iluvroadrunner6 | prompts { 2021 } alphabetasoup

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prompts { 2021 } alphabetasoup

I have an itch and don't want to just write flash fiction. IDK if I'm going to use this prompt table for all the same people, ~~but I'm going to start with some Teen Wolf and Leverage because that's where my brain is~~ I lied, this is turning into a Teen Wolf/TVDverse Soulmate AU collection, I'm just indulging my bliss here.

A is for	Amused.	B is for	Bitter.	C is for	Curious.	D is for	Disappointed.	E is for	Ecstatic.
F is for	Frustrated.	G is for	Grateful.	H is for	Hurt.	I is for	Irritated.	J is for	Jealous.
K is for	Kind.	L is for	Lethargic.	M is for	Mischievous.	N is for	Nostalgic.	O is for	Optimistic.
P is for	Pensive.	Q is for	Quixotic.	R is for	Relaxed.	S is for	Surprised.	T is for	Touched.
U is for	Uncomfortable.	V is for	Vexed.	W is for	Worried.	X is for	Xenophilic.	Y is for	Yielding.
Z is for	Zealous.

A is for	amuck.	B is for	bric-a-brac.	C is for	crow.	D is for	diatribe.	E is for	esoteric.
F is for	flavor.	G is for	gravity.	H is for	horology.	I is for	ineluctable.	J is for	jubilee.
K is for	Kaboom!	L is for	leonine.	M is for	Mars.	N is for	nautical.	O is for	opiate.
P is for	point-blank.	Q is for	quandary.	R is for	ramshackle.	S is for	spartan.	T is for	thief.
U is for	ugly.	V is for	vex.	W is for	whilom.	X is for	Xanadu.	Y is for	yin.
Z is for	zombie.

A is for	Allurement.	B is for	Baroque.	C is for	Casuistry.	D is for	Dragon.	E is for	Envenom.
F is for	Fugacious.	G is for	Gnome.	H is for	Hauteur.	I is for	Improvisation.	J is for	Jeremiad.
K is for	Knot.	L is for	Luddite.	M is for	Macabre.	N is for	Narcotic.	O is for	Oxymoron.
P is for	Perversion.	Q is for	Quirk.	R is for	Reprobate.	S is for	Scintillating.	T is for	Torrid.
U is for	Umbrage.	V is for	Vehement.	W is for	Writhe.	X is for	Xerox.	Y is for	Yearning.
Z is for	Zingy.

A is for	Ares.	B is for	Baal.	C is for	Charybdis.	D is for	Dionysus.	E is for	Egeria.
F is for	Fenrir.	G is for	Gaea.	H is for	Hades.	I is for	Isis.	J is for	Juno.
K is for	Kali.	L is for	Lakshmi.	M is for	Maui.	N is for	Nyx.	O is for	Olokun.
P is for	Pangu.	Q is for	Quatzalcoatl.	R is for	Ravana.	S is for	Sedna.	T is for	Thanatos.
U is for	Ulysses.	V is for	Valhalla.	W is for	Wyvern.	X is for	Xanadu.	Y is for	Yggdrasil.
Z is for	Ziggurat.

Chronological Order:

Part 1

surprised (scott/lydia pt. 1)
hurt (scott/lydia pt. 2)
worried (hayley/klaus pt. 1)
frustrated (freya/peter pt. 1)
vexed (scott/lydia, pt. 3)
disappointed (stiles/allison, pt. 1)
curious (stiles/allison, pt. 2)
xenophilic (derek/caroline pt. 1)
optimistic (derek/caroline pt. 2)
irritated (peter/freya pt. 2)
jealous (derek/caroline pt. 3)
grateful (tyler/elena pt. 1)
uncomfortable (chris/melissa pt. 1)
pensive (stiles/allison pt. 3)
zealous (stiles/allison pt. 4)
touched (derek/caroline pt. 4)
bitter (klaus/hayley pt. 2)
mischevious (cora/isaac pt. 1)
lethargic (freya/peter pt. 3)
yielding (freya/peter pt. 4)
quixotic (stiles/allison pt. 5)
nostalgic (cora/isaac pt. 2)
relaxed (derek/caroline pt. 5)
amused (derek/caroline pt. 6)
ecstatic (cora/isaac pt. 3)
kind (peter/freya pt. 5)

Part 2:

ineluctable (tyler/elena pt. 2)
quandry (tyler/elena pt. 3)
point-blank (jeremy/malia pt. 1)
esoteric (bonnie/matt pt. 1)
spartan (bonnie/matt pt. 2)
thief (allison/stiles pt. 6)
flavor (freya/peter pt. 6)
vex (cami/marcel pt. 1)
diatribe (rebekah/stefan pt. 1)
ramshackle (allison/stiles pt. 7)
yin (bonnie/matt pt. 3)
whilom (davina/kol pt. 1)
gravity (allison/stiles pt. 8)
bric-a-brac (hayley/klaus pt. 3)
zombie (cami/marcel pt. 2)
ugly (hayley/klaus pt. 4)
horology (freya/peter pt. 7)
Xanadu (tyler/elena pt. 4)
amuck (bonnie/matt pt. 3)
crow (jeremy/malia pt. 2)

Completed: 46/104
Word Count: 84,022

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Previous]

“Two things,” Stiles says as he bursts into the living room the next morning. Cora and Isaac are curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee and he glances between the two of them for a moment before shaking his head. “That never gets any less weird.”

