countess_karnstein: (Ella)
Carmilla Karnstein ([personal profile] countess_karnstein) wrote2018-05-28 10:18 pm

What Comes After With [personal profile] lauronica_mars

The campus felt like an entirely different place. Students were buzzing with gossip and rumours surrounding both the Dean and Lara. Some of the favourites Ella had heard were along the lines that she was brain washing students and hypnotised Lara. The rumours of her being an evil witch always made her laugh. Some believed that Lara was the evil one, bribing Ella somehow to get good grades. No one was really one hundred percent sure, except for the students that crossed the Supernatural world and knew what happened that night.

It was both a blessing and a curse that both Lara and Ella had stepped into the light and revelled their relationship. Rumour after rumour piled up but Lara’s blog had become an overnight blast of fame. Ella watched through the security cameras as her girlfriend couldn’t go anywhere without crowds of people staring or asking her questions.

The students that had revealed themselves as wolves were now following her like lost puppies, protective of the witch that liberated them. The witches both light and dark divided into the jealous and admiring of Lara’s abilities. She had never been so popular.

LaF and Perry as best friends of Lara and also present the night everything happened, had also gained the fame and flock of questions that came with that. In the end they had to take their lunch to the far side of the tables in the hall and sat away from the groups and whispers.

“Have you messaged her? You did message her didn’t you?”, Perry stopped stabbing her mash potato with her fork and looked across the table at LaF who was barely eating.

“Back of the hall.” LaF nodded. “I messaged Danny but I haven’t seen her since the night, you know.”

Perry looked up and noticed all the students whispering and talking. “Maybe we should have picked a quieter spot to interrogate her?”
lauronica_mars: (Enthusiastic)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-21 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
"Of course the board is terrifying. They try to be." Lara smiled fondly. "If you're trying to do something they don't expect and need to think about, Ella could be your best ally."

She frowned. "Now I think about it she might know some of the answers to how the board positions work if you don't mind me calling her? And she's going to want some more formal arrangement with all of you. She neither controls you nor knows quite where you stand."

And she returned Fliss' smile with one of her own. "And this place is so much better than it was when I was brought here, in all possible ways. It's amazing how much it's changed."
lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-21 11:37 am (UTC)(link)

Lara laughed as she hugged and petted a pup. "A pleasure to meet you too. Of course she's going to want something! But good deals are about giving both sides what they want, and you've a few things she does that you'd be more than happy to give her."

She raised one finger, her gesture stopped by the pup licking it, and she conceded defeat with a smile. "First she really doesn't like the board and is involved in a decades long game of high stakes chess with it. Turning the most aggressive seat on the board into a proxy who needs to consult with the rest of the pack over major decisions will be a huge win for her as will someone who isn't reflexively hostile to her." She was too busy petting the pup to raise a second finger. "Second she takes the safety of her students pretty seriously, and more people looking out for them and more she can draw on when there's real trouble will be useful. And that's just where to start." Lara, as she was speaking, was assessing, trying to see how sympathetic and how trustworthy they were, and whether it was worth starting to explain some of the angle Ella came from to them.

Her smile then turned shark-like. "As for White Witches disappearing, we're what goes bump in the day to vampires because we've made taking down some of the most feared vampires in history look not just easy but like poetic justice. If a vampire gorges on human blood so much that there's more human blood than vampire blood in their body then it just takes a small push to become human. And if they are the sort of jerk that feeds exclusively off young female virgin humans, even if they don't gorge themselves, then it's not that hard to make them what they eat. A young female virgin human." She gave a second to let that one sink in.

She paused. "It's like your brother. If just three members of your pack who couldn't turn into battle form had been loyal to him personally as the alpha then I couldn't have done a thing to him with magic. But as the entire pack wanted to break away I could help that."

"And the party sounds lovely, although I assume inviting my girlfriend to it might put a bit of a damper on celebrations."

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-24 01:48 am (UTC)(link)

"Control?" Lara laughed. "Other than by telling her she'll spend the night on her own, no. But she's ruthless not sadistic." Lara paused and flushed. "Not normally sadistic anyway." And she enjoyed the ways Ella was. "And puppies aren't a threat to her. She's..." Lara paused again, this time more thoughtfully. "Can you tell me that what I'm about to say none of you will tell anyone else? And that includes you, LaF?"

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-25 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)

Lara smiled, then looked at Sylens. "Imagine your brother had a son he raised to be the next Alpha. He probably cared for him, but wanted to turn him into a chip off the old block and taught him carefully how to do things. The son was basically a sweet kid, so your brother did a lot of work to 'toughen him' up so he was 'strong enough' to be the next Alpha." Lara's voice was very dry with her opinion of what was done.

"Then imagine that one day the son said no to the way your brother treated the rest of the pack and said no. He fought back against his father and won, killing him and becoming the new alpha in the process. And tried to take over and protect everyone he was now in charge of, but the only skills his father had taught him were the ones he used. So whenever he tried to do avoid force or fear and still protect his pack he just didn't have the skill to do it. And he knew that the more he was feared the less he actually needed to be to protect his pack, while his father's enemies kept circling, looking for weakness."

Lara didn't think the metaphor needed explaining, but was an insight into Ella that if she was to win the wolves as actual allies they needed.

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-25 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)

Lara nodded. "Just remember. If she thinks you think she's soft she may do something impressive to prove otherwise." She paused. "And extra accomodation? She has some." Lots in fact. "She doesn't give freebies to anyone that might be a threat to her students or worries might get strong enough to challenge her directly, but definitely understands both trades and win-win deals. She's also going to want to make sure that the pack doesn't grow much further for now."

