Alexis Apologists Please Dont Interact - Tumblr Posts

Thanks for tagging me I almost missed this part! Also I really like your portrayal of Alexis because I feel like a lot of the time people only write her as one of two extremes (either "totally misunderstood and she can't do any wrong" or "she's an asshole and she can go to hell") so this was pretty refreshing to read -w-

Ok just one more punk progeny won't hurt~

Chapter 6: the double standard

(Trans ftm Bright eyes - he/him pronouns)

TW this Chapter contains an accurate not so positive view of alexis, regardless of your opinion of alexis please don't send death threats to either me or my proofreader.

Bright had been staying in the solaire mansion for a while now, so he wouldn't refer to what he is doing as "moving in", no, more like.....unpacking.

But alas, that's what William called it. Moving in.

He hadn't told anyone else that he'd made his decision, William reassured him that he wouldn't have to and that he was planning on getting everyone together for a "family meeting".

Bright was clambering over the mass amount of boxes he had scattered around the room in an attempt to organise his things.

Tank had recently given him a bunch of their old things, clothes, CDs, DVDs, comics all that good shit.

But he only now decided to actually get out the stuff they gave him and place it around his room.

Mabye that was because it wasn't HIS room till recently.

Suddenly, while looking around for a spot to dump one of the empty boxes, there was a knock on his door.

Bright had always lived with other people, granted it was never for very long, but within all his years of living, not one of those people ever knocked before entering.

So Bright was, understandably, more than a little startled when he heard a knock on his door.

"W-whos there?!"

Despite Bright's defensive tone, William responded sweetly.

"It's just me, Bright eyes, may I come in?"

Bright relaxed at the sound of his voice.

"O-oh yeah sure just gimme a sec"

"Of course~"

He continued frantically looking for somewhere to put the box down.

Eventually he chucked it onto the bed and went to open the door.

William slithered into the room and closed the door behind him, but not all the way.

"Good evening Bright eyes, how are you settling in?"

Every time Bright heard William speak his guard went down, his defensive nature was challenged and he felt safe.

At first this scared Bright and while he still hadn't gotten used to it

He didn't mind as much now.

"Yeah, I'm just kinda trying to put my stuff away....I mean....yeah"

Bright sheepishly gestured to the colossal mess he'd made of his room.

Despite Bright's new found comfortiblity with William, he still didn't know exactly how to interact with him.

Bright's almost bashful nature made William smile as he held back a giggle.

"Well that's good"

There was a moment of silence between the two that felt.....awkward.

William coughed.

"Well I'm glad your settling in, but admittedly, I didn't just come in here to check on you"

Bright raised an eyebrow as he waited for him to continue.

"You know that later on tonight I plan on getting the whole clan together for a meeting, and that during that meeting I intend on informing them of....you, but until then I will be out for a meeting with a friend, I'll introduce you tonight, Vincent and his partner will be making preparations for the solstice and Fred, Sam and his mate are staying at their cabin

So what I'm trying to say is-"

"Ill be home alone for the day?"

William gave Bright a smile that looked almost....painful...?

Like he was being stabbed but didn't want to cause a scene.

"Weeelll...not exactly-"

At that moment, the door he had left partially ajar, swung open to reveal somone Bright had only heard cautionary tales of

Alexis.

Alexis was a tall, pale woman. Her hair covered one eye and had a gentle curl. The eye that reminded seen was sharp and silver, not unlike William's, however while his eyes shined with a warm comforting glow, her gase was cold and penetrating, as if looking at her was the equivalent of being stabbed with ice.

Bright felt several chills shoot through him. He felt like he was being tazered.

William sighed as his excruciating smile dropped.

"Bright, this is Alexis, you and her will be the only ones in the Manor tonight"

Bright's head turned towards William as he shot him a look of pleading confusion.

"Alexis, this is Bright eyes"

The eyebrow that was visible raised

"So THIS is Sam's little underling?"

She looked Bright up and down

"Yeah, that tracks"

Alexis didn't know about Bright being taken in by William, that snarky comment alone confirmed that, which did make Bright feel a little smug, but that didn't mean he appreciated the audacity of this b*tch.

He scowled at her

She scowled back

And for a moment the two just stood there unblinking, scowling at each other.

