open ] [i am a wolf in your eyes and i'm filled with regret

[eluding]

[ooc: SO THEY ARE fighting for real. if your character wants to try to break it up, watch out, they're vampire and werewolf (though the cliffhanger moment i think someone could talk sense into Ethan rlkj;ea). also all the furniture/the bar/the alcohol on the deck and stuff is gonna be a bit destroyed for awhile. SORRY ABOUT THAT. someone should try to make them clean it up lol]

This has been building for awhile. Honestly, it's been building since Chicago, but being on this ship with Damon's constant jabs and comments (calling him wolfboy over and over again when there's nothing Ethan hates more than the werewolf inside of himself) and the knowing that Ethan not only fell out of a Rift after Elena when it was Damon that chose to go with her (and he hasn't seen her in decades, DECADES before now) and the knowing that they're in a relationship-- And part of always be in love with Elena even if she is his best friend first (and that dynamic can take over), Damon has always been in love with her too.

They end up on the deck alone together, and it doesn't take long to build into violence because it has been building for a long, long time. Ethan, for his part, tries to walk on by, ignoring Damon, but Damon starts in with the jabs and Ethan has a temper that he is no longer avoiding. He's done the worst as a werewolf. What more is there to avoid about it?

"I think I'm just going to have to remind you that I'm the one that was in that car with her that day." Damon is trying for the sarcasm but it's coming out sharp, angry. "Not you. You were perfectly good with walking away."

It's been building, and there's a certain level of too sharp, too real hurt when it comes to that particular accusation, and it's why the words come out in a shout, with bite. "I WAS COMING BACK."

"But you still thought you'd be good with WALKING away in the first place, didn't you? You left, and I stayed and I am always going to stay with her. I am always going to choose her like I always have, and that's not something you can say, wolfboy."

"Yes, because your obsessive fucking STALKER levels is something to wave around like a fucking flag." Ethan's hands become fists hard. The whole of him is shaking with rage and the need for violence. "Elena and I are together. She doesn't choose you, and it's her choice that is relevant here. Not yours. I understand that that is something you struggle to handle, but that never gives you the excuse to act like a jackass to me or to her. Do you understand? You need to back off or believe me, I. will. make. you."

And everything that Ethan is saying is striking a really, really hard nerve inside of Damon. The anger is growing and growing and so is the hurt, but he somehow manages to smirk (because if anyone is going to throw the first blow here, it's going to be her precious better man than Damon could ever be). He is used to burying down so much pain, and the smirk slides a bit further, something half sadistic in it. "Did you know Elena and I were together New Year's Eve? On my desk? It was really, really hot. Threw all of the things off of the desk, went wild. Y'know, now that I think about it, funny enough that was during the time you were once again strangely comfortable with walking directly out of her life--"

It is impossible to describe Ethan's reaction, because Elena and Ethan tell each other everything (almost everything, there are some things they were still working to tell each other, and it's true-- it's true that he wasn't-- it's something he regrets and guilt that he lives with every single day because the absence of Elena in his life is something he cannot--). There's a moment that it takes before it processes like he can't really wrap his head around the fact that this dickhead asshole and Elena actually-- And then it hits suddenly with visuals along with the grief and the guilt and the rage for Damon unlike he has ever fucking known it before.

Ethan lets out a noise of rage that hardly sounds human (and he's not really at the end of the day) and everything goes red all at once because he's picturing it and it's true that he wasn't there for fucking-- he wasn't there for her, and he lunges at him with both of his hands up, knocking him back so hard into the bar that they crash it open, breaking down the side of the wall completely as Damon hurdles back into the shelves of alcohol that all come crashing down on top of the both of them. Damon mutters a Finally before he shoves himself forward back at Ethan, fists are flying from both sides, and they're both bloody and furniture near by is getting broken in half or knocked to pieces along the way.

Neither one of them is really getting a leg up on the other. The rage and emotion inside of the both of them is intensely strong, and while Damon is much, much older than Ethan, Ethan's father made him and his brother to be stronger, faster than the average werewolf. It's not long at all until most of the deck has seen the results of this destruction (the furniture overturned or broken, bar broken, alcohol shattered), and Ethan manages to get that last punch in that has Damon sprawling backwards. The rage is still in every portion of his body (werewolves have so much rage, Ethan has had so much rage of his own, one and the same).

He reaches down gripping hold of Damon by the shirt and hauling him up violently against the railing (they're both bloody with bits of glass in them) as he shakes with that rage, intent on throwing him off the ship entirely at this point, because Ethan isn't exactly checking his strength. And that part inside of him that is violence and rage has clicked on.

