Sometimes it takes a shove or two for us to see our flaws, sometimes we're the ones who have to do the shoving too? If it's a really busy day you might even have to suffer through doing both much quicker than is really comfortable sadly.. Events unfold including but not limited to: John being warm (a big surprise at this point I know but maybe not quite in the way you're thinking.. but that too of course..) and Hannah gets philosophical about magic while a conversation about bouncing on things is had for various reasons?

 

“Wh-When did you get so g-good at running?”
Despite the situation I couldn’t help but smirk a little as John leaned against the wall and puffed heavily to himself.

I’m really not good at running.
I cheated, a slight application of my golden diversion magic every twenty seconds or so apparently gives me unlimited stamina by ‘healing’ my tiredness?
You’ve got to love magic sometimes!

The calming ‘happy’ effect that comes with doing so many micro-pulses of my magic so quickly is probably why I’m feeling so good right now, despite the fact that I didn’t manage to shake off John in all of our mad-dash running.

I can’t seem to find it in myself to be annoyed about that little fact sadly?

As frustrating as it is, the happy glow and mild pleasure that comes with overusing my diversion just a little bit too much IS really nice.
..considering the day I’ve had I probably need it more then I’d like to admit honestly..

“You could have stopped chasing me ya know?.. don’t have a heart-attack old man.”

From his exhausted pose against the wall John managed to raise his head enough to shoot me a glare at least.
The whole thing was kind of undermined by how badly he’s still panting but it’s the thought that counts right?

“You could have just tried not bloody RUNNING you know?”
He’s kind of got a point but it’s pretty obvious from his magic that he doesn’t mean to sound angry about it, if anything he’s amused by it all honestly.

One of these day’s I’m sure he’ll be able to take things seriously without falling back on humor or just his usual smug sense of superiority hopefully?
..stupid John..

“I run now, it’s a thing I do with a surprising amount of skill apparently.”

It’s not exactly a good thing and this stupid faulty ‘flight or fight’ reaction I’ve picked up is pretty annoying too but.. be proud of what you’re good at right?
Even if what you’re good at is something stupid like running away quickly in a way that’s reminiscent of a scared little animal being chased by a predator.
That makes sense I guess?.. maybe..

“Have you tried NOT running? Seven out of Ten people recommend it.”
His grin was kind of infectious but I did well in resisting it, for now at least.

“What about the other three?”

“Died from several individual causes which they probably should have run away from rather than stopping to answer a survey naturally..”
He said it as if that really was the most obvious response he could have given.
It managed to yank a surprised laugh out of me if nothing else which seemed to please him more than it probably should have.

An impish little smile came to my lips and I quickly ducked my head down slightly to hide it before he could see that he’d managed to get such an obvious reaction out of me so easily.
I know what he’s doing and I really appreciate that he’s trying to help me calm down but I can’t let him get a big head over it all or anything!
..stupid John..

From the look on his face he’s already worked out what happened but I’m not going to dignify his smirk with a response and confirm his suspicions.
I have my standards after all!

With a huff I leaned heavily against the stupid golden wall he’d come to rest at and slid my way down to the floor.
A few seconds later John let out a relieved groan and sunk down to join me.

We didn’t say anything else at first; I think John could tell I was busy thinking.
He’s always been good at working stuff like that out when I’m involved, even if he usually takes that as an invitation to mess with me for the hell of it in his own annoying style.

“What am I going to do John? I can’t run a family, I don’t know the first thing ABOUT families..”
Let’s be honest here until recently my experiences with ‘family’ have been in the form of my missing-in-action Dad, heretofore abusive Mother and my trouble-magnet twin sister!

He made a reassuring sound at the back of his throat.
It wasn’t exactly helping but on the other hand it TOTALLY helped just knowing he was here and he was listening.

“What do I know about being a ‘matriarch’?!”
I barely know how to be a PERSON right now with all the crap that’s been going on!

I wouldn’t even put myself in charge of a PET at the moment let alone a FAMILY.. actually come to think of it I LITERALLY didn’t put myself in charge of a pet, HE did!

“If it wasn’t for your interference I wouldn’t even qualify to BE a matriarch in the first place!”
..stupid John..

He winced and looked slightly uncomfortable for a moment but despite that I didn’t feel the little burst of smugness I’ve gotten used to feeling whenever I legitimately get to have a go at him lately..

There’s probably something wrong about me being so petty like that, it’s uncharacteristic of me if nothing else but.. he’s John, ya know?..
I may have forgiven him and we ARE friends but that doesn’t mean I can’t still enjoy making him squirm for the sake of it sometimes too; I’m only human after all.

Well.. it DIDN’T mean I couldn’t enjoy making him squirm at least?
Apparently my brains chosen NOW to stop finding the whole thing funny for some reason..

“Sorry John, I didn’t mean it like that, I’m just stressed and..”
I trailed off into an awkward huff and let my head sink down to stare at my hands instead.

