all pomp and very little circumstance

[jockwitch]

( Lizzie Saltzman unsurprisingly nominated herself to give a speech at graduation. This was after campaigning against having a valedictorian, not because her sister might have won it, but because it wasn't an inclusive idea. The better idea would be to have each faction speak at graduation. That was Hope's idea. She's not wrong, and Lizzie doesn't fight it. She does, however, quietly campaign to be the witch vote.

Among her platforms Lizzie is now not only aware of, but an advocate for, are body positivity, feminism, being heard and making a difference, and increasing diversity -- species diversity. Just about the one cause she hasn't taken up is LGBTQ rights, but the school is colorful enough, and really, has anyone had a problem with being whatever they want to be at this school? No. It's not the being gay that she's ever had a problem with, it's her sister's choices. First, Winifred Sanderson herself, and then the walking on/off switch Jade -- Hope wins out the top spot and thank you, how can her bestie not? The walking Tolkein character gets his own happy ending, comes into his powers and stays friends with everyone.

Lizzie sits on her bed, the door wide open, so that anybody passing by can speak to her if they'd like. And not just so they can hear the makings of quite the speech. Her flash cards are sat in front of her. She could do a spell and memorize it. But, that's showing off.

A flight and an airport away, Klaus Mikaelson sits in the luxury lounge, awaiting his chartered plane. The glass of champagne in his hand is unnecessary and just the luxurious touch he usually indulges in. As far as bad habits go, his zest for the finer things doesn't go away. Now, he has someone to experience them with, someone he not only trusts inherently, but calls him on his worst tendencies. Camille O'Connor does not suffer fools lightly. Especially when he goes on his tirades. His paranoid months still come and go. So do his painting jags. Klaus will always have his deepest faults. But, his family also does their part. If he truly screws up, a sister or brother will take him to task.

Or, Kol will take him on a bender. That one never ends well.

He arrives at the airport separate from Cami, having taken a few days to run an errand regarding a graduation present for his daughter. That, and, tangling with a loosened thread he doesn't know will only draw him further in to a new, deadly adventure.

Nobody checks the vehicle left in the carport, or the trunk where a dead hunter might still be. He'll only be gone the weekend.

In Mystic Falls, Hope Mikaelson feels lucky enough to be walking containers of soft serve iced cream to one of the benches of the town square. She has a girlfriend she loves, one who doesn't see her as the Tribrid, who can take care of herself, and who's found the voice that Hope always knew was there. She has a mother she almost lost, due to her own petulance as her father might call it. And while she is estranged from one of her uncles, she stayed close to the rest of her family, including the father that came back to her, and the step-mother she'll never call a step-mother. But, she likes Cami. Cami tows the line and if Hope is having a moral or psychological dilemma, it's Cami who she reaches out to. Not that she tells her mom or her dad this.

Her family telephone tree is as such. Dad, she checks in with, but for the most part, he's the last person she calls in. Mom, almost every day, even with a text. Kol, if she wants to hear a funny story, or if she wants to be told she's right. Rebekah, if it's teenager-related. She called her a lot in her mid teens. Freya for witch stuff. And Freya to tell her what she needs to hear. Cami when it's complicated. Her father has a way of sussing things out, and of reaching out before she does, him, which is really what she's always wanted.

For now, she has her mom in town. And right now that's all that she needs. For a long time it was only here and her mom. She remembers those years so vividly, even from a young age. As twisted as her upbringing and her family's life has been, she couldn't change anything. It would all change.

So, as far as she's concerned, she's lucky. And she's just getting started.

Somewhere down south, Katherine Pierce closes the front door of latest motel room they've taken. She inventoried the trunk again. There's something different about the past month. They've never gone this long from having a job. She doesn't like it. She's always been on the run, first for her life, and then because she never wanted to settle anywhere. She lost the love of her life, and from what she's heard of what came of Elijah, that was no great loss to her.

