018-020 » what he hides

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Western Mathias.
WHEN: Days 018-020
WHAT: The fog recedes!
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Graham Plowman "Edge of Darkness"

DAYS 018-020
THE HIDDEN REVEALED
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
— Benjamin Franklin

As the sun rises in the distance above the sea, the fog slips away from the unsettling town, winding through streets and across buildings until it is nestled soundly in the forest. There it waits, ready to snare any who dare test its limits — residents would do well to remember what happened the last time they encountered the fog so intimately.

With the fog receded, the western portion of Mathias is now revealed and available for exploring. There are more businesses on the town square and even some on the street that runs off the square. The schoolhouse is nestled by the southern treeline, not from the little makeshift cemetery at the end of Jackson Boulevard that is courtesy of a few kind residents in town. To the far north of the square is a sprawling garden, now covered in snow, and a greenhouse that once supplied the botanical shop. And to the west, beyond the square, is another residential district of the same size as that to the east. What is different, however...

These buildings are all in some form of decay. From the beginnings of rot to completely collapsed and little more than a pile of proverbial bones, none of these homes are anything resembling livable. Well, as far as one can tell, at least. For between the streets of Hill Lane and Stine road there is a crack in the earth. A dozen feet across and fifty feet down, the crack extends from one side of the forest to the other, either end cut off by the fog. The view to the other side is clear but there is no way across.


THE NEW ARRIVALS
There are quite a few new faces in Mathias on this day. Awaking throughout Day 018, they will find themselves laying in the snow beside that unsettling crack in the earth, houses both quaint and decaying surrounding them as the snow begins to cover their bodies. Best get inside and warm up, dears.

SPECTRES IN THE NIGHT
The days are short now that winter seems to have set in unseasonably early. Though the clocks in Mathias fail to properly keep time or sometimes even work at all, the sun rises around 8:00am and sets at 5:00pm. There is far more darkness than light in these days, but in that darkness there is, in fact, light.

In the distance all across Mathias, there are lanterns lit against that darkness. Their lights dance across the snow, the warm flickering shining like tiny stars and offering an almost ethereal glow to the crisp white snow. It would be a beautiful sight to behold... if it weren't for the shadowy figures that held them. With partially raised arms, the figures hold the lanterns and walk the streets of Mathias, drifting in between buildings and disappearing into the forest. Still yet, there are some that simply stand in place, as if waiting for something or someone.

No matter where or when these figures are seen, they always seem to be facing away from our residents, and attempts at reaching them are all for naught. They will fade from view if one gets too close, and return to sight when that distance is regained. And in the morning, those lanterns may be found in the snow, their lights extinguished but their glass somehow still warm.

STRANGER IN THE SNOW
Those investigating the western part of Mathias and venturing near that inexplicable crack in the earth will have the most unsettling feeling of being watched. Most of the time, there is nothing there and no one to be seen, but then—

On the other side of that expanse, sitting on a porch, in the shadow of a home, or standing in the oddly moonlit street, there is a man. His features are shrouded in darkness and not much can be discerned about him, but instinct tells you he is dangerous. There is a sense deep in your bones that he is maliciously amused.

He makes no move to speak, nor will he respond to any attempts on your part. Instead, he sits, or he stands, and he watches. By the end of Day 020, all sign of him will be gone, along with the eerie feeling of being watched.

---

LOCATIONS

Unless otherwise noted, all new locations have working electricity and other utilities.

BENEDICT BOOKS Nestled quaintly on the square surrounding the Town Hall, a thick layer of dirt covering the front windows. A portrait hangs at the front of the store to illustrate the namesake of the little shop... that may, in fact, not be so little. Dust covers everything in sight and detritus litters the wooden floor, as if someone left the door open and allowed half the forest inside. (more info)

MATHESON ANTIQUES Also on the town square is an antique store that is a lesson in chaos more than culture. The items within are stacked haphazardly, creating narrow aisles running throughout the space. Furniture, light fixtures, old revolutionary and civil war memorabilia, all of it is jumbled together with no rhyme or reason. Indeed, one wrong move could create an avalanche of aged wood and peeling paint.

POE'S CLOTHES Located on the town square, this shop carries only the basics. Loose jeans in a few sizes, khakis, solid color dress shirts and blouses, flannel in various styles, socks and underwear.

