knightsoflegend | open ♔ valentine's day

[ it's possibly the best thing to say, honestly, because any hurt that caroline feels is completely eradicated in knowing that elena doesn't remember her parents. caroline knows how important they were to her, she was at the funerals, miranda used to baby sit her, grayson would let them play with his stethoscope.

(until that one time they played doctor with matt...)

her expression crumples and she reaches out to take elena's hands like she didn't just admit that she doesn't actually remember caroline. she can deal with that later, with more booze, but it breaks her heart that elena doesn't know her parents who were so good and kind and wonderful and all caroline gets is her dad. who tortured her. ]

I will tell you everything and anything you want to know, but first off all, I hope you're not living with any delusions that you were hopscotch champion in elementary school, because that was me, I'm sorry.

[Elena's lips press together as Caroline takes her hands, and she knows the girl means well. Knows that she's just trying to make her friend feel better, doesn't know that Elena...doesn't need it. Not really.]

The thought hadn't even crossed my mind.

[It's as much in some attempt at humor as in the fact that she...definitely had never thought of that ever.]

The first thing you should know is that whatever it is you think I would want you to tell me? I don't. I don't want to know. [She seems to realize slightly belatedly that that might be confusing, so she continues.] Alaric used to tell me things, answer questions I had about where I came from, but it felt like listening to stories about a life that someone else lived.

[ caroline pulls her hands back like she's been burned, taking a full step back from sheer confusion alone. why wouldn't... it's her parents. ]

But-- [ she shakes her head, whatever. it's elena's choice, she snaps her mouth shut, trying to school her features into something neutral. it fails because caroline wears her heart on her sleeve and her many, many emotions are always obvious. it takes a moment before she chooses to focus on something else and starts over. ] Alaric Saltzman is here?

[ stalk much? ]

[Elena understands her confusion, but their thoughts are alike. It is Elena's choice. She heard enough from Ric in her opinion. He'd told her about her brother, her parent's dying, and that had been enough.

Comparing the girl that came through the Veil and the person she was now, the Elena from the other side of the Veil was dead and gone. She just wanted to move on.

She just wanted people to let her.]

Mhm, he is. Damon and Stefan Salvatore are here too, if you know them.

[lol]

[ if u thought caroline recoiled before, it's nothing like the way she does when elena says damon's name. this time, at least, it's from disgust not confusion. ]

They let Damon Salvatore become a knight? Elena, I don't care if you never want to know anything about Mystic Falls or me, but stay away from Damon. He's manipulative and evil, he's a murderer and he r-- [ she cuts herself off, chin tipping up with some fragility in her expression she refuses to put a name to. ] The only good thing about Damon is his brother and even that is pushing it.

I'll leave you alone forever, just stay away from him.

They let him become a squire.

[That didn't mean he'd make it through, and not everyone here exactly had a 100% clean track record.]

Besides, he didn't seem all that dangerous when I met him. He was mostly going on about how I'm supposed to be his brother's girlfriend, claiming to know all about who I'm supposed to be, and then made eyes at me. I played his game, but he was never going to win it.

[She literally sounds like she could...not give two fucks about either of them, tbh.]

I haven't seen him since. For all I know, he's not even around anymore.

[Elena tilts her head at her then, her expression clouding.]

I'm not around very much, Caroline, but that's an awfully big leap to assume I wouldn't ever want to see you.

If I had to choose between being friends with you and keeping Salvatores out of your life, I'd make that sacrifice.

[ and it would be a sacrifice to caroline, but she's very committed to keeping elena gilbert far away from the salvatore brothers. only elena ever cared about what damon did and if caroline can protect elena from feeling what she did? she'd do anything. ]

Wait, you seriously want to be my friend? But you just said don't want to know anything about Mystic Falls, I thought...

They're not in my life. Besides, even if they show up again, I can deal with them. Whatever you're worried about, things are different here. And if they bother you, I'll be the one to put them in their place.

[She seems pretty firm on that.]

I don't want to know anything about people who aren't here, like my parents. That doesn't mean you can't tell me about you. You're here. It's different. [She pauses briefly.] But I don't know how good of a friend I can be, given the life I'm living. I'm not even sure how much you're going to recognize me anymore.

[Real talk. If Caroline doesn't like manipulative people...that's basically her job description now.]

[ even if caroline doesn't think elena particularly wants to be best friends, it's heartening that she still jumps to caroline's defense, even when she doesn't know all the reasons caroline has to hate damon. her expression softens into a small smile. ]

You don't even know me so I think we're on a pretty even playing field on the getting to know you front. So maybe we'll take it from there.

[ she holds her hand out. ] Hi, I'm Caroline Forbes. I'm seventeen, I somehow missed my birthday because of the veil so I'm still stuck in this filler year, I'm a Libra Monkey, and I'm supposed to graduate in 2011, but you'll notice there's a weird discrepancy there.

