see them go on one last date together, and they danced together and then she finally passes away in his arms. I was almost in tears cause they went through so much together. I just wanted them to be happy. The flashbacks and the songs they played were perfectly in sync. And then that’s it. After this amazing black market arc it goes downhill.

From episodes 11- 20 it focused heavily on Ah Dou & Ho Yeungs love story. It got to the point that we barely saw Bao Seed, Madam G and well basically any other characters. All the other characters were like just in the background going through the motions. It was so slow paced and boring. I kid you not, you can watch episode 10 & 11 then skip to episode 20 and you would still get what’s going on. That’s how uninteresting and useless those episodes were. And even now I still don’t get the point of this arc. It was about them duking it out to become the top official leader of the triad. Yet I was not invested at all. The sad part is even after Ho Yeung gets arrested and was no longer part of the main story, it was still boring.

Episodes 21- 30 focused more on flashback scenes of two undercover cops that died in the prequel. Along with Bao Seeds secret son that they focused way too much on. With a side story of Shuk Mui and Tin Tong finally getting together. These episodes here were pretty much all over the place. The flashback scenes were not needed at all & I’m pretty sure it was only there cause TVB really wanted to give Shiga & Tony more screentime. I would rather have TVB write a different prequel with them starring in it, then to see them act as filler in this drama. And seriously Tin Tong ends up having 2 girlfriends that worked undercover dead? It’s like he’s cursed. The writers could’ve done so much more with Bao Seed but writing in a secret son is just lazy writing. It didn’t help advance the plot & in the end his son still doesn’t even know that he’s the real Dad. I thought it would end with his sons fake father (whose also a cop) turns evil and uses the son against Bao Seed. But that does not happen so it just ended up being more filler than anything. One thing I did really like is how they written the relationship between Bao Seed and Lam Lam. It wasn’t romantic and never got romantic as Bao Seed still loves Ah Deng (Charmaine Sheh) and Lam Lam only had a one sided crush. But I really appreciate the “platonic -esq” of it. It didn’t turn into anything more but I really liked how they have an understanding of one another. Lam Lam knows he won’t love her but is so kind and still willing to help him instead of being bitter & jealous! I also liked the mentorship that developed between Bao Seed and Ah Dou. I’d rather have them write more about that then the stupid love line she got instead.

The story started to pick up in episodes 31 - till the end. But it really aggravated me that no one suspected Tak Lei as the mastermind. It would’ve been interesting to see someone go undercover to capture him but that didn’t happen. I thought Cheuk sir would realize it quicker. He already knew about him orchestrating to have someone stab Wai Kit (Tak Lei supposed Father). So I thought Cheuk sir would look into him more. Cause wouldn’t he find it weird he was willing to kill his own “father”? Madam G is literally his girlfriend at this point and was able to suspect her own sister but not him? Are you serious? It just seemed like everyone was blind to his actions. I still don’t get why Madam Gs sister didn’t expose Tak Lei as evil. Like why is she helping him? I don’t understand? Was she evil all along? But if she was, why did she plan to expose him but then chose against it when he decided to not kill her? Was she touched cause he did love his sister? I just don’t understand. Bao Seed is a sharp character he should’ve been able to find out sooner. The writing just got sloppy with this part. The ending was nice, justice was served. Madam G is confined to a wheelchair which I’m glad cause she literally indirectly caused a lot of the unnecessary deaths and drama. Cheuk sir is reinstated as a police. Bao Seed decides to go look for Ah Deng. And ends in a good old fashioned cliffhanger. This one I can get behind as most of the main points were resolved.

The Surprise Ending

Tak Lei is killed by another mysterious figure played by Michael Tse. That’s a nice surprise! A pity that he isn’t reprising his role of Laughing Gor though. Madman (Joseph Zheng) who we thought died earlier turns out to be alive and held captive by another mysterious figure portrayed by Philip Keung. This was also a nice touch! Especially when it was revealed that Madman is not who he says he is. I would definitely watch a fourth sequel. Madman was on the way to becoming my favourite character but he had so little screentime I couldn’t really write much about him. He’s a good fighter, smart and he’s able to adapt in situations. So I was pretty sad when he died. But good thing that was not the case. I wonder how they’re gonna write how he survived though in the sequel. One part that annoyed me is that after this whole drama we still don’t know what happened to Ah Deng. They strung us along with saying “she died” to “oh she didn’t die” to having her go MIA. I get why though, TVB wants to leave it open ended should Charmaine ever choose to reprise her iconic role.

My Prediction for the Sequel

If there is one, I don’t see Bao Seed coming back. Mainly cause Raymond doesn’t seem to be interested especially with how his screentime got reduced for Owen. I can see that the fourth one would continue on with Tin Tong and Cheuk sir moving on to a different case. But of course Michael & Phillip would disrupt it. Madman will show up and throw them off. They’ll probably say Bao Seed left to go look for Ah Deng and write him off. I’d rather not see Madam G. Ah Dou would be pointless to bring back unless they kill off Ho Yeung so she gets a new love interest. I hope for the fourth one they bring back the who dunnit concept.

Final Thoughts

I remember on my post on Al Cappucino, I talked about how unrealistic it was with how they portrayed handlers and undercover cops. And that if you wanted to watch a realistic one watch Line Walker... well I take that back. Well for this sequel anyways since it’s super unrealistic how everyone knew Bao Seed was a UC and how they also knew Ah Dou was undercover as well.

This drama had so much guest stars that I lost count of how many appeared. But I was severely disappointed they didn’t bring Sharon Chan in to guest star. She literally played Sin Yan aka Sin Chings younger sister. It makes no sense that when her sister died she didn’t come back to see her one last time! It would’ve been fine to have her cameo or something. It’s like the writers forgot her character existed. But then again they brought back Owen when he already played a different character (Ah Fo) in the first one and ignored it. Also Pakho scenes getting deleted greatly upset me. In the prequel we were left wondering what happened to him and yet we still don’t know right now.

One of the flashback scene that I really enjoyed was Muk Sat (Oscar Leung) meeting Tak Q (Brian Tse). They both were basically the obligatory best friend to the male lead who dies tragically. So having these 2 meet and since they both were goofballs it was super hilarious and intriguing to watch!

I like how they kept the story interconnected with Bao Seed taking over Ah Dengs massage parlour while he waited for her to come back. A pity they couldn’t replicate how the parlour looked in the first one. But it has been 6 years so it would be fairly difficult. Ah Mui dying was sad especially since Tin Tong waited 10 years to be with her. I still feel that 37 episodes made the drama too draggy. And they added subplots that weren’t crucial to the plot.

All in all. It wasn’t terrible but wasn’t great either. There was too much filler & useless flashback scenes. The first ten episodes were perfectly top notch! The middle part was a downer but the ending was thrilling to watch. But my top series of the year would still be Brutally Young, Death by Zero & Al Cappuccino.

[elejahfanfic]

The Vampire Files/2

Fanfiction

Part 2

A TVD crossover AU story

Elena Gilbert & her partner Nick Amaro are FBI Agents,

investigating murders caused by paranormal activities.

ft. other tvd characters, too.

□○□○

thanks for reading.xoxo🥰🌼

@miguelsbrat

□○□○

Elena walked in the Mystic Falls woods with the torch in her hand. This was not unknown territory for her. 

Flashback

"Why are we  going to the woods, mommy?" the nine-year old Elena asked her mother.

"There are some really mean people, who want hurt us. And we have to hide in the woods. Don't be afraid. We won't be here long." Miranda said.

At a certain point in the woods, Miranda opened a trapdoor hidden underneath a big pile of leaves and taking the girl by the hand took her down the wooden ladders in the ground into an area that resembled hidden caves.

The Special agent now stood in front of the spot where the ground trapdoor was. She crouched down and removed the layers of the leaves looking for the hook to open it. As she grabbed it to open it she heard a swishing noise of the leaves moving and as she wanted to get up to turn to see in the dark what it was, something kicked her hand and the torch fell aside. She got her gun out ready to shoot as something knocked her over as it swished by her. She quickly rolled over in the position to shoot as she then did. It was a shot in the dark, she knew it. Frustrated, she now got up picking up her torch and looked to see if that someone would return. 

"Show yourself," she shouted, "I dare you."

But there was nothing. But she knew that somewhere from afar someone did still look at her. Angrily, Elena now decided to return to the Mystic Inn. 

In several hours she would have to be at the Morgue and she needed some sleep. And this place was doing everything possible to keep her from it. 

As she got to her room, she took her clothes off and went  for a really hot shower. The fall left her with a bruise on her arm. She examined it as she dried herself. It didn't look bad. 

Flashback

"Ok, listen to me, Elena. Mommy has got to go now. You will be safe here. Ok, my darling? Don't be afraid. I will come back for you. I love you so much!" Miranda kissed her daughter, who nodded in agreement silently. 

Elena, now changed and went to bed. She curled up, closing her eyes hoping she would not have any dreams of any kind.

Demons are real, Elena. They are wrapped up in folk stories. It is true that only a handful can see them, get to their true nature and fight them with equal measure.

***

Nick was up at dawn. He got himself ready for the day and then took a walk around the town, familiarizing himself with the victim's last activities, before meeting Elena at the Grill.

***

Washington, DC

Caroline woke up rubbing her forehead. She looked at the clock. It was 6.10 a.m.

"Hmm- what time is it?", Stefan asked as he heard her move sitting up.

"Time to get up." Caroline said walking to the bathroom.

Stefan sat up checking his messages.

"meet me at office, at 9- Val"

He put the phone aside, and got quickly dressed. He knocked at the bathroom door telling Caroline he had to leave. She replied with 'later'

"Later", he said the same and walked out of the apartment.

"Val-"Stefan said as his partner picked up the phone.

"The murder weapon appeared" Valerie said.

"I will see you at the office", Stefan said hanging up.

****

At the Mystic Diner, somewhere around 8 a.m.

Elena waited for Nick for breakfast. Her life was either office-bound or field-bound, whichever, but one thing she never missed was breakfast. It was like the only time she would reconnect with the real world. There were these few things that kept giving her continuity and normality. At least half an hour every day. 

The waitress served Elena coffee and brought her a big breakfast. She thanked her and looked at her phone for private messages. One from Caroline and one from Rebekah. 

Caroline: Got drunk. and - slept with Stefan, again. Call me. Whenever.

Rebekah: Call me. We are all with you.

Elena closed the message icon as Nick sat down at the table and Elena greeted him.

"Morning." Nick said and then looked at the three different plates in front of Elena.

"Just coffee. Black." Nick said to the waitress and said that he had already had something.

"I'm gonna let in on a little secret" Elena said to her partner and Nick wondered what was coming.

"Everyday, once a day give yourself a present- like this good hot cup of black coffee. A little wisdom from Agent Cooper. My mentor. And maybe something extra- like blueberry pancakes."

"I see that you have a sweet tooth," Nick said.

"You don't mind me finishing this?"

"No." he replied. 

To get used to a new partner was never easy. Elena had three of them, and Nick a few. And all of them loved working with him. He had an easy personality.

"I can see that you have dug something new out?" Elena said as she took a sip of her coffee.

Nick was surprised she said it as he didn't disclose anything.

"I can see it in your eyes. Eight more minutes and then we're off to the morgue and you can tell me what you found out."

"You can see it in my eyes?" The Agent said slightly stunned that she was so forward.

"Not just your eyes. Your whole jittery demeanor tells me that it is huge- illogical!"

Nick narrowed his eyes at her, "You are loving this"

"Not really" Elena admitted, "because we probably won't be able to present it in any court. And these victims will not receive any kind of justice. Come on, let's see the body." she got up leaving the money for her breakfast on the table.

****

Washington, DC

Rebekah walked in the hospital greeted by a fellow surgeon.

"Hey, Joel- I thought you left to work for the Jeffersonian?" Rebekah said.

"Next week- I am leaving next week" Joel said.

They got into the lift,"Why did you refuse to work for them?"

"I want to help the living." Rebekah said. "I need hope. Everything else is like- ahm- curse-"

"I am sorry- I heard-" the surgeon referred to Marcel breaking their engagement.

"Yeah- well- if you know someone who can mend a broken heart-"

"Sorry, can't help " Joel said.

"Huh- shouldn't be dumping my lousy mood on you- see you-" Rebekah said as the stepped out of the lift and each went to their stations.

"Dr Goran?" a nurse came up to him and he now went with her being briefed about one of his patients.

****

Mystic Falls

Elena examined the body of Lexi Branson. Nick stood aside waiting for her to finish up and give her findings out to him and Bonnie Bennett, a forensic scientist from Withmore. 

"Here" Elena said showing both her partner and the scientist two markings on the ankle.

"That is different from the victim in Oregon." Nick said.

"Dakhanavar" Elena said.

"What?" Nick said looking at her with question marks in his eyes.

"Nothing." Elena said looking at Bonnie "There was no trace of blood on at the crime scene?"

"None." Bonnie confirmed. 

"And no trace of a car, footsteps, and the time from when she was last seen going out of the Grill and time of death in the woods? Incomprehensible, right?" Elena said.

"Yeah." Nick now confirmed. Bonnie nodded.

"I like your necklace" Elena said turning to Bonnie all of a sudden.

"Thanks. It's my grandmother's" Bonnie replied.

"Uhm- we are done here. Elena said looking at her partner. "We can tell the Sheriff that they can release the body"

Nick nodded in agreement.

As they said their goodbyes to Bonnie, Elena and Nick left.

"All right. Explain Dakhanavar!" Nick said as they got into the car.

"Ferociously territorial vampire, who would, unlike other regular vampires, suck the blood from the victim's feet." Elena explained.

"Seriously?" Nick said with a whiff of disbelief in his voice.

"Seriously." Elena then said snapping at him. "Ok. This is not going to work" She stopped the car and looked at him inhaling sharply, her face stern, "when we get back I will ask them to reassign you."

"On what grounds?" Nick asked calmly.

Elena exhaled trying to keep her composure. This was not her. She doesn't lose her focus. It must be this place. She wanted to scream. She felt her blood boiling to the point wanting to kick him for his nearly no emotional reaction. "I'll think of something," she said and continued to drive. 