If someone doesn't stop him, Damon is going straight into the water. Oops.

Comments

i tell the truth ;o; <3

[consumes]

Damon smirks even as he rolls his eyes at that. He is certain that he knows exactly what ironic ring she is referring to even if he is not going to mention that at the moment. All of his injuries are healing quickly. Ethan will live with his injuries for a much longer time, and Damon can't help but be pleased by it.

Maybe every time it hurts him to move, he'll remember exactly how he failed Elena and why- Damon doesn't know why he wants to destroy things for everyone else. Just because he can't have anything of his own, just because he is stuck in a terrible world. It's just instinct. Despite all his growth, it's instinct to destroy when it hurts, and it hurts.

"Really? You're glad that he didn't throw me off the ship? I'm surprised," Damon says with a slow smirk before he shakes his head. "No idea. Just reminded him of some of his failings in regards to Elena especially..."

That apparently stung likely because it is very true.

1/2

[eluding]

"...hi."

No, it is not awkward in the slightest.

They have all been in love with Elena Gilbert, and they are all three here together in the same space. Ethan thought Elena's feelings for Stefan and Damon were why she could not possibly have any for him that night of the ball. The way she looked at him, he'd made some assumptions, some terrible assumptions that stole a lot of his time away from-- from Elena.

It was his fault for assuming, but he definitely saw the feelings that Elena had for Stefan in that moment, and it's-- it is definitely something he remembers. Now. Awkwardly. The rage is strong enough though that it kind of outshines that awkward.

And now they're... now they are all here, all three of them who have been in love with Elena, and Ethan isn't quite leaving yet. His jaw locks further at what Damon says, and he's already starting to walk back toward him with his fists tightly wound at his sides.

2/2

[consumes]

Damon, on the other hand, is not one to shy away from incredibly 'awkward' situations, which is why he is smirking at the both of them with that look on his gaze. It's the I'm a jackass look with a very, very big helping of I'm also incredibly reckless at the moment and have no fucks to give about what happens to me.

"No. My point was that of the two of us, I have been chosen to be with her and go where she is every single time. I have not ever failed to be by her side. Of the three of us here who all have our feelings for Elena and our history with her. Hi," Damon says with a slow, slow smirk. "Really, if we want to get technical... it's been me that's made that choice time and time again to be by her side. Me."

He reaches up his hand with that sarcastic, bitter expression on his face, the violent, hateful thing.

"Yet somehow-- S O M E H O W it is this asshole, wolfboy who ends up in that world with her. It's him. After he abandoned her for months, after he did not choose to go with her when the world ended, it's him--"

YES that would be Ethan rushing forward and trying to punch Damon again. Sorry, Stefan.

[somanyadjectives]

Damon.

Stefan wedges himself between Ethan and his brother, one hand on both of their chests and keeping that distance with every ounce of vampire strength he has. Because yes, while they all love her, while they all will always care about Elena, they all approach it in different ways.

Stefan learned that he needed to let her go a long time ago. Ethan is just getting the chance to love her, and maybe Damon never will, but in the end the question isn't who loves her the most or who chose her - it's about who Elena chooses.

"You can't blame him for how the rifts work, Damon." It's illogical and stupid and only going to make things worse. There's too much history here already. "And it doesn't matter who was where. What matters is that Elena made her choice. Elena. Pissing him off isn't going to do you any favors and you know that."

He takes a breath and turns back to Ethan. "And you need to learn how to not let him get under your skin. Believe me, I'm well aware of how impossible that is, but try. For the sake of no one getting thrown overboard. Because he's not going to stop being an ass any time soon, but you can't attack him every time he tries."

[eluding]

Ethan lets out a sharp breath, stopping where he is standing. This has been going on for years, and he doesn't let anyone treat him like shit anymore least of all Damon. He swallows, biting back the unhelpful response that of course he can attack him every single time. He can't. The logic of it is that he cannot attack him every single time.

It had just been building up for too long, too long of having things used against him, too long of being called wolfboy and being reduced to the monster that he hates. Ever since the ship, it's been even worse, and he thinks it's part to do with the fact they're together but more to do with wherever the hell Damon was.

Either way, he realizes this isn't the smart move. Nothing about this is a smart move on a small ship. More than that, he knows Stefan is trying to make sense of things and speak sense to the both of them. His emotions are just-- They're hard to contain right now.

