for the rest of us death will be a relief

[praevaricatio]

Comments

[lengthened]

( "I'll wait for Linda, but take the plate," he insists.

Adal graciously returns his smile and takes a step out, ready to follow Donna wherever she takes them. )

Thank you. We shouldn't be more than a minute.

[thefaxwhisperer]

[Donna will lead them back to her office, letting them all inside before setting her plate down on her desk and turning back to her friend.]

What's going on? Is everything okay?

[She pauses, before gesturing between the two of them.]

How do you two know each other?

["Fun little adventure with wild magic a couple months ago," Waverly smiles. "Also I have a friend who works with the Underground."]

[lengthened]

Xavier Dolls.

( She says, connecting the dots for Donna while she opens her pocketbook. She holds out one of the newspaper clippings. )

This is Jacob Holmes. Do you recognize him?

[thefaxwhisperer]

[Donna takes the picture from her and as soon as she looks at it, she snorts.]

Yeah, that's Rusty DeBrande. I guess Jacob was the alias of the time. When was this, the nineties?

[Waverly nods. "So you know him? You could call him?"

Donna glances up at her and shakes her head.]

Yes to the first, no to the second. We've never really been friends, but we've crossed paths here and there. He's never given me his number. Mostly because he didn't trust the Tower. Why?

[lengthened]

( The snort is odd, but the name, the recognition feels like something. )

His alias.

( If people were after him... )

Was the Tower hunting him down? Through the decades?

[thefaxwhisperer]

No, the Colony was.

[Donna's tone shifts, her understanding of the situation - or more so lack thereof - coming into focus, and she glances between the two women, trying to read something out of their expressions as she continues to speak (nat 20 because of course, she's Donna).]

Russell DeBrande was one of the founding members. Story goes, they had a falling out around the time of the Salem Witch Trials, the previous Gauntlet. In fact, he was the one who called it - I don't know why. He lost his gamble, though, and as a result, they cursed him. If he could make it to the point where he could make it to old age and die of natural causes, he wins the little game. But up until this point, the Inner Circle would hunt him down and take him out before he could get that far, so he kept getting reborn and starting all over again.

The Colony has - or had, rather - allies in the Tower, so he didn't trust Tower vampires, estranged or not. I first met him back in the forties when he was spending time with the Butlers.

[She and Scarlett still kept in touch, on and off. She turns her attention to her friend, her tone different this time from the off-hand question for more information. She knows Adal, she knows the things that are important to her. This time, there's weight to her asking for more.]

Why?

[lengthened]

( Adal braces herself against the desk she's near, lowering her body against it as the words wash over her. Her heart hurts for his gamble. For the tradition her son started. For his involvement in the Colony. And not the Tower. )

The -- Scarlett?

( She comes back into her own body, righting her stance. She's strong. This is the information she needed. Not that she is close to the Butlers. Not that she was close to Scarlett. )

She - He's my son.

[thefaxwhisperer]

Oh my god.

[Donna looks down at the picture in her hand again, and now that she's looking at it she can see the resemblances. The pieces of her friend in his face. The eyes. She should have seen it, but at the same time, how could she?]

I ... Adal, I had no idea.

[lengthened]

No, Donna. Neither did I. I had no idea. I only -- knew his spirit had -- appeared and reappeared. Over the years. But I didn't know how or, or why, not until now.

( She moves forward again, tapping the picture of him. )

He fell into Colony hands. And they betrayed him.

[thefaxwhisperer]

If he called the Gauntlet, he may have betrayed them first.

[But that's neither here nor there. The Gauntlet must have meant different things back then. She's not versed enough in witch politics to know otherwise.

Donna drops into her desk chair, rubbing her eyes briefly as she does.]

I don't know where he is. He finally managed to kill them all, and according to the rest of his co-conspirators, he's off the map. I could try and ask Scarlett, but if he doesn't want to be found, she won't tell me.

[She pauses, before drumming her fingers against the arm of the chair briefly.]

But I do know where your granddaughter is.

[Waverly blinks, eyes going wide: "What?"]

[lengthened]

Co-conspirators. You make him sound like a terrorist.

( She supposes he is a witch terrorist. )

My -- I'm sorry. Who? He - My -- ?

[thefaxwhisperer]

They did just commit a bloody coup so ... I'm sure to his ex-friends he was.

[Donna takes a breath, before glancing between the two of them.]