Irrational. But there it was. She couldn't take it back. And strangely, she didn't care. 

Nick knew that her outburst had nothing to do with him, at least not directly, and yet he knew he was the trigger. He looked outside of the window- and then decided not keep quiet, "Stop the car."

Elena looked at him stunned at this sudden change in him. She could see that he was serious and so she stopped the car.

They got out in the middle of the woods. Elena waited to hear what this was about. 

"You are right. Yes. This doesn't work. Shall I tell you why?"

"Why?" Elena said miffed.

"Because I am not him." Nick said.

"Him?" Elena looked at the man gone out, "what are you talking about?"

"He probably knew all of the demonic-files by heart- you have finished each other's sentences and he understood how you mind works- and he is gone- and you got me now- and you hate it!"

What followed surprised them both- as he touched Elena's nerve and she punched him straight in the face. 

They stood quiet for a second. Nick wiped a bit of blood that appeared on the lips. 

"I am sorry- I just- ah- how did," she felt like all the suppressed anger and pain mixed up came lashing out and the tears now just came flooding out. 

"It is fine-" Nick said.

"Shut up" she shouted at him "don't you dare make this into an ok thing!"

"I am not."

"Good. Because- you don't know anything about me"

"I never said I did."

"Oh, really?! All you have been doing is taking the high-ground-" Elena spat back at him through her tears.

"I could say the same about you- we're supposed to work as a team- did you think that I didn't notice that you left your room at 1.20 p.m. and returned at 2.17p.m.?! And you kept it to yourself- what was that about? What were you doing in the woods?"

Elena glared at him drying her tears now with her palms and said,"It's personal."

"Personal?" Nick repeated not knowing what to think. His mind was racing. For a moment he wished he was in the car and they never had stopped and then - something unexplained wanted to know everything about her. 

Elena realized what she had said and now tried to take it back. She had never overstepped the mark going over to the personal. She never shared any of her past to her friends. Not even Jackson, who she had an excellent working relationship. Only the Bureau, her aunt Jenna and her knew what had happened to her and her parents the night she had to hide in the caves in the woods. 

"I lived here as a kid" Elena then said. 

And by the tone of her voice, Nick could notice that there was something disturbing behind it. He felt that all went way out of the line and he then took a step forward saying,"I apologize for - digging at you"

Elena looked at him slightly wide-eyed, "This is so not- this is not me"

"You have a mean right hook, I'll tell you that."

"Yeah- uhm- believe it or not I've never hit anybody. At least not human. Sorry -"

"Who says I am human?!"Nick joked rising an eyebrow at his partner. "Let's forget this ever happened and - start over?"

"Yeah- start over!" Elena inhaled softly.

"Coffee and pie?" Nick suggested.

"Coffee and pie!" Elena nodded a little.  

For a moment she was leaving darkness behind. Although its shadow never would. She knew that.

[villanelleismyeviltwin]

Killing Eve Season 1 - 2 Timeline

I’ve personally been wondering about the timeline of Villaneve obsession, so I break it down here after spending 11 hours 15 minutes binge-watched season 1 -2 the other day. Why? Because I don’t have a life LOL!

I’m a little amazed it took only around 2 months (or a little more or less) for the two seasons to run. Villaneve obsession is so strong it took such a small span of time like this. Wow!

If you want to see the full timeline, just keep reading.

Warnings: This is a long ass post and 100% spoiler. So, don’t read if you haven’t watched them.

Season 1

1x01

Day 1

V killed a Russian politician in Vienna

E and MI5 team went to karaoke for Bill’s BD party

Day 2

MI5 was assigned to protect Kasia in London

E interviewed Kasia and secretly recorded it for Niko and Dom to translate

V went back to her apartment in Paris

Day 3

V went to kill a mafia in Tuscany

E slit her own leg to see how blood runs

Day 4

V was woken up from her threesome and assigned to kill Kasia in London that night

E and Bill switched their lunches (E’s shepherd’s pie/ B’s sushi)

E took Dom to visit Kasia at the hospital

E & V met in the bathroom for the first time

Kasia and other 3 people killed

E and Bill were fired

Carolyn came to see E telling her about this female assassin

V bought a new bed sheet by Liliana Rizzari and look at her next job in Bulgaria

1x02

Day 1

V killed a man in Bulgaria at night

Day 2

E met C at the Purple Penguin, was hired by MI6, met Kenny

V went back to her apartment in Paris / met Sebastian

Konstantin got V assessed by Jerome who didn’t sign her off

V stole her next job from Konstantin

V tried to do something normal and had sex with Sebastian

Day 3

V went back to her apartment to make a poison perfume

E invited Bill and Elena to join the team

V killed Carla De Mann with her poison perfume

K let V know about E

Sebastian died

E came to the office to search for V in nurse profiles Kenny had provided

V searched for E on the Internet

E & V realized that they had met

1x03

Day 1

E described V to sketch at the police station

Day 2

V killed Wu in Berlin using E’s name

Day 3

E found out about Berlin

V waited for E at the crime scene but no show / got laid with Pamela

E asked B to go to Berlin with her

Day 4

E & B arrived at the crime scene in Berlin

V stole E’s bag / Konstantin came to order her to watch E / got laid with Pamela

V stalked E in the apparel shop and chose a belt for her dress / bought new expensive clothes for E

E video called Niko / V recorded and listened

E & B talked about his sexuality before going to the train station

B saw V and stopped her from following E

E had dinner with Jin and he gave her a data

B followed V to the club and was stabbed to death before E could approach him

1x04

I lost track of time here. Maybe a few days after Berlin.

Day 1

Bill funeral

V held a birthday party for K / was assigned to work with Diego & Nadia in England

Niko wanted E out of her job / E got her bag back with clothes, perfume, and a note “Sorry Baby x”

Day 2

V and the team went to Bletcham to kill Frank

E took her bag to the office for DNA checking

Kenny traced the data Jin had gave E and found there were money had been transferred to Frank’s kids’ school in Sussex

E and Elena went to Bletchem to talk to Frank

Nadia killed Diego after F got away

V ran a car over Nadia and hunted F alone until she saw E

1x05

Day 1 - the same day as the last scene in 1x04

E decided to stop the car and went towards V but she escaped

E & Elena took F to the safe house / Elena left

E and Carolyn investigate F together until they found out about The Twelve

E went back to the office, met Kenny and found out V’s real name (Oksana Astankova) and got her prison file back home

E went home, wore perfume and a dress from her bag, found V broke into her house

E & V have dinner together / V took E’s phone / while leaving V met Niko and Dom / they don’t know who she was

V went to the safe house and killed F

E went to C’s house to tell her about V but found out Kenny is C’s son.

E & C went to the safe house and found F dead

Day 2

V lied to Konstantin about Diego and Nadia

K told V Nadia was  still alive currently in Russia / He ordered V to get into the prison to find and kill Nadia

V asked K about The Twelve

1x06

Day 1 - probably a little time jump for K and V going to Moscow

K took V to the prison in Moscow to kill Nadia

V got into the prison

E & C decided to go to Moscow

E & Niko had a fight and she slapped him (I’m confused here how N knew that V - “scary ladies” - had broken into their house when he didn’t have an idea who V was at the end of 1x05. Or E told him? I don’t think so, though)

E & C arrived Moscow, met Vlad and Konstantin

Day 2

K took E & C to the prison to talk with Nadia

V found Nadia working in the kitchen / befriended with Agniya/ provoked Agniya to punch her / met the doctor and got a knife

E & C in the hotel bar talked about Vlad and Konstantin

E asked Kenny to find out about Anna and also asked him to search for correspondences of C & Konstantin

Day 3

V met Nadia in the kitchen / killed prison guards

E met Vlad asking him to give Nadia to them

Nadia slipped a note addressed to Eve before V killed her

V was taken to the hole and realized she’s trapped

1x07

Day 1

E & C found out about Nadia’s death

Kenny came to Moscow / gave what he found to E including Anna’s info

V was taken to the same cell as Inga and killed her

C came to the prison to talk to V

E went to see Anna at school

V was helped to escape / met and killed Anton / found out her next target was Konstantin

E went to Anna‘s apartment / got V’s passport, credit card, money

Konstantin went home and found V there to kill him / hit her with a log and escaped

E & Kenny found out from prison’s CCTV that it was C who met V

1x08

Day 1

V Kidnapped Irina

E & Kenny went to see C at the hotel and met Konstantin in her room

E and Konstantin went to Anna’s apartment together

V took Irina to Anna’s apartment / searched for her stuff but found E’s note “Sorry Baby x” instead

Anna met V and killed herself

V asked Irina to steal the money and they went to Café Radozhny

E got a call from V asking for her passport so E & K went to the Café

V shot K and fled the scene

E, C, and Kenny at the airport to go back to London / C told E to close London office (fired her)

E got a call from Elena about V’s apartment in Paris

C & K went back to London

Day 2

E went to V’s apartment and trashed it

V came back to her apartment and met E

E stabbed V

V ran away

Season 1 = Approx. 24 days

Season 2

2x01

Day 1 - 30 seconds from the last scene in 1x08

E left V’s apartment and found The Twelve cleaners there to clear V’s apartment up

C called and ordered Eve to go back to London immediately

E went to Gare Du Nord and took a train back to London

V managed to get herself to the hospital and got her wound treated

E arrived home and cooked for Niko / lost her mind in the bathtub

V befriended with Gabriel and manipulated him to steal a doctor gown and key card for her

E bought a shit ton of really expensive windows

V got some medications and a little money before she passed out

Day 2

E met C at the park

V woke up and prepared to leave the hospital / be honest with G about his face

C took E to the morgue to find the real cause of death of Alister Peel because of Nadia’s note

V mercy killed G and left the hospital to Calais

E confessed to N she had bought a shit ton of really expensive windows

V in the trunk of a car heading to England thinking of E

E couldn’t sleep thinking of V

2x02

Day 1

V arrived Basildon, England early in the morning and walked to sleep at a laundry shop

E searched for V’s news / bought a blue dress

V woke up at the laundry shop and all her medication had been stolen

E talked to N about work / slipped V’s name / dreamed of Bill

V changed her clothes and found Julian at the supermarket

E went to MI6 office to meet her new team and briefed them about V

V stayed at Julian’s creepy house

E found Gabriel’s news and knew it was V’s kill

V met Julian’s mother in the middle of the night / V hates ghost 

Day 2

V asked Julian to get some medications at the pharmacy for her before passing out

E & H realized Alister Peel’s killer wasn’t V

E & C went to Alister Peel’s house to meet Aaron and Amber Peel / E showed them V’s photo but they didn’t know her / E knew there was a new girl in town

Julian still didn’t get V the medications she asked for and started being a control freak

V tried to escape but all doors and windows were locked

E and Jess discussed the new assassin

V called The Twelve and MI6 while Julian went out

E briefed the team about “The Ghost”

Julian was mad V made a call before V kicked him in the face and finally killed him

C asked E to go with her because of V’s call

V met Raymond and was almost choked to death

E & C arrived at the crime scene when V was leaving / E didn’t see V but V saw her

E & C found Julian’s body / E knew immediately it was V’s kill

C took E to her home to meet very much alive Konstantin

2x03

Day 1 - the same day as the last scene of 2x02

E & K talked about V as The Hungry Caterpillar

Day 2 - I think there was a time jump about 1-2 weeks for V to fully recovered

V killed a man in the lift in the morning

V checked in a hotel in Paddington

R came to see V provoking her about The Ghost and E not thinking about her

V made a prank complaint at N’s school

E and her team discussed if the latest kill was The Ghost’s or V’s

V bought loads of clothes using R’s credit card

V observed N at his school and found a pawn to play with (Gemma)

E came home and realized that she had to go to N’s school party

V came back to the hotel, made a pasta necklace, and stalked E

R interrupted by approaching E and V had to stop stalking E

E arrived at N’s school party and met G / E asked N to show her his classroom

Konstantin asked C where his family was but she didn’t tell

V approached G and suggested her to manipulate N & E’s relationship

E seduced N in the classroom and freaked out when she saw an apple

E set the false alarm, waited for V to show up outside the building / N harshly told her to go home

V approached E from behind and put a lipstick in her purse without E knowing (dumbass)

Day 3

E found a lipstick and went to Kenny forcing him to get Konstantin’s family address

R called to scold V for spending his credit card

E went to C’s house to negotiate with Konstantin to find V in exchange for his family’s address

V was informed that there was a new guest

V and Konstantin reunited. He asked her to run away with him and work as freelances.

Eve and armed polices arrived at the hotel and attacked V’s room

V saw E through the peephole and the classic door scene happened

E and the team didn’t find V

C knew and told E not to go behind her back again

Kenny confronted E about her actions today. He was disappointed in her.

Konstantin and V were in the car together heading to Amsterdam

K provoked V to get jealous of The Ghost

E used to lipstick from V and cut by a hidden little blade. She loved it.

2x04

Day 1

C was called in to meet her boss’s rage

J & H arrived the office finding E was working on finding The Ghost. She caught them up about the kills of people around Alister Peel

J told H to contact Aaron Peel for a meeting

V & K is in Amsterdam planning for the kill their target tonight

K took V to an art museum for her to get the idea to kill

E & J went to meet A but got nothing out of him

The Ghost killed Alister Peel’s secretary

V wrote a postcard to E while watching her target

E & J went to the crime scene of Peel’s secretary

V in the piggy mask killed her target for a show in the red-light district

E came home and had a fight with N about a security guard

V got back to the hotel asking K to go back home (London) / K told her to give up on E because she didn’t interest in V anymore. Of course, V didn’t believe him.

Day 2

C checked all mails addressed to E and found V’s postcard. She kept it and assigned J to go to Amsterdam

V had nothing to do so she went to wait for E at the crime scene

E smartly figured out who The Ghost was and it impressed H

V saw J coming instead of E so she was so heartbroken

H asked E to have late night fried chicken. The talked and almost kissed.

