Mattel [Harmony]

[nova hypatia vector]

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Early July 2028

Nova wasn't sure why she felt like she needed to verify anything with her stepmother. Their mutual disdain towards one another was no secret, yet she felt like Harmony ultimately controlled what went on with her own children and trying to supersede that would only further drive a wedge between the two of them. Staying in her siblings' good graces was infinitely more important than stroking her own ego. Harmony had zero control over her life, but her stepmother still had a vice-like grip on the younger three if she so desired. Regardless, asking for permission to have Idele help out at the bakery seemed stupid despite being a requirement of sorts.

Yet here she was, walking down the street to Harmony's art gallery, 'The Duchess'. It stuck out in Horizont Alley, it's gaudiness second only to Blishwick Matchmaking which had a history of being an eyesore. Nova still didn't understand what kind of clientele that her stepmother was targeting, just that all of the 'art' inside was barely that. Not to stroke her own ego, but she could create better pieces on the face of a cake than some of these supposed artists could with all of their classical tools.

Putting on her best customer-friendly face as she saw the glare of the mirrored windows of the art gallery come into view, it sickened her how low she would put herself just to see her youngest sister more often. This was exactly what she had been worried about once she graduated. Telling herself that it was only two more years until Idele could truly be free really didn't help.

Shielding her eyes as she approached the gallery, the glare already harsh in the morning light, Nova stepped inside quickly. Her eyes readjusted just in time for her to narrowly miss a clay pot of sorts, which honestly looked to her like a bong with an erumpent horn sticking out of the side of it. Definitely high-class art. She'd definitely smoke out of it if she had the chance though. "Harmony?" she called, her voice echoing through the scarily quiet gallery halls. Nova refused to call her stepmother by anything but her first name. She knew who her mother was, and it wasn't this woman.

Harmony Vector ● 378 ● Song by Artist

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[Harmony Vector]

killer queen.

july 2028

THE POINT OF THE STARK WHITE GALLERY WAS to provide a blank canvas for the exhibits displayed within. Harmony had read it in a fine arts textbook when she had been very young, and exceptionally impressionable. She took it quite to heart when she had the means to open a gallery of her very own. It was hyper clean, with the enchanted paintings and sculptures providing the only splashes of colour necessary. It drew the eye, the reviews said, much to Harmony's preening delight.

However, that did not mean it was exempt from all matters of contamination. Midge's quiet, clipping feet barely made a sound on the polished marble flooring as she rushed towards her Mistress. At least, since Harmony had insisted she wear finer shoes. They were an old pair of Idele's, polished black with a Mary Jane strap. Harmony thought they looked especially neat with her fine, embroidered pillow case. It made all the difference. Midge skidded to a stop, bowing with her hands clasped. "Mistress, the excess Vector girl has come to visit The Duchess. She's is- she's-" Midge's voice was a quiet squeak, kept low to avoid an echo through the entire establishment - a stipulation of Harmony's, of course. "She's is flapping around the atrium and is knocking into Wizard L'Merlineque's Grande-Desastre!" Her voice warbled around the French in an effort to be kept low in her sincere distress. Harmony held out a placating hand, her nostrils flaring. She had no patience for theatrics at work, beyond the paid displays.

The silver Sickle was dropped to the ground, as Midge was a little late in holding out her hand. Harmony rounded her bowed frame, leaving Midge and the Sickle near the back rooms as she marched her way toward the main exhibition. Nova was a stain upon the cool, white veneer of Harmony's precious gallery. Standing with that awkward, skinny hunch to her posture. If Harmony cared enough, she'd have taught the girl how to stand up straight. Harmony surmised it had something to do with curling over a bowl of sugary dough day in and out. She tutted her disdain, closing the space between them with a lazy stroll now that she had the offender in sight.

