( ota/prose or action spam ) i... am still a super srs rper.

[believable]

[ greetings, voyagers.

this is sadly not the elena you are likely used to by now. no, this is an elena that has ended up in once-golden city called teleios, and is currently working off her substantial debt in the alleged hope she may one day see utopia. there are gods, dragons, and realms unlike she never imagined. she likes it there more than she'll admit to, and is perennially aggravated by it in other ways.

she is also not expecting to once again be led to a red door when she exits the library she currently works at, but it's also not the strangest thing that's ever happened to her. she just doesn't remember it whenever she gets sent back to pre-utopia.

for reasons no one will ever be able to figure out, the lower deck is flooded with teleporting kittens and puppies. y'know, the kind you're used to from the chicago. the kittens and puppies that don't age, are surprisingly self-sufficient, and pick their owner to soulbond with. so be careful. because they are everywhere. everywhere.. ]

What the ...

[ a puppy has teleported into her arms. it is now looking at her very, very expectantly. ]


( OOC: TREAT THIS AS A PARTY POST IF YOU'D LIKE. EVERYONE SHOULD GET TO ENJOY PUPPIES. )

Comments

[resuming]

[ Elena tilts her head curiously at that. There aren't too many people on this ship yet - ] Derek Hale?

[impetere]

[She blinks a bit in surprise, but nods all the same.]

Yeah, that's my brother.

[resuming]

Yeah, I've met him!

[ Somehow, this seems like an accomplishment. ] I gave him a tour of the ship on one of his first days. [ He's a man of a few words, but Elena didn't mind. ]

[impetere]

[Oh wow. Look at Derek making friends.]

Cool. Yeah, we got here together. We're still trying to figure out how this place actually works.

[resuming]

I think we're all on the same boat, in that respect.

[ pause. ] Pun really not intended. [ as for whether or not they'll get answers? that's sadly anyone's guess. the ship just seems to like messing with people. gdi rizzy. ]

[impetere]

[Intended or not, it still gets a smirk from the other girl all the same. Or maybe it's the puppy licking at her chin. Either way, hard to say.]

There can't be nothing. No one is that thorough. It's just a matter of looking hard enough.

[resuming]

[ Elena likes your determination, Cora. ]

Trust me. I happen to think the same way you do. It can just get a little frustrating. The rooms appear and disappear at a moment's notice; the only ones I've come into contact with that seem to be from here are the holograms, and they never answer your questions. If whoever is running the place is thorough, we'll just have to be more thorough.

[impetere]

[She pauses for a moment, scritching at the dog's ears as she turns this information over in her head.]

Someone had to program the holograms, right? So maybe once we find the programmer we find the person behind it?

[She's trying to think like a detective. Stiles would probably be proud that her suggestion wasn't just trying to punch her way through it.]

[resuming]

[ That really is some good detective-ing, Cora Holmes. Elena is nodding her agreement. ]

Assuming it's not all magic-based.

[ Magic always makes everything trickier. Elena sighs, sitting cross-legged as her dalmatian all but crawls onto her lap. ] Maybe Bonnie can help. She's my best friend, and technically not here right now, but she comes and goes often.

[impetere]

[She pauses a bit at magic. Magic? Not exactly in her wheelhouse.]

Does she know a lot about magic?

[resuming]

[ Elena smiles a bit fondly; Bonnie's her girl. ] Something like that.

[impetere]

[She gives a bit of a shrug.]

Worth a shot. Magic isn't really a thing where I'm from.

[At least not in ways like this. There's the darach, but that came from blood and death and she really doesn't want to think about how many human sacrifices needed to be made in order to make a ship like this happen.]

[resuming]

It's definitely a thing where I'm from, but - I'll admit I'd never seen anything like this back home, either.

[ The concept of different worlds and time travel and universe hopping would've seemed so impossible to the young girl that had never left Mystic Falls. Years later and with far too many experiences under her belt, Elena is less skeptical. ]

If you'd told me three years ago I would step through portals and end up in worlds other than mine, I'd have never believed it.

[impetere]

[She wrinkles her nose a bit.]

Yeah, that I'm still getting used to. But I take it this isn't your first time?

[resuming]

[ Elena gives a small laugh, and then shakes her head. ] Not at all. The past three years of my life have involved ... a lot of traveling. [ And it can be great in some ways - because there's still a part of Elena, for all of her determination to be normal and live a normal life, that longs for adventure, for that little hint of danger, for something and somewhere more than this provincial town.