“When’s life going to sort itself out? I’ve had enough!.. a month ago the biggest problem I had to worry about was whatever stupidity Sarah would manage to get herself involved in, where my next mission would take me and how much warning I would get before you turned up again looking to piss me off like the particularly annoying stalker that you were?”

He winced again at the reminder of how he was.

Yet again it didn’t make me feel any better to see it for once.
All I felt was a hollow sense of my own.. immaturity I guess?.. which really didn’t sit well in my gut for some reason.

“..Sorry..”
I didn’t look at him, I COULDN’T look at him.

I know I’m being childish in snapping at him over thing’s I SAID I’d forgiven him for, I don’t need to see his face to confirm that fact thank-you-very-much!

I couldn’t help but let out a little gasp when he shifted slightly, just enough to drape his arm over my shoulders.
His warm magic rolled out to envelope me and I.. I let it happen?..

After a long moment’s pause I gave in completely to the urge my subconscious had already accepted by letting him cover me in his magic so easily, I rolled my head into his chest and nestled in tightly for a wonderfully warm hug.

“You’re overthinking things Han. You always have, remember when you copied my biology homework in fifth grade and practically had a panic attack in the middle of class?”
I pushed my cheek against his chest a little more to try and muffle my laughter at that one.

I was such a dork as a kid!
Excelling in all of my classes except the bane of my life, biology, the one time I actually tried to cheat left me wracked with guilt and so nervous I ended up being sent to the nurse because our teacher thought there was something seriously wrong with me.

“At least I didn’t try to convince the same teacher that I was blind, deaf, unable to read and DEAD within the space of a year..”

He snorted in obvious amusement too.
After a few seconds his chest shook with quiet laughter and I found myself joining in just because it felt good to laugh at last.

“We’ve both had our moments of stupidity Han, let’s leave it at that shall we?”
That’s probably a good idea.. especially from his standpoint, there are WAY more examples of him being an idiot then me thankfully!
“Now that you’ve loosened up, let’s cover the problems you’re really having.”

I was tempted to groan in annoyance but I settled for pushing my face into his shoulder a little more and ‘tugging’ his blanket of magic a bit tighter around myself.

He’s always so warm?
It still amazes me every time I can feel it, both in his magic and from his body in general.

I don’t know how I went so long in my life without noticing it.. maybe it’s because I’m an ice mage now?
I vaguely remember reading something about mages of opposing elements ‘attracting’ each other.
It’s probably along the same lines as reincarnation cycles and the old families honestly, the simple fact is that magic attracts magic in general..

Someone who is either a mage or born from a traditionally magical family is roughly eighty-percent more likely to have a magical child than a normal person would.
From those mages the odds of their child being a reincarnation to one of their direct ancestors is about seventy-percent as well.

It’s like with John’s Mum Natasha, if history is to be believed then her original persona was ‘Hel’ the first daughter of Loki..

Loki being an incarnation of Max, that means that while ‘Natasha Jones’ is John Jones’s mother she’s also Max’s daughter at the same time.
Magic attracts magic, related magic attracts related magic.

Mage family trees make the plots of your favorite daytime TV soap operas look practically boring by comparison!

Many people stick to their first impressions of each other.
Of the eighty or so ‘children’ that are currently living here in the golden palace of excess, the odds are that at least one of them has been MY parent at some point in history, either a Mother or Father to an incarnation of Arista.. but they all still call me ‘Mom’, because that’s what Arista will always be to them..

We all have our favorite incarnations and if you have one that’s really good it can change who you are fundamentally for generations to come, I have no idea on the backstory behind John and Hel’s relationship but I’m tempted to assume that she’s been Max’s mother a fair few times for John to be so comfortable in recognising her as his ‘mother’ now.

Maybe it’s just because John was so young when he awoke or something else that made him so accepting of their new roles in life but my gut tells me there’s a long history there where they’ve become more comfortable thinking of each other as ‘mother and son’ rather than ‘father and daughter’.

It’s not a bad thing, weird maybe, but not bad?
It’s just a factor of life for mages sadly.

Time goes on and we change if we want to.
Today’s enemy could be next century’s beloved child.
It’s hard to hold grudges forever when you are literally facing FOREVER to deal with them?

Every incarnation is special in its own way; it’s the little changes in personality and perspective that let us grow as people despite being essentially immortal.

There are always common threads that ring true, the personality quirks that ‘Dite called our ‘Curses’ but just as I’m not Arista, despite being her next incarnation, ‘Lady M’ isn’t me despite being integrated into my mind and Anise is STILL a spoiled little French tart with a gutter mouth!

It’s kind of reassuring to know that even if I don’t.. even if I CAN’T have children in this body for either physical or mental reasons, some part of me will always live on in the future?