SPIN RIGHT ROUND RECORDS On the square across from the beauty store, the music shop is as dusty as everything else in this town has been. Tables line the walls of the long shop, filled with rows and rows of vinyl records, while a few wall shelves display cassette tapes for sale. One side of the store is for New items, while the other holds the Used section with items for resale. Residents may recognize some of the artists but many are unfamiliar to them.

CLINIC Outside the decayed, crumbling building just north of the square is a still miraculously intact sign with the name of the clinic's doctor, Dr. Ken Suzuki. There is no way to treat patients in this location, but with care, some salvageable supplies may yet be found in the remains.

BARKER BOTANICALS Not quite a flower shop and not entirely an apothecary, the botanical store to the far north of the square is something of an amalgamation of both. With a few broken windows to let in the rain, parts of the shop have been overtaken by nature, the house plants growing beyond their pots and rotted flower petals littering the floor to tell of seasons past. The still unclaimed walls are filled with decaying plants and jars of dried herbs and other vegetation, along with a few essences and tinctures.

GREENHOUSE A few dozen yards from the botanicals shop is a sprawling garden, now covered in snow, and a greenhouse that once supplied the botanical shop. The glass is still miraculously intact, though covered in grime so thick that one cannot see inside.

GALLERY The gallery is essentially a large empty space with framed and matted black and white photographs of the town lining the walls. There is a small selected of prints available for sale near the front entrance, and a few rooms at the back of the building — a dark room for developing photos, a small office, and a locked room.

MOVIE THEATER This single-screen theater is quite small, having only 40 seats, but there is a large collection of movies in its storage room. These are all old film reels however, so hopefully someone knows how to thread a film projector.

HISTORY MUSEUM Across the street from the Historical Society, this once esteemed wooden building has seen better days. Windows and doors are boarded up and there is visible rot and decay on the exterior walls. Part of the roof has fallen in and the accumulating snow threatens to collapse the rest of it as well. It is not wise to venture within.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY This brick building has also seen better days, though in a different sort of way. Where once had been carefully cataloged collections and cozy reading rooms for aficionados of local history, there are now stacks of bankers boxes and weathered tomes in every nook and cranny. There is no organization to any of it, everything seeming to have been stashed in a hurry and then left forgotten. Anyone who dares to dive into this archive will need to devote quite some time in order to find anything worthwhile. They will also want to bring their own light source — the electricity does not work here and the windows are quite dark from the accumulated dust and grime.

SCHOOLHOUSE A much smaller school than most of our residents might be used to, there are only a half-dozen rooms in the building, with a few comprising classrooms, meeting areas, and workspaces. All ages were taught here, and one might almost imagine the sound of children's whispered voices and distant laughter while within the empty building.

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— SNOW continues to fall in Mathias. Days 18-19 see light snowfall that very slowly accumulates, but the snowfall turns moderately heavy on Day 20 and sees significant accumulation. The temperature hovers just below freezing and dips lower when the sun goes down.

— VOICES are not openly haunting our residents, though they may still be occasionally encountered in the more heavily decayed buildings where some rooms seem to almost swallow whatever light tries to enter them.

— THE FOG has receded from the town proper and much of the eastern and northern beach. The path through the northern forest to the lighthouse is now also clear.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue to plague the town. While Daisy Johnson has returned, Zed Martin, Rey, and Quentin Coldwater have now vanished without a trace.

OOC UPDATES

— MADNESS has now been unlocked. Congratulations to Inky for Claire earning the first Madness! Who will be next? (Please be sure to keep your sanity updated regularly; Stars has created an amazing tracker for anyone to use if they'd like.)

— HELPERS are officially in residence! Kelly is our Registrar and Stars is our Librarian — both of these delightful members of our community are helping behind the scenes to keep things organized and updated (and doing wonders for the mod's own sanity levels), so please give them some thanks for their hard work!

— REPORTING updates is still a thing that your mod and helpers beg you to do. Changes to locations, plot notes that affect the community, and discoveries should be reported over here so these can all be noted in their appropriate places. (For clarification, reported Discoveries are not public knowledge unless a character has ICly shared this information.)

— A MAP of Mathias now exists, thanks to our wonderful Librarian! Please note that it is not to scale and there may be a few minor errors due to your frazzled mod. Expect updates in the future as more secrets are revealed.

— BULLETIN BOARD — don't forget about it. That's all.