“Do you want to say what you want to say, or do you want to get punched in the face?” Cora retorts, and it snaps him out of whatever reverie he seems to be trapped in.

“Right. One, Caroline called. She found the guy claiming to be your brother.”

Her stomach drops, just a little, followed by a flash of confusion. She doesn’t know why, but part of her is concerned with grasping for more than she has. This guy, Derek, probably wants to see her, but she does not know how to deal with him. Stiles looks at her strangely.

“What? Aren’t you happy they’re back?”

“Ecstatic,” she comments dryly. “Where are they?”

“Mystic Falls, at the Salvatore School. I gave Caroline your number and she should text you right about … now.”

As predicted, Cora’s phone dings with the sound of an incoming text. She confirms that the unknown number is Caroline and nods. “Thanks. What’s the second thing?”

“I am headed out of town for a bit. We got a lead on where Peter might head, and I’m going to beat him to it.”

Cora doesn’t know how she feels about that one. She doesn’t remember Peter, but everything she can tell from the gaps he left behind shows that he’s dangerous. “Do we know how they got out of this pit thing?”

“That’s why I’m going to cut Peter off. He made a deal with the Malivore and one piece of that deal is a seven-year-old kid.”

Her stomach sinks again, but this time it isn’t because of nerves. Who knows what Peter will do to get what he wants? Isaac’s arm tightens around her shoulder, feeling her discomfort through their bond. “You should take Malia.”

Stiles frowns. “You think?”

Cora nods. “You’re fragile and human, and if Peter will kill Laura to get what he wants, then I doubt he will hesitate to do the same to you if you get in his way. But Malia is his daughter—at least, we think—maybe that might slow him down.”

Stiles nods slowly, weighing the implications in his mind. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll see where she and Jeremy are.”

“Good.” Cora swallows hard. “Be careful, Stiles.”

Stiles glances back at her with a smirk. “So you’re saying that despite the threats of violence, you actually enjoy having me around?”

The disquieting feelings swirling within her are immediately replaced with annoyance and she rolls her eyes. “Go away, Stiles.”

“This is my apartment.” She swings her arm to chuck a pillow at him, and he waves a hand. “Alright, alright, I’m out of here. I’ll call you when I track Peter down.”

* * * * *

She’s quiet the few hours it takes for them to get to Mystic Falls. Pulling into the shaded driveway of the Salvatore School causes her anxiety to spike and Isaac reaches over to cover her hand with his, giving it a small squeeze.

“You don’t have to go in there if you don’t want to.”

“Caroline is expecting us.”

“I know. And we can cancel. We can go crash at the bed-and-breakfast and take our time. We could go back to New York. You don’t have to deal with this right now.”

The options have merit, and she’s tempted to consider them. This man got himself erased from her memory, not the other way around. She has nothing to apologize for; he does. She could do this all in her own time. But part of her is already yearning for another piece of family, someone that was close to Laura. And part of her is so angry she doesn’t know what she’d do if she actually sees him face to face.

In the end, she knows she can’t leave. Not until she confronts him. She squeezes Isaac’s hand back, leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek before opening the door. “Yes, I do.”

If this goes badly, however, going home might be next on the agenda.

Caroline meets them at the door of the school, and she seems a little unduly nervous. At least, until Cora remembers what Stiles mentioned about Caroline being Derek’s supposed soulmate. Then, the moment becomes so much more awkward, because Cora barely knows how to deal with having a brother, let alone one that has a soulmate that’s nervous to meet her.

“Cora Hale?” she asks, and Cora nods.

“Thanks for keeping us in the loop.”

“Of course. He’s your family.” Caroline shakes her hand before turning to the tall man behind her. “And you’re—”

“Isaac.” He shakes Caroline’s hand with a nod. “I’m with her.”

“Got it. Nice to meet you, Isaac.” She then steps back and gestures for the two of them to follow her. “If you’ll come right this way.”

The trek through the school is more chaotic than Cora expected. The school itself is a swirl of smells and noise, students bouncing from one room to another coated in the scents of werewolves, witches and vampires. It’s—nice, in its own way. Oddly comforting that there are places where maybe it won’t be the end of the world every year. It’s why she left Beacon Hills, after all.

