nothingleftofyou - Tumblr blog

[nothingleftofyou]

"i'd reconsider your definition of the word." wesley replied, his tone may have been something dry but it wasn't without kindness. he didn't do familiarity, not since he died. even then it was something thin and fragile. he kept a careful boundary no matter who you were, and above else he stayed far away from anyone capable of tugging at what remained of his shriveled heart. he remained adjacent, a space far enough that one could be confused for them to be communicating at a glance if not for their eye contact. "not at all." lies. he had been around, but it was just that. around. not offering aid, not doing anything but watching. wesley didn't even know if it could be called ironic anymore, him having been a watcher what felt like forever ago. "were you caught in the pile up?" he asked her.

there were a lot of emotions of her own swirling around and the second that the other got close to her some of them intensified. did that mean he was feeling some of the same things she was ? none of this made much sense and she felt this longing for someone who understood all that she was feeling ( her own and others ). longing for her mother. a deeper and more acute longing for the woman she'd lost so many years ago. ❛ and here i thought the sling accessory and black smokey eye looked good, ❜ a lame attempt at a joke, but it was all she could muster. pj wanted to take a step back, to put more distance between them in hopes to no longer pick anything up from him, but she didn't want to be rude. ❛ i've felt worse, trust me. you weren't caught up in that mess were you ? ❜

[nothingleftofyou]

that was intriguing. to say the very least. it either spoke to foresight or intention. wesley was curious which one would reveal itself. he wasn't much of a hero these days, not that that'd been different when he'd been alive the first time around. even at his best wesley had never been a champion. at his worst, well, wesley often tried to look in the mirror these days. he let the words rest in the air, not jumping in his response. both uncertainty and exhaustion were things that plagued him, and if it allowed him to be appear calm it then wesley would take it as a good thing. the uncertainty, however, burned under his skin like a brand. if things were bad, were did he stand? wesley didn't even know where he fell. " is it cynicism, experience, or something else that lead you there?" he didn't outright accuse the man because wesley was never so bold, and if something did need to be done then his specialty was the underhanded sort.

was this an old wound , or a new one ?? either way , he was hemorrhaging ---- a red-black slick of blood left in his wake. a messy show of blooming hurt and half-rotted innards. you'd think he would've learned after stitching himself shut so many times. soon , there'd be nothing left for the vultures to pick. eyes idly traced the funeral procession , let the faces amalgamate into a sea of mourning clothes. he didn't care to know who's it was ( already knew just who's it was ). he snorted. " haven't even seen the half of it , yet. " and if the dull throb behind his eyes was anything to go by , neither had he. this was a brave new world , after all .... who the fuck knew what new exciting hurts laid ahead ??

[nothingleftofyou]

wesley hadn't known his heart was still capable of skipping. the fact that it beat at all was something that caused curiosity to bundle, there was still so much about darklighters he'd yet to know. he had little opportunity to find somewhere that hoarded information on the topic and it was something infuriating. research was his specialty, and being unable to do so made him feel all the more powerless. for all that irony, here wesley still found himself face to face with someone he'd never even considered encountering. the last time wesley thought he'd see lilah was as he lay dying. he wouldn't see fred, he wasn't going up there. he had tried to remember if lilah's contract with the senior partners had been forever or something else. then he died. eyes closing on illyria's smiling face whiled she masqueraded as fred. a pretty lie. the kind he knew so well. no one reminded him of that better, then the woman standing before him.

"lilah." her name was spoken simply, but the tone was anything but. it wasn't loving, it wasn't soft, it didn't express surprise or even fondness. but it felt familiar to his tongue, a greeting like they'd been once upon a time when he'd been alone and she'd been living and they had been something. he'd lost the bet. and that dollar bill had been in his wallet as he laid dying. "i'd imagined wolfram and heart stationed you elsewhere." his eyes pierced into hers, and a feeling akin to a steel pipe being baked in flames before it was slid into your chest like a butter knife--- he couldn't look down. couldn't meet her neck with the reminder of what he'd done to her corpse. for all wesley knew the senior partners fixed it on whatever whim, and yet he still couldn't let his eyes drop to her neck.

a pause, letting her words sink into the air. their sharpness was no surprise to wesley, the only surprise lilah was capable of offering would be less then she was. softness, kindness, those would come as a shock. it wasn't who she was. wesley knew who he had fallen for. it was also why he'd hated himself for it too. "is that an admission?" he challenged, caution still hanging on his words. knowledge didn't mean too much when it came to wolfram and heart, they knew everything. nonetheless all bases need be covered, and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for the law firm to have their foothold in pretty much anything of the murderous variety.

