station72 | [ OPEN ] Hot Springs Episode!

[ OPEN ] Hot Springs Episode!

CHARACTERS: EVERYONE
WHERE: The Second Flight
WHEN: DAY :022
SUMMARY: The Sauna!
WARNINGS: Nekkid times.

[ A few hours after the murder, she hasn't blown the ship up, and here they are. Another knock knock on everyone's brain: ]

( For those of you that are interested - I have secured us a place at the Sauna. Free for us to be use without interruption from outsiders.

You are to be clean before you come in. )

[ Maybe you're here because she bullied you, maybe you want to soak - maybe you're the poor bastard that is standing guard at the door. Either way, welcome to the Suana, have fun. Or don't. ]

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[Richard might not move from his relaxed sprawl in the pool, but that doesn't mean he isn't paying attention. The shift and play of the other minds in the nest is something he's taking his time observing, learning. And when a sense of attention rises, directed at him, he's already turning his focus to it, its place in the network and what that means.]

You're looking for Seth.

[He says, not even bothering to lift the cloth from his eyes. It's the obvious answer for why she's drifted towards him, the knit of lines between her and his brother that he's come to understand as "brood". Evident enough in the statement: the fact Richard is not him.]

He's around.

[Somewhere. But not here.]

[ Seth. As soon as he says it, she makes the connection, like a light flickering on as understanding dawns. The thread connecting them twists through Seth, tangentially linking them together more than they already would be through the Nest, and she... doesn't mind it. Actually, it's kind of nice, and she continues moving closer until she can kneel a few feet away by the edge of the pool. ]

I wasn't looking for Seth, but I'm glad I found you. You're his brother, right?

[It's the glad I found you that catches his interest more than anything, a curl of curiosity, some quiet surprise. Slowly, he picks up the cloth from his face. Lifts his head, straightening up just enough to look at her directly. Young. Pretty. Was this just pleasant manners, or did she have a reason for it?]

Richard.

[Both introduction and confirmation in one.]

[ Seeing his face... is strange. Because of their connection to Seth, she feels like she's known Richard for a long time, but really this is their first meeting. The first time she's ever seen what he looks like. Yet another way the symbiote likes to complicate things for them all. ]

I'm Elena. It's nice to meet you.

[ And she means it, her smile as genuine as her words. Seth is part of her brood, someone she considers family purely from that association, and since Richard actually is Seth's family-- Well, that makes him important to Elena. ]

[The smile's pure. Bright. Richard looks at her and already knows what Seth has to see, shades of Kate in the curves of her cheeks and fall of her hair. And Seth was bonded to this girl, tied close by the creatures in their heads.]

Because he's told you all about me?

[Eyebrows raised, tone a little dry. He knows Seth's unlikely to have said much more than the basic (encompassing) of "brother". But Richard's never been great with the back and forth of small talk, even if he already doubts nice to meet you comes out of Elena's mouth as hollowly as it might others.]

[ The smile shifts into a frown at that tone, the pieces coming together to remind her all too well of another set of brothers in her life. Damon and Stefan, who would risk their lives for each other, stand by the other through thick and thin, but didn't always quite get along. Is that how Seth and Richard operate as well? ]

No, because you're his brother, and you're important to him. That makes you important to me too.

[ It's said with a matter-of-fact air, as if there's no arguing with her words because they just are. ]

[She says it so seriously. He watches her, all of his attention focussed, but there isn't a skip or a flicker in her. She can't know what it means, important, between him and Seth. That he doesn't bother sticking on. What's interesting is that she's so immediately open to declare it, for Richard, for Seth. Two men she definitely didn't know.

Which meant she was leaning into something else.]

Did you think like that when you first got here, Elena?

["Here" not meaning the planet. "Here" being awake and with an alien in her head.]

[ An odd question to ask, one that requires her to look deeper into herself and really think about the answer. He's trying to figure her out, she's seen this sort of reaction from others before, but she doesn't shy away from his question. When she answers after a moment, it's just as honest as everything else she's said. ]

Yes, actually. I might not have immediately cared this much about Seth, but you-- When I care about someone, that extends to the people they care about.

