the ground could open, he could still say please

[slavophile]

Comments

[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!

[vampireboulevard]

Maybe, but we all know the Russian judge has it out for us. As far as my personal abandonment scale goes, you don't even make the podium.

[She means that to be comforting, but there's a list. The gold always goes to her dad, first and foremost. Stefan Salvatore, after they lost Bonnie and Damon usually gets silver, and there are much more painful options to fill in for third.

Yes, she was worried about Stiles, but given that there were no bodies dropping, the painful anguish was at a minimum.]

Are you okay?

[phonetically]

I went back to work. Buried my head in bureaucracy and then all my friends got doxxed.

( As far as 'okay' goes, he's up there. His friends aren't. )

You're really with Lydia and Allison?

[vampireboulevard]

Yep. We're having a good old-fashioned research party. Some kind of crazy witch situation is brewing because the universe has remembered we existed and apparently a decade break is as long as we get. But hey, at least Elena got to finish med school uninterrupted, because if she had to deal with supernatural problems every year and pass her boards she might have snapped and murdered someone.

[Is she just rambling because that seems easier? Maybe. But she's never had trouble holding the chatty end of a conversation.]

But they're good. Promise.

[phonetically]

Same. Here. I mean, I need to work on things. And I should. But, I am not tearing off anyone's heads. Or biting any unsuspecting agents. Something worked.

( Enough. )

Crazy to think we would've had to get out, anyway. Except maybe together. Bunker life sounds... studious.

[vampireboulevard]

I'm glad some of the lessons stuck.

[For Stiles' benefit more than her own. She's glad that he's managing.]

Are you on your own, or do you have people you can really talk to there?

[phonetically]

Really talk to. Yeah, I never really had that after Scott. ( Even with, they didn't really talk about things, they just experienced them and reacted. ) So, talking. That'll help.

[vampireboulevard]

Well, I'm here, if you need it.

[She wonders if he might need some of the things she did, in order to better manage moving forward. To not let the speed at which the world throws them into things keep them from hitting the milestones that are important.]

Maybe even in person, once things settle down a little.

[phonetically]

Yes, in person. I am very good in person.

( He's actually a babbling mess, usually, or an ADD mess, or a vampire mess, yeah he's a big old mess and he should definitely take her up on her offer. )

My one partner - she's in the know. I should probably figure out how or why, but she helped with Elena and everyone. With you.

[vampireboulevard]

Well, tell her thank you from us.

[Because really, everyone got out safe from the heads up that Stiles gave them.]

I might be back in Mystic Falls soon. There's something we need and I'm not sure if Bonnie was able to bring it with her. Maybe while I'm there we can grab a drink. I'll let you know?

[phonetically]

Yeah, I could meet you there. And you can thank her in person.

( Buddy system, these days. )

Thanks. For not giving up on me.

[vampireboulevard]

Giving up isn't really my style.

[Once you've got her, she's in it for the long haul.]

You'll be okay, Stiles. I know being a vampire is a lot, but we'll figure it out. You're not in this alone. But I'll let you know once I know what the travel situation is.

[And she's very curious to meet this partner of his too. But with that said and done, she makes her way back into the library where she (11), Elena (1 - she's late to the party and still catching up on what they're actually looking for), Mary (20) and Sam (12) are hard at work digging into the witch research.]

[matriarchate]

( Caroline returns and the group hits the books. Allison and Katherine hit the Men of Letters' version of the jackpot (which doesn't help so much in the now, but gives them more information in the then). In Allison's case, she has been well-versed in research. Katherine happens to be reading the right chapter. She literally flipped through and chose one. )

The Gauntlet, it originates with the coven calling themselves the Colony, right?

( The thirteen Colonies, etc. She double checks. )

This says that the Colony goes back farther. The Colony is a coven that broke off from their original coven. The Knightsbridge coven.

