for the rest of us death will be a relief

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[recrudesce]

( The minute he hears how elongated that vowel holds, he realizes this is not great timing. )

I knew there'd be celebrating after you ended your family's curse, bu - I can call you back a little bit later. Maybe after a cup of coffee or a long nap.

[geminated]

Wait, wait. Sorry. We were playing a game about future planning and it worked shockingly well.

[She takes another breath, trying to still her thoughts and tries again to sound a little more sober.]

Is something wrong?

[recrudesce]

Future planning?

( Like - ? He rubs his jaw and looks behind him, inside. )

Not wrong, have you been following the group chat? Maybe before your future game?

[geminated]

Nope. We did not. There were a lot of messages and none of them were yelling at us specifically so we figured we'd check it later.

[A long pause.]

You said not wrong, so I'm going to assume no one's dead.

[recrudesce]

( "Something's not wrong, but they're dead," Luke asks, leaning very close. )

It's actually the exact opposite. The Armory got a call from my mother.

[geminated]

[Liv immediately realized that what Tyler was trying to tell her earlier is correct, and she is not sober enough for this conversation. She holds up a finger and says, quickly:]

Luke is going to magically sober me up and I will call you back in ... about an hour, probably.

[She starts to go to hang up and then brings the phone back.]

Wait, this is good?

[It feels like it should be good, and is honestly much better than her own family surprise that she has coming.]

[recrudesce]

I mean - she's alive. And okay. And I miss her. Sober up. Call me back.

( He should've waited. )

[geminated]

I'll call you back.

[And she will hang up before turning to look at her brother.]

Are you too drunk to make me one of those magical make-me-sober drinks?

[drugdeals]

No, but I don't have what I need here.

( He looks around him to triple check, even though he knows he doesn't. )

Do I -- ( He nods. ) I need to. I will. Let's... pay the check and then sober you up.

[mayoralty]

[Liv nods, throwing up the hands to get the staff's attention so they can get this show on the road.

Meanwhile, back in Mystic Falls, after a meal and paying their own check, they head back to the Lockwood Manor, as promised. Walking back into the manor does feel a bit like coming home, and she finds herself wandering as Tyler gets Charlie settled, eventually landing in her old office, which seems to have been preserved as part of the public part of the house. She settles into the seat and just lingers in it for a moment, thinking of everything she's missed.]

[recrudesce]

( Tyler gets him towels and some travel toiletries. He doesn't have a phone for Charlie, but he promises to connect him and Waverly if she wants to be, but she's on her way.

After, he goes looking for his mom finding her in the old office. It was his dad's once. The site of where he'd first triggered. He props himself up in the doorway. )

Is everything where you left it?

[mayoralty]

Pretty much.

[She glances over at him with a smile.]

When you were little, I thought you'd take over this office one day. But I understand why you didn't. There are a lot of ghosts in this house.

[recrudesce]

This also wasn't my town to takeover. After Matt... ( He moves into the office, feeling one of the chairs, squeezing it, like it won't be real. ) Something happened to him, and until this woman named Lindsay, he was sheriff. Made it up from Deputy. But, I couldn't... step in like that. And I wasn't meant to be mayor.

[mayoralty]

[Carol nods, because she understands. And it isn't fair that they keep expecting their children to fall into the same roles they've been playing since the founding of this town.]

Do you feel like you are doing what you're meant to be doing?

[She hopes that he's happy doing what he's doing, because that's the important thing.]

[recrudesce]

I feel like I'm doing something. And what I don't feel like that's enough, I have something else to fall back on.

( His ties are great, now, and the Armory does something meaningful, but he also has roots in several packs. )

[mayoralty]

Good.

[She nods before she flashes him a small smile and asks about the thing she really wants to ask about:]

So tell me about Olivia. How long have you been together?

[recrudesce]

( He should call her back. No, she will call him back. She needs to get sober. )

Nineteen years now. Wow. Neither of us are the anniversary type. ( And he hopes that doesn't come off like younger, dick-Tyler. ) We met at Whittemore. She's a witch and she has a big family that keeps getting bigger. She's stubborn, but tough, and really sweet underneath. And she'd do anything for that big family of hers. And we work together, which, some days is really good, and then some weekends I go to West Virginia or to the midwest or north west...

[mayoralty]

[Speak of the devil his phone will buzz with a text: Okay, sober now. Do you want to talk or do you just want me to come?

She's good for either, but she doesn't to intrude if he's chatting with his mom. Which he is.

Carol raises an eyebrow.]

Almost twenty years, and she's your girlfriend still?

[She tries not to sound judgy, but that's a long time for someone to just be your girlfriend, Tyler.]

[recrudesce]

( He goes to answer, but his phone buzzes. He taps out a, You should probably just come here. Maybe bring Luke, see if anything witchy is up.

Now to answer. )

Ten more and she might still be my girlfriend. We're together, it's it. We never needed more.

( He thought about proposing, but there are other things, other things that are Olivia's business and not his to bring up. Maybe the curse lifting will change things, but it will take two if it does. )

[mayoralty]

[Got it. I'll see you in a couple hours. And she will bring her brother, because yeah, this sounds like a magic problem.

Carol nods, because that she understands.]

Any kids?

[She feels like that may have pushed the marriage issue if there were, but just checking.]

[recrudesce]

No. No kids. We talked about them. Once. Things are complicated... in her family line. ( A beat. ) She's a witch.

[mayoralty]

You mentioned that.

[Her being a witch, that is. Carol doesn't know anything about witches, but she knows that life in the supernatural world is complicated.]

As long as you're happy, that's what matters. I'm sure you have your own complications too.

[She would understand if he wasn't too keen to pass on the werewolf end of things.]

[recrudesce]

( Right. His gene, right. Weirdly enough, he's less worried about it because of people who exist like Hope. And, much much much much less, like Klaus. They don't talk. They don't need to talk. But, he's alive and his daughter is a wolf-witch ... vampire now. )

Sorry. I did. And we're happy. We're ... as happy as we can be. And maybe more now. I don't know. But. She's kind of it for me. Marriage or not. Kids or not.

[mayoralty]

That's what's important.

[That he not making the same mistakes that his parents did. Not that she regrets him, not for the world. But maybe trying to make it work with Richard, knowing what she knows now, wasn't her best choice.]

And there's nothing wrong with being unconventional. I know I haven't been that open minded in the past, but you really realize how much didn't actually matter after you die.

[Can they comfortably joke about that yet? She needs them to be comfortable with it.]

[recrudesce]

I also did die. Came back untriggered and everything.

( They can joke. Joking helps. )

Only thing unconventional about us is probably that we're been together for so long.