eye for an eye | [d2, closed]

Their sordid rivalry with one another is perhaps each the Alcott family and the Fier family's greatest setback. Were they to squash this centuries old war once and for all they'd both be all the better for it. But pride is the cruelest of demons, and neither side shall concede because they've convinced themselves there is still something to be gained, something to be won, something left in the cinders and ash.

It wasn't like this in the beginning, however insignificant a fact it may be now. There was a time, though, when the two affluent families were so close that neither party knew where one family's property ended and the other's began. They wore pig trails into the fertile common grounds for years, travelling back and forth between the gothic solitude of the Fier castle and the bright Alcott chateau. Eventually, the two families went into business together, fencing in those properties, erecting the biggest greenhouse in District Two, and raising what quickly became a highly lucrative tea empire, which not only withstood the wars of the dark days, but continued prospering during and ever since.

Of course, secrets were kept on both sides from the very beginning, because no matter how well we may know a person, there is always something hidden from the surface. And slowly, over time, those secrets began to unravel the once warm relationship between the Fiers and the Alcotts. Of course, you're already predicting where this eventually goes, aren't you? I suppose stories like this one only ever end in one way, and you're probably right about your assumptions, but it is important to note how long things were going wrong before it got to that point. The two houses grew cold with the seasons, visiting less and less. The children were told to avoid one another. The trails healed. The dynamic became strictly professional, a palpable tension and a thousand unsaid things.

The claim, as it would be told today, is that a Fier was taking more that his share, and an Alcott stepped in to stop it, and the Fier attacked the Alcott and the Alcott killed the Fier in defense. After that, more Fiers fought more Alcotts, and so the vicious cycle continued. Notice how this version, the one popularized by the publicly esteemed Alcotts, absolves them of almost any responsibility in any of these situations. And that would be fine, except the Fiers have a different story, a small little error that doesn't add up: The records did show that money was missing. The records do not show it appearing anywhere in any Fier account at any point ever. In fact, the Capitol themselves declared it inconclusive in the end because there wasn't enough evidence on either side to convict. The self defense claim was accepted as it were, but it begs the question: If the Fier man hadn't stolen the money, then why would he have attempted murder to keep his then nonexistent secrets safe in the first place?

There you go, now you get it. The Alcotts blame the Fiers. The Fiers blame the Alcotts. The truth is somewhere in between. But now, with tensions higher than ever, the two families have severed all ties with one another for centuries pardon the heated public squabble or hate-fueled brawl from time to time, each family claiming half of the greenhouse and pretending the monsters across the way no longer existed for any reason other than to be destroyed. But those secrets which started this have multiplied by the hundreds, and it is only a matter of time before the wrong one of them is exposed and the cold war begins burning once again.

At the risk of ruining the suspense, I'll start this off with one of the many secrets kept in the Alcott tea brand: The Alcotts know the real truth of what happened, and there is a reason they've worked so hard to cultivate an alternate truth. It was all them. Him, specifically: Vincent Alcott. He was the acting patriarch of the Alcott family at the time, and when his dearest friend, Quinten Fier, discovered the Alcott origins, he did what he had to do to keep it from getting out, even as much as he wished he didn't have to. The stolen money was done after the fact- again by the Alcotts- to create the story that is told today.

And what are the Alcott origins?

Buckle up, because this is where it gets weird. Originally, the Alcotts were not a blood-related family, but instead a league of literal assassins. They believed that they were a necessary evil: a belief that has remained a staple of their psyche to this day. They thought of themselves as equalizers, a foreboding warning, a demand for order that is sometimes necessary when trying to achieve a functional society. Of course, through the years, they became the blood-bonded blonde serpents we know them as now, but they still maintain many of the very same beliefs.

When an Alcott turns sixteen, their parents bring them to the chapel, a several-stories tall tower with a winding staircase all the way to the top and records of every single person officially killed by an Alcott ever. Inside, they tell them the very same things that Quinten Fier haplessly stumbled upon all that time ago. Of course, some of their customs have changed, and the Alcotts have allowed self-righteousness to cloud their judgement.

The kids do not hunt men down in the streets, stalk them like dogs in the night. They do not tie their targets up and bring them back to the chateau, or cover their heads with bags, or tie them to one of Magdalene Alcott's antique mohogany and pearl dining chairs. They do not even put the customary single bullet into the chamber of the ceremonial pistol Boyd Alcott keeps locked in a safe in his closet.

