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(no subject)

Who: Elena Gilbert
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Yes (on the hospitality deck of the Marsiva)
When: Now

[ Elena wakes with a start, her first thought being that she'd fallen asleep in one of the unused patient rooms. She rubs her arms with her hands, an attempt to chase away the chill and gives the room a good look. This isn't any room in the hospital. She puts her feet on the ground and stands. She's still dressed in the long-sleeved thermal top and blue scrubs she wears at work. She tucks a strand of her dark hair behind one ear.

Once she orients herself and does a little bit of exploring, she heads to one of the screens to browse the network and get a better grasp of this place. After that's done, she makes her own broadcast, giving the video screen a sheepish smile. ]

Hi, I'm Elena Gilbert. I just arrived and I've got no idea what to say here. Am I supposed to tell the class all about myself? I think I used to be good at this. [ She takes a deep breath then releases it. ] Whatever this is. I can honestly say this is my first time on a reality show though.

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[ She's not sure about wild and crazy. She's been pretty busy with school, but she has done a few things. During the summer, she would sometimes meet Bonnie where ever she was in the world and they'd set out on a girl's adventure. She's grown older, and she hopes wiser. She's just begun what she affectionately calls 'real life'

And now she's here. She doesn't understand, doesn't know yet, that this is now her 'real life'. His affirmation about seeing her makes her smile, relax a little. There's a lot she's yet to find out about this place, despite the augmentation in her head, but it feels a little safer, a little more familiar, with Stefan here. It also feels a little surreal as she's accepted his death. She went to his funeral after all and helped Caroline grieve. She's missed him so much, more than she even realized now that she's 'face to face' with him. ] It's really good to see you. [ And her expression is so genuine and so tender the way it's always been. ] Yes. [ Her expression falls a little. ] Do you know when I'll be able to see you?

[ Because he won't be real until she can hold him and feel how real he is. ]

This weekend, unfortunately. [ He grimaces, wishing that he could give her better news. Stefan normally doesn't mind waiting, but now... five whole days feels like a lifetime. ] That's when you'll be assigned to a ship - er, one of the smaller ones around the Marsiva, but you can always transfer to another crew.

[ He can distract her with information, right? Put off the inevitable by helping her acclimate? His expression softens, as he fidgets with his daylight ring out of sheer nerves, ] As soon as you're beamed down, I'll come to you. I promise.

Edited 2017-04-06 22:27 (UTC)

[ That does seem like a very long time. Elena gives an unconscious pout to go along with Stefan's grimace. She sees that grimace though and smiles a little at him. ] Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Isn't that what they say? [ Really, she's hating it as much as he is. She just doesn't want to make it harder on him.

Distraction via information is a good thing. She needs to know these things. Also, the inevitable what, Stefan? She doesn't like when he puts things off and she sees the way he fiddles with the daylight ring, aware of his nerves. ] And suddenly, I'm living in a Star Trek movie. [ She huffs a soft laugh and shakes her head. ] If the med bay doesn't live up to the expectation, I'm going to be upset. [ Teasing, but no, she would and now back to the matter at hand. ] Which ship are you on?

Only to make us feel better, I think.

[ He laughs, relaxing a little. This'll be hard on him, but he knows it'll be harder on her. There's not as much to do, up on that lonely mother ship.

When she mentions the med bay, he holds up a silent finger and turns the camera around. Carefully, he shows off the Paisley's med bay: neatly organized and labeled, with far more medicine than a whole crew could possibly need. Stefan's put a lot of time and effort into this place; there's even photographs on the wall, though they're hard to make out from this angle.

As he flips around the camera again, he grins, ] Somehow, I don't think that'll be a problem. I'm on the Paisley. This? Happens to be my med bay.

Ah. It's one of those things. [ She smiles a little at him. She'll get lonely, and she'll bug him in the middle of the night, or she'll just make lots of friends on the network.

The med bay is impressive and she whistles a little as he gives her the quick tour. Photographs are essential! They spend far too much of their time there for it to be stark and bland.

She's missed that grin. She really has. She can't help but grin back at him. Of course, her grin is traded for surprise when he says it's his med bay. That surprise is obviously pleased surprise. ] Your--you're a doctor?

Kind of. [ He winces. ] See, I only got through two years of medical school before Atroma got me. I've got the pre-clerkship down, but the rotations and stuff never happened.

[ Which sucks. He's caught up, thanks to lessons from other doctors like Jennifer and Beverly, but it's not the same as watching instructors back home. He pauses, noting again how much older she looks and feels. This isn't the Elena he left behind in Mystic Falls. ]

What about you? Did you ever get into medical school?