Kenny found The Ghost

V was so broken she took drugs and almost choke a girl to death / Konstantin had been following V, stopped her from killing, and took her back to the hotel.

Day 3

E arrested The Ghost

V cried her heart out for E, believing that she was forgotten. She realized she could feel and her feelings for E were real. She was glad and embraces thme

E looked at herself in the mirror and realized she wasn’t the same E she used to be

C asked E from the other side of the mirror if she was ready to investigate The Ghost

2x05

Day 1

V killed a rich teenager in the car wash in England

E & J were watching The Ghost being investigated before C came in

E tried to talk to The Ghost (Jin) again mentioning V’s name and Jin was obviously scared of V

V met K while she was doing her new hobby. K gave the payment for killing the teenager to her.

E & J discussed V & K being freelances and E suggested hiring V to kill her in order to crack info from The Ghost.

Day 2

Everyone in the team, especially Kenny, was upset with a plan except H. C gave E a green light to do it.

J warned E about someone didn’t want a paper trail on her.

K & V went to get a new job, which was E.

V freaked out and refused to do the job. K gave her a tough love; making V realize that E made her weaker and more stupid.

C sent Martin - an expert on Psychopaths - to subtly assess E’s state of mind.

V grieved at a hotel with Tony - a hotel room service - soothed her. She excepted the truth that she had to kill E.

E came home to have a dinner with N. He told her about a sudden trip to Oxford for a couple of days.

Martin reported E’s reactions to his sloppy presentation and recommended that E was to close. This was a no-go. C ignored it.

V sent E funeral flowers shaped as her name. She got horny because of it to the point she asked N to have sex with her.

Day 3

K took V to select a nice weapon to kill E at his friend’s store.

C asked E if she was sure about this plan, but still vague and shady about her support for E.

H prompted E to wear a bulletproof vest.

Kenny confronted Eve about the plan, reminded her about Bill, but E sacked him.

E’s darkness was awakened by an asshole at the subway. She almost pushed him on the rail.

V put all her effort to select the most beautiful outfit of mourning to kill E

E arrived home feeling uncomfortable with the bulletproof vest so she took it off as soon as the bell rang.

V in her mourning outfit; black dress and veil was in front of the door. E let her in.

V & E played pushed and pull control games by their conversations and some trust testings.

V decided to help E crack The Ghost with a condition that E would give her everything she wanted.

They sat in the car to Forest of Dean for 3 hours without interaction with each other.

Day 4

The Ghost was taken to Forest of Dean while E & V followed.

V looked out for E asking if it was legal to do this.

E tried to warn The Ghost to tell her but she didn’t talk.

V went in to get the info from The Ghost while E was nervously waiting outside

V came out with the info E wanted. She asked for a thank you but E was a dick to her instead

E checked if V killed The Ghost or not, she didn’t. The Ghost called E “Monster!”

Day 5

V went to Oxford to meet N and told him about E stabbed her to provoke and make him doubt E.

2x06

Day 1 - the same day as Oxford

N came home telling E that V had come to see and told him about the stab

N & E had D & S sex while V was standing in the rain outside observing (and probably heartbroken)

Day 2

E was pleased with last night sex but Niko decided to leave her

V was bored at the hotel so she broke into E’s house and mess things up.

E met C at the restaurant watching AP’s video recorded by a dead journalist. C told E to be in Rome for a Pharaday conference that AP would go.

E and the team discussed how to get close to AP because he hated people and they came up with an idea.

E & J went to C’s house and met Konstantin. They offered him and V a job which didn’t involve killing.

E went to see V at MI6′s apartment, briefed her about AP and how to get close to him through his sister - Amber.

V created a persona - Billie - to join an AA meeting that Amber was attending. E approved.

E went to MI6 office telling H to create Billie’s profile

Day 3

C briefed E & V about this operation as a Moscow rules and gave them gadgets to work.

V asked C if she was the real boss and C said yes.

E & J was buying lunch together talking about N. J suggested BJ would help before leaving to the office.

V came to see E and said BJ wouldn’t work. N was too normal for E.

E talked down to V that it was hard to be a decent person than being a person like her. V said “Like us, you mean’“ E was speechless.

Day 4

V as Billie joined the AA meeting, and messed thing up by using E’s real-life story. She was called out by the group though.

Amber came to talk to V and advised her to be honest.

V went to E who was mad at her for using her story at the meeting. E talked harshly to V and V spoke up for herself that she liked Eve but not that much. E seemed taken aback before leaving.

Day 5

V being honest about her feelings to the group. it worked, the group embraced her. E was intrigued by V’s speech too.

V and Amber were talking when her assistant came to remind her to not associate with anyone in the group.

V killed Amber’s assistant in front of E. E was shocked, intrigued, and jealous when she saw V hugging and soothing Amber.

V went to see report C the progress that V and Amber were texting each other. C was satisfied and didn’t give a shit about the kill.

V & K took a walk together while V was texting E who saw the texts and ignored them.

V got a text from Amber inviting her to have supper with her and Aaron on Thursday

Day 6

E went to see N at G’s house and trashed her bra drawer. She gave up on him.

Day 7

V as Billie went to The Peels house for supper as invited. K & E were listening to the situation in a van.

Aaron looked and talked down at V shamelessly. V tried to be patient for her job.

E tried to order V around to do things so V took the earpiece off and literally swallow it.

Aaron still provoked V until she realized and called him out as a bully before smacking his face with a book and carelessly left.

E wanted to follow V but K told her to let V cool off because E was all over her.

V went to the kebab shop to cool herself off. She met two attractive girls so she scared them and walked home with them.

2x07

Day 1

V got an apology note attached with a Philosophy book she used to smack him with from Aaron and was invited to have lunch with him tomorrow.

E came into the apartment looking exhausted so V asked her if she was OK and encouraged E to talk

E asked if what V had said about her feelings in the second AA meeting was true or not. V didn’t know and wasn’t sure. E nervously asked “You don’t feel anything?” so V said the only things she surely knew “I feel things when I’m with you.”

The brunette girl from the kebab shop came out of nowhere to thank V for the sex. E was obviously jealous but V told her not to because “I’m not with them, when I’m with them.” Then the blond girl came out to say bye. Eve was so done so she ordered V to see A and get them to Rome

Day 2

V as Billie went to have lunch with Aaron. She intrigued him very much so he asked her to go to Rome with him

E bombarded V’s phone with 9 missed call and 3 voicemails

V came back from lunch and saw her phone. She listened to E’s voice and was glad E cared and worried about her.

Day 3

E, C, and Konstantin discussed Rome operation. C chose the safe word “gentleman”. E asked for a team, K volunteered but she refused and took Hugo with her.

V stalked N & G to his storage unit and asked him the recipe to his shepherd’s pie because she thought Eve liked it. N told her the ingredients.

C subtly assesses V’s and E’s state of minds and reminded E not let V kill Aaron or anyone.

V asked N if he loved G, he said no. When asked if he loved E, he said yes, sure E was his wife. The answer was so close for V to let them both go. V learned from the past the if she hurt N, E would never forgive her. She didn’t want that so she handled both of them in her own way.

Kenny warned Eve not to go to Rome but was interrupted by Carolyn.

Konstantin came to see V packing, briefed her about the operation and gave her a mic in disguise of contraception pills. He warned V that if V planned anything, she couldn’t kill her way out of it. She and E would be on their own.

Day 4

E went to see Martin consulting him about V. He assessed her with questions about her and V. E told him she felt wide awake. Martin told E that his recommendation to take her off this operation was ignored for her safety. Eve thanked him and left.

Day 5

E & H went to Rome and stayed at the hotel near Aaron’s palazzo. They set up all stuff in H’s room.

V & A arrived at the palazzo. V was guided to her room which A had prepared everything for her and didn’t let her have her bag. So, she couldn’t wear a mic.

A watched V from his monitor room creepily.

Eve was so worried that V didn’t wear a mic yet. So, she made an excuse to see V by giving her a mic. H called her out on that.

V & A were in the restaurant. When A was away from the table talking on the phone. E signaled V to “Try the bread.” and sent a bread with a mic to her. V couldn’t help to take a chance touching E’s hand longingly.

A finished his phone. He told V they had to go back because there would be a meeting with a buyer at dinner.

V wore a mic as soon as she arrived at her room and sing a song for E to know she was on. A couldn’t see that because V know where the cameras are so she hid from them.

V dressed for dinner but A was a control freak telling her to do things. V was patient for the job so she did everything he ordered.

At dinner, turned out A’s weapon was “in-depth personal information”, not a physical weapon.

E & H got all the info.

A told V he knew nothing about her and found a shadow, nothing real, a void (because the profile MI6 had created was wiped out by someone so he couldn’t find it)

V realized that A is a psychopath too but she felt superior to him because she had feelings and could feel things while A couldn’t.

H excused himself to sleep while E chose to stay up. He asked her to put the earpiece in and go to bed.

V was in bed knowing that E was listening so she seduced her to have phone sex together. V touched herself while E used H as a human sex toy. It was their first sex although it wasn’t direct physically.

Day 6

V greeted E with “Morning. Did you sleep well?”

H realized that he was used for sex when he saw E took the earpiece off. He thanked her for a threesome before getting coffee for them.

E didn’t feel guilty while V was still in bed feeling happy.

At the storage unit, N woke up and found G was killed. They were locked inside for 3 days.

2x08

Day 1 - same as Day 6 in the last episode

V found A’s monitor room and murder clips. She went to see A in a dining room without saying anything about what she had found.

H got E coffee. She told him to call Jess how they were doing. H went outside to call Jess.

A showed V the buyer that would come today. It was Raymond so she said “What a weird-looking gentleman.”

As soon as V said the safe word, E was about to go out but she heard a gunshot and hid under the bed. The Twelve sent an assassin to kill them. E was lucky enough not to be found though.

E found H was shot so she left him bleeding there to get help downstairs but no such luck because she didn’t know Italian emergency number.

E dressed as a maid to get into the palazzo to find V and A talking and laughing in a dining room.

V revealed her true self to A so he asked her to work for him, started by killing E.

V played being torn because A offered to give her everything and she would never feel bored again. E was afraid that V would kill her for real this time.

Turned out V slit A’s throat and forced him to watch himself die in front of the mirror.

E was in shock about what just had happened so V slapped her to make her calm.

E wanted to go back to the hotel to save H and keep all evidence they had. V thought it was a stupid idea but she helped E finally.

E went back to the hotel and found that everything was cleaned up. C came to see her and let her tell about A. E told C he was dead, V killed him. C said A was killed by The Twelve’s assassin was better than MI6. That was when E realized C used her and V to kill A.

E refused to go with C so she was on her own.

Meanwhile, V was trying to find a car to pick up Eve at the hotel as promised. Turned out K and MI6 had provided it for her with a gun and money. K told V to leave E behind but she didn’t.

K told V to run away from The Twelve as Raymond was in Rome. V didn’t believe him until K confessed that someone had asked Raymond not to kill V until she killed A.

V realized she was used and hurt more when K chose his family over her. K hinted that V still had a family left.

V waited for Eve outside of the hotel for while before grabbing a gun, tucked it in her back, and went inside the hotel to save E.

There she found Raymond with an axe ready to kill her

V provoked R as a “nobody”. He seems to have issued with self-importance so he laid the axe and fought bare hands with V.

They fought until V was choked to nearly death. She saw E picked up the axe so she told her to do it.

E told R to stop but he underestimated her and kept on choking V until her face turned purple. That was when E decided to hit him with an axe at the shoulder.

V told E to kill R by hitting his head with the axe. E hesitated but V manipulated her until E killed him.

E was in shock and V helped her to flee the scene. She took E to the shortcut to the ancient ruins.

C gave K’s family address to him as promised. He walked away without saying anything.

V asked E what she wanted for dinner. E was still in shock so she agreed with everything V said like going to Alaska, being normal, she would look after her, blah, blah, blah. V looked so happy like a girl got her wishing gift on Christmas Day.

Then, the fucking birds happened, V was always aware of everything so she took the gun out of her back.

E saw that V had it so she realized she was manipulated to kill R.

V tried to calm her down but E came to her sense and rejected all V’s feelings for her. She stepped back from V and turned to leave.

V was heartbroken because of E‘s reactions so she shot her and left. She became the same old V right after Anna abandoned her.

Season 2 = Approx. 42 days

[another-sonic-blog]

That Makes Us Two:  Chapter 5: Name

None one dares to say a word. The whole ride was quiet, just the waves of the ocean hitting the coast could be heard; getting stronger as the full moon showed upon them.

In silence, both hedgehogs made their tents.

"I'll be looking for the fragment by myself...I think I know where it is.", Shadow said softly.

"I'll go with you," Amy said, still a bit embarrassed from before.

"No, believe me, its dangerous. No one lives in this Island...the forest makes you see things you don't want to see."

Alright, how in the world did Shadow know so much about these places? Amy knew that he was a hedgehog full of mysteries but that fact that he was been here before intrigued her way too much.

"How do you know so much?"

"What do you mean?"

"You have been to all the Island we've been through! And people know you! Like how?"

"I kept looking for the Chaos Emeralds since I was 10, I finally found all of them some years back but..." Shadow hesitated, " that's not important."

Shadow walked away, looking into the vast forest in front of him.

Amy had never seen Shadow like this.

Anxious, determined, aghast, shaken...terrified.

And she couldn't do anything...just watch him go into the dark forest.

.

.

.

The last place on earth Shadow wanted to be...was here.

He had promised to never come back to this place. He despised it with all of his beings and although he knew that nothing was real...

deep down he really wishes it was.

"Are you ready to talk now Shadow? Last time you just ran away from me."

A blond, blue-eyed female hedgehog had been following him for a while now.

He tried to ignore her.

"Alright then, run like the murder you are."

"I am not a murder!" Shadow yelled back at her, he sighed knowing that after this mistake there was no way back.

"The leader of the Echidnas told you about it, Elena told you about it, I told you about it...and you still decided to look for the Chaos Emeralds." The girl twirled around him, brightly playing with her blue dress.

"It was a mistake...I am sorry.", Shadow looked at her, seriousness on his eyes.