But they are made to pull the trigger, time and time again after that trip to the chapel. And some day, they'll grow up and learn the truth of their purpose, and they'll do the same thing for their own children. The Chapel remains locked to all who do not have a keycard, and so after that day, they get theirs. The lowest floors are the oldest kills, but every year after that one, they are allowed to climb one floor more to read more about all of the so-called order their family has kept throughout the centuries. Of course, the reason their victims are all covered these days is a secret that their parents have kept from even the children themselves, but one of their rules is that they are never to look beneath the hoods of their victims. Before, during, or after. That, and the oathtaken code of silence are perhaps the most important rules of the many that the Alcotts follow.

The children are taught to respect one another, and they do so, at least on a surface level. But they are also taught duty before blood. If they suspect even the slightest drift in allegiance, it is their training to fix the problem no matter what, and always prioritize every other Alcott over the one. Neutralize, they say. So, do they seem like the perfect career family? Yes, of course. But they are controlled by their fear, and perhaps they should be.

alphonse alcott 18 • played by nyte, fc: ben hardy you are the crown prince of a quiet empire, the golden sparks of a forgotten flame. you live to please your parents, you'd do anything to impress, passionate at your best and desperate for the rest. you don't need your siblings to like you- you're the oldest, and it is your job to ensure the integrity of the strict, rigid upbringing that shaped you all is maintained, no matter what. you don't need to be liked. you need to be perfect- a weapon that could kill any and all, no matter the encroaching fear that you will never be enough for them. for any of them.

beatrice alcott 17 • played by tris, fc: kat mcnamara they ask you 'don't you think you deserve more?' they think its so unfair, a girl so smart taught to be okay with blending into the background, to be treated as nothing more than fanciful and simple, to never even think you're worth more than that. were it not for the blistering light your siblings can cast, you would not be so resigned to retreating into shadow. the truth is that power frightens you, and that's why you give yours away. blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, and that's exactly what you wish to do.

cygnus alcott 16 - played by dars, fc: fin argus you did something you weren't supposed to do today, and now you're afraid. you've always seemed like the easy one- that's what your parents say: a breath of relief after your older sister's difficult infancy before you. your father swears he hasn't ever seen you cry, which is strange, because you seem perfectly approachable. charming, even. you've mastered lying, you suppose, and are just better at appearing to be the flower while holding all the venom of the serpent beneath the surface. you have many secrets, because you learned long ago when to stop talking and start listening. a boy with a red banner flying over his head as he kisses you in the shadows. you've lied your entire life, and so that's your plan moving forward: lie and deny and forget and move on. But you've seen the truth now, another layer revealed, and it changes everything.

daisy alcott 15 • played by kaitlin, fc: alyvia lind unlike a typical career family, yours has always been appreciative of the arts. your favorite place to go is the main hall. it's its own museum in a way, lined in every direction with priceless paintings that you can sometimes spend hours gawking at in complete awe. it was always photography that your parents pushed you hardest in, though, and it is something you're quite talented at doing. completely unbeknownst to you, they are subliminally training you for reconnaissance. your birthday is in two months, and so that is when they take you into the chapel and tell you what your older siblings already know. your birthday is in two months, and that means in two months nothing will ever be the same for you again.

enoch alcott 14 • played by mattio, fc: willem de schryver you are a spoiled boy, the youngest and most precious of your mother's pampered possessions. for fun, you terrorize the staff of the manor because you know they can't do anything about it. honestly, you have an anger in you, a displeasure. you always hunger for more, filling a hole inside you by letting a snake loose in daisy's bed, punishing cygnus for getting better grades than you by taking a pair of scissors to his piano strings. you don't even remember it, but there's a reason you are the way you are: you saw something when you were a child, and so now things that shouldn't be so easily morally acceptable are perfectly fine to you. your ruination is not your own doing, so why should you be the only one left to suffer the consequences of it?

They don't know how, or why this war was started, but they know all too well that the truth was left behind in Quinten Fier's corpse. After that, the Fier family knew only strife and loss. There wasn't ever enough evidence to convict anyone and besides, what would prison have done that they weren't all already doing to each other? Their business suffered, their public image destroyed beyond all repair, and at one point they were in danger of filing for bankruptcy.

The Fier family began to believe that they were actually cursed somewhere along the way. Not metaphorically: they believed an actual curse had been placed on their house- probably by the Alcotts- and after a while, not believing it seemed impossible. Several of them have attempted to venture off, start anew as low men on the floor and even then, jobs were denied because of their names, because of their home, because of a lie. Their every business idea crashed and burned. Some would even say the curse remains today. Sicknesses and early deaths have plagued the family, so much so that their dear mother passed before forty of natural causes. She just died, they said, and expected it to be good enough.

The most recent terrible thing to occur was also the most jarring for the children, as it was one of them who was the unfortunate target of the curse. Jorden had always been ahead of the curve in his training- some would even say he set the curve. Thirteen and already getting sponsorship deals and scouts from the most prestigious training academies in Two. One day, he disappeared, and the most painful part is not knowing. Worrying. Hoping against hope and knowing better.