CLAIMING AP REWARDS

Normally, only one AP reward can be claimed per log, but due to the plethora of new and old locations to explore, this restriction is being relaxed. Instead, for this log only:

— Players may spend AP on up to three rewards, though only Spot Hidden may be repeated.
— If a player is spending multiple Spot Hiddens, they must be with different characters and in different locations.

If two characters are investigating the same location together, they may each spend a Spot Hidden on that location. Players should record their spent AP after the AP request has been approved. Sometimes there is nothing to Spot with your Hidden and the points will be "refunded" to use elsewhere.

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elena gilbert | the vampire diaries

[descendent]

[ plotting comment. ]

DAY 18 | ARRIVAL + DISORIENTED EXPLORING + SPECTRES.

[descendent]

ARRIVAL.
( cw: death, blood/ blood loss, gruesome wound. | narrative. )

---

[ go to hell.

elena doesn't expect to wake up.

her neck stings as she comes to, skin feeling chilled and her muscles stiffening. she feels stickier than she does drenched and cold.

still dressed in her leather jacket and jeans, she's soaked through with melting snow and warm, sticky blood that continues to slip from the right side of her neck. instinctively, she reaches up to brush her fingers against it and winces at her sensitive torn skin.

it doesn't matter. she withdraws her bloodied hand and presses it into the snow, staining it red as her fingers become chilled and wet. she looks around, unable to push herself up, still feeling disoriented from waking up abruptly. nothing seems familiar, no matter how tightly she squeezes her eyes together to try and make herself focus. the dry and damp earth of the woods has been replaced with a thick blanket of snow, and now matter how many times she presses her unstained hand into it, she can't find the earth hidden beneath.

she focuses on what she can feel rather than what she can remember. jenna's stricken face. jenna on the ground, boneless and unmoving. stefan on the ground, pinned in place, unable to move. neither of them lie on the ground nearby. she thinks to call out for them, but elena's mouth is sewed shut as she breathes hard and fights an onslaught of dizziness.

standing, she happens to look to her left and spy a deep crack splitting the earth. as much as she wants to kneel back down and have a look, simply peering at it has her feeling a little off-kilter and dizzy. resting her hand roughly against her open wound, elena decides quietly that she'll come back to the crack in the earth later. she refuses to realise that she has a later.

keeping her hand on her neck, she sweeps her loose, long hair over her right shoulder to try and cover it. her hair's instantly sticky with blood and mats, but elena doesn't care. she presses her hand deep against her neck as if that's enough to stop it from pulling at her energy, and she begins to walk, away from the crack to the nearest building.

the direction she happens to be going in is the town square. ]

MAKING MY WAY AROUND TOWN, STUMBLING FAST.
( cw: death, blood/ blood loss, gruesome wound. )

---

[ unsure of how long it takes her to walk from the crack in the snow to a road that seems far too long and thin, elena's hand remains at her neck, her other arm wrapped around her middle. blood sticks to her skin beneath her clothes, and stains in drops across her light purple top. she tucks her jacket around herself and inhales deeply as if that's enough to deter the paleness from resting itself across her skin.

she wonders, briefly, if this is purgatory. it's so cold, so lifeless, with an emptiness to the town that feels unusual for a girl who had grown up in a bustling town where too many people stood on the back of her heels. only time will tell.

when she spots someone, no matter how many times she stumbles across a silhouette of another person, she will always furrow her brows and say the same thing. ] Are you real?

STALKING A SPECTRE #1.
( cw: stupidity. )

---

[ elena can't help but wonder if those tiny specks of light in the distance are a beacons trying to guide her back home. it's a silly thought, and one that she knows doesn't make a lick of sense given that she's in a town that seems to be smack-dab in the middle of nowhere and contains nothing that makes her link it to virginia.

with her arms wrapped tightly around her, she ventures out into the snow in her leather jacket and jeans, still stained with her blood from earlier. her neck's still throbbing, but with a bandage slapped haphazardly over it and her hair once again swept around to cover the right side of her neck and her shoulder, she can pretend that she hadn't had her neck split wide open and drunk from. ]

Hey! [ running over towards the spectre, she calls out once more, ] Hey! [ coming to an easy walk, she frowns as she approaches the lantern holder and only sees what is clearly its broad back. she reaches out to touch it and finds it disappears.

elena frowns, looking around. no matter how many times the lantern holders disappear upon her approach, she's going to approach them. one will surely stay, right? ]

Bogans pass and I'm crazybound

[thering]

Doc had parted ways with Raylan briefly in what they both agreed on was late morning. The cold was making it difficult to complete the thankless task of boarding up all the windows, something they had started undertaking shortly after the murderous fog claimed a few lives, and he had encouraged Raylan to return to their house for a hot drink. He's still alright to finish the last few buildings, having gotten used to this kind of winter in Purgatory.

