#promptmio5

Her professors were relatively young. Technomagic as a practice in America was still new, so it was no surprise that her professors hadn’t even hit thirty yet. While she learned a lot from them, they were never interested in mentoring her personally. They had a preference for the fire students in the class, the ones who were able to manipulate electricity and go the extra mile with technomagic. Despite Morgan being the top in grades, when it came to the vision of technomagic, her professors couldn’t see her as a pioneer. An Unclaimed being innovative in the field? Please. None of them gave her a chance.

But Morgan didn’t let that hold her back. She took it upon herself to learn what she could outside of the classroom. She built her own gadgets -- sometimes getting in trouble with the administration when they would go haywire and make a mess. She’d been threatened with expulsion more than once. Her professors didn’t bother to back her up either. They simply told her to stop her little hobby. But Morgan never listened.

Somehow she graduated, but she didn’t go to grad school. Not because she didn’t want to, but because RIAP refused to accept her into the graduate program. She didn’t have the recommendations needed, and she wasn’t very popular with the administration. Fine, she didn’t need any more teaching anyway.

She went back home to San Francisco to figure out her next move. She decided to take a job up with the Commonfolk in the mean time, as some programmer in a start-up company. The work was a cake walk. She was done with codes in seconds. Her peers were amazed at her skills. How did she do it? Morgan wouldn’t say. The mystery made her desirable. And she thrived off it. She began to create new programs, using her magic to develop them in a way Commonfolk couldn’t explain. She didn’t stop there. Soon enough, she became the head programmer. Then the head of the actual company. She developed a new operating system that challenged Microsoft and Apple. Yet no one could explain how the operating system was created.

By the time she turned twenty-eight, she was a billionaire. Her ambition evolved into impenetrable hubris. She was technomagic. All the Commonfolk in her company were long cast out as she brought in technomages to operate it and help grow it into the superpower it was today. A witch-run tech company that was public to Commonfolk -- it had never been done before. And it only inflated Morgan’s ego further. Who else could so flawlessly include both worlds and not get caught? No one.

She had no loyalties to anyone except her family. She became too absorbed in her work to make long-lasting friends. The closest to a friend she made was partnerships with other companies. A signed contract equalled friendship. She didn’t meet the friends she had in another life, a more humble life. There was no one to anchor her, to keep her from falling deeper into the dark pit of hubris.

Some hunter attack happened at her sister’s alma mater, Ashland University, which was a shame. But other than comforting Cammie about it she didn’t think on it much. The current hunter issue didn’t affect her world.

One day she received an email from the pioneer himself, Marcus Ridley. A warning that she was getting in over her head. That being this public was dangerous. Morgan replied:

Marcus,

While I’m aware of your impact in the technomagic field and have high respect for you, I have to disagree with your thoughts on my success. I worked hard to get where I am. And I’ve done so with care. If you’re worried about a pack of hunters randomly barging into my home and killing me, as funny as it is I very much doubt it’ll happen when they can’t even prove that I’m a witch. I appreciate the concern but please leave my life to me.

Best regards,

Morgan Drake, CEO of MorTech

Why would she listen to some washed up technomage’s warning? It wasn’t her fault he was too cowardly to go where she had gone. Everything was fine. Morgan had everything under control. She always had everything under control.

Until one day she didn’t.

She was in her penthouse, ready for bed. As she entered her bedroom, two men in black suddenly appeared from the corner and grabbed her. She felt something sharp in her neck, and soon everything was black.

When she awoke, she found herself in a hunter base. She was tortured into agreeing to work with them. She only had one request -- spare her family. The hunters agreed, though they had no intention of keeping that promise. Through her company, they got information on most of the witches in the country, including schools and communities and most around the world. She was forced to build tech that would give them another advantage over the witches. With Morgan’s help, witches went nearly extinct over the course of a few years.

