best to take a moment present

[maleficum]

Comments

[drugdeals]

Mystic Falls outreach. ( and what a small world. right, to the original point. ) Shepherd's alright. He's a pain, and overprotective, but. He's good.

[saveslives]

Good. I'm assuming he said it was okay for you to tell me?

[Does it also come with a phone number because she would like to speak with him herself, but she'd understand if there were boundaries.]

[drugdeals]

Yeah, yeah, he asked. He's deep cover a lot of the time, with somewhere called the Underground. But, if this is what he does, then he does good.

( he's more like Jo than his younger siblings. )

Liv will send his number. And you know I'm adding a plus one to the group chat when we get off this call.

[saveslives]

Good. It'll be good to talk to him.

[And hopefully see him, at some point. Of all the ones to survive the purge of their family, she's glad that these are the three that survived.]

I should be heading back to the East Coast soon. Maybe we can get everyone together when the twins are home for Thanksgiving.

[drugdeals]

Hopefully, with just us, right?

( and not a fifth family member? )

[saveslives]

I hope so. I'm not sure what that says about us if our siblings keep rising from the dead. And I know you shouldn't speak ill of the dead but I would prefer if Dad stayed there.

[She doesn't know how he would handle having two siphon granddaughters, never mind one of them being a heretic.]

But no, you, Tyler and Liv, Ric and the girls and Shep. Did he mention if he had a partner?

[drugdeals]

( his first choice, too. )

He didn't. We... didn't ask. Should we have asked? Did he seem partnered to you, Liv?

[saveslives]

[Liv shakes her head. "We didn't ask but he also didn't offer so I'm going to assume no." Shep could be secretive but it's not like Liv didn't talk about Tyler all the time.]

I can ask. Don't worry about it. You guys were processing a lot.

[Technically Jo is also processing a lot but she's not doing it to Shep's face.]

[drugdeals]

Also dealing with a breakup.

( of the good riddance, sense, sure. but. )

[saveslives]

That too.

[And she is sorry about that.]

Where are you both heading now?

[drugdeals]

Gonna crash at the Armory for the weekend. It's take your Brother to Work - weekend. I'll train back up to New York on Sunday. In the meantime, I get to annoy Tyler Lockwood.

( slash be of help in actual ways. )

[saveslives]

Have fun, then. Tell Tyler I said hi.

[And with that she will let them go, but once she does, takes a deep breath before going in search of her husband because whoo boy does she have something to have feelings about.]

Ric? You around?

[In the meantime, Liv and Luke will spend the rest of the road trip likely play-bickering over the travel playlist until they slide up to the Armory all one piece.

"I'm home," Liv shouts into the open doorway. "And I'm not alone." And then because he realizes how that sounds: "It's Luke, not trouble."]

[daydrinker]

In here.

( Ric's dipped into the Gemini stash, or, more like cataloguing it. Old filing/professor habits. It started with inventorying everything occult, but then he stumbled into a very nice collection of alcohol. )

[saveslives]

[She follows the sound of his voice, before turning to lean in the doorway.]

So Luke and Liv had some news. Apparently one of my siblings isn't as dead as we previously thought.

[daydrinker]

( she finds him on his knees, sitting back, list manually written at his feet.

he pushes himself to standing )

Not Liv and Luke. Another sibling survived? Who?

[saveslives]

Shepherd.

[Which in some ways is a boon she hadn't known she needed. Shep was the next child born, so a sibling she could bond with, unlike Kai who seemed to want to take over the world from birth. Shep was also the body they never found, but given how viscerally some of the damage Kai did was done, they weren't sure if they would, and when he never reappeared ...

Well.]

I hate to cut things short, but do you think we could take this research back to the East Coast?

[She really wants to see her brother, and she wants to be ready as soon as he's ready to see her.]

[daydrinker]

( it's why it's easier stumbling into his younger siblings. easier to fold back into the Underground until he takes leave.

alaric crosses to the doorway, leaving his research behind him. )

We can go anywhere you want. The hunters are no longer after you, and if you want to go back, I know Caroline will appreciate if I'm right behind you.

[saveslives]

I know. But I also know you've been enjoying your time with Jeremy, even if he and Dawn might be ready to be rid of their indefinite house guests.

[She says that warmly, because she knows that if they were sick of them, they would have said so. And with Dawn planning to return to Scotland for a bit, they probably would have been leaving soon anyway.]

[daydrinker]

I can fly back and see Jeremy any time. And Jeremy has Dawn now. He has for a few years. I don't think he'll hate if we're out of his hair.

( he agrees, too. )

He has a life to get back to. I'm sure there's a job around the corner.

[recrudesce]

( Luke deposits his bag by the door, as Tyler comes down the stairs. )

Hey, Trouble. ( he greets Liv with a kiss. ) And you brought your brother with you. How'd it go?

[geminated]

[She kisses him back.]

Shep was good. But then we got pulled into a work thing and I may have pissed off two powerful Colony witches in the process so ... there's something we may have to worry about later.

[recrudesce]

Look at you, getting on everybody's good side. Was it worth it?

( "I'll see myself out," Luke says, grabbing up his bag again and heading past Tyler. "There a kitchen somewhere in here?" )

[geminated]

[Liv points in the direction that he needs to head and waits until he's gone before shrugging.]

My brother isn't being manipulated for leverage and we got one up on them which as a Gemini Witch was really satisfying, but there's no saying that they won't be looking for retribution later.

[She's really not looking forward to running into Jaqueline Malroux again.]

[recrudesce]

Sounds like a problem for later Liv.

( which is where it should stay. )

And isn't the Colony focused on everything Gauntlet-related? You steer clear of that, they probably won't come to roost for... months.

[geminated]

I am definitely planning on staying away from the witch-focused blood bath for the foreseeable future.

[And so long as her brothers, sister and nieces do the same, she probably will.]

But the Colony and the Gemini coven have a long history of pissing each other off, so ... I don't know. I don't want to underestimate them either.