lifeline ⇾ kai parker

𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐪 + 𝐚

the backbone of the story.

at its core, lifeline is about a guy stuck in the past and a girl's relentless run towards the future.

being friends with the whole mystic falls group, mila only knows a life where it's just one thing after another. she's used to just constant chaos in one form or another. so she moves on pretty quickly. she never really lets herself reflect on what she's experienced, and because of that, she's never had a serious relationship or anything real outside of her immediate friends and family. so in a sense, her life is sheltered, which kai can definitely relate to. we all know that character that runs away from their problems, but sometimes mila is sprinting before a problem can even form. so kai showing up and slowly winning her over and making her develop real feelings really does turn her already-complicated world upside down.

with kai, he's the exact opposite. he may think ahead in whatever scheme he's planning, but that's as far he goes in a sense of thinking about a future. he's very absorbed in what he's doing in the present but he's acting because of his past. it's obvious he hasn't been able to move on from it and it's gotten to the point where that IS his life. he doesn't know anything else besides revenge and betrayal until he meets mila and experiences the other side of the emotional spectrum. wbk he can be the slowest learner, but he does end up seeing things differently thanks to mila. in conclusion, kai parker is a king alright. a king of self sabotage!!

why, why, why: why did you this?

i'll address some of the concerns you had when i wrote, but just know basically it's because it just made sense for the characters or it would get a rise out of the audience or both. my main goal is to keep you guys invested; every writer has to be a bit of sadist that's just how it is 🤷‍♀️

the return of joshua parker

anyway, so let just get started with the goblin that is joshua parker. i hate him just like everyone else but when i actually had to plan this story for once and figure out how i was going to structure the last chapters, i knew bringing him back would be a shock but would also be a good opportunity for kai. i felt like kai and his father were baggage that needed to be adresssed. there's so much unresolved there and i wanted to explore that, to shine a light on what that relationship was and how it also made kai who he was. and then after confronting him, having kai walk away from him, something wasn't able to do before — even for mila — just showed his development and how much he had changed since jo's wedding.

levi parker to the rescue

moving on to the addition of levi, a character who basically stole the show (as he should). i wasn't sure that i was going to have mila get pregnant until i was writing part 3. i know i teased it a lot but i just never knew if it wasn't going to make sense to the story to include it into the present plot. because it's definitely a big deal to both mila and kai and how they would react to that in different ways. but it did end up working out and i'm glad it did because merging kai and mila's personalities to create levi was definitely something i had a lot of fun with. i love that attention-seeking kid sm.

ketzera does it get tiring being right all the time?

another character you guys seemed to liked (thankfully) was zera. i planned on having a seer enter to mend their relationship when it needed it the most because i thought it would be fitting and i've liked the concept of the supernatural creature and adding it with the personality of someone who just genuinely wanted to do good and wasn't doing things for self gain like the other monsters. like mila, i definitely got more sense of zera as i wrote her. i know she's only in a few chapters but i can confirm that a) she's a canon lesbian b) she understands that love shouldn't be wasted because she's experienced it firsthand. zera lost the love her life, she was condemned to malivore, but it never turned her bitter. it never turned her hateful or monsterous. it made her want to try to save and mend everyone else, and i think you do see that with her character in the scenes i wrote.