the ground could open, he could still say please

[slavophile]

Comments

[shreds]

Where do hunters fit into all of this?

( And how does Mary Winchester know about witch business? )

[notjustamom]

Put out the fires wherever they happen to pop up?

[That's really the only choice they have. They're the clean up crew, not the front line fighters.]

I think that unless we know more, it's the only thing we can do.

[shreds]

Oh how I love to be behind the 8-ball.

( She does take after other hunters. Her vernacular has definitely grown. But, she doesn't like the sound of this. )

Say this includes every witch. Where does Bonnie fall? Could she take up the mantle of witchy badass head of this or that coven?

[notjustamom]

Sure. If she wants to kill all her competition.

[Caroline's eyes widen. "So this really is the witch Hunger Games?"]

Not sure I get that reference, but if that's a big battle royale where only one person walks out alive then yes.

[shreds]

( "Literally Battle Royale," Ryan says, remembering the movie Seth forced him to sit through. And yes, Hunger Games. )

If it's kill or be killed...

( "Only if she takes up the cause. She doesn't, Bonnie's safe?" Dean asks, pointing. )

[notjustamom]

[She nods, because at least those were the rules as she understood them.]

Not saying that she couldn't be mistaken for being involved if she's in the wrong place at the wrong time, but in theory, the only people in danger of being dead are the ones vying for the throne.

[widenecked]

What happens to the victor?

( He's guessing they become all-powerful, something they probably want to prevent. Unless the coven's business is not... their business. )

[notjustamom]

[She shakes her head.]

Don't know. The journals ever said. I don't think the people writing them ever met the victor.

[cholesterol]

Maybe the people writing them were found.

( He doesn't like any of it. )

[notjustamom]

[Neither does she. She tips her head back towards the library.]

Maybe the Men of Letters know more than we did. Since we're all hanging out down here - plenty of research hands to go around.

[cholesterol]

( "Sure. I can hit the books," Katherine drly says. But, she will actually be of help. He's done it before. "What about Ryan?" she asks.

"Yeah. I can do some research," he says, looking to Caroline. Don't leave him alone with Katherine. )

Library free-for-all.

[vampireboulevard]

[Don't worry, she won't. She narrows her eyes at Katherine, before reaching to take Ryan's hand.]

Why don't we go get settled in, and we'll come meet you once we're done?

[cholesterol]

Sam'll hole up in there with you.

( Caroline and Ryan leave the group in the great room as her phone goes off.

I'm back. )

[vampireboulevard]

[She glances down at her phone and then straightens.]

Oh, that's Bonnie. You want to go get her, or should I?

[That question is directed at Ryan, giving him an out if he doesn't want to dig into the research quite yet.]

[widenecked]

I'll go.

( He holds his hand out for her keys. He likes the out because it also involves Katherine. )

How are you doing with this? I know you and Katherine have history.

[vampireboulevard]

I can handle her.

[Katherine did kill her once, but she's human now, and that evens the playing field some. She passes over her keys and gives him a smile.]

We'll be in the library when you get back.

[widenecked]

I'll bring back Bonnie and Isaac.

( He leaves Caroline with the library (and Katherine.)

Katherine sits herself down at the table in the library not knowing what she should look for. She guesses Sam or Dean or someone will give her the right book. Allison has joined Sam and the others in the library. )

[imnot_likeyou]

Alright. We're looking for witch stuff. Colonial witch stuff.

[He moves towards the shelves and starts pulling some of the records related to witchcraft and practicing witches.]

The highest traffic for the witch trials happened in Salem, but they happened throughout the colonies, so we can split this up by area, or some of us can take the colonies while the others dig into what we have on the Inquisition which will take ... a lot longer.

[matriarchate]

Let's split it up. Bonnie will be back and she'll be another set of eyes. I'll take the Inquisition with Sam and when she and Isaac get here, Bonnie, and everyone else split up the witch trials by colony.

( If she knew what she was looking for, she'd play general for that, too.

Luckily, Dean, who has come into his own as research guy has ideas for what they should look for.

"We're looking for suspicious, brutal, caused deaths. Anything from the trials themselves and accidents out in the woods. It sounds like this Gauntlet is no holds barred. But, it can't have gone undocumented completely."

Better yet, the person wouldn't know they were contributing. )

[vampireboulevard]

Well, we can scratch off the hundred witches burned in Mystic Falls in 1790. That was a totally unrelated thing.

[That involved sirens and the Cade and as far as they know totally not related to the Gauntlet. Then she holds up a finger.]

But they were refugees from Salem, so maybe there's something in the Bennett family grimmoire. Their whole coven came down from Massachusetts.

[matriarchate]

( "You guys really take liberties with your local history," Dean says, equally unsurprised by anything Caroline ever says. It's fine, they'll be besties in no time. )

Do we have it?

[vampireboulevard]

Mystic Falls has always been a complicated place.

[You don't get to be the birthplace of vampires without being complicated. But to address Allison's question:]

Here? I don't know. But Ryan went to pick up Bonnie and Isaac, so we can ask her when she gets here.

[phonetically]

( "What has Mystic Falls not had," Dean asks. Because by his count, it's up there when it comes to all things super and natural.

Allison nods and Caroline's phone buzzes! )

[vampireboulevard]

Variety is the spice of life?

[She glances down at her phone as it rings and her eyebrows go up when she sees the name on the caller ID. She excuses herself and makes her way back to somewhere where she'll have a little more privacy.]

Hey, Stiles.

[She wasn't expecting him to call, but she's glad he did.]

[phonetically]

Hey. Caroline.

( How does he do this? He did it with Cora. That was like sending a bullet through the wire. He can do this with Caroline. )

I bailed pretty good. Like in terms of a point system for bailing, I'd be up there. Even the Russian judge would be like, what a great bail!