deathlessness | entranceway } { ic inbox

Ah. It's that kind of conversation.

"Did I not mention that?" The question is more of a serious one than she would expect. "My apologies - I thought I had mentioned Hope before." She's such a large part of her life back home, she had assumed it would have come up at some point.

"I feel like I'm missing a banquet of sordid details from home," he admits, watching her still. "Time to serve up, Freya. I want all the important highlights." Whatever trials and tribulations, joys and triumphs that his family may have suffered after he was gone-- he wants to know it. Because, at least here and now, he is, here, now, and he feels like he deserves to know.

He doesn't expect her to lay out every detail, of course. That would be too much. But, the big things that might be pertinent enough. That would be enough, for now.

"Fine."

She takes a breath, before going for a drink of her own. She swirls the liquid in her glass for a moment, before knocking it back and getting started.

"First things first ... you don't miss as much as you think you do."

He squints, confused. The words make sense on the surface, but...

"I'm quite certain I have no body to go back to, Freya. It sort of went up in flames when the Gilberts killed me." There are ways to escape an eternity on The Other Side, but he can't think of any way that he may have feasibly accomplished it himself.

"Well, first off, Mother got you a new one." Which is far glibber than it probably should be, but it's the cleanest place to start at least. "She was trying to convince our siblings to give up their immortality and take witch human bodies, and reclaimed French Quarter witches for you, Finn and herself."

Which is a far too simplistic explanation of the situation it feels like. "We didn't meet during that time, but I heard what happened through Finn. While you were in this body, you fell in love with a local witch of considerable power named Davina Clarie. When you died again, she moved heaven and earth to bring you back - this time in your vampire body."

There's so much information in the handful of sentences she decides to throw at him, and Kol is in the midst of an absolute whiplash of emotions with all of it. He lives. He lives! But by his mother's hand, which is arguably not great. Her plan must have fallen to pieces rather quickly. And Finn? There's a barrel of fun he didn't consider having to deal with.

But a witch.

He becomes a witch again, and that is something he can't let go of in all of the processing he's doing right now.

"Well, we Mikaelsons always have known how to keep each other on our toes, yeah?" He shakes his head a bit and tips back the rest of his drink. "Me, in love though?" He squints at the idea. "Can't picture it. She must be one helluva bird."

"Oh, she is. Rather, she was."

Then there's a pause because this is the hard part of the story, but if he wants to know, he's going to know all of it, even if he doesn't like Freya much when they come out the other side. Then again, they've all made their mistakes, and while she doesn't think that she and Kol will ever be whole again back home, they've at least come to a place where he doesn't completely hate her.

"She was killed, shortly after she brought you back. The ancestors of New Orleans had been gunning for her for some time, and they found their opportunity." Through Kol. He doesn't need to know that part. "You and a witch friend of hers, Vincent, brought her to me to try and protect her while they bought time to resurrect her, and at first I agreed. The problem is, we were dealing with another monster that the ancestors had created - a vampire that was stronger than any of the Originals, and produced venom curated from the venom of all seven werewolf lines that was strong enough to kill an Original. Lucien was going to kill Hayley, Hope's mother, and Klaus. There was a means of destroying him, but in order to do so, I needed to channel magic directly from the ancestors."

She isn't sure if he could connect the dots entirely, but it's obvious that she's not proud of any of this. "Davina was our way in. There wasn't enough time and I reacted impulsively. I broke the protection circle and ... she was left to the cruelty of the ancestors. I saved Hayley and Klaus, but she was the cost."

Kol isn't sure what he expected when he asked her for explanations, but this is... admittedly fairly par for the course in the sorts of dealings and troubles that his family ends up involved in. It's a lot, and it's heavy and blood-soaked, but Kol is just hearing a story, he has none of the emotions he might otherwise have attached to it if--no, when--he eventually goes back to live through it all.

"The Ancestors have always been rather opportunistic... Somehow, I'm not surprised." He muses, canting his head to one side. "Venom to kill an Original, though... concerning, to say the least. How did that happen?"

He gets to his feet to refill his glass and he adds, "I can't blame you, I suppose, for that decision. Family above all, yeah?" It's such a clinical, detached response, but it's something that makes inherent, non-negotiable sense to him, and how his family has always operated, it's easy to accept as a fact.

"Yeah. Family first, always."

Though from the way she says it, it makes it seem as though it's not something she's as sure of anymore. Back home, it seems easy to justify - her family is all she has. She doesn't have connections or friendships, much as she may attempt, because in the end, there's always another evil coming, another challenger seeking vengeance for the past crimes of her family. She has to put them first because if she doesn't she may lose them.

Wonderland, however, has forced her to slow down. To reshape her perspective and see that the people she's so willing to discard are still people and while she's still willing to make the hard choices when needed, to do the wet work, but she thinks a bit more on the consequences. It's hard to just kill the problem when there's a chance that the problem won't stay dead.

"But Lucien ... well, it complicated, but essentially he created a spell based on the one our mother created to turn you all, and added a werewolf kicker. He milked all seven of the werewolf bloodlines and created a venom from that, used my blood to jumpstart it, and the regent of New Orleans to cast it in Mystic Falls - against his will, I might add. It was almost as though the ancestors were possessing him."

"Will we ever be rid of that woman?" he practically growls, going back to his seat. He isn't sipping from his glass, it's more of a prop than anything else for the time being. Something to do with his hands as he tries to work his way through everything his sister has unpacked so far.

"Who was the Regent, anyway?" Probably not anyone he'd known, but worth the ask anyway.

