there are prizes all around you if you're wise enough to see

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[barely]

( Jeremy drops his trunk down, currently covered in whatever his just (rightfully) killed. Pulling his phone out, he sees his sister's name and connects the call. Hitting the speaker icon, he opens the back door and sets the phone on the backseat as he pulls his shirt off. )

Hey, Elena.

( Leaning over, he digs into his duffel. )

[braveandstupid]

Hey, Jer.

[If she sounds tired, it's because she is. And also uncertain, because she doesn't even know how to begin this conversation. Especially since they don't know how long this is going to last.

Start with the highest priority information:]

I need you to come to Kansas.

[barely]

( she does, and as he puts on a clean shirt, he zips his bag up, and picks the phone up.

pants still dirty, this still feels more important so he brings the phone up, cradling it below his mouth, the other hand resting on his car.

if he didn't know any better, she'd finally want him to meet her boyfriend, but when have they been on those terms. and hasn't it been, like, months?

this feels more somber. )

Elena, what happened?

[braveandstupid]

I was working on something with the Winchesters, and we triggered this trap. It ... it brought Mom and Dad back.

[Ripping off the band-aid is probably the best way to go about this. Because he needs to be here, to take advantage of this for as long as it lasts. And also so that she doesn't have to do this alone.

Dean has been a great support, but she needs her brother.]

I don't know how long this is going to last, so I need you to come here. Bring Dawn if you want.

[She doesn't know that Dawn is currently throwing things together for a transatlantic flight.]

[barely]

( for a split-second everything Elena says processes in the back of his mind as he addresses the last offer she makes. )

Dawn's in Scotland, some research trip and she's visiting her sister. And Stefan

( he drops down into the seat, his legs turning to jelly as cars fly by him on some backstretch of a country road. he does mental math. )

I'm in Wyoming, I just finished a case. I can be there in - Lawrence? ( he brings the phone down, bringing up his maps app ) 12 hours if I don't stop. 11 if I speed which you hate when I do. ( and he knows his mom probably would. ) How -- you called it a trap?

[braveandstupid]

We're still five hours out anyway, so don't speed.

[He's right, she doesn't like it when they speed. But this is the girl who's been in too many car accidents and prefers when her people drive safe.]

Sam and Dean have been helping these witches track down the bodies of these other, much older, much more powerful witches in order to help take them out. The bodies have been booby trapped and this trap brought back Mom and Dad as well as the son of the couple who was helping us. We don't know what it means yet but ...

[There are lots of reasons she could say. That she doesn't want him to miss the opportunity to see his parents again, even if it's not permanent. That she wanted to keep him in the loop, after excluding him from so much under the guise of protecting him. But in the end, she just needs to not be in this alone.]

... I need you here. There's so much that they don't know and I don't know how to navigate any of it. Never mind how they're going to feel when they hear about the things I've done.

[The vampires she loved, the vampire she was. It's all too much and she knows that if she's on her own, the dam is going to break and everything is going to come out wrong.]

[barely]

( to be fair, the accidents always find her. but she is the one involved. maybe it goes all ways when it comes to elena and car accidents.

he's about to interrupt, tracking down powerful witch bodies, that sounds dangerous and he doesn't like it, but when has he ever told her what to do. that's not their dynamic. she doesn't tell him what to do either. )

Elena, you lived your life. On your terms and you did what you had to when you had to. But, of course I'm there. Send me the coordinates.

( hunter-confidence aside, her little brother creeps up in his voice. )

How are they? How are you?

[braveandstupid]

[She will do just that before putting the phone back to her ear and doing her best to answer the questions.]

They're confused. And scared. We don't really have any answers, and they went from having a teenage daughter to a fully grown adult. It's a lot.

[As for her...]

I'm ... managing. I'll feel a lot better when we know what's going on.

[barely]

We'll get answers. Aren't Winchesters good at answers?

( he's hoping they are.

he stands up then, slamming the car door. a change of pants is going to wait. he moves back to the drivers' side, climbing in. )

[braveandstupid]

Yeah, they are. Sam's already shaking the trees so hopefully we'll have something by the time you get here.

[She's got her fingers crossed anyway.]

I'll see you soon. Drive safe.

[And with that done, she will swap to a group text - though much smaller than the ones she's had in recent past. It's an older, not as often used chat for the last remaining members of her Mystic Falls friend group - Tyler, Bonnie and Caroline.]

So. Something happened and my parents came back from the dead.

[What is her life that this is a sentence she can almost write without feeling weird.]

1/2

[recrudesce]

Only Elena types something happened and ends it with her parents came back from the dead.

[moralitypolice]

How?

1/2

[vampireboulevard]

Omg are you okay?

[braveandstupid]

I'm okay. And I do think this is a bit ridiculous even for me.

We were helping with the Inner Circle situation and the body we tracked down had a trap attached. Ezra thinks it's about generating extra vessels for the witch they're hunting to jump into once they kill her.

1/2

[moralitypolice]

Your parents were brought back as a vessel for that witch's body you were hunting?

[recrudesce]

I'll ask Liv and if I have to, the armory, for what they know about vessels.

They're really back? Grayson and Miranda?

1/3

[braveandstupid]

Thanks, Ty. We ran the usual hunter tests to make sure they were human and they passed.

And yeah, Bon, that's Ezra's current theory. When we get back to the bunker, we're going to see if we can find some kind of loophole.

[vampireboulevard]

Do you need someone to come out there? Ric and Jo are back from Portland so he can swap back in at school and I can be there in a few days.

i lied this time.

[braveandstupid]

I don't know yet. Jer's on his way, but I haven't broken all of the vampire-adjacent news to them yet and I'm not sure how they'll take it. I don't want to put you through that, Care.

[vampireboulevard]

Okay. If you change your mind, let me know, and I am available for FaceTime if needed. ❤️

1/2

[moralitypolice]

Me too. And, I think I still have a favor owed to me, so David can always make magic happen, okay? The same goes for Caroline, because favors go all ways.

[recrudesce]

I'd only be another body, but anything you need, you know I'm here. And coming from someone that went through it with his mom. They love you. I don't know how bad Gilberts had it in for vampires, but, it's you.

You know where we'll be.

[braveandstupid]

Thanks, guys. I'll let you know.

[And with that, she will set the chat to the side for now and glance up with a smile to Dean that's a little lighter, and widens as the coffee is held out to her.]

Thank you. Everything good?

[cholesterol]

Yeah, got the rents fuel for the road.

( he does catch Evelyn reconvening with her son, telling him she told his brother to come to Kansas. )

Jeremy?

[braveandstupid]

He's in Wyoming so he's about twelve hours out, but he'll get there.

[Hopefully safely and in one piece.]

Tyler said he'd check in with his partner and the Armory to see if they might have anything on the runes.