Caroline Forbes (
vampireboulevard) wrote in
self_inflictedexhile2019-09-26 08:46 pm
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tvd / nysm } { the salvatore school for the young and gifted

Nestled just on the outskirts of the tiny town of Mystic Falls, Virginia is the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. As far as most of the town is concerned, the school is exactly how it's marketed - a boarding school for rich and gifted students - but a few are aware of it's real origins.
A school for young supernatural students, so that they can grow up somewhere where they didn't have to hide.
The headmaster is actually much older than she looks, having not aged a day since she was seventeen, but she's learned to dress herself up to fit the part. Her long hair is swept up into an elegant twist, her pant suit is perfect and polished, and her makeup is appropriately adult. Still, there's not a lot that can hide the youthfulness of her features no matter how hard she tries.
She's standing at the front of the school, watching as the car pulls up in front before flashing the man who arrives a bright smile and wave. Once he emerges from the car, she waves and makes her way closer to shake his hand.
"Mr. Rhodes. Welcome to the Salvatore School."
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On one hand, through centuries of careful breeding and ritual and so on, the wolves of the Eye of Horus are not entirely the same as your average werewolf. He actually does have an allergy to silver, for one, and his bite is contagious, for another -- it's how he managed to bring the Horsemen in, despite none of them, except Jack, being werewolves to start. Not to mention the fact that, as far as the first change goes, they don't actually have to kill anyone, to trigger it -- though that's a secret they guard fiercely. Your first change happens, if you were born into it, when you hit puberty, or if you were bitten, on your first full moon after. Even if it's not the case anymore, his hands were clean, when this all started for him.
On the other, though, the pack mentality most other werewolves have is still going strong in the Eye, and -- fuck, the kids here are just kids, and probably don't understand a whole lot of what's happening to them, or are having trouble dealing with the aggression that comes with all of this, or whatever. The list goes on, really, and he feels the need to be here, to try and help, and so here he is.
On the other other, he hates leaving the Horsemen alone, never mind the fact that they can take care of themselves, and really, he can see them whenever he feels like. He hates leaving his day job at the FBI, where Fuller is still learning to deal with all this shit, because oh, yes, he bit him, too, the whole thing a mutual decision, after Fuller found out what he was, to give him a little extra survivability, when he, personally, has been shot twice in the last few months. He hates the fact that, while he has arrangements made for nights of the full moon, he probably won't be able to join the Horsemen there, because what kind of teacher would he be, if he fucked off, when the kids probably need him the most. He hates that there are fucking vampires here. He --
-- well, you get the picture.
Regardless, however, he manages to summon up a smile of his own as he gets out of the car, and moves to meet her halfway, taking her hand in his for the shake, once they're face to face.
"Dylan," he corrects as he steps back. "And yeah, thanks." It looks more like a summer camp, here, than his mental image of a 'boarding school', but he's not going to tell her as much.
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She knows that most werewolves have issues with vampires as a general rule, and she can't say she blames them. Vampires have largely treated werewolves like garbage, due to the fatal nature of their bite. But Caroline is trying to change that, to teach them to coexist when they're young and hopefully help build a brighter future.
"I'm really glad you showed an interest in our school. The werewolf students could really use some good role models, and ... understandably when you're a vampire running a supernatural school it's hard to get a lot of werewolves to trust you enough to even come in for an interview."
And she doesn't begrudge them that. "We do have a working relationship with the Crescent wolf pack in New Orleans, which is where a good portion of our wolf students are from, but we also have a lot of students who have only just turned or were mostly alone so helping deal with these changes is our number one priority."
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A snort follows, at the idea that she's been having a hard time getting any werewolves to come in, and while he doesn't comment beyond that -- well, it's really not hard to tell that he's not surprised. He might not be here, himself, if the Eye hadn't already looked into this place and assured him that, despite being run by a vampire, it was safe. He mutters an apology as they continue on.
"How many kids you got, total?" he wonders, after a beat. Whether he's just talking about the werewolves, here, or the entirety of the student population is up for debate. She can answers however she likes.
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She has a lot of work to do before she reaches her dream of inter-species cooperation. But she's willing to put in the work if it means a safer world for her daughters, and other children like her. And with that she will lead her way into the doors of the school, letting in the sounds of dozens of students who are moving through their day to day. And as they pass, aside from the occasional magic spell being practiced on one of the community tables, they seem mostly like average teenage students.
"We have about a hundred and fifty students, most of them witches. Our most robust program is our elementary program, started when our daughters were children. That's why it's mostly witches, most vampires and werewolves aren't turned that young. But as we started expanding to a high school curriculum, we have more diversity. Also I feel like I should clarify that when I say werewolves, we're mostly referring to the seven cursed bloodlines. From what I've been told, your type of werewolf is different?"
