voyagers | [ota] i am a super srs rper

[ elena will not dignify that with an answer, john!!! ]

Probably, but there's strength in numbers. [ which is what she said to cora. ] There has to be something, and sooner or later, we're going to find it. [ at least, elena plans to. if she's going to make sure that damon never gets sent back to the world he came from, then she needs to get her hands metaphorically dirty.

so, y'know. she's getting her hands dirty. if there's something to be found on this ship, rest assured elena will find it. ]

[which is enough of an answer all on its own ;)!!!!!!]

That is inspiring and everything, but it is also a little vague. I also get the impression that when you say we, you mean I and you have this tone in your voice like you're determined and have some kind of plan. [john takes a long drink from the glass in front of him. and well, he is really good at reading people even when he is not trying to pick up any thoughts from them.

also, no, elena, don't do the thing! damon already decided he will do the thing so neither you and stefan will do the thing!!!!]

[ shhhhhh. ]

I don't ... have a plan, exactly, but I am determined to figure things out. It's important. [ beyond the damon factor, they have to know what they're up against. there's no way of knowing where they're heading, or if it really leads anywhere. there's no way of knowing where that red door could lead them at any moment's notice.

shut up, damon. you don't tell stefan or elena what to do, that includes the thing!!! ]

[uh huh. ;)]

Exactly? It is important to figure things out, but if there's strength in numbers, wouldn't it be better to come up with a plan all together? Whoever is here? [john takes a long drink from the bottle in front of him, and then he slides a hand over his face.

no, but he can do the thing before either of them can do the thing!!!!!!!!! then see what happens :|a.]

[ ugh, john. stop making so much sense. ]

There's ... someone here who would try to stop me if they knew it's what I planned on doing. [ so she's just been trying to figure things out on her own. of course, whenever she gets close to coming up with something, she gets sent back to wherever she is and everything gets muddled again.

she's not sure that's a coincidence. AND GET OUT OF THIS TAG, DAMON. ]

Edited 2014-08-04 05:28 (UTC)

[no, john will not. there is a reason he is a leader of a small group of people (okay, a reason he was a leader-- ukw details).]

...why do they want to stop you? Also, it wouldn't be what you planned on doing. It would be a group effort. You said yourself we're stronger in numbers. [even drunk he can figure this out, okay? then the microwave dings, and oh there's a warm sandwich in there... with chips. way to be creepy, ship. john's just gonna stare at the microwave like he isn't sure if he wants to eat it. but at the same time, he really does.

U DONT GET TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO EITHER, ELENA.]

[ ...okay, fine, he's kind of got her there. ]

Because they're a little over protective. [ and that's honestly putting it mildly. ] It's not that I want to go doing it all on my own, I'd just rather not have anyone stop me. [ since there's no telling what could happen if they go poking around, and she's aware of that, it just wouldn't ... stop her when the stakes are that high.

elena opens the microwave and surely enough! there's his favorite type of sandwich with chips right there. elena slides it in front of him. whether he eats it or not is his choice. ]

And they stop you by... overpowering you? [because he's gotta kind of side eye that into next damn year.] So we all do it together, and I don't let anyone stop you. How's that? [john understands the necessity of needing to choose, needing to have choices. he has been manipulated and used for most of his life. almost all of his life.

it's not quite the same thing, but he knows that if he'd-- if he hadn't been made into what he'd been made into, he never would have killed--

he never would have signed up all to make jedikiah proud. john glances down at the sandwich with the chips, and he reaches out to pick it up. it smells really good, and he honestly can't remember the last time that he ate.]

No, it's not - it's not like that.

[ elena shakes her head, even if sometimes it is like that, but the last thing she wants is someone else boarding on the damon hate train. mostly because whenever that happens, there's always the threat of him being actually thrown overboard, and no one knows what happens if you are. in fact, elena would rather damon never met any of the people she is befriending - at least not until some progress has been made where they are concerned.

these are still rocky waters.

elena hesitates, watching him as he eats, noting he probably hasn't in a while, so it's good that he is. ] What exactly would we be doing? [ she is all for suggestions here. ]

Whatever it is like, no one's going to stop you.

[john makes that promise, and luckily for damon, he swore to himself he would never kill again so he wouldn't throw him overboard. he might suspend him in the air for a little while but he'd let him down again. and unless you're jedikiah, it is pretty hard to push his buttons to that point. he has been trained on how to not react, how to set up those walls so he could be the best agent that he could be. doesn't mean things don't get in, people don't get in somehow even so. doesn't mean he doesn't somehow manage this warmth, because he does.

it just means that he has been taught opening up means... pain. flinching means showing a vulnerability, and he doesn't do that.

john takes another bite from the plate before he chews, swallows, looks across the table at her again. he shakes his head.] Starts with a journal entry to... everyone. Find out who else wants to get to the bottom of things, figure out what skills they have, how best they can be used. There have to be a few locked doors around here.

