villagelogs | 018-020 » what he hides

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018-020 » what he hides

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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ after he left mystic falls? wasn't he still lingering inside of it, waiting to kill klaus? did he kill him and then immediately leave? this is what happens after you die: you stop being subscribed to the daily newsletter.

elena shakes her head, amused by him being playful. it's a different side to elijah than she knows. she'd gotten familiar with the dusty, slightly jaded and passive-aggressive elijah she'd freed from the confinements of his dagger. ]

I feel like you're talking about me.

[ she turns and walks backwards, a dangerous thing to do when in the snow and wearing converse shoes. at least her laces are tied tightly. ]

You could literally pick me up and vamp speed away from here, but you don't.

Where would I go? I have no idea where we are, Elena. So yes, I could pick you up and get us away from here but I do not know this place.

( so, it seems like it would be a waste of time to do that. time and energy especially if he was going to have to find a willing blood source. he doesn't want to have to think that far in the future, though. he wants to be gone and out here in the next hour. )

It would be a waste and if you know me at all, you know I don't like to waste anything.

I know.

[ she knows him in a way that's still so incomplete. he's a puzzle where she only has a handful of pieces out of a thousand. elena lets her shoulders sag but keeps her focus on the snow ahead and the cluster of trees around them. ]

This isn't Mystic Falls. The trees look different.

[ not that she's a tree expert, but she pays attention. ]

No, it's not.

( there are plenty of cold weather places near mystic falls which tells elijah that he's far from new orleans. there's definitely not enough humidity in the air for that.

but, it is probably a positive that this isn't mystic falls. that place was a beacon for the strange and supernatural. he gets enough of that in new orleans. )

Honestly, this could be any number of places. I've been to many places and none of this is recognizable.

Are you a tree expert, too?

[ elena smiles, shaking her head. looking down, she brushes her hair behind her ear and looks at the snow. there's just so much of it, and following the crack this way doesn't seem to be revealing any signs that say "you're here and it's not mystic falls."

as casually as she can, ] Where were you before you woke up here?

New Orleans.

( there's no need to go into specifics, he thinks. she isn't going to know what he's talking about just like he won't know what she's talking about if she were to go into what her life has been like since he left. )

With my family.

( that family that she loves so much. he sighs, walking a little faster and making sure to pick his feet up so his shoes didn't get too snow caked. )

Where were you?

[ elena frowns, a little grateful that she's not looking at him. she wonders if he can sense that she's frowning. is that one of the unknown benefits of being one of the first vampires? ]

Mystic Falls.

[ a given. where else will elena be if not in mystic falls? she brushes her hair behind her ear and looks out to the trees and snow-covered ground rather than at him and his nice haircut. ]

I was near the quarry with Stefan.

[ not a lie, but she thinks it's detailed enough to satisfy him. ]

Ah.

( that means very little to elijah but knowing that one of the salvatores is still around is a piece of information that he can file away.

he hums, thoughtful. )

And how is the youngest Salvatore these days? I always preferred him over his brother. Much more tolerable.

He's fine.

[ she'd like to hope so. klaus hadn't killed him, which is important. if klaus wanted him dead, he would've killed him in front of her like he'd done so with jenna. he seemed like the theatrical type who liked to be over the top to make a point.

clasping her hands together, she brushes her thumbs hard against her hands to try and push out the chill from her skin. ]

He's not here, in case you were wondering.

If he were here, I think he'd find a way to be near you no matter what. He seemed rather focused on that the last time I saw him.

( and while his brother had the history with stefan, elijah knew him well enough to know that he was very single minded when he had his eye on something and, as of late (as far as he knew), that had been elena. )

How unfortunate that you get me instead of him.

[ elena cracks a smile. that's some self-deprecation that she hadn't ever expected to come from elijah. he's always so self-possessed.

as tempting as it is to ask him the last time that he saw stefan, she presses her lips together. talking about stefan hurts, and she feels dizzy spells ebb and flow. she'd much rather joke around and pretend that she's fine.

peering at him, she looks up at his short-cropped hair. did he get a haircut in the late afternoon before the ritual? maybe he did; she's not one to judge someone for how they choose to manage their compounding stress. ]

I'm sure in my suffering I will be fine. You don't have the right hero hair.

I don't have hero hair at all.

( because he's not a hero. he's anything but. he doesn't want anyone to think he's a hero either. he does what he has to do to keep his family together and that is that. he doesn't need to do anything else.

he doesn't want to do anything else. family first. )

Do you see anything besides snow? We're going to need to find something soon or you are going to freeze, no matter how stubborn you are.

Edited 2020-12-10 00:43 (UTC)

[ he does have hero hair even if he won't admit it. he has hero shoulders, too. elijah has an air of heroic sophistication that had made it so easy for her to trust him. she'd easily slipped beneath some spell and had believed with her entire being that he would genuinely help her.

she still wants to believe that he will and has. she wants to believe that he didn't turn his back on her as damon had. ]

I see a tree? [ lifting her shoulders up, she winces with a soft hiss. bad move. she pulls them down and stops, heaving a sigh. ] Okay, so, maybe my way isn't the best way.