' well. we both know all about death, don't we, lover? ' lilah looked at the man in front of her, brown eyes flitting across his face && body. she was taken back to a very specific memory in a very specific room of wolfram & hart. something about trying to save her & contracts & eternal flames. she had been dead but he had been so very much alive && now they were more alike than ever. there was something poetic about it, she mused as she stared, careful to not give too much away. so much had happened yet... so much stayed the same. ' but you're right. this town is small && the body count is already growing... have you figured it out yet? what this all means? ' she spoke cryptically, letting her eyes dance a little in the low light -- it was clear there were countless secrets that lay beneath. she wasn't quite sure how he'd react to seeing her -- bracing herself for any outcome. lilah morgan was never unprepared.

[nothingleftofyou]

confronting other vampires wasn't something stefan made a particular habit of. for starters, being on the animal blood diet didn't do him many favors to bein with and eating at all was irregular. the salvatore house being so full only made it even harder. stefan didn't intend to feed among strangers or even (especially) zach too. typically he went more for a squirrel in the forest then a pound of blood. it did incite his curiosity though, enough so to warrant confronting the other man. the man's words did hit though, stefan supposed that had been the desired effect. the moment you were born you were on the path to death, but on that path you were about to create life, you were dying but living oh so truly. and then you did die. there was no more life to give, just death to cause. and stefan was an expert in the study. "i think we're both far past that being a concern." couldn't very well be dying if you were already dead. two dead men in front of a butcher shop. it sounded like the beginnings of a joke. or maybe the punchline.

angel had felt the man's stare the second it landed on him, meeting his gaze almost immediately. there was a look of knowing in his expression, one that angel knew well and knew what was behind it. so the other was like him ? and if so, was his attendance in town nefarious ? that was something to figure out. for a moment angel thought he was just going to watch, and he was going to let him. though as he moved closer that was clearly not the case. ❛ they also say you start dying the moment you begin living. should that stop us from doing it ? ❜ he hadn't been living for centuries and by the looks of it, the other hadn't been for a while.

[nothingleftofyou]

"you sound awfully certain for someone i've only barley met." once or twice before this, yes, but stefan didn't think they were referring to his vampire nature. it was something else, and while he had yet to determined what it didn't escape his notice their certainty. his arms crossed, wary eyes on the young witch before him. "impossible is the wrong word then. improbable. unlikely. implausible." shapeshifters? katherine reborn as a human? katherine being human? no, she was dead. it was something stefan didn't even know where to start looking for. "what would you call it?" they knew something, stefan was sure of that much.

❛ and you're one to believe things are impossible ? ❜ the question was pointed, they knew just how impossible people could find stefan's condition. one would think he'd have thrown that word out the second he took his first undead breath. this version of josie cared little for her mother's newly dead friend. while some sadness bubbled under the surface, josie's, dark josie couldn't access it, just knew it was there.

[nothingleftofyou]

stefan salvatore knew a plethora of words. even before he'd become a vampire he had been well versed in his studies, always a book in hands and an eagerness to learn all he could. the only time such want faltered was when it was utterly consumed by hunger for human's blood, and the monster he became under such lust. the ripper. all of this to say, stefan and lexi had a long running bet from new words being added to the dictionary. doppelganger was a word stefan knew the meaning of, in the same fashion someone spoke 'echo'. for all he'd known of the word, it was never something stefan thought to be meaningful. just a word. mermaid, werewolf, doppelganger. "you knew katherine." or at the very least, heard of. he hadn't initially suspected the person before him to be on the older side of vampirism, for all he knew they knew katherine from legends, she was infamous after all. or maybe he'd simply been wrong. it wouldn't be the first time. what was more concerning, however, was them knowing of him. his connection to katherine, the way they said supposed rang in his ears and stefan penciled that in for a future time to reexamine. more pressing present matters to deal with. "you seem awfully familiar with my life," stefan begun, preparing for the probability of this encounter to become something hostile. "and here i don't even know your name." there were many things that stefan intended to ask, but having a name for the potential foe was as good starter as any.

history has changed. their interference, their presence, has altered the story beyond repair. perhaps he's right about it, that hope and the others may have known about this- or had a hand in it, even. stefan would only be partly right, hope knew of the previous timeline through his extensive journals kept in his once home. not many had taken the care to read about the brothers lives in his perspective, even less know of the history of the boarding school to begin with.

