CAN'T FIGHT AGAINST THE YOUTH

[trojan g.]

do you believe you could change me? the way i changed you.

The feline that walked upon the border was one that looked as though he had been through hell and back, and, for those that knew him, it would be likely that they would agree. Some would say he deserved everything he got - his father for one - and others would think otherwise. But Roman had no opinion on the matter, all he knew what that shit happened, and it seemed as though a lot of it happened to him, but he had to keep fighting no matter how much it hurt him, or killed him.

Literally.

Though it seemed as though he wouldn't be doing any dying any time soon. Hopefully. He'd been on a streak recently of not dying, as it seemed as though his father couldn't cross over to the realm of the living for the time being. It also seemed as though is powers stopped working. Whether or not these things were connected with the strange new places that Ro seemed to have stumbled upon, he didn't care. He just wanted a break - and he was certainly glad for one.

With a small sigh, the mangled and burned feline would sit down, sunken eyes looking out over the territory he would hopefully call his home soon, and tried to make himself look presentable. It was hard, with half his body burned and one of his ears missing, but he tried his best, and waited.

[Margaery]

MARGAERY FOLIE-MIKAELSON

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MAKE ME QUEEN OR
I'LL MAKE YOU BLEED

Margaery would be lying if she didn't say that she had encountered more complications in her long life than the average person. Typically, such arose when her mother decided to fearlessly rebel against her father, craving something akin to real love - something he often times failed to provide her. Their relationship had been heavily flawed, riddled with deceit and mistrust. Nik had always claimed that he loved her but that... that was a lie. Caroline was a being that needed it - needed it more than anything - and it absolutely destroyed her to discover that the man she had married, had pledged her heart to, could not even return her affections.

But Roman had been able to.

Margaery recalled reading about the love affair in Caroline's old diaries. She possessed all of them actually, neatly stack and arranged by year in the room she had claimed within the bunker. He had treated her incredibly and she had hated having to part with him. Returning to her father had apparently been some sort of necessity and faking her death to do so had simply been part of the plan. She'd never tell that to the infamous Roman though, but she doubted she'd even have the opportunity to meet him. The love they shared had been extinguished long ago and Margaery was certain that he had faded into obscurity like every flame before him.

How silly she was to believe such as she stopped before the stranger, a frown twisting her lips. She had her mother's ring around her neck, the lapis lazuli gemstone sitting in its center glinting brightly in the morning light. She didn't think anything of it as she extended a honeyed smile in his direction, expression lighting up. [b]"Are you here to join?" She inquired lightly, flicking a tail, "My name is Margaery Mikaelson... It's nice to meet you."

© MADI

[trojan g.]

do you believe you could change me? the way i changed you.

The face of the feline before him was familiar yet a stranger, and Roman couldn't figure it out at first, what had happened had been such a long time ago and had been something that he had tried so hard to push away for it hurt too much to think about. Every hope that he had since his wife's death was something that seemed to fade anyway, so he dared not to do so, but when he was passing his gaze over the other to make sure her stature was something of hospitality rather than one of being hostile he noticed the familiar smile that Caroline had held on her face all those moons ago, and the necklace, and the smile that he had formed in a way to try to look friendly despite his other features seemed to crack a little. It wasn't until she finally said her name when it all shattered away and he seemed to try to take a step back, despite already sitting and sort of stumbling over himself ear and what was left of the other pinning to his head he simply shook it, swallowing down his words at first before finally opening his maw to speak.

"I- I don't think it was a good idea for me to come here." He would manage at last, water forming in his eyes though nothing threatening to fall, not just yet, "Your last name, it's familiar, and your necklace, and, and..." He trailed off, tail curling into his paws as if he was trying to make himself smaller. He felt like a little kid again, scared and afraid of being hurt again. He had completely missed the words Margaery had spoken, lost in his  own head.

