for the rest of us death will be a relief

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[scrutinously]

( It does in its' own way. But his mind works differently. )

Maybe you'll feel different when we come face to face with mom.

[meanestgirl]

Mom and her boyfriend and her bunker.

[There's a quiet pause.]

Mom and I barely get along on a good day, why would she want to be around me without biological imperative on the table?

[scrutinously]

Can't help you with the bunker, but at least it sounds like she's not being kept there. She went willingly.

Instinct, I hope. Because even though she didn't see us coming, we're here.

[meanestgirl]

[Another pause, this one longer because she can't avoid the stirring uncertainty in her gut, but eventually she says:]

I hope you're right.

[Which she does not say often so enjoy it, Gray.]

[scrutinously]

( For all her flaws and their father's temper they don't share, though hers is more readily on the surface, he is still her sister. He has seen her compassion alongside her withering stare, or dropping her friends in an instant (which was partially his fault), but he hopes she doesn't fall back onto old, early high school patterns. They won't get anywhere if she stays combative. He worries for her, worried about what it'd mean for her to go to college. But, he spent one year away from her and the house and the high school didn't burn down.

He hoped that taking care of herself didn't always come at the expense of not letting others in. He knows firsthand he can't trust everyone. Dad's old "friend" helped that along. But, he worked past it by January-February and turned his grades around.

His sister has always been smarter without trying, where Gray is the studier. He needs to make the effort. It also came naturally, burying himself in the town's problematic history. Wanting to feel closer to his grandparents. )

So, we're going to be meeting a whole lot of extended family we never would, otherwise.

You nervous?

[meanestgirl]

I don't know. It feels so weird. I'm worried I'm going to trip up and mention that the wrong person is dead.

[And then set off a tidal wave of family fights.]

[scrutinously]

They can't help who's in our world and who isn't. I know why you're worried, but I'd rather endure a little awkwardness than police ourselves completely.

Just do your best.

They'll ask about us. Our lives. Focus on that.

[meanestgirl]

I'll try.

If Uncle Stefan is still alive do you think he and Aunt Caroline still got married?

[scrutinously]

I don't think so, he's traveling with someone named Buffy. And Caroline's doing all this emotional damage control, but she's also not in Mystic Falls right now. I'm not saying they couldn't have two different missions, but from what we heard, they always made a good team.

You can always ask. Talk to Dad.

[meanestgirl]

Maybe. Maybe tomorrow.

[And she'll probably leave things there for right now, at least with Grayson. She lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, and then ... because she's curious and she can't stop asking questions. In end, she reaches for her phone because she's still not sure she can face her father who is not her father and ask these questions, so she texts him instead. To Damon:]

If I ask you a bunch of questions about how things are here based on what I know about my world will you answer them?

[unforgivably]

I will.

[meanestgirl]

[Okay. Let's start with the most relevant then.]

Did Uncle Stefan and Aunt Caroline get married?

[unforgivably]

Not in this universe. Things were awkward for a summer before we had Heretic problems.

[meanestgirl]

[Okay. So that's something.]

Is Aunt Caroline still the twins mom?

[unforgivably]

Jo is the twins' mom.

Caroline was the twins mom in your universe? ...Caroline and Alaric Saltzman?

[meanestgirl]

Not their biomom. But she carried them after their biomom died and like ... literally birthed them so she basically became their mom.

She and Uncle Ric are not together.

But hey no weird vampire body horror in this universe. That's probably a win.

[unforgivably]

... She carried the twins.

[meanestgirl]

I don't know all the details but basically their biomom's crazy brother attacked the wedding and she was dying so her coven saved the twins by transferring them into the nearest available womb that just so happened to be Aunt Caroline.

I try not to look too hard at the magic stuff because it really just seems like an ethical nightmare I don't want to know about.

[unforgivably]

Yeah, that doesn't sound consenting. So. No. Jo is alive in this universe.

[meanestgirl]

Huh. Okay.

[There's a pause as she tries to figure out how much she wants to know about her mother's life before she gets started.]

I know you said he's her boyfriend, but Mom doesn't have any other kids with this guy right?

[No weird alternate universe siblings?]

[unforgivably]

Neither of us have kids.

... Dean does have a kid, but it's not Elena's.

[meanestgirl]

[Woof. That's a bullet dodged. She stares at her phone for a minute before she continues.]

And she really likes him? Dean, I mean.

[unforgivably]

They're together. She moved in with him. She likes him. She probably loves him, but I'm not in that loop.

[meanestgirl]

[Oh. Okay. And with a swerve into intensely personal questions:]

Are you in love with Freya?

[She caught her name when he was trying to get them to stop ganging up on him, said he would explain her. He never got around to the explaining, but she still wants to know.]

[unforgivably]

No, we just started spending time together. It's new.