It’s kind of easy to see how some mages can become full of themselves and forget that the ‘normals’ are human too honestly.. a normal’s life span to a mage can often feel like a pet goldfish’s would to a normal or something equally pointless.

Why bother getting emotionally attached to them?
They die far too quickly and then they're just GONE forever.

Even now that is one of my biggest fears in life, the thought of losing Sarah, even losing Mum.. it hurts, ya know?..

======

“You okay?”

With a jolt I almost threw myself away from him but before I fully registered what was happening he managed to pull me in closer to himself and I was left sitting there slightly stunned in confusion as his magic rolled around us in its warm comforting waves of power.

“Don’t panic, I lost you for a minute there. What were you thinking about so heavily?”
My cheeks flushed in embarrassment and I turned my head away from him, inadvertently burying my face further into his shoulder which really wasn’t helping things.

“Not much.. just.. magic is weird sometimes I guess?”
He snorted loudly and squeezed me a little tighter for a second.
..I don’t want to admit that I enjoyed his reaction as much as I do..

“This is the kind of thing I’m talking about though John. My seer talent is sealed up tight but I still space out once in a while?”
I huffed in a breath and shifted uncomfortably.
“If you were an enemy you could have killed me just then and I wouldn’t have even noticed.. how the hell am I supposed to be trusted with running something as important as a family?!”

I’m terrible at this sort of thing.
I’ve proven time and again that I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to people in general.

I barely managed to pass as ‘human’ when I was Al and he only had to deal with three, maybe four people on a regular basis who weren’t either targets to kill or innocents to shoo away!
That problem hasn’t gone anywhere but something about being Hannah has just drawn more people towards me, like a load of moths to a flame.

It seems impossible to imagine, it was only a month ago that I could count the living people I cared about on one hand.. now there’s Sarah, Eris, Mum, Gran, John, Edith, Fena and any number of people ranging from John’s Mum to those teenage girls that are somehow related to me on my mother’s side.
I’ve not even TALKED to those girls before but I care about them still?!

“..I miss being a drunken emotionless husk of a person..”
John snorted and squeezed a bit tighter again in response.

“..don’t we all..”
Despite myself that made my lips twitch up in amusement.
He always knows how to make me smile, it would be almost frustrating if it wasn’t so nice at the same time..

“Don’t be a dick, you know what I mean John, life was so much easier when it was.. easier I guess?..”
He snorted again.

I growled at him lightly to show my displeasure at being mocked so openly this time.
He DOES know what I mean, he’s just being himself about it all..

..one day he’ll be serious for more than five minutes at a time, I’m sure of it?..
With a heavy sigh I nodded resolutely to myself but there wasn’t any real feeling behind the motion.
Even I don’t think he’ll manage THAT anytime soon!

I let my head sink back onto his shoulder tiredly and settled into his hug just a little bit tighter.
..I love how warm he is..

“What am I gonna do John?”

He shifted slightly.
I almost let out a yelp of surprise when, with a slight flex of his shoulders, he had me perched on his lap so he could wrap his arms around my waist better.

Slowly his head came down again to rest his chin in my hair.
I’d practically frozen at the oddly intimate feeling movement he’d managed to pull off so casually in all honesty?

I think being wrapped in his magic for so long is relaxing me a little bit TOO much if he can do something like THIS without getting even a token resistance out of me for it?!

His magic didn’t shift at all as he did it too!
..I guess subconsciously I didn’t feel threatened because of that?..
I didn’t even try to stop him..
..it’s not like I’m unsafe because of it this time..
..but it’s still kind of worrying in general!

“You’re going to do what you always do.. you’re going to do the most illogical and stupid thing I can imagine but somehow manage to get the best result possible by doing it like always?”
Oh thanks for the vote of confidence asshole!

He snorted in amusement again and rubbed his chin lightly on my head which felt oddly nice for some inexplicable reason?

“Do you know why I call Ari, Arista and now you ‘little rabbit’ sometimes?”
I shifted uncomfortably.

His voice has taken on a tender note that I don’t tend to hear or even associate with John in general, whatever he’s thinking about, its probably not something I want to know the details on honestly?

“Isn’t it you’re pet name for Theodora? I really don’t want to know what horrid sex-act earned her THAT title of all things..”
He’s not the only one that can use humor to defuse awkwardly affectionate moments!

As far as I know it’s kinda true as well?
She’s the only one I really remember being directly associated with the name at least, although I can’t really remember why at this exact moment for some reason.

“The nickname came many incarnations before Theodora.. although you’re right in thinking she enjoyed the excuse to MAKE it something dirty, I think she took the term ‘fuck like bunnies’ a bit too literally and made the nickname a personal life challenge honestly..”

Eww.. too much information.. THANKS for that mental image John-boy!

“..everything with Theodora became dirty eventually if she had her way so try not to take it personally at least?”
I tried to ignore the way his magic rolled in amusement as I felt his jaw move into an obvious smile above me.