"which part?" the tribrid all but ignores the paper thrown at them, barely a glance at the front page that holds the black and white image of the last puzzle piece to the hybrid curse dead and with her, the keys to the chains around her father's neck. perhaps a week ago she would have had more of a care, something akin to anger or frustration. instead, she borders annoyance, though the foggy kind of feeling of that once pesky emotion. as if a hazy memory or just out of reach on the other side of a glass door. remembrance of what it should feel like but only the refracted pieces through the light. "that elena gilbert is a doppelgänger, or specifically the doppelgänger of your supposedly dead sire?" really, those journals of his are extensive and paired with the knowledge passed from her uncle and father - well hope feels like she just knows stefan salvatore.

[nothingleftofyou]

"what makes you think that?" teenagers, the actual kind, were idiots. that wasn't news to stefan. even so, he agreed that this wasn't an accident. something was going on and this was now further proof of it. he was cautious though. agreeing openly wasn't something he was ready to do, at least not yet.

@hellsmouthstarters

' honestly. ' buffy glanced around, her brow furrowed with thought. ' I know this was targeted, but I just can't help but feel like this was bigger than we think, beyond just the civilian casualty part, obviously. '

[nothingleftofyou]

"i'm a lot sturdier then i look." it was objectively a pretty cool thing about being a slayer, amelia could handle her weight in liquor. it sure helped make a few bucks when it came hustling though. "but if you're looking for a chance to back out, this is the only one you'll get."

Open Starter - @hellsmouthstarters

"Seriously, don't move, I'll get you some water," Ruslan insists. "Don't think you need anymore vodka for the night. Yes, I know, we're all overwhelmed but you've very clearly had enough."

[nothingleftofyou]

"personally i'd prefer you not to," chris spoke, his arms crossing as she spoke of a dilemma he'd consider far too many times to count. "but ultimately it's your choice to make." he said. "the only thing i ask is to remember there are future consequences. it might not be our future anymore." elena gilbert's death assured that, considering there was a chance hope couldn't be born now. "but there's still things we know that could be changed with that knowledge, and there is always a way to make thingd worse."

Open Starter - @hellsmouthstarters

"Are we allowed to make ourselves known to our families in this time," Oaklee questioned curiously, not bothering to glance up from the phone in her hands. "Do I need to change my last name or are we just saying fuck it and letting whatever happens happen?"

[nothingleftofyou]

@hellsmouthstarters

it was odd, feeling your very most human when you were surrounded by true death. these children weren't coming back from their graves, at the very least not all of them. it was a shared sorrow among the masses, and wesley continuously fought the instinct to disconnect. it would be easier if he allowed logic to dictate his outlook, but that in itself had been a costly choice in his past. so, instead wesley tried to stick to what he'd been once upon a time. the cold unfeeling watcher, and if wesley was lucky it would send everyone around him running just like it did back then. "quite a large amount of death," he remarked. "for such a small town." it could have been anything behind this, from a true accident to a mass sacrifice for some sort of demon. regardless, it was owed to the people of mystic falls for investigation to occur.

[nothingleftofyou]

@hellsmouthstarters

"-stay still." chris couldn't heal anyone. it was a whitelighter ability he had never been able to even activate, let alone master. wyatt had been healing people before he could form a sentence, and melinda knew both cpr and first aid like the back of her hand. chris was the one who lagged behind them both. he always figured he'd activate the power someday if he truly needed it. but that day had passed long by now to no avail. so, while not even half as gracefully as his sister, chris wrapped the wound. "it needs to be tight." chris reminded them. though snug was the proper word google had said, he had memorized everything he could on the subject. "wiggle your fingers." he admonished. "if they're numb or you don't feel circulation i'll re-wrap it." a nightmare they both surely wanted to avoid, but chris knew that there was more time lost haste then caution.

