& Together we will rebuild our future. Together.

[luthored]

Who: Lana 'Luthor' & Guests (Clark, Lois, Oliver, Damon, Raenef, & Homura)
What: After the castle evicts everyone, Lana opens up her home in the city as a shelter.
When: Any time between the 2nd and 4th! (There will be daily sections, so tag in at your leisure!)
Where: Lana's house.
Rating: PG for now.
Links: Sunday Morning | Monday | Tuesday AKA

Comments

SUNDAY MORNING | BACKDATED | OPEN TO ALL VISITORS

[luthored]

Everybody had their sleep disrupted shortly after midnight, and who knows if anyone actually managed to get back to sleep even with a roof back over their heads.

Regardless, Lana will be up, dressed, and puttering around in the kitchen at 7 AM sharp, so anyone in the living room may have trouble sleeping in! She'll try to be quiet, but what with the smell of coffee, eggs and toast filtering throughout the house, that may not be such a sad thing.

Feel free to take your breakfast and run, or sit at the kitchen's bar and socialize with the other house guests and busy hostess. Whether you like it or not, you will be forced to drink either coffee or orange juice. Does it taste funny? You're just imagining things.

Meanwhile Shadow the puppy is trying to lure Lana into giving him some bacon. He's just so cute when he begs, sitting on one of the bar stools...

[yeahihidmypants]

It's definitely not extremely early when Oliver manages to swing by Lana's place. He'd already taken a ride out to the part of the city where he was pretty sure he'd lived when he was a gardener. It wasn't one of his favorite losses, but if it provided extra living spaces, he'd deal with sharing the story.

Fortunately for him, or maybe unfortunately, the place he'd lived in was still standing but not much more than a one room shack. Apparently, mowing people's lawns wasn't as profitable as he'd remembered. The closet where he'd locked up the Monarch had still been there. Laughably, the ropes were still around the base of the chair that was still in there. He made sure to clean up, but he left it the way it was and just headed back to Lana's.

Knocking on the door, he heard the dog bark, "Lana?"

[luthored]

After making sure that certain people had plenty of food options, she left them to their own devices to hurry downstairs and answer the door. Of course Shadow is more than a little excited when Lana opens the door to reveal Oliver. She starts to hold him back, only to notice the object of her concern is nowhere to be seen.

Pursing her lips, she glances back up to Oliver with a raised eyebrow. "Where's Sansa? Did you lose her again?"

[yeahihidmypants]

Instantly on the defense, he lifts his finger in argument, "I can't be blamed this time. I was on patrol when the castle kicked everyone out. She was asleep on her bed when I left. I can only hope that she'll be safe in there."

He crouches down to give Shadow a bit of attention, scratching behind his ears, "I'll make sure to track her down the moment we're let back in."

"Everyone already here or are they trickling in as they realize they're not getting back in?"

[luthored]

Looking like she might just be on the verge of a headache, she reaches up to rub at the side of her neck, brow furrowed in irritation. "I guess we could ask Clark to look around when he's up to it... But it sounds like animals weren't evicted the same way people were."

With a little shrug, she steps aside so he can enter, patting her leg to signal that Shadow needs to get his little butt back inside as well. The last thing she needs is to lose him in the mass of fallen leaves.

"For now the number's small. But...just as a warning, Damon will probably show up."

[yeahihidmypants]

He stands when Shadow moves away from him, there's a quick glance when she rubs to her neck. He'd ask, but he's pretty sure it's just a lot of things going on all at once. If he catches it again, though, he'll definitely take the time to ask.

At the mention of Damon, his eyebrow lifts giving her a curious look. "If this is how you're handling it, I think you should really stop with the whole 'Friends close and enemies closer' mindset."

He trusts her to be careful, but he's not sure he can trust Damon. Not that he actually knows Damon, but from what he's heard -- the guy isn't exactly misunderstood. He shakes it off, though, knowing she doesn't want an argument.

"I won't argue, it's your house, but I'm not thrilled to hear this."

[luthored]

She steps back and glances over her shoulder up towards the stairs, then back to him, tapping her ear gently to signal for him to watch his wording. Clark doesn't know anything about it, and for now she'd rather keep it that way.

"I know he's not everybody's favorite person, but he was evicted too, and it's better that he stays here rather than roam around town annoying people."

Or, really, biting people...

"I haven't officially invited him over, yet. Don't worry, I've taken precautions like I would for any other troublemaker."

[yeahihidmypants]

There's a bit of relief in his expression, but he also wonders why it's Lana's responsibility to house someone like Damon. He's certain that there are countless villains and other vampires that possibly are better fitted to provide for him.

"Do these precautions include how he's going to be fed?" Okay, he said he wouldn't argue, but that does really happen to be a good point that he's got.

