john gilbert ii

🩸 — he didn't like seeing how nervous john was. it was up in the air if it was personal concern, or some sort of sentiment—the truth being, if the confident john gilbert was worried about something, then it was as serious a problem as enzo feared. "the opposite, i'm afraid." he took a few steps closer. "you've joined the fang gang, then?" it was hard not to look sort of amused.

🏹 → "life is full of cruel ironies, isn't it?" john gilbert laughed bitterly before noding in admission of the very fact he had yet to admit out loud. "i'm not staying this way." whether that be finding a way to undo whatever had been done to them all, or finding a more singular permanent solution he does not elaborate on - he doubts he needs to. pausing the twirling of the ring between his fingers, he does raise an eyebrow, looking over at the now former vampire. "you're human now... right?"

👻 — as good of a copout that sounded, matt wasn't amused. "i'm sure elena would love agree," came his sarcastic, yet dry response. the running around in circles was the last thing he expected, so it took him this long to accept it and move forward. find another way. "okay, think it over."

🏹 → "is that sarcasm i detect, donovan? why wouldn't elena love to get her mom's diary? it's sentimental, something they could have bonded over, lots of possibilities... unless there is no diary. which would be weird, because why would you go to all this trouble just to talk about something that doesn't exist?" the gilbert accused, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the ex boyfriend of elena gilbert. "yeah, you do that."

🩸 — "You okay over there, mate?" Enzo wasn't feeling too hot himself. He felt, different. Reminiscent to a way he hadn't felt in a long, long while. "Let me guess," he said, amusement mixed with annoyance. "Witches?"

🏹 → arms crossed, john gilbert was trying to walk off the unavoidable. rolling the gilbert ring between his finger tips his mind raced. an attempt is made to feel something other than the foreboding sensation that lingered as he was reminded of the failed attempt to take a shot of vervain earlier in the evening but it fails miserably until he hears the familiar voice pipe up. "that would be my guess as i sure as fuck didn't ingest vampire blood - what happened to you?"

Brianna's attention was suddenly pulled away from the aching, burning sensation that was slowly but surely dulling down in her palm, an intense surge of anger coursing through her veins at his words. The topic of parents had always been a touchy subject for her, seeing as how she hadn't grown up with her parents. Or any parents that actually cared about her, for that matter. "Not everyone was blessed with the presence of their parents in their life," she bit out sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. "Maybe if you don't want people to touch your things, you shouldn't leave them lying around." She straightened up, eyeing the stranger with a hard gaze. Obviously he was some of hunter - or at least had knowledge of the supernatural. "Who are you anyway?"

🏹 → "Save your Mommy and Daddy issues for someone who cares." For all of his... less terrible qualities, John Gilbert wasn't known for being particularly empathetic to those he didn't care for, let alone sticky handed teenagers who didn't know how to keep their hands off. "So you just pick up everything you see? Ever heard of impulse control? Or are you blaming that on mommy and daddy too?" Not empathetic at all. "John Gilbert, and you are?"

no, not for him. clearly. that wasn't in question because the vampire was with him with that one. they were on the same page. "ominous," he said, shakily, wanting john to know he'd made note of what was said. of course, in his mind, he assumed he meant the augustine legacy—not some secret other thing. "i would if i—" could, he didn't finish before the tremors really hit. his body greyed, finally shutting down.

🏹 → "i don't usually talk to them this much but i also don't usually have them in my house so...." john muttered as he worked to get the vampire settled in the bed so that he didn't fall off in the process of the rapidly occurring desiccation. dead weight was much harder to maneuver, and if he nosedived off the bed he'd be a bitch to get back on. in regards to the second question the hunter simply shoots him a glance, pausing before stepping back to look at the vampire who acknowledges his comment in a single word response. that would be a worry for another day, a problem paused as his skin turned grey and he stopped moving. moving toward the door, he paid the vampire one last quick glance before shutting the door and leaving him in order to track down the contact for the doctor he'd mentioned, hoping he was quick enough to spare elena the trauma of seeing her friend like that.

🥀 — "you wouldn't believe me if i told you." what was a slight against qetisyah's very existence, the very reason that forced the witch to tear through the natural order of life and death just to get back at her? "i betrayed her, and i don't know what she's planning to do with me." amara paused. "i've suffered enough." with a brief nod, she took the little news as better than nothing. "i'd love to meet them." it didn't matter if they refused to help; and chance was worth taking.

🏹 → "try me." he dared his daughter's double as she stood in front of him, blissfully unaware just how willing to listen he was in the given moment. then when she does open up, he listens quietly, only nodding along whenever she tried to insist she had paid her penance. it wasn't his place to judge or absolve him so he moved on. "i'll have to try and get ahold of her... but let's get you out of broad daylight first."

but he's lost a brother, too, and now a nephew, and regardless of how much or how little she thought he'd care, that's a stab to the chest. so still she lingers, long enough to say, tiredly now with her free hand on the doorknob, "i'm not trying to change anything. I just wanted the truth. that's all. it isn't about how i'll react to it, or how i'll feel about it, or how secrets help or hurt anyone. i just want to know the truth. i want the full picture of who i'm grieving or who i'm putting myself around, so at least whatever horrible things happen, i can feel whatever i'm feeling honestly. so ... thank you for confirming it for me." she flicks him a long look over her shoulder. "i'm glad you weren't on his side. i'm glad you fought him on that, at least. and thank you for saying that enzo didn't deserve it. i'm sorry that you've ... lost everyone too. i'm sorry that you know how it feels."

