but oh what a year

[patrols]

Comments

[redeems]

( Angel knows he can't just tee that up and not follow, so, smirking behind his tea (thank you, Carol), he stops right beside Cordelia.

Allison turns back, mid-conversation with Carol - who Angel raises his tea to in thanks.

"I'm sure he's not saying the 'Finally,' part. Hey, Cordelia. It's a pleasure. This is Carol Lockwood, this is her house. How long did it take her to wear you down?" she asks, )

[letsbe_clear]

[Sam shakes his head. "Better to rip off the band-aid than let it fester."

Cordy rolls her eyes.]

I'm not that bad. I just wanted to meet the woman I keep getting mistaken for.

[Sam gives her a look. "You were called Allison by one person."]

Once is enough. Nice to meet you too, Carol.

["Oh, don't mind me," she smiles, clearly enjoying the ping-pong of the back and forth. "This is what parties are for."]

[redeems]

How were you mistaken for Allison?

( Angel asks before he sips his tea. He genuinely doesn't know. They look nothing alike besides, brunettes, and they have very different dispositions.

"Allison Argent," she says, in the meantime to the man with the tea. Oh, him. )

Angel.

( That's enough of an explanation, right? )

[letsbe_clear]

["She was standing next to me when Lisa arrived - she only really knew that I had a girlfriend named Allison, so she took a wild guess," Sam explains.]

After which he rudely shooed me away, but we will be having a drink later. Allison, you're more than welcome to join us, if you like.

[There's plenty of gossip to go around, and she does want to get to know Allison better without Sam hovering.]

[redeems]

( "Lisa's a bit older than me," she says, eyeing her boyfriend. But not blaming him. It's funny. And cute.

She's also not sure he rudely did anything, but she thinks she can read Cordy's tone.

"Please, tell me when. Shockingly, I do not get enough girl time."

Not shockingly. )

Who's Lisa?

( "The mother of Dean's son, Ben. They're also here, somewhere. He and his family." )

Dean. Dean Winchester. Has - a son.

[letsbe_clear]

Yes, apparently it's a recent development.

[She pauses.]

Not his existence, but Dean's awareness of him. They found out at Thanksgiving.

[redeems]

Happy Thanksgiving.

( "Ben is very nice and so are his mom and stepdad. He brought a plus-on, too, but no information on him yet," she says to the group, before eyeing the busybody in front of her. Spill. )

[letsbe_clear]

His name is Dickerson. He is tall and blond, but don't know much beyond that.

[Her eyebrows go up as she glances to Sam curiously.]

I could find out?

[Sam shakes his head. "Cordy, no. Why don't you ask Dean? Don't you have to meet Elena still?"

Cordy waves a hand.]

Dean's busy. We have all night.

[Oh now they have all night.]

[redeems]

( "That's more than we knew," Allison says, impressed with her intel. "Sam, I don't think you can stop Cordelia from making friends. Also, I'm actually just as curious, so we could..." )

I'll stay here with Sam and with - Carol.

[letsbe_clear]

["You girls have fun," Carol smirks, before turning back to the two men and opening with: "So Sam - tell me about your brother."

She's curious about Elena's non-vampire boyfriend. So sue her.

Meanwhile, Cordelia will hook her arm in Allison's as they wander off in search of interesting people to talk to. And they will chat as they go, because Cordelia is a curious person.]

So I know that Elena and Dean met a long time ago and then reconnected but how did you and Sam meet?

[redeems]

( Angel smirks, because Dean is very much an acquired taste with the manners of a demon but, the heart of a lion.

Allison is happy to answer any Sam questions.

"Sam, Dean, and I met when my father and I recruited them. There was a radicalized guidance counselor recruiting hunters. She had a wide reach." )

[letsbe_clear]

Oh, right, I heard about that. Monroe?

[The Underground does get the news, even if they weren't directly involved.]

She was making things messy.

[matriarchate]

And then some. Right when we picked up a lot of groundswell support, we brought in the Winchesters to try and cull what they could themselves. We didn't know how far she'd gone.

( Or, how much influence she'd had. She peers into one of the passing rooms. No Dean. )

Anyway, we all happened to converge in Mystic Falls for one reason or another, weirdly enough. But it started with my best friend Lydia.

[letsbe_clear]

Lydia is a name I've heard! Or read. It might have been in a report.

[Cordelia pauses, because that likely needs clarification.]

Angel and I work with the Underground.

[matriarchate]

Like Alexander.

( Context! )

Lydia's a banshee and she got rained out in Mystic Falls. And then she had a foreboding feeling which, if you know, is never good for a banshee to have. And then they called reinforcements.

[letsbe_clear]

[Cordelia nods because yes this is sounding familiar.]

Alexander was there making a drop off and he wound up sticking around for a while. And that's how he got Jackson. The pieces are coming together.

[matriarchate]

Jackson freelances. He was helping the Underground and he wound up at the Salvatore School.

( But she's from Beacon Hills - and much like Cordelia's world - and Mystic Falls, she doesn't believe in coincidences. )

Dean and Sam happened to also be in town, too, for Jack's graduation.

[letsbe_clear]

So dispatch hunters, save graduation - victory date?

[She can follow the throughline there.]

Hunters are probably easier to deal with than the giant serpent that crashed my graduation.

[mayoralty]

["Uh. What do you want to know?"

He doesn't want to say anything to make things awkward for Elena, and he doesn't know Carol well, nor does he remember much of her from when he was in Mystic Falls as a kid. Carol waves a hand.]

I've heard little things here and there. And I do remember your father working with the Council when you all were in high school. Miranda seems to speak well of him.

["Really?" Sam's eyebrows go up, and Carol smiles.]

You sound surprised. You don't think she would?

[redeems]

They... had a difficult relationship, ( tactless' boyfriend, says, helping the conversation along, right? He instilled certain behaviors they all live with today, and he's one of the reasons neither brother had been with anybody since Elena and Allison. But, he keeps all that. This is what the boyfriend of a busybody hears. )

He's a good person, though. Dean. Tough. Little angry.

[mayoralty]

["Miranda's had a hard time adjusting." Sam does feel he can say that. "And she may have been pointing some of it at people who may not deserve it." Mostly her daughter, some to Caroline, but some of it was in Dean's absence.

Carol nods slowly.]

Mystic Falls, at least when she was learning about all of this, had a fairly black and white view about the supernatural. We all have a fairly steep learning curve. But if she hasn't drugged him and passed him off to someone to be tortured she's already a step ahead of me.

[Sam raises an eyebrow. "She has not done that - at least not to my knowledge."]

[redeems]

( Having been through it himself, he knows coming back from the dead or a hell dimension - they come with adjustments. But he stays quiet through Miranda's take on it. )

Who would she drug and torture? Dean?

( He's human in all this... )

Have you drugged and passed someone off to be tortured?

[mayoralty]

[The look on her face says she has. She holds up her hand.]

In my defense, I did not have the nuanced opinion of the supernatural I have now. I just knew that my son was dating a vampire and I was told vampires were bad. And, I also didn't know the kind of torture that would be involved, I just gave her to her father.

[But it's not much of a defense. She knew who Bill Forbes was.]

But I did help them save her in the end, and I have since atoned for my mistakes.

[redeems]

Her father.

( Well, that makes it worse. )

I wasn't involved. We've all done things we regret.

[mayoralty]

We have. And we do our best to make up for them when we can.

[That being said, they've strayed from the topic of Dean, but she can pass that curiosity around.]

And how did you wind up connected to all of this?