MENTAL LINK ❰ ɪɴʙᴏx ❱

[blooded]

BLOOD its burden is a beast	FEAR
FURY	LOVE i will always choose you

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

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[shri]

[ She snorts - because they both know it really isn't that. Rather than get irate, she goes dry as the deserts of Bundelkhand. ]

( I was under the impression you would rather your beloved be surrounded with good and kind words. I am not that good of a liar, even if she was not in my head. )

[blooded]

❰ Do it anyway.

there is no humor in him now, no give to this order – and it is an order, not a request. she will do it or he won't help. honesty only means anything to him when it comes from him – if her apology is a lie, that matters less than that she gives it. that she looks elena in the eye and acknowledges wrongdoing. ❱

[shri]

[ Oh you are in luck today Damon, she doesn't know who else she can turn to. That and she's quite sure that no one would ever expect her too.

For the hive, then, for everyone else's sake. She assures herself - she has crawled through worse, given sweeter lip services to creatures as foul as he. She steels herself to every hard edge, that sensation of squaring her shoulders. ]

( Anything else? )

[blooded]

❰ this is the best day.

Don't be shitty about it. Don't use the obvious "I'm sorry I didn't succeed in killing you" loophole. If you upset her, the deal's off.

you can't out-bullshit a bullshitter, lakshmi, you gotta do this the right way.❱

[shri]

[ this is the worst day ever. ]

( Shall I swear it on the Gods too? )

[blooded]

❰ all he does is win.

If you feel like it.

:) ❱

[shri]

[ And that - is the step too far that shuts down the connection sharp and quick. ]

[shri]

[ annnnnd done. ]

( Can we proceed or do you have another game to play? )

[blooded]

❰ Why, do you want to play with me?

he is far too pleased with himself rn. ❱

[shri]

( You should be so lucky. )

[ ROLLS HER EYES ALL THE WAY BACK. At least she can take comfort in the fact that he's dumb and not doing the sensible thing with Elena.

Because helping Elena, whom she pitied, was one thing, rather than helping Damon, who she could leave outside to burn whilst setting herself up with shutter shades and a pina colada. ]

[blooded]

❰ it's funny, how she doesn't see she's doing exactly what damon wanted her to. he's a dick, yes, but he wouldn't antagonize a hunter for no reason, not when he knows how dangerous they can be. using her prejudices against her, playing the part of monster, all while forcing her to spend time engaging with elena, seeing that she isn't one, has been damon's goal from the beginning... and lakshmi is playing right into his hands.

it's wonderful when a plan comes together.

I'm really tempted to see how far I can take this... But this isn't really the place for games, is it.

What do you need me to do? ❱

[shri]

( Ensuring I don't die is what's best for Elena, after all. )

[ It's a silky dig, slow at him. That connection she has in a way he never will, after all.

It might mean something more if they both didn't know the person most bothered by it, as far as anyone was concerned, was clearly her. Still. Her pain was Elena's and he had made her apologise. ]

( I need one of the local people. But I need to ensure that even if it goes all horribly wrong, they will remember nothing of the encounter. )

[blooded]

❰ her connection to elena only bothers him insomuch as it bothers elena — once lakshmi gets over herself and admits that elena is the best thing since sliced bread, he'll be perfectly fine with it. he had to share elena with his brother, after all, and he got so much less of her than stefan ever did.

better to have her heart than her head.

