BAD MOMS 2
Time: idk we’ll say today for fun
Place: The Barn
People: Victoria, Aurora, Brigid, Derrick
Summary: Brigid lures Aurora into the barn where she tries to force Victoria into a brutal training exercise. Victoria is absolutely not having that, and goes ham on brigid for hurting Aurora. Also there’s an I love her but you didn’t hear that from me.
Notes: No actual physical victoria/brigid abuse this time but I mean it’s brigid so it’s fucked up
BRIGID: Brigid prided herself on being a ruthless woman -- persistent, but smart enough to know when stubbornness would no longer serve. Willing to take the most direct path from where she stood to where she needed to be. Victoria needed to learn control, so Brigid taught it to her, with the might of her fist and her magic, sparing no expense for the most important lesson she could ever impart on her hybrid offspring. But when that pebble hit her waterlogged chalk mark, Brigid knew her methods were no longer working. Physical pain would not push her daughter past the point of losing control. But when the frazzled blonde head of Aurora Black rushed out of the Manor and into the courtyard to rescue her twitching, downed fiancee, inspiration struck. Victoria lost control in the most dangerous of ways when David was taken from them at the attack. Perhaps Victoria had learned the lesson to blocking out physical pain after two decades; perhaps emotional pain was the trigger Brigid needed to press next. She watched; she waited. Her daughter's concern when Aurora Black went 'missing' under Aemilia's supervision. The way she moved her fiancee into her own room after the fact. The smug look on Aurora Black's face not long after the full moon. Victoria had a weakness. On a cool, but sunny day, Brigid prepared herself, gathered her will and her plan and made her rounds about the Manor to find one Aurora Black. She pasted a polite smile on her cheeks. "Miss Black. It's a fine day and there are some things we should discuss. Would you mind taking a walk with me?"
AURORA: She's been having an overall good morning, done a round of her usual: shower, morning tea, breakfast. Now she's sitting in the living room, reading (she's been doing a lot of reading nowadays), while Victoria was off training like she did almost every morning. Its eerily quiet in the manor, which she assumes means most of the wolves have been keeping themselves in check lately and with no arguments in her pocket in the last 72 hours, she feels as though she can finally breathe. Or maybe it has something to do with her rapidly growing feelings for Victoria. Either way, she's still surprised, when Brigid finds her, and with a smile on her face nonetheless. It makes her instantly wary, especially after their last conversation, but she's stuck within a wall and a hard place -- she couldn't say no to her, as a coven leader and her soon to be mother-in-law. She puts her book down, trying her best to offer Brigid a smile in return. No one could ever put Aurora on edge more than Brigid Devereaux. "--- Sure. Of course. What do we need to discuss?"
BRIGID: The tight smile she receives makes Brigid's only curl higher. "I was hoping to discuss things between you and Victoria. Your coming nuptials. Family matters. Once we're little more private, of course. Walk with me?" Turning on her heel and heading toward the door, she gives Aurora little option but to follow or be left behind.
AURORA: She scurries towards Brigid the second she turns towards the door, not wanting to be left behind. The last thing she needed was for Brigid Devereaux to consider her an unlikely match for Victoria after everything they worked towards. She has to pick up her pace, but finally, falls in line with her as they walk outside. "My mother has yet to set a date for the wedding. But I am more than willing to go through with the arrangement Madam Devereaux. I had been hesitant at first but I've come to... Care about your daughter and I think we make a solid alliance together. At least, as far as I can tell".
BRIGID: "I'm quite aware of that, Miss Black," Brigid replies, leading the way down the path toward the old barn. "In fact, the alliance between you and my daughter is exactly what I was hoping to discuss." Her smile stays with the truth of her words. "You see, I believe Victoria has come to care about you a great deal, as well. In a way we do not tend to openly recognize in our family, but one that I see in her quite plainly all the same. Would you concur, Miss Black --- Aurora?"
AURORA: There's something about Brigid's question that makes her wary, but she's still inclined to answer it. She's still unsure where they're headed, but she recognizes the path they're on; Aurora draws some distance between them, just a cautious step to the side, a subtle flight response, but not enough to make her want to bolt. "Y-Yes?" It sounds like a question, she stutters over the word. "I care about her too. Isn't that what our union was supposed to be about? What good is it for if there's no loyalty anywhere?"
