everyonelives | the ground could open, he could still say please

[That ... does not sound like Elena. Caroline blinks, before pulling back and actually looking at the person she's hugging. It doesn't take long to pick out the differences and she jumps back, trying to suppress the full body shudder that comes with Katherine cooties.]

Sorry. I thought you were the other doppelganger.

[But, to answer her question.]

But no. Bonnie didn't lose her magic. But I did get set on fire by some crazy witches that lived in a B&B stuck in the worst parts of the eighties.

( She noticed. She crosses her arms. Caroline should notice her hair, though still wavier, is pulled back, but it is not Elena's, as she is not Elena. )

I was going to question the unseasonable sunburn. ( Ryan closes the trunk, bringing their bags. ) I see it's bring your vampire man candy on the run day.

[Look she doesn't like mistaking them for each other either. Usually she's better at it, especially when Katherine isn't making an effort. But as she said, the last two days have been a Time.

Caroline rolls her eyes, before glancing back to Ryan with a smile.]

Ignore her.

[But back to the matter at hand.]

Do you think we need an invite to get in?

( She looks behind her )

Well, it's a supernaturally reinforced stronghold created to ward off angels and demons, but maybe a vampire can slip through the cracks.

( To be fair, you're asking Katherine for help. She rolls her eyes. )

But, I'm not sure anybody actually owns it so I'm not sure who would invite you in. We could play pick a Winchester.

[Well that's ... a problem. She and Ryan had left Bonnie and Isaac to her clandestine witch meeting, which means the only human available to help them at the moment is Katherine. Who's slightly annoyed with her.

Good job, Caroline.]

Would you please - [Look she said please!] - let Sam know that we're here and ask if he'd come invite us in? I'd text but I don't have his number.

[And she doesn't want to interrupt Elena if she's with Dean and he wants to be cranky and not let the vampires in his stupid bunker.]

( Katherine could point out she has Dean's, they are in the same group chat, but she won't expend more energy doing this one thing for Caroline. )

I was going inside, anyway.

( She heads down the stairs and down the hallway toward Sam's room, knocking on his closed door. She'll search for him if he's not there, but this is the past of least resistance. )

["Thank you!" Caroline chirps after her, before settling in to wait with a sigh.

Fortunately Sam is in, and the tallest Winchester pokes his head around the door and nods.]

Katherine. Everything okay?

Caroline Forbes and her vamptoy would like to be invited in.

( She can't bother learning his name just yet. (She has. It's Ryan. He reaches her gooey places like Matty Blue Blue used to. But she never admitted her attraction to him, either, except for the time she compelled him.) )

Ah.

[He's not going to comment on how that sentence is phrased either way, but he understands why he's the one who's needed.]

Thanks, I'll head up to do that.

( It does sound more suggestive than she intended. Oh well. She was the messenger. Does this buy her points?

Upstairs and outside, Ryan joins Caroline, bags slung over his shoulder, holding their out for Caroline to take since he has Bonnie's and Isaac's. )

She's not coming back, is she?

She doesn't need to come back as long as Sam does.

[She pulls out her phone while they wait. She doesn't know how big this bunker is, but she'll give Katherine some wiggle room before she gives up and texts Elena. In the meantime, this group text slides through, and she frowns.]

Huh. Looks like one of Allison's people identified a witch that the kids ran into in Prague and who was also in New Orleans. They think she was working with Monroe.

We knew she had witches on her side.

( To identify one, that's a win, right? )

Do you recognize her?

[Caroline shakes her head, frowning.]

Not from any of the covens I've worked with. But we don't do a lot of business in upstate New York - at least not yet.

( He drops one of the bags down, not because it's heavy because holding all three is cumbersome. )

What do you think it means?

[She shrugs.]

Everything witchy seems to be going a little crazy right now. I don't think it's unconnected but maybe Bonnie will have more answers after she meets her clandestine witch friend.

[And as she says that, the door to the bunker opens and Sam's head appears again. "Hey, guys. C'mon in."]

( And up their bags go again as he follows Caroline into the bunker. His reaction is much like Katherine's. It's impressive, hidden away on this hill.

Dean comes out of his room holding his phone.

"The Queen kid says the witch in Prague's your New Orleans Houdini. Houdina. She did her magical disappearing act," he says.

They have guests.

"Welcome to the Men of Letters. Elena!" )

[Elena rounds the corner, ear to her phone and gives them both a wave before contining. "Jer says hi. I'll catch up with you in a bit." And then she disappears to continue giving her attention back to the call itself.

Caroline nods at her, before looking back to the both of them.]

Thank you for putting us up. And for inviting us in.

[They would have been well within their rights to not, so she appreciates the gesture.]

You and Bonnie are like the two Musketeer's to Elena's third.

( He will get around to a real apology one of these days. )

Where is she? And Isaac.

She had to take a meeting with her possibly shady witch friend. Isaac is watching her back.

[She doesn't have an opinion on David Gainor. She hasn't really met him yet. But she's head such interesting things.]

She'll call when she's ready to come back.

We can give her a lift if she needs it.

( But not a Lyft, a Lyft would imply being on the grid. )

You made shit time, did you catch trouble on the road like Violet and Daisy?

Oh my god.

[Sorry, Dean, but you gave her an opportunity to vent.]

So first we hit this deluge of a storm, and the roads were just impossible, so we decided to stop for a night and wait out the storm. So we find this cute little B&B that happened to have vacancies. Sort of permanently stuck in the eighties but it was fine - we were only going to stay one night.

[Sam makes a face because in his vast hunter experience, he already knows where this is going. Fortunately, Caroline can't see him.]

Turns out, the place was run by psycho witches running human ritual sacrifices in their basement trying to bolster their power for something called the Gauntlet. I got set on fire, and they were actually trying to recruit Bonnie in the middle of trying to kill us and claimed that her "pet" monsters wouldn't be able to protect her. Which was just rude.

[Hold up a finger.]

Not that Bonnie isn't badass enough to have her own super squad, but pet? Really?

Edited 2022-11-11 02:50 (UTC)

( Dean does not recognize the Gauntlet (8) except for one of the best Challenges on MTV, so he just gives a raised eyebrow in his brother's direction. )

What's the Gauntlet?

[Sam's brow also furrows (6), not knowing anymore than Dean does, but fortunately for both of them another voice speaks up softly from the door frame.]

I'm sorry, did you say the Gauntlet?

[From the look on her face, she knows exactly what that is (18).]

( And everyone Scooby Doo's in Mary's direction. Katherine is passing by but doesn't give a flying Petrova (1) as she retrieves a bottle of water from the fridge during the long silence. )

["Uh, Mom, this is Caroline and Ryan, they're friends of Elena's." Sam quickly runs through the introductions before getting to the meat of things. "You know what the Gauntlet is?"

Mary shrugs, because knowing is relative.]

I mean, I haven't ever seen one, but it's basically like a big witch Battle Royale. But there hasn't been one in my lifetime - in fact, the last one I heard of was the witch trials in the sixteen hundreds.

[Caroline squints. "Weren't the witch trials -- ?"]

Run by witch hunters? No. I've seen the family records.

[Campbells came over on the Mayflower after all.]

According to the first-person accounts from hunters on the ground, a lot of the fingers pointed were pointed by actual witches, and the frenzy that people were in at the time handled the rest.

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