Have you heard about the resurrections that have been happening?

[Waverly nods because yep, she's been all up in that. "About a dozen people spontaneously came back to life scattered across the country and - oh." It clicks before she can even finish her ramble. "She's the witch. The one who showed up with a vampire named Isobel?"

Donna nods.]

She wanted to go back to her coven, so I helped her connect with the new leadership of the Colony. But she was Rusty's daughter. They killed her as part of the curse.

[lengthened]

What --

( She has been singularly focused and not answering anything Underground-related, so, she turns to Waverly. She knows Waverly is not hiding this from her, that she shouldn't be so spectacularly out of the loop. She looks back at Donna. )

She bound his curse. A curse that great would require a sacrifice. One person's life force to give him an infinite amount of them. And you know Russell?

[thefaxwhisperer]

[Waverly would have gotten around to the angel in her borrowed guest room eventually.

Donna takes a deep breath, and nods.]

I know him. I've been seeing a lot of him lately, actually, because Harvey had been working on the aforementioned coup.

[A beat.]

He's the one who warned me Brannigan was dead.

[lengthened]

Did he do it himself?

( What has his life been like all his life, but more importantly, in the past few months. )

He's alive. And they're all dead. And he has cohorts.

[thefaxwhisperer]

No. He wasn't there.

[That she knows for sure. He couldn't have gotten from Scotland to New York that fast, even with his skills. Boats and airplanes are harder to manipulate than cars.]

And yes. His cohorts are who I sent Adrienne to. I'm not sure how much she knows about her parentage though. She introduced herself as a Melroux.

[lengthened]

Yes, you said she's Colony. She's -- she's part Melroux, then --

( Then he was with a Melroux. And - betrayed them. Maybe was betrayed. )

She is his daughter. You know this for sure? His daughter?

[thefaxwhisperer]

Well, as far as I know they haven't run a DNA test.

["We could do that," Waverly says quickly. "Run a DNA test."

Donna nods, before she continues.]

But the heirs seemed pretty convinced that she at least was who she said she was. The information about how she died bore fruit. She was killed to curse him. That's about all I got to listen in on before they took her to Baltimore.

[lengthened]

Baltimore.

( She turns to Waverly, hand lightly grasping at the fabric of her coat. )

There's a trail.

[thefaxwhisperer]

[Waverly gives her a squeeze back. "This all started in Baltimore. I take it Rusty was there?"

Donna nods.]

Yeah, he was. He's not anymore though. I can call David, let him know you're coming if you want to see Adrienne.

[lengthened]

Should I? ( He hand clings to Waverly's arm, clings to something amid the truth. ) She doesn't even know I exist. And she's newly returned, which is harrowing enough. I can't lead her to her father, I don't want to be the bearer of no tidings.

[stupetballs]

You are a tiding onto yourself.

[She may not realize she has a grandmother to reach out to, and is falling back on what she knows. That being said:]

You don't have to decide right now. You can take your time to think about it. I'm going back to Mystic Falls this weekend and -

[Her eyes light up as though she just realized something.]

- Oh! Mystic Falls! She should - we're getting a bunch of the resurrected folks in one place to try and see how much data we can gather about what happened to them. If Adrienne is willing, she would be a good person to include. She kind of breaks the curve with regard to how long ago she died.

[Donna nods slowly, before reaching for her phone. "I could put you in touch with the heirs. See if they'd be willing to persuade her."

Waverly nods.]

I'm happy to talk to them. As Black Badge agent Waverly Earp, anyway.

[lengthened]

( Hard not to take that as the vague compliment it could be. A thousand plus year old witch is blushing for the first time in decades. But, feels like she has more footing, now. Waverly grounds her, so she lets go. )

Right after Christmas.

( It seems time has a sense of humor. )

If she's anything like her grandmother, she'd want any and all answers.

[stupetballs]

[Oh right, she had a question about Christmas. Pin in that until they get the business stuff done and they can let Donna go back to work.]

So let's at least give her the option, and you can come to Mystic Falls and we'll see what happens.

[Donna nods in agreement, before pulling up Max's number on her phone. As the phone rings on speaker, she pats the desk next to her.

"If you're going to pitch this, you should be close enough for them to hear."]

[maxxx]

( Max checks his caller ID, smirks, and steps out of the room he's in, closing the door behind him. )

There are no casualties to report, Donna. Everyone is playing nice.