BRIGID: "I'm not asking to scold you for feeling for her," Brigid says, keeping her steps even as Aurora works smoothly to increase their distance. She doesn't seek to follow her. "In fact, I'm counting on them." She doesn't hesitate. The heel of her palm connects hard with the soft indent at Aurora's temple. As soon as the younger witch stumbles, Brigid's magic reaches out hot and fast to catch her, bind her limbs, support her weight as she drags the blonde Black the last few feet to the barn's open, waiting door. Brigid drops the girl graceless at the first set of shackles. Working quick, she secures the heavy iron over her fists first, then her ankles. As she stands and straightens her clothes, she runs her fingers over a vial of ash sitting waiting in her pocket. "Victoria will be joining us soon," she says, uncaring if the half-unconscious Aurora can actually hear her. "Then we will see how deeply her weakness truly runs."February 16, 202
VICTORIA: She'd gotten her mother's message, to meet in the barn. Victoria assumed there'd be some kind of training or perhaps a wolf to be punished that her mother needed help with. She didn't ask many questions. Just headed there at the proper time, once her training was finished and things were settled. Stepping inside the barn, a feeling rose in Victoria's gut, something sinking and odd and off centered. She turned, to see her mother and behind her Aurora, disoriented and chained, close to the wall she sat by in the strong, wolf shackles. "Aurora?" Victoria's eyes went wide and she looked from her fiancee to her mother. "Mom, what's -- Why is she in here?"
BRIGID: "She's here to help with your training," Brigid says simply, magic prickling at her fingertips as she reaches into her pocket to withdraw a small burlap sachet of dried herbs. "Let's make sure she's ready to join us, hmm?" Holding the sachet under Aurora's nose, Brigid's fist crumples, crushing the pungent herbs under the friction of her palm to wake the younger woman.
AURORA: It startled her awake, the strong smell of herbs Aurora thinks she’s familiar with, and she gasps as she returns from her forced sleep. She’s met with a strange sight; her fiancé across from her, looking perplexed, Brigid hovering close, and shackles around her wrists, that she attempts to pull unsuccessfully. “Victoria?” She groans. “What is happening?” It occurs to her that she’s trap, and that this can’t be good, so this time she tries magic to let her out of her shackles, and when nothing happens and she thrashes harder against the chains, she notices the ring around her on the ground. Ash. “What the hell is wrong with you? Let me go!”
BRIGID: She waits while the blonde realizes her predicament, while her daughter watches and Aurora makes demands. Once she is finished, Brigid crosses the room the a low wooden shelf, retrieves a piece of chalk, leather gloves and a small glass vial. She draws an X the size of a walnut on the barn's thick, worn stone wall before she returns to Aurora's side, donning the gloves and unstoppering the bottle. "I believe you know the rules," she tells her daughter. "There is a scarf on the shelf behind you. Stand against the opposite wall and hit the target." She looks down at Aurora, considers her for a moment before she says, "hold out your hand, Miss Black. You will be Victoria's motivation."
VICTORIA: Victoria's eyes travel fast, from her barely conscious girlfriend to her mother. She's watching, almost frozen. Her whole body preparing for fight when Aurora wakes up in shock and panic, furious and terrified. "Mom..." At first she starts as though she intends to be reasonable, but then she steps forward, closer to her mother and Aurora like she might get between them. Victoria doesn't even look toward the shelf or the blindfold or the game. "Get away from her." A fireball ignites in her hand. "Mom, I'm not doing this."(edited)
BRIGID: Brigid shakes her head in disappointment as fire swirls over Victoria's palm. "Truly, Victoria? You lose your control this easily?" Her boot flattens on the chain at Aurora's wrist, pinning it tight. With one gloved hand, she pulls her sleeve back and grips her arm tight at elbow. With the other, she tips the glass bottle at a slight angle, letting a slow drip of himalayan salt water drip from the opening. Drip. Drip. Drip. The drops track down Aurora's forearm as Brigid keeps her gaze on her daughter. "Begin, Victoria."
AURORA: She can tell what's about to happen. Its a test, just like the one Brigid had put Victoria up to in the forest the day she had found her not far from the property, except this time, Brigid takes it a step further by putting her in the line of fire. She's stronger, stronger than Aurora and without her magic, she can't push her away when she pins her wrist between her fingers. She tries to jerk away. "What are you doing?" And she knows, immediately when she sees the water drip from the water and onto her skin. "Victoria don--". The burn is like a hot iron cast against her arm, leaving a scarce trail of vapor as it leaves her skin aching. Aurora's breath catches in her throat and her fingers twitch from the pain. She tries to hold it in, for Victoria's sake, but the screech comes out through her teeth.
VICTORIA: "Mom, no! " It comes out fast, sharp, entirely sudden and loud and completely not in the control Brigid wants. Victoria doesn't hesitate either. She doesn't begin. She doesn't play along. She hears the pained sound Aurora makes and releases the fireball she holds without a second of further hesitation, aimed square for Brigid's chest. "I said get away from her."
BRIGID: Releasing the vial from her grip, Brigid brings her palms up, swiping fast and hard to the side to dismiss her daughter's fierce fireball. Disappointment and fury war in the boiling rumble of her bloodstream, her snarl turned toward Victoria. "How dare you ----- " With one foot swiping at the ash, her magic reaches out, slipping into the circle before Aurora has a chance to reach out. With the heat of her anger, she sends a strong shockwave along Aurora's limbs, a prolonged shock of the jolts she'd sent Victoria before, and watches as the helpless blonde that her daughter has come to care for so much, has become so weak over, twitches and writhes where she's bound.