Are you injured?

( he'd had a feeling something was wrong but his sharp hearing picks up that hiss. he doesn't think it's from the cold either. something is wrong and now they're in the unfortunate situation of her needing to be somewhere to get warm and because whatever injury she has is obviously paining her.

elijah steps closer to her, frowning. )

Elena, are you hurt? Tell me. You can't keep it a secret right now.

[ elena frowns, unknowingly matching him as she keeps her gaze away from him. if he was stefan, it'd be easier to admit that she was hurt. (she would like to think stefan would have chosen to come with her if there was a choice to be had.) ]

I tripped and fell.

[ she brushes her fingers against the side of her temple as she turns to look at him. gaze averted for only a moment, she looks at him and ducks her head sheepishly. it's far easier to convey her human clumsiness got her hurt than his brother killing her. he seems... entirely unsurprised. ]

Clumsy human and all.

You're lying to me.

( it's very possible that she'd fallen and hurt herself but he doesn't think that's all there is to it. perhaps she was pushed or she fell but he doesn't think she's just fallen down and if that were the case, he thinks she would have admitted it far sooner.

so, he moves towards her, closing the distance quickly. )

Let me see, Elena. I might be able to heal you.

( blood of a vampire and all. )

[ elena takes a step back from him without realising, lifting her hand up to press against the bulk of hair wrapped against her right shoulder. ]

No.

[ she says it too sharply and she winces at that. elijah isn't damon, but it's hard to shake off what he'd done to her earlier in the day. vampire blood isn't the answer to everything, and elena's afraid that if she does, she'll come back as one. it's irrational and it hardly makes sense—his blood would have to be out of her system by now, surely—but the last thing she wants is to taste that rich tanginess in her mouth again.

lifting her hand away from her hair, she shakes it slightly and exhales. ] I'm fine. I don't need any blood.

You're clearly not fine, Elena, but I am not going to force you to take my blood unless it's a last resort.

( he sighs because now they need to find some place to go even quicker than before. he doesn't know her injury but he knows that something is wrong and she needs to rest. )

Come on.

( they're not just going to walk in whatever direction elena wants to walk. no, they're going to be moving with a purpose now. he doesn't touch her but he does wait for her to start walking before he follows her. )

We need to move quickly and we need to find shelter. Focus.

[ turning on her heel feels heavier than it should, but it's with the realisation that elijah isn't damon that has her walking the way they had come. damon would've cornered her and forced her to drink his blood, just like he'd done so earlier. his intentions may have had a root in being good, but elena resents him for all that he'd taken from her in that very moment. ]

I'm focused.

[ she feels like she's being reprimanded for not wanting to focus on what's making her pale and feel a little less sharp than usual. ]

When did you cut your hair?

What?

( that's a question that catches him completely off guard. had she really just asked about his hair while they were trying to find shelter so she didn't succumb to hypothermia?

instinctively, he brushes a hand over his hair and looks over at her. )

Did you just ask me about my hair?

[ looking at him, she lifts her brows as if to convey that yes, she did. elijah seems taken aback by it. either no one ever notices the small changes in him or it's strange of her to even ask. has she crossed a line? (she would've thought her teasing of him would've accomplished that.) ]

Yes. Am I not allowed to?

[ it's a noticeable thing that she's commenting on, like the weather. ]

No, you are. You just surprised me.

( he recalls that his hair had been longer when they'd first met. if she's remembering that, then they must be from very different times in their lives.

he laughs quietly, watching his breath plume out in front of him before he gives his head a shake. )

A few years ago, I suppose. I don't really know what I was thinking with hair you remember me in. It was lazy.

It was cute.

[ for someone who is over a thousand years old, it was very cute to see someone as formidable and dangerous as him wear such a boyish cut. she does wonder if he had let it grow out for sheer laziness or if he had a plot in mind. analysing his hair provides her with a distraction, so, she grips it tightly between her fingers.

she ensures that she stays either a step ahead or behind him. she doesn't want him to see her face and have any opportunity to analyse how tired and sick she looks. ]

Disarming. It made you seem trustworthy and non-threatening, which probably helped if you didn't want to compel everyone to trust you.

And you're saying the way I currently have my hair cut makes me look...something else?

( elena certainly puts a lot of stock into his haircut, doesn't she? he makes a face, almost amused despite their situation. )

Do you normally make judgments about people based on their haircuts or am I just special?

( he peers over at her, snickering before he starts walking again. )

[ elena quickly debates whether she should claim he's special or not. how would elijah react? has he ever been told he was special? she looks at him quickly, scrunching up her face thoughtfully. did anyone else notice his haircut or was he merely overlooked? (the idea of elijah being overlooked is laughable.)

this adrenaline rush is making her feel bolder than usual, or perhaps it's being in the company of someone who she can and cannot read that's making her feel recklessly stupid. ]

Special. Most of the people I know don't get life-changing haircuts.

[ then again, he's hardly like anyone she knows, is he? ]

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