sᴜɴᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 17ᴛʜ
ᴏғ ʙᴀsᴛᴇᴛ 1219ᴀᴄ
6 ᴀᴍ

CARLOS DIDN'T GET SCARED. But he didn't think badly of those that did, fear could be a very important emotion. It tells you when you're in danger, it lets you know when to stop, and it reminds people that they're still just human. But Carlos never really got that. And it seemed that neither did Evie because not twelve hours after she was escorted to the nurses and bandaged up with pain killers did she make her way to his dorm room, banging on the door like a madwoman.

He didn't say anything when he opened the door, though he never really got the chance as she limped furiously inside the room and pushed him back in anger.

"What the hell was that?!" She screamed at him.

"What do you mean?" Carlos, however, was calm and composed. He acted like it was any other night for him.

"You were supposed to hit him, not me!" She practically growled.

He frowned, "Was I? Maybe you just got in the way."

"Excuse me?" Evie's face morphed into an offended look as she leaned forward.

"Besides, you should be thanking me," he turned away from her again, taking his half-finished glass of wine in hand, "Imagine if I had hit him. Then the story's a bit different; beloved Auradon resident gets injured whilst out and alone with the daughter of the Evil Queen. You really think no one's going to piece that together?"

Nonetheless, Evie was still angry, "Do you think I care? They wouldn't have had any proof anyway!"

"And now, you get to play the part of the injured girlfriend, he'll dote on you, the people will wish you the best, and we even score a few sympathy points for the clumsy pretty one." He chuckled, taking a sip of his drink.

Her voice quieted down, surprising them both, but still filled with resentment, "Carlos, I know you. You never miss unless you want to."

"Who says I missed? I mean I did tell you that I'll never pass up a chance to see someone bleed." His final words made her go silent as she finally registered what had happened. He just kept staring at her with an empty, cold, and distant expression on his face.

Evie suddenly felt like prey caught in a trap. Reminding herself she was still injured and limping, standing in front of someone who once happily referred to himself as bloodthirsty, she found herself afraid. Very afraid.

Carlos continued, "And you're right, you do know me. You know that I never wanted to come to this stupid kingdom and play sad little charity case for the royals here. You knew I'd rather rip my own tongue out than do that. But you still made me come here. You and Mal and Jay, you took me from my home, from my mother. Don't get me wrong, I see the opportunity here, I do." He reached out and stroked a piece of her hair as she shivered in response, "But even my patience has limits, so I need to let out steam somehow," he smiled at her, a chilling smile as he shook his head, "And I'm not angry, we both know that I don't get angry."

Evie finished for him, "You get even."

Carlos smiled at her response, clearly pleased with how it went. "Exactly. See, Evie? You know me so well." He took hold of both her hands in his.

She merely stared at him, wondering what he'd do next, "So this was just to what? To punish me?"

"No, this was to scare you," he said.

"But I'm not scared," Evie lifted her head to meet his eyes once more. She was Evie Azula and she told herself she would not be afraid. Not of him, not of anybody. She was the Blue Witch of the Isle. "I'm angry." She declared.

"You'd be surprised how easily those two emotions coincide."

"And what the hell do you know about emotions?" She spat out.

Carlos took a second to reply, just one second. Because despite what anyone thought, Carlos did feel things. Just, not always in the right order. And he quite enjoyed it. "I know that they make people make mistakes. Dreadful, life-ruining mistakes. It caused our parents' downfall, remember? And if you aren't careful it'll be yours too."

☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎

ғʀɪᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 22ɴᴅ
ᴏғ ʙᴀsᴛᴇᴛ 1219ᴀᴄ
3 ᴘᴍ

Mal was having a shit week. She's been having to pretend to be a doting girlfriend on Ben, she still hasn't been able to get to the wand, and her group was halfway into collapse. The whole Evie-Carlos situation has had her on edge since she heard of it. Evie was Carlos's favorite in the group, he didn't hide it and it was pretty obvious. If he was so angry that he was taking it out on Evie, she hated to see what he had in store for her and Jay.

