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[The alternate universe was complicated for Clementine, because her life was far better in that alternate world than it actually is. She was happier. She had more fun. Living wasn't as difficult for her even if she was used to survival even then. More than anything, she had so many friends who she could count on, who she could trust. It's those relationships at Hogwarts which stick with her most, and it's why she's been seeking those people out even though she knows no one will be exactly the same (just like her).]

Hi. This is Clementine. Maybe this is weird. I don't know what people are supposed to do after Events like that one. [It wasn't real but it felt real at the time, and she cares.] I'm just doing what I want, and I wanted to get in touch with you. Do you remember me from that other life?

[ it'd be easy to simply say no. it'd leave katherine alone and at peace, but she's found that peacefulness had been attached to loneliness. the event had only brought about what she'd been running from for five hundred years — she has nothing but her shadow, the one familiar shape that's been twisted out of it, to keep her company. ]

[ she remembers clementine easily. the girl had made her laugh, and had made her feel as though she had a purpose in hogwarts. it'd made her feel … almost human, in a sense, and katherine isn't so sure of what to do with those feelings in her hands. but she finds herself wanting to answer. ]

[ when she decides to tap into that girl she'd been for the event — katerina petrova — her voice is as warm as it had been then, but it's more throaty than before. ]

Have you been making up any good stories lately?

[ yes, clementine, she remembers you fondly. ]

[clementine smiles at the familiar voice and at the fact she responds at all (she didn't have to, clementine is aware of that too).

it's different than what she remembers but similar, familiar. no one is going to be the exact same people they were in that other universe, world, life. she was free from walkers and endless loss and betrayal. a lightness had been in her heart which clementine doesn't think she's ever felt before (as a child before the apocalypse, she was completely innocent so she was completely free from any heaviness. the girl at hogwarts had some darkness, something a bit heavy but also light too as if she could still see the meaning between right and wrong, because it mattered).]

No, not since I've been back. I've only ever made up stories like that with you.

It was more fun than I've had in a long time. You think Wonderland needs stories made up about it too?

[ she laughs. ] Have you read the book? Wonderland could use a few stories to bring it back down to earth.

[ wonderland's a little mad, and while that's enjoyable for those who wish to be whisked off to an incredibly crazy world, katherine isn't one of them. she likes her mundane little towns locked away in the darkest unseen corners of the map. but that's only because she's never had anyone to tell her stories, made up or autobiographical, to. ]

It could actually use a few. Some of the things those characters say on the network is incredibly uninspired.

[ she's quiet for a moment, before she says, more quietly, ] I had fun, too.

[ elena has looked everywhere.

everywhere, of course, except the one place she likely should be looking. she's resisted it, despite her instincts telling her that she's right. problem is, she can only resist for so long. elena's capital sin is not pride, and she does love her little furball. they've bonded a lot ok, don't judge. ]

Have you seen my cat?

[clementine smiles, warm, quiet.] No. I watched the cartoon, but I never got a chance to read the book. I should since I'm here.

[she didn't consider it, and it seems so stupid that she didn't. she thinks about reading for survival because of that event, because of her conversation with katherine then. she's used to survival being action (movement, violence, hiding, lying, pretending, sneaking). but in wonderland, it gets more complicated. information (even fiction) can be useful.]

They're strange and unhelpful. If we can't figure out what their deal is, we can make up our own. I like that better.

[she sort of wants to hit them until they say something that means something.] We should do it here too so it can be real for us. I mean, it felt real, but...

[ what are the chances of elena texting her again if katherine doesn't reply? ]

[ she thinks she has more of a chance being elected president tomorrow. ]

No.

[ she didn't even look. oops. ]

[ a lot of things begin to feel not real when you've lived for over five centuries. events begin to blur, people become forgotten — katherine sometimes feels as though she's not quite present. her feet never quite touch the ground, given how fast she continues to run. even now, in wonderland, she's running from something — and clementine brings it all back for her, even if she doesn't quite know it herself. ]

[ katherine's used to being mean, and in turn, she's used to people not quite wanting to get to know her. unless she's gone out of her way to purposefully elicit such a reaction, she's often alone — and quite not well-received by anyone who comes to know her. ]

[ a part of her wonders how long it'll take for clementine to see that. but she locks that thought away. ]

You can borrow mine. Unless you enjoy taking from the closet, then you should be incredibly picky about the edition and cover you choose. [ it's only the best for katherine pierce, after all. she's had a head start on clementine; five hundred years, living during the author's time — she's read every edition with every cover to simply pass the time. ]

[ she thinks to leave it there, but something within her leaps forward, and her voice is much lower, ] It was real. If you want it to be. Wonderland shouldn't ever be given the power to determine that.

[ u g h.

damn you, iskra. ]

You really mean that? [ with katherine, elena can never be too sure, but maybe her instincts were wrong. at least, she can hope. ]

[ … no. ]

[ if katherine turns her head, she'll find the black cat she remembers a little too well sitting and staring at another cat katherine doesn't know at all. she's lying on her bed, a book in front of her, and all she wants to do is forget she hadn't minded having books before her and ink staining her fingertips. ]

Does your cat have your name on it?