[nothingleftofyou]

@hellsmouthstarters

"-- just," oh dawn always sucked at leaving voicemails, she rambled until she put her foot in her mouth and typically the actual point of the voicemail got lost somewhere in the mix. "give me a call back buffy, like, as soon as you possibly can. seriously." and with that dawn snapped the flip phone shut. she knew they had become less popular as of late, but findin the time to update had yet to become a concern for her. sighing, dawn exclaimed. "i just know she forgot her phone," at home wasn't a sentence that applied to the summers sisters since sunnydale went down. "she always forgets her phone." a deep inhale, whereas dawn reminded herself that her sister was a slayer. there was nothing to be concerned about. "any luck on your end?" it was common at this point, checking in with your loved ones after a tragedy. at least dawn thought so.

[nothingleftofyou]

there was nothing that could be said to change a single thing. no magic phrase or big hug - no right person that could change the hollow of his reality . and there was no better word for it , dawn knew from personal experience , HOLLOW was as close as one could get. yet even that didn't touch just how how deep the abyss ran . dawn had thought she'd felt the worst after losing her mom , but then she lost buffy . her sister . half of her heart died that day . probably more then half , buffy was not only her influence in so many ways but her inspiration , her stability , her big sister. being without her felt like losing a limb , an organ , a muscle , some part of dawn that she couldn't survive without . and every day onward she felt the agony of missing that piece without reprieve.

admittedly , the buffy bot sure didn't help matters. but then buffy came back. and it was in moments like this, as dawn recalled the gut wrenching sorrow with such vivid memory, she felt her most selfish for the relief that got buffy back. not everyone , not most people , were so very very lucky. it made something inside her churn at the recollection, and dawn decided she would be giving buffy a call later. even hearing her voice on the answering machine felt like it'd be a comfort.

yeah , dawn didn't expect anything less. she'd been a bit younger when it happened , not brave enough to say those words but feeling them all the same. she loved the scooby gang with all her heart. giles , willow , tara , spike , xander even anya. they tried their best , but the comfort of being able to set fire to your bedroom and be loved regardless -- it wasn't a comfort dawn ever thought she'd had until she had done it. but then mom was gone and so was buffy, and suddenly being loved didn't feel so safe . so she didn't say fuck you , didn't light anything on fire, didn't even start stealing until buffy came back and that safety net returned . dawn knew she wasn't jeremy's safety net, didn't know him nearly enough for that. but just maybe she could offer some cushions for the fall. "so you don't want the vodka?" this might have counted as enabling. but dawn figured he was going to drown in his sorrow either way, she could function as a life preserver. at least this time, if he let her.

and so this is how it went. life became unrecognizable ---- irreconcilable. one second there was , and the next there wasn't. a cavernous tomb where a sister ---- in this case meaning inverse , or mirror ; could've been or never was ---- should've been. things had never been so quiet. a few days ago , he was screaming down the house for some goddamned peace and quiet and now .... now the only thing louder than the silence was those machines mom was hooked up to. breathing machines and eegs and ct scans and feeding tubes ---- like a fucking cyborg. it was all for show. the longer she was hooked up , the less likely she was to wake .... but dr grayson gilbert knew that. stayed out late like he was going to single-handedly find the cure to death or some shit. zombie wife and dead daughter and he was still the eternal fucking optimist. jeremy just wished he'd pull the plug already. mom didn't want- wouldn't have wanted .... but every time he brought it up , grayson just gave him this strained ' it should've been you ' smile , and really , who was he to argue with that ?? just his son. just an uncomfortable conversation about whether the knives needed to be locked up. just a ' if only he was more like ... ' not his daughter. not his wife. not someone he particularly wanted around. and so he nicked elena's diary for company and ran out of the house where the funeral feasts and condolences never ended. ran until he reached her grave. lit up. took a xanax. thought about the guy on the football team he'd given a blowjob to ( dead as his sister ). thought about taking more. started reading instead. " fuck off. " he wasn't in the mood for commiseration.

