self_inflictedexhile | tvd / nysm } { the salvatore school for the young and gifted

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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To say that Dylan has mixed feelings on being here is an understatement.

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.

Edited 2019-10-05 19:42 (UTC)

"Caroline then. I figured we could start with a tour, and I can answer any questions you may have, and we can go from there?"

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."

"Sounds good," Dylan agrees, gesturing for her to lead the way.

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.

She smirks at the snort, before shaking her head. "It's okay. I've been trying to get werewolves to trust me my entire tenure as a vampire, and I know it's not going to happen overnight. Even with you. I just appreciate that you were willing to trust me enough to hear me out."

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.

"Your guys and my guys haven't exactly had the best track record together," Dylan says by way of agreement. And despite not being the same as every other werewolf here, werewolves in general are still his guys, if only because, "I think we share a common ancestor, somewhere."

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.

"Not a huge amount about your pack specifically, just enough to know that you can turn people with a bite, where the werewolves who are here can't."

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.

"It was genetic in my case, too," Dylan tells her, almost absently. "My old man was a werewolf."

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?"

No matter what the circumstances, no supernatural creature seems to have things easy. Even witches, that can be mostly family oriented, struggle with situations where parents are killed, or in the case of the French Quarter witches, can give too easily into tradition. They've all had to work together to make their lives better, and she never wants a child to feel as alone as she or Tyler did when they first turned, or like Bonnie, who felt like they had the weight of the world on her shoulders, and no one to help teach her how to carry it.

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.

For a moment, Dylan gives all of his attention to Rafael, one corner of his mouth ticking upwards into a tentative smile as he makes eye contact. A nod follows, then he turns back to Caroline, the smile fading as something sympathetic creeps in behind his eyes.

"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.

If any of that actually reaches the kid on the bleachers, he does his best to keep it from showing. At best, all Dylan gets is a brief acquiescence of "maybe not a completely out of touch asshole," but it's more than most teachers are getting these days. With that, he goes back to his homework, tuning out for now and letting Caroline continue with the tour.

"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.

Dylan looks briefly satisfied by Rafael's reaction, as minute as it was, that monologue more for his benefit than Caroline's. It fades into something more neutral again, as they continue on, and persists, even when Hope's name is dropped into the conversation, though at that point, it's more poker face than anything else. Yes, he knows who the Mikaelsons are, and -- well, like everything else, he's of two minds on the subject.

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."

Yeah, that is curious. Very curious. But that's not what Hope was looking for an adult for, so she just finishes regarding the new guy, before turning to Caroline.

"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.

Dylan isn't particularly thrilled by how dismissive she was of him, by how she refused to respond to anything he said or, hell, even address him at all. It doesn't nothing to strengthen his opinion of her or her bloodline, and once she's out of earshot, he lets his practiced neutrality dissolve into something much more sour, and grumbles, "Sweet kid."

She could have at least shaken his damn hand.

"Yeah, Hope's ... actually one of the kids I'm hoping you might be able to help with."

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."

Moving to follow her, Dylan lets her get through the whole of the explanation before he blows out a breath, deflating a little. He's still not thrilled by Hope's treatment of him, or lack thereof, but, "One of the kids I got a home? Danny? He's -- well, I'm pretty sure no one's outright tried to kill him, but his home life, growing up, wasn't great."

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.

Edited 2019-12-08 19:51 (UTC)

"She's a good kid. She cast the spell to help us find a lot of the students we do have, and she goes out and helps pull in a lot of kids who don't have anywhere else to go." Caroline rubs her arm as she walks keeping her attention on the hallway in front of them. "But adults have a tendency to shuffle in and out of her life."

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."

"Either that, or it's hard to learn how to trust people when they don't stick around long enough for you to be able to," he says by way of agreement. Again, yeah, he gets it. He'll try and be less bristly about the whole thing until he actually gets to know her, and depending that might not take too long, even if she doesn't warm up to him all that quickly. Daniel, for all his bullshit, has always been an exceptionally easy read, after all, and he's still dangerously good at reading people, even when they're not.

"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.

"Oh, she's one of our most promising students in that regard. Her aunt taught her a lot before she even got here, and she takes to it like a fish to water." She pauses with a small smile. "While they're known for being vampires, it turns out that witchcraft was their real selling feature."

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."

"I might be able to come up with something," Dylan drawls, already thinking about it. His magic will never be as strong or as broad as Hope's, he thinks, for all that werewolves shouldn't even have magic and how hard-won the fight to steal their talents back was, but -- well, puzzles and tricks are kind of their thing, his thing. He'll come up with something to grab her attention and provide a challenge. He might even do it without it being obvious it's from him, like he did the Horsemen, so she doesn't immediately turn her nose up at it.

"Gimme some time with it," he finishes after a beat.

"Good." She nods again, before they reach the back end of the building, and she turns to face him again. "And this concludes our tour. Is there anything else you want to check on while you have me?"

Taking a moment to consider that, Dylan shakes his head. He can't think of anything else he wants her to show him personally, and he really doesn't have any questions -- or, well, not specifically about the school, anyway. After wetting his lips with his tongue, he does start, "I think I'm on board, but ... you mind if I take a walk around on my own, first?"

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.

"Of course. Feel free to browse as you see fit. You have my number if you need anything, or just swing by the administration office."

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.

"I'll let you know," Dylan promises, nodding. "And I'll swing by, when I'm headed out, too." To give her his final decision on whether or not he's sold (though, like he said, he pretty much is), and to let her know he's leaving, so she doesn't wonder where he's gone or what he's getting up to, out of sight.

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.

Well, there are a few teacher options he can choose from. There's the the headmaster, human, who teamed up with Caroline to start this school along with her daughters. There's the librarian, also human, who seems to be more skeptical of Alaric and Caroline's grand dreams for the world they want to create, but still clearly cares for the kids, and then there's the guidance counselor, a witch, who is rather friendly and charming, but mostly works one-on-one with students.

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.

As luck (or the narration rolling dice behind the scenes) would have it, Dylan finds himself in the library. He pauses, just inside the doors, taking it in, comparing it to the archive the Eye keeps in London, and then continues on, keeping an eye out for signs of life. And just so he doesn't creep up on someone and scare the shit out of them, he calls, "Hello? Anybody home?"

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tvd / nysm } { the salvatore school for the young and gifted

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