[ Her brows shoot up and Stefan might recognize that mischievous, smug grin on her face. In the entire time she's known Stefan, he's always been more educated, done more, seen more than she has (it's what happens when your first love is a hundred plus year old vampire. ]

I'll graciously allow you to call me Elena rather than Dr. Gilbert. [ Teasing, of course, but this is fun. However, he did mention that his education had been cut short. He also mentioned an even that she's not aware of, one in which he attended medical school. ]

When did you start medical school? I don't--if you did it in my world, I don't know about it. [but then she had been asleep for some time and when she'd been awoken, there hadn't been a lot of time to talk about things like that, but she'd read all the journal entries that Stefan had written to her (more than once) and he hadn't mentioned medical school in any of them. ]

[ Well then! He blinks back genuine surprise, sitting up a lot straighter and regarding her with new understanding. This is an Elena who not only achieved her dream but also got to live it every single day. That wide-eyed stare melts into a grin, and he can't quite help teasing her back in return: ] I don't know, doc – it's got a nice ring to it.

[ But he's a little nervous about saying anything more in public, so he takes a couple of seconds to encrypt the feed to the best of his ability. ]

I should've made this private earlier but.... I didn't tell you because it hasn't happened yet. You would've been the first to know.

Edited 2017-04-16 03:30 (UTC)

[ The surprise is obvious, but she's not caught off guard by it considering how things go in her world. The teasing is very welcome. She grins and lifts both shoulders in a shrug. ] Well...it's not like I'm going to argue with that.

[ Right. The encryption thing, which she knows how to do instinctively because of the augmentation. That's still weird. His words make her stumble emotionally, and mentally. Her throat closes up because...'it hasn't happened yet'. Stefan will never get a chance to go to medical school back home. She presses her lips together, taking a deep breath and pulling herself together. She finds she doesn't want to tell Stefan about his death, though she supposes she should tell him about his marriage to Caroline, about turning human. ] What year did you start...do you? What year is it...for you? Back...home, I guess.

[ Something must've happened back home. Stefan can't think of any other reason Elena would act this way. It couldn't be related to Damon: she would've said it up front, and last he heard, his brother was stuck in some prison world with Bonnie.

He musters a smile, unsure of how to proceed. She asked for the truth, so – ] June 2018. I started school in 2016.

But uh, I've also been here for almost two years.

[ Okay, so they're definitely working with different timelines here and that's weirder than space and other planets. However, she's grateful for the idea of other timelines. If she ever has to go home, she can comfort herself with the idea that somewhere, somehow Stefan is still alive and doing well. ] Things didn't work out that way back home...in my timeline, I guess. I'm glad they did in yours.

[ She tilts her head, considering what else to say, how much to say. ] You took the cure and married Caroline.

[ So Salvatore's life had ended back home.

This doesn't really surprise Stefan – he furrows his brow at the words she won't say, that things didn't work out so well (they weren't talking about their love story. They're too solemn, too melancholy for that). He's more surprised at it ending so early.

No wonder his memories were so inherently focused on those years in Mystic Falls. They were the last ones Salvatore would ever have.

But taking the cure (how?) and marrying his best friend? As in "you and me, never gonna happen" best friend? ]

Nuh-uh. [ He stares at her, as if he's expecting a punchline that'll never arrive. ] First off, the Cure should've been yours, and second – I'm sorry. I married Caroline?

[ In many ways, it hadn't been a surprise to Elena either. She'd been sad about it, horribly so, but glad that Bonnie had found a way to disentangle their life lines and wake her up before Stefan passed.

No, of course they weren't talking about that, because despite the fact that their love story had ended, they'd remained wonderful friends. There's nothing solemn or melancholy about that.

She hopes they were good years. They'd been good years for her despite some of the horror and sadness that had been there as well.

As in most things, blame Damon for the cure. Elena has little answer for him on the Caroline front. She'd been asleep for much of it. Her brows go up at his nuh-uh then she smiles and shrugs a little. ] I slept through your courtship with Caroline. When I woke up, you were married as for the cure...[She hesitates a moment, drawing it out, enjoying being able to tell him.] I'm a hundred percent human and cure.

[ No way.

He can address his (apparently short-lived) marriage with Caroline later, when he feels like adding kerosene to the flaming trainwreck that is his love life. It's just - she's human? She's completely, totally human?

Stefan exhales, his shoulders deflating as the news sinks in. She's gotten everything she's ever wanted: mortality, a career in the medical field, and probably kids and a white picket fence. Which makes her appearance here that much more heartbreaking.