She turned to Perry and frowned. "What do you think my being kidnapped was other than someone on the board making a run at her? And they are definitely among those circling. Yes, I'm worried it will happen again, but think that it won't be for a while."

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-26 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)

Lara shrugged. "You're thinking like a young scientist, Laf. Not someone who hasn't quite grasped that we no longer do feudalism much. The immortals who are into books barely leave the library. Those who are into power?" Lara shrugged, puppy wrangling and making sure none of them actually fell. "They really don't want to share most of the time."

She smiled. "And if we want to work out how the board membership works, shall I call Ella and invite her here?"

When she was met with nods, if hesitant ones, she pulled out her phone. "Hi, love." Lara's smile softened and eyes went distant when Ella picked up. "I'm at the wolves home, trying to find out the exact rules for a board representative for something that might confuse your board and slow it down." She smiled. "Also I've been invited to their party and my girlfriend's invited too."

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-27 10:10 am (UTC)(link)

Lara just smiled at that, her own voice just as teasing as Ella's. "I think I'm talking about you. But if I wasn't I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find a replacement for the evening." Her tone was just as teasing.

Eyes were wide in the room as the wolves saw Lara tease Ella right back, their hearing good enough that they could hear both sides of the conversation, and there were glances exchanged in a mix of confusion and understanding.

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-27 11:22 am (UTC)(link)

"Promises, promises." Lara giggled before speaking to the room. "And no, Leo, that wasn't a bad threat by Ella. Could ... thank you Fliss."

Leo's eyes were slowly getting wider as Fliss whispered in his ear.

"And I'm pretty sure it's not an ambush, and I'm going to put you officially on speaker so LaF and Perry can hear as well as the wolves if you've time now.." In other words it was time to get at least partly down to business to upend the board.

Her voice became a bit more serious. "What we were wondering was whether instead of having a board member from the pack we could make the seat and the power belong to the pack itself, and the pack got to send a proxy with limited authority to act on its behalf to board meetings while the whole pack needs to discuss anything major." Ella would no doubt recognise whose plan that was and that it could cause some headaches for the board if it wanted to run ambushes.

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-27 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)

"I think it needs a white witch to set up?" Lara shrugged. "And possibly to occasionally rebalance occasionally because some people are going to try naturally to take over. And to set up I think it takes there being someone respected enough that they could become an alpha but doesn't actually want to. Which is all probably a rare combination."

She smiled. "See you this evening, love?"

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-28 06:43 pm (UTC)(link)

Lara would turn up a few minutes later, her hair in a high plait, dripping wet and her thin white dress damp enough that it was clinging to her as well as revealing her entire collar bone; she'd been jumping into the river with some of the werewolves and only hurriedly and incompletely drying herself. The fact that her underwear was soaked and her damp body was making the dress cling to her and how much Ella would notice that was, of course, entirely deliberate.

"You made it, love!" Lara was a few feet away from Ella; she guessed she might have sneaked up on her girlfriend and she was going to take the opportunity as she really didn't get many chances where it was possible even if there were at least half a dozen eyes on her, a number of whom had missed Ella's arrival. She also wanted to give Ella a second to look at her in the firelight before glomping her for a hug and a deep kiss, and knew that actions speak louder than words, and that this would be the first actual time people had met Ella. Yes she was dangerous, but that was different from being a random killer.

lauronica_mars: (Default)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-06-29 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)

Lara moaned softly into the kiss, grinding a little against Ella, and teasing her still further, knowing that Ella had nipped her lip slightly. "Oh, I never try to drive you crazy. I'm far too innocent for that." And she concealed a smile at Mel's suggestion; part of what she was doing was selling Ella as being a relatively normal person when she didn't actually have the need to be The Scary Dean. Someone telling them to get a room and then not getting their head torn off was a good start.

"That sounds lovely. And I hope Fliss does well!" And didn't need anything she and Leo had learned that afternoon. Leading Ella by the hand she almost skipped off to get them both drinks before almost bumping into someone she was sure had moved into position just as she was getting a beer for each of them. So she smiled "Sylens! I was hoping to see you here. Sylens, this is my girlfriend Ella. Ella, Sylens." She hoped they'd leave the business for some other time - this was too much of a party and there were far too many listening ears.

lauronica_mars: (Flirting)

[personal profile] lauronica_mars 2018-07-02 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Promises, promises." Lara just smirked back. "And at least I recover fast with white magic."

She cut in with Sylys. "It was mostly the pack all deciding that they didn't want your brother as Alpha any more. I couldn't have helped if they hadn't all wanted it. But it's partly to make sure there isn't another Alpha like your brother I asked Ella for research help." She smiled. "And I'm sure I haven't seen all the wolves here before?"

"The neighbouring packs are all here, checking us out." Sylys nodded. "Especially as we haven't got an alpha. Some of those fights will be a little more serious than they should to check if we can defend our territory."

Lara smiled. "Good thing you don't have an Alpha. Keep everyone guessing."

He frowned. "Until the Molehills step into the ring. Sorry, I mean the 'Mountain Wolves' who are one of our neighbouring packs. One of them's just getting in the ring now."

"Of course we'll stay." Lara smiled before shouting. "Kick his ass Fliss. Remember how strong you are!" It was after all not just claws she could borrow.

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