( march intro ) WELCOME TO THE PINES!

[officialnotice]

INTRODUCTION LOG

waking up

There was an accident. That's basically the only thing you know for certain. Maybe a car wreck - metal and broken glass everywhere, and the sirens and the screaming. Or maybe there was an explosion. Maybe your bike hit a rock and you careened uncontrollably off a mountain path. You can't can't quite make out the details, not who was at fault or why. Try as you might, the chaos is all you can remember.

It's also the last thing you remember from before you wake up here.

When you open your eyes, the accident is gone. Instead, you're in a hospital bed. You're sluggish, covered in a scattering of minor injuries you only vaguely remember getting, not to mention the vaguely-healed remnants of any wounds you might've had before.

It's a shame you won't be able to tell the difference between the two. Your memories are an indiscernible fog if not absent altogether, only a few standing out in your mind with any kind of certainty.

Whether or not the room's empty when you wake, it's not for long. Nurses bustle in, taking your vitals and asking your name and anything else you might remember. Welcome to Wayward Pines, they tell you. You'll make a full recovery here.

Much of what you say (especially anything unusual, anything about monsters or magic or outlandish technology) will earn placating speculation of head trauma “from the accident”. You'll be told to stay put, not to push yourself, and to wait for the doctor to clear you before you leave... Then you'll be left alone. The hospital's population is quadruple the usual, and you get the impression the nurses are working themselves ragged just running damage control. You can even leave your room without much fuss - whichever doctor or nurse intercepts you gets called away almost immediately to deal with something even more pressing.

Mingle, visit your fellow patients, even poke around for a few basic answers. Or maybe, maybe just stroll right on out the front door.

heading outside

One step outside and it's perfectly clear that your hospital gown simply isn't going to cut it for long. the sidewalks and buildings covered in snow and a crisp winter wind whipping at you through the thin cloth. It's like a scene out of a holiday greeting card or a snow globe, picturesque and nearly untouchable. And yet you're here. Touching it all. Dressed in nothing but a hospital gown. You should at least think about getting some mittens if you're going to keep, you know, touching it.

Trees line the street at regular intervals, carefully manicured and coated in a thin layer of pure white snow. Cars cruise by at a safe and respectable speed. Pedestrians spare you glances, some wary and some concerned.

This isn't even the picturesque city center, though a colorful nearby sign reads "Main Street" with an arrow pointing due south, followed in smaller font by a list of businesses you don't recognize and one that you might: Wayward Pines Police Department. Whether you asked for yourself or simply overheard, you've likely caught wind by now that all of your earthly possessions now lie with the Sheriff until you see fit to claim them.

Might as well head that way, right?

items reclaimed

So you've visited the Wayward Pines Police Department and reclaimed... well. Most of your stuff, anyway, though you can't quite remember what's missing. Best to put it out of mind, as you head down the steps toward the Main Street sidewalk. At the very least, pedestrians have stopped looking at you like you're sick or crazy. (Then again, depending on what you're wearing, maybe it's gotten worse.)

The sheriff also forked over what looks like the key to a house ("A cozy place to stay while you're here in town."), plus the address that it belongs to. You could check it out, see what kind of digs they're putting you up in.

Or you could stick around Main Street and sight-see a little. Also a perfectly viable option. Hell, maybe it'll jog your memory a little. A few of the shops do feel inexplicably familiar...

( ooc notes )

Welcome to the second newbie mingle log! We apologize for the delay.

This log is meant to cover characters' first day in Wayward Pines. For the most part, only the five memories detailed in your character's application are remembered throughout the duration of this log, although the first couple of false Wayward Pines memories might begin to surface (in those who've opted to utilize this mechanic) as the day wears on. These memories, as noted in the FAQ, feel very real and are accompanied by as much emotion or sentiment as a real memory would be.

Any questions about the log or its contents can be addressed to our FAQ or the intro log's designated Plurk.

Comments

[unforgivably]

[ Stefan blurs in, pulling Katherine to him, out of harm's way, searing pain, the cry she elicits muffled against his brother's chest. The sizzle of skin lessens, redness lightens until her pale complexion returns. Believe it or not, he hadn't meant that as an act of torture. Katherine wasn't tied to a chair. She had her freedom. Being a new (if unaware) vampire is why she didn't move, why she was frozen in shock and pain. And here and now, Damon becomes the bad brother all over again, int trying to the point they all needed to be made.

He looks to Stefan for the explanation, because his brother has decided that Katherine's worth saving. And maybe she needed it. A few more seconds without moving and she could've been gone from their lives all over again. That little bit of hope and incredulous belief remains. God forbid this was a more frustrated Elena, but she admits who she believes she was supposed to be - and not why.

This is on him. He jumped to the Elena conclusion. Stefan chooses Katherine, in a way. Say what you want about Katherine, but other than stealing Elena's body and liking hers to her doppelganget's, Katherine never once meant to kill Elena. She needed her alive. And there was the pesky cure incident. Several months of incidents.

