manipulative | ( ENTRANCEWAY INBOX )

[ when clementine reaches for her hand, katherine doesn't flinch nor tuck them away from her. it's the first time in a long time anyone has reached out for her. elijah has sought katerina, mason had looked for kathy, and katherine had kept herself wrapped up in her own cocoon to keep herself away from both stefan and damon. ]

You're very smart for a girl of your age. [ she tries to keep her voice lacking any emotion, but sometimes she fails at keeping her composure. ]

[ katherine has never acknowledged any instinct she may have that's maternal. when her father had ripped her baby from her mother before she had the chance to even study her face, to see if she had her forehead or the slope of her nose, she had followed his footsteps, as she always had, and had stripped herself of that portion of her life. ]

[ it had made things easier, even if she had searched high and low for a baby she knew she'd recognise on sight and sound, even though she hadn't been able to commit her face to memory. ]

[ hogwarts had seen that instinct within her blossom, with a younger sister and even younger friends. katherine can feel it within her now, despite her attempts to shove it right down inside of her. this time, though, she's not so successful. (she hasn't been for a long, long time, to tell the truth.) ]

I'll try. [ the words aren't weighted, leaving her without being examined thoroughly. katherine's tone and expression is genuine, much like katerina had been. ] I'll try my best not to prove my friend right, but I may need you to help me. And you can do that by telling me something that you like doing. Or want to do in Wonderland, but haven't yet.

I feel older than my age. Zombies aren't good for your health. [it's said with a shrug of her shoulders and then a little smirk too. it's not actually funny at all, but sometimes it's about taking amusement wherever it can be found, and it is the reason she knows how to survive.

she's an apocalypse girl. there's no getting around that. there's no coming back from it. she can't be like other girls her age. she doesn't even know what that means anymore.

but it means the two of them connect. it means there is an understanding between them of survival and what that takes. clementine remembers hogwarts clearly even if sometimes it feels like it happened to someone else. she wants to hold on to that, because she's also learned how important it is to have someone that will watch your back

even if that also means there's more to lose. people don't die permanently here like they do back home.]

I'll do what I can. [it's a promise too, accepting her offer to try for what it means.] ...that's harder. I haven't had much that I liked doing since the apocalypse started. I've been trying to figure it out since I got here. There's a youth center.

[she hasn't been, but maybe it'll give her a better idea of what she should try to be into.]

And there's a whole big rabbit hole out there for you to explore.

[ her demeanour shifts as she straightens her back, her expression shifting into one that's more open and warm. it's not a face katherine wears much these days, but she can't say it doesn't feel nice to frame her features and make her look more approachable than normal. ]

[ she glances over her shoulder toward where her closet's hidden behind a wall. her eyes narrow as a light bulb appears above her head. voice slightly distant, ] And in that closet. [ she turns back to clementine, looking at her a little differently before. ] What have you asked the closet for? Curious minds would like to know.

[ curious katherines like to know, but it isn't for anything sinister. katherine may need some time to mull over the presence of zombies, but she can think quick on her feet when it comes to not having much, and never having an opportunity to have much. ]

Paint to paint my walls, but I used to like art stuff. Food. Weapons. I got a TV too, but the shows I used to watch, I'm not really into anymore.

[it doesn't help she was eight years old when the apocalypse started so her tastes were very childish, and now she's grown up too fast. she has grown up faster than she even knows how to deal with or what to hold on to and what not to.

she appreciates the way katherine asks, and it eases clementine into it like she's not expected to give right answers or even answers at all.]

I want to get back into reading. I used to love it.

[ clementine's list is enough to give her an idea of what she's trying to introduce into her wonderland life. paint to change the walls of her room, perhaps to give herself a makeover. food to feed herself, brought on by a possible distrust in the tea rooms and kitchen provided in the mansion. weapons are a given, even though katherine's beginning to learn they're never quite available in the circumstances of particular events. ]

[ there's a missing element covered by those television shows. clementine seems to be currently working out how to live without the need to watch her back, prepare for the worst, or reinvent herself. ]

[ playfully, katherine taps her chin with her index finger, expression shifting into thoughtfulness. she even hums, just to add to it. being playful isn't something she's used to being, not unless it's to dangle a carrot before a salvatore to get them to jump when she commands it. ]

[ hand dropping away, she purses her lips. ] What kind of books do you like?

Adventure books mostly. My mom used to read me Treasure Island before bed.

[she'd only been first learning to read at that point. she was a second grader, and some of the words in that book were still too big for her, but her mother helped her with them. she doesn't know if she can read that well anymore given she hasn't read in so long, but she wants to practice.

she wants to be good again. she can worry about more than survival now.

she smiles up at katherine]

I'm up for any suggestions if you have a favorite book.

[ katherine's life could be quite the adventure book. it'd be a little on the dark side with hope dwindling out pretty fast to never quite be found again for a few centuries. she has a plethora of stories beneath her fingertips to tell, but katherine's never been a storyteller. she's not stefan, writing in his diaries, keeping note of every little thing she does. ]

[ despite spending five hundred years running, she's spent a good portion of that time beginning to live. reading a book in a cafe in paris had let her blend into the scenery, after all. ]

[ after a moment of thinking it over, she looks at clementine and leans forward, arms resting on her thighs. ] You'll think it's unoriginal. But have you read the book on Alice in Wonderland? It's not a favourite, but it might help you here.

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[action] i love them so much ꒰˘̩̩̩⌣˘̩̩̩๑꒱♡

[action] same sob ;o;

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