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pineslog2017-04-08 08:48 pm
unforgivably) wrote in pineslog2017-04-08 08:48 pm
who i've always been
Who: Damon Salvatore, Stefan Salvatore, Emma Swan and YOU.
Where: Various places detailed below, all in the city of Wayward Pines.
When: This month.
What: Damon decides to play by the rules, and discovers he's not the only version of himself that's broken them.
Warnings: None yet, but this is Damon Salvatore.
[ His third month here, Damon decides a different approach to the town is in order. For once, he's playing every part he's given. When a memory emerges, he leans into the skid. He could fight it. He could rabble rouse and raise pitchforks and anger whomever is behind the cameras, but he decides once and for all to play along. Before this month he'd been doing it out of habit, as something to do, but he decides then and there that he needs to. He gets the idea from Randel (or, with Randel, really) to improve if need be. It starts with smoothing over a soured friendship. And that becomes his second goal. Allies are the name of the game. And to get allies, Damon needs to be accessible. No more double meanings, no more burst bubbles inside parked cars. The more people he meets, the more memories uncovered and maybe that's the key. ]
i wanna talk about what you are that i ain't .. open
[ French's General Store becomes a hub of sorts for him. He volunteers to get the groceries. He's nothing if not a modern vampire and sending Katherine off to get groceries is a waste of her talents. When not stocking up on pancake batter, more booze and whatever he feels they might want for the next few days, he finds himself contemplating the rack of old VHS tapes. It's the classics Stefan actually likes, and ones they've all heard of, so every time he drops in, he picks up a few more. Drinking gets him so far, and with sex with Katherine off the table for him, he needs better entertainment. By mid-month they have a well-stocked VHS library.
At the butcher's, he makes small talk with French and always leaves a twenty in the tip jar. Sometimes, he makes a dirty joke about a breast, or a shank. And some days you might be surprised to find he pays for your order as well.
At the Garage, he takes to more hands on work when not working the books over. Expecting Stefan? You get Damon, hands greased up and white t-shirt spattered, but the job's always well done. His brother's expanded his acumen and that leaves Damon and Bucky doing the job in the afternoons. If you drop by during slower hours, you might find Damon singing Taylor Swift's greatest hits to himself. If not Taylor Swift, he has an impressive encyclopedic knowledge from songs released in 1993 and 1994, and a few of the older country songs.
With Stefan at the school, Damon drops by to bring his brother his lunch. In his brown bag sits a sandwich, an apple, and a thermos complete with his brother's favorite type. Damon raps on his brother's doorway to make his delivery. He bothers Stefan as long as his brother will let him. His third goal for the month, get back into his brother's good graces. After seeing Stefan, Damon wanders the halls. If anywhere is going to jog his memory, it's his high school. He can be found in the lobby, in the auditorium, and in the gymnasium, sometimes thinking, sometimes dribbling a basketball.
One afternoon he stops by one of the glass cases, palm settled against it, transfixed. He didn't go here. He knows he didn't go here and yet, there he is.
In the library, he finds an old yearbook, spending a while at one of the tables, flipping through it.
He stops at Between the Pines. Another way to his brother's heart. Books. The problem is, he spent the better part of a century either avoiding his brother, or making his life a living hell. He doesn't know which of these Stefan has read. He finds himself in the pulpier sections, knowing full well Stefan sticks with the highbrow. Maybe this is what he needs to turn that dour frown upside down.
At home he searches for his personal copy of the yearbook. Not pulling all the way into their garage, Damon leaves the door open while digging through old junk and finding not only his, but all of their yearbooks packed away in a collapsing cardboard box. The stolen yearbook sits next to the other three with Damon sitting not far from them, drinking from the bottle. They were here. They signed each other's yearbooks. Damon was on the football team and the basketball team. As far as information goes, it's a little much for him.
What he manages to do is pick up a few week day shifts at the bar. Weekend shifts come with experience. Seniority. Damon knows what he looks like. He knows he'll earn the weekend shift sooner or later. When not filling beers on tap and making exceptional drinks, including some that might count as before according to a sign or two, Damon uses his vampire hearing to listen to everyone. Sometimes, he strikes up his own conversation and doesn't discourage people starting conversation with him. With week night shifts come bussing as well, and when waitresses call out, running. But, he's capable and again, it passes time.