November 2016:

Thanksgiving was always a production in the Ryback family. There was so much food that a food coma was an understatement, the kitchen staff helped, but the family liked to get their hands dirty cooking their own holiday meals unless it was a larger gathering. Nina found herself in the kitchen, her phone in hand, texting Hayden and hoping that she was having an okay holiday. There was no way that she could have invited her home, not when the girl was a mixed blood and she had recently gotten into trouble for attending unclaimed pride. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her. She had listened to Oliver and gone against her own better judgement. After bidding on her roommate, she left shortly after.

She was also texting Isaac. He was her reason for being in the kitchen. Somehow, she’d forged a friendship and feelings for the nerdy water guy on the Dueling team. These were feelings she would deny until the ends of her days. She would indulge secretly in talking to him, hanging out with him, but it would end there. Her family turned a blind eye to consorting with mixed bloods, but what they would never condone was dating one. She knew that. As soon as she heard her grandmother’s voice, heading into the kitchen, put her phone into her pocket, pretending that she was checking on the potato salad.

That was when she heard it, they heard it. It was a noise, an almost scream that was cut off before any sound could truly come out. The two rushed back into the family room to see that three of her family members had been murdered. That night had been the first night that Nina had ever seen her grandmother, Evelyn, cry but she knew that once the tears ended, the world would burn at Evelyn’s hands.

Present Day

Nina was short on family, but she still had Evelyn Ryback. The woman groomed her into the perfect mold of who she wanted her to be. Nina was, after all, set to take on the family businesses one day. She needed to be ready, and according to Evelyn, she needed to get started on what was important, furthering the bloodline, finding herself a nice pureblood guy and figuring out her life. She needed to be stronger, more ruthless as per what Evelyn had said. Nina wasn’t too worried about being betrothed, but she did want to get stronger.

She spent her weekends off campus, with her grandmother. Today, she was tasked with speaking with a threat to the company, a rivaling apothecary shop. She grinned at him at dinner, allowed him to schmooze her, and he didn’t know that she was a Ryback. Didn’t know that she was a part of the company he was trying to destroy, but she did know he liked his ladies young, which was why Evelyn made her the woman for this job.

As they sat, talking pleasantly, Nina began to shift his breath. She manipulated his breath so that it was merely a ball in his throat and he began to choke. “Oh my god! He’s choking! Someone help me!” she screamed, flailing about as if she were some helpless woman. She claimed to be a dinner date that didn’t know this man and when he keeled over, she slipped away from the scene with a smile on her face. The way the light left his eyes as he took his last breath was practically an orgasmic sight to her. It was her favorite part of ending someone. Having someone’s life in her hands, holding them suspended on the cusp of death was damn near arousing to her. 

She pulled out her phone when she was out of the restaurant. “Grandma Evie, it’s done. He’ll no longer be a problem anymore.” That was what Nina did now, she destroyed every obstacle in her way. If someone didn’t give her what she wanted, she took it or she killed them. If they dared stand in her way, she’d end them without qualms.

“You make me proud. That’s what we have to do with threats to our company, and our livelihood. We eliminate them,” her grandmother praised.

Nina made her way back to campus shortly after. Feeling as if she truly could rule the world one day with the mindset of destroying anyone in her way. As she walked back to her dorm, she smiled confidently as people parted from the side walk when she walked by. She instilled fear in so many people and she loved it. The only time her step faltered was when she saw Isaac. She was on a public side walk, she wasn’t going to speak to him here. His hand lifted to wave, but she averted her gaze, strutting by.

Hardly of them held any ounce of real interest in the subject. His hopes had been high when he and some good friends brought technomagic to schools. Many, then, took technomagic as it seemed like an easy subject. It was a subject that was only recently established, it barely stood on its own legs. Marcus was there to try and solidify it. His efforts were going to waste. 

The day after, class was eerily silent. Students aware of when they haven’t given it their all and this class was especially guilty. Marcus passed solemn faces as he dropped their papers to their desks each with a neat red ‘F’ on them. Uninspired, disappointing, predictable.