[ petty katerina lines are a go!!! ]

[clementine smiles a little at that. she didn't even know about their being different editions of the book, but it's good to know before she headed off to the library or the closet and then tried to figure out which was the best version to read. she figures it can't be like the cartoon she saw, because none of it seems like that.

the queen on the other side of the mirror seems much more real, much more human in her edges than the overacting which happened in animation. she wants the right version.]

I want to borrow yours. The right one. Can I come get it now? [she doesn't know where katherine is. a part of her wanted to find her in person instead of going to her like this, but she wasn't sure how she'd be received. some people weren't handling coming back from hogwarts very well. she's... one of them, but the relationships still hold meaning to her whether or not they should.

her throat locks up at the words. she needed to hear them more than she could express, more than she even knew. it matters if it's real, and it matters to her even if she doesn't live it anymore.]

I want it to be. It was real, and it matters. It's just... not mine anymore. I'm not that girl.

[ hogwarts is simply another chance at reinvention. how many shades of katherine pierce has she played over the years? toying with mason lockwood and evading klaus has gotten her this far; shedding herself of the name "katerina petrova" has buried her in the history books so no scholar could track her whereabouts. hogwarts had merely been another attempt at cloaking herself, even though she could literally achieve that with the right spell. ]

[ sometimes katherine misses being a witch, especially one that had a plethora of useful spells and objects in her witchy little cupboard. ]

[ pressing matters first: ]

Of course you are. Some part of you is that girl. Wonderland doesn't turn you inside out and upside down to transform you into a new person.

[ katherine has to know — she'd been turned inside out and upside down to become the one person she never wanted to be again, because katerina petrova was weak. but she's strong enough to climb from whatever abyss she's fallen into to say that. katherine wants to push clementine away, use her for her own benefit, but the only way katherine can take advantage of clementine is to be the person she used to be. it's discomforting; the only way for katherine to move forward in wonderland is to make friends. ]

[ it's almost like she's not going to respond to clementine's question of wanting to come fetch a book she can easily ask the closet for, but after a pause, and a shift in tone: ]

I'm on the third floor. Room 2.

[ this part of the conversation will hurt her very soul.

that stupid cat is lucky elena loves it so much. elena nearly pinches the bridge of her nose, and closes her eyes against the graphic visual of katherine laughing at her for this. katherine, not katerina. it wasn't real, and it will do her good to remember katherine would not think twice about skinning her alive. ]

The cat won't answer to her name anymore, only Iskra.

[ "ugh." ]

[ katherine doesn't even say the stupid cat's name to know. of course it's elena's cat. that's the way her life rolls itself out, isn't it? she gets her windswept wild looking thing of a feline monster from a previous life that should never have existed, and it attracts elena's things. ]

[ she wants neither. the black cat can get lost and the other cat that had once been an owl can follow suit. ]

I have to hand it to myself, I do know how to name things.

[ let's opt for a non-answer. ]

[ before this event, elena didn't know a lick of bulgarian. now that it's finished, she isn't anywhere close to being fluent, but she can understand it. certain things stick with her, like how much she loved lamb stew, and how their pets wouldn't listen to anything unless it was spoken in the petrova mother tongue. it's nothing elena ever thought about if she could help it. she is a gilbert. she rejected the petrova legacy, along with the flemming legacy, long ago.

it leads to a life of running. it leads to vampirism. all things elena does not want.

and now she's damnably curious, in spite of herself. now she wonders where she truly came from. ]

You're not going to tell me, are you? [ she doesn't even know katherine's room number. ]

[clementine quiets then, trying to wrap her head around it. the girl that she was in that other universe seems so different. she seems so far away in her lightness, in her ability to connect and be real and to be happy.

maybe some part of her is, but there are so many other parts too. there are the parts of her who have killed many people and many walkers, the parts of her that have lost more people than she can count, the parts of her that carver somehow connected to. he said they were alike, and she wanted to deny it (almost did) but she was afraid he was right.

she makes the choices other people can't (or won't), and how did she get so good at making terrible choices? just so she could survive? because it's all she knows how to do when no one else does?]

I didn't think of it like that. So much of what I lived, it was different.

[but it still has to be tied to her, doesn't it? her parents were there. lee was still there. they all still died. she smiles when katherine does answer, pushing herself up to her feet as she heads out of her room]

...okay, I'm on my way.

I'll be here.

[ she's going to have a visitor. ]

[ it's so strange to think it. ]

[ the only times katherine has ever had anyone want to see her had been when damon wished to slip inside of the tomb and quite possibly breathe life back into her rotting body. there'd been times in mystic falls, as lady katherine, where she had people wishing for her to entertain them. but as herself, the woman she is now, she's come to realise not too many people ever want to meet her if it isn't to gain something for their own advantage. ]

[ it's unfair to wonder what clementine could possibly want from her. she already knows the answer if she looks back over the past couple of years (when, in reality, it'd been only a few days of a vivid hallucination) and can easily find her answer. ]

[ it's what she had wanted. it's what she wants — somewhere to belong. ]

[ katherine's door remains unlocked to her larger than life room. clementine will find a thick-furred black cat sitting outside, licking her paws, as if waiting for her arrival. (in reality, vasilka's just waiting for someone to let her in — being in wonderland and not hogwarts has lead to this version of katerina petrova's cat to simply stare at people and hope for them to take pity on her.) ]

What do I get if I tell you? A humanitarian award?