If you're lucky, your first drink is on the house. ]
let's talk about what you did to get here .. closed to stefan
When's the last time we did inventory?
[ Damon doesn't know. There are still whole patches of information, years, nights he doesn't remember, but he knows as a business owner that they should. Damon knows they need to take stock, get a handle on the business side of their business, so he and Stefan take a Sunday, shut down the garage and go through everything. Damon finds an old ledger in one of the cabinets. Modern technology eludes them. If only a ledger were a scanner. The menial inventory taking, he tasks Stefan with, not paying mind to the handwritten data.
Damon, instead, is going through their filing cabinets. ] We have paperwork going back to 1991. ]
let's talk about blood and sweat and tears .. closed to emma
[ It's not surprising Damon has friends. Because he has. Alaric. Enzo. Bonnie. Andie, in a way. Even Rose. Damon's swimming in friends he suddenly remembers. (Friends, and other people, but that stays with him and his brother. Whom he trusts inherently.) Damon drinks on the porch sometimes. Katherine's presence is all consuming and when she gets bored, he finds he doesn't like to entertain her. Or, doesn't want to. Sure there are nights with board games and drinks and they've read together, but some nights he wants to drink alone outside of the bar.
Finger on the top of his closer bottle of scotch, Damon finds himself fixated on a house across the street, a house until now that hasn't meant anything to him.
And despite that, he finds he needs a different, less compelled form of therapy.
There are the friends you drink with, bust their chops, camaraderie friends that don't judge you. And there are the friends that do, that take your shit, but tell you like it is. Bonnie was both. Here, he realizes he has a little of Bonnie in two people. It's too late to call or bother Sam. He's with kid. His sister's, but, still, kid. But, he knows Emma's up. Maybe, it's because her light is on. It's not because her light's on. It's another case of needing a face to a name attached to - something.
Getting up, he keeps the bottle with him, heading down their steps and across the street. He even looks both ways.
Arriving at Emma's door, he taps the bottle of scotch against it. He needs an ear not attached to Katherine or his brother. ]
Where: Various places detailed below, all in the city of Wayward Pines.
When: This month.
What: Damon decides to play by the rules, and discovers he's not the only version of himself that's broken them.
Warnings: None yet, but this is Damon Salvatore.
[ His third month here, Damon decides a different approach to the town is in order. For once, he's playing every part he's given. When a memory emerges, he leans into the skid. He could fight it. He could rabble rouse and raise pitchforks and anger whomever is behind the cameras, but he decides once and for all to play along. Before this month he'd been doing it out of habit, as something to do, but he decides then and there that he needs to. He gets the idea from Randel (or, with Randel, really) to improve if need be. It starts with smoothing over a soured friendship. And that becomes his second goal. Allies are the name of the game. And to get allies, Damon needs to be accessible. No more double meanings, no more burst bubbles inside parked cars. The more people he meets, the more memories uncovered and maybe that's the key. ]
i wanna talk about what you are that i ain't .. open
[ French's General Store becomes a hub of sorts for him. He volunteers to get the groceries. He's nothing if not a modern vampire and sending Katherine off to get groceries is a waste of her talents. When not stocking up on pancake batter, more booze and whatever he feels they might want for the next few days, he finds himself contemplating the rack of old VHS tapes. It's the classics Stefan actually likes, and ones they've all heard of, so every time he drops in, he picks up a few more. Drinking gets him so far, and with sex with Katherine off the table for him, he needs better entertainment. By mid-month they have a well-stocked VHS library.
At the butcher's, he makes small talk with French and always leaves a twenty in the tip jar. Sometimes, he makes a dirty joke about a breast, or a shank. And some days you might be surprised to find he pays for your order as well.
At the Garage, he takes to more hands on work when not working the books over. Expecting Stefan? You get Damon, hands greased up and white t-shirt spattered, but the job's always well done. His brother's expanded his acumen and that leaves Damon and Bucky doing the job in the afternoons. If you drop by during slower hours, you might find Damon singing Taylor Swift's greatest hits to himself. If not Taylor Swift, he has an impressive encyclopedic knowledge from songs released in 1993 and 1994, and a few of the older country songs.
