#crowsalvation

"Damon," he sighed. Enzo's sense of self-worth was next to zero, due to being a street urchin no one wanted in his human life, then thoroughly tortured and dehumanized for seventy years as a vampire. . . But Damon's level of self-loathing was truly a terrible marvel to behold. He loved the man so fiercely, and hearing him talk about himself like this broke his heart.

Vampire speed took him from across the room to mere steps in front of Damon in the blink of an eye, and Enzo took the other man's face in his hands.

"I have never believed anything more," he said firmly. "You are not some defective thing to be cast aside, Damon. You became exactly who you needed to be. A survivor. I wouldn't change anything about you. For as much as you frustrate me at times, and God knows that you do, I love you just as you are. I have since we shared those pitiful cells together."

The air smelled of blood as that little hotel room laid thick with five or so bodies. Some lifeless, some still twitching.

She caught his piercing blue eyes with her own as she drank the last drops from their final victim.

Katherine peeled her mouth away from his neck, teeth leaving flesh with a sickening squelch as she let the body drop to the floor. Licking her lips she beckoned her sire with a finger. Blood always tastes better licked from the lips of your lover.

@crowsalvation cont. from here

@crowsalvation sent: ❝ you’re looking at me but you’re not seeing me. do you know how that feels? just see me. please. ❞ from Damon

⠀⠀⠀⠀katherine's gaze remained on him, though there was something unreadable in it now. it was not indifference, at least not entirely. if anything, it was scrutiny, perhaps. the kind that came from someone attempting to reconcile memory with reality and finding the two increasingly incompatible. because it truly seemed like damon developed another personality since 1864. or perhaps it had always layed dormant.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"see you?" she repeated, the words lingered for a moment before a faint, humorless smile touched her lips. "and what exactly is it that i'm supposed to see, damon?"

⠀⠀⠀⠀her head tilted slightly. "the man i knew in 1864?" she asked. "because i did see him. i saw a man who could be kind. thoughtful, even. a gentleman when he chose to be." for a brief moment, something almost nostalgic flickered across her features. "the sweet damon salvatore who would have crossed half of virginia simply because i asked him to." then, however, the expression faded just as quickly.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"although, even then, you occasionally had a habit of forgetting where affection ended and entitlement began." her brow lifted slightly. "a habit you really should have worked harder to outgrow." she remembered the moment after the founders ball where he followed her and wanted to force a kiss. she had to compel him to leave her alone.

⠀⠀⠀⠀"but that isn't what confuses me. what confuses me is what happened afterward."

⠀⠀⠀⠀"somewhere along the way, the man who wanted to be seen became a man who spends most of his time making sure nobody has to look very closely at all. you drink, you flirt, you provoke, you sleep your way through half the town, and then you act surprised when people judge you by the image you present." he seemed to like the image of the ‘bad guy’, the ‘fuckboy’. he liked to be seen as the eternal stud. there doesn't seem to be any depth to him anymore. 

⠀⠀⠀⠀"you've made your feelings, your self-worth, even your behavior dependent on whoever happens to be standing in front of you at the time. so tell me, damon... what am i supposed to see?"

        amara’s immortal heart pounded, her body quaking as life flooded back after 2000 years entombed in stone. the first moments that came upon her after she opened her eyes, her real eyes, had been numbing. what she saw, the pictures that played out in front of her eyes were hacked off and unreal. the world overwhelmed her, colors too sharp, air too crisp, the strange carriage's roar a deafening assault on her senses. revived, she was alive but drowning in sensation, her mind spiraling in shock. a stranger's hands had bound her wrists, his nearness suffocating, his touch a violation that made her skin crawl. she had recoiled as his piercing gaze lingered too close, igniting raw panic.

       confined in the strange carriage's trunk, amara slid helplessly with every turn, the metal walls amplifying her terror. unfamiliar sounds, mechanical hums, screeching wheels, clawed at her sanity, a cacophony from a world she didn’t know. her bound hands scraped the rough carpet, her body jolting with each swerve, bruising her against the trunk’s confines. she wanted to scream, but something in her mouth hindered her from doing so. her wide eyes darted in the suffocating dark, tears streaming, her breath hitched beneath the gag, her chest tight with fear and the alien pulse of life.

"count me as surprised that you're even so blatantly self aware." she quips, scoffing in disbelief. really, she didn't think narcissists could do that. watching him step closer, doe-eyes became fiercer, bolder in their outrage when it came to his behavior and the terrible energy he put off and just OOZED with. "and glib." adding once he assures her he was completely AWARE, somehow she's only half a believer in that. "because i always like to give people the benefit of the doubt." elena corrects. which was bad on her, because clearly that was a mistake.

meme: comfort starters status: accepting (from mutuals)

There's no hesitation when Bonnie takes the mug Damon offers her. No snark or remark, just quiet acceptance. It's a far cry from their usual interactions and some part of her registers that. The rest of her still thrums with anxiety and the lingering panic she's only barely keeping off her face.

She murmurs her thanks - yet another thing she wouldn't do if she weren't so out of it - but honestly, she's grateful he's here. Damon's a solid presence, a warmth chasing away the chill of whatever tried to get to her. Bonnie still doesn't know what it was, but it scared her. She looks down at the hot chocolate in her hands, wrapping her fingers around it and hoping desperately that she stops trembling.