The girl had stopped twirling and stopped right in front of Shadow. "And because of that...you killed me!"

"No, I-"

"YOU KILLED ME!

"Stop...Please!"

"YOU KILLED ME!"

"No!", Shadow fell into his knees as he covered his ears and closed his eyes.

"YOU KILLED ME!"

"I KNOW! I KNOW I DID! AND I AM SORRY!"

"Shadow!"

Shadow opened his eyes as he recognized the voice. Amy was standing in front of him, extreme concern in her expression.

"Are you ok? Who was that girl? Why was she saying that?"

Amy knew that she was asking too many questions and at the moment it may not be the best.

But the only way to help Shadow was to understand what he was going through. As well that Amy couldn't see the girl's face but her blue attire was familiar to her. As if she had seen those clothes before. She found this more intriguing

"I told you..." Shadow breathed slowly. "I told you to NOT follow me!

"Shadow..."

"ARE YOU THAT STUPID? DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?

"But Shadow, I-"

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Amy didn't say anything else, she just walked away.

.

.

.

Amy tried to be angry at him. She was just trying to help him.

She wanted to hate him, really HATE him.

But she couldn't.

Even when she says she does, she doesn't.

Yes, from the few encounters she had with him before, he was evil.

But he wasn't all that bad.

He was kind without him noticing it.

He helped people without expecting anything in return.

He protected her, even if he didn't need to.

He cared for her because he wanted to.

Shadow the hedgehog was just misunderstood.

And she wanted to understand him, but whenever she tried, he pushed her away.

"Just like I do."

Amy looked up to find Sonic in front of her, smiling.

"Sonic..."

"You are just so annoying! When we were little you used to chase after me EVERY SINGLE DAY! I hated you honestly!" Sonic began to walk around Amy, she knew that this must just be her mind playing games.

"You were so annoying that I had nothing but say yes to your stupid request...do you really think I love you? HA! I am only dating you because I feel pity for you!" Sonic said.

"No, you told me you love me!"

"I just feel bad that you wasted so many years on me! But don't worry, I'll dump you the moment you get back from your trip."

"No, you are lying!",Amy said as she walked away.

"You are walking away because you don't want to hear the truth...you know its true." Sonic smiled at Amy one more time before disappearing.

With tears in her eyes, Amy exited the forest.

.

.

.

Shadow didn't want to see Amy, at least not after screaming at her. It wasn't her fault and strangely enough, Shadow felt guilty about it. However, he didn't know how to make it right. He had made it back safely to the camp after successfully retrieving the broken piece of the Purple Gem. They just needed one more and their torture would be over. One more destination so Shadow could say bye to the pink one, forever.

It was probably better this way.

He saw her sitting down on the sand, watching the bonfire slowly burn away. In deep thought, she didn't notice that Shadow had sat next to her. A few minutes passed and none of them dared to say a word.

It was hard to describe it, but deep down they just knew that something was going on between them. They just didn't want to admit, they were too scared, too afraid and confused to even mention it. Nonetheless, it seemed like tonight could be the night, it was now or never.

"I am glad you made it back safely," Amy said almost like a whisper. Shadow stood quiet, still not wanting to say a word.

But he had hurt her, and even if he won't admit it at loud...

He had a soft spot for the pink little brat.

"When I was a baby I was 'blessed' with the power to control Chaos Energy, I am assuming my parents were afraid of me, so they gave me to the Echidnas so I could learn to control my power. I was a prodigy and wanted more. Legend has it, that if you have all Chaos Emeralds, you will possess magnificent powers! Super strength, the ability to fly through the skies...So, by the age of 10, I left the Echidnas to go find the Chaos Emeralds. Three years passed without any signs of them. One day, while in my travels, I found her... a young hedgehog named Maria..." Shadow paused and looked over to Amy, she was waiting patiently for him to continue his tale. Shadow looked over to the burning flames as he continued.

"Maria was an archeologist, the best one out there. She had pint pointed all the locations of the Chaos Emerald. I didn't want to take her with me, but she refused to tell me the locations unless I took her...And so I did. Two years passed, we visited many places around the world. Everyone warned me about the dangers of the Chaos Emeralds, but I never listened. I wanted more, I wanted to be The Ultimate Life Form...When we finally collected all Chaos Emeralds, I tried to infuse myself with them just like in the legend...but I couldn't control their power...it was just too much and I was still so ignorant! On my negligence...I ended up killing Maria."

Shadow saw how his hands trembled. shaking as he remembered the scene perfectly. Him, going Super, the immense radioactivity and power coming out of him, him trying to stop the Chaos Energy to come out of his body. Maria running towards him to save him, her falling into his arms...lifeless.

"I became the Ultimate Life Form, at the cost of my only friend's life."

After that, the burning of the bonfire was the only thing that could be heard. Amy was speechless, more at the fact that Shadow had opened up like this to her.

He had a terrible past and because of it, he couldn't move towards the future. Not to blame him, the death of a loved one-

"You..loved her...didn't you?", Amy said more to herself at the realization, but her thoughts had escaped her lips.

"No...I think I still love her...and the fact that I was never able to tell her...its the thing the I regret the most."

Amy had no other words that could describe her feelings right now. Why does her heart feel this way? Like it had been broken? Like her expectations were not met...Like she wanted Shadow to have a different answer.

Amy took a sigh, "Thank you, you didn't have to tell me all of that."

"I know I didn't have to...but I wanted to."

What was going on? Why was Shadow so...so him? In this past week that they were together, Amy felt something she had never felt before. She just couldn't describe that feeling. It was even weirder because every time she would talk to him, she would be looking at her self. Her facial expressions, her body language, and she liked it. And it wasn't as she was liking her self...she was liking him. She was liking Shadow.

She likes him.

His stubborn personality, his terrible attitude, his kind personality, the moments he would show vulnerability...

She had to admit it...that she was wrong about him.

Shadow was just more than the facade he would put in front of people.

And maybe, just maybe...she was falling for that.

The air had become heavy as they stared at each other's eyes. Amy didn't know what to say next, should she something personal about her? Or just change the topic drastically? She opted for the first option.

"I sometimes think...that may be ...I am with the wrong person..."

"What do you mean?"

"Before...I used to pressure Sonic into dating me ...so now I think that maybe...he is not in love with me." Amy began to play with her thumbs, clearly showing her nervousness. "I never said anything but...I think Sonic is too nice to realize or say anything for that matter...that he is not in love with me"

"I honestly don't know what to say...." Shadow said as he looks over to Amy. He clearly didn't know anything about love, and he preferred to stay quiet than to give bad advice. "...Amy, I don't think I am fit to give love advice."

"It's ok...I am bad at this too"

"That makes us two."

Amy left out a small giggle. Shadow wasn't only bad at love, but at making puns too.

Which only made him more entertaining to watch.

"Actually, are you ever going to tell me how you know my name? I don't remember telling you." Amy remembers asking him about it before when they were on the cave, but he had evaded the question.

"I don't remember," Shadow responded quickly. Of course, Shadow was lying, the story about how he learned about her name was embarrassing, to say the least.

.

.

.

Maria was extremely sick, and the closest civilization was Hedgehog Village. Shadow placed the small ship on the coast. He covered all his body and face with a long coat, the coat's hoodie covering his face as well.

Shadow had gained a reputation, a bad one. Everyone was looking for him, so he had to go undercover if he wanted to find help for Maria.

He arrived in the village and didn't where to go. He walked fast enough until he noticed a hospital.

He walked in and went straight to the nurse station.

"I need help, there's someone extremely sick." The 15-year-old Shadow felt uncomfortable, he had never been at a Hospital before.

"You must bring that person here." The nurse said.

"But she's very delicate! She can't move, I need a doctor to see her-"

"Sorry sir, she needs to be here, if you want a doctor to see her, you need to make an appointment at least 3 hours before the-"

"She's dying! She needs a doctor now!" Shadow had grabbed the nurse by her collar and she was about to call the guards.

"I'll go help if you keep your hands away from the nurse."

Said a voice from behind, interrupting Shadow on his act. He released the lady.

"Miss Rose, you can't leave the hospital, you are still at training.", The nurse said angrily,

"This person clearly needs our help, isn't that's why we are here for?" Amy spoke as she tried to get a peek of the covered man.

"If you leave now, then don't bother to come back. You will be expelled from this nursing training."

Amy grabbed the guy's hand and smiled at the nurse.

"Thank you for having me."

Shadow walked Amy to his ship where Maria resided on a bed, she was very sick as she tries to keep breathing.

Amy examined her checking all of her symptoms and wrote them down.

"Has she eaten something like chicken or fish recently?" Amy asked the coat man. She had to admit that he looked kind scary but if he had gone to look for help for his friend, he couldn't be that bad of a guy.

"She ate sashimi yesterday.", Shadow responded.

"Then that says it all, she has mild food poisoning, I'll give her some medicine and make sure she drinks a lot of water. "You have to be careful, if she has a weak immune system, she could have died."

Amy couldn't see the face of the man, but he stayed quiet. "...But don't worry, she will be fine!"

Shadow sighed of relieve as he heard those words. " I am in your debt..."

"Don't worry about it." Amy got closed to Maria. She pulled out a small glass container that had medicine. She put small drops on her mouth and saw her slowly react to it.

"You gave up your training to help a stranger...why did you do that?" Shadow asked her.

"A long time ago, someone helps me when I needed it the most...and I asked him the same thing...he said: I did it because it was the right thing to do." Amy thought of Sonic fondly and about that memory that made her fall in love with him.

With that, they began talking a little bit more, Amy stayed for a few hours just to make sure Maria's process was going good. As well that she tried to get to know more about the coat-man/hoodie guy. The fact that Amy couldn't see his face was intriguing enough.

"I am a bad guy and I deserve everything that happens to me but..." Shadow said as he looked over to Maria. "Not her..."

Amy didn't know why, but she felt bad for this person. She wanted to help him in any way, but as to now the only way she could help was to help his friend. Comforting words were the only thing she could give him right now.

Amy stood up from his seat, watching Maria sleep peacefully now. She was ready to leave the couple to continue with their journey;

"Just remember this, when you feel lost and have nowhere to go, Amy Rose will be here, waiting for you."

.

.

.

"Yeah, I don't remember how I learned your name...the fake probably told me when we fighting or something," Shadow said to Amy, unconsciously placing his body closer to hers.

"I don't remember telling you."

They heard an external voice, this scared them as they were both aware of the fact that they were the only ones on the Island.

Amy and Shadow both turned around towards the beach, as their eyes adjusted to see better the silhouette of the person standing in front of the.

There he was.

Sonic The Hedgehog.

.

.

.

Next: https://another-sonic-blog.tumblr.com/post/186781427445/that-makes-us-two-chapter-6-peace

Previous: https://another-sonic-blog.tumblr.com/post/186736006810/that-makes-us-two-chapter-4-sleep

[geekofmanyforms]

New Beginning Chapter Five

***Thanks to everyone who has liked or shared this story. Please do the same for this Chapter. I'd love to know what you think of the story so far. Hope you enjoy! This chapter has been edited by my Beta Casey. ***

I hear Bonnie and Elena's voices from the kitchen as I headed down the stairs. I caught the tail end of a discussion about a particular combination of numbers as I hopped over the last two steps.

"Maybe we should play the lottery!" I announced, walking into the living room.

Elena chuckled at me, then turned back to Bonnie. "Have you talked to your Grams?"

I followed the heavenly smell of Chinese takeout into the kitchen. Bonnie and Elena stood around the island, surrounded by a litter of white boxes full of fried rice, lo mein, egg rolls, and cashew chicken. I looked over my shoulder at Elena before I stole an egg roll.

"She's just gonna say its because I'm a witch. I don't want to be a witch. Would you want to be a witch?" She asked us both.

I choked on my egg roll before shrugging.

"I don't see the problem with being a witch. Yeah, it would change your life but you can't change who you are —and denying it won't change it." I said.

"Well, I wouldn't want to be a witch," Elena chimed in.

Both Bonnie and Elena looked at me like I was utterly insane. I sighed — I didn't quite understand Bonnie's issue with being a witch. However, I did grow up in a different time and was raised to believe in my gifts.

"Listen, Bon, I know how insane the whole idea of you being a witch is, but you're obviously going through something. You need to figure out what that is, and if going along with this crazy idea helps, then go for it. Just look at it as an acting gig, get into character and play along." I suggested.

Bonnie's face lit up in amusement. "An acting gig, huh? That actually sounded like good advice. Look at you, adulting." she laughed.

I tossed the last bite of my egg roll in the air and caught it in my mouth. "Adulting?" I said, swishing my red hair around dramatically. "As if."

I laughed and grabbed a few ceramic bowls from the cabinet next to me. I handed them to Elena and helped her transfer the Chinese food into them.

"Putting it in a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody," Bonnie smirked.

We ignored Bonnie's unhelpful comment and smiled at one another. Neither of us had ever been good at cooking. In most of the lives I've lived, I've never needed to learn that specific talent, seeing as I never live past 18.

"Ok, serving spoons. Where are the serving spoons?" Elena muttered softly, looking around the kitchen.

"Middle drawer, on your left." Bonnie and I said together.

Bonnie raised a questioning brow at me before Elena drew her attention.

"Ok, so you've been in this kitchen like a thousand times," she told her. "And you," she pointed at me with a spoon, "you live here!"

"Yeah, that's it," Bonnie said with uncertainty.

She once again made eye contact with me, her green eyes mirroring my own as the doorbell rang. Elena took the two full serving bowls with her and headed towards the dining room. Before I could make an escape, Bonnie had me cornered. I kept my face blank as she looked me over. I could feel her magic brushing against mine. It wasn't nearly as strong, but it was still impressive — just as Emily's had been.

"There is something different about you... What is going on?" she questioned.

I fiddled with the edge of my sleeve as I stared straight at her.

"I don't know, Bennett, you tell me."

Her eyes widened as she moved her hand closer to mine.

"This is insane! I am not a witch," she said.