[Margaery]

MARGAERY FOLIE-MIKAELSON

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MAKE ME QUEEN OR
I'LL MAKE YOU BLEED

Growing up, Margaery had been told countless times that she had her mother's smile, her mother's eyes. She had always agreed with them, knowing that they were right, knowing that everyone around her was relieved that she didn't resemble her father in any way. She never told them that she carried his temper though, fierce and burning and hot, wanting to devour all. No, they wouldn't like to hear that and she wasn't dumb enough to destroy the fragile peace she had created by looking so similarly to her mother. So she just smiled because she was supposed to, because when they looked at her, they wanted another Caroline, not another Nik.

She supposed she didn't think about her mother often. Not as much as her father anyways. He... he was an omnipresent force in her life, always looming over her, suffocating her. She could rarely spend a year without him interfering with her happiness in some way, shape, or form, and admittedly, the girl often times found herself wishing that it had been one of Caroline's many flings that had sired her- not Niklaus.

As she stood staring at this stranger, she struggled to understand why he was on the verge of tears. Her necklace? Her last name? Why were those things important? And then it clicked. Caroline. It had to do with Caroline. She was popular and well-respected in some way, doing things as she wanted to in brief separations from her father. Could this individual know of her?

[b]"Did you know my mother, love?" She inquired softly, feeling an unfamiliar emotion rising to the surface, "Who are you? What's your name?" Her voice hardened with every word, something akin to fear now dancing brazenly across her features. "I don't understand."

© MADI

[trojan g.]

do you believe you could change me? the way i changed you.

The next words that Margy spoke were ones that Ro did hear, though they did take a second longer than they normally would have to reach his head, to make sense, sounds coming to him now in soft clips before being jumbled and unjumbled in order to make sense. He nodded his head, her mannerism and way of speaking not he exact same as her mother's, but similar enough that it caused a pang. She sounded kind so kind, just as Caroline had been to him, when at the time of their meeting she had no reason to other than him being a stranger at the border, just as he was now. He could hear the fear surging in her voice and Ro would shake his head, struggling to get words out once more but finally managing.

"Please don't worry." He'd speak, head shaking once again, "I used to be married to her, your mother. My name is Romancollosseum, but most everyone just calls me Roman. I'm sorry." He didn't really know what he was sorry for, just that he was.

[BASTILLEPAW]

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SING, GODDESS, OF THE RAGE OF ACHILLES

[ asfh head's up that mii and i both restarted bast and hazel so that these two are not ff ones but, since ro would have known ff hazille, we're just gonna.... pretend fate did a lil reincarnation thing that they'll never know about oops / make shit up to explain why ro would be like ?? who are these mini versions
also hi hello welcome home ! ]

Once upon a time, Bastille might have had siblings. He wasn't entirely certain what might have dictated that, frankly. He had tried to see a scenario where things weren't so grim, or he weren't the only one left from his litter: maybe if his mother had gone into labor in camp, or if someone had found them sooner, or if it weren't so hot out. There was nothing to do about Frenchie, or about his siblings who were born still: they would have died any where, he was convinced. But what about the others? The ones who died later, within hours or days? Could they have been saved if they'd been found sooner?

Often, Bastille said no. No, fate didn't work that way. Echo had been born to a dead mother with dead siblings, once: he knew that somehow, fate always would have found a way. It was funny, he thought; death had always followed Echo closely, every where he went, and it seemed that it had followed him even here, into his next life. Bast might resent his soul for it, for inevitably killing his birth family, but he'd learned that resentment was useless. It changed nothing. It was what it was.

His mother had told him about them, though. In those early months, when that little sliver of her soul stayed with him, she'd told him stories and sung in French and talked wistfully about the children she might have had, in another life. He knew their names. "I wanted the girls to be Versailles and Paris. Aren't those pretty? Versaillespalace, maybe. How darling. And the boys: British and Roman. I wonder who they'd be, one day, if they lived. Do you think we would have had a Romantemple or Romancolloseum?"

Her voice filtering through his thoughts slowly as he caught wind of this stranger's name, coming to a slow stop beside Margy. Fate was a funny thing, it would seem. Bastille could look at this stranger and wonder if his dead brother might have looked like him, had he borne the same name. Somehow he didn't think the burn marks would quite fit his mental image of the dead kitten, but it was an entertaining notion none the less.

