Day 57: Sun Room

[bodhiandspirit.livejournal.com]

It figured that night would end before Rita and Taura could progress any further. Rita wasn't particularly disappointed to wake up abruptly, as they had reached a dead end. Really, the institute was doing them a favor by bringing them back to the starting point, where they could regroup.

What she didn't appreciate was the loss of valuable time, and the fact that her equipment had been confiscated once again. Rita didn't have time to mess around... which was precisely why the cheery voice broadcast over the intercom only served to grate on her nerves more than usual. In fact... how was the Head Doctor even giving that announcement? She doubted he'd managed to take the institute back in such a short amount of time, though the broadcast itself was suspicious for a number of reasons. Even though she could clearly hear the man's voice, it didn't necessarily mean that he was there. She had to look at things critically.

Still, it seemed almost as if everything had returned to normal... with a few exceptions. The different staff was one, and her lack of possessions was another. It didn't seem like the staff was expecting to fool the patients into thinking this was the same old institute, so why...?

Even as she went about preparing for the day and walking to her first destination, Rita kept her most pressing questions in mind, coming up with multiple hypotheses to explain what was happening. Since she didn't expect that the Chapel would hold anything of interest to her, Rita opted for the Sun Room instead. She was interested in seeing the bulletin board, for one.

When she entered the Sun Room, Rita brought a pen and her journal with her. If no one approached her, she would at least have a chance to document her discoveries from the previous night. First, however, she checked the bulletin board, only to find it completely empty. That confirmed a few suspicions of hers. Content to see evidence supporting her ideas about the strange occurrences, Rita sat down on a couch, opened her journal, and began to write.

[Free!]

Comments

[saviored]

It'd been, what, three days? Since the good doctor had done his rambling over the intercom, so it was only a given that Damon paid attention when the grating cheerfulness suddenly made a return. His eyes slanted in brief confusion before he caught the static and the word visitors.

Right. Of course.

At least this whole charade got him out of those damn uniforms, though these weren't exactly an improvement, either. Still, even before he was out the door, he found details slipping him by. Or maybe slipping wasn't the right word. He noticed. But most of him just didn't care when he was this fucking hungry. It overpowered any desire to think or sort through what the hell was going on. The more his instincts sharpened, the less he cared to analyze.

Was that Claire girl around here somewhere? She could come in handy right about now. Or Rick...which was an idea. He hadn't considered it because he hadn't needed to, but he'd never dismissed it as an option. It was a perfect option. It also implied an edge of desperation that he hadn't wanted to put on display if he could help it—but that was yesterday, and this was today.

He managed to swing by the chapel for a look under the guise of searching for his little brother before turning back for the Sun Room. His escort wasn't happy, but Damon got what he wanted which was the important part. The fountain was there. Obviously it wasn't spouting blood, but at least half of the story was accurate. For tonight, it didn't matter. He had no intention of going out of his way anymore if his proposal didn't go over with Rick. Not that he had any serious doubts that it wouldn't go over. It might not go over well, but if the teacher could stop a new corpse from showing up, he would do it.

When Damon stepped inside the Sun Room, his eyes swept over the couches, the tables, and landed on Elena almost immediately. He made his way over, ignoring everyone else within the vicinity. Her pulse was distracting, but she was the only person here he didn't want to hurt, which...helped.

He slid into view in front of her, where she was leaning against the wall—though for once, he kept a slight distance where he never would've before. "I have to say, I miss the other look. Military chic was cute on you."

[martyrs]

Damon's sudden appearance normally would have caused her to straighten up, maybe suck in a breath, but this time he was... actually giving her some personal space. Which wasn't bad - with anyone else she'd consider that a social skills improvement, but with Damon it was just suspicious. The tilt of her head probably gave away just how quick she noticed, even if she wouldn't let herself mention it right away.

At least not directly.

"Thanks, I think. I can't really say I miss the hats. And everyone seemed so uncomfortable in those." She squinted slightly, which if nothing else just made her curious head-tilt look even curiouser. Should she ask about the space thing? And if she did, would he even give her a direct answer? Probably not.

The number of people trying to get to the bulletin board caught her attention though, and she pushed herself off the wall, looking around for an empty pair of seats.

"We should probably get out of the way." She nodded to the bulletin board, then reached out to grab his wrist, ready to pull him away in case he felt like being a nuisance to those who were about to try and leave a few notes.

The contact made her notice how cold his skin felt, which wasn't exactly status quo for Damon. She knew how it worked - vampires' skin felt warmer after they've fed (or had coffee. or booze.), but if they didn't ..'eat' regularly it caused their skin to cool down a bit. Which, naturally, made Elena worry. It wasn't like Damon to not stay on top of his diet, and she wasn't sure he'd tell her if there was some outside variable making life just that much more difficult for him and Stefan and their particular eating habits. Not that she could really help.

... Well. -- Yeah, no.

"At least now I know you weren't just trying to avoid standing close because I smell weird." Her brow quirked up slightly, though she finally moved, tugging Damon along with her. "C'mon, there's two chairs over here we can steal."

[saviored]

She would notice. Damon gave her questioning head tilt neither confirmation nor contradiction, though, until she reached for his hand. Her skin was even more noticeably warm than usual and being this close meant he could hear her pulse. His eyes flickered, even as he smiled and lifted an eyebrow back at her.