"You're right," Ethan says after a moment, jaw locking tightly with it as he takes a step back, swallowing it all down. His voice is low but it is sincere despite his anger. He did not want to let Damon get to him nor did he want to let-- nor did he want to nearly kill him. "I'm sorry for almost throwing your brother overboard."

No, he is not going to apologize to Damon for it nor will he apologize for the fight itself.

[consumes]

"Because I'm obviously looking for favors, because it even fucking matters what I do."

Damon rolls his eyes.

Having Ethan accept what his brother says isn't exactly helping Damon right now. He is not on this ship for the long haul, and he has no desire to return to where he's from so at least being thrown overboard would be something new.

He doesn't respond to Stefan's very calm and certain logic nor does he respond to Ethan's apology. He just stands there like a sullen child that wants to rip apart the whole world (but nothing and no one more than himself).

Damon swallows thickly as he wavers in place but doesn't move either or apologize or say anything for once.

i am so sorry

[wemadeit]

Helen is neither a vampire nor a werewolf.

She's not even sure she's met one, either.

The heated arguement was mostly lost on her from her quiet place on the deck. She was too far off to really hear what exactly was being said. But what she did know was that someone... well, somepeople were pissed. It's not long before she creeps about and looks down onto the lower part of the deck to investigate.

She's just in time for the fight to well and truly erupt, the noise she hears of something so purely rageful it scares her half to death, and part of her wants to hide away from it before she even gets a glimpse of the two men on the deck below.

She's frozen to the spot watching in horror at the brawl, her heart trembling in her chest. Is this what it's going to be like, one day? Watching this happen over and over again until someone's dead? Helen is neither a vampire nor a werewolf. She is an angel of death and despite the fact she hasn't seen anyone's death here - this could end up in a one. Her mind screams danger and she knows she's not ready to see all this yet - she wants it to stop. She wants it to end.

One of them is about to throw the other overboard--

Helen makes a sound of her own. She can't stand back any more. It's almost like a scream, something terrified and desperate and she shouldn't be here and she shouldn't be interfering and she wants to-- oh god, she wants to go home now. She lets out that sound until her lungs empty, until she feels her wings tear at her back and she's vaulting over the railings, falling several metres onto the trashed deck below.

She lands with little grace, but unhurt, and stumbles a few steps toward the pair. "Stop! Stop it! Now! Please! No more fighting!"

[believable]

There.

That's slightly better, not that Elena is necessarily comforted by this fact at the moment. Her heart is still beating all too fast, eyes darting from Ethan to Damon and back again. Her hands are still reaching out to her sides as though they could lunge for each other at any moment, despite the fact she can all but see the way the impetus to do so is gone. It's whooshed out of them, like the anger has mostly whooshed out of her in one fell swoop.

"We can't keep doing this," she says to them.

It may fall on deaf ears but she has to say it all the same.

"We have no idea where we are or where we are heading. We have no idea what's in store for us if this ship decides to stop, or it sends us somewhere else. We don't know what we're in for, and fighting isn't going to help matters," she says. Beyond the fact they should not be behaving this way, there's the ramifications they need to be thinking of. Elena doesn't want to be lulled into a false sense of security on this ship, not when they've experienced the way the rifts work and how easily it can turn on a dime. They don't know how the Red Door works, or what it could bring.

Much like the rifts, it doesn't mean only people could be pulled through that door. They need to learn to work together if and when the time comes, if nothing else.

[badcentury]

"Rousing speech, Elena," Damon says from where he is standing breathlessly, seeing the way her eyes dart back and forth, hearing the beating of her heart (too fast). She still has her hands out to either side of her as if they're going to lunge again, they're not. Ethan seems to not be looking at him at all, and Damon, for once, decides to not push it any further. He didn't get what he wanted. He's still not completely sure what it is that he wanted out of it or he knows but acknowledging it is something else after all.

Some may have a false sense of security. Damon doesn't really care about his own security or most other people's security. He does care about Elena's security (and about his brother's security) so that is about the only thing that would get him to fall in line.

In a relative sense of that phrase.

"If anyone needs me which is incredibly and most definitely unlikely, I'll be getting drunk." Very, very drunk. He waves the both of them off with a bitter, reckless smirk. "Have fun."

And like that he is gone.

[eluding]

Ethan releases a breath as Damon leaves, and he stares down at his own two feet for a second, trying to contain the strength of his own emotions before he looks back up at Elena again. There's an apology in his gaze, an intense apology in his gaze, because he is sorry for nearly throwing Damon overboard even if he can't be sorry for the rest.

