but oh what a year

[patrols]

Comments

[somanyadjectives]

He was looking before he let me go.

[When, theoretically, Stefan was still useful to him. It takes him a minute, to figure out what made this capture - being stuck in the Mystic Falls Sheriff's Office - different than when he was trapped in the Armory.

Because he was trapped in the Armory for a while.]

There's a reason he decided that now I was no longer of use to him, versus before. Maybe we already have it, we just don't know it yet.

[Dorian's unconscious but ...]

Do Tyler and Liv still work for the Armory?

[unforgivably]

Quietly.

( Tyler does hold a grudge against him for Matt, as they all should, but they've all seen the monster Damon can be. Liv lightened up to him, eventually, until he went on his siren walkabout. )

That's it, you're off the hook. Just like that. Faster vampire, stab, stab.

[somanyadjectives]

I'm off the hook while I'm in here.

[Trapped with no daylight ring and no way out, with Cade too incorporeal to break him out and put him back to work.]

There's no saying I'll stay that way if you let me out.

[He didn't fight for his freedom like Damon did. He was simply cast aside like a broken toy and there's no saying that Cade won't assert himself if he suddenly was a viable option again - or getting close to what he wants.]

We need someone Cade isn't watching to find out what he's after.

[And then his eyes flick to Lindsay, and she raises an eyebrow.]

[unforgivably]

( Ah. That kind of off the hook. )

Then you're benched. For now. But, don't get comfortable.

( He turns back to Lindsay, now. The unwitting accomplice. )

Look at that. Capture a vampire, get a new mission. Is it everything you ever dreamed of?

( How useful are slayers, anyway? )

[patrols]

Pretty much business as usual, actually.

[She leans against the side of the cell, glancing between the two of them.]

So tell me about this Armory. Some kind of supernatural secret society?

[unforgivably]

She got it in one. Slayers are smart. Think more, supernatural documentarians. They're there for humanity's protection, or so the byline goes.

( He's not sure he trusts what he says they're about. It's a shady, shady organization. )

[patrols]

So nerds, mostly. Fortunately for me, I've got someone who speaks nerd.

[Rather fluently, in fact. He's just busy getting Dorian, so hopefully he'll be able to swing back around soon.]

He's currently tracking down your missing intern, but hopefully we'll have word soon one way or another.

[unforgivably]

On whether or not Stefan killed the unpaid help?

( Sorry, brother, but huge breakthroughs don't lessen sarcastic tendencies. )

[patrols]

Basically.

[Nah, she's not going to sugar coat it for him. Stefan glares at his brother, mostly, before realizing Lindsay's attention is staying on him.]

Do you know what it was in the Armory that he was looking for?

[Stefan frowns, before shaking his head. "He wasn't really specific. But I think I remember something about a journal?"]

[unforgivably]

More journals. We really go full circle here in Mystic Falls.

( But, he can do his part at actually helping. He pauses, because maybe she won't pick up his call, but he has to try. If not, he'll circle around to Tyler, through Caroline. )

[geminated]

[Liv is tired.

She's been trying to do locator spells on Dorian but apparently the asshole didn't want to be found before he was done doing whatever he was doing with Stefan, so all of her locator spells are fritzing. She's about to throw Dorian's picture of his family into a wall to make herself feel better, but her phone rings instead.

She glances over at the caller ID, and the last person she wants to talk to is Damon Salvatore, but maybe, there's an off chance he found them and left Dorian alive.

Pigs could also fly, but better to check first and be a bitch later.

Or maybe be a bitch in the middle because she opens with:]

No, Damon, I still don't know where your brother is.

[unforgivably]

Found Stefan, someone is out picking Dorian up, and I'm calling for you.

( And, by proxy, Tyler. )

Has Tyler filled you in on all things Arcadius or has been left out of the loop? Honestly, I've lost track at this point, having no agency, fighting for agency, being in and out of town...

[geminated]

Murdering my friend?

[Because yeah, Liv is pissed at that too. Matt and Tyler are a package deal and Matt was her friend.]

Yeah, fully aware of what you've been up to, Damon. Stefan too. What do you want?

[She won't confirm or deny how much she knows about Cade until she knows what he's actually asking for.

She's also walking out of her makeshift office and going in search of her boyfriend, taking the phone with her.]

[unforgivably]

Cade's looking for something, wanted Stefan to get it himself, but he's putting himself in a daylight ring time out. We've also made friends with local law enforcement who aren't on Cade's radar. Any chance the Armory is housing something big, bad, and stabby? Or, I've been told, there could also be a journal.

( Be as mad as you want, kid. )

[geminated]

The Armory's collection is like ninety percent journals. Do you have a name?

[That would narrow things down some.]

Who is this law enforcement officer exactly?

[unforgivably]

Sheriff Miller.

( He looks back at her as he says her name. )

Stefan, got a name for the journal?

[geminated]

[Stefan doesn't know. But he tips his head to the side. "He's kind of obsessed with the Maxwell Bell?"

So maybe it's also a Maxwell journal?

Liv frowns at that.]

How'd you manage to loop her in?

[unforgivably]

She found Stefan. Who, is back in the building, and without Elvis.

( If she or Tyler care. )

She locked him up sans ring. She's a slayer.

[geminated]

[Liv goes quiet for a moment, because while she doesn't know all the details, she's heard of a Slayer before (18). They're all over the Armory journals, though the Armory members themselves have never actually met one.

She honestly thought they were a myth.]

Wait. Like ... a real one? With a capital S?

[A beat.]

And both of you are still alive?

[unforgivably]

She's a smart slayer. Knows we're a different kind of vampire, that was have souls.

( She made her case. )

And that we now have a group objective and get the devil out of Mystic Falls.

[geminated]

Well, if the Slayers' track record with apocalypses is anything to go by, that might actually bode well for us.

[She finds Tyler, slipping into his office and closing the door behin her.]

Still need a name for the journals though.

[unforgivably]

Maxwell. He's got a yen for the Maxwell bell. I'll bet you should look in the M's.

( Tyler looks up from his desk, setting aside something he's working on.

"Journals?" )

[geminated]

Hang on, Damon.

[And she hits mute on her phone before turning to Tyler to catch him up.]

Stefan is in a holding cell at the Sheriff's office and may actually be himself again, the Sheriff may be an honest-to-God Slayer and she wants to help us take out Cade. Stefan also thinks that Cade is either looking for a knife or a journal related to the Maxwell Bell.

[recrudesce]

That's a whole lot of may and thinks. And Damon's the source?

( He stands, though. )

Sheriff Mills is a slayer?

[geminated]

According to Damon, which means it probably had to be what she told him? But I'm not sure he really knows what it means.

{She's guessing, considering he didn't really react to her question.]

But when it comes to Cade, I think mays and thinks are all we really got. Might be worth it to look through the journals and see if we can find anything from a guy named Maxwell.