004 → voice ( backdated to yesterday morning )

[angerissues]

Considering the amount of animals up here -- [ that aren't just dogs ] -- I'm starting to wonder if we should figure out a better place to keep them than the oxygen gardens. Anyone got any ideas? My word's not final here, but we may as well brainstorm before we end up with an entire zoo in there.

PRIVATE MESSAGE TO REMUS LUPIN AND SIRIUS BLACK | 100% ENCRYPTION

The spell you guys put on my room: does it require you being there, or can you put it on and leave? And is there any way to make it so certain people inside can get out and vice versa while also keeping me in there?

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PRIVATE MESSAGE TO TYKE | 100% ENCRYPTION

Any chance you feel up to trying out that thing we talked about?

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FILTERED MESSAGE TO SECURITY MEMBERS | 95% ENCRYPTION

Don't expect this to be a regular thing -- [ because he's still holding out hope that his plant will give him shitloads of wolfsbane ] -- but consider this your head's up about my shift. Someone's going to need to cover patrol for me. And before anyone starts in on the safety speeches, I'm taking necessary precautions to make sure everyone'll be fine.

And John, if you feel like camping out again, let me know.

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FILTERED MESSAGE TO TYLER LOCKWOOD AND JENNA SOMMERS | 95% ENCRYPTION

Just so you guys don't bitch at me about not telling you: I've got another shift coming up. And no, I don't want to hear wolf-period jokes, Jenna.

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ooc: I HATE BEING ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE AND I HAD NO INTENTION OF DOING THIS, but I'm actually headed out the door now and won't be able to tag until later this evening. I'm so sorry. :c

Comments

[unparental]

[ mystic falls residents? effective communication? who needs it! more not talking never hurt people before, right?

...oh.

He-- oh. Oh my god. [ vampires can feel nauseous, good to know. it's one thing to use her life as a bargaining chip with klaus-- tyler's isn't hers to do that with. ] No, I didn't--

I'm so, so sorry. [ not so much for not knowing as for almost getting him killed-- she might not have known, but it's still what she did. ]

[lockwood]

You didn't know. [Tyler's heard about the whole thing with trying to push Klaus out an airlock -- Klaus had gleefully told him about it as proof of how little worth his life was to everyone else. ]

Look, I know about the thing with the airlock -- Klaus told me, I was trying to trick him by pretending to still be sirebonded to him. But I get it. If it had meant getting rid of Klaus, it would have been fine. [Tyler's long since made peace with the fact that for Klaus to die, he would have to.

It's just Caroline possibly dying that bothers him most.]

[unparental]

...If he comes back, we find another way. [ skipping past everything to the heart of the matter. ] I don't know what he said to you, but I-- if I had known, it never would have been an option.

I get to do what I want with my life, it's mine. Yours isn't-- [ she breaks off. ] It's people like him who think other people don't count, or that he can just--

[ another long gap. ] I'm surprised you don't just hate me. I'd hate me.

[lockwood]

And you didn't know. So I don't see why I should hate you. [And really? Tyler's kind of used to it. He knows if they had been safe, Stefan and Damon would have been fine sacrificing him to kill Klaus.] Besides, that's the only reason he told me. To get me to hate you. To get me closer to him. So I'm not really inclined to play into his hands, even if he's not here anymore.

[unparental]

I didn't know, but that wouldn't have changed the outcome. Just-- I know what he's like, but that doesn't mean it changes things.

...we should all talk, huh? And you should start coming to dinner.

[lockwood]

Well, now you know, in any case the dick ever shows up again.

...Dinner? There are dinners I need to be going to now?

[unparental]

I'm thinking... vervain IV. And we could kick him, sometimes.

[ jenna. ]

There are-- if you're not weirded out by eating with Elena's aunt and your teacher.

[lockwood]

That's definitely a start. We could figure out other things as we go. Maybe force him to drink some wolfsbane.

Well, can't be any more awkward then the last time I was invited to eat a meal with Alaric. [Back when he was still sirebonded.

Alaric -- that part is weird, but the version here isn't psychotic or a vampire so no need to mention that.]

[unparental]

Stab him repeatedly with toothpicks?

...I don't want to ask, do I?

[lockwood]

And anything else sharp and pointy we can find.

Probably not. It was while I was still sire-bonded to Klaus. It didn't go well, to say the least. [To say the most, he almost got Jeremy killed. The first in a series of realizations of hey maybe having no free will is kind of a bad thing.]

[unparental]

I like the way you think.

...I can kind of imagine. His version of tough love? Pretty tough. Also-- not love.

[lockwood]

Yeah, it like..rewired my thinking so I had to be grateful to him over everything. It was pretty creepy, in retrospect.

[unparental]

...and I thought torture was bad. I'm so sorry, Tyler.