[ It's one of many of her traits that have frustrated people over the years, especially when that care has made things more complicated or gotten them into trouble. But she could no sooner stop caring about those people than she could stop being a vampire. ]

I once had someone tell me my compassion is a gift. I try to embrace it.

[It sounds like a quick way to end up caring about a lot of people. More people than one girl should care about. There had to be a limit, Richard knows. His world might have always been limited to a tiny few, but even Kate had reached a line, in the end.]

It doesn't bother you. That it might not be your compassion.

[ Elena thinks over that too, trying to pick apart her emotions Ann's separate out the wary she feels about the symbiote from everything else. After a moment, she shrugs. ]

I've been adjusting to so many weird new things lately, it's just another one on the list. Maybe I would be more bothered by it if I'd gotten to do the vampire and host thing separately, but it's all kind of just become one big blur of things I can't change and just have to learn to deal with.

[She shrugs it off so easily. As if it were that simple. Richard has to wonder if she's even tried to look at it, this network they're all tied into now. How vast it was, how full. Seth had been the opposite, pulling away as hard he could as soon as he even brushed understanding. But then there had to be these, the ones who fell somewhere between. Quietly accepting, no idea of the true value of what they were part of now, and yet still finding their own in it.

Maybe he could admire that, if he let himself. But right in this moment, he doesn't want to.]

You remind me of someone. Someone we both knew.

[Clear enough, that she has to remind Seth of the same. Though Kate wouldn't have been so devoid of questions. Definitely wouldn't have fallen in with any of those groupie club kids who got high on gothic interiors and drank blood from tiny cuts made with sterilised razorblades, calling themselves "vampires". Richard can skip that, though the judgement's already there.]

When she died she told me there wasn't any love left. She'd given it all. [The words are plain, even as something in him stirs with the hurt of that memory. He hadn't even told Seth what Kate had said. And she was alive now, besides.] Something you might want to keep in mind, before you start caring too much about too many strangers.

[And drags Seth down with her, all over again.]

[ If and when Elena finds out what he thinks her interpretation of vampires is, she's going to find it both hilarious and appalling. That image is the exact opposite of who she's always been, before and after the accident, and even now she'd rather be out drinking in the sunlight rather than hiding in dark drafty corners. And she hates wearing black, thank you very much; it reminds her too much of the seemingly neverending string of funerals in her life.

Frowning at Richard, her expression clearly states that she can't even comprehend that idea. It might be a viable option for others, but for her-- ]

Love is all I have left. Without it, I'll just be another monster.

[ She believes it, plain and simple, no room for negation. Her compassion is a gift. That's what Elijah had told her, and it's her compassion that's keeping her whole as she struggles to stay above water. It would be so easy to stop caring, to let go and give in to those base urges. But the second she does is the moment she becomes less, no better than Katherine. ]

[Monster. Melodramatic, but then, she was young. And what did it really matter? So she hadn't seen what real monsters were - the human kind, let alone the rest. That didn't invalidate her concern about becoming one, just made her bar lower, her line closer. It could still be crossed.

And that was exactly his point.]

So keep hold of it. Or you'll get there sooner than you realise.

[But he can sense she's going to keep trying to fight him on this. Wilfully misunderstanding, denying, refusing to listen. He doesn't have the patience to stick around for it, so he's standing up out of the water, uncaring of his nudity (or perhaps using it) as he climbs smoothly out of the pool, walking away.]

[ Of course she would keep fighting him on it, Elena Gilbert is stubborn when it comes to something she believes in. His trick works like a charm though; one glimpse of all that bare skin and she's turning away with a flare of indignation. ]

It was nice meeting you too!

[ It's called after him with a healthy dose of sarcasm; this is not how she'd thought the conversation would go. What is it with brothers, anyway? And why do they seem to be her lot in life? ]

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[ OPEN ] Hot Springs Episode!

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