Honestly, he wasn't expecting company, but there are no animals here so the sound of shoe soles crunching snow beneath small feet has him starting to turn, expecting to see a familiar face. When he lays eyes on her, how pale she looks, the state she is in, possibly still bleeding, he sets the hammer down and leaves the broken floorboard half nailed to the window, confusion drifting across his face as he hurries over towards her.

"Jesus Christ. What happened to you, ma'am?" He sheds out of his long coat and moves slowly to approach, holding it up by the collar with both hands. If she lets him close, he would drape it over her shoulders. He has half a mind to pick her up, carry her back to the house he's staying in, though they may have to settle for the closest structurally sound building at this rate.

i tried to fit "thongs" into the next set of lyrics but gave up like a typical aussie

[descendent]

Leaving Elijah isn't something Elena chooses to do lightly, but she can't stumble around town, discover what she needs to discover, and somehow find her way back home with him lingering over her shoulder. The smarter decision would've been to explore together, but she wants to pretend that she's fine, and in order to do so, she needs walk on her own and have disorientation spells by herself.

She really should have stayed somewhere warm to rest, but she's too antsy, too worked up, and too anxious to let herself lie down.

"You don't have to do that." She hates that she's blushing. Reaching a hand up to her collarbone, she feels clammy and warm, and wills herself to look better like she's some kind of witch (she's not). "But thank you."

It's an act of kindness that feels very different to how she's often treated at home—it's genuine, and she knows in this instant that he doesn't approach her because she's the doppelgänger.

Looking up, her brows furrow and she pulls gently on the opening of his jacket, mindful it's not hers.

"Are you trying to fix the buildings?"

She doubts boarding up the windows is going to make it look pretty.

shame!

[thering]

There is no way he's strutting around layered up while she's bleeding out and visibly feeling cold. She shouldn't even be standing at this point, let alone traipsing around in the goddamn snow.

"They don't need much fixing, inside. This just keeps the heat in and the-" Well, it won't do anything to keep the murderous fog out, much as they might like to think so. He rephrases, somewhat weakly: "-...anyone looking to try anything out, with any luck." He's doing his best to try and sound confident about that, regardless.

"I am staying over yonder, on 1306 Phillips Drive. May I take you there? There will be a fire going, and I have a first aid kit. Some spare clothes too, if you would like a hot bath." He's just bombarding nice things at her at this point, trying to get her to agree and not perceive him as a threat, even if she might not want to talk about how she got that injury. If she lets him take a look at her wound, he can probably guess what happened anyway.

cries while eating a whole ass onion

[descendent]

"I'm fine, I'm just a little cold." It's not believable, but she'd like it to be. She smiles a little sheepishly, disliking that she's made one of the first people she's seen here worry.

This is hardly similar to when Damon had kidnapped her and driven her to Atlanta… even though there are so many similarities. Again, she's injured and slightly disoriented, but this time, there's only one person here she recognises.

If she says she's fine, then she's one hundred percent fine. She'd refused to let Elijah heal her wound and so she's grinning and bearing it. It'll be okay; as long as Elena tells herself that, it'll happen.

But she does recognise his anxiety, and it's one that she doesn't deserve as a random and disheveled stranger. Giving him a kind smile, she relents. "It'll make you feel better if I say yes, won't it?"

💔

[thering]

She does not look fine, at all. He's not certain if she's taken a look at the state she is in. She would not think herself fine if she could see herself from the outside.

"I'm afraid I would insist, yes." If he has to drag her kicking and screaming - hopefully she still has the energy for that left in her - back to his place, out of this cold, he would. He cannot, in good conscience, leave her to wander like this, even if she decides to keep his coat. But he would rather it not come down to that.

"I am- was - something of a doctor." It's complicated. He is a long list of things. Until a more modern and better trained professional comes along, most people have been stuck with him and his rudimentary first aid kits. So far he hasn't needed to do anything too difficult but it seems half the town's population is keen on finding new and interesting ways to harm themselves and give him an aneurysm.

