Fifth Floor Common Room, Monday Night

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena was curled up on the couch in the fifth-floor common room, channel-surfing and looking for something interesting to watch.

She had flipped past Golden Oldies twice before actually leaving the channel on long enough to realize the women were all bitching each other out, having blunt discussions of their sex lives, and then eating cheesecake.

Wow. If she lived long enough to be a cranky retiree, she totally wanted that life.

(OPEN CR IS OPEN!)

Comments

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Totally my favorite," Elena laughed. "She knows what she wants, and she goes after it. No fuss, no muss, no whining. Now that's a girl that knows how to live."

Maybe that was why they were both living it up. Borrowed time, and other such depressing ideas.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"And she got to sleep with that hot model guy a lot," Rose pointed out shallowly. "Waaaay better than Mr. Huge."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"You know, Mr. Huge was hotter when he was on that cops-and-lawyers show," Elena noted. "Maybe he just makes a better cop?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Hotter in uniform?" Rose considered that. "That's a strong yes. Most people are."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena was chewing her lower lip. "Black suits count, right?"

What a very clever and subtle segue that was, Elena!

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes," Rose teased, pretending she didn't follow. "I mean, depending on the suit and stuff, right?"

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

Elena picked up a pillow and threw it in the general direction of Rose's head.

"You're awful," she said.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose laughed, ducking out of the way of the pillow so it flew over the back of the couch. Oops.

"What? Were you referring to a suit in specific?" She teased. "Cause I can think of one veeeeery nice one from the weekend."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"He's never like that," Elena said, shaking her head. "He was acting like a normal person and being all ... social? It's so weird."

And then, because she was apparently twelve ... "So ... still hot in person?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"He was making with the flirting a little bit there," Rose said, giving Elena a slyly amused glance. "So maybe that's what it's like when he's 'there for you'."

Which, omg, awwww. Because Rose also was a child.

"Totally hotter in person," she admitted. "You have awesome taste.". Whcih she already knew, yes.

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"He totally seemed like he was," she said, giving Rose an amazingly weirded out sort of look. "He is never like that. With my luck, he was trying to pick you up and I was misinterpreting the signs."

She needed more ice cream, and was totally picking up her bowl again. "He wasn't supposed to come. Total clusterfuck, on that point. Which reminds me, what happened with your mom?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose gave her a Look. "Yeah, that wasn't trying to pick me up. Don't be dim," she said then grinned. "Wasn't my name he was talking about."

She shrugged, deciding more ice cream was a good idea. "She's a bitch, and she's gone. With luck I won't see her for another five years. Too busy off being a legend and all."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"It's a lot to live up to," Elena said carefully. "If she's a legend, then you have to be twice as good just to not seem like a letdown."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose gave her a sidelong but curious glance. "Yeah. Not that it matters. I'm lucky if I graduate right now." She shrugged. "I don't wanna be like her anyway."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"It's hard to get expelled from this place," Elena said. She should know; they hadn't ever kicked Reno out. "Or is that what they call it when you get to be a guardian?"

She shook her head. "Don't be like her. Anyone who could just ... blow off their own kid like that? Pretty shitty legend."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I have to graduate from here and St Vlad's and pass my trials to get my promise mark and be a guardian," Rose clarified. She gave a quick grin. "Not so worried about this one."

She shrugged. "She had to do the job, right? She has an insane number of molijnas - Strigoi kills. Just - meh, whatever, not worth talking about her. Maybe all the legends are kinda shitty at the beginning."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"The hero thing's way more complex than black-and-white," Elena allowed. "I did some shit for the job that you wouldn't want to hear, but the Company was in charge, so we were the default Good Guys as far as the general public cared to hear of it. Even when we really weren't."

Which, to be honest, was a great deal of the time, but that wasn't the point.

"There were these ecoterrorists blowing things up, and so they were considered to be scary, dangerous criminals. Then they saved the world. They're the Good Guys now. Their body count is just 'collateral damage' and 'necessary evil' and any other gymnastics people want to go through to explain it all away. It's unbelievable."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose's world functioned in almost stark hues of black and white overall, and the idea of her bad guys somehow becoming good was pretty much insane.

"That - had to be quite a turn around," Rose commented, remembering Tseng's statements about changes coming to the Turks. "And probably when the little kids now have kids, they won't even remember the blowing shit up. It'll just be that they saved the world. On unicorns."

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"Probably," Elena said, shrugging it off. "I don't mind them being the good guys. They earned it. It just never ceases to amaze me, how people need their heroes to be squeaky-clean and their villains cardboard cut-outs. So your mom, they call her a legend and they think heroes are supposed to be nice. It's a joke. Life's messier than that."