William was glad that no one present could mind read particularly well, as they would both be able to hear him breathe out the words

"Give me strength!...actually no, if whatever cosmic force that is out there gave me strength, these two would be dead......give me patience!"

He breathed in heavily as his smile from before returned to his face.

"Well I better be off! Please have the Manor still standing by the time I get back!"

Before Bright could protest he "woodshed" out the room.

And he was left alone.

With the woman who turned the man who turned the boy who turned him.

A convoluted and yet overly simplistic way to put it

But it wasn't an inaccurate description.

Luckily, Bright had years of experience dealing with snobby older sisters so he took a moment to compose himself after the initial shock of coming face to face with the resident solaire clan's scapegoat.

And simply said.

"Look, I have a lot of unpacking to do and you seem like you have better things to do than babysit me so why don't you get out of my room and go do whatever it is you do when left unsupervised?"

Alexis scoffed and folded her arms as she leaned against the door frame.

"I'm sorry, YOUR room? What? Is Sam's cabin not good enough for you kid?"

Every word she said felt like it was being spat out at Bright.

He smirked.

"Aww well I'm sure you'd love to have an open invitation there~ but I personally can't think of anything worse than being stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with Sam and my maker, so I'm gonna stay here and unpack, thanks"

She looked flabbergasted that this kid she had only just met could muster up the courage to speak to her with such audacity.

But she wasn't about to let Sam's progeny get under her pearl-like skin.

So after what looked like her swallowing her rage, she brushed it off and retreated into the darkness of the hallway.

Bright chuckled softly to himself as he went back to his boxes.

She is certainly in for a suprise later tonight.

So will everyone else but Bright felt more smug about this one.

He didn't know anything about alexis, he could admit that.

All he knew was what she did, not who she was.

That and he knew what everyone thought of her.

Which prompted him to label her as the resident scapegoat.

Exept that's what HE had always been.....in every family he'd ever incorporated himself into, he was the scapegoat.

If he took that away from her when he became William's progeny.....what would she have left?

Or would she continue to play her part despite him?

If that would be the case then....what would he be?

These thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of.....music?

More specifically a piano, exept it was.....off

The tempo was too fast which caused the pianist to constantly slip up and hit the keys all at once in frustration.

While the Manor did give the impression that it was haunted, Bright could safely assume that the culprit for such musical crimes was alexis.

Part of him wanted to go downstairs to shut her up.

There was a lot of the Manor that he still hadn't seen anyway so this could be an opportunity for exploring.

But another part of him reminded him that his curios nature was what got him here in the first place....

Then he said "f*k it, you can't die twice!"

And went searching for the location of the instrument who's screams of pain echoed through the whole Manor.

While searching, he made a note of the decor that dawned the halls of the Manor.

It all looked....tacky but also in its own way decadent, as if the whole building was trying too hard NOT to look like a stereotypical vampire Manor.

Paintings, ornaments and various trinkets were dotted around in no particular order.

It was nice to look at, but it distracted Bright from his goal of finding the piano

And frankly he was getting sick of hearing the damn thing!

Or more accurately he was sick of hearing HER play it.

Eventually he finally found it.

The double doors were wide open, as if she wanted her music to reverberate throughout the whole Manor.

Bright stuck his head through the doorway and saw that not only was there a piano but also various instruments covered with white cloth and dust.

It was safe to assume that this was a music room.

Alexis still hadn't noticed Bright standing there in the doorway, gazing in awe at the room's beauty.

Bright decided to approach her, though she still remained engrossed in her frustrating attempt at playing.

Bright leaned against the piano as somthing dawned on him.

If alexis is supposed to be this big bad vampire then she must be like....SUPER OLD.

So how long had she been playing a song that she simply can't play?

He decided to find an answer to that question.

"How long have you been playing that thing?"

This sudden announcement of his arrival made alexis jump, which caused her to hit the keys with both hands again.

"God f*king damn it! What? What is it!? What do you want?!"

Once again she gave the impression that her words tasted bad and as such she wanted to spit them out.

But Bright was unfazed.

He just put himself back in the mindset of having an older sister.

"Didn't you hear me? I said 'HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING THAT THING?"

