(closed) I always knew, deep down inside, I could be more

[stefanged]

Who: Stefan Salvatore, Katherine Pierce, and Freya Mikaelson
Where: Freya's room
When: May 5th
Rating: PG-13, probably
Summary: Today is the day Stefan - with some much needed help - finally gets his memories back.
The Story:

Six whole months later, Stefan decides to face the truth. No, technically - five months ago, he had decided to, and five months ago, he, Freya, and Katherine had began the process to reverse the spell linking him to his doppelgänger.

All those long research hours culminates today in the form of a memory reversal, and in the spirit of honesty, Stefan's terrified. Once the scattered memories settle into place, he may not be the same young man that instinctively reaches out for Katherine's hand. He may not be the guy who calls up Minato and Barry when he's bored. He may not even be the friend who pulls Freya or Riley or even Jesse for cooking adventures, and - and he knows, deep down, that he's fearing something that may never come to pass.

(Everyone's said that deep down, he hadn't let himself forget who he truly was. Memories would only give him the context, and maybe even the explanations he had always sought.)

As he steps across the threshold into Freya's room, he draws in a low, heavy breath and folds his arms.

"Thanks again for all of this. Um, I'm ready when you are," he says with false conviction as he regards the others. If this'll actually happen today, he needs to sound like he believes in himself.

No matter what happens, at least he can say he didn't face himself alone.

Comments

[deathlessness]

Figuring out a way around the cracks in Qetsiyah's spell had not been easy, but with the combination of magic that binds doppelgangers together, she hopes that she'll be able to use those to little loopholes to find what she's looking for. She's sitting in a circle of candles, and she gestures for him to come sit next to her.

"We just need Katherine, and we should be good to go."

Hopefully the other woman isn't far behind him.

[manipulative]

As though summoned by her name, Katherine appears in the doorway. Elegantly dressed in dark black jeans and a dark purple top, she leans against the doorframe and regards them with lips curved upward. "I hope you weren't waiting long."

Ruining the moment of a perfect entrance, a dark shadow runs into the room, leaping onto the nearest surface. Sitting elegantly, like she's been there all along, is Vasilka, her eyes pinned on Stefan.

Katherine rolls her eyes and steps in, closing the door behind her. "I hope you're not allergic to cats."

[stefanged]

Taking a seat next to Freya, Stefan crosses his legs and instinctively rests his forearms on his thighs. A few months ago, he might've balked at the idea of sitting so close to the fire he fears - but now, it feels like second nature.

"Not at all, on both counts," he admits, glancing up at Katherine and pointedly avoiding Vasilka's (icy) glare. "Come over and take a seat."

[deathlessness]

Freya nods, before patting a hand against the seat on the other side of the circle from Stefan. "If all goes according to plan, this won't take long." And things rarely don't go according to plan as far as Freya is concerned, but trying to take on Dahlia is one thing. Trying to take on the witch who created the other side is another.

[manipulative]

All of Katherine's instincts are screaming for her to bolt. It's almost a gut reaction at this point, something so seamless as breathing. When she feels as though she's not in control, Katherine wants to run away — or find a way to gain that control, which often results in either a sharp action or a quick bolt.

It takes her a moment to steel herself, but Katherine takes Freya's invitation and comes to sit. Vasilka keeps her gaze on Stefan before lifting a paw to lick at it. Sparing her a glance, Katherine rolls her eyes — her cat's as bad as she is, posturing, trying to appear bigger than she really is. She almost thinks to pick her up and toss her out, but with her in the room, she almost feels like the playing field is even — after all, no one in the world likes Katherine Pierce besides that fur ball.

"It will go according to plan," she says, an air of confidence surrounding her. "Stefan will remember all the boring journals he's written, and the world will spin correctly again."

[stefanged]

"You say that like you've read them." Stefan raises his eyebrows in amusement, unaware of how she might've acquired them. Considering how easily Damon had found them back home, maybe they were hidden in plain sight? (Or worse: maybe they were something people actually read?) "Should I start writing in code?"