"Children, excuse me. Um, as you know, uh, this Sunday is family day here at Auradon Hall. And because your parents can't be here due to, uh, distance, we've arranged for a special treat." She opens the blue folder she's always carrying to show them a trio of letters. "We had them send you written letters!" Once she was closer to them, she handed them each the now obviously ripped open letters. The elder fairy noticed their looks and quickly explained, "Oh, it's just a precaution! Just making sure everything's tip top and right as rain." The Fairy Godmother gave a great big smile at them.

"Gee, thanks," Mal answered quickly to avoid the suffocating awkward silence that often followed.

They took the letters and retired to the girls' dorms. Evie, the only one not to receive a letter as her mother was deceased, had gone off to join Ora somewhere. Carlos left the room as well, wanting to read his letter in private. That left Mal and Jay. He was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, the letter folded neatly resting in front of him.

"What'd yours say?" She asked, sitting down next to him.

"Just that I'm not far from his thoughts and how he'll know I'll bring honor to our name. He goes on a bit about his traitorous father and half-sister for a while and blaming that street rat, Aladdin, for his failure. And how if I'll fail then I won't just be failing myself, I'd be disappointing him and his name. Nothing new, nothing surprising." Jay said, before adding a final word, "He also wrote 'The most powerful lies are often the ones we tell ourselves, he's never said that to me before."

"You still admire him, don't you?" She asked though both of them kept staring ahead, not making any eye contact.

Jay pondered on the question for a second before leaning back on the wall, "I don't know about admire. I certainly listen to him, he's my father and my elder. I respect him and I don't ignore him."

"But he never did manage to get the throne, did he? His own father turned his back on him. Wouldn't you want a mentor who actually succeeded once in a while?" She asked with a turn of the head.

"Mal, we're very different people in more than one way. I don't have the same ability in my position to just cut ties with my father the way you did with your mother. I learned everything from him, I learned about our culture and our stolen inheritance, and I learned about what makes a man truly a man. You saw your mother as some spiteful fairy who cursed an infant and still lost. But my father got dealt a bad hand before he could walk. Being the Sultan's bastard certainly made sure of that. But I don't judge you for your choices, my friend, I admire your motivation and your relentlessness. It's because of you that I get to be here, and it's because of you that soon I shall be sitting on the throne of Agrabah with my dearly distant relatives' bloodied bodies at my feet."

"She wasn't just any fairy."

"What?" Jay turned to look at her which only caused her to look at the wall once again.

Mal hesitated, she was on the brink of having a moment with Jay and it made her uncomfortable but it was also strangely exhilarating. "My mother wasn't just any fairy, she was one of few hybrids born in the Fey Lands from fairy and flectere. And she was also one of the first ones able to be both. She had magic and she could shift. It made her a legend in the Fey Lands, turns out it wasn't all bullshit. Someone she considered a friend betrayed her and did something terrible to her. It scarred her forever and now she hates any human she comes into contact with. I bet she thought my father would be different, a better man than the ones she met. But he broke her heart like the rest, and now when she looks at me she'll always have that reminder of the time she was vulnerable with a human again. Do you think our parents became villains because they got dealt a bad hand or because life just kept giving them hell that they decided to be the ones holding the knife instead of getting cut?"

Jay chose not to answer, instead, he said, "The most powerful lies are the ones we tell ourselves." He repeated his father's words before fully turning to face Mal. "Do you think we can really do this?"

Mal silently looked at him in question.

"We're smart and we're fast and we can fight. But there's just four of us, Mal. We are ridiculously outnumbered. How are we going to pull this off?"

She still didn't say anything as she turned her head again to stare at the wall as he kept speaking.