[and john can teleport.]

[ remind elena to add to her to-do list:

never introduce john and damon. they can be kept separately and on their respective corners of the ship. though it's reassuring to know he would never kill anyone on the ship, even if he had good reasons to. and well, damon is good at pushing buttons if he's in the mood to lash out and self-destruct. still, elena doesn't think damon's a terrible person.

just someone that often makes really, really terrible decisions. ]

That's a good idea, actually. I've hesitated making a journal entry, because I'm not sure if it works like how I'm used to, and it potentially means anyone could see that entry, including whoever's watching. [ if they're watching, and it would give them an opportunity to foil their plans. ] But we can test that out with each other at some point.

[ preferably when they're both a bit more sober. :') ]

[this obviously means that they will meet one day soon. :')

granted, john swore this to himself back when he was much younger, and he broke that promise not once but twice in the last few weeks (has it really only been weeks since his whole world exploded, and he stopped being able to hold on to anything? he knew it was coming, but--

but part of him had almost hoped).]

Well, it's smart to be hesitant about it, but if they can apparently read our minds to know what we need when we need it, I don't know that there's any amount of keeping that information from them. I know how to block people out of your mind, but... it seems like they're this other level of powerful. [and john doesn't know if stopping them from seeing is even possible. it doesn't mean he won't try, doesn't mean he doesn't have his walls up inside like always.] That'd be a good idea. Testing it out. ...how are you used to those journals? Were they at the place you're from?

[ well. ... yes.

elena is nodding along to everything he is saying - they will have to be careful and this does seem like a whole other level of powerful - and she only stops once he asks how she's used to the journals. she opens her mouth, and promptly closes it. it's always been difficult to explain. or maybe not difficult, but complicated. ]

Sort of? [ she wrinkles her nose a little. ] There's where I'm from originally and where I ended up three years ago. It was a place that had this ... supernatural magic network? Which sounds crazy, I know, but ... everyone that ended up there got a journal, too. You could lock it to specific people, and lock it away from dangerous ones.

[ it could be incredibly useful, and as far as she knew, it was pretty much unhackable. ]

[john looks up at her with confusion when she does try to explain it all, and he shakes his head after a second.]

...you're from two different places? [he slides a hand over the back of his neck as he takes a bite out of that chip. he knows they're referring to actual worlds here, and he doesn't even know how that happens or that that was a possibility beyond this temporary ship that only seems to keep them for a little while at a time

(for now at least which is why it's important to figure things out).]

How does that happen? [there's curiosity and also some concern there in his expression.

wow, john, being concerned about a stranger? WHO DOES THAT. SO SURPRISING. ahem.]

[ ...this is probably not the best conversation to have with someone that's still sort of drunk, oops.

(and wow, john. WHO DOES THAT INDEED.) ]

It's ... sort of a similar situation to the one with the red door? One moment you're where you've always been, and the next you're somewhere else altogether. [ that seems like a nice way to start things. ] Except it didn't take me to a boat, it took me to an alternate Chicago, and instead of a red door, they called it a rift.

These cracks in the universe we fell through.

[ it says something about her life that she can say all of that with a completely straight face now. ]

[it is okay. john is starting to get a bit more sober at the moment as he slowly makes his way through this delicious sandwich.

(wow he has NO IDEA certainly nothing that he would know about........)]

They're cracks in the universe, and if they're not a door, it means-- [he stops, because he knows what it means. john can put it together even before she's said it. the thing about doors is the doors can be open again eventually even if they have no control over the when. it means there is an entrance and an exit.

cracks imply falling through again without a choice, but you can't just open up another crack and fall back, hope you land in the same spot.

his voice is quiet.]

There wasn't a way to get back one you were there.

[ there's a small pause, followed by the slow shaking of her head. ]

They called it a one-way ticket to Chicago. [ as opposed to a round trip. elena hasn't seen home-home in years. she doesn't know that it would feel like home if she were ever to go back. she feels so displaced from mystic falls and who she used to be, the girl that was meant to die in the bridge. that life feels like a museum to her, something that exists in another place and time. ] There was more than one rift. A lot of them, actually. Too many of them.

[ the last part is said quietly. she's never really talked about it, beyond caroline. and even then, elena glossed over how brutal those last two weeks really were, and how much she still clings to a world that's gone now.

maybe she always will. it's what she does, and it's so stupid. to cling to what's gone. ]

[john lets out a slow breath at what she says, and he shakes his head half in an inability to understand what that must be like. as much as his world has its troubles, he can't imagine being torn from it so suddenly with no way back to it (oh, john). the structures, the rules, the danger is almost a comfort to him because he knows where he belongs in those things

and to have to relearn how the world works--

his expression is grim before he lifts his head again to look back up at her, meet her gaze.] Too many. The world wouldn't be able to... handle that.