When they turn to head towards the basement, rooms that stink of fear and anxiety, she can feel Isaac tense next to her. She reaches out, giving his hand a small squeeze before asking. “Where are we going?”

“The werewolf rooms,” she replies. “Those that are part of the Hollow’s curse can’t control the shift how your wolf can. It’s…a lot more traumatizing as a result, but we do our best to help them.”

“And my brother is down here?” Cora raises an eyebrow. “Do you think he’s dangerous or something?”

“He put himself down here,” Caroline replies, before stopping at the last room in the row. “He can explain it better than I can.”

Cora stops at the door again. She knows that he likely heard them coming and knows she’s here. Can catch her scent through the barred windows on the door. But he doesn’t rush to the door, trying to get her attention, and maybe there’s a part of him that’s just as nervous about this as she is.

Part of her still wants to leave, and she glances back at Isaac. He shrugs, almost as though silently confirming that his offer in the car still stands. They can leave. They don’t have to see him. But tempted as she is, she needs to do this. She needs to know for sure.

Cora looks to Caroline and nods, and she pulls out a set of keys, unlocking the door to let her in. The man who claims to be Derek Hale is sitting on a cot, with his back against the wall. He has a stack of books on the floor next to him—they look like older textbooks. But he looks up at her, both like he can’t believe she’s here, but also being very glad she is.

And he smells like family. She doesn’t know how, but he does. It’s something that is impossible to fake, even if wanted to con her. Whoever this man is, he’s definitely her brother. And she hates he placed her in this situation, that a piece of her life has been erased so cleanly.

“Cora,” he begins, getting to his feet. “I’m glad you—”

He barely gets the words out before she swings, hitting him square in the jaw and sending him sprawling back against the cot.

“Oh, my god!” Caroline darts forward, but Isaac stops her.

“He kind of deserves it.”

“He’s right. I do.” He looks over at Isaac for a moment, and there’s something in his expression that Cora can’t put a finger on. “Isaac.”

“You say that like you know me.”

“I would hope so. I’m the one that turned you.”

Isaac’s expression flickers, and Cora can feel a swell of confusion, but also relief. Regardless, he turns to Caroline and guides them away from the door. “We should give them a minute.” Caroline doesn’t disagree.

Once their footsteps retreat up the stairs, Cora turns back to Derek, arms crossed in front of her chest. “You’re a dick.”

“I don’t disagree.”

“Why would you volunteer for something like this? If you knew it, could get you erased from someone’s memory?”

“Someone had to. And Peter was already in the pit—I needed to understand what it all meant.”

Cora wants to punch him again, but she curbs the impulse. Punching him bloody might make her feel better, but it will not get them anywhere. She takes a deep breath, hands unclenching at her sides, and she moves to her next line of questioning. “Why are you locked up down here?”

“Peter made a deal to get us out of Malivore. The rest of us didn’t want to, but he went over our heads.”

“Why didn’t you want to?”

“Because part of it involved kidnapping a seven-year-old and turning it over to Malivore so he could use him as some kind of human meat puppet.” Derek shakes his head. “Allison, Freya, and I all refused. But Peter…he had been in the pit longer than we had. He wanted out.”

“And you getting free of the pit doesn’t fix the memory problem?”

“Apparently not. But Caroline says that Hayley might have witches working on a solution for that.”

Cora nods again, still not sure how to feel about any of this. “Great. Well, when they figure that out, you let me know.”

And she leaves.

The door closes behind her, and she hears it latch. There’s a flash of hurt from the other werewolf in the room, but it’s not disappointment. Clearly, he knows her well enough. She trudges up the stairs, back out the way she came and perches on the hood of the car, waiting for Isaac to come out and join her.

He does, maybe ten minutes after. He moves to sit on the hood of the car next to her and takes her hand. “You good?”

“Not really.” She leans gently into his shoulder, wanting to feel the connection between them more than anything. “I don’t know if we’re in the middle of this now—” And that had been part of the point of their staying in New York, trying to keep out of the danger. “—but don’t let yourself get thrown into a tar pit that’ll erase you from my memory. Promise me.”

“Promise. And I don’t want to be in this any more than you do.” He looks back at the road ahead of them. “Going home is still an option.”

He’s right. They could hit the road right now and be home before midnight. But she shakes her head and slides off the hood of the car. “Malia said there’s a key under the mat. Let’s just—sleep on it, first?” Whatever this fight may be, she has a feeling they might be needed. And when she gets her memories back, she wants to be close.

Because she’s getting her brother back. Whatever it takes.

[Next.]

Edited 2023-09-21 14:27 (UTC)