See what I mean about the curse? Don't worry, though. Around two or three generations ago, someone decided to do something about it. He claimed to find the texts of a deity named Malstar, known almost exclusively as only She or Her. Ancient followers of Malstar believed, in a turn of irony, that though cruel and unfair, Her wrath upon earth was necessary. And the only way to quench her wrath and receive her favor was to make a sacrifice- the heftier the sacrifice, the bigger the reward. And listen, it might sound crazy and in truth it was probably just a coincidence, but after he thought and thought and thought, and grew angry about his inability to work and grew angry that the Alcotts were fine and grew angry that none of it was fair, he tried it. He made a sacrifice. And then he got a work call the next day.

So he continued, eventually having an entire church built right there within the mansion, where he would teach his children, and his children's children the way of Her. He left out the bits about human sacrifice, of course, and only ever performed said sacrifices in secrecy as he watched his family miraculously come back from the brink. But there came a time when he could not carry out the sacrifices himself and, believing them to be the entire reason for his family's continued survival, he taught his grandson- the current patriarch of the Fier family, Fredrick- how to in his place. When he grew up and had a family of his own, he tried stopping the sacrifices. First when his wife Natalie died, and then again when Jorden went missing.

After that, he believed the truth was definite: She was the only reason his family was alive. So, he told them all about it and now he expects them to carry on the family business with him.

fiona fier 18 - played by dars, fc: zoe kravitz personally, you don't get it. the whole 'honor' thing just feels like another way of being controlled, and though you play your part and say your prayers, you often wonder how bad it had to get before it got to this. the sacrifices mean crossing a line that can never be uncrossed, and it scares you. it terrifies you. maybe ginger is right and you've always just been too soft, but there's such a profound sense of dread approaching. it's the calm before the storm. and wars aren't won politely, you know. and vengeance will always be sought, you know. but whether you live to see victory or die along the way, you want to know with absolute certainty that you are, at least fundamentally, not evil.

ginger fier 17 • played by kari, fc: nathalie emmanuel you are no nonsense. you are teeth bared and weapons drawn. you are your family's savior. not their shining beacon, the last glimmer of hope. you somehow, in your terminally aspirational mind, decided that you would be the one to restore your family's good name. the time for repentance is over- you aren't sorry for what comes next. the world has taken and taken, and your family is the hollow bones of what is left from them. no longer will you let this remain, and by victory or by fire, you will ensure that the fier family rules once again. even if your beaten and broken parents think you ignorant for trying, you know their anger must truly stem from their lack of control on you. they crave your success as much as you do, they're just too cruel to tell you.

holt fier 16 • played by nyte, fc: mason gooding you don't despise religion like ginger, or worship devoutly like izzy. in fact, you're quite indifferent either way. what's life without a little... chaos? tattoos you drunkenly gave yourself, a safety clip jabbed through your earlobe, smoking stale cigarettes as you wait for everyone else to go to sleep. because that's when you sneak down into the library, and crawl into the secret entrance that'll lead you all the way to the alcott mansion, where cygnus will be waiting to taste you yet again. it's strange, sleeping with the enemy. you're the only one who knows about the secret tunnels- even cygnus, with all of his secrets, has no idea how you've been sneaking in. if you should ever want, you could hand your family a golden ticket to a better future, and maybe you will someday. but for now, you're enjoying watching them squirm.

isobel fier 15 • played by zoe, fc: marina nery some would call you artistic, devout, or expressive. perhaps even... prodigal. of course, most people would use words like horrifying, or evil. you heard 'psychotic' once, that was enjoyable. and that's just for the stuff they know about: the inky black drawings of monsters looming over children, the collection of baby teeth you strung together and wear as a necklace, the carved runes hidden throughout your room. they don't know that when these sacrifices start, they won't be your first. you didn't need to be taught how to praise Her, you found the texts yourself when you were a child. You're Her greatest supporter, and you're ready to receive Her blessing.

keelie fier 13 • played by dars, fc: storm reid there's a lot you still don't quite grasp about your reality. a child-like innocence remains, a morbid sense of curiosity, and an innate fear of pretty much everything. you live in a house full of nightmare and crazy people, so there are perhaps a few things you could stand to unlearn- like making things bleed for fun is not okay- but most of the things you've done are learned behaviors and not yet because you've decided you enjoy it like some of your older siblings. you're quietly brilliant, though, always hovering in the background to listen to conversations you know you aren't a part of and then casually using it as blackmail for toys and candy. but soon there will come a time when you'll need to ask yourself if you're okay with being a bad person. the devastating truth is that you probably will be.