[nothingleftofyou]

so, a long time ago dawn learned not to open with 'my sister's the slayer'. often, it motivated the baddies in a more positive way then the aim was. of course the world had changed in a number of ways, including but not limited to, buffy not being the slayer anymore but rather a slayer. regardless of the noun, the 'threat' would remain moot in the face of a baddie. dawn didn't have a read on the other yet, and so for that she said. "my sister's a hunter." hunter was close but not the jackpot. didn't even feel like a lie. "her best friend's a witch, and her boyfriend is a vampy-type, a nice vampy-type but still." he also wasn't currently her boyfriend but that felt a little late to amend. "i've been around the block." dawn finished, feeling a bit late as she did so.

they could try compulsion, but the way the other seems very familiar with the supernatural hints that perhaps she might be taking precaution against it. smart. she doesn't feel entirely human, either— which only brings more questions than answers. "i don't really do complicated. explain it to me then."

[nothingleftofyou]

"can't say i'm one for riding." amelia responded, especially when she had something of a headache and the song was annoying. she strut to the jukebox, tilted her head as she observed it. amelia considered ripping it apart, jerking the speakers out of place, or just smashing the glass itself and hoping that short circuited it. she settled on nimble fingers sliding to grip the machine, and giving a tug that should unplug it. maybe break it, but for once that wasn't the goal. she didn't need to further the headache with screams. "or patience." she finished, walking away and taking a seat beside the man.

“  it ain’t  gonna  happen , honey.  “  out  of  the  corner  of  his  eye,  he  could  see  a  shadow  marching  toward  the  jukebox ... the  jukebox  that  had  been  playing  californiacation  for  the  last goddamned  half  an  hour.  he didn't how  long  it  had  been  bought  out  for. didn’t  want  to , either. “  -i  already  tried.  best  you  can  do  is  saddle  in  and  enjoy  the  ride.  “ 

[nothingleftofyou]

something was off about the infamous tribrid. amelia couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it piqued her interest considerably. it was an edge type feeling, almost reminded her of what it felt being in wyatt's presence. something peculiar given that amelia had never felt such an essence before from hope mikaelson. the three legged monster typically annoyed her more then intrigued her. then again, hope usually wasn't so frosty. it made amelia want to rile up even more so. there was nothing like lighting a fire under someone frosty. see them melt.

"doesn't sound like you." not that they were great personal friends but amelia had heard enough stories from josie, among others who had faced hope, to know the gist of the 'hero' that they were. for all hope had always been capable of being annoyed and off-putting in their previous brief encounters, this was something new entirely. "color me curious." her fingers folded over eachother, intertwining while her chin rested on them and a smile blissed her cheeks. bemusement sparkling in her blue eyes, enticed by the very different hope that stood before her. "oh," amelia began, no faltering with the other's remark. rather, it spurred the slayer on all the more. "you find me amusing? hope," she grinned, something resembling a shark's. addressing the other by name, something amelia hadn't made a habit of. "you should have said so. i would have pulled out my better material."

the slayer imparts an odd sense of familiarity. a what if kind of look into lizzie's saltzman's life. it's odd how things look in this timeline, this alternate reality, as if they were faced with their own alternate possibilities while also looking at another's. it might even be humbling if hope held any concerns at all.

typically, amelia would be right about hope and that they would attempt to save innocent lives from a storm. however, the slayer is wrong this time. anticipation boils inside hope's chest, burns against the fortified walls within them, races to the forefront and sharpens their senses. there's a danger to this delicate dance between them, and the tribrid all but wishes for the other to falter, to make a misstep. she'll be put down just as the others will.

where guilt would once gnaw at her bones for the choice made, it feels like smoke through her fingers. a barely there brush of it, a faded reminder of that gentleness of humanity, blown away in the breeze of indifference. "wrong." the answer is curt, lips form the words swiftly and easily. "nice try. really, commendable effort. is that why wyatt keeps you around? you're amusing at best."

[nothingleftofyou]

piper had been part of the crash, one of the lucky ones who walked away, but she couldn’t help but feel that paige was right. she didn’t see anything supernatural, didn’t have any evidence, but intuitively, things felt off. ❛ i’m inclined to agree with you, but i’m not seeing anything. ❜ granted seeing wasn’t everything, she knew that. but what did they have to go off of besides feelings ? what leads could they follow ?