It's a terrible joke - and an equally terrible idea - but when he's pressed against a metaphorical wall, he'll reach for humor and hope it will be enough to sustain him. At this moment, he's realizing, even Freya and Katherine know more about him than he does.

[deathlessness]

"I think that would make it harder for everyone, including yourself."

Freya feels slightly out of the loop on the inside joke - she's never been privy to Stefan's journals nor did she know that he kept them, but neither thing is relevant to the moment at hand. Once Katherine is settled, she'll reach for the knife resting next to her and hold it up for them to see.

"This knife is spelled with the ability to slow your healing. I won't be cutting you anywhere that would cause you to bleed out dangerously, but I also need to maintain that open blood connection until the spell is finished."

[manipulative]

If Katherine didn't feel trepidation slowly crawl down her spine and drop itself into her feet in an attempt to pick her up and send her right through that door, she'd wonder where the hell the fight that's often thrumming hotly inside of her has gone. The notion of prolonging the healing she's taken for granted for five centuries is a scary thought for her, regardless of who her company happens to be.

Sitting up a little straighter, she looks at the knife, studying it as though the search engine in her mind might be able to recognise it — as a weapon to fear? But Katherine refuses to fear anything. The idea of helping and being allowed to help is a strange thought already in itself, one that's already unnerved her.

Her eyebrow arches, almost as a defense mechanism. Katherine keeps her voice even, "Do you know how long this spell will give us? Five minutes of slow healing?" Or is it dependent on Freya's witchy mumbo jumbo to stitch her skin back together?

[stefanged]

Magic always came with a price - Stefan just didn't realize it would be their blood. His eyebrows almost shoot towards his hairline as he peers at the knife.

"Or more, if we're especially unlucky," he murmurs, as if suddenly realizing how much this will hurt. (As much as a Wonderland event? Or perhaps even more?) Taking a far deeper breath than usual, he reaches for his sleeves and starts rolling them up, inch by inch.

This might all be for his sake, but he doesn't want to hold them up on his (frankly, terrified) behalf.

[deathlessness]

She shakes her head quickly, to put those thoughts at ease. "It will simply be normal human healing and the cut won't be very deep. You won't be under any risk at all."

She wouldn't put them under the thrall of a spell that would intentionally harm either of them. She just needs a little blood to get the magic going and to help build the bond between them, and fast vampire healing will not aid that cause, unfortunately.

"The spell hopefully won't take very long, either."

[manipulative]

That's what Katherine's most afraid of — healing as slow as the average human. It's not something she can control, nor is she even used to it. But she keeps her uncertainties at bay, pushing past them with a deep inhale through her nose. Back straightening just a little, she peers at Freya, then studies Stefan.

If he's afraid, then she supposes it's right that he should be. Five hundred years she's spent running from her memories, fearful of some tracking her down and gripping her tightly, but never has she ever had them wiped from her memory properly. Being released of the compulsion she'd been under is now a distant memory of her own, but she remembers how it'd made her lose her footing, even years now as she recalls choices that should've been hers to make.

"I know what memory I'll focus on," she says, looking down at the ground. It's as benign as one could ever be between them, an old, forgotten moment Katherine hardly ever replays inside her own head. She looks to Stefan, and finds herself feeling more sincere than she'd like. "Do you trust me?"

[stefanged]

"More than I trust the world," he says softly, and with far less courage than he'd like. Stefan can't remember the last time he's ever felt this terrified, even with Freya's vote of assurance.

Logically, he knows what kind of person he is, and he knows what he's done. But it's one thing to know and another to remember and feel them as if they were a part of him. Memories are important. They'll define him in a way that his actions won't, and in regaining those pieces of him, he's also afraid that he'll lose what he has here. In this world.

He presses his lips together, finally daring to look over at Freya. "That um, that goes for you too."

[deathlessness]

Freya nods before holding out her free hand in front of her. It won't hurt, and it hopefully won't take long, but they have to begin sooner rather than later.

"You hands, please?"

She's mostly the conduit in this. There isn't really much more for her to say.