"Nova... darling..." Harmony lifted her chin in greeting, her smile just a little too sweet to be sincere. "Do refrain from touching the artwork." She declared with a hand tucked lose in the pocket of her fine, tailored waistcoat. "I'd hate to sue you for defacing an active exhibit." It concerned Harmony that Nova would step foot in her gallery, as it had never happened before. Either somebody had died, or Nova had lost her pretty, slow baked mind. She slowed at a safe, almost unsociable distance. Blocking Nova from venturing further into the main vein of the displayed exhibit. "I hope you haven't  come for tickets to the grand opening this weekend," Harmony sighed, lifting her brows curiously. "I'm afraid we're entirely sold out." Her smile pressed thinner, head tilted in a manufactured display of polite disappointment. 

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The distant pitter-patter of tiny feet told Nova that Midge was lurking about. Prior to Harmony bringing the house elf on, Nova had assumed all house elves were like the happy, free-spirited ones that inhabited Hogwarts. But not Midge. Midge was a menace, dutifully serving her employer in a way that quite frankly terrified Nova at times. She wasn't sure if the house elf actually meant the things she often said, or if she was merely repeating back what she'd heard, but Midge was not nice at all. Avoiding the always listening, pointy ears was difficult to do at times too, and she finally learned after a number of years that anything important she didn't want Harmony to hear about, had to be said elsewhere and in secret. While Nova knew she had been horrible to be around in her teenage years, Midge did not make it easier for her at all. The house elf was yet another reason for her to escape to Decima's, and why she really never returned to the family home if she could help it.

She hated the way Harmony looked at her, and even from across the gallery she could see it. The disdain, the spite...that she was in the way constantly. It really didn't matter that Nova tried to keep herself as separated as possible from the family. She was sure Harmony saw her as some sort of threat towards the inheritance (if there even was one from her father; she questioned its existence) for her own children. Forgetting, of course, that Nova already had her future set for her. As far as she was concerned, Decima was her sole parental figure and had been for nearly twenty years. The bakery and building would one day be hers and hers alone. There was no weaseling that away from her.

"That's art? Huh..." she said back in an almost dismissive tone. Once again, she could do any bit of art better on a cake than whatever this rubbish was. Harmony was saying something about tickets to the gallery, only causing her to look around the place. If this was supposed to be an art exhibit, it seemed to be lacking in one thing: actual art. She didn't dare question where the rest of it was though, as she was here for a reason and didn't want to burn all of her chances by making too stupid of a retort. "No, that's fine. We both know I wouldn't fit in anyways. I'm actually-" she paused mid-sentence as she saw Midge prowling in the distance. "I wanted to see if it was okay with you if Aunt Decima and I took Idele off your hands every now and again this summer. Especially with how busy you'll be with the gallery opening, we can keep her distracted. Even help her with her charm-work." Nova felt sick just saying that, but she knew if she didn't put it that way then Harmony would instantly reject it.

Harmony Vector ● 504 ● Song by Artist

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[Harmony Vector]

killer queen.

july 2028

HARMONY CAREFULLY BIT THE INSIDE OF HER cheek to avoid sneering. It was unseemly, after all. Maintaining that same beatific smile as Nova rolled her eyes in disdain. Her voice slow and sluggish, disdainful as she dismissed the art with a simple retort. It was expected, of course. Nova had never appreciated the finery of high society. She'd always deemed it above herself, as if it wasn't at the very root of her pitiful existence. Harmony wasted no time reminding her of this, she rarely spent her precious time on pointless ventures.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand," She smiled simply, strolling to a stop close enough to smell the flour on Nova's clothes. "It isn't glazed in sugar." And then she turned her face to admire the sculpture with a prideful little quirk to her mouth. It was a masterpiece, according to those that really mattered. Nova's opinion was not rated among them.

The stuttering caught Harmony's attention in the end. Her head turning slowly, as if it took great effort to gave an ounce of her attention to the step child she'd never asked for. Nova was full of restless energy, her words mangling together so that it took Harmony a second to understand what exactly it was Nova was trying to say. She sniffed, a stern furrow pulling at her brows as she realised this was not some lame attempt to gain free tickets. It was so much worse.