"What if we're just telling ourselves this big lie? That we're powerful and smart enough to overthrow an entire kingdom." His voice was distant, like something was just draining his confidence and it wasn't like Jay. But it certainly sounded like his father. Jay got like this when it came to disappointing him, he was scared to bring shame onto their name. "Sure, during the coronation you snatch the wand from the fairy, and then what? We make it all the way out of that church, you bring down the barrier, create a steady bridge, and all the while dealing with hundreds of guards on us? You'll be exhausted and we won't have the night to our advantage, they plan everything during the day. We've been lying to ourselves this entire time."

"Those are your father's words, Jay." She finally spoke, and she finally met his eyes. "Those are his words. I don't listen to my mother for a very good reason. If all I cared about was failing her, I'd never get out of bed. So, instead, listen to yourself. Listen to what you want and do it, not because your father said so, but because it's what you deserve."

☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎

sᴜɴᴅᴀʏ ᴛʜᴇ 24ɴᴅ
ᴏғ ʙᴀsᴛᴇᴛ 1219ᴀᴄ
12 ᴘᴍ

Ben didn't like to admit it, but he often ran away from his problems. He'd go the easy way out at times and it would take something important for him to go through with it. But he wanted to be better now. He wanted to set an example for his kingdom, that even though they were living in a grand society with opportunities they must never forget their true values. That they should be better than their enemies, give them mercy even if they didn't deserve it, because in the end he truly believed that people deserved a second chance.

The love spell Mal gave him had washed away a week ago and since then he's had the most fun he's had in a long time. He thought it was cute, that Mal had a crush on him and would rather go an easy way than a way that involved talking to him, especially since he was taken by Audrey at the time. He was well aware of how slightly manipulative it was but to be completely honest he himself was living a dishonest life. He didn't love Audrey, he wasn't committing to her, he was committing to an oath he made as the next ruler of Auradon. Ben wasn't even given the chance to explore other relationships because by the time he was six his entire future was planned out. And he didn't have such a problem with it, it would've been a nice life.

But then he met Mal. Mal, whose eyes held a hint of mischief and dry humor. A bright spot in a sea of muted empty colors. He imagined meeting her must have been like how the Darling children first met Peter Pan. How Dorothy felt when she stepped into the beautiful and colorful world of Oz. She was unlike anything he'd ever seen. And her spell gave him the opening, the courage to say goodbye and not marry Audrey out of sheer responsibility. Mal was freedom. And he was falling for her hard and fast. He'd forever regret that.

She still didn't know he was no longer under the love spell. And he planned on telling her soon. In the meantime, he quite enjoyed how honest she could be with him, trusting that the spell would make sure he'd never tell a soul. And he wouldn't, even without it.

"I still don't know about this," Mal scratched the back of her neck. She told him earlier that the dress material was uncomfortable.

"No, trust me, it'll be fine. Just be yourself, your funny, smart, amazing self." He told her and she only nodded, distracted and looking around the crowd. Ben noticed that about her, she got nervous a lot, looking in at every single face in any room they would enter. It was ten times worse now with her waiting to meet his parents. He looked for a second and saw his mom and dad inside one of the bigger gazebos, "I see them, just stay close and I'll let you know when to come by, all right?"

She only nodded once again as Ben left.

He was only with his parents for a few minutes, snapping a quick family picture and informing his parents how he's found a new girlfriend. His mother was quite adamant about it, she never did like Audrey. But he also know once he'd told them about Mal that they'd miss the Rose girl like never before.

And so he did, he told them about his new girlfriend and he told them she had brought along her friends for lunch. He was really expecting a better reaction than he got.

"As long as they keep that barbaric nature of theirs under control, they're welcome to enjoy the day with the rest of us."

"Dad!" Ben exclaimed, finding his father's words appalling. He only ever spoke that way about his past enemies and the grievances he still had for them. "Honestly, do you have to speak that way about them?"

"You know as well as I do how out of control that island is. I'm surprised they can handle utensils and don't just go out into the forest and roast a squirrel over a fire." Beast ranted.

"Dad, don't you think you're being offensive?" Ben asked, his arms crossed.