Even his most promising student, Morgan, did not meet his standards this time. He was particularly discouraged by her efforts, he had been looking for someone to be his protege but it appears as though she had lost interest in the subject- her potential wasted. He had overlooked the fact that she was unclaimed, all he truly cared about was her talent in the subject he loved. Alas, no one took this subject seriously. No one wanted to be a part of it. 

A creation that he made that was not a success. By all means not the first time but the most disheartening of them all. 

“Marcus, when are you coming home tonight?”

“I’ll be staying late.”

“Again? I hardly see you anymore, please come home. We need to talk.”

“...”

After the divorce, Marcus hardly left work. He disliked talking to colleagues. Most of them too prying, chipper and sceptical of his work. Harpies. Even Marcus himself began to lose interest in technomagic, after all what was the point? His usual clutter was left to rust and grow dusty on his desk as he indulged in other lesser interests, usually food or film related. Nights of exploring the inner workings of discarded tech were replaced by red wine and Tarantino. 

Her mum had passed away shortly after the girl was born, and her dad had always told his youngest (who looked an awful lot like her mother) just how wonderful the woman was. It seemed like a given, growing up, that Jenna would do the same as everyone in her family. So many Sparrows had been fine healers, and it had apparently been so easy for her mother to assimilate into the family. Jenna always heard her extended family at events murmuring about what a shame it was to lose such a good young wife in her prime. It had fallen to her dad to raise three kids right. Looking back, Jenna would say he did a good job.

Jenna was discouraged for a time, growing up. Other children could be mean, and the good-intentioned girl with the stutter spent a fair amount of time crying throughout primary school. Once she headed into adolescence, she realized that a crybaby was only passably cute as a small kid. So Jenna tried to toughen up, started to stick up for herself more. It was hard for anybody to take Jenna seriously when she could hardly take herself seriously.

Eventually, it came time to go to university. Jenna entered YSAW for her first year, fully intent on majoring in Medical Magic like the majority of her family. She had showed some aptitude for her element, but so did plenty of her classmates. They were in England; many a good earth witch came from the place. Surely she would crash and burn if she tried to live up to everyone’s expectations.

So she never tried to live up to those. Her grades were nice- she’d majored in Psionics, which her family always said sounded like a waste when she was capable of so much more. Why had she majored in psionics, anyway? It had been such an impulsive decision, but it had seemed the most people-oriented major that did not feel like medical magic in the least.

After graduation her girlfriend of three years (it had started off casual, and Jenna kept thinking they should break it off, although she never did) encouraged her to try working in therapy, since she obviously cared so much about everyone’s well-being. Jenna gave up on arguing about it, and worked underneath an aging therapist looking for a protege.

Kelsey rubbed at her eyes, stifling a yawn. She picked up her mug, eager for the little burst of energy that would come with a few extra gulps of her coffee- only to frown in disappointment when she realized there was far less left in the cup than she’d thought. With a sigh, she pushed the mug aside, and attempted to refocus on her essay. It was okay, she decided as she reviewed what she’d written, but not great. Exhausted from work however, she realized there wasn’t much she could do about it- even if she was coherent enough to fix up what she’d written, the task would likely keep her up far too late. It was pushing on midnight already, and she had to be up at 4 for her shift at the coffee shop.

It was times like these that the sophomore wished she’d put just a little more effort into her performance in high school- missing the GPA cutoff for scholarships had translated to countless hours working for minimum wage at a coffee shop just off campus just to make ends meet. She’d considered switching to tutoring now that she was in her second year of university, only to find that her handle on the previous year’s material wasn’t quite strong enough for her to be able to effectively teach it to others- an effect of too little sleep, too little time spent hitting the books, and too many hours worked at the damn coffee shop, she was sure.

Cameron had been a happy student. She was the president of the Unclaimed United, she was in the Potions Club, and generally, she simply loved life. When the summer before senior year rolled around, she got her element. At first, there was panic, but her family and friends assured her that she could and would learn to control her element.

