#celeste wouldn't have chosen something like that for himself

[warlordfelwinter]

dnd is a dress up game right

[crimsonlyinglilly]

No. 24: RADIATION POISONING Collapsed Building

Collapsed Building | Equipment Failure |  “I never knew daylight could be so violent.” (Florence + The Machine, No Light, No Light)

Here's Day 24 of @whumptober 2024, a little late still on catch up.

Familiar Faces - Elijah Gilbert finds he's not as okay with the ancestors as he claimed and even with a thousand years of memories, his temper is that of a nineteen year old boy.

Set TO 1x14

---

Elijah had been angry before, Niklaus and Rebekah missing, Celeste finally acting after he had mistakenly allowed himself to play her game, but that had taken a back seat to the white noise of rage he was now feeling.

“Aunt Sophie was a casualty of war.” Monique had smiled.

Seeing Sophie’s body had caused him to freeze, they had at most been distant allies due to their goals, but she had reminded him of aunt Jenna.

Everything she had done was for her niece and this was how her niece repaid her.

“Now listen her you-” his brother started

“Kol” he called lightly, “Leave us.”

“I'm not leaving you, in case you’ve-” Kol tried to argue normally he’d have a point but he couldn’t be here for this, he’d be a target if Elijah lost control, and he knew he wouldn't be able to regain control if he harmed his family.

“Go.” he ordered, watching the tremor of the brick dust, Kol looked between it and him “trust me on this.” he smiled tightly. “Please” he added after a moment.

“Fine.” Kol snapped before vanishing with inhuman speed.

“Monique,” he turned his clipped words to her, “I recommend you give me what I want. Unless, of course, you'd like me to level this place and everything in it.” he warned.

No promise of her life, he wasn’t going to offer something he knew he would break.

“That won't be necessary. I have a message for you from Celeste.” she told him as she raised her hand towards him.

Elijah allows it, keeping his breathing calm and a control of his magic that wished to lash out at the invasion as he feels the uncomfortable sensation on his skin. He unbuttons the top of his shirt to find an unfamiliar name stark against his skin.

Theresa

Monique continues the spell as he feels what was likely more names until he pulls his shirt sleeve up to find a name he knew.

Sabine

Celeste’s bodies, he assumed and had a brief thought that he hoped the spell maintained itself beyond Monquie’s death.

“To find what you're looking for, follow the path she left behind.” Monquie told him cryptically.

He looked at her and smiled.

He was well aware of the difference between himself now and that of him two hundred years ago, of his original body; Kol’s protectiveness, the time it took him to heal if he didn’t use magic to speed it up, the need for sleep, the lack of hunger for blood. The fact, he now needed to concentrate to channel his original senses, speed and strength and couldn’t keep it up for long before he had to face the backlash of a human body.

But more insidious was the mental change he rarely notices until it was too late, he took foolish risks he wouldn’t have before, acted on impulse.

He might have the memories of a thousand years of life but he was still a teenager, he was starting to understand why he had so much trouble managing his siblings' chaos, it seemed half the time they weren’t going out of their way to make his life difficult, they just truly weren’t thinking.

Most recently it was his attempted relationship with Katarina after she killed Jeremy, the rift between him and Elena and his foolishness of playing along with Celeste’s game. 

Now though he was well aware he was about to do something he wouldn’t have two centuries ago, but he didn’t care, he was too angry.

“I'm sorry.” he told her, honestly.

“What for?” she asked, all pride and confidence, why not she was chosen by the ancestors, had more magic than most witches could dream of.

“I liked your aunt.”

“She didn't believe-” she started,

“In your ancestors,” he finished for her, “that's fair, it's their fault you're going to die.” he paused before adding “Again.” 

“What?” she asked with a smirk, her eyebrow raised in surprise but not a hint of fear, foolish but teenagers made mistakes and it seemed the Ancestors hadn’t paid attention to what their actions had brought forth, fair Elijah himself had been hiding it from himself for two, nearly three lives.

“Had they not led to my current circumstances, you'd get to live.” he said, it was true two hundred years ago he would have left her alive for future use and to maintain peace with the covens in case they needed a witches assistance now there was nothing they could offer that he couldn’t manage himself or get help from others.

He rolled his shoulder and lightly spread his arms while glancing at those around him, the adults who had tensed at his threat to her but did nothing when the ancestors were the ones to threaten and lead them to their deaths, ‘Sheep’ he thought disappointingly, had the witches of New Orleans always been so pathetic? Or it was the teenage arrogance he was letting himself fall into. 

