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

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[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.

[cholesterol]

Then there's nothing left but to hit the road.

( until they get proper answers. )

[braveandstupid]

Okay.

[She glances over his shoulder to her parents and Sam as they approach and offers them a smile.]

Everything okay?

[Miranda nods with a smile of her own. "We're fine. Road snacks have changed quite a bit."]

[founderscouncil]

Are they saltier or less salty?

( this is probably the banter she misses. more like the game trash talk she'd remember from one of the last nights they were alive. )

[notjustamom]

["Probably a little of both."

And with that they will pile back into the Impala and resume their trip to the bunker. Once they arrive, Elena will help arrange rooms, get changes of clothes, and otherwise get people settled. After a certain point it becomes fuss that's more about nerves than purpose, but it's keeping her busy.

Sam hits the books, with Abernathy up on FaceTime as Sam shares pictures of the runes carved into both Elena and the Sullivans. Michael and Evelyn take advantage of the appearance of alcohol and retreat to their own corner. And into all of this walks Mary, having been warned of the happenings, but her eyebrow raises at the somber feeling in the air.]

That kind of day?

[praevaricatio]

( She gets a beer for her observation, courtesy of her son.

Across the way by the globe, the "patients" wait when Ezra is finished with each one of them. Lucas is the last to be checked. Ezra's 6 gets them the basics, though he hasn't shared anything. He uses everything he knows about the rune and runes themselves. He finds the tell-tale signs of a soon-to-be-made vessel on all of their backs, confirming that piece to the puzzle at least.

But, no solution.

He finishes with Lucas, lets him go, and then emerges and rejoins Sam and -- (17) is that Daniel Abernathy?

Dean fills his mother in.

"Elena's parents. Lucas, the Sullivan's son. And Sammy's on the line with Daniel Abernathy," he explains.

Ezra perches on the table by Sam, leaning over and grabbing a beer. )

Daniel.

[notjustamom]

[Mary knows nothing about Abernathy beyond his reputatuion (7), so her eyebrows go up as she takes a sip of her drink.]

Bringing in the big guns, I see.

[Not that this doesn't merit it.

Daniel glances over when he's addressed by Ezra, before ... turning and looking right back at Sam. He does not have time for Colony witches or Colony sympathizers who married said witches. He does, however, recognize the runes (16). "This is an rune for vessels, but it's an ancient version of one. Think of it like a 1984 Mac versus a MacBook Pro."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means you have a loophole."]

[cholesterol]

( Dean leaves his mom when he hears the L-word, and pops up behind his brother in the window as well. )

Just the L-word we're looking for.

( Ezra stays silent, because he uncovered nothing new. So, maybe it's great the big guns were brought in then.

Dean doesn't call Elena over just yet, unless she hears the latest. He wants to know the loophole before he says anything. )