The Ink Family Legacy: Generation 5, Chapter 7 Part 1
Hello there everyone! It's (finally) time for the Inks!
Er, sorry for my relative silence. I figured that if I wasn't writing, you didn't want to hear from me. XD
I, like many of you, have returned to school. And, as I discovered, the second year of pharmacy school is going to absolutely kill me. Medicinal Chemistry/Pharmacology II, Pharmacokinetics, Therapeutics I, Evidence Based Medicine, and Developmental Biology. Seventeen credits of death.
When we complained that we had three exams in one day, our teacher simply shrugged and said, "Welcome to P2 year!"
As you can imagine, I won't have a lot of spare time this semester. But if by some miracle my brain doesn't shrivel up to recover on the weekends, I might be able to start posting again with some semblance of regularity. Maybe.
...Goddamnit, I knew I should have been an English major. XD
I am so much better at writing than medicine.
...which says more about my medicine than it does my writing, ha ha.
But less about my personal problems and more about the Inks! Last chapter, long ago as it was, Abel's brothers threw him a crazy bachelor party while the girls took Kira out to find the perfect dress. Amélie worried that Abel would pay less attention to her now that he was getting married, but she decided to be mature about it. The wedding ensued, which was surprisingly coordinated! Amy spent a month with her other siblings while Abel and Kira honeymooned at home, which is why it was no surprise that Kira fell pregnant shortly afterwards. However, vampire babies tend to be quite damaging to humans without the protection of vampire blood, so she suffered through anemia, constant nausea, and fainting spells. Amy and Abel consulted a vampire doctor for their options, and the only solution acceptable to Abel was to become human! The quads decided to take the plunge together, leaving Amy distraught. She managed to hold it together, even with her siblings all human, and before long Jude Ink was born! Amy became a teenager and Jude became a toddler in short order. And as adorable as Jude was, there was something slightly sinister about him...
Okay! Since my game was crash happy, the graphics quality will change between scenes. They don't get worse, but...well, you'll see. Accurate shadows and vampire glowing are the main points. We'll see if it gets more consistent next chapter. (Spoiler! It won't. XD)
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Missed a chapter this gen?
| 5.1a | 5.1b | 5.1c | 5.1d |
| 5.2a | 5.2b | 5.2c | 5.3a |
| 5.3b | 5.3c | 5.4a | 5.4b |
| 5.4c | 5.4d | 5.4e | 5.5a |
| 5.5b | 5.5c | 5.5d | 5.6a |
| 5.6b | 5.6c | 5.6d |
Missed more than that?
| Archives |
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Life as Jude Ink was easy.
The Ink family was about as pro-baby and togetherness as you could get these days, which is to be expected after the kind of childhood Abel and Kira had. They never wanted their son to experience what they did.
Of course, one could say that coddling a child to such a degree was unhealthy. But that would fall on deaf ears to Abel and Kira - how could love be anything but bad for a child?
"Good morning Jude!"
"Mowning Daddy!"
"Are you ready to start the day buddy?"
"I's been weady!"
"Excellent!" Abel laughed. "But, first things first - potty training. It may not seem like it now, but it's an essential skill. You'd be surprised at how many people can't seem to control their bladder."
Abel couldn't help but laugh - Rhyme had told him that when Abel was a toddler, Jin had quite the time trying to keep him on the seat. He could hardly imagine his serious father wrangling toddlers.
Abel liked to think that Jin would've gotten along with Jude. Jude's hair color could be traced at least back to Jin's father, maybe further! Ah, if only he could ask...
Jude quickly mastered the dreaded potty chair, much to his parents' delight.
Jude was just happy it meant more time to play!
His favorite toy appeared to be the tank. Even before he could walk he was dragging it around, crashing it into walls and table legs with aplomb. He might have been a little on the destructive side, but the house was pretty sturdy.
Besides, he was just too adorable when pretending to destroy towns!
He was even cute when he was gleefully twisting the heads off dolls...
...and even when he got into screaming fits with his blocks.
This was mostly because Jude had a smile that could light up a whole room. He could be angry with his toys, but would be extremely gentle with his littler cousins and animals.
"Ah, there you are Jude-bug!" Kira laughed, picking up her son.
"Mama, Mama, up~!"
Kira was coming along with her second pregnancy, but she never let that get in the way of carting her kid around. After all, compared to her pregnancy with Jude, this one was a walk in the park!
