deercountry | out of the fire, into the frying pan

[ she has no idea where they're going, but it's better than standing in one spot while the world around them continues to spin on. katherine hasn't survived five hundred years by staying still. ]

That's why you look for someone who seems overly friendly and talkative or someone who looks just as lost as we are.

[ never go for the people who seem like they're disinterested and antisocial. not even the most charismatic of people can get those people to talk. ]

And you'd trust those people? Wasn't it you who didn't trust anyone for nearly half a millenium?

( dta: don't trust anyone. except for herself, of course. )

We don't know this place or these people. Wouldn't be the first time we'd get lied to.

I had a right not to trust anyone for half a millennium, Stefan.

[ being betrayed by the people who said they'd have her back kind of puts a spanner in the works for a girl to trust anyone for five hundred years. katherine will always trust herself. that's what she's doing right now. she trusts her instincts and she trusts her ability to read people.

it's kept her alive. ]

It's why you listen. People's hearts tell you everything you need to know about whether or not they're lying.

I wasn't arguing against you not trusting anyone, Katherine. I just didn't think you'd change your tune for this place.

( and it turns out she hasn't which is comforting. )

What about your abilities? Are they working here? Like they should?

[ that's a question she thinks he can easily answer himself. everything feels more heightened than they did in deerington. ]

They feel very much like they did when we went to Bulgaria.

[ and pennsylvania and mystic falls. katherine doesn't mention either of those places; bulgaria had been the most important of them all. ]

They don't feel dull.

We're going to need to find a place to sleep.

( and things to eat. he doesn't know if there even animals here. they'd had plenty of blood bags in deerington but here? he has no idea.

he's not panicking but he's definitely a little worried. )

And something to eat. I haven't seen a forest yet.

We'll get to that in a couple of hours. First thing's first—get the lay of the land.

[ see her plan unfolding? learn what she can of this place, then make the decisions of finding somewhere safe to sleep and someone—or something—to eat. she keeps her arm looped with his. ]

We need to know what we're dealing with and... it just seems like a regular old town to me.

A regular old town that smells like blood, Katherine?

( there's no way that's true. there was something about this place that was making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. )

No, that's not right. It's not regular.

Maybe it's like a fish market.

[ sounds less likely, and she doesn't seem like she believes it. there's a distinct lack of salty fish scent to make this completely true. katherine lets herself bump into stefan, arm hooked around his. ]

You should be focusing on smelling me. I smell really nice.

I'm trying.

( but he's a blood addict and all he can smell is blood. it's hard to resist but he's making an enormous effort to try. )

You smell nice. You got perfume too?

( how long had she been shopping while he'd been...he doesn't even know. )

It keeps the whole blood thing at bay.

[ katherine pierce, always thinking one step ahead.

also, smelling like the ocean simply wasn't doing it for her anymore. ]

The person who was selling it told me that this was the Trench and not a dream at all. [ she scrunches up her face. ] They said something disgusting about blood, too.

Something disgusting?

( well, that's...promising? no, it's not promising at all. stefan makes a face and shakes his head. )

All right, tell me. How disgusting?

Just that...

[ katherine wrinkles her nose. what she had heard sounded like absolute baloney, but even she's been around long enough to know that if more than one person says it, it has to have some truth to it.

while it may seem that she's taken by a particular display of rugs, she's not. katherine pierce is a lot of things, and someone who can gather information others struggle to find within the first five minutes is one of them. ]

I have a feeling that blood might be currency here.

Blood might be the currency?

( that is...that is not good. he swallows and stares at her, waiting for her to elaborate. he wants to know how that even works. )

How?

( how in the hell? )

I don't know yet.

[ all katherine can do is shrug—so she does. despite not possessing that information right now, katherine knows she will in the very near future. she's nothing but persistent... and successful. ]

Just like dreams seemed to be the foundation of Deerington, blood seems to play a very big part in the Trench. [ she pokes his arm. ] So no bleeding.

I don't really think it's me you have to worry about, Katherine.

( it's more the people around him, the people that bleed that he's going to worry about. he really doesn't want to end up going off the rails. )

I think I'd rather be back in Deerington.

With your twenty cars, huh?

[ she elbows his side gently, peering up at him with a smile. anything to take his mind off of the blood. her perfume's potent enough to cover a good whiff of it.

she exhales roughly through her nose. ]

I hope the dog and cat are here somewhere.

I didn't have twenty cars. Besides, you liked those cars. You drove them all the time.

( at least the porsche, she did. he sighs and rubs a hand over his face. )

Okay, we need to figure out where we are, how big this place is, if blood's really a currency and...I don't know what else. But we gotta stop just walking.

Do we? Because "just walking" [ airquotes and all. ] has shown us that this place operates just like Deerington did on a societal level.

[ she smiles up at him, plenty pleased with herself. if their current surroundings of buildings, people bustling about, and people also speaking about random chitchat that both doesn't give her any more information and doesn't seem overly pressing is anything to go by, this place is an upgrade to deerington. ]

At least they're not creepily pastel.

Yeah, but I'd gotten used to all that.

( he kind of misses the cat police. he also honestly doesn't know how she's maintaining such a calm air about her when he's on the verge of having a little panic attack. )

This is completely new and completely different.

( and he has a bad, bad feeling about it. )

[ sometimes katherine forgets that stefan's still such a young vampire. almost two hundred and he hasn't experienced all the world vampirism has to offer. a part of her is glad that stefan hasn't become as jaded as she has to their surroundings. ]

There's some similarities.

[ she scrunches up her face as she tries to recall what had made her think of deerington. the sights and sounds most definitely aren't like the place they'd come from. ]

I think the Trench is in some country called Deer something. That's kind of close to Deerington. Maybe it's a neighbouring city.

[ doubtful. ]

Deerington was in a dream, Katherine. How can this place be neighboring to a city that was in a dream?

( stefan knows with magic that maybe it's possible but it's not something he's going to readily believe. he can't. that's just a little too farfetched. )

We could never leave Deerington to know but it was in a dream.

The Trench is in Deer Country, Stefan.

[ it's all in the name, baby. katherine doesn't even think too hard about it. in her experience, sometimes the easiest explanations are the ones that are actually closer to the truth. ]

Deerington might have been a dream, but what happens when you get out of a dream? You wake up. [ she peers up at him. ] We've woken up.

[ and she's glad she's woken up with him. ]

Which just makes me question how the hell we got here in the first place.

( he rubs his hands over his face. he can still hear ravens nearby and he shifts uncomfortably, hating that he wants to look but doesn't want to see anything else. )

Do you see other bodies?

out of the fire, into the frying pan

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