🏹 →“you’re grieving imperfect people who raised you and loved you endlessly, and you’re grieving your kid brother who was still trying to figure everything out. if i could trade their lives for mine, i would. you should be having this conversation with - with your dad and you should have your mom there through it all. you should be coming home to them and jeremy, and you aren’t. it shouldn’t be me, and i’m sorry i’m all you have left. if i could change it i would, but i can’t, and i need to live with it.” elena’s nearly gone, her hand on the door handle and he doesn’t make any move to stop her. the air in the house full of memories, secrets and lies is suffocating, and if one of them could escape it, he wanted it to be his daughter. she was the only good thing he’d ever done in his life, and she didn’t need to be drug down the way the rest of them had. she deserved to get out. “don’t thank me - actions speak louder than words… knowing what’s right and doing what’s right are two different things.” he was no saint while letting the sins of his brothers and other continue. “please, just… stay safe, okay?”

🥀 — the truth was she didn't know what he could offer her. how can anyone help a lost, confused immortal in a town full of creatures that stalked the night. "i am being pursued by.. someone. i don't know this town. flee, or hide, i can't let her find me again." she paused, looking the man over—weighing her options. "do you know a witch?" amara could use a cloaking spell.

🏹 → "why are they chasing you?" it was the most important question, the rest could follow later, especially while he was still trying to process the fact there were more lookalikes to his daughter out in the world. "the last one i knew around here died but... i know someone who might be."

she has half a mind to linger, but what's the point? her heart is too hurt, her judgment too clouded, and arguing with the wall won't help anyone. still, for enzo's sake, she adds, "leaving it at 'your dad wasn't perfect' is a cop-out, and you know it. enzo was tortured. stripped of his freedom and put through hell. i don't care what it was for, or why it was done, and neither should you. if you want to view damon's compulsion through a black and white filter, do it, but at least don't be a hypocrite and leave everything else in grayscale." with that, she twists around and stalks for the door, back where she came.

"i never agreed with what the augustine society was doing, your dad and i even argued about it more than once. we were raised to hate vampires, but there's no need to torture them for decades... treated like lab rats. it wasn't right in the fifties, and it wasn't right when your dad worked with them." he snapped, making his point on the matter abundantly clear. "your friend deserved better, and if he wasn't causing trouble... vampires that don't cause problems exist, you know that, elena. you know that coexisting is possible... the problem lies in when they aren't on their best behavior. even if lorenzo was on his worst behavior... he doesn't deserve what happened and i won't try to justify it but your dad is dead... he's gone and in the ground and hating him for his mistakes won't change anything."

👻 — "i get that, but something tells me it can't wait." he didn't like the excuse, and didn't want to believe it was just a matter of figuring out what the big deal was. "yes, but i'll be keeping it." he was keeping it cool, for the most part. backup plans included just, going straight to elena, or triggering another encounter with her mother. "if you can't figure it out... i'll be giving it to elena."

🏹 → "whatever it is, it's waited this long, hasn't it?" the hunter asked coolly, wondering again how miranda could be so careless as to write about it in a journal of all places... let alone leave it somewhere that even matt donovan could find it before jenna or one of the kids - small mercies it seemed. "i never said you had to give it up." he reminds, not wanting to further incriminate himself. "but if anyone should get it, it should be elena. it's her mom's - might make her feel closer to her."

there's elena's breathless little not-laugh again. "oh, well, if the torture was for medical purposes. thanks, dad!" she feels like she's losing it a little bit. lost stefan, dead brother, struggling matt, trapped damon, aggravating uncle, dead father who it turns out wasn't nearly as loving with everyone as he is in her memory—she's eighteen years old and she feels a hundred. "i don't know any of them. i'm a blank slate. so can you go ahead and just keep breaking my heart with them now so i can recover all at once instead of over and over again?" and there it is, against her will—eyes misting, burning, hopeless. nothing is right anymore, not even the family in her own memories.

"your dad wasn't perfect, elena, no one is." elena wasn't perfect, his brother hadn't been perfect, but that didn't mean he loved them any less. it unnerved him to know that his brothers memory was tainted when he had no ability to explain himself. none of it should have been like this, grayson should have been here to explain it all - he'd always been better at him. a better son, a better brother, a better man, a better father. "look, clearly you can't handle anything that doesn't live up to your expectations so i'm not telling you anything."

at least he finally gives her some honesty, though. that's the one thing she'll credit him for. "so dad—tortured them. vampires." she laughs a small, insincere, despairing little laugh, a pang in her chest for enzo. for anyone who came before him. "right. okay. any other evil skeletons in our family closet you want to tell me about?"

the sound of her insincere laughter is another dagger, and he takes it in stride. "experimented on for medical purposes - if you want to be technical, but yes." he didn't support the augustine society, he and grayson had come to blows more than once about it, but nothing could be done about that now. the past couldn't be changed now, and they all had to live with it, so when she presses for more family secrets, he protects her once more. "as an out-of-touch old guy and a selfish ass, i don't even know what evil family skeletons you know to begin to tell you them all."

he was starting to feel himself petrify, veins appearing slowly over his extremities, teasing up the collar of his shirt. it wasn't until he opened his eyes did he realized they'd been twisted shut. "thank you." quick, to the point. dark eyes looking up at the hunter as he debated whether to entertain his curiosity. "it's his insurance policy. so, you have more than enough time... to change your mind." then he smirked. "before elena finds out."

"don't thank me - i'm not doing it for you." augustine had done this to him - found a way to keep them caged even inside of their own bodies. a shiver goes down his spine as he wonders if that was a result of his brothers research, or just this sadists idea of a good time. like him or not, the idea of sending him back to the lions den felt especially cruel, but leaving him like this might have been worse. the hunter nods, before rolling his eyes as he moved toward the door. "i keep enough secrets from her, and like i said, she's lost too much. don't do anything stupid while we wait for the good doctor, yeah?"