Reality Crisis

It'd become a strange sort of routine to sit on the floor against the wall her studio flat shared with Aidan's one-bedroom next door. Months ago, the rattling of the wall would tell her that he was in, and that he was struggling. Now, it was always quiet -- all the better for her to wrestle with the question she still couldn't answer for herself: Why hadn't she called Peter in the wilds? What was it that kept her from making reasonable decisions? And how could she avoid such foolishness in the future?

Peter was an ever-present force in her head, now, but he was letting her work this question out for herself. When she nudged a thought or perspective his way, he seemed to make only the mildest of judgments on it -- as if he knew something, but wanted her to work it out for herself. It was maddening.

When the shaking started, her heart leaped -- not out of fear, but out of a wholly irrational excitement. She knew Aidan wasn't in the next room, but for the first moment, she imagined...

And the second second, she was getting to her feet. Earthquake? It must be. Her duffel bag from her journey had been re-packed one night after she returned from finding Aidan. In it were supplies she'd found useful. Now, her thought was to add a few more pieces of clothing that would serve as makeshift bandages or just extra warmth for someone who needed it. She grabbed another pair of shoes - well-worn sandals - and threw them in before another hard shaking knocked her sprawling across her bed.

Without thinking about it, she knew that Peter was occupied at the hospital -- but wordless urging pushed her up again. He wanted her out, he wanted her safe. Evey wanted that too, and her mouth went twistingly wry as she lurched against the wall and used it for support. The front door was surprisingly far away. She'd made it to the couch just as a familiar person walked right through the wall beside her front door.

"What th--!" Another hard tremor sent her careening against the couch she'd just passed. This was ridiculous!

Since his meeting with Eric, Damon had actually taken to searching for a way out. Maybe not for himself to use, but he had little to do in this place at times, and finding a way to perhaps help Eric was something that he could do. What waited for him back home was spending time watching Elena and Stefan being happy and together, and here at least he had his own chance to be happy with Enigma. Things were definitely much better between them since they had admitted their feelings for one another.

He heard the squawk of a crow and his lips curled into a smirk when the crow landed on a nearby tree branch. Perhaps this was his opportunity to reclaim the crow he had once been able to control. He looked into the crows eyes for a moment and then his smirk grew wider as the crow fluttered over and landed on his shoulder. He missed using his old vampire tricks, like controlling the crow, and making fog. As the thought went through his head fog started to descend around him in the forest.

Warning: Adult/sexy situations

( Morning After )

Natasha was back to putting her ear to the ground and seeing what she could learn. She still hadn't decided how to feel about the leadership over in New Troy or the arrangements with the citizens there. More importantly, she wasn't sure how to react.

She didn't like that she was working without direction, and without a clear way forward. Everything in this world was complex and nuanced. She was good at nuances, but she was still learning her way around it all. This perplexed her, not that she would let it show outwardly. It just mean that she spent that much more time and energy trying to find out what she could, trying to get a read on the people here. The locals were the best resource. They might not be in the inner circle, but their perception of how things were would speak volumes. Especially if the perception didn't match with the reality that she knew to be true.

Yet again, the redheaded spy looked to one of the taverns in die Festung for intel. She sat toward the back of the bar, blending in as much as she could and simply listening and observing.

The house Lara lived in was a rather nice one close to Belia's. Of course his dear sister would have to make sure she was set up in style but since he was currently trying to duck meeting Belia Thomas was being very cautious about being this close to where she lived.

It been a shock to find out his sister was here as well when Harry told him. Thomas was beginning to wonder if there would ever be a time in his life where he didn't feel pulled between loyalties and siblings. And this time Justine wasn't here with him. That cut deeply and he'd have to hide how bad it was to make sure Lara didn't take advantage of it.

It was better to take the initiative and see her now instead of waiting for her to inevitably run across him at some point. Sort of like just manning up and taking the nasty tasting medicine quickly instead of sitting around dreading it for hours.

That meant after a quick smoothing of his hair with his fingers Thomas presented himself to the door of his sister's house.

Aidan had wandered back to die Festung from New Troy and his very strange encounter with the vampires there. He'd not yet met Eric, but he doubted Pam would continue to live for very long without it happening. She would hunt him down, he was sure, if he didn't go back himself.

There was another matter that he had to look into, too. Namely, the guy that had been there after the library started burning down. The guy who had felt familiar, but not. He'd known about other vampire types before, Fred had told him as much. And now that he'd talked to Pam and John, he knew more details of how different they could be. He wanted to find Thomas and see what was up there.

Of course, he also really needed to eat. All the talk that had gone on in New Troy about feeding had left him wanting to very very badly.

Intending to head home and grab a bag of blood, then go back out into the city and try to find Thomas, Aidan headed in the direction of his apartment. He also wanted to see Evey, but he wasn't sure if he should do that before or after he ate. Or before or after Thomas.

(Takes place right after the library demon)

So, his brother wasn't dead.

That was probably the biggest factor in things right now in Thomas' mind. Harry was alive and most definitely not dead. And his brother was with Murphy. About fucking time.

Of course the second biggest factor was Thomas was stuck in some other world in the middle of an apocalypse...okay actually not all that different from living in Chicago right now...and no one knew if there was ever going to be any way back. Justine wasn't here. That was a fact that kept passing through his mind like a lyric from one of those songs you can't get out of your head. He wasn't going to bring her up though.

The city they took him back to had definitely seen better days but there were people here. Some of them were tired and desperate which called to the Hunger as he passed them but he was still able to ignore those demands for now. The control wouldn't last forever and Thomas would need to learn how to hunt in his new surroundings without causing a mob with pitchforks and torches to become his new best friend.

"I don't suppose the rustic world of the apocalypse has hot showers?" Thomas flopped into a chair once they reached his brother's apartment. He was ignoring the fact that Mouse was giving him that doggy look of surprise when Harry let them through his wards. Thomas was about at the end of being in a good mood for all the surprises, the crazy demon fight and having half of his hair caught on fire.

Fred stared at the library as she stood before it. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want these people who were definitely doing the hero thing to be here. She didn't want any of this. The story she'd written down wasn't very good; she didn't really have much to hide. She'd never had much to hide.

The door was still slightly ajar from before; maybe it was a little wider; maybe it was wider. Her lips thinned as she imagined that more bodies were now piled up just inside. That they'd left the door open for more victims. Her arms tightened on the book she held close.

Maybe if she turned around, told them it was a joke, or said that she'd go in alone. Then, she knew it would never work. There were too many Champions along for the ride. None of them would just walk away, would they? She was going to get them killed, or worse. Fred was rather certain there was worse than death; actually, she'd seen worse than death.

"Libraries always cause trouble." She didn't really believe that, but she was getting a little tired of getting into fixes when she went into libraries, official libraries. Angel's didn't count, even if it did have some really interesting books, scrolls, and files.