"Pardon," She interrupted, lifting a hand to stop Nova before she circled back and started the same hapless speech all over again. "Why would I need my daughter taken off my hands?" She inquired in a slow, dangerous drawl. Her arms lifting to cross stiffly over her chest. "Doesn't Decima have enough stolen children already?" She added with a humourless little smirk. "I don't understand the benefit of this... request." Harmony cocked her hip, a bitter snapping thing crawling somewhere at the back of her throat. "Other than free labour." 

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As if art was only subjected to mediums that were on canvas or sculpted. Harmony was the worst ‘artist’ or purveyor of art – whichever she actually was – if she didn’t count food in it. Sure, baking and cooking wasn’t a form of permanent art, but it was still a skill that required a precise eye and talent that most people did not have. Just because she was genetically inclined to be better at it really meant nothing if she had never acted on it. And there was no telling how many of her younger siblings would be the same way.

Fighting Harmony on what was or was not considered art would only feed into what the woman wanted. Nova had learned how to pick her battles long ago, after learning the hard way quite a few times. She never claimed to have been the perfect teenager when Harmony entered the fray, but the same could be said for the interloper as well.

Except that was what she would have liked to not do, until Harmony had to bring Nova’s relationship with her aunt into it. A deep exhale wavered out of Nova as she tried to even herself out without instantly blowing up. She wasn’t stolen. She was an orphan and had been treated as such far before her father actually died. Harmony’s cruelty knew no bounds. Still. ”If you’d prefer Idele aimlessly wandering the alley on her own, it’s all the same to me. I wanted to spend time with her and figured doing so in an educational manner would be fun. If you want me to pay her, I can do that as well.” Nova saw zero problems with her request, aside from Harmony being the one she was asking.

”Listen,” Nova continued, putting on a more serious tone, ”I’m not trying to step on your toes, Harmony. I just want to see my sister a little more before she gets busy with exams over the next few years and then job hunting after.”

Harmony Vector ● 336 ● Song by Artist

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[Harmony Vector]

killer queen.

july 2028

NOVA SIGHED LIKE THE WORLD WEIGHED HEAVY on her shoulders, which was amusing to Harmony. She refrained from smirking, shifting back on her heels and remaining silent. In Harmony's humble opinion, she knew that a bout of heavy silence would work wonders on Nova's poorly constructed self esteem. If it didn't, Harmony had plenty to say that would also work in her favour as a second resort. She was always happy to teach a valuable lesson. Especially to a girl as... sheltered as Nova was.

"I'm not sure what you're insinuating." Harmony retorted, quick as a steel tipped whip. "I make no assumption toward you're own free time, but please don't impress your own poor childhood upon my daughter." She pressed a hand to her chest and gave Nova a long, judgemental look. Measuring her person and finding her awfully lacking. "She has ample hobbies and extracurriculars at her disposal." The unspoken insinuation of these aforementioned hobbies being far beyond the dire environment of a 'bakery' went unspoken, but it didn't take a genius to hear went went unsaid. 

Harmony flicked a long lock of her meticulously curled hair over one shoulder. Her arms crossing slowly, red tipped nails creating coffin shaped indents in the sleeves of her starched shirt. The audacity of the girl before it sent shivers of revulsion down Harmony's spine. 'How dare she...' her mind supplied in barely contained ferocity. "You couldn't if you tried, Darling," Harmony assured her, almost convincing in her soothing tone, with just the hint of sharpness in the lingering term of endearment. "Fortunately, your poor attempt at a proposal is almost worth my sympathy." She smirked, clicking her tongue. "What makes you so sentimental all of a sudden, you never acknowledged my marriage with your father, why legitimise my children now that he's dead, hm?"

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Nova could practically feel her heart in her throat as her carotid artery pumped viciously. The things she so desperately wanted to say to Harmony were being kept under lock and key. She was afraid utilizing her words incorrectly would spell doom for her request. They both knew this and that was why Nova was at an extreme disadvantage here. To think that a mere request to teach her sister how to bake and cook would be met with so much passionate bullshit and aggression. Not everyone had a house elf to slave away for them. She also highly doubted that Idele would want Midge doing all of that for her still into her adulthood. There was absolutely nothing wrong with learning how to cook and be able to take care of oneself. Harmony would never understand that though. She was a gold-digger to the highest extreme. She probably didn’t even know how to bathe herself. Midge probably did that.