( "Like Bonnie's witch," Katherine says, tilting her book up because she's also found something. "This one says the Knightsbridge coven gave as good as they get and then some. The Colony, Knightsbridge, a few other lesser covens they don't have information on. It involved all of them." She drops her book. "And I used to like a good bloodbath." )

[vampireboulevard]

Tell me about it. These Men of Letters guys were really good at reading the obituaries.

[Caroline pushes one of the journals into the middle of the table.]

This one is just pages of names of people who were killed in the process. It's like Ripper Stefan on steriods, and I'm not even sure they actually killed them.

[cholesterol]

Same. Except, I got names and their accusers, plus another name. Guessing their judge, jury, and pyre lighter.

( He tosses his book onto the pile.

"I found old Garfield comics in mine," Bobby says. "Arbuckle is a sorry patient sonuvabitch." )

[imnot_likeyou]

["Sounds better then what I've got. Seems like this guy was just tracking the weather." Elena did not find the right books.

Sam looks up from his own notes and sighs.]

So it seems like Knightsbridge's white hat persona came later, but we can't tell how real it is. From what I remember about the reports from London, it seems like they shut everyone in so that hunters and witches went out together, rather than allowing people to escape.

[Granted, it was at the hands of a distraught teenage girl, but that's neither here nor there.]

[matriarchate]

( "Sounds like they have a hat collection," Dean says.

Allison sits up straighter, recounting what she learned from Cooper once he joined their side. )

My contact said it was more like a summit. Isaac tried to broker peace between everyone. It was someone's hair trigger that initially caused everything. After that, witches and hunters were all trapped inside a set perimeter, which sounds more like it was done on the fly.

[notwitty]

Yes. By a grieving teenager who didn't entirely think it through.

[Oh look, Isaac and Bonnie are finally here.]

I'm not saying she made the right choice, but I can't say that I would have done anything different if my parents were good people and had just been murdered in front of me.

[Looks at the research party and frowns.]

Why are we talking about London?

[matriarchate]

( "Call it an overlap," Dean says, sitting back. )

It came up.

( "You've missed a lot," Katherine says, rather unhelpfully. "There's a Gauntlet. Also, Elena's a weather forecaster and the old guy likes Garfield."

"I found Garfield. Whoever looked at this last liked the funny's." Bobby says.

"We know," Bonnie says. "About the Gauntlet. How do you know about the Gauntlet?" She sets her bag down on the table after approaching. )

[phonetically]

( Caroline doesn't blink, welcoming him back into the fold, and he's reminded of how loyalty feels. When you ride with someone like Scott McCall, your bar for loyalty is set higher, but Caroline reaches it with no problem.

As he promised, he scrolls down one contact back to Cora, dialing her number again. )

[impetere]

[And as promised, she does answer. Takes a couple rings, but when she sees Stiles' name, she swipes to answer.]

Hey. How'd it go with Caroline?

[phonetically]

( Hale's are notoriously difficult to get ahold of. )

She may be the most forgiving vampire - no - person on the planet. She understand I needed what I needed. We're meeting in Mystic Falls in a few days.

( He's not back, but he's not AWOL. )

[impetere]

Good. That's good.

[That he's taking steps to handle his vampire-ness whatever that may be.]

Of all the vampire mentors to get, sounds like you got a good one.

[phonetically]

I mean, she gives new meaning to the word energy.

( He laughs at his own joke, but it does feel good to almost be on even footing again. He just needed to get his head on straight? He doesn't know. )

Any chance forgiveness is catching?

[impetere]

Maybe.

[Her tone says yes though - or more accurately, her tone says there isn't really any forgiveness to give. She's mostly teasing. But she's also still giving him his space.

What she doesn't know, however, is how to ask him what he wants - if this is back to friendship, or she wasn't mistaking things and there was something else there.]

Maybe, when you have a chance, you could come down to New Orleans. I'll give you a tour.

[And maybe talking about this in person, when she can read his chemosignals and listen to his heartbeat and yes that may be cheating, but she's a werewolf. That's how she best knows how to read someone's intent.]