In a split second, she had her hand in mine. A vision flowed into our minds. I held Bonnie's hand tightly as a scene between Emily Bennett and me played out in front of us. I was watching from inside my past self. I could feel the sweat running down my face as I ran, yet somehow I could still feel Bonnie's hand in my own. In the vision, Emily and I were both running, our long dresses bunched up in our arms. We were headed towards the woods, an angry mob following close behind. Pain and terror covered our faces. Cries of "Kill the witches!" came from behind us as we both tripped and fell.

I tried to help Emily to her feet, but it was too late. I remembered this day; it had been my 18th birthday, and I knew neither of us would live through this. The curse had led us to the slaughter. The group surrounded us and poured oil over Emily's body before throwing a torch at her feet. I closed my eyes and cringed as her body lit up in flames — I knew all too well how it felt.

The men surrounded me, pinning me to the ground before the vision faded. The scene changed to one of Katherine and me standing in a meadow filled with flowers. Beside us, Emily stood, lifting flower petals into the air. We all smiled as they danced around us. I raised my arm, my hand in a fist; as I opened my hand, every flower surrounding us flew into the air, their petals falling to the ground. I looked into the sky, smiling; it was magical. Bonnie released my hand, and the vision fading quickly. She stumbled away from me, coughing and choking. I lifted her hair as she gagged over the kitchen sink. The surge of magic had been too much for her.

"What the hell was that? Why were you and Elena there?" she asked.

I leaned against the sink once her gagging had ceased.

"Well, Elena wasn't. The woman who looked like Elena was actually her ancestor." I answered.

Bonnie pulled away from the sink and looked me over carefully.

"What about you?" she said.

"Um well, that's a bit more difficult to explain..." I ran my hands through my hair with a grimace. "I'm a witch,"

Bonnie's eyes widened. I coughed awkwardly, then continued.

"I was cursed by another witch a long time ago, cursed to be reincarnated over and over. All my memories always come back to me and seeing as I always have the same soul, I'm basically the same person — just with different life lessons." I explained.

"So, I am a witch?" she asked

"Yes, you are. The woman you saw — her name was Emily Bennett. She was a good friend of mine and a powerful witch, the same as you. It runs in your family." I said.

Bonnie ran her hand down her face. "Wow, that's a lot to take in. Does Elena know about you?"

She suddenly frowned. I quickly raised my hands in the air.

"No, and she can't! A Lot more comes with my curse, and I don't want her involved. Please, Bonnie." I begged.

I watched as she mulled over my request. With a giant huff, she consented. "Ok, it's your life."

I stepped closer to Bonnie and took her hands in mine.

"Listen, I'll help you as much as I can, but it would be best if you went to your Grams. I'll come with you if you want."

Bonnie gave me a thankful smile. I felt terrible for her, all this power coming at her out of the blue. It would be a lot to take in for anyone.

"I might just take you up on that, El. For now, let's get this dinner over with."

I started to follow her into the dining room before she stopped in her tracks. She turned to face me a suspicious expression on her face.

"You know what's wrong with him, don't you?" she asked.

I stepped beside her and put my arm on her shoulder. "Yep and I'm not telling. You'll have to figure that out for yourself. Just know, he is a good guy."

I had my moments with the Salvatore brothers, but that didn't change the fact that I knew deep down they were both good guys. I pushed past the kitchen door and walked into the dining room. Elena had done an excellent job of making the table — she'd even lit candles for the occasion. I held in my laugh as I sat down beside Stefan, eyeing me warily. He must still be upset by everything I had told him. His forehead was wrinkled, and his eyes red and blotchy. Elena was babbling on incessantly so I could tell I was the only one to notice his poor mood. Leave it to my sister to be so self-absorbed she didn't even notice her own boyfriend was upset.

When Elena and Bonnie had started on their own conversation about cheerleading, I grabbed Stefan's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"You ok, Stef?" I whispered under my breath so only he could hear.

His face twisted for a second before he responded. "Damon isn't taking any of what you told us well — and frankly, neither am I. We care about you Elandra, we always have," he whispered.

I let his hand go and picked at my food. I knew this would happen when I told them. Both Salvatores have always had a bit of a hero complex. Even though they knew things were different between us now, they still wanted to help. I knew what I had to do to help them come to terms with this; I just didn't want to do it this way. I wanted my last year to be one of peace — but now that plan was out the window.

"We will figure this out, Steffie," I said with a wink.

I hoped using his old nickname would help calm his nerves. His answering smile was breathtaking.

"You're going to let us help save you?" he whispered in shock.

I nodded, holding back a frown. I hated that they would have to someday come to the realization that nothing could be done. I guess it couldn't hurt to let them believe what they wanted for a while longer. I nodded slowly and rubbed a circle around his thumb before letting go of his hand. Elena and Bonnie's conversation had come to a full stop to once again include Stefan.

"Bonnie, you should have seen Stefan today. Tyler threw a ball right at him, and..." Elena started but was quickly cut off by Bonnie. It was painfully obvious she was still against Stefan.

"Yeah, I heard," she said.

I gave Stefan a sympathetic smile. In Bonnie's defense, it really was for a good reason. She didn't know what he was, yet— but she knew it wasn't good. I mean, what person would want their friend to be in love with a bloodsucking vampire? Even if they were one of the good ones...

A relationship with a vamp can end one of two ways; death, or an eternity of being undead. Neither option is really all that glamorous to someone that cares about you. Believe me, I've thought about it for myself at one point, before I realized vampire blood wasn't an option for me. Katherine offered to save me, and I had obviously considered it. For me, it was a simple choice; I was already immortal in some ways. Being a vampire would be better than living a half-life. For Elena, though, it won't be easy. She has the chance at a full life. One where she could have children and grow old before moving on to the next life. One I'll never get to witness. Elena and I have never really gotten along, but she was still my sister, and I wanted her to be happy.

"Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?" Elena asked, staring at an irritated Bonnie.

Her face was scrunched up in annoyance. Anyone could tell she didn't want to speak about her family with him, and all the witchiness that accompanied them.

"Um, divorced. No, mom. Live with my dad." Bonnie said, moving her food around with her fork.

I looked down at my chopsticks and smirked at her. I expertly picked up a noodle and ate it, challenging her with my eyes. As I had expected, she laughed at my dorkiness and grabbed some chopsticks. I was hoping to lighten the mood and had succeeded.

"No, about the witches. Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool." Elena said

I swear, my sister doesn't have an ounce of tact in her! How anyone could ever fight over her or her ancestors, was beside me. It's not like any of them had been frickin' Helen of Troy.

Bonnie once again scowled irritably. "Cool isn't the word I'd use," she said, meeting my gaze.

Stefan looked between us with a curious look on his face.

"Well, it's certainly interesting. I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic druids that migrated here in the 1800s." Stefan said, a professor like tone to his voice.

I hid my smile behind another eggroll, earning a glare from Elena.

"You're gonna bloat if you eat all the egg rolls, Elara." she sighed, shaking her head.

I rolled my eyes at her taking yet another eggroll in protest. "I'm not gonna live forever, Lena. Might as well enjoy life."

This time, I earned a glare from Stefan. He mouthed "Not funny!" at me, with a look that could kill.

"My family came by way of Salem," Bonnie said, a hint of pride in her voice.

I could see a lot of Emily in her. It was a comforting thought to think that I hadn't actually lost Emily. She would want me to look after Bonnie for her… even if it was actually Damon, she had tasked with the duty.

"Really? Salem witches?" Stefan asked, as if he was astonished.

"Yeah," Bonnie said.

I pushed away my plate, finally full, and sat back in my seat. "I would say that was pretty cool," I said.

Stefan nodded in agreement as Elena ate her bland white rice. I scrunched up my nose at her and pushed some fried food her way. She pushed it back towards the middle of the table with an irritated sigh.

"Really? Why?" Bonnie asked.

"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity," Stefan explained.

"Yeah, they are," Bonnie said.

I stood at the sound of the doorbell, more than excited to escape this annoying and stressful hell.

"I wonder who that could be?" Elena asked.

I walked past the living room, glancing longingly at the tv and couch, to answer the door. I unlocked the top lock leaving the chain in place and opened it slowly. An uneasy feeling settling in my stomach. A familiar head of blonde hair caught my attention.

"What are you doing here, Care?" I asked my eyes taking her in. She smiled up at me brightly, her blue eyes shining, a pie tray in her hands.

"Surprise! Bonnie said you guys were making dinner, so we brought dessert," she said cheerily.

I grumbled softly at the word "we." shutting the door and quickly unlocking the chain. I swung it open and stood to the side. I could guess who she meant.

"Who is we, Caroline?" I said, already knowing the answer.

"Hey, Ellie bean!" Damon enthusiastically said, stepping into view; ruffling my hair as if I was a child.

I pushed his hand away and stepped outside, closing the door behind me. I stepped in front of Caroline and looked her over. Physically she looked ok, her skin was still a bit pale, but other than that she looked good. I touched her skin; it was warm. She didn't feel like she had suffered excessive blood loss. I made sure she still wore her bracelet and looked into her eyes. She took a few steps back, which I followed and raised a brow.

"Look at me, Caroline," I said.

I used my gift and seeped into her mind. I checked for any fuzzy or missing memories. When I found nothing, I backed off.

"Go ahead and take the pie inside Care. I have something I need to ask Damon." I said, looking only at him.

Caroline gave me a speculative look and opened the door, heading inside. She was quickly replaced by an angry Stefan.

"What are you doing here, Damon?" he growled, advancing on his brother.

I stepped in his path and placed a hand on his chest. When he stopped, I gave him a small reassuring smile. Turning back to Damon, I crossed my arms.

"How did you get Caroline to agree to let you come with her?" I asked curiously.

She appeared to be ultimately herself, and I needed to know what tricks he was trying to pull.

Damon ran his hand through his hair with a smirk. "I used my animal magnetism. I don't need compulsion to get her to do my bidding, Elandra," he said.

I closed my eyes, trying to reign in my temper — it didn't work. I opened my palms and pushed him against the house using magic. I tilted my head and bit my lip.

"Listen here, Damon. That girl is my best friend, and I'll be damned if you get her involved in all this supernatural bullshit! Leave. Her. Alone!" I spat angrily.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and calmed down a bit, I closed my hands, quickly releasing Damon from my spell. I pulled my shirt down and adjusted my hair. When I was done fixing my appearance, I took in a deep breath and ran my hands down my face.

"Just please don't bother Caroline again," I said.

Damon stood up, straightening his clothes. "Fine. But, you can't just avoid me, Elandra. We have to figure this curse out while we still have time."

I took a step back and finally looked at him — really looked at him. His eyes showed immense exhaustion. His dark hair was ruffled and messy from his hand continually running through it; a nervous habit. His blue eyes were dull and lifeless. I finally understood how much my curse had affected him. I shook my head in anger.

"Don't you both see what this is doing to you? This is a part of the curse. It hurts not just me, but anyone I care about. That's why I wanted to keep it a secret." I said exasperatedly.

I felt Stefan's hands on my shoulders. My body sagged under his touch, and Damon noticed instantly.

"So you and Stefan hanging out now, huh? It seems like you really don't need my help, not when Saint Stefan is available," he growled.

Stefan's hands left me within a second.

"Damon, he is here for Elena, not me. But, I have agreed to let you both help me." I said.

His face lifted slightly. "Ok, so you gonna let me in?" Damon smiled.

"You know you've already been invited in." I sighed, opening the door and letting them both pass by me.

By now, everyone had converged to the living room. I flopped down onto the couch and lifted my feet onto Elena's lap. Stefan snorted a laugh as she threw my feet off her, nearly knocking me off the couch.

"I cannot believe Mr. Tanner let you be on the team — Tyler must be seething. Good for you, though, go for it." Caroline said.

I smiled lovingly. Most people thought she was a self-absorbed bitch, but I loved her. She was funny, smart, and loyal — all the things I look for in a friend.

"That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it." Damon said with a boyish grin.

I heckled lightly at his fake enthusiasm. "Yeah, cause that's exactly what you do, isn't it, Damon? Wait! No — that's getting drunk and living in the past. Sorry, my mistake,"

His eyes narrowed at me, and I earned a slap on the arm by Elena. "Elara, behave!" she whispered angrily.

Stefan meanwhile was biting his lip to keep from laughing. Thankfully, Caroline started jabbering away, bringing the attention back to her.

"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today. It's only because you missed summer camp. God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines..."

"I'll work with her. She'll get it." Bonnie said.

"Well we could put her in the back," Caroline said thoughtfully.

Caroline's talkative nature was something I was grateful for today, even if she was talking about cheerleading. I sat back against the couch and put my head on my hand. This whole conversation was boring — she acted like cheerleading was the essence of life. I loved Caroline, but she was so naive. I wished my biggest worry in life was not learning a cheerleading routine...

"Just put her in the mascot uniform and have her jump around," I blurted out.

I bit my lip and squinted. Oops. Maybe I should've thought before I spoke. Elena kicked me in the side with her foot.

"You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena," Damon said.

"Oh, it's just because her parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase," Caroline took a sip of her drink, "She used to be way more fun — and I say that with complete sensitivity." she added awkwardly.

"It's ok, Care. I'm just glad I have El and Jer. I don't know what I would do without them." Elena said

What an odd moment of sisterly kindness. Usually, I'm not mentioned in her sibling bonding speeches. My stomach dropped, and I quickly stood and swallowed the lump in my throat.

"I'm gonna go for a walk, I could use some air," I said quickly.

Before anyone could say a word, I was out the front door. I couldn't stay there any longer. Knowing that Elena would be losing someone else close to her very soon affected me tremendously. I ran off the porch and kept running. I had no idea where I was planning to go, but I just needed to run. I put everything I feared behind me and just ran from it all. I felt constricted in my jeans but didn't care. My muscles burned as I pushed myself forward. I didn't stop until I saw Wickery Bridge in front of me. I stopped right in the middle of it and sat down. It was stupid, but I didn't care. I laid down and looked up into the sky. The clouds blocked out the light of the stars, it reflected my mood perfectly. I felt blocked by everything that was going on in my life. Every new day only brought me closer to my last one. It's an odd feeling, knowing you're going to die. It really makes you reevaluate your priorities. You never really know how lucky you indeed are until you know you're going to lose everything you have. Even though I've lived hundreds of lives, leaving one never gets easier.