[ she's serious; living with pain and his threats was bad, but the idea of being forced to feel indebted to klaus is horrifying. ]

[lockwood]

Well, it's over with now. [Not that it makes it okay, but Tyler doesn't know how to respond to it. He didn't really get a lot of support from people, back when he was sired.]

[unparental]

[ a gap of silence, here. ]

So, I know teenage boys and feel free to say something like 'cars! boobs! MTV!' and not even deal with what I'm about to do, but apparently it needs to be said.

Klaus is a psychotic nutcase, and whatever he did to you? You didn't deserve. You're not-- you're as much of a victim here as anyone else. Just because he did it--

[ she sighs, angrily. ]

That-- Tyler. Listen to me. If he comes back? Death is off the table. Off. I don't care what anyone else says, I'm the one who makes this call and I say it's not even an option.

[lockwood]

It's not so much what he did to me it's what he made me do. [It's weird, because even now, even though he's free it's still pretty taboo to talk about. His neck was snapped, he was turned, and then he was alone and very quickly learning he had no control over what he did. He set up Jeremy to nearly get killed -- he bit Caroline.

And even though he broke the sire bond, it didn't matter. Damon or Stefan would have easily sacrificed him if it meant killing Klaus -- as long as it didn't effect them.

So it's strange, in a way, to hear someone other than Caroline say that it isn't an option.]

You know, we found another way to stop him, back home. One that didn't involve totally killing him.

[unparental]

He and Katherine both hurt me, but they used my hands to do it. And Klaus told me if I didn't fall in line and smile pretty while he bled Elena dry, he'd make me do it to Ric, next. Or Mason.

...I'd prefer you didn't repeat that-- especially to your uncle-- but I want you to know I understand, okay? Not exactly, and our circumstances are obviously different, but having all your control taken away is something I get.

And for the record? I don't care what he made you do-- or who he made you hurt. Because it wasn't you, it was him, and anyone who tries to say anything else-- send them to me, and I guarantee they won't run their mouths again.

I pretty much mean Damon because he may be the second half of Ric's bromance but that doesn't mean I have to sit around and accept his bullshit. [ she's not much for profanity, but when it's called for it's called for. ] But it's an open offer. I know we're not family, not like you and Mason, but I am around. If you need it.

[ she lets out a quiet, rueful laugh. ]

Sorry, I got a little motivation speaker on you there. Won't happen again without invite.

[lockwood]

I won't tell anyone. [It doesn't surprise him. Klaus loves to threaten people, to get them to comply with him under fear. It isn't right and it isn't fair but it's what he does. How he operates.

Still, it's hard to just believe her words. Just trusting people -- it's not something he's used to. So the next part, it's a bit of a test:]

Even if I told you one of them was Jeremy? That I almost got him killed?

[Damon's an ass, but to be fair, he hasn't really talked to the Salvatore at all on the ship. He's more than okay with that.]

[unparental]

Well, I won't lie and say I'm happy with the idea Jeremy almost died-- but here's the part that matters to me.

If Klaus hadn't made you do it, would you have done it anyway? [ because maybe before klaus she would have had a hard time separating someone nearly killing jeremy and the facts, but personal experience tends to lend a less hysterical ear. ] And if you could go back and stop yourself, would you?

[lockwood]

No, I wouldn't have. He's my friend. [Well, sort of. Better than they used to be, anyways, back when they beat each other up over Vicki constantly.]

And yeah, I would.

[unparental]

Then yes-- even though one of them was Jeremy.

[ she tamps down on her instinct to add more, because tyler needs firm, solid answers right now. ]

[lockwood]

[It's not an answer he's expecting, not after some of the reactions he got back home.]

I think you're the first person to say something like that.

[unparental]

Then people back home screw up a lot after I die.

[ she sighs. ]

Tyler, I can't-- there are things I don't want to know, because I'm selfish and don't want to deal.

But if you ever want to talk, that supersedes those things. It sounds to me like everyone treated you like Klaus was your fault, and it won't happen this time around. If anyone even breathes a word-- if Damon makes one leash or good doggie joke, I know that asshat-- tattle on them. Tattle freely and they can deal with me, okay?

[lockwood]

[There's a moment, and then another before Tyler finally speaks again.]

Thanks.

[Because even after he broke the bond -- he never felt like he could talk about what being sired to Klaus was like. He doesn't know to make other people understand. So he just...doesn't talk about it.]

[unparental]

You're welcome. And just so you know one hundred percent-- anything you tell me stays between us. It's not therapy because you're not actually allowed to officially counsel friends and family, but I'm holding to the rules.

...and if you tell me something about Klaus that I think might help, I'll ask if I can bring it to Ric and if you tell me no, I can't promise not to try and change your mind, but I'll respect your final word.

[ jenna loves her family-- well. she tolerates damon, cares for him under all the bullshit but doesn't like him much, sometimes-- but ric is going to get a talking to about how things were handled in her absence and how they'll be handled now. ]