first sine of madness

Stefanie had decided to take her lunch break a bit later than usual and seemed surprised to find her brother looking upset. She was never the type to wanna see people upset, especially family. “Yes, what’s going on?” She asked, skipping her own order and going to sit at the table with him. “Who do I need to have a talk with?” She inquired, her sisterly instinct kicking in.

“You do realize you’re tiny right? I don’t think having a talk with anyone is going to come off as intimidating.” He teased, knowing full well he wasn’t exactly the tallest either, but still taller than her. “But seriously no-one, was just meant to meet a colleague, I’d rather be at home honestly. Not showing up is doing me a favor.”  

“The amount of patience I have for people on this island surprises me.” Rebekah threw herself into a chair at a bar, throwing one leg over the other. “Honestly, the slightest tone or hint of disrespect, I’d have them swallowing their teeth. I suppose we should call walking away character development.” It’s been a long day, dealing with petty women who decided to start fights with their doting husbands over literally nothing in her five star restaurant, throwing plates of food as if it was a middle school food fight. “I need a drink, or two. Hell maybe even several.” @eternalstarter​

Blinking as he heard someone speak, he glanced up from his own drink. Wry smile on his face, he stayed silent as she spoke. “Sounds like you had a great day.”

harry salvatore –– open starter ( @eternalstarter​ )

“you’re staring.” harry stated softly as he picked up his whiskey, taking a sip before turning his head towards the person who’s eyes he’d felt burning holes into him. “did you want me to buy you a drink or is it something else?”

Walking into the bar, just in time to see the girl he was addressing blush and walk away, he shook his head walking over to his cousin. “Think she might have been on the shy side, but I’ll take their drink since you so kindly offered.” He joked, getting out his wallet to pay for his own drink waiting for the bartender to come over.

Lizzie had given herself the day off, and she was in desperate need of it. Whilst she certainly had time to plan the wedding, there was a lot to get done, and considering Lizzie had been planning her dream wedding since she was six, everything had to be perfect. Entering the Purple Mermaid for a much needed break, the blonde clutched her to-do-list to her chest as she sat on the stool at the bar. “Do you know there are almost 500 shades of white?” she said to the person next to her. “White. How am I supposed to pick one?”

@eternalstarter

“Isn’t white just... White? Pick a dress you like and nobody is going to notice what shade it is?”  Which felt like the wrong thing to say, but he honestly wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, white was white. It wasn’t as if it was drastic shade differences.

“I spent my weekdays doing nothing instead of work,” Lydia admitted, flashing a grin as she laughed. In all honesty, she’d been a nightmare student, and that was putting it gently. Nodding, she disappeared out the back, grabbing her things and shoving them into her bag. She hesitated on the grimoire, before placing it back on a shelf, making a mental note to grab it later on. Returning, she slung the bag over her shoulder. “Alright, I’m ready if you are.”

Tsking, he shook his head. “And here I was thinking I could like you.” He sighed gravely, though it didn’t take much to know that there were a lot of people who would have been in her shoes. He probably would have been, if he didn’t think getting the work out of the way was better than knowing you had to do it later. Shifting his weight while he was waiting he looked up when he heard her voice. “First round is on me I think, a thank you for helping with the gift. Pretty sure it would have been money in a card otherwise.” 

Considering it, she eventually nodded, “Actually, yeah, you’re right. I had a passionate hatred for my English teacher in high school, and I wasn’t overly fond of any of my other teachers,” she laughed. Lydia had never been an academic, and she’d spent most of her high school years ditching class, or making funny remarks in order to make her classmates laugh. She wasn’t exactly loved by her teachers. “Oh, great,” she said, and then stood there for a moment like she wasn’t sure what to do. Jolting, she gestured to the back office, a sheepish grin on her face. “I’ll just grab my bag.”

“Exactly! My high school math teacher was my least favorite person on the planet, despite liking the subject. I wanted to spend my weekends doing nothing not work, and they took that away.” Usually he’d feel too embarrassed to keep a joke going that long, but if someone was willing to go along with it, then he saw no reason to end it. It beat coming up with a more ‘acceptable’ topic. Nodding, he offered her a tight smile back. “Take your time.” It was the polite thing to say, or at least he thought so .

“If people could do that, there wouldn’t have been a single war in all of history,” Caroline pointed out. “Some people just like power, no matter the cost.” She chuckled. “Well they did tell me i wouldn’t be a good vampire and look at me now.”

“Some people are determined to be as moronic as possible,for the idea of power. You think at some point people would learn from the mistakes of the past, but alas, we seemed doomed to deal with power hungry people.” He finished, leaning back in his chair, hoping the minor dramatics gave away the fact it was a joke. “Sounds exactly like what a vampire wants to hear. Who doesn’t want to hear they won’t be good at something they’re stuck with?” 

“nope, i will never ever ever change my name to petra or even naming my child that,” she shook her head in amusement at her cousin before laughing as bayley agreed with his words, “i’m very happy. he treats me amazingly.”