Edited 2019-01-28 19:01 (UTC)

"Of course not. Without her, we wouldn't exist." For good and for ill. Without Esther, all seven of them would have never been born into this world, to make their decisions and mistakes. But without Esther, they wouldn't have had the power to ruin the world either.

It's a delicate balance, but Freya is quite comfortable with her decision to keep hating her mother. But she can also see how much she is like her at the same time, and it's not something she's managed to find peace with quite yet.

"His name is Vincent Griffith. He's one of the Treme witches. He's not fond of our family by any sense of the word, me in particular, but he's a good man. He's never really forgiven me for Davina, nor do I think he should."

He scrunches his face a bit at the idea of it at the idea of it. She may be right, but... that doesn't mean he has to like it.

"Treme coven? Interesting." He'd known a few through the years. Tough bunch, but that made them valuable allies to have, as well. At the mention of the witch's lack of forgiveness toward her, though, Kol can't quite stop the question that tumbles out of his mouth without though, caked in curiosity. "do I?"

She's quiet for a moment, because it's a more complicated question than a simple yes or no. Will he ever trust her, the way he did before? Probably not. Will he ever want to spend more than a few days in her company unless he absolutely has to? Probably not there either. But is he as viscerally angry with her as he was in the few days after she betrayed him and Davina?

No. Not so much.

She pushes up and holds out her hand to him, offering him the chance to see what he's searching for, rather than her having to explain it. "I can show you?"

It's not a long memory, in the grand scheme of things, but it's an important one.

He watches her, and the hesitation in answering says more than words really could, he thinks. And he isn't quite sure how to feel about that. This sister he only just got back, and already, in a way, is losing. Or will, at the very least, go back home to lose a piece of eventually.

He sets the drink in his hand aside and takes her hands, and her memory. It's short, maybe a minute or two's worth of conversation, but it speaks volumes to where they stand with each other. "I see." Quite literally. His voice is quiet, contemplative, but he doesn't seem to be judging her for anything in that memory, either.

"Strange... seeing some shadow of a person I might become some day." He admits. The man in the memory, well, he didn't even sound like the version of him standing in front of her now.

"The future is a funny thing." She's been offered glimpses of her future in the past - she was behind Klaus once, and the things he told her had been things she thought she could distance herself from, prepare for, at least until she went home and lived it for herself.

And then went home again to watch Elijah die in front of her.

"I'm sure Wonderland will give you the chance to experience it eventually. It tends to like forcing us forward into the future at times."

"I suppose you're right," he muses with a slight nod. "It does seem rather fond of messing with us, in every way it can."

"Indeed it is," she sighs, before shaking her head. "But I suppose it could be worse." Despite the fact that an event is literally around every corner, it seems like it's at less of a break-neck pace and far less personal than it is in their own world. "We could be stuck here with our parents."

He pulls a face at the idea of it. "Shut up, Freya. It might hear you and take it as a suggestion!" There's the bratty little brother everyone loves making the proper appearance.

She laughs, because she's well aware she's the only Mikaelson who actually wants to see Mikael again, most because she's the only child he actually still loves, but that's not important. It's just nice to see Kol acting more like himself again.

"There's probably more I should tell you, but I think I dropped enough bombs on you for one night. Unless you want to know more?"

"Well, you're the one with the future knowledge... d'you think there's anything else particularly pressing just yet that I'd need made aware of?" He asks with a sort of half-expectant look on his face. Because, well, he will always want more, but expecting her to recount the entire multiple years' worth of insanity they go through is a bit ridiculous, and important highlights are good. "Though, I suppose there are plenty more days to discuss more coming."

At least he can pocket the knowledge that his journey is not yet actually over. He does have something else waiting for him at home, even if it is a lot of things that he can't quite fathom just yet. Having a life after his (second, technically) death to look toward is a relief all its own.

Edited 2019-01-29 18:48 (UTC)

She isn't sure if she wants to get into all of it right now, but she reaches for her drink again, swirling what's left before she finally gets out: "Be careful, should Marcel show up." He hasn't yet, but that doesn't preclude the fact that he might, one day. "He's another one who's never forgiven me or Elijah for Davina, and he's not as harmless as he used to be."

Not that Marcel was ever truly harmless in the first place. Family is a thing that can wound just as easily as it can heal. But being an evolved vampire is certainly quite different than your average, every day vampire.

"There's a chance he could show up here and be a friend. At the same time, there's an equally high chance he may not."

"Marcel?" He echoes, shaking his head slightly. "Now that's someone I haven't thought of in years." They'd never exactly been on the level with each other, as it were. "Sounds like the future is full of a whole lot of the past." He muses, a mixed expression on his face, something half-amused, half-exasperated about it all already.

"Always is, unfortunately." There's a pause, then an amused look crosses her face. "You know, where things are at home now, I think this may be the first time in a long time that it's not the demons of one of our brothers coming to roost and causing our problems."

When she first awoke in New Orleans, the problems were Finn, Esther and Dahlia. Next came Lucien, Aurora and Tristan, followed by Marcel rightfully lashing out at them. In a way, the Hollow is refreshing. They get to be the wronged party for a change, rather than the one who wronged.

"We might have an odd view of what's refreshing in terms of horrors faced." He chuckles lightly, grabbing his drink from the table and finishing it off.

She grins before shrugging. "It's easier to effectively plot against something when it doesn't feel quite so personal." Her head is clearer and there aren't the emotion of betrayal and desperation in the mix quite so much. "It's probably why I'm ... content in Wonderland, as well. As messy as the events can be, it's not ... personal."

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