It was her decision rather than anyone else’s for her to step down from her leadership in the Unclaimed United. She stayed a member, but she would rather the position go to an actual unclaimed student since she wasn’t one anymore. With her friends’ encouragement, she sought out water students to ask for help. She sought out professors, and she began learning control of her element.

Cameron fell in love with it. She still had a lot to learn, and she was curious and wanted to find out everything she could about her element. She took on an extra year to major in Elementalism. Once she finished her year, she went on to become a warden. Truly living out her dream.

From the moment Lauren was born, she was the golden child. She was given everything she ever wanted and nothing less. She was completely spoiled to make up for the fact that her parents were trying their hardest to shape her into being exactly what they wanted her to be. They didn’t care that she was a complete and utter brat, as long as she did what they wanted her to do. 

The brattiness carried over into her school-aged years, where the term ‘brat’ was taken over by ‘bitch.’ She wasn’t nice, nothing made her happy, and her parents didn’t really seem to care about any of that. They only cared about forcing their light views upon her, no matter what element she ended up with. But she would fight them on anything and everything. It was her way or the highway, so there was always some kind of compromise that happened between the three of them that usually involved Lauren getting her way and her convincing her parents she’d do as they said.

It wasn’t until the summer before she was a freshman in high school during a brutal fight between the three of them about Lauren wanting her freedom that she learned of her mother’s miscarriage three years before she was born. Of the sibling, or maybe even siblings, that she would never know. This was the reason behind their overprotectiveness and babying of her and it changed her entire mindset; it made her want to be better. To make them proud of her because she was their only kid and, as they had said, they were lucky to have her. 

So she would ignore her pride and her desires in order to be exactly the daughter that they wanted her to be. She would work hard to become an incredible water witch like her mother and to be the best in her class at school--a private school, because that’s what they had wanted. She stopped arguing with them. She stopped wanting them to give her things in order for her to do what they wanted her to do. She just did it. 

Yet she felt like she was suffocating trying to be their ideal daughter instead of who she always had been. She couldn’t talk to friends about it, because hey, she was an only child, and that was way more fun than having any annoying siblings. But Lauren wanted a sibling. She wanted someone to look up to, so she could make sure she was doing everything right and that she wasn’t letting her parents down. She wanted someone who she could complain about her parents to, and tell them how she felt like she was suffocating in that house every single day. Someone who would understand that she loved her parents more than anything, but she just needed space to breathe.

She aligned with the Light because that’s what they wanted, even though she may have wanted something different. She joined a few sports and school clubs because that’s what they wanted. She got a job every single summer. She had loads of friends. She was one of the top students in her class. She got accepted to RIAP on a scholarship. She was doing fine, but what did that word really mean? It was just filling in the blank left by her not being able to express how she really felt. It was a word people used when they knew the other person didn’t really care how they felt, or when they couldn’t even begin to explain how they really felt. Or they just didn’t want to. So she was just fine, but she wasn’t happy.

She hated the insecurities that were popping up now as she decided to let them mold her into whatever they wanted her to be. Was she actually good enough to be the top of her class? She had friends, but her relationships with them only ever felt surface-level. Did they remember what she was like before? Did they judge her for doing everything her parents said? Could they tell how much she was holding back? Whenever the dam holding these questions back broke and flooded her mind, she felt like her head was spinning and that there wasn’t enough air in the world to fill her lungs. 

Did everyone feel like this? Like they were constantly disappointed with life no matter their success? She wasn’t sure if she was just being ungrateful for all of the opportunities life threw at her, like she had been as a spoiled and ungrateful child, but nothing she did made her happy. Even the smiles of her parents that once filled her with pride and joy started to make her feel guilty, made her feel like she was suffocating even more. And there were times where she would just lay in her bed and try to remind herself how to breathe through all of the pressure that was squeezing her lungs and crushing her chest. 

She didn’t want to go to RIAP, but she didn’t want to stay in Michigan. Either way she knew she wouldn’t be happy. Either way she chose, she couldn’t win. She could already picture the disappointment radiating off of her parents if she decided to take a gap year to figure her life out, because a gap year wasn’t in the plan for their perfect daughter. 