She hardened her gase.

Before answering, she hesitated.

"More years than you've been alive, kid"

Bright scoffed and did his best to hold back a full belly laugh.

"Damn you've been playing this thing for YEARS and thats the best you can do? How much longer will it take for you to realise that mabye this just...isn't for you?"

Bright felt as if he was poking a bear.

She shot him a look of unbridled fury, the red tint of her eye located around her sharp iris grew as she rose from her chair, causing it to topple over.

"If you think you can do better than be my guest!"

Bright went in front of the piano nonchalantly and began to play the opening to "bat out of hell" a notoriously hard piano solo.

Alexis was flabbergasted and enraged.

Bright turned his head towards her once he had finished playing.

"You know....it really doesn't matter how long you play it for....its about the tempo, the skill and most importantly you have to actually enjoy playing it! I mean arnt you tried of playing this old thing and not getting any better at it? Are you playing it cos you enjoy it or cos you've been playing it for so long that you've forgotten how to play anything else?...."

He got no answer from this.

Consider this bear poked and pissed off.

Bright saw her face go dark and knew that he needed to get out of here as soon as possible.

Once one if his step sisters made the same face at him after he was caught reading her diary.

Bright still has the scar even after death.

"Weeeelll anyway I have some more unpacking to do so I better--!!"

Before he could get away, he was cut off by alexis pulling him back by his hair.

She spun around allowing herself to be infront of him as she pulled him down across the piano

Bright struggled but she was strong, very strong.

She had him pinned, the keys wincing in pain as his body slowly hit them as his head was pulled backwards.

"G-get of me!"

Alexis found herself almost pitting him.

"Shut up. I don't know what your....deal is, but for some reason William has taken a liking to you, despite you being Sam's progeny. I have an idea of what's going on but I really don't want to belive it. Now I sincerely hope that what I think is happening isn't happening. I mean why on earth would William want a washed up, snarky, bratty disrespectful little sh*t when he already has me and Vincent?"

Bright's face dropped into a scowl.

By this point he had stopped struggling.

"But in any case, if you are going to be William's next project then I guess we'll be seeing more of eachother, so tell me.....

What do you think of me? Your Sammy's progeny so I'm sure you've heard all about me hmm? I'm sure you think you've got me all figured out....well? Answer me"

Bright knew when it was his turn to talk.

But he took a moment to look her in the eye

Just to get used to the feeling.

Then he began.

"You know....maybe everything that everyone says about you is right

Mabye you are just a selfish b*tch that couldn't have what she wanted so she decided to take it

By force.

But if all that is true....then....then why dosnt everyone treat Freddy the way they treat you?"

Bright looked down as he said this, as if it actively hurt to say while looking her in the eyes.

Alexis was confused upon hearing this.......then she understood.

Once she did, she loosened her grip on him and backed away, allowing him to get up from the piano.

She studied his face for a moment then her expression hardened.

"Listen to me kid. I did what I did to Sam because I wanted him. It's up to you to decide wether or not the way I get treated around here as a result of that is fair.

But what Freddy did to you wasn't out of malice or selfishness.

It was out of fear.

Because you where, and now will always be, a couple of scared kids who had no idea what they where doing"

Bright couldn't tell if this was supposed to be words of comfort or torment.

Either way he didn't agree with her.

So ge continued to scowl at her.

"I do think the way you're treated is fair. What isn't fair is that if turning without consent is supposed to be this big taboo then why isn't Fred treated the same way you are!?.....what's with the double standard huh?"

Alexis looked bored and fed up with whatever this conversation was.

She had said her piece.

So she left.

Bright was alone in the dusty, dark music room.

He went over to the white sheets and whipped them off, each revealing a new instrument.

One of them was a slightly piano.

It was white as opposed to the burgundy one alexis seemed to obess over.

He smiled softly, then went back over to the piano stool to pick it up.

He dragged it over to the slightly larger white piano and once he was sat down he began to play.

The sound reverberated through the Manor just as it did before.

Exept the music was less harsh and more melancholy and oddly comforting.

Alexis heard it.

Her face sofend for a moment.

Then she shook it off.

Taggs: @darlin-collins @anexistingexistence @you-think-i-care-mate