"You would not be the first I have had to patch up. If you would allow me to help, I would do my very best." And if she does not allow it, well. As long as she doesn't bleed out on his watch, he would probably begrudgingly leave her be. If nothing else, just to gain a bit of her trust.

ARRIVAL

[prevenance]

( before this, if asked, elijah would have said that heat was his least favorite type of weather. but, he thinks that he's going to be changing his mind and amending that to snow.

he dislikes snow. his pants are went, his shoes are caked with snow and he's disoriented. the only thing that he can see is that crack and he starts to follow it, thinking it might lead him somewhere.

and he's right but it leads him to something that he doesn't expect. because standing right in front of him, looking very much like she should be in a hospital was elena gilbert.

he stops, blinking a few times and then strides forward, already trying to assess what was wrong with her and what, if anything, he could do to help. )

Elena.

( he doesn't know if she's heard him but he keeps moving towards her, long legs eating up the space quickly. )

[descendent]

[ it's difficult to mistaken elijah for stefan, but she instantly thinks it's him. it's always stefan. he's always there when she needs him, always bracketing her and softening her fall. she hopes to see him so badly that she manipulates elijah's voice to sound like his.

having gotten a little lost staring at the crack, she looks up and frowns. her first thought is that elijah looks a little rumpled but impeccably so. her second thought is that she likes his hair. the floppy hair was hardly formidable. he looked like a puppy dog that liked to nip at someone's heels.

she doesn't remember him being at the clearing.

lifting her hand to the base of her neck, she tilts her head to the right so that her hair covers the blood on her shoulder. ]

Elijah. [ she frowns; on the tip of her tongue is her obvious statement that he's not supposed to be here. her gaze drops to his shoulder, wet just like the rest of him. ] You have snow on your shoulder.

[ such a stupid thing to say. she should've commented on his haircut. ]

[prevenance]

Yes, thank you, I know.

( but the snow is the least of his concern when she looks ashen and like she's just crawled out of a coffin herself. it's been some time since he's seen elena gilbert, since his family left mystic falls but he still feels concern for her especially in light of what his family had put her through.

he wants to blame his brother but he knows it wasn't just them. )

Elena, are you all right? You look like you're going to fall over and die.

( he's never been one to pull punches with his language but she really does look terrible. )

Did you just wake up here?

[descendent]

[ elena can't help but purse her lips and give him an unimpressed look. although she hasn't ever heard this quip come from him, all she has to do is thin out the broadness of his shoulders and lengthen his hair slightly, and swap his hazel eyes for bright blue and she's already heard it all before. elena has a death wish. elena's going to get herself killed. elena looks like death warmed over.

she is dead. there's no joke to be found in that, but there is a nice slip of denial he offers her. ]

I did.

[ she lifts her hand up to brush snow from the ends of her hair. even though she'd much rather remain standing in one place, she wants to prove to him that everything's okay, so she closes the distance between them with short, human steps. ]

I take it you did, too. Since I doubt you'd ever willingly cover yourself in snow.

[ she can't help herself. with a pinch to her lips, she lifts her hand up and brushes snow off his shoulder rather harshly. ]

[prevenance]

Yes, near the crack in the snow. but, I don't remember getting there and I seriously doubt you do either.

( for a moment, he thinks that it might be tied to elena as all things seem to be tied to the doppelgangers but he doesn't think she would have brought him along if that was the case.

it would have been a salvatore or one of her friends. not him. he was very little to her.

when she actually brushes snow off his jacket, he frowns and tries to catch her hand in his, fingers feeling for her pulse to make sure she's still with him. )

Elena, focus. You know who I am, correct?

stumbling fast~

[bestfuneralever]

Huh? [He spins toward the sound of the new voice he doesn't recognize. He hasn't met everyone, but he has a general idea of people here so far, and the girl he's greeted with looks... younger than most of the residents of this creepy ghostless ghost-town.] Oh- uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm here. Although-- [He makes a vague motion with his hands.] I guess a hallucination would say it's real, too... um...

[He rubs at the back of his neck awkwardly. Hm. How does he prove to her he's real, if she thinks she's seeing things? Impulsive as ever, Klaus closes the distance between them and puts a hand on her shoulder, squeezing, firm but not enough to actively hurt.] Is that real enough?

[descendent]

Ow!