Having an insane nymphomaniac past-incarnation who was dating your best friend is possibly THE most stupid situation I can imagine to come back and bite me in the ass right now..
Sadly that’s probably more of an indication towards my lack of imagination then a fact of life because I have NO doubt there’s probably something worse in our pasts I’m completely unaware of at this point in time too!

“I wasn’t even the one to give Ari the name at first, her tribe gave it to her on her eighteenth birthday as a rite of passage, the little white rabbit.. It was a defining trait that’s followed her through every incarnation, be they her’s, Arista’s, or even the un-awakened ones in general.”
He shifted slightly making me lean back a little to keep my balance and I could practically feel him smirk in response half a second later.
“Every one of them, when they think they can’t handle something, they run away from it like scared little rabbits.. it’s part of her very core.. the moment a situation turns sour your past-selves always go into a panic and start looking for an escape route.”
He paused for a moment and shifted his jaw on top of my head before squeezing me slightly and continuing.
“You’ve always been different from that or at least you’ve tried to be? I blame Sarah honestly, no-one could live with that adrenaline junkie sister of yours without growing some kind of backbone at the very least.”

His voice was soft and gentle with fondness as he spoke.
I couldn’t help but smile a little at the barely hidden care that he held for Sarah on top of everything else.. who would have thought he’d be so obvious about liking her for real one day?

Even when he was ‘smitten’ in school and following her around like an annoying puppy on the idea that she’d be the future Arista or Ari, he never showed any real LIKING for her as a person!
I couldn’t see it at the time of course, I was young and relatively naive in all honesty, but looking back with experience and knowing him as well as I do now he really couldn’t stand her through most of our childhood.

This fondness for her is new I think?
I’m kind of glad for it.. I never liked being stuck between them, especially in the years between my discovery of magic and John’s flip into the psycho-zone..

“With that in mind, little rabbit, are you going to let an ingrained instinct from millions of dead-women in your head control you or are you going to square up to them and take control of things like you would have before they all started messing with your poor little furry head?”
I gasped slightly as the real reason he’d brought up that stupid nickname finally registered in my head.
“You’re female Hannah, not stupid.. just because you look a bit like her doesn’t mean you have to start running away from your problems all the time and cowering in fear from responsibility like she always would..”

Before I could stop it a tear slipped out of my eye but my lips quirked up into a tremulous smile at the same time.
..he always knows what to say..

Feeling inordinately stupid suddenly as I realised that crying isn’t a ‘me’ thing either and I shouldn’t be getting so emotional over some fancy words which basically amount to a pep-talk about the virtues of not being a scaredy-cat, taking charge of my life like Al would have done and fighting back instead of running away at last.. but it’s kind of sweet the way he put it and I’m glad he’s here TO say it for me when no-one else could..

“I’m female, not stupid.. I like that?”
I could feel him grin against the top of my head slightly.
“I mean it’s sexist beyond belief and flawed logically but it’s the sentiment that counts.. you’re only male after all..”

We both cracked up at the same time.
You’ve got to love double standards sometimes!

After our relieved laughter trailed off into giggles which again turned into the odd little snigger between us I found myself left lying in John’s arms, wrapped up in his warm magic and feeling surprisingly content about life in general.

“Hang on.. what do you mean I look ‘a bit’ like her? I’m practically a bloody clone of that crazy bi-”
I managed to catch myself before insulting Arista outright which would probably sour John’s mood at least slightly but, like with his pep-talk, the sentiment was there and obvious to see if nothing else.

For some reason John burst out in laughter again which shook his body and vibrated against my back in a rather nice way.
I almost found myself purring happily as he shook beneath me but that urge was stopped short with a new-found will of iron that I’ve developed when it comes to all things ‘cat’ related since the whole ‘kitty-Hannah’ incident yesterday.

“You don’t REALLY look like Arista Han, the resemblance is there don’t get me wrong, but do you really think Thor would have believed the whole story we fed him if you looked like an actual clone of her?”
Well.. yeah?.. but.. but you said he was an idiot?!..

..I just kinda assumed he’d missed it or something with the glasses and hair, ya know?..

“Genetics and magic can only do so much Han. No spell is ever perfect, you know that?”
Yeah, that’s true.. but.. but?!..
“For the record your shorter then Arista and Ari were by a good inch or two, your lips are plumper, your eyes a bit smaller, your breasts are a bit bigger, your toes are weird and of course-”
He cut himself off just long enough to lean forward with both hands and poke a finger on either side of my face into my cheeks teasingly.
“-you have those adorably chubby baby-cheeks going on.”

I couldn’t help but flush bright red.
With a yelp I slapped his hands away and rubbed at said cheeks as a pout formed on my lips.
He shook underneath me again as he tried to hide his laughter but he couldn’t hide it very well, especially with me wrapped up in his magic.