He rubs his eyes, unable to fight back tears of joy,] Wow. That's - Y'Allah, Elena, that's incredible.

[ . . . ]

Wait. What did you mean by "slept?"

Edited 2017-04-18 23:57 (UTC)

[ She's completely totally human.

His reaction puzzles her and that shows in her face. She leans a bit closer to the screen, his name on her lips. She's not looking at this as heartbreaking; she's looking at this as a new adventure, something she'll be able to share with Caroline and Bonnie one of these days. Of course, it's entirely possible that the reality of her situation hasn't sunk in yet. There are no kids, Stefan and there's no white picket fence. There's just Elena living in the GIlbert house by herself. When he finally speaks, she tilts her head a bit. That exclamation Y'Allah that's not something she'd ever heard him say back home, but this is the second time he's said it in this conversation. Religion isn't something that her parents ever really believed in so she's got no context for what the exclamation means beyond this conversation. ] I hadn't taken the cure yet in your...timeline?

[ She's not even sure that's the right word right now, but it works for their purposes. She takes a deep breath, rubbing at her temples a moment. ] Kai. [Does she really have to say more than that? Yeah, she really does. ]

He attacked me and put me in a coma. He tied my life to Bonnie's so that while she was alive, I would be asleep. It took Bonnie a few years to figure out how to undo the spell.

[ Kai.

The name is unfamiliar but one Stefan memorizes then and there. No one – especially not a magical bastard like this "Kai" – should have succeeded in halting Elena's life. Salvatore wanted her to live. Really, truly live. What had he been doing? What had he done while Kai reenacted a fairy tale? One that Stefan's quickly losing a distaste for?

He doesn't want to turn his back on the screen but he can't think. There's the sound of him slamming his fist off screen.]

Dammit.

[ He forces himself to breathe, maybe regain his composure – ] No, the last thing I remember is - is you declaring your major. When you started volunteering at the hospital.

[ She hears that noise, knows what it is. ] Stefan...[ And yet she doesn't know how to help, or even how he should react. She knows Damon hadn't taken it well and he'd ended up trying to be Damon's rock. Hell, it's possible that he never really had the chance to deal with his own emotions regarding the whole sleeping beauty thing back home because he'd been too busy trying to deal with Damon's. ]

It's okay. Everything...everything worked out. [ In a way. Of course, Stefan had died as a human, but even that seemed to be something he was okay with. She smiles as he recollects that memory.] Until I started volunteering there, I'd always thought I'd be a writer. I think I make a much better doctor, or at least I hope I do.

[ It's funny: Stefan had told everyone that his favorite fairy tale had been Sleeping Beauty. He had dreamed about being the mighty prince who broke the spell with true love's kiss, but when he's confronted with it happening? No, with it having happened and him not remembering?

He suddenly can't find the heart to accept it. Neither Aurora nor Elena deserved that fate. In a flash, he's back on screen, not even bothering to hide the tears he's wiping from his eyes.

Y'Allah. He's gonna need more than a few cups of tea tonight. ]

Yeah. From what little I remember, I know you'll be great. Are great? [ His expression softens, and he lets out a mirthless laugh. ] I'm sorry. I should've done something and instead I - I let Bonnie handle it? What kind of [soulmate] friend does that?

[ Yeah, it kind of ruins the whole fairy tale when it becomes reality. Though, Elena is sure it was harder on everyone else than it was on her. Sure, after she'd woken up she'd been distressed that she'd missed so much of her friends lives, that everyone had had to go to such extremes, but they'd been the ones to really suffer.

No, neither of them deserved it; they'd both been pawns in someone else's game, a piece to manipulate others. Elena's breath catches a little when she sees how hard Stefan is taking it. She knows he probably took it this hard when he'd been living it, but he'd hidden it from everyone (that she knows of); he'd hidden it in the letters he'd written her, the ones she hadn't had a chance to read before he had died.

She may go looking for some sort of whiskey or scotch, something she'd developed a taste for while she was a vampire, something she has Damon to thank for.

She murmurs a thank you, appreciating Stefan's belief in her. She shakes her head a little. ] No. You had other things to deal with. You--you were trying to save Damon, which he's fine now. He's doing well last time I spoke to him. He's Damon, with fewer...outbursts. You'd be proud of him. [ She hesitates, knowing that she'll tell him eventually. ] When it happened...Damon and I were dating. He'd just decided he was going to take the cure to spend his life with me. [ Her brow furrows a little. ] He never did and I don't think it's something he wants now, but we haven't talked about it in years.