With Stefan at the school, Damon drops by to bring his brother his lunch. In his brown bag sits a sandwich, an apple, and a thermos complete with his brother's favorite type. Damon raps on his brother's doorway to make his delivery. He bothers Stefan as long as his brother will let him. His third goal for the month, get back into his brother's good graces. After seeing Stefan, Damon wanders the halls. If anywhere is going to jog his memory, it's his high school. He can be found in the lobby, in the auditorium, and in the gymnasium, sometimes thinking, sometimes dribbling a basketball.
One afternoon he stops by one of the glass cases, palm settled against it, transfixed. He didn't go here. He knows he didn't go here and yet, there he is.
In the library, he finds an old yearbook, spending a while at one of the tables, flipping through it.
He stops at Between the Pines. Another way to his brother's heart. Books. The problem is, he spent the better part of a century either avoiding his brother, or making his life a living hell. He doesn't know which of these Stefan has read. He finds himself in the pulpier sections, knowing full well Stefan sticks with the highbrow. Maybe this is what he needs to turn that dour frown upside down.
At home he searches for his personal copy of the yearbook. Not pulling all the way into their garage, Damon leaves the door open while digging through old junk and finding not only his, but all of their yearbooks packed away in a collapsing cardboard box. The stolen yearbook sits next to the other three with Damon sitting not far from them, drinking from the bottle. They were here. They signed each other's yearbooks. Damon was on the football team and the basketball team. As far as information goes, it's a little much for him.
What he manages to do is pick up a few week day shifts at the bar. Weekend shifts come with experience. Seniority. Damon knows what he looks like. He knows he'll earn the weekend shift sooner or later. When not filling beers on tap and making exceptional drinks, including some that might count as before according to a sign or two, Damon uses his vampire hearing to listen to everyone. Sometimes, he strikes up his own conversation and doesn't discourage people starting conversation with him. With week night shifts come bussing as well, and when waitresses call out, running. But, he's capable and again, it passes time.
If you're lucky, your first drink is on the house. ]
let's talk about what you did to get here .. closed to stefan
When's the last time we did inventory?
[ Damon doesn't know. There are still whole patches of information, years, nights he doesn't remember, but he knows as a business owner that they should. Damon knows they need to take stock, get a handle on the business side of their business, so he and Stefan take a Sunday, shut down the garage and go through everything. Damon finds an old ledger in one of the cabinets. Modern technology eludes them. If only a ledger were a scanner. The menial inventory taking, he tasks Stefan with, not paying mind to the handwritten data.
Damon, instead, is going through their filing cabinets. ] We have paperwork going back to 1991. ]
let's talk about blood and sweat and tears .. closed to emma
[ It's not surprising Damon has friends. Because he has. Alaric. Enzo. Bonnie. Andie, in a way. Even Rose. Damon's swimming in friends he suddenly remembers. (Friends, and other people, but that stays with him and his brother. Whom he trusts inherently.) Damon drinks on the porch sometimes. Katherine's presence is all consuming and when she gets bored, he finds he doesn't like to entertain her. Or, doesn't want to. Sure there are nights with board games and drinks and they've read together, but some nights he wants to drink alone outside of the bar.
Finger on the top of his closer bottle of scotch, Damon finds himself fixated on a house across the street, a house until now that hasn't meant anything to him.
And despite that, he finds he needs a different, less compelled form of therapy.
There are the friends you drink with, bust their chops, camaraderie friends that don't judge you. And there are the friends that do, that take your shit, but tell you like it is. Bonnie was both. Here, he realizes he has a little of Bonnie in two people. It's too late to call or bother Sam. He's with kid. His sister's, but, still, kid. But, he knows Emma's up. Maybe, it's because her light is on. It's not because her light's on. It's another case of needing a face to a name attached to - something.
Getting up, he keeps the bottle with him, heading down their steps and across the street. He even looks both ways.