[ brb rofl ]

[ the last thing katherine needs is someone informing her of what a good deed she's done, returning a stupid cat back to its owner. isn't that how it always is with elena? she breathes right, she wins a trophy for it. it's so patronising, being praised for something she would've done centuries ago for it being the right thing to do. ]

[ but that's what katerina would've done. fed it, kept it company, ensured it was healthy and well-looked after before she searched for its owner. what katherine does is ignore it, and hopes it'll fall from a tree or find its own way home without bothering her. instead, two cats lie on her floor, and she's annoyed by the possibility of them leaving fur behind. ]

[ especially the black one. she refuses to remember its name. ]

[clementine knows despite how real the event felt (and despite how some of it must have been based on fact), it wasn't. it wasn't real at all. most of the students are actually adults. most of them aren't actually wizards and witches, and they definitely do not have the same life experiences as they did in that other version of the world, which is gone now. she knows she can't automatically trust. she knows that she can't rely on a friendship built in another universe.

she also knows it's hard for her to connect to people. she's not like... most people, and those connections were important to her. it's what luke said to her. she'd answered wrong, but-

people you can trust. it's what's most important. people to watch your back. getting there, it means taking risks.

she stops in front of the door, looking down with a little smile at the very familiar cat. she's cautious around animals ever since sam. something the hogwarts version of her didn't remember.] Hello again.

[she reaches up, knocking and then opening the door for the cat before she takes a step inside too she takes in the sight of the very large, very beautiful room in front of her, and her one and only response is:]

Holy shit!

[ wonderland, give her patience.

it would be all too easy to engage in a bickering spat with katherine, but elena has no desire to. she isn't looking to go to katherine with pitch forks and she isn't particularly searching for the goodness in katherine. she saw it in katerina, but katerina is long gone now. ]

No, Katherine. You get a needy cat off your hands.

[ everybody wins. ]

[ she knows she could milk this a little more, but there's nothing of elena's katherine wants. if anything, she wants to be left alone with no reminder of how she'd felt. it's been an impossibly long while since katherine's felt anything close to whole and happy — and speaking to elena right now stings. ]

[ it isn't because of their relationship they'd had that makes her repulsed by the mere notion of talking to her. it's the relationship that had died with a human boy on a date katherine had learned from a headstone that has her wanting to rip her own skin off. the stupid cat that the closet had supplied her with is akin to pouring numerous bottles of alcohol on an open wound. ]

Tea Room, Third Floor. 5 minutes or the cat learns to fly.

[ if vasilka could speak, she'd say thank you, clementine! but the sweep of her brushing against her legs and darting into the room to magically appear on the windowsill to stare out at the grounds is all she can muster. she's grateful for clementine's opposable thumbs, and perhaps will show it much later when she's not enrapt in being let in where she'd otherwise been tossed out. ]

[ katherine appears, not quite as quickly as a vampire but with her long strides it's quick enough, and she looks at clementine with slight apprehension before it disappears almost immediately. she's still the same girl she remembers, even if her corners may be a little more sharp with how jagged they are. ]

[ she glances up at her ceiling, her smile remaining as she appears more like katerina and less like the smug katherine she's come to be. ]

Do you like it? Sometimes I think it's a little too much.

[ elena closes her eyes in acquiesced relief.

she'd much rather focus on the safe exchange of her cat than the event they both lived. as complicated as her feelings for katherine are though, elena wants the same thing, strangely enough. peace. they've been leaving the other be, and if it wasn't for this event, that likely would've continued to be true.

not wasting any time, she arrives at the tea room a minute too soon. ]

[clementine looks up at katherine as she steps into the room. there's a gun at clem's side in its holster, but otherwise, she looks like an ordinary eleven year old with a hat on her head from her father and the blue jacket with a rainbow across it. she hasn't really been able to figure out her own style or what she'd want to wear. the blue jacket's familiar even if it's tied to a really painful place.]

It's... big. [for her own room, iris had to help her figure out how to decorate it and what to include. she couldn't think of anything so grand and amazing. she likes it.] Did you have a room like this where you're from?

[ katherine makes herself comfortable in a chair by a table. with her legs crossed, she ignores both cats. the one she's unfortunately most familiar with sits on the table closest to the entrance to the tea room, tail sweeping along the surface as she stares and stares. vasilka looks as windswept and heavy with fur as ever. ]

[ the other's in her lap, and she's doing her best to not touch it at all. it's the first time katherine pierce will ever look like she's not comfortable — elbows pressed against the arm rest of her chair with a beast that's trying to wrap itself around her. she's the monster most stories speak of, but she refuses to toss this fur ball from her lap as though it may give her something if she so much as brushes its fur with her arms. ]

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