[ her brows pinch together in offence and then she laughs. it's the strangest yet most normal thing that's happened to her since waking up in the snow. she lifts her hand to rub at her arm, skin sore. it feels so good to be sore; she's not a vampire.

she smiles, unoffended. this is real; all of this is real. every time she walks into a wall in her dream, she jolts awake. ]

You pinch really hard. Do you practice on everyone who stumbles into town?

[ was he the resident pincher? she wonders what caroline would say about that being part of the welcome wagon. ]

[bestfuneralever]

[His eyes widen slightly at the exclamation, apologetic words immediately tripping out of his mouth— ] Shit- sorry, I wasn’t trying to hurt you.

Uh— [He chuckles a little.] not really, no. It’s not the sort of thing I tend to try and make a habit of. [A beat.] Besides the pinch and the snow, are you okay?

[descendent]

[ elena laughs lightly and reaches out to gently and tentatively touch his arm. ] It's fine, it's fine. You barely pinched me hard enough.

[ he did. he's seriously the resident pincher in her mind.

letting her arms hang by her sides, at the question, she feels the usual knee-jerk to insist that she's fine. she's going to be okay; she'll get through the day… but this isn't mystic falls, and she didn't just miraculously survive a fatal car crash.

so, she inhales, holds the air in her chest, and lets it out, shoulders falling. ]

I'm… a little overwhelmed, to be honest. The pinching actually helped me kind of feel more grounded.

[ for one, she's definitely alive. ]

[bestfuneralever]

[He smiles in return, and he doesn't recoil from the touch. If anything, he welcomes it; he doesn't get nearly enough casual contact most days.

He nods a little at that answer. It tracks for this place, honestly.] Yeah, I think we all get that way when we wake up here. You wanna come with me, back to the boarding house? It's warmer there, and we can get you some dry clothes.

[It wasn't a huge offer, but it was something. Speaking of--

He shrugs his jacket off his shoulders and drapes it around hers instead.]

DAY 19 | EXPLORING, MORNING AND DAY.

[descendent]

EXPLORING.
( cw: mentions of blood/ blood loss, death. )

---

[ really, she should be resting.

after experiencing a traumatic event, she should be tucked away in a bed in the boarding house and rest until her body feels like it's working at one hundred percent again and she's feeling fresh-faced and alive.

but that's not what elena does.

she's still dressed in her clothes from home, ignoring how it feels icky and in a desperate need of several washes. it's comfortable in a way that's also discomforting, but she keeps her hands wrapped around her and braves the could, her converse shoes not even holding a candle to thick boots.

elena travels back to the crack in the road where she had woken up. nothing seems out of the ordinary. no one else is lying stone-cold unconscious on the snow. elena waits, as if expecting the crack to widen up and spit someone out, but her bones begin to feel chilled and her teeth are gritted so tightly together that she decides she has to move on.

it's by sheer luck that she finds the general store. if only her arms were longer and she had several more poking out from her body, she'd be able to gather everything she can see in her arms and take it outside to go sit out in the snow. taking her time browsing the shelves, she collects some bandaids and bandages, a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, and a few other food items from the shelves.

she doesn't take them very far. sitting outside the store, she places all her items neatly beside her and opens up her bottle of water. she gulps that down like she's part fish, and spends some of her time eating a chocolate bar and a piece of bread. she hadn't realised how hungry she was. she sits there and watches anything that passes by, and nothing that happens to, as well. the town is very, very strange and empty. it's very much like how she feels right now. ]

( ooc: She's going shopping with Dean after these prompts, so clothes shopping is off the table. Elena's free to travel anywhere else. )

DAY 20 | SCHOOL EXPLORING + STRANGER IN THE SNOW.

[descendent]

SCHOOL'S BACK IN.

---

[ honestly, the last place elena wants to be is back at school, but it's the most familiar building in all of the town. she ventures over there with the intention of coming out with more information than she started.

it's without any hesitation that she opens the doors to step inside of the building, a little grateful for her decision in doing so as it's a touch warmer inside than it is outside. she may be dressed in something new—a flannel shirt and a scarf wrapped nicely around her neck—but she still wears her converse shoes, stained with a couple of drops of blood she's tried to scrub off.

stepping into a classroom, she looks around, touching everything that's within her eye line, and even takes a seat at the teacher's desk. she pulls open the drawers and starts to rifle through it and test the pens. look, a girl needs a good pen to write down diary entries. ]

CREEPY STRANGER.

