Author's note: I'm just floored at the lovely responses the last chapter's gotten! I'm so glad that Emma's a hit. :D YAY! I love Emma, too!
I think I know what Damon's raven and crow are going to be named – I think.
I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated. Timey Wimey was on a bit of a roller-coaster, and I wanted to leave it at a relatively peaceful place. It's nearing the end of its current arc (and finally has a chapter that didn't end on a massive cliffhanger :D), so this gave me the chance to give this story some well-deserved love!
I also wanted to finish A Midsummer Night's Dream in Mystic Falls by the end of the summer (the autumnal equinox) – and I did! YAY! :D
This story's next on my list to wrap up.
When they got back to their hotel room, still giddy over the terror inspired by their prank on the unsuspecting, Elena let Emma and Damon's thus far unnamed crow into the room through the open window, immediately cooing at her beloved bird.
Emma and Crow, as Elena resolved to call him for the time being, stood together on the small table in the room, watching the two humanoids curiously.
"What are you going to name him?" Elena asked, stepping forward to stroke Emma's soft feathers.
"I'm not sure yet," Damon shrugged, cocking his head to the side to study his new avian. "I'll figure it out when I get his buddy, the raven. I'll name them together."
"You want to assess their personalities first?" she guessed, beckoning Emma to hop onto her shoulder.
"Something like that. I want to see how they fit together, and then the names will jump out at me."
"Like 'Emma' did with me!" she beamed, then frowned when he saw Crow standing all alone. "Why aren't you being affectionate with him? I think he feels left out," Elena pouted, reaching for Crow, who immediately backed away from this strange humanoid who wasn't his.
"He knows how I feel, Elena," Damon replied with an affectionate roll of his cerulean eyes. "He can feel it through the familiar bond, just like Emma feels yours. I don't have to kiss him every two seconds to prove it."
"I don't think he likes me much," Elena observed with a pronounced pout.
"He doesn't know you. A familiar can't bond with two vampires – or witches, also, I guess – at once. He feels me through our bond, but not you. To him, you're just some strange, devastatingly sexy vampire," he grinned, moving to wrap Elena in his arms, much to Emma's chagrined caw at having her perch moved and disturbed so.
Elena smiled wickedly, pulling Damon closer while communicating to Emma that she should join Crow. "What about Killian?"
"Killian who? Murphy? Brennan? Clarke?" he asked, raising both eyebrows. "You're going to have to be more specific," he pretended to chide, then exaggerated a moment of clarity – an outright epiphany. "Oh! You mean that pirate with the guyliner from that show you and Witchy think you're so clever about secretly watching."
"What!?" Elena blushed, aghast at being so transparent and about not hiding her secret pleasure nearly well enough from her boyfriend, whose entire raison d'être sometimes seemed to be to make fun of everyone. "No!" she cried with the most unconvincing emphasis ever, then narrowed her eyebrows in contemplation, trying to think her way out of this little trap he laid.
"Do you think it would be an improper use of a familiar to have him harass a guy in my philosophy class?" she asked quickly, desperate to change the subject.
Damon's eyes widened somehow both sincerely and sardonically. "Are you seriously asking me if it's okay to have your familiar antagonize someone?"
Elena's eyes, however, narrowed. "I thought you said familiars couldn't do that – and that they're free birds."
Damon smirked. "They can't. It's up to Emma."
Elena kept her eyes narrowed, vowing to up her game the second they returned to Mystic Falls. She'd make him confess that he made his familiar follow her around yet.
"It's Brannigan Hobbes" she pouted. "I told you about him before. He always deliberately misunderstands the text in some completely idiotic way that I'm sure he thinks is clever, except that it makes no sense whatsoever, and he always talks over me. And interrupts me. I can never get a word in edgewise during the class discussions because he just completely dominates them with his loud, stupid, booming voice," she complained, crossing her arms petulantly.
Damon smirked in amusement. "So, eat him," he shrugged, then his grin widened at Elena's annoyed look. "Or just compel him to stop being such an annoying windbag douche. Are you a vampire, or aren't you? Or at least compel your prof to do their job and shut him up."
"I tried," she quietly admitted, feeling a bit hypocritical for occasionally insisting that compulsion shouldn't be use recklessly to play with people's lives – but this was for a good cause, she insisted to herself, because Brannigan really was an annoying douche, as Damon said – and a windbag – the windbagiest. "I think he's on vervain. Him and his fake glasses that he doesn't actually need but wears for the 'aesthetic,'" she added, using air quotes, her voice growing increasingly irritated, much to Damon's amusement, considering that their lives usually feature much more serious problems than condescending classmates, "you know, to look smarter than he actually is.
"So, he's an annoying windbag hipster douche, then," Damon amended, then grinned. "Want me to kill him?" Damon asked in a way that may have sounded like he's kidding, if one were to be generous in their interpretation.
"No," she laughed. "It's fine. I'll figure it out."
"What's he 'misinterpreting' this time, anyway?" he asked and sat on the bed, finally calling his familiar over to perch on his shoulder, letting the crow walk along it to nuzzle his face.
