a generic 'happy 49th birthday' card arrives in elijah's mall. 'sorry you're so old lol' is scribbled on the back
elijah's birthday
elijah discovered the card amid far more elaborate correspondence, its unassuming appearance nearly allowing it to slip by unnoticed. nearly. he recognized his sister’s particular brand of irreverence at once, even before his eyes settled on the scrawled 'apology' masquerading as affection on the back.
a slow breath left him as he read it, something between resignation and fond amusement. "forty-nine," he echoed quietly, as though sampling the number. his lips curved despite himself. it was, after all, precisely the sort of provocation leah favored: deliberately incorrect, irreverent, and aimed squarely at his composure.
he turned the card over once more, fingers lingering on the cheap cardstock. "i trust, that this was your attempt at restraint."
the card did not join the pile to be discarded. instead, elijah set it aside, carefully, where it would remain. || @troubleah
( @troubleah gets a starter from Klaus Mikaelson )
"Sister, dear, I assume that this is your doing..." Klaus asked, his voice tight. He surveyed the damage in the courtyard and then looked back at his sister. "Or if not, care to share how it came to be like this."
"I love that you understand the little things," Eve managed, barefoot and walking in the river slowly with her skirts lifted up and contained in the palms of her hands. Why Leah had agreed to come out here with her, she didn't know, but the Ranger seemed to get her love of the outdoors. Or, at any rate, her familiar did, and that was quite enough for Eve. "I'd polymorph and join Stella in that tree, but I don't think she'd find my panther form particularly PEACEFUL."
While she'd never do anything bad to the weasel, she knew that she could come across as more menacing like that. She didn't look the part of a big, comfy kitty, but she certainly could act like it. With a smile, Eve looked at Leah and dropped her skirts, well aware the hem was WET now, but that kind of thing didn't deter her. She was used to the outdoors, and while she was the epitome of etiquette when she needed to be, she didn't need to be right now.
"It's a beautiful day to not have to think about our VISITORS..."
"do you ever cry about this family of morally questionable vampires" all day every day. even more when you post your thoughts on hope's name and the pressure which comes with it because talk about FEELS and an amazing portrayal!!! ( btw, leah says hope should definitely check out ibiza or whichever tropical island she likes. it's ok. it's vacation time. )
look out folks, tina activated my trap card (but under the cut because it's long and rambly like i usually am)
OKAY so re: hope's name, i know this was happening in the era of tv where every 'miracle child' was named hope for the same reasons but that gifset really just cemented in how heavy that burden was placed on hope. for a lot of the others, i feel like they were born right as the show ended so we never delve into that, but this is happening at the very start of her life and we follow that.
for a large part of the originals, hope is pretty much a plot device, without a lot of agency. even in s4 where she's seven and actually has a voice, she's still mostly a plot device meant to expand on the actual main characters of the show (and this is not a knock, that's the point and i get it)
but from the perspective of hope, she grows up seeing how her very presence causes, frankly, so many issues for her family? her earliest memories are of her and hayley in hiding, carting around the bodies of her family in coffins, which immediately launched her into being possessed by her ancient ancestor, and then sent off to boarding school 'to have a normal childhood'. it's honestly confusing to her very black and white child's type of thinking, why they call her hope, when she feels like she causes more problems than anything. she has to shed the name mikaelson for her protection, but she still goes by hope, and it's a perpetual reminder of what she was supposed to be for her family, only they're in pieces because she was too weak to stand up against a 1000 year old malevolent spirit (like seriously, god, you're seven now hope, you should be better). she's so desperate to be her family's 'hope' that she writes a fanfic where she can finally defeat the hollow and reunite her family. it's why she develops this system of checks and balances that she tries to live by, because 'hope' is inherently 'good' and so that's what she has to be
despite elijah telling hope at the end of s5 that she shouldn't put that on her shoulders and apologizing for it, by that point.... it's just kinda too little too late? she's already kidnapped her mother who is now dead, she's absorbed so much evil that she needs to murder people and wreak havoc just to let it out, and she's pretty sure that she's dying. hope has lived her entire life up until this point, trying to live up to an ideal that was placed on her before she was born. even if none of the family 'consciously' pushed her on it, there was always an undercurrent of "hope is better than us, we have to protect her innocence, she is good" from her family that she felt like she had to embody, even though she's a marshall and a mikaelson and has an explosive temper.
anyways, i know that she never changes 'hope' whenever she has the multitude of opportunities to go by different names because tv audiences get confused easily, but i also think she continues to go by it because more than her bloodline or powers or the name 'mikaelson', it's her first name that she feels like she has to first conquer, before she's even allowed to be considered a mikaelson. it's weird and childish and doesn't make sense, but it's how she's always operated, and she never really feels like she lives up to it. but as she grows, she mellows out about it, learns to embrace it just like her last name and realizes how unrealistic and hard she's being on herself (look ma, growth!)
she will definitely take leah up on that offer for a 3 year vacation in the tropics somewhere though