[he notes the quiet way that she says it. his sandwich is almost finished, and john pauses for a brief moment before his hand rests against her arm.

john looks at her face with that concern intensely in his expression.]

...what happened?

[ (oh, john. give it this month...)

elena only looks up once she feels the weight of his hand against her arm. it seems like he pieced it all together, but she can also tell he doesn't want to assume. for someone that was so confused about elena's own concern about a near-stranger, she almost has to smile at the fact he's doing the exact same thing. or she would, if the conversation hadn't taken such a grave turn. ]

The rifts started to collapse in on themselves. There was a lot of scientific jargon, most of which I didn't understand, but all it meant was the world would start eating itself from the inside out. When the time came, you either found a rift to step through, or ...

[ well.

you'd get swallowed whole by the blackness, too. ]

[(

)

john's hand remains against her arm as he looks at her face. he can't imagine the things that she is describing or how difficult they must have been to see, to live through, to get to the other side of that. he shakes his head after a moment, much, much more sober than he had been before for multiple reasons now.]

That... sounds terrible. I wouldn't even be able to imagine watching the world eat itself from the inside out like that. [how horrifying that must have been to see it be ripped apart, swallowed whole. people must have been screaming, buildings taking in chunks. he tries to imagine what he would do in that situation, and he doesn't... know.] I'm... sorry.

[it sounds like another home lost.]

[ speaking of empathy.

elena can tell he really means that. it's not something he's just saying because it's commonplace and expected of him to do so. it doesn't make the lump in her throat tighten any less. she swallows past it somehow, looking down at the counter in between them. ] Me too. [ she doesn't know that she could put into words what chicago came to mean to her.

she would just never do it justice. she breathes in and tries for a small, flimsy smile. it doesn't quite reach her eyes. ] The experience did make it easier for me to adjust to all of this. Different worlds, realities. It's a lot to wrap your head around, but after nearly three years...

[ well, it just became a part of her life, really. ] Let's just say I've done a lot of traveling.

[john doesn't know much about commonplace or what's expected of him in this sense so it does come from the heart. it comes because he really means it. he stays close even as she looks down at the counter in between them, and he doesn't say anything else, but he can tell even without her saying that chicago meant a lot to her.

it was a home that she had to lose after another one. and there's something that strikes a chord in him at the sight of that small, flimsy smile on her face, how it doesn't quite reach her eyes.] It sounds like you are well experienced, and it might mean you're better at figuring this place out than someone that doesn't have that.

[there's a tiny smile before he shakes his head.] I would hate that. Not traveling, but... having everything ripped away like that. Where are you-- Where do you go to when you head through that door?

[because it's-- he hopes that that last rift didn't take her to this in between place.]

[ elena shakes her head. ]

Not in the way you'd think. The frustrating things about rifts is they often didn't have rhyme or reason to them, and sometimes you had to accept there weren't any satisfying answers, not that I ever ... wanted to. [ acceptance is not something that's in her vocabulary when it comes to defeat. ] Scientists from all over the world tried to control them and couldn't. It's magic and the universe and something else, maybe, but sometimes it's just as weird as it seems.

[ sometimes there are just holes in the universe and you fall through them, and you're forced to deal with that.

as for his other question - elena takes a deep breath and gives a tiny smile in return. ] It's a city called Teleios. They say it's a waiting room for some kind of Utopia, and we basically have to work off a debt to get there.

That does sound frustrating. You don't... seem like someone who is good at accepting defeat. [there's a pause after that and a tiny smile since he means that as a compliment. john was trained to be very good at reading people, and he can just tell with how determinedly she worked to help him tonight, to get him away from the pool. to the extent, she fell in along with him.] Magic.

[there's a tiny smile, because he never would have believed in it before this place, but it's hard to deny what's right in front of him. he has no explanations for why he is here, no explanations for how this ship can do what it does.

he tilts his head in confusion.] ...debt? Debt to who?

[ elena smiles back at him helplessly because no, she is really not. relentless and stubborn seems to be in the gilbert genes by default. and she is a gilbert, even if her biological father is john and not grayson like she thought for most of her life - ukw, more details. what it comes down to is grayson was her father in all the ways that counted. ]

Only the oldest beings of all time.

[ the answer is very, very dry. she's been stingy with who she shares this information, and she hasn't revealed her source in case jack wasn't supposed to say much as it is, but they're on this ship and not in teleios, so elena doesn't censor herself as much. ] They call them The Two, but they're supposedly... Good and Evil.

[ her life tho. ]

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