She doesn't ask to be critical, she's more asking to be clear. She doesn't want to assume that everyone's experience is the same, and she wants to make sure that she can properly brief Dylan on her own students' needs and histories.
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Even if they're older as a group, on the whole, the Eye haven't always been werewolves. They were witches, first, and what happened to them was meant to be a curse, too, even if they've evolved beyond it, more or less. For the most part, even if changing is the worst pain he could possibly imagine, even if he'll never go to a fancy dinner party, because silver, it's seen as a gift, now, offered as one. He wouldn't have bitten Fuller, if it wasn't, not to mention the kids.
"But yeah," he continues, irregardless and after a beat, "we're a step or two removed from the standard." He wonders, briefly, who's been talking and why. He has visions of, if not Caroline specifically, then some vampire, somewhere, capturing one of them and torturing them for information. He tries to put that out of mind, tries to tell himself that whoever she touched base with, to get him here in the first place, probably filled her in on a little, but he doesn't quite manage.
He manages to keep himself from shaking his head before he asks, "How much do you know about my pack?" He's not going to give away all of their secrets, if he doesn't have to.
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Which is really all she needed to know, to know that they were different. And she hasn't dug too much in, as nosy as she would like to be, because she knows that some information needs to be earned, and she wants to show that she can be trusted to wait for them to bring some of the information to her.
"Our usual type of werewolf is exclusively genetic, with a curse triggered when they kill someone. For most of our students, it was either an accident or self-defense. Some of the students knew the risk, some didn't. A lot of our werewolves are orphans that were adopted or in foster care, and they didn't have anywhere else to go."
And as she says that she'll pause at the entrance to one of the gyms where the school "pack" hangs out. There's a lot of rough housing and other athletic activity, and the students are mostly male, but there are a few girls in there, who give as good as they get. There's no real cohesion to the group, and there's one student who's on the outside of all of them, sitting on the bleachers and seems intently involved in his homework.
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And what a clusterfuck his childhood had been, as a result -- especially considering the fact that, while he wasn't exactly an orphan, his father died before he could explain things to him, and his mother had no idea what to do with him, beyond stay away on nights of the full moon. She'd known what Lionel was, yes, but she'd been human, herself. He would have killed for someone to help him through this shit when he was a kid; again, he wants to be that someone, for these kids, now.
"But yeah, my bite passes the curse along," he finishes.
A pause follows, as they reach the gym and he takes a moment to look over the kids. When his eyes fall on the one student sitting by himself, he nods to him, asks, "What's his story?"
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Still, she lets the particulars of werewolf genetics fall to the side for a moment when Dylan addresses a specific student in the room. "That's Rafael Waithe. He's new, both to the school and to being a werewolf. He had his first full moon just last month. He was also in the foster care before this, so we anticipated he would be a little slow to warm up, but he's making good progress so far." The true adjustment had been being separated from his best friend, but they're adjusting to the compromises there, slowly but surely.
Rafael looks up at the sound of his name, supernatural hearing and whatnot, and he turns towards where Caroline is speaking. She gives him a small wave, which he returns, but he doesn't move from his spot on the bleachers, just eyeing the unknown adult next to her and listening to where the conversation goes from there.
If the other wolves notice Dylan, they don't seem to care, too engrossed in their game.
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"I got ... five kids, at home." He uses the term 'kids' loosely, includes both Merritt and Fuller in that number, despite the fact that they're grown men. They're also new to being werewolves and they're his, even if they're not his, so they count. "One of 'em was in the system, too. Two of the others ... " Probably should have been, given how abusive Daniel's parents were and how neglectful Henley's were.
He shakes his head faintly before he continues, "I know how rough it can be." A beat. "And I know, personally, how much it sucks, losing your friends." Considering his mother cut him off from all of his father's friends, from other werewolves. He wonders how much different his life would have been, if he'd had them to help. "But, at the risk of sounding like one've those self-help motivational posters, it gets better."
He'll find his family, his pack. Dylan did.
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"It does. We just want to be able to help them through the worst of this part." These are the complicated times where they could really hurt someone if they weren't careful. And all Caroline wants to do is save them from the mistakes she herself has made.
And since Rafael has diverted his interest, Caroline turns to continue with the tour. "At least for most students, they only have one aspect of the supernatural to contend with. That isn't the case for all of them however."