"We're reading 'Nicomachean Ethics,' by Aristotle. It's about –" she began.
"I know what 'Nicomachean Ethics' is about, Elena," Damon smirked. "You're forgetting about my snotty upbringing. All the Founding Families back in the day fancied themselves nobility," he rolled his eyes. "Not that much has changed," he added with an annoyed groan as an afterthought. He really hated the Founding Families and all their shallow, performative pomposity.
Bonnie, Jeremy, and poltergeist Katherine all stood in front of the Boarding House, with varying degrees of discomfort expressed on their respective faces. Bonnie definitely looked the most determined of them all, having by far the most experience with magic of the three. Jeremy looked skeptical, especially since Katherine reached into his messenger back to try to pull out – and presumably destroy – his sketchbook no less than ten times within the last hour.
And Katherine – Katherine just looked defeated.
"So, what do you need me to do?" the former vampire asked, seemingly resigned to her fate.
"We're going to test your new 'abilities,' for lack of a better term. In the meantime, I sent a text to Caroline to invite her over – we need to check if anyone other than Jeremy and me can see you," Bonnie informed, doing her absolute best to keep a level head, though it was becoming increasingly impossible. Aside from being back from the dead – quite literally – her mind was reeling with the harrowing danger facing one of her best friends, as well as that vampire … Not to mention this new development, she thought bitterly, hoping her side-eye to Katherine wasn't entirely noticeable.
It turned out that it was, because Katherine had gotten into a very vital habit of noticing even the slightest shifts in her physical surroundings over the last 500 years – being continuously hunted by a murderous Original Hybrid had a tendency to come with that consequence.
"Oh my God, what is she doing here?" Caroline huffed petulantly, the second she blurred onto the grounds like a hurricane, completely disrupting the energy and glaring at Katherine – but in the next instant, her arms were around Bonnie, firm as a fashionable, accessory-donning vice could be. "And you! Where have you been all summer?" she demanded, her voice becoming shriller with increasing excitement. "Elena and I have been worried sick!"
"Care, I –" Bonnie began, struggling to breathe.
"No! Bonnie Bennett," Caroline pulled back, interrupting her. "I don't want excuses! I want to hear everything! Tell me about your trip! Was it fun? Who did you meet? Were they hot?" she giggled.
"I was actually –" Bonnie attempted again.
"Did you know that they actually assigned us a roommate?" Caroline continued, completely unaffected by Bonnie's attempts to answer her question. "She died under some very suspicious circumstances, that Elena and I are investigating," she frowned. "But I'm sure we can compel you in now that there's an opening!" she winced, trying and failing to deliver the news in a way that was sensitive. Some habits were hard to shake.
"Making full use of vampiric super-lungs, I see," Katherine remarked drolly, for which Bonnie was secretly glad – at least someone had the courage to interrupt Caroline.
"Excuse me!?" Caroline shot back. "Is there a walking Fashion Don't dressed like really Skanky Wednesday Addams trying to talk to me? Because I don't have the time," she added, looking pointedly at Bonnie, as though refusing to acknowledge the former vampire. "Did you say the parlor got trashed by some undead trash, Bonnie?" Caroline asked, very loudly. "If so, we need to clean it before Damon pulls another, well – him – and spirals because someone spilled his precious bourbon collection."
"Actually," Bonnie winced apologetically. "Do you think you and Jer can take care of that? Katherine and I have some business we need to attend, and it's pretty important."
Caroline looked at Bonnie skeptically, then shot a cold glance at Katherine. "Are you sure you'll be okay."
"Positive, Care," Bonnie replied warmly, though with utmost steel and confidence. "She can't hurt me – couldn't even if she tried."
"I guess that answers the question of whether or not anyone else can see you," Bonnie surmised aloud.
"Is becoming Captain Obvious a side effect of returning from the dead? Because it's one I'd like to avoid," Katherine snarked unpleasantly, still the height of saltiness at actually being used as a sacrifice having been on the run for the bulk of her life precisely because she chose to avoid that fate.
And now it was done for Bonnie Bennett, of all people.
"You're worried about Stefan," Bonnie replied sympathetically, ignoring Katherine's sharp tongue.
"My theory still stands," Katherine replied, taking a seat on the courtyard's soft grass with a pronounced exhale. A part of her wondered how she could still feel such a sharp wave of anxiety when she was technically dead – no longer corporeal – except for those rare, few, almost painful seconds when she managed to wrap her fingers around a treasured item in hopes of causing some damage, letting her thus far annoying interlocuters feel even a measure of the turmoil consuming her soul.
She was dead, and Stefan was missing. Where was the urgency?
"Why are we not looking for Stefan?" Katherine asked, for definitely not the first time that day.
"Because your new status is erratic, and we have no idea what will happen when we try. You could be a danger to yourself and everyone around you, so we need to learn more first – or we could hurt Stefan as soon as we find him," Bonnie explained. "We'll let Care and Jeremy take care of looking for Stefan in the meantime, while you and I take a trip back to the witch house to get to the bottom of what's going on. Okay?"