Then another part means she gets lost every time she loses her North. She feels very lost, but she has not lost her resolve. ]

[impetere]

[Her head tips a bit, because she has a feeling her "traveling" is different than Cora's "traveling" - because she and Derek were traveling, they just didn't intend to travel here - but she's not going to pick at semantics.]

Must be interesting.

[resuming]

It can be. [ Elena would be lying if she said it didn't have its positives. ] But at some point, you kind of ... want somewhere you can stay for good, if that makes sense.

[ A place you won't be uprooted from at any moment's notice. A place where you don't have to worry about blinking and missing the moment where your loved ones are gone. You can't live that way - constantly worrying about those moments, so Elena doesn't, but they happen. Permanence is never guaranteed. ]

[impetere]

It does.

[Cora hasn't had that feeling of permanence since before her mother died, before the fire. She thought she was going to always be in Beacon Hills back then, and then her home got ripped out from under her.

Now, so long as she has something she can latch on to, she's fine. She has Derek, and they are whatever they are, but so long as he's on the boat, Cora won't push back too much. She can't stop her curiosity, though. Can't stop wondering what exactly it is that makes the boat tick, and if it's really worth trying to find out.]

You want a home.

[She wants one too. She's just found hers with people rather than a place.]

[resuming]

[ Elena looks up abruptly at Cora, her expression softening a bit with surprise, along several other emotions.

She hadn't put it to words herself, but Cora's perceptiveness did it for her. She smiles a bit, bittersweet and longing. Elena has always found her home with people rather than a place, too. But the thing about constant traveling is that the places between universes act as a revolving door.

People come and they go. She won't have Caroline and Bonnie when she is sent back to Teleios. She hasn't seen Jeremy in a very long time now. Mystic Falls feels like a story to her, something that happened in another lifetime and another world, but the people there will always be her family.

And the thing is, no matter how much she loses and how deeply she misses everything she's ever had to let go of, Elena never really stops making those connections. She relies on them too much. Her humanity relies on them too much. Even when it hurts like hell the day they're gone. ]

Yeah, I guess I do. [ She wants a place where she feels she belongs again, with the people she loves. She wants them safe and she wants them happy, even if it's a pipe dream. A small, thoughtful pause follows. ] Doesn't everyone?

[ Well. Most of everyone. ]

[impetere]

[She nods a bit, her fingers scritching the puppy behind the ears for a moment, before nodding.]

I think they do. Some just ... don't think they can.

[Not without the risk of the universe coming to destroy it just to spite them.]

[resuming]

Or they don't think they deserve one. [ Which can be just as tragic, in its own way. ]

[impetere]

[That's another problem the Hales have. Deserving their home. She's pretty sure that if anyone ever told her that Derek was living out of the burned out wreckage of what their home used to be, she wouldn't have been surprised. Whether he was stewing in his guilt or just felt he didn't deserve it after losing their family and then being unable to protect Laura too, Cora didn't know but she hasn't had a home in such a long time.

It wasn't for lack of trying. More like the lack of the proper materials.]

Is it wrong for me to think that some people don't?

[Kate Argent doesn't deserve to go home to her family after destroying someone else's. Then again Kate Argent's dead, so that's not something she really needs to worry about.]

[resuming]

[ Elena pulls in a slow breath. They don't ask easy questions, do they? ]

I think... your feelings are your own, and you likely have a reason to feel that way. I wouldn't want to call them wrong. [ She does want to understand, however. Elena tries not to judge people too harshly, and she doesn't know Cora's life story. ] Why do you think they don't? [ deserve a home, that is. ]

[impetere]

[She's quiet for a moment, eyes on the dog in front of her. Opening up is hard, though she'll admit that Elena made it a little easier than most do. (She must have one of those faces.) All the same, it takes her a significant pause before she manages to get the words out.]

Because they destroyed mine.

[Granted, most of the ones responsible for that are dead (the only thing she will ever thank Peter for), but that doesn't mean it stops hurting any less.]

[resuming]

[ If there is anything Elena has in spades, it's compassion. She feels the way it crowds her chest the moment Cora answers her, her expression shifting accordingly. She's lost family of her own; she knows the scars it leaves behind, scars that never fully heal. Even if she didn't, she would still be sorry Cora has experienced something so terrible. ]

I'm not sure people that deliberately destroy other people's homes are capable of having one. Or, capable of holding on to them. They don't always know what love really is. [ Some people just get in their own way like that. (She thinks of Klaus, and the coffins he keeps his siblings in. Thinks of how he pushes them away each and every time he tries to wrench them closer to his side by force.) ]