After a long pause while I sat there feeling both offended by his frank assessment of my new looks and kind of glad to hear there are so many ‘obvious’ differences between me and my annoyingly long-shadowed past-self, I let out a huff and shifted uncomfortably in his lap.

“..I don’t have weird toes..”

It’s horrible that THAT is the only thing I could think of to really argue back on from everything he said but it’s true!
I have perfectly normal toes thank-you-very-much!!

“I’m sure your tiny little digits are considered ‘not weird’ somewhere in the world.. on a child below the age of three.. with some kind of genetic problem that makes them unable to grow properly.”
DAMN IT JOHN!

With little effort I managed to force myself up bodily from my John-seat and then let my weight drop back down again on top of him.
His latest round of silent laughter cut short with a pained ‘oof’ as the air left him under my admittedly unimpressive weight, which was like music to my ears at this point.

Just when I think he’s being serious and actually showing some kind of ‘wisdom’ despite his personality he just HAS to start being his usual asshole-ish self again!!

“That was mean.. and kinda scandalous.. what would people say if it got out that the Garnier Matriarch enjoyed running off to a hidden location so she could bounce herself on the lap of THE Maxarimus, huh?”
I could feel his grin just from his voice I didn’t need to turn around and see it for real.

“Oh shut up! If anyone gives a crap who I chose to bounce myself on then they can shove it up their probably air-tight collective asses!.. and if I’ve got to be a Matriarch then I get to make the rules and I say the Matriarch can bounce on whoever she wants so THERE!”
He had me laughing before I’d even finished my little rant.

We both couldn’t help but laugh over the whole thing, I didn’t even mind the obvious innuendo he was trying to ‘subtly’ abuse for his own amusement.
It felt good to laugh over something like this?

Sitting here laughing over the whole thing with John, it’s hard to believe I practically had a panic attack over the idea of running our family just a little while ago?!

I’m Hannah Cooper damn it!
I can beat anything!

Besides, being a Matriarch can’t be THAT hard?!
Gran doesn’t seem particularly busy with it if nothing else and even if it IS a full time job’s worth of work I can just delegate things to everyone else.

If that’s against the rules then SCREW the rules!
The moment I’m in charge I’ll change them so I CAN delegate things; then wash my hands of the whole bloody thing until they REALLY need me for something.

Gran thinks I can do it.. do it better than her at that?!

John’s right, I’m not some ‘little-Arista-rabbit’!
If anything the last few days have shown that I’m a ‘kitty-Hannah’ and while I don’t particularly like that fact, the important point is that Cat’s EAT Rabbits.. so SCREW Arista and her annoying fear response!

I’m kitty-Hannah, hear me roar!

“You know you’ve unofficially volunteered to help me deal with this crap right?”
John grunted in agreement although he didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about it even if he WAS smiling at the confident expression I can feel settling on my face.

With renewed energy and a new sense of purpose.. a new sense of POWER.. I pushed away from him, letting the safety-blanket of his magic I’d been desperately clinging to slide off me as I reasserted control with the slightest of shoves from MY magic.

“Come on John-boy the day’s still young. I’ve got a Matriarchy to take the helm of, a family to sort out, a cover-story to explain and a sudo-government organisation to tell where they can shove the idea of making me some kind of lab-rat over the whole ‘solar flare’ thing!”

John let off a surprised laugh but even from here the twinkle of joy in his eye along with the proud little quirk of his lips was obvious for me to see.
He planned this.. the sneaky bastard planned this whole thing for the moment when I really DID snap at last just so he could mentally bitch-slap me back into acting like myself at last didn’t he?!

I couldn’t help the smile that made its way to my lips.
I hate to do it.. I REALLY hate to do it, his head’s big enough as it is.. but for once he deserves what’s coming to him!

“Thanks John”

His eyes cut over to mine and crinkled up a little in the corner happily when he read the expression on my face for what it was.
He snorted back a laugh and waved me on towards the hallway ahead of us.

With a clear mind and new purpose I lead the way, dipping slightly into my lines so I could sense the trail we’d left behind as we ran here in the first place.

It wasn’t exactly hard to follow.
I DID kind of let off micro-bursts of my diversion every twenty seconds as we went after all.. I’m pretty sure anyone with a third-rate knowledge of how to track something magically could find us if they wanted to.

The fact that no-one DID follow us means that they either didn’t care enough to bother or they trusted John to bring my stupid ass back eventually..

My eyes cut back over to him as he jogged along at my side.
A smirk slid onto my lips and with a little jerk of my hips I managed to send him skidding sideways into one of the halls golden walls before making an all-out sprint ahead of him with an accompanying burst of laughter at his indignant yelp which was quickly followed by the sound of heavy footfalls as he gave chase.

..thanks John..

======

“Well somebody looks in a better mood?”

