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

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[maleficum]

... Jesus.

[That is a lot.]

Have you told Jaq and Max yet?

[praevaricatio]

You're my first call. So to speak. I wanted to know more before I told them. I didn't think they'd take kindly to a cease-fire I'd want them to make. For Elena's sake, who... they don't care about. And lesser so, the Sullivans.

Are they living on borrowed time?

[maleficum]

I don't know, but I would assume so until we can determine otherwise.

[Because there's a twist in this somewhere that they're not seeing yet.]

Jaq and Max need to know because if they make a move and it triggers the second half of the trap, we've got an even bigger problem. They're just supposed to be doing recon right now anyway.

[praevaricatio]

( well, there will be time later to play husbands, so he starts a GROUP CHAT, with the Malreaux siblings and Sierra )

We sprung Hernandez' trap. It was woven in with an Othala and now we have three dead relatives on our hands. Formerly dead.

[tearhiseyesout]

[She almost types "and we care why?" but she assumes that there's a reason to care beyond someone's relatives suddenly not being dead.]

And this matters because?

[There, that's better.]

1/2

[ostensively]

Because why need one body when you can make three brand new old ones.

[maxxx]

Are you saying if we kill Hernandez, she's just going to jump into an unrelated dead relative?

i lied

[praevaricatio]

Call it a failsafe. x3.

1/3

[tearhiseyesout]

So how do we disconnect them? Kill the bodies?

[maleficum]

We can't kill them.

[tearhiseyesout]

Unless they're not human, I'm pretty sure we can. Snapped neck. Slashed throat. Humans are easy to kill. Probably will be faster than getting invested.

1/2

[praevaricatio]

Because they're people. Because they're people who are alive again and there are people here that that affects. And while I'm not taking the idea off the board, I'd like a better brainstorm.

[ostensively]

Exactly who's back from the dead?

I lied again

[maxxx]

Again, not that it matters.

1/3

[maleficum]

People important to allies who are helping us by taking the brunt of the traps laid on these bodies in order to allow us to actually kill the Inner Circle for good.

[tearhiseyesout]

Ugh, fine. Do you want us to see what Rusty knows, if he ever bothers to show?

[maleficum]

If he's feeling helpful. Do we know why he's not there yet?

[maxxx]

Knowing Rusty, he's working his own angle and he likes to make an entrance.

Or, he still doesn't trust us. If you ask me, he's only with us as long as the bodies keep piling up.

Not your bodies, Ezra.

[ostensively]

I for one can't blame the cursed witch for taking every precaution he can, not that anybody asked me.

[praevaricatio]

( that was a lot to read, David, he had to do it twice. but yes, that. )

I'm not saying there is a loophole, or that there has to be, but I am going to work at trying to find them one. If only because we don't need Hernandez running around in Elena Gilbert's parents.

i'm done no lying

[maxxx]

Way to bury the lead there, Ez

[tearhiseyesout]

We're taking the doppelganger on proven dangerous trips to booby trapped witch tombs now? I thought you were supposed to be making sure she doesn't die.

[maxxx]

No, no, I get it. She's her own person. She puts her foot down. She's defiant, right?

1/2

[tearhiseyesout]

If she's that defiant, maybe it's a small miracle that Ezra's been able to keep her alive this long.

[maleficum]

Alright, enough. Check back in when you talk to Rusty.