“Interfere and you all die.” he warned.

“What are you talking about?” Monique laughed, gesturing to the rest to step back. “You can’t do anything to us, one half trained witch against us.”

They thought he was just a witch with the memories of his old life, easier to kill than before, but a witch alone without a coven, without ancestors to back him up. A mistake for them and by doing this he would be showing his hand, not all. as long as he kept control but he would be making himself a threat to them.

He was without a coven by choice, Grams had tried, Bonnie too but Elijah couldn’t allow his mistake to affect them. He had made that decision before he knew what it was, back when Grams had first channelled him to find the source of his magic and reacted with horror

“I liked your aunt,” he repeated, “she reminded me of my own and I hate betrayal.” 

He always had and yet forgave his family when they betrayed him and had failed and betrayed those they trusted. Maybe he was a hypocrite but he had never denied that, he would do anything for his family even those he wasn’t happy with.

“She betrayed her kind, went to a vampire to-” Monique began only to stop when he started to chuckle.

He was reminded of Elena with her humanity off coldly threatening aunt Jenna, Monique had no such excuse, other than perhaps the ancestors had forgotten their own humanity over their death and spread it to her.

In a way they weren’t any better than vampires.

“Would you like to know the difference between us?” he asked somewhat patronisingly. 

“I’m stronger, a true witch while you're just a vampire in a temporary body.” she sneered and he almost grinned as he realised he had gotten onto her nerves, understandable he had discovered his own hatred for being spoken to like a child, but it was far truer for her than him.

“True and true,” he nodded, “but I mean between those who like you use ancestral magic and those who use Nature.”

“Do you want a lesson?” she scoffed at him “the ancestors amplify and guild us, they may act as a conduit between us and that of nature but the rewards of their knowledge and wisdom he worth it.”

“There’s another,” he added “witches nature allowed to make a mistake who gain too much power within themselves or find a more twisted way of gaining it.” he explained. “I was taught how to channel nature by a Bennet witch because the magic I hold within me was that type.Normally it isn’t a problem as long as I don't use too much of it I have control.” he shrugged “but my patience and temper isn’t what it once was.”

“You can't beat me.” She claimed, he smiled sadly, all inexperienced and young, a waste of last words but it was her second chance at life, perhaps they were better than her last ones.

Poor Davina, her friend was going to die before she was returned, but with Monique and Celeste deaths, it would increase the chances of Davina’s return.

“You are stronger than me, that is true,” he admitted before changing his words “or better said able to use more power with control but I only need to be stronger for a second.” 

He appeared in front of her channelling his original body’s speed and placed a hand on her chest, the pendent Kol found for him from one of his collections, in hopes to help control his own magic, in his palm.

It hadn’t been of use to them, his magic too entwined with his soul but it was perfect now as he used his magic to tear at hers, it took more than he had used before, to combat the full force of a harvest girl and the ancestors but as he had said it only took a second of surprise to weaken her.

Monique died quickly, faster than her aunt most likely, as he tore her power from her and stepped back letting her body drop.

Her wide eyed confusion might have haunted him if he truly was a nineteen year old witch, but he wasn’t and she was just another person he killed in a thousand years.

He wondered if the ancestors would return her again, when he returned the magic they would need to do it.

“It seems you all forgot who I am,” he declared to the witches surrounding him to ignore the laughing cheers within his own head. “You aren't playing with my baby brother, Niklaus.”

He felt the magic build around him as his own built within him, before the witch could finish their spell he projected his own forwards to send a warning to the witches around him and the ancestors.

The Deveraux mausoleum in front of him cracked and crumbled and the ground and other tombs around him shook.

The magic around him faded as he looked at the witches and they stepped back.

“I'm done playing nice with the ancestors and I'm done allowing Celeste's toy with me.” he told them as he locked the power back away, ignoring the arguments from his mistake as he did so. 

Come one boss, you can do so much more.

“You want your harvest girl’s power back, I want the shard of my soul that Celeste has been using.” He told them as he made eye contact with several of the collective before he turned and walked away. “I’m sure your ancestors can pass that message along.”

The rage he felt towards Monique faded leaving him with the feeling of her last spell on his skin and again his anger towards Celeste returned.

His nose didn’t start bleeding until he left the cemetery and Kol appeared in front of him with a handkerchief and a concerned judgemental frown.

“Really?” Kol asked.

“Please don’t start.” he pleaded as he held the cloth to his nose. His younger brother sighed before slipping an arm over his shoulder and whisking them away from the witches.