I puffed heavily to myself and practically collapsed into a chair.
Everyone was staring at me, I could feel it, but the exhilaration of running mixed with my newly rediscovered outlook on things-
John chose that moment to come crashing through the door into the golden dining hall of excess looking like he’d just run several marathons at once.
-and of COURSE the all-natural glow of VICTORY that left me as a proud but panting mess, allowed me to ignore their stares with so much ease it was almost funny!

I’m Hannah Cooper, if they don’t like how I do things then screw’um all ‘till they cry for mercy!

“Loser gets the drinks John-boy! As the obvious family moto goes ‘Fetch! Good boy!’”
Despite his tired state John managed a snort of laughter as he slowly pulled himself out of the seat he’d collapsed into.

The crowd of family, mostly the werewolves and specifically Grace at that, obviously didn’t find my comment funny in the slightest judging by the raised shoulders and glares I received for it.

With a careless shrug I kicked my feet up onto the table and shot a warning look around the room which was surprisingly effective at cowering most of the glares if not all of them.
Grace seemed to take it as a personal challenge though and before anyone could think to stop her she was marching towards me with battle in her eyes.

A few days ago, hell a few HOURS ago I would have been terrified had she looked at me as she is right now, with that deep growl she’s got building at the back of her throat.. but that was hours ago and this is NOW!

I’m Hannah Cooper bitch, who the HELL do you think you’re glaring at?!

“You want a piece of me Grace come get some, don’t go crying to your litter-mates when I spank you so hard your wolf feels it though.”
There was a collective gasp around the room at that comment but I kept my eyes on Grace as she slowed her pace considerably in confusion.

She didn’t STOP walking obviously but her eyes were looking at me differently now, assessing me and trying to see what makes me ‘tick’ in some way.

I’m not the scared little girl she’s used to seeing anymore, the one that runs from everything and backed down just because she growled at me.

That girl never existed to begin with!
It was all just me feeling uneasy with the way my life and body had changed so drastically; allowing it all to fill my head with self-doubt and questions.

It took John making the obvious comparisons but I’m NOT that girl, that’s ARISTA talking!

I’m the kind of person who can face a Handyman and his personal army with a giggle and the bare bones of a plan!
I’m the kind of person who kills demons with a staff I stole from their high-priest by beating them into a pulp of green goo!

I’m not a monster, I’m something much worse.. I’m the thing monsters run from!

Grace came to a stop at my side and leaned in slightly to glare at me right in the eyes.
..it’s all a challenge, a power-play..

She’s had time to stew over the idea of Gran making me Matriarch and she doesn’t like it.
She doesn’t think I can handle it, I’d even go so far as to say that from the look on her face she thinks that SHE would make a better Matriarch then me?!

I don’t particularly care for the job but saving people is what I do, protecting family has always been something I’ve done and teaching idiots to know their place has been a lifelong goal for me as well.

So the people need saving from themselves, the family has gotten WAY bigger and the idiots I need to teach are looking to fight it out before they will listen to reason now?
Big surprise, people are idiots.. I’ve always known THAT eternal truth sadly!

Grace bared her teeth at me and let the building growl in her chest finally leave her lips.
Maybe it’s a werewolf thing but everyone in the room flinched away from her heavily at the sound, I’m not a werewolf really but I don’t need to be to know a challenge when I hear one.

“You here to pick a fight or just ruin your throat for the sake of making noise Grace?”

Her growl went up another notch.
Even Gran seemed to hesitate this time.
Obviously I hit a nerve of some kind?

With force Grace pulled herself back from the edge of just lunging for me, enough that she could actually speak, although even then her voice held a certain animalistic edge to it that sounded almost masculine coming from her throat.

“When did you become such a smart-ass you useless little shit?”
A few more gasps came out but not nearly as many as I’d gotten before.

She’s not very good at this sort of thing is she?
Must be a lack of experience I guess.

Out the corner of my eye I could see Gran moving to stop us in some way.
..we can’t have that can we?..

“I became a smart-ass about the same time you became a dumb-ass, Gracey-darling, birth I believe?”
That put the cat among the pigeons!

It doesn’t take a genius to tell that Grace is the unofficial ‘top dog’ among the family’s werewolves at the moment.
The fact that she was front and center with Gran when they faced off against the Hub gave it away even if the way she holds herself and people’s reactions to her usual bad attitude wasn’t enough to solidify it.

Gran put me in the position of becoming ‘Matriarch’ of the family without direct challenge.
That’s fine for the mages but, despite their general humanity, werewolves ARE still beasts at heart.

It’s not an insult, they literally ARE beasts at heart, they would never accept me as a Matriarch as long as Grace stood there opposing me in any way.
She’s pack leader.
The fact that Gran is family head just means that Grace follows her, the wolves only follow Gran BECAUSE Grace does!

I’m not stupid.. if you ignore the fact that picking a fight with a werewolf in general is a pretty stupid idea to start with of course.

