#I figured there'd be a little animosity

[averseunhinged]

here is another thing that was supposed to be a short and fun exercise in writing scenes with a lot of action, but has instead turned into a four part thing with the last part being the only part i've actually finished. AS USUAL. i am incapable of writing a short one shot.

this is sort of what i wanted the augustine storyline to be. you know. if there'd been an actual budget for the show and candice king had any interest whatsoever in being a stunt-heavy action star. i mostly just wanted to write caroline going undercover as a las vegas exotic dancer, giving klaus a lap dance, and then kicking augustine ass in heels. like tvdu + secret diary of a call girl + alias.

this bit is from the first part, which involves writing five characters in the room and two on video, and that ended up being way harder than i expected.

"There was a disturbance in the Quarter last night," Marcel began, accepting a tumbler of bourbon from Elijah with a nod of thanks, and settling back further into his seat.

Josh snorted.

"Something to add, Josh?"

"That's putting it mildly. People are already talking."

"Are people?" Klaus asked flatly.

"The nightwalkers," Marcel admitted. "There've been rumors coming through the underground, mostly down from New York's sub rosa. It all sounded like a fairy tale. Or an exaggeration, at least."

"Or," Josh cut in quietly, "like a society of people who need to believe there are heroes willing to help them."

He flipped through the file and pulled out a stack of neatly organized files. Davina's animosity toward the Originals was unrelenting, but she was willing enough to have collating parties in the middle of the night, as long as he brought top shelf vodka and some of Cami's good hand-muddled mixers. Josh passed out the files and then brought the video stills up on screen.

There were two figures standing close, heads tilted toward one another. It wasn't a particularly clear shot of the pair, but based on build, they were likely a male and a female, though close to the same height. The woman was slim, but athletic. The man was broad and barrel­-chested. Both wore similar all-black outfits: combat boots for the man and lighter boots with a low heel for the woman. Slim black jeans and motorcycle jackets with raised hoods for both. Amongst the colorful tourist trade in the Quarter, they stood out like ill omens.

“Well, who have we here?” Klaus drawled, draping himself over an armchair with his usual excessive display of hot people privilege. Josh would just look awkward and desperate if he moved like that.

Not that Josh didn’t think he was hot. His self-esteem was fine in that department, but it was more of a boy-next-door adorable than ancient evil smoldering. He could pick up a human guy no problem, but Klaus’s human conquests were either idiots or had an unfortunate, obvious danger kink. The ones with a slightly better life expectancy didn’t want anything to do with him. Josh once watched a blonde sorority girl slumming it at the wrong bar spend twenty uncomfortable minutes trying to extricate herself from a flirty conversation, Klaus absorbing her annoyance like that was what powered him.

Josh would not be surprised.

“No-one knows. They just show up and do good deeds. If your definition of a good deed involves unspeakable violence, I mean."

"Usually does with vampires." Marcel grinned. "There was a group of like-minded ones. Old guys, too. They set up in a warehouse in the Bronx and none of the sub rosa had the power to oust them." He paused, looking down and swirling his bourbon around the glass, his voice tight when he began again. "Sick fucks were taking little girls, not one of them over twelve. The New York vamps wouldn't do a damn thing about it."

Klaus laughed derisively through his nose. "Of course they wouldn’t."

"They are a society with rules, Niklaus," Elijah began before he was rudely interrupted.

"They're worse than the ton, doing nothing and accomplishing less. They're immortal beings and they've shackled themselves."

"It didn't matter either way in the end," Josh took up. "The whole warehouse went up in flames. Witnesses claimed they saw a man and woman in black leading the kids out, but they couldn't remember anything else about them. Not even hair color."

"Witchwork," Klaus spat out, disgusted. The witch problems of the past few years had left him with little patience for them or those who allied with them.

"Probably," Josh admitted with reluctance. "The girls were definitely compelled. Except one was witch-blooded, but in foster care. No known coven of origin. No-one knew until they realized she was the only one who remembered anything."

The men were all silent for a moment.

"I am loath to ask what she remembered," Elijah finally said, stoicism weighed down by reluctance.

"Things no eight-year-old should." Marcel replied, short and hard. "She said the woman was the Angel of Death and she'd come to help them. That she was beautiful and terrible and she made the bad men scream. The sub rosa started calling her Angel after that."

“There’s something else, too. A YouTuber on vacation was filming the street with a pretty high quality camera when the fight broke out. There’s something about the way the man moves. The way he holds himself, maybe? I don’t know. Just…familiar.” Josh shook his head. “Sorry. Not that helpful.”

Josh selected and started a clip from the video. The focal point was the man. His movements were smooth, but the muscles were tight and bulging, hands clenched at his sides until his arm snapped out, grabbed an attacking human by the neck, and spiked them into a café table. It was almost phlegmatic, if you didn’t mind watching someone get decapitated with wrought iron detailing.

“No, Mr. Rosza,” Elijah murmured. “You are correct. He’s restraining himself. Forcing himself to take far more care than he could. He’s more powerful than he’s showing, has greater strength than he is using. Perhaps an attempt to conceal his age.”

Marcel rolled his drink between his hands. “That hybrid who came after you…”

“Tyler Lockwood,” Elijah supplied.

“No, not Tyler. He’s happily wasting his time in the wilderness with a pack in Oregon, like a pig in shit. I’d know if he was inclined to anything more complex than subsistence farming and building tiny homes,” Klaus sneered.

#klaroline wip wed #5th season caroline is my favorite caroline #i will fight you #it's not her fault 6th season caroline was so ??? #also #commas are my nemesis #i will fight them too #doing dirty work for free