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Tweak says, "Sacrifice everything..."

𝒌𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒂 (

fivecenturies) wrote in

valloic,
@ 2021-03-03 11:11:00

WHO: Katherine & Eleanor
WHAT: Discussing how they died over margaritas
WHERE: A reputable bar in Vallo City, Katherine has some class okay
WHEN: Let's just go with recently
WARNINGS: Talks of dying, that kind of thing
STATUS: Complete

Having to start somewhere new from almost all scratch was more annoying than daunting, but Katherine prided herself in being able to survive, well - anything. Vallo was mine. Open, mostly welcoming (aside from the ruffled feathers of Mystic Falls natives, not that she could blame them) and actually interesting; urban fantasy living with a streak of technological advancement. Some aspects of home she did miss, of course.

The people, mainly. Jeremy and Elijah, and Cindy - god, she missed that tiny, knocked up blonde. Ironically enough she was here with a tiny blonde though she was sure Eleanor was definitely not knocked up by twins fathered by an alien.

“I have so many questions,” Katherine led with, resting her chin into her palm and oh so dolled up for tonight’s girl’s night. Bouncy hair, smoky eyes that twinkled with mischief and an ensemble of clothes that looked casual but undoubtedly had an expensive price tag. Margaritas were set before them on the bar top they were seated at, flawlessly mixed with a salted glass rim. “So is Vallo your afterlife? Why is Jason the way he is? Start with whichever.”

Wow! Talk about a perfect margarita. Eleanor had to take a moment to admire the drink placed in front of her before taking a sip. Yep, just as perfect tasting. She was already impressed with how the night was going.

"Okay, but then I get to ask you questions about the entire hot vampire thing you got going for you," Eleanor said, as if she needed to bargain to talk about herself. "Let's start with Jason because that's easy. Too many whip-its." She made a what-can-you-do face and offered a slight shrug to go along with that answer.

"And Vallo is my after afterlife? Though you could say my afterlife was also my after afterlife because they kept resetting our memories since we kept figuring out the good place was the bad place. Even Jason worked it out once."

“Deal,” Katherine instantly replied in regards to the hot vampire thing - because, right, turkeys. Her vamp face came on briefly. There wasn’t a reason as to why she couldn’t indulge Eleanor in that little tale later. “Whip-its, though. Makes an alarming amount of sense.”

Jason was aggravating as he was morbidly fascinating. He was a social experiment she could watch all day - a literal walking reality show. “Your afterlife and after afterlife sounds like a shitshow,” she commented after a sip of her cocktail, licking the residue of salt crystals from her lips. “So, what - was it all mind games and just psychological torture or something? I doubt you’re a saint but you don’t look like the type to have slaughtered a village and kidnapped first borns for ritual sacrifice.”

"That's an oddly specific example," Eleanor replied, channeling Chidi. But given the vampire thing she didn't actually want clarification if there was a reason for that particular scenario to have been used.

"So yeah, the good place, that was really the bad place…" She paused briefly to take a drink. "This demon, Michael, got the idea to experiment with psychological torture rather than just physical. So they put four of us in a fake afterlife along with a bunch of demons and told us that we were all in the good place. And then Michael kept talking about my life on earth where I helped all these people as a lawyer that fought the death penalty and went on humans rights missions. Which obviously was not my life," Eleanor scoffed.

"I was far more selfish and a total bitch. Or a total bench because the good place wouldn't let you actually swear. It was all fork this and fork that. Which, fuck that, right? Except I kind of like it now," she admitted with a faintly sheepish smile.

"Anyway we were told we were there with our soulmates and my 'soulmate' was a moral philosophy and ethics professor who had to deal with this hot mess," she said, gesturing to herself. "And Michael told Jason he knew he was a monk who had taken a vow of silence named Jianyu, so he just sat there quietly while his soulmate was Tahani, this absolutely gorgeous giraffe of a woman who needed constant social interaction. So the idea was that we would torture each other. It just didn't really work." And that was something Eleanor was proud of.

"That's the sparknotes version at least."

That was a lot to take in. Her experience with death involved hanging herself, bitter ghosts, getting dragged into a black hole of oblivion and those were memories from that other life. In this one she was murdered during a robbery that kickstarted the transition to vampirism, and that was - well, that More preferable than being trolled by a demon after death, perhaps?