"You're right," he says after a moment, and his hand reaches out for her arm to rest against it, grip hold of her. His jaw locks at the back with the emotion still inside of his chest and that feeling that he can't rip from himself even if he wishes he could. "You're right. We don't know enough about this place to start fighting and... tearing the place apart."

There's no way of knowing what will happen on this ship. It may seem relatively calm at the moment, but they all know better. Damon just doesn't seem to care, but it doesn't mean that he'll let Damon bait him again. Ethan is learning slowly but surely how to keep the vampire from getting under his skin, and he winces as he shifts slightly where he is standing.

Damon is fully healed now, but Ethan is most definitely not.

He feels that sharp pain hit his rib cage, and he is staring out over the mess that he and Damon have made of this deck. It's destruction everywhere, and it-- it didn't feel all that satisfying in the end to attack Damon especially when he seemed to want him to for whatever reason.

omg no being sorry at all

[eluding]

Ethan is not expecting anyone to be there, and the sudden appearance of someone landing nearby has suddenly distracted him from holding Damon up against the railing. He realizes suddenly what he's doing, and he swallows thickly, opens his mouth, and takes a step back, dropping Damon all too suddenly.

"...I--"

He locks his jaw.

Words are not a thing that are happening easily or at all.

[badcentury]

Damon just smirks as he leans up against the railing. The smirk widens into a smile as he breathes in deeply, keeping himself leaned up against that railing.

"But we were just getting started."

He even winks Helen's way

Because he is that much of an asshole.

[somanyadjectives]

"Thank you."

Stefan will accept that apology for the both of them and is silently grateful for Damon keeping his mouth shut. In all honesty, he's worried about Damon, worried about them falling back into the old patterns of Damon self-destructing and Stefan trying to keep everything together, but at least it's roles they know, if nothing else. He swallows, before placing a hand on Damon's shoulder, pushing him away from the scene and to somewhere else.

"C'mon. Let's go."

Somewhere where they can talk and he can figure out what exactly is going on in Damon's head right now, because to hell if he knows otherwise.

[badcentury]

Ethan nods, but he doesn't say anything else for the time being. He doesn't quite trust himself. This isn't an anger that he's used to accepting, and he's not used to the results of it either.

It's what keeps Damon's mouth shut. He is so much older than Stefan now, and he doesn't need or want his little brother to have to clean up all his messes. It feels like that's all he's been doing for too long, taking responsibility for things that weren't his to own, sacrificing himself to save Damon. Damon is not worth saving.

He glances at Stefan and barely suppresses himself from rolling his eyes. It's just the firm reminder that he thought he would never see him again (for decades he believed it) that keeps him in check.

Damon moves though he wrenches away from Stefan's grasp, moving forward in quick, focused movements.

[aneurism]

"In case you haven't noticed, this isn't exactly Mystic Falls. As much as I would rather it be someone else, a familiar face is nice to have around."

Especially after months and months of being stranded on the Other Side with nobody who could hear her or interact with her. Just the world moving on without her as if she wasn't even there.

[badcentury]

Damon smirks lightly, glancing around the ship and taking in a slow breath. "I noticed. So it's nice to have me around," he says, lifting an eyebrow in her direction as the smirk widens before he goes on to explain he's hardly the only familiar face around, which will probably be a relief. "Stefan is here too and so is Elena."

People come and go as far as he can tell.

He's just trying to avoid going himself.

[somanyadjectives]

Damon is always worth saving. At least to Stefan.

It's not an altruistic gesture on his part. He doesn't do it because he likes saving people, or because he thinks Damon deserves it. He does it out of a violent, damaged, unhealthily codependent need to have his brother existing, living, even if it's a depraved and self-destructive existence because as far as Stefan is concerned, the world isn't right without Damon.

Even when their relationship was at it's worst, even when Damon killed his best friend, Stefan couldn't bring himself to cross that line and end his brother's life. Damon, at the end of the day, is all he has. If Stefan loses that, eternity would seem just a little bit emptier.

Still, he's used to Damon wrenching away from him, and he watches the tension in his shoulders, trying to get a read on what exactly is happening inside Damon's head, even though he never really could.

"What was that about?"

[badcentury]

Stefan will never stop saving him, and deep down, Damon knows that.

It has been decades, but he knows that one thing will not ever change. It's not about deserving or not deserving (as he has tried with all his might to be hated, to be the terrible thing that deserved to be the monster that he is). His little brother doesn't want him to die permanently ever, and it is not like Damon wouldn't do anything to keep Stefan alive too at the end of the day.