One night as she sat beside the open window of her bedroom, letting the air flood in and surround her to help her breathe, she wished she didn’t have to be like this. She wished it could have been someone else. Someone who was stronger than her that could actually handle the pressure that their parents put on them. Someone smarter that wouldn’t have had to work as hard as her, or who actually liked sports that wouldn’t feel like they had to force themselves out of bed every single day knowing that practice was waiting for them that afternoon. Because she wasn’t as strong or as bright as they wanted her to be, and she didn’t think she ever would be.

What would it be like to be the second best in her parents’ eyes? Would she be happier that way, or would she still worry that she wasn’t enough? Or would she just be fine? 

Because she was fine now, but there was always something missing. And it usually physicalized in the form of the missing air from her lungs. 

She only spent a month at RIAP before she couldn’t take it anymore. There was nothing tying her there. It wasn’t that she didn’t like it; she’d met enough people that she liked who, in different circumstances, might have made her want to stay. But finally being free from her parents’ watchful eyes was a sensation she was becoming a little too accustomed to, and she was starting to revert back into her old self where it was her way or the highway. So she packed a bag, gathered all of the cash she had saved up from summers of working, left her phone on the bed of her dorm and hopped in her Jeep, never once looking back.

She never drank coffee. She never watched The Phantom of the Opera. No one ever called her Little Lansing because she was the only one. No one helped her feel better after a bad dream. No one intimidated her boyfriends when they came to the house. She didn’t get excited whenever she saw a sunflower because she didn’t know anyone whose favorite flower it was. She never liked Disney’s Hercules. No one called her Shortstack. She had no one to live up to. Or look up to.

She didn’t know where she would go. Maybe to New York. Or Boston. Hell, she’d go to Washington state if her car would make it there. She just needed to get away. And, at least this time, being alone was her choice.

Without an active social calendar, she found herself with more time to study, more time to get ahead in her studies. Often times when her gaze was downcast, she bumped into people. Her books scattering all about and her cheeks heating as she apologized profusely. If it wasn’t about her studies, Zoey could barely string sentences together without rambling. Social anxiety always getting the best of her. Sometimes, she felt as she needed someone standing in front of her with cue cards to hold a normal conversation, except she didn’t feel normal. She rarely ever felt normal.

There were times when she wondered why she was doing this, going to this school, studying Illusionism and Technomagic when she didn’t fit in here. Truth be told, she didn’t fit in anywhere. She was a rogue puzzle piece that watched life, but never experienced it. Truth be told, she was afraid to experience life, to go out, to simply try. She’d never been able to experience it growing up, and now she didn’t know how.

The only time she felt the least bit normal was when she was in her room, when she spoke to her roommate. She could sit in complete silence with Kara and it didn’t feel awkward. It was as if she endured the jungle that was everywhere else on campus, just to get to the solace of her room.

When Zoey finally got to her room, she smiled, seeing her roommate there. Her best friend, she’d never really had one of those before Kara. Oddly enough, Kara felt like family, even more so than her own parents. She found herself smiling when she walked into the room. “Hey, Zo,” she said, giving her a smile before going back to whatever she was working on.

Zoey put her things away and looked at Kara and pouted. “You forgot!” She folded her arms, actually believing that her roommate had forgotten what today was.

It was quiet for a second before Kara opened her arms to Zoey. “Come here, you dork. I didn’t forget.”

Happily, she bound over to Kara who was making room for her. Zoey cuddled up next to her, wrapping her arms around Kara. “I was looking forward to Cuddle Day, all day,” she admitted as a blush stained her cheeks.

They watched Netflix and for a couple hours, Zoey felt like she could and would be okay in this world without her parents, without the norm that she’d clung to for years. There were times she’d feared that Kara would follow the same pattern as her parents, leaving her completely alone in this world. In this those times, during their roommate cuddles she’d ask, “You won’t leave me too, right?”