"People only ever smell like one thing to us, Elena." Maybe that was a little too true to pass as just a casual comment right now. No one ever accused him of being excessively appropriate.

Anyway, he was fine. As long as no one decided to slit their wrist in his face, he wasn't about to lose it. Part of it was the hunger itself, but another was even being in this position in the first place. Keeping a regular diet should've been the least of his problems.

He followed her toward the chairs and nudged one closer to the other with his foot before he sat down. He studied Elena for a moment. What did they want from her? And how much did she remember since the last time they spoke? He knew the memories had been coming back regularly, but there was no saying whether they might've slowed or increased or even stopped altogether. He was sure he'd know the second she remembered Jeremy—and if this had been a few months ago, he was equally sure he would've told her without hesitation, whether or not he actually remembered doing it, because it wouldn't have mattered a damn to him. Not really.

But apparently, it mattered now. Perfect. Everything he ever needed and wanted.

"So how fabulous was your night?"

[martyrs]

Elena almost gave him a somewhat snarky reply about how she can't be blamed for her lack of unique scent due to the fact that she wasn't allowed to wear perfume here, but she decided against it, and just gave him a look instead. If Damon was edgy from a lack of blood, she didn't want take the risk of pushing his resolve. Not intentionally anyway. There was a good chance something else in this place would end up annoying the hell out of him, anyway.

She took her seat and decided to pretend she didn't notice the way he was watching her for that brief moment, like he wasn't sure if she might start REMEMBERING THINGS~ at random and freak out on him again like that first morning. Or maybe that was just what she imagined he was thinking. Her fun new brain trick wasn't something she was sensitive or self-conscious about or anything, but she was just waiting for the day she broke down in front of someone she didn't actually know, or worse, a friend she had managed to make here, and scare them off with her buckets of crazy. Although, when she thought about it, the memories really only struck her when she was with people from home. Nobody else triggered it. Which... made sense.

"My night? It was actually pretty okay. I happened to run into a woman named Rose, she ended up being from Mystic Falls too. I remembered her pretty much right away, along with everything that happened in town when she got there." She wondered how much Damon knew, if Rose even told him anything about her stay in their town. Or if Alaric did after finding out Rose was there with them. Most likely. But she wasn't about to bring up how her first impression of Rose was being kidnapped by a guy in a clown mask, then being backhanded across the face when she asked why they needed her. Yeah, no. If he knew, she was sure he wouldn't hesitate to start listing the reasons why Elena needed to never talk to her again.

"I heard you've already met her, though? In, um, Doyleton, I mean." Elena's face screwed up a bit. "Speaking of which - what was that all about? We get to go on field trips now? Weird."

[saviored]

Damon returned her look with one of complete innocence (because when was he not innocent?), but if she had something on her mind, she wasn't saying it.

Tiptoeing. Very Stefan of her. Speaking of, he wondered what he could get out of his brother if he approached him today, with Stefan thinking that he was on the verge of eating the next passing body.

Oh, wait. He already knew.

His eyes shifted in interest at the mention of Rose. He tilted his head. Elena didn't seem particularly concerned about the other vampire, which indicated that a) Rose was not at threat to anyone she cared about and b) that Rose currently didn't want to kill her. It wasn't necessarily good enough, but it was something.

Go figure Elena had wandered off, anyway, too.

He wasn't sure what he wanted to know more: what Elena remembered from Rose, or what Rose told Elena. The latter, though, he could probably guess well enough.

He gestured vaguely with his hand. "We met. She wasn't very into explaining why she came into town in the first place." He frowned at her. "Your memories fill anything in about that?"

As for the town...He'd given it some thought, obviously, but not much thought. There wasn't much to think about. Elena summed it up pretty well: it was weird. The town, the trip, the people. The places that should've been in every town, but weren't in this one, like someone had built it up and missed a few key details. It would've made a hell of a lot more sense if they hadn't seemed so set on keeping up the hospital facade.

"Your guess is as good as mine. The only consistent part about this place is the amount of nothing that adds up."

[martyrs]

Why Rose came into town in the first place. Well. That was a topic she wasn't going to answer completely, that was for sure. The whole kidnapping thing was irrelevant, really, when she thought about it. It was an act of desperation, not any sort of grudge or personal revenge. She wasn't going to completely ruin Rose's chances of being treated fairly by the Salvatores just by mentioning that part of the story, she wouldn't. There was enough information there to cover up the few details she'd be hiding though, so she didn't try to evade the question completely.

"She was looking for Katherine, and the moonstone. As far as I can tell, she got roped into trying to help break the curse by Elijah despite whether she actually wanted it to be broken or not, and that... backfired, and she ended up trying to help us. Something to do with having connections we could use to find Klaus, or at least figure out his plan." She paused then, deciding that was a good point to stop and consider things.

Actually, wait.

"Wait, you- Has Alaric told you about the Sun and the Moon curse?" She sounded distracted when she asked, and that's because she absolutely was. Her memories never came to her in a certain timeline, and once they were there they seemed to be a part of any other memory she already had. Memories that included Stefan, and Damon, like they had experienced them as well. It hadn't ever been a problem before that moment. "Did anything I said make any sense to you?"