Psychological torture really was a genius way to punish someone after death, though.

“That’s the best summarization of a trainwreck I’ve ever heard,” Katherine mused, dark eyes squinting at her. Eleanor had a way with words - she liked that. Made her fun. “So, wait.” She leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms. “Are you even technically alive right now? You definitely don’t smell dead - and yes, that’s a compliment, you’re welcome.”

"I really don't know," Eleanor replied. "But I will take that compliment, thank you." It was the question, one she had pondered repeatedly upon arriving here. Of course, Marina had offered to stab her to find out, but she had been joking. Probably.

"Anyway, I already told you how I died because of margarita mix, shopping carts, and that Engorgulate billboard truck so that's pretty much the gist of it. Your turn. You're a vampire. Your vamp face is kind of a weird turn on that makes me feel slightly uncomfortable about it, and I need to know how and when and how old you are and do you actually drink blood?"

Turns her on, huh? Well. Katherine was flattered. She laughed, picking her glass up by the stem and gently swirling what was left of her cocktail. “It’s an odd story,” she said, though she supposed any story that involved being turned into a vampire was odd by default. “I’m young, actually - almost twenty four, I turned not even a year ago. I’m from this place where the fabric between realities - I guess? - is very thin. So a lot of us dream these memories of other lives we’ve lived and it’s affected us in this life.”

The OC wasn’t too different from Vallo, aside from everything supernatural and whatnot being hushed. Turns out the rest of the world wasn’t ready to find out that certain myths and creatures were real, couldn’t even grasp the fact that other worlds existed and there were these hot spots around the world where it all bled through. “I have memories of this other version of myself - a vampire running for about five hundred years to dodge a psychopath hybrid that’s out for vengeance, so I started to become one too. Slowly. The transition fully triggered when someone came in to rob my condo and stabbed me to death. I ended up drinking his body dry.”

With that, Katherine finished her margarita with one last gulp. It was a morbid story but, hey - Eleanor asked.

Yeah. Okay. Eleanor followed suit with her own drink and then flagged down the bartender. "Two more please!" Then she turned her attention back to Katherine. "Cooooool. So you just have hundreds of years of memories even though you're younger than I am? Well I guess I'd have those too if they weren't erased. I just have what I've seen on tv and are those really memories?"

That was a tangent and she abandoned it. "Sorry about being stabbed to death. That sucks."

In the absence of a margarita, she propped an elbow on the bar, leaning into it. "So this isn't one of those Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type stories, is it?"

Katherine gave a light shrug. “Yep, that’s right - I didn’t get the memories all at once, it was at least gradual.” It definitely made her brain feel particularly stuffed, and she sometimes had to compartmentalize them to try and keep it all separate, including the emotions that came with it. Rage was a beast that simmered underneath the surface and it wasn’t even technically hers. Just this other Katherine’s, who had become so twisted and bitter that her afterlife was nothing but an abysmal black hole.

“Seeing your life played out on television is a whole other form of trauma that makes me question why you’re still sober. I’ve heard that happens to people back home, too.” Like, finding out their memories were also a source of fiction? Talk about having an existential crisis. Katherine had no interest in looking herself up. Life was fucked enough, she didn’t need to undergo that mess. “But no, this isn’t a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story.”

"Well, I can barely handle my shit, much less someone with five hundred years added on, so good job?" What was the appropriate sentiment for that? It wasn't like Hallmark made cards for that particular situation to act as a guide. "That seems like it could be a lot though."

As to watching her live play out, Eleanor merely shrugged. "I don't know, it wasn't that bad." Nothing like Marina's at least, that was another thing all together. "It's mostly my afterlife? And I was a total selfish bitch before I died, but it's kind of cool knowing that even when they kept resetting my memory it was because I kept growing into a better person? I mean, who studies moral philosophy repeatedly after they die? This girl here."

She laughed, accepting the new margarita that had been placed in front of her and taking a sip before adding, "I'm pretty sure I studied so much moral philosophy in the afterlife that I could teach it now."

Katherine would take the kudos, actually. It had taken a lot to not walk down that same path - to be cruel, conniving, outright murderous. She wasn’t squeaky clean by any means. There was always going to be darkness to her, driven by the animalistic tendency to feed but she actively worked to keep herself in control. Cravings were kept in check, teeth kept to herself. She had a family here. Losing them wasn’t something she’d let happen in this life.