"You planning on dying early this time?" a familiar voice said.

I sat up quickly and spotted Katherine leaning up against the bridge. I jumped up and ran into her arms. "Oh God, I've missed you, Kit Kat!" I squealed, using the nickname I had given her ages ago.

Katherine's eyes narrowed — obviously still against the name — as she hugged me back, before pushing me off her. "I see you're still the clingy type," she said, looking down at her nails. I pushed her arm and sat on the side of the bridge. My legs dangling over the edge. "This is where my parents died. Well, my current parents. I don't really know why I'm here." I said a questioning look on my face. I really had no clue what led me to this bridge. But something Katherine had said had started to make me think. She sat beside me, and we both stared at the water below us.

"Would it really be so bad to die early, Kit? I mean, it would put so many people out of their misery. Both of the Salvatores think they can stop the curse." I said.

Katherine's face was angry and surprised. Her hair blew gently in the breeze, and she brushed it behind her ear. "You know something. I never thought I'd see the day when Elandra Rioult gave up. That's not very Viking of you, ya know." she said.

Hearing my real last name made my eyes water. It had been a very long time. "Katherine, I'm just so tired," I whispered.

I laid my head on her shoulder, and we both sat in silence.

"They will be here soon. That's why I'm here — I'm preparing a few things. It will earn me my freedom, El. If anyone can help you put in end to the curse, it's them. You just have to tell them." she said.

I sat up and tried to make out her expression, but she was wearing the darkness like a mask. "The last time I met him he killed me because he thought I was some doppelganger sent to haunt him," I said.

"Yeah, well that was a very long time ago. Just don't mention that during that life you're the one who helped me escape him. Without you, I would never have gotten out." she smiled.

"Yeah, and he found me when he was looking for you and snapped my neck." I laughed.

That had been one of my quickest deaths, I was only 15 at the time. I was working in the castle, unaware of who owned it until I met Katherine, and she explained her situation. I still remember the surprise on her face when I showed up in her room.

"Did I ever thank you for that?" she said.

"Yeah only every five seconds while I led you outside and to your meeting point with Trevor," I said.

We both laughed at our mutually fucked up past.

"Stay out of my way while I'm here Elandra. I don't want to hurt you, but I will get my freedom." she firmly said.

I knew what Katherine was capable of, but she also knew I would fight for my family.

"You know I can't let you hurt my friends or family Kit. But, I'm not going to go out of my way to mess with your plans. The only time I'll get involved is if you try to hurt someone I love." I told her honestly.

She held her hand out to me, and I shook it. "Well then, may the best bitch win," she said.

I shook her hand and smiled.

"Here, here,"

Masterlist

[scorpio-karma]

Let's Finish Season Fucking Two: 2x18-22

So in 2017 I started to rewatch the show but had to stop at 2x11 because Elena annoyed the crap out of me. I literally needed to take a step back and didn't restart my rewatch until 2018 where I have been basically trudging my way through 2x12-17 because I want to rewatch S3, as it's the season I've forgotten the most about.

So last week with a half of a bottle of wine I made it my mission to finish out the season so 2019 I can rewatch season 3 and maybe remember Kol, but I kinda doubt it. I'll probably come out shipping Klonnie more, if I don't see too many temper tantrums.

2x18:

First of all, this is a terrible episode to start with because it's the episode where Bonnie dies for the first time, so dealing with that is going to be annoying. Second of all why do the recap always explain that Elena and Katherine look alike. Not only is that the least complicated part of the show, but it's also the entire fucking premise of TVD. If you didn't know that by the end of season 2 you're really fucking slow, but I guess they planned according for their audience. Also, lots of people look like Nina, so I don’t know how this is the most “unbelievble part of the show.

Anyway, on to the episode. Matt Davis made a great Klaus. I may hate him, but I'm not ashamed to admit he was attractive to me playing the evil Original, but he equally creeped me out which is why I say he made a great Klaus. The way he kissed Katherine's forehead and basically leered at Elena and other students honestly made me more uncomfortable than watching Penn Badgley in You. Davis should play villains more often, seems to be his niche since Legally Blonde. (Although he didn't do a great job with evil!Alaric in season 3 from what I remember, it was a weak storyline that even I couldn't get into when I mindlessly watched the show, it was how I noticed the drop in quality then) Don't get me wrong I like JoMo's portrayal of him too just really only this season before they woobiefied him.

You know, rewatching all of this I’m noticing more and more that Nina isn't that great of an actress. Like, I was never overwhelmed with her talent before and I definitely am not now especially as I watch her play Katherine scared and there is no difference in the way she plays Elena scared. It's like how Elena with no Humanity is Katherine, well Katherine scared for her life is Elena. There's no nuance when she plays these characters. The only difference is the hair and when season 4 rolls around not even that.

Which brings me to Elena stupidity which I'm not even surprised. First, knowing her life is in danger she goes to school and endangers others lives, under the order of it's my way. Which first of all sweetie, your way has always sucked, until you yield good results maybe hold off on making plans. Second of all, the only reason you know you'll be fine is because Bonnie will save you which is a consistent pattern of hers--risking her life with the confidence that someone will always save her which annoys me because what about everyone else. First it was not staying in the car so she hindered saving Stefan, then it was manipulating Damon, and now it's risking everyone else's lives including Bonnie's because school? Which is where I get confused, no one, especially her, are particularly studious, so why the sudden need to go to school. You could ditch and no one would care because Jenna's out of town.

Which brings me to another thing which I'm sure I went over when Jenna left, but leaving teenagers alone for days at a time because you feel betrayed by your boyfriend and teenage niece you have guardianship over is just...I have no words.

When I was 15 my mom had to go out of town for a convention in San Francisco I couldn't come with her due to school. She was gone for 3 days and I had to stay with my Great Aunt and Uncle because even at 15 you don't just leave your kids alone for days at a time (and also my mom was over protective and paranoid but that's beside the point). At least leave an adult in charge, maybe John, he's probably got to be salty that Jenna was God parent and not him, he is in fact Elena's actual father. There were so many nuances with John the could have had, but I'll get to that in later episodes.

See I understand Jeremy being salty at John for killing his girlfriend, who by the way managed to get over it, but I don't understand Elena's disdain for him. It was there before she found out he was her father, before he enabled the device, she just didn't like him and it's never explained. Like honestly when I think about the reason Elena annoys me the most it isn’t that she whines (which has never really been my big complaint with her), it’s the reasons she’s whining and in this case I have extra annoyance because there are actual reason for her to be this salty towards John and none of them are the reasons she uses.

I noted that Klaus had no plans of killing Bonnie until she became a legitimate threat. The only thing that’s honestly annoying me about this is the direction I know they take Bonnie and her magic in season three. She’s powerful and a legit threat against the original hybrid and yet she’s damn near powerless in later seasons it just irks me.

Also noted, I’m not making any arguments for Bamon, it’s just there is a stark difference in chemistry when Damon dances with Bonnie opposed to Elena. For one, when he’s with Elena he legitimately looks like he can’t dance, all his lines are stiff, as are Elena’s. I can at least forgive Nina since she’s supposed to be frosty towards him, but Ian, this is during a time he was dating her meaning he wasn’t pulling petty shit from the finale--he just legitimately doesn’t have chemistry with Elena.

When he’s Bonnie all of that changes, suddenly he does have dance skills, his lines flow naturally, even his acting improves tenfold and he can play nuances that aren’t eyebrow movement. There’s a reason why he’s only bearable when he’s in scenes with Kat unfortunately those scenes are far and few between and always about Elena.

In a weird twist of events Bonnie has the better costume than Elena--she doesn’t even look like a caricature of the 60s other than the go-go boots. Also Caroline dressed as Jackie O. has an amount of irony I don’t even thing she’s aware of. 

Bonnie bossing Jeremy around was hot which is new for me as I don’t care anything about Beremy. That paired with Damon’s “not caring” it was an overall good episode for Bonnie...until she’s stuffed in the trunk of Damon’s Camero.

Bonnie’s line “If the situation was reversed would you do it for me?” just has me rolling my eyes because we all know the answer to that--no, Elena wouldn’t do the same for you Bonnie and she continually doesn’t do the same for you so cut your losses. In fact that’s my advice for the entire series, cut your losses, let Elena die, so many more people will get to live when she does.

So when we do finally get to Bonnie’s death I actually agreed with Damon’s sentiment of “it had to look real” Elena is a terrible actress (Elena not Nina though she has a lot of questionable acting), it’s so bad they trusted Jeremy more and he’s not so great either. Also why are they spending so much time on Elena’ pain at Bonnie’s death and not the character who actually died--it’s the Abby situation pre-Abby, like we should have seen that shit a mile away if this is any indicator.

Although, in an unexpected twist, the episode ends on a a decision of Elena’s I agreed with. Granted it came with me screaming at Elena for apologizing to Damon like??? even if I understood the reasoning she literally owed him nothing, but count on Plec with misogyny for the win, and Williamson lest we forget he’s also responsible for this mess. Anyway after Damon’s words, Elena undaggering Elijah was the best decision she made and this is before the betrayal, so I at least understand trusting him.

2x19:

We start with Nina’s god awful English accent. When she ran lines someone should have made her keep the Bulgarian on from the first Katherine flashbacks because Nina can’t fake an accent to save her life. Also much like the flashback in S7 the Katherine flashbacks with Elijah and Klaus are not only unnecessary, but explain very little. How exactly did Katherine escape? Why didn’t they compel her? Did she have access to vervain? Like little is explained about her duality then and why exactly Elijah had issues Katherine. All that was explained is that they were almost lovers. Honestly all we learned about Katherine is that she really likes for people to chase after her. 

Damon is just as bad at plans as Elena. Like I hate them both, but sometime DE are a match made in heaven with how awful they are at things. Like I understand trusting Elena’s lead is actually pretty rational given her past decisions, but you way of thinking isn’t any better. Leave the thinking to those who can actually do it. 

This is JoMo’s first episode and you know what? I really miss this Klaus. Also when they do the “Niklaus” reveal I thought it was absolutely ridiculous when I first watched it. I still find it ridiculous, but I realize that much like Mikael, Kol, and Rebekah, it was the “fancy” way of spelling Nicolas, and I’m even more pissed off. No wonder I equate the introduction of each Original to introducing another Kardashian--they really love their K’s.

Elijah trying to use OMG as a cultural reference was just cringe. “Our whole family was human” I wonder at what point they decided to retcon this? Probably around the time they realized they could do anything creative with vampires. Also this line “my mother bore seven children” I thought no one knew Freya existed. Finn, Elijah, Klaus, Rebekah, Kol, Henrik, and then Freya--how is she their long lost sister if they already knew about her?

You know I spent so much time away that I literally forgot about Andie, and now I’m very creeped out. They follow the classic domestic abuse formula where she keeps coming back when she has the option to leave. You know, when rape becomes Stolkholm Syndrome and in Plec and Williamson form they try to convince you that this is a normal vampire thing even having the victim saying “I’m perfectly fine with this”. There were so many Nos.

I remember that the whole Sun and the Moon curse was fake, what I did not remember is that Klaus and Elijah started it. I thought Esther started it to dupe Klaus and that the whole sacrifice was for no reason. I have yet to see S3 so that thought might still be correct. Also, white supremacy essentially causing the war between vampires and werewolves--not surprising, but still disappointing.

Jenna’s reaction to finding out about vampires is appropriate granted her cluelessness up until this point is a whole other level. And Stefan’s serious face towards Klaus seems to to just look at him cross-eyed which I never noticed. And of course we end the episode on on of the lamest vampire fights of all time--they really ran out of ideas around here.

2x20:

So Tyler’s back! Unfortunately it’s because Klaus threw his mom down a flight of stairs. Man, he’s been hurting his mom for quite some time. That sire bond really did a number on him to forget this shit. At least he has that excuse, all Elena ever had was “love” and “hope” like bitch,Damon’s been terrorizing your friends and family, he’s had more than enough chances to prove himself. Also Tyler came back for important things. Sorry, Caroline stans, but Caroline missing him isn’t important when his freedom is on the line.

“Damon s the problem, not Caroline,” listen to Matt, Liz.

I’ll give Matt Davis this, he was a pretty good actor here. The distinct differences between Alaric and Klaus were a lot better than the cliches Nina was using. But then again because he only put against her acting that’s probably why it seemed good. I’m sure there is a lot better (I’ve never seen Orphan Black but I don’t doubt she did a better job at playing her clones than Nina did with any of her doppelgangers).

It must be easy to brutalize Elena after brutalizing Katherine so much--he never missed an opportunity to hit her. Although him shoving vamp blood down Elena’s throat wasn’t as anger inducing as it should have been since it reminded me of a time when Damon being the wild card actually made sense. Not just so much that given how early it is in the show him doing random things makes sense, but that his random actions make sense, less man pain, and was actually strategic.

Also why didn’t Katherine drink vamp blood and then go through with the sacrifice--they had the same results except one less angry hybrid. Is this ever explained as to why vamp blood can’t be in your system for the ritual?

Which now that Elena is essentially taken care of, I suggest using the elixir on Bonnie so she can take down Klaus without dying and then we can avoid the whole thing.

Tyler really should have listened to Jules, but then again, I know she’s the one who dies in the end so maybe she should have followed her own advice. 

Also I remembering why SE was never my jam--it was a lot of babysitting Elena and her “I don’t knows”. THEN STOP MAKING MAJOR LIFE DECISIONS UNTIL YOU DO KNOW. “I’m 17 years old, how am I supposed to know any of this?” you aren’t sweetie and that’s exactly the point however I don’t understand how being a vampire is worse to her than the possibility of being dead. From what she lists off as what she wants to do, they all can still happen as a vampire, not so much when you’re dead. And even if she does turn she doesn’t have to fully transition so I don’t get the mourning period she’s having especially since THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO FOCUS ON. Priorities, bitch.