“It seems like a lesson that people have to learn on their own,” she admitted. “That no matter how much magic or power you have, you can’t fight everything.” Caroline laughed. “Never. I very much like to prove people wrong.” 

“Too bad people can’t just use common sense to work it out, save the world a lot of time and pain.” Though he could have been biased, but wanting to rule anything never seemed to work out well for the people involved. “Sounds like people don’t want to get on your bad side.” 

“Hey, I’m sure you’re totally popular among…all the other math geeks,” Lydia said with a grin, clearly amused. “I know, right? I told them it reminded me of them, but that only made things worse,” she laughed. “You know, I’m sure your statement will really knock some sense into them,” she mused, smirking. Glancing at the clock, she realised it was almost time for her to knock off, and whilst she knew she had a ton of stuff to do at home, she impulsively said, “Hey, did you want to grab a drink or something? I clock off in a minute. Totally cool if you don’t want to. I mean, with your Math thing, I’m sure you’re super busy, and maybe you’re not even thirsty, and- now, I’m talking to much. Sorry.”

“Nobody ever likes the person who makes them do work. Teach a class, and it’s immediate hatred.” He added on, smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. There were some people that hated professors on principle, but there were a couple of students who seemed to want to volunteer to do more work, and would come to talk through certain theories that weren’t on the curriculum but that they thought were interesting. Laughing softly as she started rambling, he gave a curt nod. “I can make time for a drink, I’m sure math won’t be too mad. We can take a break for a night.” 

“I can imagine people aren’t always to thrilled,” Lydia laughed. Whilst she had a strong interest in History, she’d barely paid attention to any of her subjects in high school, and the idea of teaching math for a living seemed like the least appealing thing on earth. “Some of my cousins would disagree,” she mused. “Seems like not everyone likes being gifted the shrunken skull of an ancient voodoo witch,” she said, faking a dramatic sigh. Grinning, she nodded her head in agreement. “You know what? I just might.”

“It’s a good thing I never strived to be popular, or I seriously messed up picking my career.” At least she seemed to be going along with the dry jokes, that he happened to like. It wasn’t as though as he’d ever been skilled at actual humour, dry and sarcastic was all he had. Shaking his head gravely, he gave an exaggerated sigh. “Some people are just the most ungrateful, whatever happened to it’s the thought that counts? People these days....” He trailed off, fully admitting it was a weird joke to make but it was out there now. “I’ll write you a statement to back you up, say that it’s simply unfair for a bank account to hate you. You only spend money so it can feel like it’s getting attention.”

“what’s the feminine version of peter? petra? yeah, no. not a fan of being called that,” she shook her head slightly in amusement before letting out a small laugh at chris’ reaction, “i am expecting a little more silence and shock from my dad when he hears the news. twelve weeks.”

“I mean yes, my kids have more power than anyone else in the world but I’m not exactly looking to have that kind of power,” she admitted. “As it turns out power doesn’t make everything better.” Caroline chuckled. “I tend to be the kind of person that drives in twice as deep when someone tries to do something to stop me.”

“That seems like a lesson some people need to learn. Power can make people do crazy things.” He was sure at that point they’d all been lucky that nobody had tried to become powerful enough to out-power anyone else on the island. “So you’re saying people shouldn’t tell you that you can’t do something?”

“I couldn’t even tell you what ‘complex variables’ means,” Lydia said before laughing. “No, I’m perfectly happy amongst the weird and the occult,” she told him. “Ah, those pesky bank accounts. Mine hates me, unfortunately.”

“I’ll take not knowing over the groans some people give when they hear it.” He joked. Not that he could blame them, it wasn’t his favorite branch of math, but it was a basic needed for the branches he did like, which made it a necessary evil. “Who doesn’t love the weird? I’d take weird over the same as everyone else. Or I would if I bothered decorating, don’t have the best taste so I figured keeping it minimal was wise. How rude of your bank account not to like you, you should complain about the hate to the bank.”

“I can handle them,” Lydia said with a laugh, shaking her head in amusement. “I get that. Quirky and unique objects are sort of my thing,” she said. “Hence this job. There’s no job quite like this where I get to look over weird and wacky objects every day,” she laughed. “Miserable? Now that’s no good.”

“So you wouldn’t want to swap and spend your days teaching people about complex variables?” It was boring work to most, but he’d always loved it. Everyone had their own thing, and he’d always stood by the idea life would be duller if everyone liked the same thing. “Funny, my back account thinks it’s a great thing.”

“only as grown up as peter pan,” her words were joking; clearly, she was a lot more mature than the fictional character living in neverland but they did have mermaids and lived on an island. bayley bit her bottom lip as she cradled her stomach, “just a small little reason. surprise!”

“Should I start calling you Peter from now on? Cause I don’t think it has the right ring to it.” Watching his cousin, ‘surprise’ seemed fitting for what followed. “Yep, that counts as a surprise.” It didn’t add anything, but it was the one thing he seemed capable of processing. “How far along are you?”