His mother had turned to join her son in his stance, "And hypocritical? Need I remind you that when we first met, you could barely pick up a spoon?"

"I was under a curse," he said to his wife defensively before turning to his son, "And it's not being offensive, it's being concerned. Those people grew up among the worst of the worst, so if I step over some precious line, deal with it. Knowing that my family and my kingdom are safe is worth it." He said truthfully, he had this recurring stance once again, this look that told those around him that he was right and no one was going to question it.

But Ben was just as quick with a response, "At whose expense? Theirs? Do all those kids have to suffer? Not even given a chance to be better, a chance that you got?" And Ben always tried to do the right thing.

"I was a different case." The Beast had turned away from his family to look out from behind the gazebo.

"How exactly—"

"Ben," his mother cut him off and with a harsh look told him to back off. Her eyes told him especially, that there were some fights that he didn't need to pick.

Though sooner or later, there would be some fights that he could no longer avoid.

☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎

Mal watched awkwardly as Ben talked to his parents far off from her and her friends were keeping themselves entertained. Evie was being led by Ora on how the game worked, smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Jay was keeping himself busy with the Charming boy, acting like they were playing a friendly game whilst no one paid attention to how close he'd get to the blonde before knocking the croquet ball into place. And Carlos was frowning at his non-alcoholic drink at a table.

"Hello there." The warm greeting made Mal jump all of a sudden. She had been observing everybody else she didn't even notice the elderly lady walk up to her.

Still, she made sure to smile at her, "Hi." She greeted.

"Now, have we met?" The lady was dressed expensively, with a touch of a decades ago to remind her of her time. And the way she held herself up told Mal she was speaking to a highborn.

Mal shook her head, "No, I don't think so. I'm new. I'm sort of like a... transfer student."

But even with that explanation, which for once wasn't a complete lie, the woman still looked at her for a little while longer. Like she was still confused, and it was on the tip of her tongue. "Oh, yes."

But all that quickly went away when Audrey appeared with a drink for the woman, "Grammy," she smiled warmly at her.

The older woman beamed at her only grandchild, Mal was no longer a concern for her. "Oh, Audrey! Give Grammy a kiss, dear."

Mal froze a bit, "Grammy?" She repeated, causing both ladies to look at her.

Audrey faced her stoically as she said, "Sleeping Beauty's mother." She introduced coldly. "Grammy, I don't think you want to be talking to this girl. Unless you feel like taking another hundred-year nap."

Mal suddenly realized what a predicament she had landed in.

Queen Leah turned to the purple-haired girl in question, "What?" But even when Mal tried her best to give a non-threatening smile at her it came across harshly as the woman suddenly yelled, "You! How are you here? And how have you stayed so young?" She slowly backed away as Audrey grabbed her shoulders in comfort.

It seemed everyone heard the commotion and had gotten closer to watch the wreckage unfold.

Ben appeared next to Mal instantly, stopping the fairy from leaving, "Queen Leah, It's okay. Maleficent is still on the island. This is her daughter, Mal," she gave a small smile meant to ease them, it didn't work. "Don't you remember my proclamation to give the new generation a chance?

Queen Leah, however, was ready with a response, "A chance to what, Ben? Destroy us? Come on. You remember, don't you? The Salientia's turned into frogs and were forced to run for their lives for weeks! The Ice Queen left Arendelle a frozen wasteland. The cauldron-born, the witches, the poisoned apples, and the spells. The spells. My daughter... was raised by fairies because of your mother's curse. So her first words, her first steps, I missed it all! You mustn't trust her." Everyone quieted down after that as Leah leaned into Audrey's hug.

Mal leaned in even though an apology from her wouldn't fix decades of mistrust and hate, especially when she had nothing to do with her mother's past decisions, come on! But, with everyone staring at them it'd be worse to not say anything at all. "I am so, so, sorr—" even when she reached out, Audrey pushed her grandmother away from the middle to speak to Mal directly.

"Go away. Stay away from her!" She yelled.