I get Matt wanting to save Caroline--he clearly still loves her, but saving Damon? He said it himself--he’s the problem, he’s the reason your sister is dead, God! protagonist based morality really gets to me these seasons.

“You turned your back on me when I needed you” but did he, Caroline? If I recall, he saved you in the nick of time so...Also, you asked him to leave, what’s with playing victim all of a sudden (while equally forgetting the time you were a victim). Also, Caroline, you really need to listen to Tyler when he tells you to go, granted the other time she does this is in S5, but he’s literally in a position where he’s not in control of his actions and you are what he hunts. Go, when he says go! These women really need to stop with this “He’ll never hurt me” mentality when their monster is coming out because, bitch, how is that working out for ya?

Also the final scene with Klaus, Stefan, and Elena, I swear most of the dramaticism is in the music the scene isn’t heartbreaking enough for this music. And in a town filled with vampires Klaus needed to make a vampire? I remember not liking Jenna’s death and I like it even less here because it really was for no reason other than the writers don’t know how to write parental figures.   

Which brings me to Greta. Her complete and utter indifference to her family being dead is really on par with TVD’s views on family. Even worse, it continues this black character forsakes all family for a white character mammy trope they always have with black witches. Although she does fit the Jezabel trope more, but I’m really tired of “loyal” black characters being loyal to everyone but themselves.

2x21:

This honestly should have been the season/series finale--it actually had a great natural ending. The only thing I’d tweak is Elijah following through, and then it would have been the perfect conclusion to this shit show. Instead we go on for another six seasons where they accomplished nothing other than more of a shit show.  

So of course we start with Katherine “caring” for which honestly makes no canonical sense. Damon has literally always been a game for her so why either doppelganger bothers with him just honestly baffles me.

Also we start out with some classic Elena “pleading to their humanity” which was almost as laughable with Greta as it was with Kai. Like Bitch, did you not just see how she brushed off the deaths of her family, why is she going to give a flying fuck about you of all people? 

Also Greta, sweetie, what are you doing? I get not wanting to serve nature, but Klaus? WHAT IS THIS NEW ORDER AND WHAT DOES SHE GET OUT OF IT? Because from where I’m standing, she’s in the exact same position as servant just now with an added side of “happy slave” because it wouldn’t be an episode of TVD without that trope. Despite TVD using black bodies as food, I will give Jenna props for going after Greta--someone finally using strategy and knowing Klaus has nothing without his witch.

Which brings me to how the MFG plans to defeat Klaus--they don’t and I’m not surprised since it focused completely on Elena. Elena is one out of three sacrifices and the only irreplaceable item--why not focus on the full picture and maybe accomplish something in the end. I’ll give it to Bonnie and  her bad ass magic, but it’s honestly not enough. The entire plan hinged on Elijah who betrays them and Elena for some reason trusts again getting Abby killed and turned, but that’s salt for another review.

The salt for now is that Jeremy and Bonnie have been together in an abandoned house for days on end with really nothing to do, and they tried to convince me that season 5 was the first time her and Jeremy had sex, let alone that was her first time. I was suddenly reminded why I thought it was so weird to me that everyone thought that was when Bonnie lost her virginity--like I’d read it in fanfics and be just confused. Granted she hadn’t had a sex scene up until that point, but given the shows attitude toward sex I just assumed lack of virginity was everyone’s default. And then you had this shit, Beremy was never my favorite ship, but I wasn’t so in hatred of them that I would discredit them having a sex life because why wouldn’t they? Everyone else does, and given the shows attitude toward sex, if she was in fact a virgin that would have been known. Of course, my naive 16 year-old ass didn’t realize how asexual they were making her, but now at 25 and looking back at this I’m just pissed.

So when I looked back on season 2 I remember John being more of a villain, not surprising since the narrative treats him as such, but I literally remember him being turned into a vampire against his will and continuing the process. I’m realizing now I may have had him confused with Logan, but I was really surprised when throughout this entire rewatch John is human and then getting to this episode, knowing he dies at the end and the realizing he never was. I thought he was one before Jenna and that was just all kinda of wrong. I guess it’s because the episode had him apologize for all his wrong doings (none of which were his actual transgressions) and I guess my mind tried to rationalize.

Given my complete indifference towards Elena, it is kinda surprising that John’s letter to her still makes me cry, but I’ve always had the sentiment that John is the only person who made any sense sacrificing his life for Elena. TVD may not value familial relationships but I do. However his “prejudices” line gets to me because he was right--vampires are dangerous, and it irks me that Elena wasted the life he gave her. She doesn’t even manage to stay human for a fucking year, and not by her choice which he gave his blessing for. She just Elena’d it. 

Overall this probably would have actually been a good episode if Klaus had actually died and it was the last episode. John dies for Elena, Elijah gets his revenge against Klaus, Damon is left for dead, and the series ends on the note that they’re no longer in danger--the end, finito, better than the acid trip series finale.

2x22:

If this episode needed to happen it should have been Damon’s farewell episode. Actually follow through on something with his character and have him make amends and having a heartfelt goodbye. End series and have every live happily ever after because Klaus and Damon are gone, and Katherine who had no relevance after this season leaves as she had no reason to stick around. Like this is where the series should have ended--it had a nice sense of finality missing from the actually series finale.

Anyway, on to the mess of a fucking episode it was first with Stefan, ever so loyal, ruining what could have been a great Damon death. Now this isn’t really because I dislike his character, it’s more that him dying especially here would have been at a time where that would be an actual loss, this anti hero role Plec kept insisting he was might have been able to have been accomplished with his death in this one episode. And best of all, I wouldn’t have had to deal with one more temper tantrum from him or Klaus.

Watching Alaric’s man pain is marginally easier to deal with because it’s not destructive, but then again he’s human so what would he have done. I’m sure original vampire Alaric would have went on some massacres because they can’t resist man pain destruction. 

Caroline once again shoehorned, in today’s episode, a brother sister bonding moment between Jeremy and Elena that would, once again, suit Bonnie more, if even her at all because this is a scene that doesn’t require Caroline, but you gotta giver her that unnecessary screen time some how.

Stefan going to Emily literally makes no sense. As does Stefan’s entrance to the witch house. What do these women owe Stefan Nothing. What do these women owe Damon? Nothing. So the insistence that they help him makes no sense. But of course a black witch not serving a white vampire is useless to Plec so here we are.

The urgency of this episode was lost on me because it was getting in the way of a good plot--Damon’s death. Also after reanalyzing Jeremy’s death scene I’ve come to a few conclusions. First: in a crazy twist of events it is not in fact Damon’s fault. He was literally hallucinating out of his mind so I doubt he was thinking about anything logical. Second: Caroline snapping his neck before he officially died could have saved him. Bonnie even said it outloud--he needed to die a supernatural death to come back. In fact, it probably would have made more sense characterization wise given how she became a vampire. And lastly: even if Bonnie needed to bring him back the “spirits” shouldn’t have been so hard on her especially since they weren’t that hard on Stefan earlier. Like he shouldn’t have had to step one foot in that house--he’s still a murderous vampire, I don’t care how much of a “kind soul” he was as human that certainty didn’t translate into vampire form. 

Overall this episode was abysmal but so is this series. My overall thoughts on season 2 is that it’s easily a stronger season, but still is god awful and has not aged well. Also the series would have really benefited if it was a two season vampire series from the late 2000s unfortunately that time period wouldn’t allow that. At the hype of vampires they were determined to milk that for everything they could and the still are with the train wreck that is Legacies. They need to let it die. 

[zalrb]

What, in your opinion, was the worst tvd season and why?

Season 8 because nothing made sense and it was BORING. From previous posts and highlights from all of my reviews of the eighth season: 

I would say that in the season finale a lot of things didn’t make sense. Why was Elena in a big white bed in the middle of the woods? Where is this place, why are they there? How did Enzo know to find Bonnie there and how did he bring her back to life? Is Enzo God? Stefan didn’t know Bonnie would be able to wake Elena up but he still gave Damon the cure in the off-chance that she would? Katherine pretended to be Elena, she wore Elena’s dress in the casket but had the time to dress Elena in her own clothes and put her in the school? And her hair was straight and suddenly it just became perfectly curly again? Stefan was shot and stabbed, he bled everywhere in those instances but he managed to not age rapidly but because he took a syringe of blood and gave it to Damon suddenly Damon has the cure and Stefan would start aging? Really? He could’ve called Caroline or saw Caroline, there is actually no reason why Stefan could see Elena, it’s not a logical part of the episode in terms of plot or lore, it doesn’t make sense, except that Elena had to be the last person he saw before he died. 

8x01

22. Writers, it’s too fucking late for the whole “surrounded by death, Stefan That’s what we’ve been for a hundred and some years.” nonono, you didn’t stick to that vampire lore throughout the seasons, it makes no sense to reinstate it now. In True Blood, from season 1 to season 7, it’s iterated and reiterated that vampires are death and whoever wants to sleep with them or be around them wants to die because they’re surrounding themselves with death. That isn’t a theme in TVD.

23. Nope, you can’t do hell all over again and try to back it up by going “not stone hell but real hell!” nah, y’all were lazy and just did the same shit again.

26. Stefan and Bonnie coming face to face with Damon and Enzo should’ve probably been more impactful? Like I don’t know, I don’t get the sense of complete and utter hopelessness. DO some fight club shit:

Make them gaunt and pale and red-eyed, like if they’re drones or slaves then make them as such. Because Damon is just acting like Damon, the only reason why we know he’s doing these things against his will is because of the over-exposition in the dialogue, there is actually nothing to indicate that Damon is doing this against his will other than the repetition in the words.

33. How hard are they going to hammer this shit in our heads? Damon doesn’t believe in redemption AGAIN, Damon thinks he and Elena are on different paths AGAIN only so SURPRISE he’ll be proved wrong by Elena near the end! Been there, done that.

8x03: 

6. I love how it’s become such a big deal that Sybil has mind control. “We’re dealing with something that has the power of mind control” SCARY MUSIC. Right because vampires compelling people was just ….

15. Damon describing Sybil’s hold over him is literally describing compulsion.

17. So Sybil is Rebekah and the Salvatore Mansion is the library and instead of Elena, Caroline and Stefan talking about SE and DE it’s Caroline and Bonnie talking about Damon and Enzo.

18. OK so Sybil is also Klaus who has to “Siren” obedience like how Klaus had to Sire hybrids.

19. OK so Sybil is Klaus again making Bonnie choose between Enzo and Damon like Klaus going, “So Elena, Jenna or Stefan?” Or she’s No Humanity Caroline who essentially did the same thing with Matt and Tyler. ‘Bout the most sadistic game imaginable, writers you’ve recycled this at least three times.

32. “Bonnie, I’m going to count down from 10 and then I’m going to let Damon finish what he started.” Like the clock Klaus put on Stefan biting Elena? LOL OK TVD. 

8x03:

28. So basically when Sybil got Damon’s full devotion is exactly like when Damon and Elena thought Stefan betrayed them for Klaus and the scene between Caroline and Stefan when Stefan is all “Damon is gone” “Don’t give up hope” is Stefan and Damon “Stefan is gone!” “Then we’ll let him go.” We’re redoing season 3 just terribly.

8x04

35. So a black man is the devil. EXCELLENT, TVD. JFC.

36. Also their version of the devil makes absolutely no sense. Why is Cade in hell in the first place when he literally did nothing wrong? Did he create hell for the souls that he keeps and why is he collecting souls in the first place? And they keep mentioning God, as in the Christian God, so how are you going to have a Christian God but not a Christian Hell? WHAT?

44. So Georgie goes to hell because she killed a girl in a car accident. OK so like I don’t get it does that mean Julian is in hell too? What about Mary-Louise and Nora? Are they in hell? WHO goes to this hell? Does just everyone who does a bad thing go to this hell?

8x05: 

9. You know why banging a tuning fork doesn’t come across as torture? Because it’s a weak fucking form of torture. At least have Sybil’s ears bleed, have her crying with pain, have her clutching her head, screaming STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT. Like OMG.

10. And of course Bonnie isn’t at Tyler’s funeral but so is no one else. It’s true that the Lockwoods are dead but they’re a founding family, you mean this town won’t mourn the loss of the last living member of such a family when the town is supposed to be big on tradition?

11. This episode is ridiculous. I won’t believe that Stefan wouldn’t be fast enough to stake Damon in the leg or to push him off Matt, Stefan vamp-sped and pushed Damon off Bonnie in season 1, he pushed Katherine off Jeremy in season 2. After being the only human in MF for how long, Matt should’ve picked up a few tricks on how to take down a vampire. Caroline is also a vampire with a history of beating the shit out of Damon, you mean two vampires can’t contain one? Whatever.

15. “It was awful, like Damon is desperate for us all to hate him.” But you just can’t right? For absolutely no fucking reason. I’m actually getting severely tired of Damon killing everyone, abusing everyone, making everyone’s lives worse and the show constantly protecting him with lines that distance him from taking any responsibility. It’s OK that Damon killed Tyler because he wants you all to hate him? Are you fucking serious?

20. REDEMPTIVE RIGHT NOW. Hammering it into our heads that he didn’t want to kill Tyler but he did it for Sybil, he doesn’t like that his friends hate him but he made them hate him anyway for Sybil (although legit no one looks like they hate him) and I’m fucking OVER it. Damon kills but his heart isn’t in it, so the fuck what, why the fuck do I care about that? Doesn’t MEAN anything.

21. Dude, I thought that Sybil inserted herself in Damon’s happy Elena place and then I thought she made Elena die so it was like Damon never met her. What was the point of Sybil inserting herself in Damon’s Elena Happy Place if he just does things to make her happy but doesn’t put his heart in it, he was doing that anyway before.

8x06

5. So we get to see mediocre SC sex in 8x01 but we don’t get to see mediocre BE sex in 8x06? Oh true. I see you, Julie and co.