"Just as soon as they're done cleaning?" Katherine snarked.
"Care's the biggest stress cleaner I've ever met," Bonnie smirked. "And a vampire with super-speed. They'll be done within the hour, tops. And the last thing we need is a cranky Damon – because someone decided to take it upon herself to obliterate half of his bourbon stash – when he and Elena come back into town. I'll let tell them to meet us at the witch house when we're done, and we'll go over the plan."
Katherine saw the logic in her plan, but ostentatiously rolled her eyes regardless. Just because she agreed, to some extent, doesn't mean she was going to be pliable and cooperative.
After all, she was Katherine Pierce – and sacrifice or not, she would not go down quietly into that good night.
If there was one thing Katherine always had an overabundance of, it was attitude. And with that thought, and sneer, and general aggression in Bonnie's direction, she almost felt herself slipping through the ground, immediately alerting her annoyingly intuitive interlocutor of her solid-state-challenged predicament.
"Oh my God!" Bonnie gasped as she noticed the rapidly disappearing form, her eyes shining with epiphany. "Katherine, I think - I think - I have an idea!" she beamed.
"What?" asked a panicked Katherine, desperate to remain atop the Earth. Before she could fully disappear below ground, she was seemingly yanked to Bonnie's side - her tether.
"I think the bond loosens with cooperation - between us," Bonnie explained quickly, her mind calculating, awake, alive. "Tell me more about Silas - tell me about what happened earlier today."
"Okay, well, Silas was wearing Stefan's face," Katherine explained quickly, releaved when she felt the bond loosen slightly. "He said some ... cruel... things to me," she recalled bitterly. "This that Stefan would never say. I knew immediately that he was an imposter, so I had to get out of there."
"Then what happened?" Bonnie asked softly, knowing better than to pry for details. Katherine was nowhere near ready to share them.
"Damon got in my way, and insisted on interrogating me," she ground out. "And I - I might have unleashed on him a bit."
"A bit?" Bonnie narrowed her eyes, recalling Elena mentioning that she and Damon needed an escape because Katherine ripped into his very soul.
"A lot," Katherine said flatly, with a roll of her eyes to cover what she wasn't ready to admit to herself may have been a feeling verging on guilt. "I was reeling. He was annoying - wouldn't leave me alone, and I..." she trailed off, pacing through the lush yard.
"Then what happened?" Bonnie asked impatiently.
"My annoying little bitch of an underserving doppelgänger locked me in the cell, all but signing my death warrant, because the next thing I knew, the face-stealing dick came at me with a knife to my carotid," Katherine spat. "You know the rest."
"Katherine," Bonnie breathed, her eyes wide with wonder and excitement. "You're all the way across the property. The key is cooperation. We have to work together."
Brannigan's existence is inspired by one of my favorite S6 lines. The only hint I'll give is that we'll eventually meet Brannigan – in a movie theater. :D I'm guessing we all know at least one of those douchey douchey jerks. He was named after Zapp Brannigan from Futurama, because of course an egomaniac like Zapp would behave that way in a philosophy class. :D (Sorry for anyone triggered by Brannigan's obnoxiousness. :D And – let's face it – we all know at least one Brannigan type.)
Ever since I learned that there are a bunch of OUAT fans here, I decided to throw in more and more fanservice – first through Emma, then through the mention of Killian. :D
Scarlett2112 started a lovely new AH/AU story called It's Coming Back to Me, depicting an engaged Damon learning that his teenage marriage to Elena was never actually annulled.
Wobalo has an absolutely fascinating AU of S1 called Drowning in Light that wonders what would happen if the comet came 5 years later, allowing us to get to know a slightly older cast of characters. Features a magical pregnancy - a slightly darker Delena story, but beautifully complex.
The super-duper amazing PixilatedDreamer added chapter 2 to her very first TVD story called As You Wish, which is a darkly comedic take on helping S3 Stefan escape Klaus and get his humanity back with the help of an artifact that will only grant one wish, so they use a Therapy Box to try different scenarios to pick the best one.
A Midsummer Night's Dream in Mystic Falls is finally done! YAY! :D That's one less WIP – which means I treated myself to starting a new one. :D
My new WIP is called Eros and Philia, which was inspired by one of the Chambre de Chasse sequences in Midsummer! :D It's an alternate S1 where Anna befriends Elena several months prior to the accident that would take her parents' lives, creating a wave of massive changes due to Elena's comparatively fun and peaceful introduction to vampirism (as opposed to Stefan chasing her around like a lunatic and pressing her into walls; or Damon killing a bunch of people). The story itself is an ode to love in its many forms, but chiefly explores a Damon/Elena romance and an Anna/Elena friendship, while asking the question: what is both necessary and sufficient for love? There's obviously going to be adventure, too, because that's what I'm into! :D (And all that S1 craziness is still happening, but slightly altered.) Mix of angst and playfulness.
Thank you all for being utterly delightful!
Much love, all! :D