Arriving at Emma's door, he taps the bottle of scotch against it. He needs an ear not attached to Katherine or his brother. ]
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He does know the tone. He's about to tell her to go ahead, because he knows she wants to tell him something, but then she continues. ] Sitting down. I'm still browsing. [ Wary, suspicious and curious, Damon leads her to a quiet corner with two chairs and a small table. He sits, his hands finding his thighs, waiting for this whopper. ] So. What happened.
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Her eyes turn pressing, impatient, head slightly tilting as he makes the sort of comment she's come to expect, followed by an anticipated action, one she would've groaned over not happening until it did.
Once they're sitting, her chair pulled in close to the table so her arms rest length-wise on its top, she stares over at Damon. ] Does the name Nyx ring any bells? With the...accidents, maybe it doesn't, so. [ Does it, Damon? She goes on though, freely able to talk about this, even if there's a doubting tone. ] Maybe he and I had a fight before I got into my accident, I can't remember, but it would explain why I hadn't seen sights of my older brother until today. [ And the wry tone comes into full swing with that revelation.
Let that absorb. Her brows lift just so, one hand rubbing lightly at her opposite arm, arms parallel to each other. She may be working to impress upon Damon that she, of course, isn't buying any of this town's nonsense completely, that this is another aspect they can use to their advantage. Yet. This has affected her, and she can't truly hide it, not with certain tics, nervous mannerisms. It's not every day you gain a brother. ]
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A shake and shrug of his shoulders. Nyx doesn't, in fact, ring a single bell. But, he's expecting a man on the side, perhaps. Why Katherine would see this as a serious development, he doesn't know, but, this is why he listens. And, boy does he get the surprise of the day. ]
You, too. [ Between Caroline and Steve and now - Katherine and her brother. Nyx. He'd like to nix the family members. ] You didn't see him because until you two locked eyes, you didn't remember him. And neither did he. [ Great. Now she has a brother. ] Older brother's a nice touch. This. town. What's he like?
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Not as brilliantly blue eyed as...Steve, isn't it? [ Her lips press together, shrugging. ] He's just as much my brother as that hottie is to Caroline. [ A sigh and long roll of her eyes, her tone clearly stating what she means by that. ]
Blue eyes. Brown hair. [ A haircut she's going to need to inspire her bro to change, seriously. ] Early thirties. [ That detail didn't rise up completely, but it's what feels right. ] Handsome. [ A smile, something lurking there that, hello, a good girl raised in Wayward Pines wouldn't ever think about her brother. Acknowledging good looks is one thing, but thinking certain people are hot is...quite another. See how transparent she can be with you though, Damon? She looks up for a second. ] A lot came back, that he didn't even need to tell me. It was...alarming. [ She's not certain if she cares for that or not, torn between affection for Nyx and feeling her mind and memories being intruded upon. ] He knows about you. [ Her chin juts to the side, casting yet another look away. ] He seems like he could be a good guy. Hard working. Protective. You know how big brothers are.
[ That's not a jab, either, at all. Damon and Stefan are complicated, beyond so, but she knows what they're like to one another at their core. She's combining what she was witness to, along with the fake memories, so is she answering the question on what Nyx is like, Damon? ]
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Well, you did pal around with the Originals, why wouldn't that rub of on you? [ He says that in response to her comment about him being handsome. Look, everyone knows Rebekah and Klaus were the codependent twosome. And, considering they were around only one another so much at a time -- Look, he's read Flowers in the Attic. He even watched the remake for Lifetime. ] My, my, what could he know? [ Unless she means, that he's her husband. ] He hates me, doesn't he?
[ That's how memories worked for Damon. Visuals triggered his memories. Katherine informing him about her brother doesn't flip a switch in his mind. He's on the outside of this. ]
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[ One brow arcs when he brings up the Mikaelsons, lips pursing down until she rolls her eyes, leaning back into her chair, arms crossing over her chest. They're not actually related, Damon, get over it -- granted, she does have that love for her fake brother going on, so. It wasn't NOT a skeevy comment. She gives a sardonic smile. ] It was a passing comment, and you know it.