Toddler training was a whole other story though - Kira didn't have a very good frame of reference. As far as she could remember, she learned to talk from the TV...which probably explained her language.
Abel was on top of it though - that nurturing trait was a godsend.
"Dancing, Daddy!" Jude enthused, waving his chubby arms in the air.
"That's right!" Abel said with a grin. "Wow, you pick up fast!"
"Fast, faaaast~!" Jude echoed.
It turned out that once Jude started talking, it was difficult to get him to stop! He just had to give everyone within earshot the run down of his day.
"But the block was yellow, Daddy! And it was a triangle!" Jude said, stressing the importance of this matter.
"My, that does sound like a block to me." Abel agreed, biting back a smile.
"Hey, hey Daddy?" Jude asked, leaning up to whisper.
"Yeah?"
"Can we go to the park at night-night time? Amy said there were lights in the sky! Lots o' sparkly lights!"
Abel chuckled. "Yeah, I think we could arrange that kiddo."
So it was off to the park! It was still well before sunset, but Abel wanted Jude to be mostly worn out from playing by the time they saw the stars.
"Daddy, Daddy, there's a car!" Jude squealed. "A shiny car!"
"Ooh, and a butterfly! Daddy, Daddy, can we has a butterfly?"
Short attention span at its finest.
"Alright Jude, are you ready for this?"
"Ready, Daddy!"
The spring ride was the end of their long day of park shenanigans, and truth be told both were ready for some sleep. But Jude wanted to ride one more time, so Abel let him.
"Make sure to hold on tight, okay? Let me know if you're too tired."
"I gots it Daddy! Don't worry about me!" he said, waving one hand in a display of confidence.
Abel laughed - 'don't worry about me' was Kira's favorite catch phrase. The first time they caught Jude imitating it, he laughed until he cried.
Jude looked up to the sky, beaming.
"Amy was right, Daddy! There are sparkly lights at night!"
"Yup! Those are called stars, Jude."
"Stars are pretty!"
"I agree with you on that one, buddy."
"Okay, it's eight o' clock! Way past bedtime for two year old little boys. Up you go!"
"Okay Daddy!" Jude agreed, letting himself be lifted up.
"You have fun, kiddo?"
"Lots of fun! Daddy, let's come here with Mama and Amy and baby sister too!"
Abel chuckled. "The new baby could be a sister or brother."
"I want a sister!" Jude insisted.
Amélie, despite being busy with the day to day chores of being a teenager, was usually around at the end of the day to help put Jude to bed. She wanted to be close to her little vampire nephew, after all!
Every night she would read him a story - sometimes standard nursery rhymes, and sometimes vampire fairy tales. Abel and Kira were a little more unsure about the latter, but trusted her discretion in these matters.
Plus, the stories never seemed to scare Jude out of a peaceful sleep. Then again, nothing did.
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Kira's pregnancy progressed smoother than anyone could have hoped. Although, she did seem to be bigger at this point than she was with Jude, making her back ache something terrible.
"Thanks Abe." Kira sighed in relief. "Don't know what I'd do without you. This kid is going to be a behemoth, I swear to god."
Abel smiled, placing a hand on Kira's belly. He was so glad to see her glowing and happy during this pregnancy.
"You know," he teased, "multiples do run in my family. I was a natural quadruplet. My great grandmother even had two sets of twins!"
"You'll jinx us if you talk like that." Kira replied, smiling nonetheless. "Besides, there aren't any twins on my side at all!"
"Well, it would be easier on you in the long run to have the rest of our big family all at once..."
"Ha ha, no. I'd like to be able to sleep on my back someday."
"I don't know Kira - I think I'm hearing two heartbeats in there." Abel mused, pressing an ear to her belly.
"Lies. You don't have your vampire sensory hax anymore."
Abel grinned. While his hearing was nowhere near a full fledged vampire, he was certain that his senses were still much, much better than an average human's, even now. He'd have to keep that to himself, though.
"Ah, but I guess it's fine either way." Kira finally conceded. "We've got enough hands around the house to handle things. And Jude's getting older too."
"Agh, don't remind me! I won't be able to handle it when he's five!" Abel laughed.
This sort of peaceful life was the kind that Abel always dreamed of. He had the comfortable feeling that it would last this time.