9. WHO eats bacon that way? Seriously, who the fuck eats bacon that way? That’s not sexy, it’s weird.

13.  This writing is ridiculous. You and Sybil aren’t Cade’s missionaries, Seline, you aren’t converting people to your ways or “spreading the word”, you’re eating their flesh and giving the souls to Cade, you’re his butchers.

27. “Two of history’s most prolific killers.” LOL WHAT? People have committed GENOCIDES, TVD.

30. “I raised them” they’re THREE. And on the real, it didn’t look like or feel like you were dying when the twins were gone, Caroline.

33. “I gave Damon what he promised me an eternity of misery” HOW THO? Damon’s BEEN spending his immortal life killing people, like how is it any different that he and Stefan are doing it for a purpose now? Jfc. Also legit, guys, y’all are immortal, vampires, you’re never going to hell, the paranoia surrounding this place is ridiculous especially since they have both died as vampires and haven’t gone to Cade’s hell dimension each time.

35. Lmao why is this ending with Alaric killing Damon as if Damon is actually dead? We know he isn’t! Stefan just told us they’ll live forever serving Cade and we already know he and Sybil crash Steroline’s Christmas. LIKE? THIS ISN’T SHOCKING.

8x07:

13. “If Elena was here Damon wouldn’t be doing any of this?” Are we forgetting that he systematically killed Whitmores while they were together, that he kidnapped her brother and had Enzo suffocate him, that he killed Aaron … that a lot of the destruction Damon caused to the group was in Elena’s name? Damon didn’t change for Elena, I need the show to let that one GO.

15. There is weird tension between Caroline and Damon and it makes me uncomfortable.

18. “I know there is a future you that’s going to ask for my forgiveness one day” like when he asked for forgiveness for raping and physically and emotionally abusing you, Caroline? Oh right, that never happened.

23. Cade is basically Klaus trying to get Stefan go Dark Side. THIS IS THE EXACT CONVERSATION HE HAD WITH KLAUS.

8x08:

5. I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY NO ONE IS TRYING TO FIND LOOPHOLES AGAINST CADE. Caroline is just “cool, Stefan, go and be evil with the devil” WHAT?

15. It’s really annoying and in bad taste that the show is discussing how the Founding Families didn’t found Mystic Falls because other people were there first (witches) and we’re just ignoring the fact that there would’ve been Indigenous nations. I also like how we’re talking about history but we wouldn’t talk about enslavement even though MF is in fucking Virginia.

22. Are we really fucking doing this? Matt’s dad is angry at the Founding families because they were rich and ran the town while his family were skilled traders and looked down upon as such when Bonnie’s fucking ancestor was enslaved to Katherine??? WHEN THERE WERE ENSLAVED PEOPLES IN THIS TOWN? Matt’s dad gets a rant but we’re not talking about the racist history? Why am I even surprised by this?

8x09: 

17. Oh my GOD, we’re only 20 minutes in?

20. Why are we acting like Damon’s humanity will crush him? He was fine with killing Lexi, turning Vicki, killing Jeremy, killing Aaron, kidnapping Jeremy, trying to kill Caroline, raping and abusing Caroline, etc. Like why wouldn’t he be fine with this? Elena won’t care.

21. Why do they keep saying Matt is stupid? How is Alaric any smarter? A fucking siren was his nanny for months.

8x11:

1. So I don’t remember if this is from 8x09 or 8x10 when Sybil explains that opening the door from Cade’s world into this world will destroy everyone in this world but that is literally Buffy season 5.  Glory is a hell goddess who wants the key back into her dimension but if the key (who is Buffy’s sister) opens her world then the dimensions will bleed together and reality will cease to exist. LIKE??? Does Julie even know what an original thought is?

11. “Look at Damon, humanity on and he’s a new person!” HE IS EXACTLY THE SAME. DAMON ALWAYS REMAINS EXACTLY THE SAME. MAGNUM IS THE SAME LOOK AS BLUE STEEL. OH MY FUCKING GOD.

13. So Matt can say that it’s still Stefan who tried to get him to destroy the entire town but he can say that Damon turning and effectively killing Vicki is a long time ago, him murdering Tyler wasn’t him. OK true. Not transparent at all TVD.

18. Why is Damon giving him pancakes and not blood? Is Stefan not a vampire? Is he drying Stefan out? What’s the point of this?

21. Oh my God, I am literally only 10 minutes in.

38. 21 minutes and 41 seconds.

42. Talking talking talking talking

43. This is the final season though?

52. I don’t care for Bonenzo but seriously Julie taking away Bonnie’s happiness at every turn is a blatant hatred of her character, I don’t give a shit if she says she gets an unexpected happy ending, the unexpected happy ending will probably be her and Enzo reunited in death or something.

8x13:

1. Seriously, Cade seems like a really petty devil though. “Kill 100 people or your brother’s girl” like … why? Don’t you have some world domination plans going on or…? Like why the interest in Stefan and Damon, what about either of them are particularly special to the devil? It doesn’t make sense to me. At least with Supernatural, everything from season 1 was leading up to Dean and Sam being vessels for Michael and Lucifer, like every season, every plot point fed into that so it made sense, this is just fucking random.

2. I’m legit taking this opportunity to tell people to watch Goblin because it is so much more intriguing than whatever the hell TVD has become. You can watch it on: Drama Fever, Box Asian, Drama 4 U Viki, like so many sites, guys. I mean, I’m just saying, if you want a show that’ll make you cry and keep you in suspense and make you fall in love with characters then that’s it.

5. “Stefan, thank God” sound even less enthused, Caroline.

9. “I don’t think this is just colonial bling” did they seriously make Dorian say that? UGH. Also who says bling anymore? Are we in the early 00s?

11. Why is Damon acting like he didn’t kill Tyler? I find this actually unbelievably fascinating. He can stand there and lecture Caroline about how Bonnie wouldn’t answer her calls when he killed Tyler who was supposed to be Caroline’s first love and her childhood friend? LIKE THIS WRITING. 

12. I don’t understand this, Stefan is human so he can’t be immortal anymore and therefore is out of the contract so Cade will kill him? Can’t he just make Stefan an immortal human? Like why does he have to be a vampire? He can kill people without biting them, there’s always good old fashioned weaponry. Like what powers does Cade actually have?

20. Like there are no side effects to turning human? You’re just human and that’s it. You don’t feel slower, weaker, you can just operate normally?

25. Lol Caroline and Stefan are so bad at being together.

31. “Sirened to ring the bell” it’s just compulsion.

40. And seriously he’s not even going to STAY with her? The supposed love of her life died and no one is going to just BE with her? Remember when I said she would grieve alone?

8x14:

2. I think it’s funny that Cade is talking about how Damon is in limbo, “the space between spaces” because my guy, that is JUST the Other Side.

3. No, see, the entire plot line with Cade and the Salvatores irritates me because it’s so conveniently linked to Damon and Stefan. He is the devil or the devil’s right hand man (since Katherine is the Queen of Hell for some reason, right?) I don’t understand why he can’t just find the weapon himself or get someone else to do it for him, there’s no reason that it has to be Damon and it’s the problem when a villain keeps making threats “Or I’ll drag you back to hell”, so then do it. At least with Supernatural when Zachariah wanted Dean to do something and Dean was like nah, Zachariah was like OK so what if I give Sam stage 4 stomach cancer? Or hey, how about if I take away his lungs? And we see him inflict these tortures on Sam while Dean watches. Or Dean starts off the season coming out of hell and we get flashbacks to what hell was like for him and we find out how much it fucked him up so when Uriel and Castiel threaten to throw him back into hell, it’s an actual real threat because we’ve seen the effects and why he would be scared. This whole thing with Damon is like … every time Cade says he’ll send Damon to hell I’m like motherfucker, no you’re not or you would’ve DONE did it by now, stop.

5. Bonnie being able to see Enzo is like Jeremy being able to see Bonnie and Elena hallucinating Damon. I’m bored.

14. Also where are the twins if neither she nor Alaric are watching them in this scene? Like if they’re setting shit on fire because of temper tantrums and are literally prone to blowing each other up now, I would be around them all the time.

17. I like how Stefan has, like, an actual plan to kill Cade but if you’re going to kill him, will you not slash his arm and punch him and make witty remarks, can you just stab him?

18. Because you see what happens, Alaric’s cell phone rings and he stops ringing the all important bell.

24. *SPOILERS FOR OUTLANDER* So there’s this show/book called Outlander about many things but at the centre of it, there’s a love story between Jamie and Claire and throughout the series, Jamie makes these declarations of love to Claire and says he’ll do anything for her, that he’ll be her shield, he’ll die for her etc. and there’s this villain called Jack Randall who is a sexual sadist and he has a particular interest in Jamie who he nearly flogged to death years earlier, basically Randall gets a hold of Claire and is going to kill her in front of Jamie so Jamie offers up his body to Randall in exchange for Claire’s safety and in that scene Randall nails Jamie’s hand to a table and kisses him while Claire has to watch and then Claire is forced to leave Randall and Jamie alone and in the next part we basically see the rape and torture that Randall inflicts on Jamie over and over. A lot of people had issues with that and asked the author why she felt the need to show the brutal rape of Jamie and her response was this:

“So, OK.  Throughout the book, we’ve seen that love has a real cost.  Jamie and Claire have built a relationship through honest struggle, a relationship that’s _worth_ what it’s cost them.  This is the final challenge, and Jamie’s willing to pay what will apparently be the ultimate cost.

  Why would I throw that away?  To have him escape rape and torture (he–and we–_know_ what’s coming) by the skin of his teeth would be to undercut his sacrifice, to make it of little moment.  (It would be like someone turning up in Gethsemane and telling Christ, “Hey, buddy, you don’t _really_ have to do this.  Come with me, I got a secret way outta here…”)”

And this is what TVD fails to do with DE. It’s one thing for Damon to be willing to go to hell for both Stefan and Elena but Bonnie shows up and actually saves him from having to undergo that threat and it undercuts his sacrifice because he didn’t actually have to sacrifice anything, he just had to be willing and it’s not impactful. So I’m not even a little moved by what Damon did because he didn’t do anything first of all, second of all after everything he’s done throughout 8 seasons why wouldn’t he choose himself, I mean, it’s the least he can do.

25. “Bonnie, wake up”, Stefan can you check her pulse?

26. “That little psychic blast must’ve blew me into my body” that literally makes no sense.

27. Damon and Stefan sitting on Damon’s car, drinking is basically just Sam and Dean. Stop it.

29. “Someone who can create a safe, supportive and loving space for kids … someone like you” is that Caroline, though? I’m sorry but she doesn’t seem like any of those  things to Josie and Lizzie, she’s shrill and just tells them to stop doing things, like I don’t know why she didn’t actually ask Josie and Lizzie how they felt when their magic was going haywire, like we don’t actually see her BE with them, she just scolds.

33. Finally, what anons kept asking me about, Katherine Pierce being the Queen of hell. I am going to admit something, I think the show and the characters gas Katherine way too much, she isn’t the baddest bitch of all, I don’t think the characters are toast because she’s running hell, I don’t even think she deserves to run Hell, she’s petty, it’s not like she has master plans that completely destroy lives, she just makes things inconvenient for the core group like *ugh* I mean I guess I gotta go fix Elena because she has venom in her system, like what were the major consequences of what she did in 5x15 to Elena? Elena didn’t see Damon for an entire episode and couldn’t sleep with him immediately. Getting Jenna to stab herself was rude but the major consequence of that is Stefan and Elena breaking up. She outted the Klaroline sex and it just fractured an already fractured relationship with Tyler. The worst thing she did was cause Jeremy’s death and that wasn’t even intentional, it was just like oh well … yeah, my bad, bye. Like she’s a mean girl on steroids, that’s kind of it, she isn’t like this Badass Villain that no one can top and OMG SHE RUNS HELL. I mean Rebekah caused just as much damage as Katherine did because they’re both petty.

8x15:

2. I like how opening the door to Cade’s world will only destroy everything for “miles”, like that’s such a small scale, shouldn’t it be the end of the world if the devil is walking among us? Or is he not the devil, is Katherine the devil? I’m confused about the Hell hierarchy, you see.

5. Sorry, pausing because my cat is being extremely affectionate and I would rather play with her for a little than watch what trash this episode is going to be.

6. But now she’s on my keyboard. It’s like she’s trying to spare me.

14. “That was a lifetime ago, things have changed since then” that should just replace the title of TVD. “Didn’t Damon kill your sister?” “That was a long time ago.” “Didn’t Damon kill your brother” “That was a long time ago.” And now apparently abandoning your family because of man pain and cowardice and immaturity is “a lifetime ago” too but oh no, Stefan was a ripper a literal century ago and we need to harp on it forever.

16. Why would Dorian agreeing to help them on how to get rid of the “Queen of Hell” be misconstrued as him being “cool” with Stefan though? Isn’t getting rid of someone who is supposed to be the devil Plus be in everyone’s best interest? Like whatever, it was just another chance to take a shot at Stefan. Transparent as fuck.

21. I mean, I don’t blame Bonnie for hating Stefan but Damon was responsible for killing Jeremy and kidnapping Jeremy, Enzo was responsible for suffocating Jeremy and she’s cool with both of them, hell she fell in love with one of them so I’m just like girl, I guess. The writers are ridiculous because it just feels like they don’t know the web they’ve created with these characters and understand that they’ve turned pretty much everyone into a hyprocrite. 

24. I don’t even know why Damon needs to tell Stefan that what happened to Enzo will haunt him like Stefan isn’t new to guilt. Why are they making it seem like this is Stefan’s first rodeo?

37. “I hope I get to see this one day with you and Elena” lol the FLATTEST delivery ever. Like do you even mean it? Do you REALLY? Think hard, Stefan.

54. LMFAO SO WHO ISN’T IN HELL? Vicki was in hell, Kelly was in hell, so like ERRBODY GOES TO HELL THEN? WHAT CRITERIA IS THERE? Like if I run a stop light do I go to hell because it’s against the law? What if I jaywalk or accidentally step on an ant or something? BECAUSE SERIOUSLY.

55. STEFAN WHY DON’T YOU EVER CHECK ANYONE’S PULSE?

and you already saw my thoughts on 8x16