---

[ elena is no stranger to being stalked. she tries to shrug off the feeling that she's being watched as she returns to the crack in the road, determined to see whether something is here that can answer a question that she's desperate for. she sees nothing, no imprint of jenna, no scuffle of a shoe that could remind her of stefan. as she looks at the crack in the road, elena feels something inside of her feeling strangely empty.

and like there's a set of two eyes on the back of her head, imploring her to turn around and look at it.

turning, she spots a silhouette on the other side. she frowns, wondering if the shadow is truly there. and then she does the only thing that makes sense for a girl like elena to do. she yells. ]

Hey!

[ stupidly, she expects it to lift its hand up and wave, but it does neither. actually, the person—she thinks it's a man by the shape of their shoulders and arms—takes a seat instead. ]

Who are you?

[ crossing her arms against her chest, she arches her brow and decides to stare him down. she's stood toe to toe with original vampires and hybrids before and not so much as shivered. she can stare whoever it is across the expanse down into talking.

it's fine; she's got nothing to do and she's got all damn night. ]

DAY 20 | [ NIGHT, ELIJAH ] GO TUCK ME INTO BED AND WAKE ME WHEN I'M DEAD

[descendent]

( consequence | cw: death of an innocent spectre that deserved better. )

[ truthfully, she had thought elijah would embrace his newfound freedom and shack up in one of the houses that they'd passed when they arrived. but he still returned to room 1 of the boarding house and seemed to ignore the fact that she could curl up on the very edge of the bed so he could enjoy a mattress under his back.

elena didn't mind. she still doesn't mind. having someone around (and that person being elijah) put her at ease a little. no monsters lingering beneath the bed were going to crawl out and try and attack her. he was the most frightening monster in the room, and she liked the fact that he respected her space whenever she chose to venture through the boarding house and scratched at her wounded and bandaged neck.

he's sitting at the small table and chairs that she'd dined at while she stands by the window. despite being tired from not sleeping as well as she'd like, she feels wide awake and alert. the lantern she'd picked up from outside the residences yesterday morning sits on the floor beside the bed.

with her arms wrapped closely around her, she watches the nighttime play out quietly and slowly. it's dark outside, darker than mystic falls ever was, and she's curious as she watches the shadowy figures from the previous evenings appear once more. she smiles once she spots them begin to appear, lighting up like fireflies. the town seems to be lit brightly with their presence, as if they're a beacon of something warm and bright. the decay and the broken bits of the town that the day exposes seems softer now. she doesn't notice the lanternless one standing as an outlier just yet. ]

Those shadowy things are outside again.

[ come look. ]

[prevenance]

With the lanterns?

( he doesn't look up just yet, making sure he finishes the paragraph he's been reading in one of the books he'd borrowed from the library. it hasn't told him much but any information about this place is good information.

so, he finishes the page and then he stands up, coming over to stand behind elena. and, just as she'd said, the lanterns were appearing again. he doesn't know why and he doesn't know how but it's been consistent since they'd arrived.

he sighs and crosses his arms. )

I wonder what they're there for.

[descendent]

Maybe to bring some cheer to the town?

[ she doubts it. the town will need a lot more cheer that only one caroline forbes could ever instill in it.

she watches them curiously before focusing on elijah in the reflection for a moment. he's standing a little too close. she ensures to remain standing tall with her back straight and her arms crossed like she's impenetrable. ]

Have you tried talking to them? They seemed a little... shy when I tried.

[prevenance]

You spoke with them? As in had a conversation with them?

( why is he not surprised? when he'd known elena, she'd been a soft touch, both stubborn and willing to help those who needed her help.

he looks between the spectres and elena and back again before he speaks again. )

Did they actually answer you? I said a few words to them but they never responded to anything I asked.

[descendent]

[ this is her moment to fabricate a story to give herself importance that extends outside of being a doppelgänger... but if she lies, that means she has to prove it, and elena's over lying. she's not important or special enough to have had any of the spectres speak to her.

all she does is release a little sigh. ]

They kept disappearing on me every time I tried to talk to them. It was like they were scared.

[ she feels sheepish at that. she couldn't even keep a damn spectre around. ]

[prevenance]

Well, they probably felt threatened. I know you weren't doing that, Elena, but if they're spirits and they don't know you, they might think the worst.

( he peers over at her, watching her watch the spectres before he sighs. )

What would you have asked them? What would you have said? If they hadn't disappeared.

( he's curious. )