There was tension here, however, and his ice blue stare flickered over this guy slowly before it shifted briefly to Margy. "'M Bast," he provided, feeling a flicker of interest. For a beat, he wondered why, and then realized that Grimm was intrigued. That was... not unusual, but interesting. He scrutinized this stranger a little more, as if he might detect what it was that alerted Grimm, before he added, "I take it you're sticking around?"

[b]BASTILLEPRISONER AURELIUS — ASTRAL SERAPH — THE ASCENDANTS — TAGS

[Margaery]

MARGAERY FOLIE-MIKAELSON

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MAKE ME QUEEN OR
I'LL MAKE YOU BLEED

For a moment, all Margaery could see was a different life. Instead of Nik, it was Roman who was her father- caring for her, raising her, loving her even when she did choose to defy him. She barely knew the stranger before her and yet she was one hundred percent confident that he would never think to sink a dagger in her chest the moment she expressed herself. Caroline would be happy too... and perhaps her relationship with her parents wouldn't have been so tattered. So beat. She could exist without the plethora of emotional baggage that the Mikaelsons provided her, living freely, living happily.

She longed for that reality- latched onto it desperately, tears forming in the corners of her eyes the more she realized that she'd never have that. Nik was after her wife and so long as he carried with him that anger, she could never even think to begin repairing the damage he had so ignorantly caused. As for her mother... she had left Margaery with far too many secrets, perhaps the biggest one standing before her. She had known of their love, but marriage? The diaries had never detailed that little fact nor had Caroline ever thought to mention it when they were still on talking terms. How could she keep something as big as her true relationship with Roman away from everyone? She didn't understand... She hadn't even got to meet the male before.

[b]"Oh." It was all she could manage for the time being, too consumed by overwhelming emotions to give him anything else. From the recesses of her mind, she could feel Genevieve growing restless. Margaery was hurt and emotional and the longer she stayed present, the worse every other facet was going to feel. She needed to take over, she needed to speak to this little secret. And surprisingly, Margaery relented, gray eyes shifting from gray to copper. Her posture changed too, the refined grace of her stance becoming more careless, though there was an underlying danger to the way she moved. Genevieve was back - though only temporarily.

"Why should I believe you, sugar? You were probably nothing more than one of Caroline's little flames. She didn't marry you... She couldn't have! She loved- Genevieve! Stop!"

Margaery was back, a frown twisting her chocolate hued lips as she shoved her counterpart back where she belonged. Not today. She was not dealing with Genevieve today. She felt better though, more in control as she gazed upon Roman. "I'm sorry... she's... I'm sorry." The tears were back now, Bast's sudden arrival doing little to comfort her. Marriage. Marriage. She couldn't believe it.

"They say I have her smile... do you see it?"

It was all she could think to ask, her voice surprisingly small and shaking. Maybe it was because she was doubting everything and needed something to ground her, some familiarity from her past. Was she really the product of a loveless marriage? A part of her had always suspected it but Roman... she was considering that possibility heavily now. The more answers she received, the more questions she had, that was for sure.

"I'm sorry... Inappropriate inquiry, I know. Welcome to the Ascendants."

© MADI

[trojan g.]

do you believe you could change me? the way i changed you.

[[ ahhh okay, that explains the age of bast, since I saw him a little bit when I was looking around to see where ro would be put. ]]

Roman's eyes would glance over towards Bastille as he appeared, hopeful that an old friend was there, but he looked so young, and didn't really seem to recognize him. It caused confusion, and really didn't help the situation that seemed to be unfolding at the border. When Bast spoke, he would simply nod his head out of sheer habit, although with what had happened since he had gotten here he had become more and more unsure whether or not he wanted to stay. Too many painful memories. It wasn't until Margaery spoke again, denying that her mother married himself that he turned his gaze back to her.

"We were." He would speak, although quiet, trying to figure out what else was going to be said. Who did Caroline love? They had loved each other, had started a home with each other and made strong clan together at the time. That clan was gone now, but it was beside the point. He was going to ask more questions when she suddenly spoke once more, asking her own and throwing him off. Her smile? "I - yes." He would answer at last, ears once more pinned to his head before giving a brief nod at her welcome at last. It seemed as though he had a place to call home, but he was unsure as to if he would let himself feel welcome or not.