Before she can continue, another student rounds the corner to collide with their path. She glances between the two of them, lingering on Dylan for a moment before directing her attention to Caroline. "You actually found a werewolf to teach here?" The girl herself is a werewolf, that much is certain from the distance between them, but there's also the scent of magic that gives her away as a witch, followed by the barest trace of what might just be vampire.
"Case in point," Caroline sighs. "Hope, this is Dylan Rhodes. Dylan, this is Hope Mikaelson."
Almost immediately, the girl's eyes are on Dylan again, though it's unclear if she's waiting for recognition or backlash. Mikaelson, after all, is one of the more famous names in the supernatural community, given the way that the Mikaelson family - her infamous hybrid of a father in particular - had cut a bloody swath through the world, but its hard to tell what a person will do with the idea of a younger, seventeen year-old Mikaelson who's still trying to find her place in the world in the wake of her father's death.
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On one hand, she's a fucking Mikaelson. On the other, children shall not be put to death because of their father's and all that. Hope's just a kid, and being here, being socialized away from her family, she might not end up as batshit insane as her father was. She might end up being a real force for good, in what's, yes, a confusing time for her and her peers, so he's trying to reserve judgement. For now.
That in mind, he tells her, "Yeah, she found a werewolf to teach here." And a witch, too, maybe, considering he smells like magic, too. It's faint, strange somehow, the Eye only having managed to reclaim a fraction of their talent beyond the curse, but it's there. He, too, had more than one aspect of the supernatural to deal with, growing up.
Regardless, after a beat, he sticks out a hand. "Nice to meet you."
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"I think I'm going to go for a run."
Caroline nods. "I'll make sure the students stay out of the back woods. Let me know when you're back."
Hope nods, and off she goes, heading towards one of the side exits that lead into the woods.
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She could have at least shaken his damn hand.
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Which she knows probably isn't the thing he wants to hear giving that glowing introduction but she also knows that Hope is a good kid, not just deep down but in the day to day. Her struggle isn't doing the right thing so much as connecting with people. She'll save the day, but she doesn't have a lot of friends.
"She's a good kid, she's just ... lost a lot. And people have been trying to kill her to get to Klaus since before she was born. Trust for her is ... hard." She pauses before gesturing for him to follow her. "Which I know is no excuse for terrible manners but when you're dealing with often times traumatized teenagers there's only so much you can do in that department."
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Daniel's father might not have tried to kill him, but he sure wasn't far off, either. He doesn't envy Daniel that; he wishes he could have gotten to him sooner. He wishes he could have gotten to them all sooner, for all that their experiences pre-Horsemen sucked.
"He's kinda got the same thing going on," Dylan finishes. "Slow to trust, kind of a dick until you get to know him, that kinda thing." Hell, Daniel still wears his fast-talking brand of sarcasm as a kind of armor around them, even if he trusts them, even if they can all see past the bullshit, at this point. "So, yeah. I get it."
And he'll try and reserve judgement, even if his knee-jerk reaction is to bristle. Blame the fact that she's a Mikaelson -- or that, even with werewolf in the mix, she still smells so strongly of vampire.
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Things have been steadier in recent years, with Freya, Vincent, and the rest of the pack in New Orleans, but losing her mom had been a heavy blow. Add her father and uncle on top of that, and it only makes things even harder.
"Her father's trust issues are genetic, apparently."
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"She good with magic, though?" he asks after a beat, on a breath out and regardless of whether or not he thinks he already knows the answer to that one. It's as good a way as any to change the subject so they don't keep talking circles around Hope while not really changing the subject.
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Which is saying something, considering what the Mikaelsons really get up to. "She could probably do with some challenges, if you think you could come up with any."
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"Gimme some time with it," he finishes after a beat.
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He wants to see if there's any places he shouldn't be sticking his nose, and what happens when he does go there. He wants to see if there's something sinister here that he's not seeing and she's obviously not showing. He wants to talk to the rest of the faculty. He wants to eavesdrop on the kids a little more. Take your pick. He's still a cop, a Fed on top of being a werewolf. So sue him if he wants to clear a scene before he walks right on in.
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Caroline's not really concerned because she also knows that the kids are nosy enough that if he gets into anything he shouldn't, he'll have a cluster of students on him fast enough to keep him from doing anything too crazy.
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Either way, after a beat, he adds, "Thanks for the tour." And then he's turning away, heading at first aimlessly, then more purposefully back towards the classrooms. Maybe he'll talk to some of the other teachers here, see how much of the Kool-Aid they're drinking. That seems like a good place to start, he thinks.
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There are other various teachers, on various spectrums of the supernatural world, but these are the ones that the show has told me about so these are the options Dylan can choose from.
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