[Her eyes softly close just as his memories swarm into her head, as her chest fills with his thoughts and the sensation of what he was feeling in the moment of each of them. It makes sense that he would feel things as strongly as she does, maybe even more so considering what he is, but to have it crashing against her own makes it difficult to process everything properly, to sort what she feels and what he does...
...except it becomes clear rather quickly that that is because it all feels similar, that they were connecting on a level beyond the surface, that they were nearly the same, only counter-acting each other at different points in time.
Each of his crimes against her are played out in startling detail. She can hear her own voice, sometimes angry, sometimes weak, sometimes begging for mercy. Caroline can hear the voices of her friends, suffering at his hands. And he can hear his own misery, echoing in his head as the visions flutter through her brain one by one, in contrast with the apathy he felt in the beginning.
His apathy turned into something else, very quickly. Hers was slower, but that was because she started with hate.
He hurt her, and he saved her, and he lied to her and told her vicious truths. She hurt him, taunted him, tried to understand him, and manipulated him in equal measure. So many people died in the crossfire of both of their lives, and with every one of them all stacked up in such near proximity, it's hard to tell which of them deserved their pain more.
He left, and he wanted her to come to him. Then he came back, and left because she asked him to. She listens to her own voice explain how she felt, hears her own mouth claim that she hates herself for the truth, and it reminds her so much of how she has done such similar things here, without these memories. Tried to push back against something that might be impossible to ignore, that had gotten so deep under her skin that it would never entirely go away.
And she doesn't hate herself. Not here. And it's hard to be as horrified by his actions when she hasn't lived them, when she hasn't endured every little detail in perfect clarity, when the whole experience is colored by Klaus' own internal turmoil over the whole thing. No doubt she thought he only cared about himself as he did these things.
But she knows why now. Seeing it through his eyes? She was no better. He'd said that they were the same, and he was right in so many ways.
Caroline knows where this leads. She can see it in his memories without actually having to witness it, she can hear it in her own voice, and she knows how she feels right now, being in this moment.
And then he breaks it, the visions sucked away from her in the space of a moment, and it feels like being torn away from something very important. Perhaps that's because it's a moment in his life that he feels that way about?
She sucks in a shuddering breath of air, the sound mirroring his gasp, and she realizes as her eyes open that her grip on him is white-knuckle and tight, that her heart is beating faster than it ever has, that she has no idea what she's supposed to do now. Caroline is distinctly aware of how intimate that whole experience actually was, how sharing all this with her couldn't have possibly been anything resembling easy, and it takes her the span of many long moments to remember how to breathe.]
no subject
...except it becomes clear rather quickly that that is because it all feels similar, that they were connecting on a level beyond the surface, that they were nearly the same, only counter-acting each other at different points in time.
Each of his crimes against her are played out in startling detail. She can hear her own voice, sometimes angry, sometimes weak, sometimes begging for mercy. Caroline can hear the voices of her friends, suffering at his hands. And he can hear his own misery, echoing in his head as the visions flutter through her brain one by one, in contrast with the apathy he felt in the beginning.
His apathy turned into something else, very quickly. Hers was slower, but that was because she started with hate.
He hurt her, and he saved her, and he lied to her and told her vicious truths. She hurt him, taunted him, tried to understand him, and manipulated him in equal measure. So many people died in the crossfire of both of their lives, and with every one of them all stacked up in such near proximity, it's hard to tell which of them deserved their pain more.
He left, and he wanted her to come to him. Then he came back, and left because she asked him to. She listens to her own voice explain how she felt, hears her own mouth claim that she hates herself for the truth, and it reminds her so much of how she has done such similar things here, without these memories. Tried to push back against something that might be impossible to ignore, that had gotten so deep under her skin that it would never entirely go away.
And she doesn't hate herself. Not here. And it's hard to be as horrified by his actions when she hasn't lived them, when she hasn't endured every little detail in perfect clarity, when the whole experience is colored by Klaus' own internal turmoil over the whole thing. No doubt she thought he only cared about himself as he did these things.
But she knows why now. Seeing it through his eyes? She was no better. He'd said that they were the same, and he was right in so many ways.
Caroline knows where this leads. She can see it in his memories without actually having to witness it, she can hear it in her own voice, and she knows how she feels right now, being in this moment.
And then he breaks it, the visions sucked away from her in the space of a moment, and it feels like being torn away from something very important. Perhaps that's because it's a moment in his life that he feels that way about?
She sucks in a shuddering breath of air, the sound mirroring his gasp, and she realizes as her eyes open that her grip on him is white-knuckle and tight, that her heart is beating faster than it ever has, that she has no idea what she's supposed to do now. Caroline is distinctly aware of how intimate that whole experience actually was, how sharing all this with her couldn't have possibly been anything resembling easy, and it takes her the span of many long moments to remember how to breathe.]
...oh my god.