VICTORIA: Neither she or her mother could have known that that was going to be Brigid's last chance. But the moment that Victoria sees her mother's magic shock Aurora, her whole body spirals into a fury. Faster than before, harder than before. The rhythms of the universe in complete discord instead of her usual balance with them. It's messy, when she throws a small shock her own at her mother, and then another ball of fire, clearing the distance between them in seconds before she takes Brigid by the shoulders and all but throws her to the ground, separating the magical grip she has on Aurora and landing on top of her in one motion, not remotely fluid or graceful but animal, furious, filled with fire and anger that comes from the darkest parts of Victoria's eyes. She can only remember being this mad one other time and even then it's a blur. It's a blur now. A knee lands in Brigid's ribs, Victoria hits her, hard in the face, landing her other elbow against Brigid's throat. "How dare I?" It barely sounds like her voice. "How dare you. She's my fiancee. She's innocent she's an original witch, She's mine -- " Victoria doesn't know what she was going to say but all she can feel is rage and that boils over, guttural and furious. She holds her arm against her mother's throat even harder, hits her again, but this time with magic in her fist. "Of course I'm weak. Of course I"m out of control. I've always been out of control! That's why you hate me so much, isn't it?" Everything pours out of her and Victoria can't even see anymore. She grabs Brigid by her shoulders, slams the back of her against the floor again. "I'm not you. I'm never going to be you and I'm -- I never want to be you. Because she's -- I love her. And you're a monster!"
DERRICK: Its a strange thing, to feel something when the witch you're bonded to does; its never the same. Sadness doesn't translate to sadness, excitement doesn't translate to excitement, and fury certainly doesn't either. Its something, a feeling of dread, that something is wrong. She'd told him not to intervene; when she was with her mother he didn't have to step in, but there's something different about this, something that makes him stand from his outpost, leaving another one of the wolves in charge. He can't help it, he doesn't even know where Victoria is but suddenly he's running straight towards the barn, faster, and faster, and faster -- he breaks the branches as he swiftly makes his way through. They break his skin but not enough to hurt. Until he's there, until he swings the barn doors open as hard as he can and he sees it. Aurora Black motionless against the chains, looking like she's trying to gasp for air, and Victoria carrying animalistic fury, on top of her mother. I love her and you're a monster! It takes him a second to understand what had just happened. "Victoria!" It might be the first time he's used her name without a title in front of Brigid Devereaux, but there's no time to apologize. "Stop, stop! You're going to kill her!" That's when he grabs her by the waist, pulls Victoria off her mother with all his strength, keeping a steady grip on her. It would take an inhuman amount of strength to get out of it. Derrick pulls her back, drags her until he creates safe distance between them. He watches Aurora look up from the veil of her hair, her body trembles; he thinks she's crying, but he can't tell from this distance. "What the hell is going on here?"
BRIGID: Her face throbs. Her neck feels pinched, too tight, and her chest burns for air. She'd swear on her death bed that she had seen it, that hint of gold, that's wolf's touch in her daughter's eyes and when Brigid is able to push herself up to sitting, her lungs gasping to catch a breath, she isn't able to hide the fact that her fingers are trembling. "----Get them both to the house," she manages, through her words are harsh, each vibration rasping over the chords in her throat. She tries to clear it, almost winces, swallows instead and tastes the blood pooling in her cheek spread thick and heavy over the back of her tongue. "No one sees them," she adds, forcing out the words. "Now."
DERRICK: "Yes ma'am". He has no choice but to follow Brigid's orders; he had considered the way his loyalty would shift, the way it would be molded and changed, how Brigid Devereaux is the one mangled and beaten and all he wonders is if Victoria's okay. But he doesn't say anything, instead, he slowly lets go of Victoria, and takes a careful step towards Aurora, still in chains. Derrick looks back to make sure Victoria won't make further moves to hurt her mother, and once convinced he won't have to stop another attempted murder, he brushes the circle of ash around Aurora aside, noticing the part Brigid must have opened to make Aurora collapse like this. He undoes the shackles and Aurora's knees buckle, falling on the ground on her knees. Derrick's arms are around her when Aurora's knees give in. She tries to move when he sweeps her off the ground, surely searching for Victoria. He sees the way her eyes move, as if she's expecting Victoria to be the one to carry her, but when she grips his shirt (with barely enough strength to close her fingertips around it), he walks straight towards her. Aurora lets her arm go limp and he notices she's reaching out for Victoria once he's standing in front of her. He presses his lips together and he thinks the look he gives her is enough of a tell, so he nods towards the barn door.