Edited 2016-02-25 22:28 (UTC)

[She still has lingering emotions from how she used to feel about these people before she crossed the Veil. Whatever she feels is much more positive than what she felt for Damon Salvatore, okay. No question.

Elena gives her a small smile, nodding.]

I think that might be the best idea.

[Her smile widens a bit at the introduction before she shakes Caroline's hand.]

Elena Gilbert. I'm 21 for several more months, and I still haven't graduated high school. [She looks amused by that, if anything.] I'm a Gemini-Cancer cusp, a member of the Dragon's Tongue, and a master of disguise.

[More things Caroline might not be ready for, oops.]

[ master of disguise, well. okay. that's something. of course, caroline's imagining it as that dana carvey movie or elena thinking her sexy nurse halloween costume actually doubled as a real nurse's uniform (it didn't).

the age difference and weird time difference is still mindboggling, but she can't focus on that because it'll drive her bonkers so she just...

ignores it. super gr8 plan. and anyway: ] I'm a vampire? Your doppelgänger Katherine murdered me to send a message. So... seventeen forever.

[Of all the things in the entire world, Elena did not expect any of this to be what came out of Caroline's mouth next.

She looks like she literally just got punched. Hooray.]

I...what?

[How many vampires did she have in her life? And, shockingly, that's the least horrible part of this.]

First of all, you're not seventeen forever. It's not as if your mind isn't going to grow and age even if your body doesn't. And second, what do you mean by my doppelganger?

[She realizes that she said she didn't want to know but this is......already fucked up and her need to know overrides everything else. It does that sometimes, oops.]

I mean, I guess age wise, you're her doppelgänger, there was a whole line of you. Her name is Katherine, she's a psychopath, I keep saying we should set her on fire, but no one listens to me because I'm "emotionally compromised" because of how she turned me into a freakin' vampire.

[ she's not bitter. ]

[Yeah, none of that helps.]

So she's...the one whose face I stole when I was born. [Because that's how she was told changelings work.] Is that why she came after you?

[She's so clueless.]

What, no? You were born like this. Well, like you, you know what I mean. You didn't steal anyone's face. Trust me, Katherine would have mentioned that. [ all you stole my boyfriend, weh, you stole my face, weh. ]

She came after me to get to Stefan and Damon, like they even cared.

I was told that's what happens when a changeling is born. Instead of having a face of their own, they're born with someone else's.

[And if she's her doppelganger.

Finally though, she just seems to shake her head.]

Regardless, she doesn't matter. She's not me and I am not her. But I'm sorry you were caught in the middle of such a thing because of me.

It wasn't because of you. It was because of Stefan and Damon. [ she almost elaborates further, but the details don't seem important anymore and as long as how serious she is about absolving any inkling of guilt elena might have for something she had no part of shines through she doesn't care about dwelling. at least she doesn't want to care about dwelling. katherine is dead to her. ]

I'm not super interesting, anyway, I don't know what else you might want to know about me.

It just seemed like it might have been, since I seemed to be the link between the brothers and yourself.

[And there was that whole apparently Stefan was her boyfriend thing. It was the obvious conclusion, but if Caroline doesn't hold her responsible, it's hard to feel too much guilt about something she...doesn't remember happening.]

Well, I've yet to meet a vampire that was boring. I'm just surprised that I was apparently surrounded by them.

Mystic Falls apparently had a history with them. [ vampires :| ] I was a cheerleader. I've made the honor roll every year since I was six, I was really banking on being the first female president.

Well, now maybe you could become the first female vampire shadowkind president. You have as many years as you want to do it, after all.

I do love being in charge... [ she hums thoughtfully, clearly giving it actual thought. ] Far as I know I'd still have to be 35 first, so... I've got a while before I can make that happen. And Prince Carl Philip's still single in this world, so maybe I'll just become Queen instead.

Well, given the rampant racism you'd probably experience, it will probably be awhile before you can even think about trying for it anyway.

[Her lips twist into a grin at that, amused.]

Always a good fallback option.

[ she has yet to experience this racism so she's still sort of indifferent to skye's sjw ramblings from earlier, which means she just shrugs. ]

People being jerks to me because of what I am isn't something new. [ jules' pack and her dad especially. ]

Well, we certainly have that in common.

[She doesn't seem to give a fuq, either.]

It's still hard to brush it off from time to time.

I may be horrible at lying to other people, but I'm really good at lying to myself. [ and the horrible just keeps spilling out because it's elena and caroline never has a filter with elena, even if memory loss and time gets in the way. it's just natural to her to spill her guts to her friend. ] Once your dad tortures you because he thinks you're a monster, everyone else just doesn't matter. [ she tries to be flippant, but she just said she's bad at lying and she wasn't lying about that. (bluff 9) ]

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