Getting out of Mystic Falls was the best thing she ever did as a human, even with the help of her daughter. That's still a harder relationship to maintain. She always feels like she's playing catch up there, but she never misses a call, a FaceTime or a dropped pin. Damian never minded when she took her days off. After all, he'd hunted alone for years before he took Katherine under his wing.

He'd saved her from vampires with a grudge, vampires of her kind. And while normally thanking people wasn't her style, she had to admit he was worth thanking with the jawline alone. It took some nudging and prodding to get him to train her. She was used to being the predator. And even in full health? Her human body did not do her any favors.

Training gave her back the discipline she'd always had, just a different outlet for it. A healthier one? That's not up for her to decide.

Sighing, she contemplates taking another run at the pool table in the bar on the corner. If not the pool table, one or five men will definitely buy her a drink. But, the antsy feeling she gets isn't from needing alcohol. Nor is it from a need to get what she wants from men. No. She's got that itch. The one that used to tear someone's throat out on a whim. That itch never went away, especially when she discovered hunting. You'd think she'd be sympathetic to what she was. Finding a different vampire line altogether with a different origin?

Major game changer.

Digging into one of their wallets, she tries to find the card she wants. She's going out. )

Comments

[shreds]

( She slides out one of the Platinum anywhere cards, but the one with the lowest credit limit, the one that doesn't draw attention. Smiling, he meets his eye. )

Ten years of working together and still you don't trust me. ( She's betrayed people in more, it's true. But she has a good thing going with Damian. And boy is he nice to look at at the end of the day. After a shower. Even after a run, he has ... an appeal. ) I thought I'd get a drink. Every trail we follow and contact you have is cold. Even the hunter network, it's crickets. I'm bored. You coming?

[gambled_ourmistakes]

It wasn't a question of trust.

[He was genuinely curious. And also bored enough that he wasn't going to let her go alone. He likes to be out and socializing too.]

And of course I'm coming. When have I ever turned down a social outing.

[shreds]

( The way he sounds, sometimes. But, that's Damian. He does put the 'damn' in Damian, at least in looks. Underneath his formal etiquette. )

I took a look around yesterday. The bar is all peanut shells crushed on the floor - and everything is damp, so you could change. Or, you could go like that.

( Or, she just wants to watch him change. But, really. It's hot. And sometimes, he just comes off more stiff than most hunters. So polite. )

Ooooh. We could work on your swearing. Rough up those smooth edges. ( She smirks. ) I'll be outside when you're ready.

[gambled_ourmistakes]

I swear.

[There's usually just a point to the swearing, or a more heat of the moment situation. And it isn't so much about formality as being careful with his words.

You never know when they can be used against you.

He glances down at the "FBI" suit he's wearing, but he takes the cue from her about the dress code and nods.]

I'll be out in a minute.

[shreds]

( Katherine Pierce doesn't have friends. She has people she decides to trust in, her contacts (his contacts, really, but she's made her own, too). And she has people she doesn't speak to anymore. One name she's never erased from her phone hasn't received a call from her in almost a decade. It came with starting her new life. It didn't matter that they'd slept together and that that was real. Once Nadia was in the picture...

A picture she still had to leave behind.

Damian is different for Katherine, different than anyone she's allied herself with. He's not her best friend like Isobel was. He's not her patsy like so many men and women were. And he was never a pawn in any game she played.

He was just in the right place at the right time. And she didn't let go of him.

(Honestly, she tracked him down to his next job and saved his life to repay him the favor. And to show that she could learn. She was tired of being weak, human Katherine. Help make her strong.

She didn't talk about her time as a vampire much. She thought about it often. About Nadia, about running, about any one of the A-Z plans she used to make. Contingencies on contingencies. Her cache is helpful, at least, and a never-ending well of money she'd set up and finally regained access to.

Yeah, she owes someone else a favor, now.

Another Katherine might tell him she was waiting outside and leave without him, but she does. She walks the length of the motel pool, phone in hand.

On any day she could call him. But, today won't be it. She tucks it back into her back pocket as she turns when she hears the door open. )

Better.

[gambled_ourmistakes]

Thank you.