She glances down, both brows lifting, unable to hold back a soft chuckle when he clarifies for her. ] If my memories tell us anything, then he sure seems to. [ Certainly you came up in their conversation too, Damon. ] If it helps, if you care, [ why would he, at his core? she knows he really wouldn't ] I'm sure there's room to actually prove you're not all bad. [ The start of a giggle. Yeah, she easily amuses herself. ] If he does, I think it's because he's overprotective. And, we, broke up a lot. [ A shrug: it seems simple to her. ]
Oh, and he's military. Apparently. [ Her eyes narrow a little, pondering that thought. She knows it's true, even if it feels weird from the perspective of a Pines life. The one they're not allowed to leave, that Nyx apparently did at one point, for the sake of active duty...this damn town. ]
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[ That smirk goes full grin, but lessens, as she goes into more details about her newfound brother. ]
Plus, there's the cheating. [ Casual. Not subtle. Something else Damon learned along the way. Something he drops like it's nothing, moving onto the next point. Katherine might backtrack, she might not care. ] Military. Memory-wise, or, are you telling me Pines has a paramilitary organization in our midst? Underground?
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All of her good nature slips away for a moment as she takes that in, brows going together as her head shakes faintly. ] It depends on who's cheating where, or on who, doesn't it? Or, cheated. Past tense. [ Tell her what you mean without her having to ask, kthx. There's a lull, a hard stare. ] And I'm not sure. I guess we'll have to find out. That part of his life wasn't exactly what I asked about once we sat down together.
I have memories of it. Of him leaving town, being gone on a tour. Thinking he'd die and never come back. [ She sighs, no edge to her words, silently showing that why, yes, she's started to care about this man who was so recently a stranger. ]
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[ He barely cares, because the more he learns about these fake relationships, the less he learns about the town. ]
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I had a...private conversation with him. [ Not using mind manipulation, and she leans over enough to whisper through closed teeth. ] I didn't exactly want to compel him right away. [ And back again, voice at a regular volume. ] So. Running water. It makes the world go round, you know? [ Along with a well timed few hugs and words spoken under her breath. ] I asked what he remembers. Outside of, well, do I need to say it? [ The town, and if he wants to know anything that Nyx shared with her (if he even could, did, was willing, or remembers enough to share), he'll have to wait until later. ] Also, about our lives here. Don't you want to know more about yours, Damon?
[ About the past. Cheating, breaking the rules. Does he wanna know? ] Don't you want what could give us an edge? [ If it even could. Maybe she's hung up on these sibling feelings, fake as they are. They're strong. ]
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And, the edge we make, as we see it. One we capture. Isn't it worth finding out more about someone who I know thinks of me as an unshakable ally? Family. [ She sighs softly, voice quiet all throughout, starting to reach a hand over the table. Stopping halfway toward Damon, fingers curling in toward her palm. ] We make our own control over anything, Damon. Especially here. [ It's a controlled environment: too controlled, and that's definitely part of his point... ]
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We need to keep in mind where we start and they end. I thought we were playing along, but there's a difference between that and giving in. [ Caroline is attached to her brother. Damon fell for and than apart with Marie. He feels like he plays the part and then he feels like the part's playing in. ] We need to be careful. [ He doesn't tell Katherine that Nyx isn't her brother. But, she's going to struggle with that. Like Katherine with Steve. And Damon with two actual friends here. Not Bonnie. Not Ric. But, Emma and Sam. ]
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Anyway, she listens, taking in how he reacts to her spoken contemplation. He's not wrong, and it's not as if he's twisting anything around. ] I'm always careful. You know that better than anyone. [ Not always, no, but give her this moment, for she generally is exceptionally attentive to care in a situation. ] But I know how far we can reach to get more, too. [ The love from her brother, when she truly considers it, it doesn't feel bad. ] What if...maybe he could be an ally for us, too.
Unless...you should meet him. Formally. Before you say yes or no, to that. And I'm never just gonna... [ her eyes avert, glancing away for a second ] give in to it, Damon. [ Don't you know, she's stronger than that! They both are, surely. ] The way this place plays with us.
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Don't you just...love it here? [ Ha ha ha. ]