[ Babysitting Damon sounds about right. Stefan doesn't entirely remember their childhood, but he knows how much he relied on Damon. Still relies, really.

Somehow, though, he isn't surprised to hear his name and Elena's in the same sentence. His gut feeling had lasts told him that something had happened that fateful summer. But it must've ended badly. The Elena before had called him a "monster," and this one's telling him about how Damon hasn't taken the Cure.

Stefan furrows his brow, unsure what he's really feeling. Hope? A little anger (because he still loves her, every atom in his body still does)? Both? ]

I can't blame him. He always talked about how much he loved immortality – but uh, were you still talking to him at all?

[ Things have ended badly between she and Damon so many times.

The brow furrow doesn't slip past her and she gives him an apologetic sort of look. ] I text him pretty often and talk to him every week or two. Not as often as I talk to Caroline, but more often than I talk to Bonnie, but that has more to do with time zone differences and her cell availability. She's traveling the world. [ She sighs a little. ] We're not together anymore. I--with Damon it was always --[ SHe stops and runs a hand through her hair.] I needed to focus on school, on my residency. We ended things...amicably. We talk. He'll always be a part of my life, but not that part. Not anymore.

[ Good.

Stefan lets out a breath of sheer relief: even if he might've once hated the idea of Elena and Damon dating, he wouldn't ever want them to hate each other. They were far too important to him. Plus, apparently, Salvatore had moved on with the last person Stefan would've expected. Even if Stefan hasn't had a chance to process this, he's trying. It's a lot to take in.

(Now he wonders how Damon must be doing, in a world where neither Stefan nor Elena held the same bonds they did before. He wonders if he should've been there. If he could've died just a little bit later.)

He nods, observing her again and wishing that he could reach across the screen and hold her. Maybe reassure her that he's really there. This certainly isn't a conversation he wanted to have over the comms. ]

I'm sorry. That must've been a hard decision for both of you.

[ To Elena's knowledge, Stefan had eventually been okay with she and Damon dating. Caroline and Stefan had been a surprise to everyone, Elena thinks, but in the end they'd both made each other happy (or at least they seemed to) so that's all that mattered. Elena knows it's a lot to take in and maybe she should parse the information out over several conversations, but this is when they're having the conversation so...

Elena worries about him as well, but since Stefan's death...since his sacrifice Damon has actually been doing better. Maybe it's because he knows what Stefan gave up and he doesn't want to disappoint him. Maybe Damon just came into his own. Regardless, Elena likes to think of him doing well. She knows he had plans to meet up with Bonnie somewhere.

Wouldn't that be nice? They could both use that comfort, that reassurance, especially considering Stefan's lack of being there back home. She nods a little. ]

It was, but I think it's the best decision for both of us. Damon and I were all fire and passion without anything that sustains you in between. [ If that makes any sense, and maybe that's not what he wants to hear but...]

[ Truthfully, he can't blame Elena for dating someone new. He vaguely remembers some Liam guy – and well? Stefan's done the same on the Fleet (and in his reincarnated life). He's tried to push forward and see a future without her, and until she had arrived here? It might've actually worked.

He tilts his head thoughtfully, trying to imagine Damon and Elena. He must've seen it back home. He must've, and yet he continues to be greeted by static and white noise. It sounds about right: even as vampires, their priorities had been different. Their entire life philosophies had been different. When they took passion out of the equation, what was left? Nothing, if he's hearing her right.

Fire can rebuild and sustain people, but it can also destroy and consume without a second thought. ]

And you both reached this conclusion? [ his laugh is genuine, if a little disbelieving. This doesn't sound like the Damon he remembers. ] Well, inshallah, I hope that you'll both find the people who sustain you.

[ Before she'd dated Stefan, she'd only ever dated Matt so it was good to expand her romantic horizons. Liam had not turned out well, but that's what your teens and twenties are for, right? Dating the wrong guy, figuring out who the right guy is.

Some days Elena isn't sure what even drew her and Damon to each other. For the longest time, she believed he only saw Katherine when he looked at her and then...she didn't. Now, she can't really list one thing they'd had in common outside of Stefan and that's not something to build a relationship on. ]

Eventually. [ Damon had insisted they could work it out, but they hadn't; they couldn't. They weren't the people they wanted the other one to be. Her brow furrows as he utters another unfamiliar word. ] Stefan...you keep saying things like y'allah and inshallah...words I don't think I've ever heard you say. What do they mean?

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