[Damian isn't really sure why he took Katherine on, beyond the obvious. But he enjoys her company, this push-pull that they've developed between them, and they make a good team. And honestly, it's good to have a hunting partner with actual social skills who isn't hopelessly naive.

He makes his way over to the car and opens the passenger side door for her.]

Your chariot, madame.

[shreds]

( She just gives him the flattest look. But, she does like his manners. (Okay, she likes a list of things about him. A long list.) She just doesn't say it often. Or, ever.

She does get in the car. ) If this is my chariot, what does that make you?

[gambled_ourmistakes]

[He shrugs.]

Your escort?

[Anything else would likely be demeaning, and not the kind of banter he's in the mood for tonight.]

[shreds]

( She smirks, watching the buildings pass them by as he drives them to the nearest bar she'd found. Her escort. Her partner. One of the only people on the planet she trusts. )

I've been thinking, maybe we should find somewhere we can stay for longer periods of time. An actual home base to work out of that isn't this motel or that. I have a house in Willoughby. ( Pennsylvania. ) I think.

( Unless the woman she'd compelled to take care of it has died. )

[gambled_ourmistakes]

[He raises an eyebrow at her. He has a house himself - or more to the point, he has an apartment in New York that he uses for the physical address when needed. He sublets it out to earn some extra income.]

I didn't take you as the stay put type.

[shreds]

I actually like a good routine every now and then, and if things are going to be this quiet, it would be good to have a pool out back. ( Other amenities that were her own. ) We run because we're always on the move, not because we have to be. Wouldn't it be good to have some place more central. The same bed, for once.

[gambled_ourmistakes]

[He shrugs, before nodding his agreement.]

Fine with me. You're right, things are slow, so maybe it would be good to find a place to settle until things pick up again.

[shreds]

I am right. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

( Underneath the sass, she is happy to hopefully slow down. To regroup.

It's not until they're sitting face to face, their drinks in hands that she asks, ) How did you get into hunting, Damian? I never asked.

[gambled_ourmistakes]

I started on the more lucrative side of things, actually. Selling magical or cursed items to those who wanted them. But the more I did that, the more I realized how dangerous some of these things were, so I slid to the other side of the tracks.

[A beat.]

But I also still have a lot of savings, and do some deals on the side, so if you don't still have that house in Pennsylvania, we can find something else.

[shreds]

I'll need to make a call.

( Which she'll do tomorrow morning. That house isn't exactly up to the Katherine standard. If she's honest, she chose it because it was just like the next one and the one behind that.

As for his story, no wonder he accepted her eventually. She's jumped the track several times herself. )

I do well enough for myself. ( But, what's hers is his, so, clearly they'll have to go in together. She can't just compel them some property. ) I always did like a good dark object. Such good currency.

[gambled_ourmistakes]

It is. Until you find out that the people who can pay the exorbitant prices for them were using them to do terrible things. Then you tend to feel less good about what you're selling them.

[shreds]

You say that like you're surprised. They're not called dark objects because they're dark colored.

( But, he learned that on his own, didn't he? )

What was your breaking point? What crossed the line?

[gambled_ourmistakes]

It's easy to ignore it when it's not in your face.

[Or at least, that was his experience. He always knew, but he could feign ignorance in a way that helped him sleep at night. But when she asks the question, he swallows hard and keeps his eyes back on the road.]

Kids.

[shreds]

( She gets quiet, because kids strike a nerve for her, too. One kid that was ripped away from her. She doesn't ask any more. She knows that kind of thing is private.

And she's interested in having a good time today.

Later, after they've sat and lightened the mood, Katherine takes her phone call with Stefan. Having decided on going back, Katherine returns to the table. )

We need to leave, now.

[gambled_ourmistakes]

[He turns and blinks at her, confused.]

Leave as in leave this bar or leave as in leave town?

[He's not objecting, just confused.]

[shreds]

Both, one, and then the other. I'll fill you in in the car. Let's just say, this was the quiet before the storm.

( After they pay, they're off and Katherine details the call she got from Stefan. And comes clean about being aware of some of the more indoctrinated hunters. )