She wasn’t blind to the signs of pushing Harmony’s buttons. She’d done it before. The tell-tale arm cross that happened told Nova that she’d struck a nerve, though which one and to what degree was yet to be seen. Now it was going to be deflection time from her not-stepmother. Of course she was going to make it seem like Nova was pitiable. That was half her plan; to make it seem like she was going to grovel in the hopes that Harmony would relent and be the good mother and better person in all of this.

If they really wanted to get into who was and wasn’t legitimate in the Vector family, then why not take it all the way up the chain? Under Harmony’s parameters, only Archie and his mother were the true family. The rest of them were interlopers and a series of accidental births. Harmony was no better, and simply the final fling. And to have the audacity to say that she was just now trying to get to know her siblings better? Preposterous. She wasn’t the one that had been hiding them away from the rest of the family for the past seven years. ”Those are your words, not mine,” Nova stated flatly. ”It’s your decision.” And then if it failed, she’d go behind Harmony’s back and contact Idele directly to plant the idea in her head. Because fuck Harmony. No one actually liked her. It wasn’t like she could make all the decisions for her children in a few years anyways. They’d see right through all of this. Nova only needed to play nice until the time was right.

Harmony Vector ● 435 ● Song by Artist

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[Harmony Vector]

killer queen.

july 2028

IT OCCURRED TO HARMONY THAT NOVA WAS being almost too reserved with her. Her suspicion only increasing with every passing phrase that rolled off her treacherous little tongue. Harmony felt her hackles beginning to raise just from the suspicion of it alone, tongue dashing out to wet her lips as she admired the artwork thoughtfully. She could find no hint, nor trace of whatever Nova's intentions were. Beyond, of course, what she had said with her mouth. Alas, that mattered so little to Harmony, and was of no particular use. Harmony was only interested in what Nova wasn't saying.

"Oh, don't jinx my back and call it a friendly pat," Harmony rolled her eyes in petulant exasperation. She had no patience for Nova's attempt at altruism and sentiment. Throwing it back to Harmony like she was some kind of snarling, nasty creature. "You are trying to be poised, Nova, and it simply doesn't suit you, I'm afraid." Harmony reached forward to straighten a squint from one of her exhibits, taking a breath as she did so.

Instinct told Harmony to expel Nova from her gallery and send a scathing letter to her awful aunt, but she paused. Idele was growing so terribly distant as she grew, itching for an independence that Harmony was extremely reluctant to grant. She understood her less and less. If she sent her to Nova's useless bakery, Harmony considered that it might give her a particular advantage of her own. "I will speak with Idele at the weekend." Harmony said after a long, tense bout of silence on her part. "Should I find out that you have gone over my head before then..." Harmony turned her chin suddenly, facing Nova with a sharp, mean glint in her eye. "I shall ensure that your tasteless little bakery sells nary a crumb ever again." She smiled then, a beautiful, cold thing. 

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NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

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There was a brief moment where Nova wondered if her father’s disposition for disposing of the women in his life was genetic. Because she really wanted to pick up the ugly, distorted vase she had been analyzing earlier and smash it over her stepmother’s head. Nova was being genuine, and all she was getting was snark and attitude in return. It had always been this way with Harmony. The cold-hearted bitch. If only her father had been a little quicker. It was no mystery what had happened to his previous wives, except what he’d done with them. She knew that now, of course. Nova didn’t care what the woman thought of her, really, except that she was horrid through every moment of it.

Keeping her mouth shut and sucking in her cheeks to maintain control over herself, Nova continued to take the verbal abuse. Like Harmony actually held any sort of control over her or the bakery. The threat was meaningless. She held no power in Horizont Alley. This stupid ‘art’ gallery of hers was about as useless as it went. It held zero value to the surrounding community and only showed how much of a gold-digger she was. Only her equally pretentious friends, who were all harpies in their own right, got anything out of it. Any artist worth their salt would go elsewhere, because dealing with Harmony was asking for hell.