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Peace of mind, however, was a little harder for Amélie to come by.
For long stretches she would be fine, but then a little event here or there would tear at her.
Sometimes Jude would start whimpering in the middle of the night. Since her bedroom was closer to the stairs, usually Amy was the first to get up and settle him.
But from time to time Kira or Abel would be faster, and she would just watch them from the hall.
"There there." Kira said softly. "What's wrong, Jude-bug?"
"Lonely!" Jude whimpered, stubbornly rubbing tears out of his eyes before his mother could get to them.
"Aw hon, we're right upstairs! Here, I'll sing you something, okay?"
"Your mama knows lots of songs. How about I sing you one that Daddy and I sang together at a concert?"
Jealousy tore at her.
She knew it was stupid. After all, when she was two, her mother was around. And Clover did sing her lullabies, and cradle her when she was lonely, and whisper her fears away. Kira had none of those things.
But she still felt it. Aching for what could have been.
And at times like that, it was best to get away.
'Away' was often a rooftop somewhere in town.
Abel knew she went out like this, and absolutely lost it the first time she disappeared from her room, but he resigned himself to it by now. After all, there was no one in this town who could hurt her. As a vampire, she was unmatched.
Everything was peaceful.
So maddeningly peaceful.
Why did that bother her? Why couldn't she be happy with all that she had?
But her thoughts still spun around and around in her head, crashing together, still trying to reconcile the life she had now and the life she was meant for.
Amélie laughed humorlessly to herself. Why did she think of that as 'the life she was meant for'? Surely she was meant for a happy life with her siblings, right?
But that's...that's not the life Anne meant for her.
She hoped that she would've forgotten by now. That's how it's supposed to go, right? You forget what happened when you were a toddler.
But that just never happened. No matter what, memories of those days remained. Of being taken to dangerous places, to where even a three year old could sense it. Of screaming and struggling in Anne's arms after the battles were over, wanting desperately to be back home with her mother.
But the strongest memory was how she felt. The all consuming hopelessness of it all.
"Have you calmed down, Amélie? That wasn't so bad, was it? Some vampires are easier to kill, just like I said."
Being a vampire was about power. And the only way Anne saw fit to show Amy that was to take her along for random executions.
"You won't understand the things I say now, but you will remember them. That much is certain. Are you listening, Amélie? You are a vampire. No matter how human you are raised, you can only be a vampire."
"Your siblings are too, despite how sickeningly human they're being raised. They don't drink blood straight from a victim. Three of them even eat food, like cattle! But you'll grow up to be different, Amélie. You're the heir of Wisteria. You will make me proud."
Amy still had trouble making sense of what Anne said. Her morals and motivations were so wildly out of tune with everything else she knew that it was hard to keep up. That deeply seated sense of superiority was the undercurrent to everything she said.
Amélie didn't understand at all.
She didn't understand why she was taken along when Anne went to murder someone who offended her. Why Anne allowed her to be hurt when she could easily dispatch her opponent.
"Pain is a part of being a vampire. That's the first lesson. Loneliness is the second lesson."
She remembered Anne sighing and getting a far off look in her eyes.
"That's what I taught to Jin."
"But Jin didn't turn out the way I wanted. He was supposed to be the next great vampire, you know? And he was supposed to be mine. I spent hundreds of years without anyone by my side, uncaring, until that boy brought a spark back into my life. For the first time in a long time, I felt alive."
"I think I always knew."
"From the moment I took him in, I knew that Jin would either be the one who could be with me until the end, or the one to end me."
"And I think I know which he is now."
"But I guess things end, even for me. I thought I had forever in my grasp. An eternal night."
She laughed.
"But before I knew it, it was a new day."
Amy remembered blinking against the suddenly bright light, wincing as it hurt her eyes.
"Amélie. You can do it, can't you? You can be Amélie Wisteria. You can do what I couldn't."
"You can make forever yours."
What did that even mean? Amy wasn't sure. She thought that it meant being with her siblings forever, but that crumbled when they chose to become human. So what kind of eternity was left for her?
Amélie closed her eyes. For god's sake, she was only sixteen. She didn't have to think about this now.
Don't think about it.
Don't think about it.
You're an Ink.
Not a Wisteria.
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Perhaps the Wisteria line isn't dead after all.
Alright, onto Part Two~!