“I mean I’m sure it’s good to know a lot of what you lost,” she mused, gladly picking up her next drink of the night. A shame getting drunk wasn’t as easy as it once was but hey, at least she couldn’t gain the calories from all this sugar. “But it’s a bit fucked to know that people watch what you go through and consider it living room entertainment. Anyway, why don’t you do something with the moral philosophy thing? I’m sure your soulmate would find it insanely sexy if Vallo ever decided to drop him in here - what’s he like?”

"At least I know what's out there and won't be spoiled for my own life now?" Or at least, she'd been spoiled on her own terms. "The entire thing is sort of messed up though." She was thinking less of herself and more of Marina as she said that, because damn that show.

The subject change was welcome, and Eleanor's entire countenance brightened as she talked about her soulmate. "Chidi? Well, he's from Senegal," she began, saying the country's name in an almost flowery tone for no apparent reason. "And he's ridiculously smart, like the smartest person I've ever met. Kind and the best listener, completely indecisive. Like if he were here, he'd still be debating his first drink and wondering if the limes were obtained ethically, so you have to just order for him."

She took a sip of her drink, fighting the urge to consider the ethical ramifications of it. That was the downside of her relationship with Chidi. "Even in reboots when we weren't together, he was my best friend. And you're right," she nodded, tipping her drink toward Katherine. "He would find it sexy if he showed up and I was teaching it or something. But then he'd want that job and I can't imagine the demand is that high."

Another drink, no thought of ethics this time. "Besides, this is another chance at life without that being my focus all the time. I'm kinda digging it." She finished that thought with a grin and turned the conversation back at Katherine. "It didn't take long for your guy to show up."

This Chidi sounded a lot like her Hank, all smarts and always willing to lend an ear - though Eleanor’s beau seemed a tad bit more neurotic than hers. Questioning the ethics of lime retrieval? Honestly. She’d pull her hair out. “He sounds like he’d get along with Hank nicely,” Katherine chuckled at the imagery, picking up that lime wedge perched on the rim of her glass to examine it. Were you treated well? “Hank’s more likely to spout on about wild facts about limes, then start talking about the origin of the margarita. There is something so weirdly sexy about the genius ones, huh?”

She sank her teeth into that lime wedge too, her canines appearing humanly normal; the fangs popped up in the presence of blood, or if she was raging. The sourness didn’t sting her tongue like it used to - vampirism did make the taste buds change a bit, sadly.. “Very lucky it didn’t take him long to show up though, yeah. It would just be myself and Nadia which is fine - but I’m new at the parent thing,” she confessed with a sigh. “Got knocked up in high school, gave her up for adoption, the foster system was shit to her and I was able to get her back is the short version of that story. He’s good with her. Sometimes better than I am.”

Probably because she was riddled with these festering insecurities (considering the Nadia she remembered from Mystic Falls had been killed indirectly by her actions), and Hank was unsurprisingly a natural. He had this authenticity about him that somehow helped him into a fatherly role he accepted so readily for them.

"Right?!" Eleanor questioned. "Definitely never would have thought he'd be my type. I mean dude, is basically a human sweater vest but then ripped underneath. I can't explain it," she offered with a shake of her head. "I miss him, and Tahani. But I do have Jason here."

She smiled at that because Jason was Jason, but she loved him and his crazy antics.

"Yeah, I don't know a thing about parenting," Eleanor said. "Definitely didn't learn anything from mine. But your kid is really cute so that's something. And so is trying, you know? I didn't even get that. It's good you got her back, and that Hank's good with her. And I know I barely know you but it seems you'll do alright."

Giving a shit would go a long way as far as she was concerned.

Ah, Jason. Katherine was happy that she had him, truly - because that was a trainwreck capable of distracting her from missing the soulmate for an entire lifetime. Plus, friendship. That counted too.

“You’re too sweet to me,” she winked, leaning forward so their margarita glasses could clink. Trying was the best she could do anyway, and she hoped that would somehow be enough. “And thanks for coming out with me tonight, by the way. I’m glad to know my vamp face didn’t scare you off.”

Really, Katherine was honored it could be categorized as a weird turn on instead. What a beautiful foundation for a friendship.

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