Ben spoke in defense of Mal, "Don't do this, Audrey."

"You have got to be kidding me! You're actually going to defend her? Defend them?"

"Audrey—"

"If the next words out of your mouth are 'calm down' they might just be your last."

"Now, now, child, it isn't the time—"

But Audrey ignored her grandmother, walking further away from her and more into the center of the party area, "As far as I know, our lives were perfectly fine before they got here! Now? Chad's doing so poorly on the tourney team that he's a game away from being benched. Meanwhile, the bastard's bastard has been taking all the glory." She then turned to Evie, "This one's got Ora wrapped around her finger after such a tragic fall that I'm entirely convinced wasn't so accidental. Cruella's son is—" Audrey halted once she actually stared at him for more than five seconds, "well, he just creeps me out." She said quickly, moving on to her final target. "And you," she looked at the purple-haired girl, "You came here, you planted all sorts of seeds and made alliances," she walked slowly towards the girl, her anger growing by the step, "you went on and on with your little pity act until you eventually just went for what you wanted. You stole my future. You stole everything from me. I don't know how, but I will return the favor." Audrey's eyes were focused on Mal's and vice-versa. They were practically in a staring match and waiting for the other to back down. Mal wouldn't notice it for a few more weeks, but the glint she saw in the princess's eyes wasn't just anger and vengeance aimed at her. No, this glint had existed longer than the arrival of the Rotten. And it was about time that Audrey got to use it.

"Audrey Briar Rose, come with me this instance," Queen Leah didn't give much of an option. Her nails were already digging into Audrey's arm, pulling her away from making another scene.

Meanwhile, that was the best part of Mal's entire week

☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎ ☠︎

i updated!

i hope you liked it!

what was your favorite part?

there was more character work than plot this time, plot will come back next time, but did you enjoy it?

enjoy this Carlos moodboard:

Mal mentioned that her mom is a hybrid fairy born of fey and flectere. Maleficent actually is a hybrid in the live action movies, but i decided to put my own spin in it.

Flectere [fleck-teh-reh]are a type of fairy that can shift into animals, (real or mythical). Usually flectere choose one form to shift into and stick to it, making it easier to go back and forth from it. They're considered guardians, protectors, or gatekeepers to the rest of the Fey. The more a flectere shifts the more they begin to share physical traits with what they shift into. Some start to develop scales or horns, different eye or hair color. Until eventually it's part of them forever, but they don't find this painful. It's like when your hair grows longer, you can tell after a while but you can't feel it when it does.

i chose the word flectere because it's the latin word for 'bend' and that's kind of what they do, they bend and shift their bodies to form another shape.

Maleficent was born from a fairy and a flectere. Fairy's typically look different and have different functions, usually magic though. They always have some type of ability to use magic. With Flectere it's more like magic works through them. Because Mal's father in this is human, it means she's half human, a quarter fairy, and a quarter flectere. she can tap into both sides just like her mother, and like her mother, she goes with a dragon for her shifting.

i hope you liked my new add in :)

now for some character discussions:

it's quite funny that in the first scene, Evie clearly states that Carlos doesn't get angry but rather he gets even. then, in Mal's POV, she simply thinks that Carlos acted out of anger. this shows that she and Jay don't really know him that way because they never bothered, Evie knows him best because it's true, Carlos doesn't get angry, he gets even. something that Mal never quite understood because she didn't care to. not that Evie cared either, she just gets along with him better and can read him better as well. though not perfect considering the state she's in now.

and yes, Ben is falling for Mal after knowing her barely for four weeks, dating for two of them, and him not being in that spell for one of them. some might say that that's improbable or too fast, but consider who this is: it's Ben who's had a decent, royal, boring life, a life that was planned out for him, and when this new— gorgeous— girl comes out of nowhere, acting in a way he's never before seen, she's like a breath of fresh air. she's something new. and even though he barely knows her that well, he's falling for her and that my friends is called romanticizing your significant other.

no mundanes allowed