Ignoring the threat, Nova finally broke her silence, ”I look forward to hearing from you then.” This was getting reported to Decima immediately upon getting back to the bakery. Messing with a cornerstone of the alleyways was deeply looked down on. Her aunt had been around for far longer than most too and would always have the shop owners’ association on her side if it came to that. Harmony was stupid to think she could get them shut down just by doing her crazed goose impression. That may have worked on muggles and Hogwarts, but not a group of hard-working shopkeepers.

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[Harmony Vector]

killer queen.

july 2028

HARMONY NEEDED THE ABILITY TO READ MINDS to gather how painful Nova found their exchange. How much her silence and composure cost her as Harmony let her mouth run wild for just a moment, just for the fun of it. Nova was not a shy individual, in Harmony's humble opinion. She only reigned her terrible, sugar-coated personality when there was something she wanted. Clever enough to mask the very worst aspects of herself to manipulate her opponent. A trait she surely gained from her chameleon father.

"Hm." Harmony hummed thoughtfully, her eyes flickering over Nova's face as she sucked in her cheeks and kept bitterly silent. It was almost boring, and Harmony had to hand it to the girl. She was trying, and it was sick of her. Even when she threatened her precious bakery, not a sound came out of her pursed little mouth. It was almost impressive, as the dog's guarded that bakery like it was single-handedly responsible for their fortune and favour. Harmony hadn't a clue why, as it was a horrible little place where everything was made with just a little too much butter for her liking.

"I'm sure you will." Harmony said with a smiling disbelief, but she stepped back with her hands folded over her back. Giving Nova the space she so desired and tilting her chin toward the large glass doors at the front of the gallery. "Midge!" Harmony said with a gently raised voice. The elf snapped into existence with a harried expression that only soured further at the sight of Nova still standing in the middle of the gallery - marring the space.

"See Nova out, would you." She smiled down at the floppy eared creature, who drew in a chest-puffing breath as if she were about to protest. "Yes, Mistress," She squeaked, heading whipping around toward Nova as her feet slapped on the polished floor, almost nipping at Nova's heels as she herded her toward the front door with outstretched arms. Harmony turned away in dismissal, considering the request. Knowing, despite her enjoyment at Nova's discomfort, that her daughter would say yes and Harmony would have to sacrifice her own comfort to please her daughter.

[END HARMONY]

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Would it be a crime to kick Midge for being an unsufferable little snitch? Probably. Knowing Harmony, she’d raise a stink that could be smelt all the way at the Ministry over it too. Get the proverbial book thrown at Nova for it. She would never want to hurt one of the house elves that had taken care of her whilst at Hogwarts. But once Harmony and Midge came into the picture, because they were a package deal, the rose-tinted glasses came off completely. The happy smiles and warm welcomes from those that worked at Hogwarts were the peak of house elf society, in her opinion. Midge was the absolute lowest. One that would have preferred the way things used to be between house elves and their masters.

Nova didn’t much a muscle as the house elf popped out of nowhere in front of her and her ‘stepmother’. It only made her wonder where the horrid house elf had been lurking throughout the entirety of the conversation. Skulking about behind gallery exhibits, waiting to be useful probably. For once, Nova sort of agreed with the house elf; neither of them wanted to be doing this right now. The way her hands pushed at the back of Nova’s legs, forcing her to walk was annoying as hell, but she was more than willing to escape the studio.

Practically pushed outside, Nova took in a long exhale, hoping to dispel all of the poisonous gas that Harmony had been spewing out for the last several minutes. She had to shake it off before she went back to work, otherwise it was going to ruin the rest of her day. Decima would see right through it too and pull her out of the front if things got dicey with customers. Bad days like that were few and far between now, a vast improvement since she graduated from Hogwarts and was floundering about trying to figure out what her life was without school. Harmony had never understood that though, and if she did, she hadn’t cared. The bitch just wanted all of the Vector fortune. Running her hands through her hair as she made the short walk back to the bakery, Nova realized that it could have gone worse. It wasn’t a no. Yet.

[THE END]

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