This fight is happening.
Whether it happens now on my terms or in a weeks-time when Grace finally snaps at me, literally or metaphorically, it’s GOING to happen.. and sadly for her she’s going to lose.

She should have made a move sooner, she’s only got herself to blame for what’s about to happen.. well.. herself and John I guess?

Grace leaned back from me in almost shock for a moment before her neck tightened like the other werewolves do when they’re offended in some way and she gnashed her teeth angrily.
“The runt has a runt of her own, why am I not surprised you don’t know your place either?!”

Without another word her arm shifted slightly and with a heavy sounding crack that almost made me wince the bones in her forearm started shifting.
Her mouth pulled forward into a roughly muzzle like shape as people around us gasped in horror.

I’ve seen werewolf movies before, who hasn’t?
I can kind of see why Jessie’s boys have whatever magic on them they have that makes a flash happen when they transform now.. because watching Grace’s already large frame twist and morph into an over eight-foot tall wolf-human hybrid was truly disturbing!

A wolf-human hybrid with sharp teeth, sharper claws and murder in its eyes as she glared down at me with the remnants of her clothes falling to the floor around us to boot!

For a long moment we stared at each other before she threw her head back and howled angrily to the heavens.

Everyone started moving at once.
Some people backed away in fear, others froze in place like startled rabbits which amused me slightly.
Even Gran froze as she stared at us in wide eyed fear.

Her howl complete Grace’s muzzle came down to gnash in my direction.
I had less than a moment to prepare when she twitched her legs to lunge at me.. lucky I’d been ready for her for the last minute or so, ever since she first started coming towards me really huh?..

My fingers twitched as the pre-cast spell formation I’d set up in my chest with internal magic slid out of my hand-lines, backed up by a bit more magic then strictly necessary just because I didn’t feel like playing nice for once.

It’s just a modified float spell really, like the one I put on our shirts so me and Sarah could ‘fly’ down from the roof earlier.. admittedly there’s a little more ‘float’ to it and not enough ‘fall’ technically but it gets the job done.

I don’t use spells often but when I do it’s always best to go for quick and dirty to cast ones just for the surprise involved if nothing else.

I think Grace felt the touch of my magic before the spell really kicked in?
Her dark wolf-like eyes shined with a rather human look of fear in the heartbeat before her chest jerked slightly and she was launched bodily up into the air to crash heavily into solid gold above us, practically becoming one with the hard ceiling that happened to be in her flight-path’s way.

With the spell cast and the amount of power I’d put into it I didn’t need to do anything to maintain it anymore.
I let my hand settle back into my lap and kicked my feet on the table a little to get more comfortable as I stared at the snarling mass of dark fur covered muscle above us.

“You know from this angle I can kind of see the charm in having a werewolf skin rug.. any volunteers?”

The few wolves around me who had moved to make some kind of defence of their easily defeated ‘leader’ stopped short at the cold assessing tone of my voice.
I didn’t look at them all obviously, Grace is more important after all, but I didn’t need to anyway because my mage senses were hyper aware at the moment like they always are when I’m on a mission or fighting someone.. however brief the actual fight may have been..

“Tea Hannah?”
John didn’t do a very good job of hiding his amusement as he casually made his way over to me carrying a cup he’d acquired while I was busy.

The few holdouts who’d stood their ground at my rug comment hesitantly stepped back slightly to show their submission when I took the cup from John in both hands with a smile.

Oh it’s all well and good attacking the upstart mage while she’s busy holding the big boss-lady on the ceiling with her magic and can’t fight back.. but when she proves that it’s taking no effort for her to maintain that current spell and she’s ready to repeat events all over again?
..yeah, even werewolves aren’t THAT stupid!..

“So.. who wants to challenge me for the position of Matriarch?”
No-one moved, most of them seemed to actually be holding their breaths for some reason.
..I’d forgotten how much fun it can be to play a crowd like this..

“No-one?.. what about you big guy? fancy your chances?”
The guy in question practically shrunk back against the wall as all eyes turned to him in horror.

“Well I’m glad you’re all so in love with the idea of me being your all-powerful leader and are embracing it with such hope and vigor!”
My eyes cut up to Grace again from her position mushed against the ceiling.

..if a werewolf can look afraid, she does..
Rightly so too I guess?

If my book-earned knowledge of werewolf pack mentality is correct then this is the point I’m supposed to.. uh.. ‘sink my teeth into her jugular and rip her still beating heart from her chest as a trophy of my victory’..
..I’m not gonna DO it obviously?!..
Grace is much too useful for something like THAT.. besides she’s family?.. rather annoying family I’ll admit, but STILL family!

It took a little bit of concentration to pull off but for various reasons I have a rather solid mental image of the proper restraints needed to bring in a large magical beast, demon or annoyingly stupid human alive if necessary already memorised.

