but oh what a year

[patrols]

Comments

[scrutinously]

You were trying something on. You felt stronger. Better. I get it.

( He might do the same thing. Not that he doesn't have his dad's piercing eyes and jaw. But, there's always been a part of him that's just been comfortable. But not flaunting like his dad did. )

[yourtype]

[Erica would encourage it, even if she's not leaning on it right now.]

I think some of the nice thing about being in New Orleans instead of Beacon Hills is that no one's known me since we were little.

[Don't have all of your worst moments to pull from as you're trying to make friends.]

[scrutinously]

We definitely feel that, don't we?

( Mystic Falls High is not a nice high school of people. It's full of stuck up, clique-y folk. )

[meanestgirl]

One hundred percent. Small towns are so suffocating.

[Everyone has to be in everyone else's business.

Erica smiles. "Glad to see that they never change. Except not."]

[scrutinously]

It doesn't help when your mother reconstitutes the historical society and you both become poster children for every event thrown. And, then expected to go to every event.

( and your family friends aren't made to. )

[meanestgirl]

["Right. Bonnie told me how intense Mystic Falls could be with ... history." Erica didn't get it, but Beacon Hills wasn't really the same way.

Stephanie rolls her eyes.]

It's fine. They're a lot more honest about their roots than they used to be, though they still leave the vampires out of it.

[scrutinously]

For the most part. Unless a party goes late and certain people end up behind closed doors. Not everything that happened to the boarding school stayed on the grounds. There was a rumor that there was a troll in the school's basement.

( It was an after rumor when their various parents spoke to each other or informed each other. )

[yourtype]

I mean, I spent most of my junior year fighting a homicidal lizard man, so at least Mystic Falls and Beacon Hills have that in common.

[Stephanie's brow furrows. "Like a real lizard man?"]

It's called a kanima. It secrets paralytic venom and has nasty looking knife tail.

[scrutinously]

Homicidal...

( Thank you, sis, for asking. )

Where did it -- Um. We've never heard of something like that. Or, even something that might even be something like that. Fighting? Like, it kept showing up and the fighting wasn't working?

[yourtype]

So ... werewolves have alphas right? And an alpha can bite a human and turn them into a werewolf? Sometimes when they do that, the bite doesn't turn them into a werewolf, it turns them into something else. A kanima is one of those times.

Kanimas don't have alphas, they have masters and this kanima's master was using him to get revenge on a bunch of people in Beacon Hills. And given the whole lizard scale situation, they don't even look much like they do as a human so we had to figure out who the kanima is in human form and then figure out who the master was.

[It's a long, roundabout way of telling the story, but Jackson is here and she doesn't want it to seem like she's spilling all his dirty laundry to these randos he doesn't know.]

[scrutinously]

( His eyes glaze over, but rest assured, he listens. Even though, the "right," goes over his head. Sure, fine. He does latch on to the story, though, the other historian in the family. )

Like a whodunit. But, you didn't know because they looked like you or me.

[yourtype]

[Erica nods.]

Our one good idea was that a kanima would be immune to it's own venom. Turns out that's all a lie, because in human form they can totally be paralyzed but the one person who was immune wasn't a kanima but something else entirely.

[scrutinously]

Another piece to the puzzle?

( He's probably becoming overly fascinated by now, but she's reeled him in.. )

[yourtype]

More like a red herring. Turns out banshees are immune to ... everything. Though we didn't know she was a banshee yet. They figured that out after I ... you know.

[She sees him leaning in and he's very cute but she also doesn't want to talk about her death so she hopes he doesn't pull back.

Stephanie glances between the two of them before rolling her eyes and getting up. "I'm going to get more snacks."]

[scrutinously]

Right, you --

( Are back, now. His sister makes her escape and he does find himself leaning back, if only because - death. )

How does it feel knowing the answers now?

[yourtype]

[She gives a small shrug, noticing how he leaned back but ... fair. Death is a turn off.]

It explained why she was always the one finding the dead bodies.

[And it is kind of unfortunate for her.]

But honestly we were never that close. She kind of sucked in high school.

[scrutinously]

( To be fair, he throws an arm along the back of the chair. There's a slight lean forward, because he's still alert. He's just not where they were. )

Sucked, how? She was a mean girl?

[yourtype]

Kind of. She played herself off as being really shallow when she was actually a genius, and her boyfriend was the biggest dick in school.

[But she knows there's also normal jealous teenage girl issues in there too.]

And she was the prettiest girl in school so basically she was the girl everyone had a crush on including the guy I was into so ... I may be biased.

[scrutinously]

Sounds like high school.

( All that, plus the supernatural. Pretty sketchy. )

How... many of these guys and girls in your story are here tonight?

[yourtype]

Not her. She's apparently in Paris with her boyfriend. And not the pack's current alpha.

[Which maybe is for the best because she doesn't know what to do with Lydia anymore than Lydia does.]

But a lot of the rest of them are, yeah.

[scrutinously]

Was -- she dating the pack's current alpha?

( How does that work? Inter-dating. Fascinating, sociologically. )

You're excluding the names to protect the innocent. I like your style. If we need to go back downstairs for a refill, I really want you to point them out so I can guess who's who.

[yourtype]

No! No. No no no. I meant that the pack's current alpha isn't here.

[Sorry she's swirling things around while avoiding people's names. That does sound like a fun game though.]

Maybe. Could be fun.

[She's not going to tell him who the kanima was, but boring high school drama? That she's fully ready to spill on.

Stephanie returns with more snacks, and they try to pull off of Erica's specific brand of interesting a little bit. Eventually it's Erica's turn to run for the snacks, and Stephanie is a liiiiiiiiittle tipsy, and she glances over to her brother curiously.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

Their alternate universe parents had given them a very curated tour of Mystic Falls now - the hospital, the Grille, Lockwood Manor, Damon's house. She wants to go look for the places she knows and that they seem to not want to show her.]

[scrutinously]

( He'd like to stick by his sister's side if she's like this, not that he blames her for being in this state. It's a lot for him, too. He nods, getting up and finishing the last of his drink. )

Let's go down memory lane.

( He quickly shoots a text to tell Erica they're doing just that. Hesitates, and then lets Damon know they're taking a walk, too. He doesn't feel beholden to him. But he also doesn't need him worrying. )

[meanestgirl]

[Erica sends back a thumbs up.

Damon receives the text, but his brother doesn't know that. He catches sight of the two children wandering out the door and he doesn't stop them. It is Mystic Falls, and Mystic Falls is a lot safer than it used to be. Still, better safe than sorry. Stefan slips out behind them, just to keep an eye.

For all that this should be memory lane, it both is and isn't at the same time. She gets turned around a couple times - not because she's drunk but because the landmarks just aren't the same. Different people moved into different houses with different lawn decor, but eventually they find themselves standing in front of the Gilbert house.

Or what should be the Gilbert house.

Elena hasn't sold it. The remains of the house were torn down - safety reasons - so in it's place is just an empty plot of land between two houses, where a house should be. Maybe one day she planned to rebuild it, when she had reason and that reason hadn't come yet.

Stephanie stares at the blank space where her house should be, and her shoulders slump.]

I think part of me was hoping that she didn't burn it down here.

[scrutinously]

( it's the latest of many sobering reminders this isn't the home they know and loved - sometimes loathed. small town. but they were lucky for all the while. )

We knew she burned it down. We just... didn't know she never had it rebuilt. Here.

( because she didn't have reason to. or the money. )

She said it was one of her most painful memories. And then it wasn't.