Easy. Grab a native, get me in the room, and we're good to go. ❱

[shri]

[ If only she ever listened to that damn thing, this might be easier for them all. ]

( I'll meet you tomorrow then. )

[blooded]

❰ Vague and ominous. I like it.

where will they be meeting? when? damon really hopes lakshmi leaves and has to come back to give him the information, the frustration she'd feel would be delicious. even if she doesn't, though, he's gotten what he wanted from this interaction. ❱

[shri]

[ This one time, she legitimately told her knightly boyf to whisper her name and she'd appear, vague and dramatic is the name of the game. ]

( Hardly that, like we can't be aware of each other's location like this. )

[blooded]

❰ you know lakshmi, you and damon are actually a lot alike, if you could just see past the whole thing where he ate you for five seconds

You really think I pay that much attention to you?

don't flatter yourself, honey. ❱

[shri]

[ She promises to forgive you if you promise to step out of the air lock. ]

( If you don't, you are more fool than I thought. )

[blooded]

❰ You can't kill either of us. I'd know if you were upsetting Elena. All in all, you're pretty insignificant to me. I have bigger fish to fry, buttercup.

he doesn't, not really — in the longterm, he wants to go home, to get the symbiote out of his and sam's and elena's heads, but that's not happening anytime soon. lakshmi's the biggest problem he's come across so far, but that is something that is locked tightly away in his mind, hidden at the bottom of a lake of blood. as far as she can ever know, she doesn't concern him. ❱

[shri]

( Then whoever she has been before she became such a creature, you were never worthy of her. )

[ It's a dismissive flick of her fingers. Go figure, she knows enough now to know Elena wasn't always like him, even if they were both unfortunately requiring to be put down for everyone's greater good. But they clearly cared about each other a great deal.

Even if she had made sure that whatever might have been helpful to Elena she had drowned under her own willing personality. ]

[blooded]

( You know, I knew a girl back home you'd have gotten on with like a house on fire.

damon neatly sidesteps the question of worth, unwilling to get into a discussion of his myriad and numerous defects with lakshmi of all people, but he is again reminded of bonnie.

poor imitation though she is, lakshmi shares a certain narrow-minded determination with bonnie bennett that damon can't help but respect. it's infuriating that these women are so sure they know the only possible course of action to take, that they'd kill people they don't know who've done nothing wrong to mete out some twisted form of justice... but at least they stand for something. that's about the nicest thing damon can say about lakshmi — bonnie at least is also useful, so she gets more.

for the first time since he arrived on the station, damon feels a pang of... nostalgia, almost. not quite missing, because he'd never miss bonnie, but lakshmi is a shitty replacement. )

[shri]

[ She starts to laugh, the warm flicker of the fire that is her - searing and pure and ugly. Kali with her skulls, her weapons in hand, she promises only one thing. Steady as war drums, hoof beats, the steadiness of her whole purpose. ]

( Does she wish for Elena to have the conviction she professes to have in caring for others and do what she should have done the day she woke up turned? )

[blooded]

❰ Actually, she's her best friend.

bonnie is a judgmental wench of a witch, but she knows what's important. it took her ages to come around with caroline, but now that she's been through that, she'd probably be okay with elena.

probably. ❱

[shri]

( The sky is up, the sea is blue and Lord Hastings rules the United India Company and holds costly dinner parties with his wife on his arm.

That your kind can falsify their relationships to continue to hold a place in society is not news to me, Vampire. So if you are done listing pointless information...? )

[ Get to the point Damon, she's waiting. ]

[blooded]

( abruptly, it's not bonnie that fills damon's head, but liz, and with her face comes a palpable pang of longing that even lakshmi might feel. liz isn't as close a friend as ric, really, their friendship still tenuous as she navigates the whole new world of friendly vampires, but she was a lot like lakshmi, once. she didn't think vampires were still people, called them it even staring them in the face... and now look at her. daughter a vampire, slowly settling back into her friendship with damon, accepting that the world is a strange place where sometimes the vampires are the good guys.

or at least the good-er guys. damon's pretty sure no one can call him good and really mean it.

At what point does it turn from falsifying to real? A year of good behaviour? Five? Ten? If a vampire lives without hurting anyone else for decades, do they get to be a person again, or is the great and wise Arbiter of All Things Acceptable going to deny that too?

the derision in damon's question is clear, even mentally, lakshmi found utterly wanting in the face of the two women she brings to mind. )