There's this terrible but very real, very unhealthy codependency between the both of them. He is searching for alcohol and not thinking of the many terrible things he has done (this one hardly chalks up to the rest of them though he knows Elena will be angry with him.

Angry is putting it lightly. She might be about done with the likes of him. Elena has grown even in Chicago she had and she's spent more time in another universe, being with Ethan).

"Just unfinished business," Damon says between his teeth like it is really that simple, and it is not and they both know it. He stops at the nearest bar (the ship is full of them), reaching for the nearest bottle. Eternity is empty. They don't stay on this ship. No one does. They all go back through that door eventually and all go back where they came from. "It doesn't really matter."

[aneurism]

Anna wants to go, and then she doesn't. She misses her mother, but being tangible and alive (or as close as a vampire can) again is amazing. It's something that shouldn't have happened. She should still have the ability to pop in and out of nowhere like a good ghostpire should, but being transferred into this world has somehow fixed that. She's back to being what she was before John Gilbert drove that stake through her heart and she's enjoying it. She only wishes Pearl were here to enjoy it with her.

Instead, she has Damon and Stefan. And Elena, too, she guesses...

"Elena and I don't really get along, in case you forget the part where I tried to kill her and dated her brother?"

[somanyadjectives]

"It nearly got you thrown off the ship."

He reaches for his own bottle, because he has a feeling that Damon probably isn't in the mood to share. He pours himself a glass before settling on the stool next to him, watching him carefully. There's something going on there, under the surface. He just needs the time to figure out what.

"I'd say on some level it matters."

[badcentury]

"Don't remind me."

His voice is sharp despite the fact that is all in the past. Damon is not forgiving like Elena Gilbert is.

The attempt at killing Elena is enough to make him angry, violent (nevermind he's done plenty of terrible things to her himself).

"Elena is very forgiving you'll find," Damon says quietly. Given, he killed her brother once, and they were still able to be best friends. It took a long road to get to that point and Damon would never hurt Jeremy again, but they did.

[badcentury]

Damon smirks, and it is one of those reckless, dangerous smirks of his that his brother will recognize immediately. "Maybe I wanted to take a swim," he fills in before he leans further against the bar, releasing a long breath.

He swallows and then he is hit with sudden emotion. His jaw locks.

"You don't have to clean up after me, little brother." And his messes. It's what Stefan always does, but it has been a long time and he is not anyone's responsibility.

[somanyadjectives]

Damon may not be his responsibility, but in a way he is. The same way that Stefan was Damon's after Klaus made him go with him. They're always going to have some amount of responsibility to each other. That's part of what being family was.

Even one as screwed up as theirs.

"Maybe not. But I'm not sure I want some werewolf turning you into a chewtoy either."

Stefan do not start making dog jokes about Elena's boyfriend. That's not nice.

[badcentury]

"Oooh, Stefan." Damon makes a sound as he shakes his finger in his brother's direction as if chiding him. "Don't let Elena know you said that about, wolfboy."

Dog jokes about Ethan go down very badly, and Elena would get very, very mad at you, Stefan. Damon should know, because he's made enough of them all by himself, and he has been on the other end of that anger multiple times. Even before she was dating him.

"He wasn't going to turn me into a chewtoy either. Just gonna... throw me off the side. Looks like a nice swim." He tilts his body until he is looking over the railing with a slow smirk, shrugging his shoulders since he doesn't really care that he was nearly thrown off.

Death seems like a good option in comparison to the world he was in before.

idk what i'm doing with her alkdjfasd

[aneurism]

"Maybe I don't want to be forgiven."

It's a rash, sudden thing to say, but that doesn't make it any less true. Anna doesn't regret what she did, knows that if she had the chance to do it all over again, she would, in all likelihood, do it the exact same way. Because it was her mom. She once told Jeremy that he was her weakness, when in reality, it was Pearl. Anna would've made a deal Klaus if it could've gotten her mother out of that tomb sooner. She waited so long for it, that as the time drew nearer, she did whatever she could to ensure that it would work.

Because she couldn't go another 145 years without her mother. She just couldn't. And now that she was away from her again... At least she had the satisfaction of knowing that her mother was at peace, no longer trapped on the Other Side. Pearl couldn't be held as a bargaining chip over her head and she could find a way to be on this ship without worrying about what was happening to her mom.

That, of course, doesn't mean any of the things she did were right. She knows they were wrong and doesn't fault anyone for holding them against her. Least of all Elena.

And where Damon's concerned, well, that's just the pot continuing to call the kettle a variety of shades of black.