"I mean, I did go out to my old place when I was on a loss. Not that being a gardener was exactly a profitable career. My shack isn't as big as I remembered, but there's still a chair and a closet and some rope."

He's grinning now, because he knows that isn't the best solution, but it is an amusing one.

[luthored]

That just makes her roll her eyes, one hand perched on her hip as the other one reaches out to push against his chest. Okay back out the door, buster. Don't worry, it's not an eviction. She's joining him on the front porch, pulling the door shut behind her.

Really, with Clark's skills it's useless, but she also knows that Clark's not going to go out of his way to eavesdrop without a good reason. No need to give him one.

"If I do decide to let him stay, I can go get some pig's blood or something from the local butcher. I know this isn't an ideal option, but it's better than Stefan, isn't it?

He's actually off trying to make sure that Stefan is locked up again before he comes over. At least he's showing initiative."

[yeahihidmypants]

His steps move backwards pretty easily, back out the door and onto the porch. He leans against a post, listening to her lay out her compromise to feed a vampire and nods along.

"You trust him to follow through with his initiative? I mean, I can say I'm locking up Big Foot, but that doesn't mean I'm following through with it." His arms fold over his chest, glancing at her. He does trust her to make the right choices, but he's also seeing a blind spot slowly being built up around Damon.

It reminds him of Lex.

It's a reminder he doesn't like having.

"I worry, Lana." His tone is extremely sincere and he knows that she doesn't need someone to worry about her, but he watches out for people, it's part of who he is. He can't just not worry about a friend.

[luthored]

"That's why I'm taking precautions to make sure everyone in my house is as safe as can be. But Stefan is his brother, and even to someone like Damon, that means something."

Tongue in cheek, she folds her arms. She's had all night and all morning to contemplate the million directions this decision could take her. Back-ups for back-ups. She's still not sure she'll ever be prepared.

"He promised that he'll behave if I help him. He doesn't have my trust, but he at least deserves the chance to try and earn it, doesn't he? Even Lex deserved a chance once upon a time. He just blew it one too many times."

[yeahihidmypants]

"There's a difference between giving someone another chance back home and here. Here, people are given a clean slate -- if they're lucky. The thing is that here, with that clean slate, he decided to act out, Lana. He made the choice to pick up habits when he could've done something different."

Oliver can't help but be reminded of all the dangerous people that have ended up in this place and hadn't picked up their old habits. Damon wasn't one of those.

[luthored]

That just makes her lean back, arms folded as she surveys Oliver carefully. Maybe he'd put the pieces together himself, since it was all suspicious, but she hadn't told him what had happened. What Damon was responsible for, that Wesley had caught him... Any of that. As far as the public knows, Angel was the only vampire in the spotlight, and most have forgotten that. If anything, Stefan looks the most suspicious after that one post of his...

"What bad habits? How much do you actually know about Damon, other than the fact that he's an ass who did happen to save my life?" She hates herself immediately for it, for playing dumb, but it's done and she can't backpedal.

[yeahihidmypants]

Maybe Oliver didn't have all the pieces, but he was friends with Cordelia, he did know that she was friends with Angel and that he trusted Angel over any other random vampire in the castle -- simply for that association. He didn't have to piece it all together, but if the comparison was made to Lex, if Lana was already stating that he deserved a second chance, not that he deserved to be held accountable for what he did back home... he wasn't an idiot.

"I know that you wanted Crowley and I to look into it, to see what we could find and then suddenly you dropped the hunt. The Lana Lang I know only drops the hunt when she knows she has an advantage over the situation. Whatever it is that you're holding over his head had better be enough, Lana."

[luthored]

Her nails dig into her sleeves, biting against her skin as she glances away and tries to fashion an acceptable response. She can't be angry with Oliver. He's right, and he's worried about her, and she knows that. But she's sick and tired of people worrying over her.

"I dropped the hunt because the vampire that attacked me is currently in rehab, or something like it. He was what I was worried about, and right now he's being monitored and handled, and there's really nothing more I can do about it.

Besides, did either of you actually find anything? Were you of any use? Whatever I found, or learned, I did it on my own. I didn't need your help then, and I don't now. All right?"

[yeahihidmypants]

His jaw steeled at her pointed accusation of not being helpful enough. Swallowing back whatever resentment he was letting build up about the situation he shook his head and took a step away from her.

"You're right. I befriended Caroline, but she didn't confess any deep dark secrets to me. She helped me find Sansa, but that's it. Everything else I found was the exact same information you could've gotten from the journal. It's fine. Tell me I didn't do enough, Lana. Just don't ever mistake that for not being concerned or having your back. I've stood by your plans, your plottings every time they've come to light. I've told Clark and Lois to back off, on your behalf, because I trusted that you knew what you were doing