One time I had a mission with a room full of rather annoying ‘posh’ normals who just REFUSED to listen when I warned them about the demon in their midst.. it’s not MY fault they all ended up tied up with conjured restraints for the Hub staff to collect, stupid people get what they deserve sometimes!

The mental image finally complete, a set of thick leather restraints appeared in my outstretched palm.
I casually bit down on my thumb with my canine enough to draw some blood and made quick work of inscribing an old favorite rune-set of mine onto them.

With a push of magic the runes lit up brightly before dying down again to be practically invisible against the dark leather.

I shot a warning look around the room and received surprisingly few looks in return.
I’d never say that I LIKE being feared but sometimes it’s just so much easier than anything else.

I’ll make it up to them all later somehow.. buy them some doughnuts maybe, I don’t know?..

A slight pulse of my magic filled the tiny storage rune to bursting and with a flick of my wrist I sent the leather restraints high into the air.
Just as they reached the peak of their flight the rune delay finished counting down and the restraints snapped to attention mid-air.

From there it was almost comical to see them home-in on Graces prostate body as the one closest to them and wrap themselves around her neatly.

You DON’T want to know how much math it took to work out how to make restraints do something as fancy as this but you wouldn’t BELIEVE how much time and effort it saves in the long run having these as an option I can just throw about if needed during the planning phase of a mission!

To my and everyone else’s surprise, the moment the restraints finished sealing themselves up tight and flashed gold to vent the admittedly large amount of excess magic left over from when I overcharged them Grace let out a slightly pained growl and her body started shifting in that same worryingly accurate ‘horror movie’ style as it did before.. but in reverse?..

I carefully kept my face blank so as not to ruin all the work I’d put into making myself seem like a badass for everyone here but internally I was at the same level of awed staring as John was at this point!

It must be my diversion?
They said the dome I let off at the farm ‘calmed the wolf’.. somehow charging the runes with my magic and having it vent next to her skin at such a high intensity and proximity must have done something to either make the ‘wolf’ flee or just trigger her change in general?

Magic’s complicated sometimes.
Even the best planned out spell can go wrong for any number of reasons.. not that I’d really call this a failure per-say I guess?..

I just showed the werewolves that I can take their best weapons against me away with casual ease after all!
Come to think of it, hot-DAMN am I AWESOME or WHAT?!!

I downed the last of my tea and set the cup down on the table with a slight ‘clink’ that made everyone jump.
Without another word I eased myself back to my feet and started walking towards the door with as much ‘casual’ grace as I could manage.

“Thanks for the offer Gran, if you still want me I’ll totally be Matriarch or whatever?”
Careful to make it all seem like more of a statement then a real question I found Gran’s eyes and quirked up an eyebrow questioningly.

I’d understand if she had second thoughts after this little display.
I went a bit too far even before the restraints changed Grace back to a human.

I’m just feeling so.. I’m pumped up and ready to take on the world right now I guess?!
..I blame John..
Stupid John!

Old habits die hard apparently and his little pep-talk has me ready to fight the world just to prove I’m not some stupid ‘little rabbit’ Arista clone honestly?
I wanted some ‘Al’ time and.. well.. this is ABSOLUTELY it!

Gran watched me with tense eyes for a long moment before she finally seemed to find what she was looking for.
Her face lit up with pride and she offered me a nod with a wide grin in return.

I almost ended up basking in the warmth that came from pleasing her in some way for a moment but I managed to catch myself at the last minute.

“Great, sort yourselves out then. Keep an eye on Grace too, she should come loose from the ceiling.. eventually?.. love to stay and chat but I’ve got a busy afternoon ahead. Come on John-boy!”

I made it outside and paused just out of sight for John to catch up.
It wasn’t hard to hear the collective sigh that rang out as I left or the conversations that sprang up almost instantly in my wake.

One conversation in particular caught my attention most though.

“John? What’s happened to Hannah?”
Gran didn’t sound too sure of herself for once but I can’t really blame her.
As plans go ‘blitzkrieg’ charges full of arrogance and power tend to be the most upsetting for everyone involved.. but also the most effective sadly..

“Nothing’s happened to her-”
I could practically feel his smile from his tone of voice even if his magic didn’t display his pride and amusement perfectly well to start with.
“-this is MY Hannah we’re dealing with now. She’s on the warpath, just be glad she came to you lot first, I almost feel sorry for the Hub when we get around to them..”

“JOHN-BOY, COME!”
He sighed dramatically but his magic spiked up in amusement almost as much as my smirk did.

John’s perfectly happy to play the servant in this little thing we’ve got going on, to smooth away any hurt feelings left in my wake obviously if nothing else.
He’s always preferred being the silent partner in any scheme he works on.. sneaky bastard..

He came around the corner and met my eyes with an amused, almost nostalgic look on his face.

We didn’t need to say another word as we moved on.
The wide mischievous grin’s we shared said enough for both of us..

This is gonna be funnnnn!