second history lesson ◈ [ text ]

[surrogates]

jenna sommers and elena gilbert are- they're dead.

i- i know more people knew jenna than elena but they're both dead. near the oxygen garden. so i just- everyone needed to know and now you do.

[ it's short and to the point, if only because ric doesn't entirely trust himself to say much else. it's the same reason he choose text over voice or video. this proclamation is hard enough to get out right now and speaking coherently is a bit beyond his reach. ]

[ mystic falls filter, encrypted 90% ]

how many of you are actually breathing right now?

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[martyrs]

I haven't left my room all day, not besides a kitchen run this morning.

[ oh, wow, God. she's never heard him sound like that before, not really. it makes her nervous, likely moreso than just this whole confusion on its own. he sounds... lost. ]

Where are you? I'll find you, we can figure this out in person, okay? I promise I'm alright, see?

[ she's holding up her hands at the camera, like that proves... anything at all. ]

[surrogates]

Then you were attacked on the kitchen run. This isn't like home, no one comes back because of spells that leave you with just me to be your family.

[ it's because he is. you get used to having someone around when you hadn't even dealt fully with the fact that they were dead original and having them die when you swore that you'd protect them it hurts. it makes you feel like you don't have anything. (he does, but at the same time, his family is dead.) ]

A bit away from the oxygen gardens. Away from you and Jenna's bodies. Don't. You're- You're not alright, Elena. You're dead. This isn't real. You're not real.

[martyrs]

Yes, I am.

[ Her voice is a little harder now, half out of frustration and half out of the kind of concern that makes her chest feel tight. She has to fix this. ]

What can I do to prove it to you? Let me help you, I can't just- I'm not dead.

[surrogates]

You are. [ except you're not and this doesn't make sense because he saw it with his own two eyes. it feels as if someone is taking his heart and his mind and twisting it in ways he can't really understand. ]

I- Come here. Your bodies are right there and I saw them. Come here, if you and Jenna aren't somehow really dead, just come here and let me actually see.

[martyrs]

[ hhhhhhhf, so nervous to even leave her room now, even though her first instinct is to do it, go, mama bear the hell out of him prove that she's okay. ]

I'm going to wait for Stefan to get here first, then we'll both come and meet you, alright? I promise.

[surrogates]

[ there's a long pause. ]

Be careful. Both of you. If you're not- If you're alive, both of you need to be careful when coming.

[ he doesn't believe her still, but if stefan can see her, and if she isn't dead then jenna isn't and then he's gone off the deep end in ways he really doesn't want to. (it's a relief though, if she is alive. a relief and an added worry. this had to have pissed klaus off.) ]

Just- don't- if you're alive stay that way.