He knows Katherine is telling the truth, because he woke up here only a month before. But, this being the case shuts the door on the possibility of Elena Gilbert. Elena Gilbert, who didn't deserve her fate. Elena is still sleeping soundly. Hopefully. Bonnie is alive.

And now, so is Katherine. ]

That you were a lying vampire. [ It isn't disdain he speaks with. He's not sure what she knows. Malia didn't. He happened to. As did Stefan. ] I believe Stefan can take it from here. Explain a few of the odds, the ends, all the little ... gory details.

[ He can't do this. He didn't want this. How did everything turn on him so quickly. Only ten minutes ago, he was convinced this was the love of his life.

He doesn't blame Katherine, for once. But, he won't apologize. Not today. Maybe not ever. He should. He knows he should. But he's the one that let light in. Stefan's the one who took shelter with her. His shame rises, the shame he's felt all his natural born life for one reason or another, the familiar feeling of doing what's needed but being hated for it.

"Damon. You didn't have to interfere."

Disappointment. Thinking he'd done the right thing, for Katherine, standing there. Younger, but somehow exactly the same. Holding a crown of some sort in her capable hands. Her hair in waves, perfectly curled. He'd do anything for her. She never needed it. ] You were disqualified. [ He can't help but say it out loud as the memory coalesces, old, fictional but familiar shame bubbling up. An impossible memory because he and Stefan met Katherine in 1864 and not in this town, not in high school. He didn't grow up with her. He grew up with his brother in Mystic Falls. ]

[immoderation]

[ Stefan nods faintly, accepting Damon's decision to leave without an argument. It's probably for the best anyway, considering his brother and Katherine get along like oil and water at the best of times. ]

I'll see you at home.

[ There's no negative judgment audible in his steady, even tone; he's not rebuking Damon or threatening a lecture of some kind. His words can simply be taken at their face value. He will remain behind and clean up this mess. Not because Damon really fucked up that terribly or because he feels particularly beholden to Katherine. But in a way, just like she isn't Elena, she isn't really Katherine right now either.

What she is, is a girl that's scared and alone without her memories (or at least, without most of them).

He's expecting his brother to make good on his words and leave but he appears to stop as suddenly as he started. Stefan cocks his head to the side, distracted from the fact that he's still nearly embracing Katherine. ]

... Damon? What are you talking about?

[abetment]

[ Any control of the situation has completely fallen from her grasps, if she had any to begin with. She makes a face nearly like derision over being a lying vampire (she's not lying! ...anymore.)

Unclear on whether or not she wants them both there any longer or not, she tries to process how Damon speaks as though he's going to step out of this, immediately, unless she or Stefan verbally intervene. She has words at the ready. About not knowing if they knew of vampires or not. What all vampires are. At least with Stefan's swooping in to save her, that question has been answered. From the sunlight experiment too, but Stefan literally showed himself to be capable of the quick speed Katherine herself knows she has (from earlier, right after she woke up.)

She looks between them again. Gory details. She turned them into vampires; that answers that, then. In the form of a crashing memory that ties together why she knew their names (or, so she assumes.) Could her brain please get it together and provide this information in a more timely fashion? She plans to speak, to tell Damon what's on her mind, to ask him what she should have done. Until Stefan responds, and she peers back to him. It's all falling away from her, and she aches at the thought of Damon leaving. There is a small grace, a warmth, in feeling like Stefan is actually going to stay with her, and it softens that ache. Then, those final words are tacked on.

Her brows furrow, features rising with perplexity. She doesn't move, not at first, her lips pursing out, as if she might say 'what,' a simple question popping out right after Stefan's apt words. ] Disqualified? From what? Who? [ If this is a memory that will creep up for her, she needs more than that. A memory that would make as much sense (more, probably, with the power of these fake memories) to her as telling her how old the brothers were, where they actually met -- for that day, anyway, she's not meant to know more or feel any more solid in the foundation of her true history.

It's only then that she pulls out a bit from where Stefan brought her to safety, the movement actually making her press in closer to his chest, looking over at Damon with uncertainty and concern. ] Are you okay? [ This place likes to mess with thoughts, memories, peoples' brains, right? What if it's done something to him? Plus, she genuinely cares -- or, she feels like she does. ]

[unforgivably]

[ Until now now, his memory retrieval hasn't been ill-timed, but this latest hint of his fake life before throws him, so much so that he uttered that line to the both of them, as if they're all experiencing the same vivid memory. But, they aren't. It's Damon's lot in life to find his girl and lose her, and find another before realizing that first girl never wanted him, anyway. And that's all Katherine, alone. Katherine needs help, she needs answers and maybe under different circumstances he'd be the one to help her. He'd taken her in when she'd come down with a cold. But, all bets were off when she took Elena's life. He knows this Katherine isn't that Katherine - at least not presently. She's not Elena, either, but she's something different. Something new that, if she stayed like this for more than two weeks he may be able to learn to live with. If she drops the straight hair.

That's a piece to the puzzle that doesn't fit, if the piece exists at all. Even if this is newly resurrected Katherine, why would anyone take the time to straighten her hair? Unless she hadn't died, or had been brought back in some other way.

Everything's possible, isn't it?

They both stare. It's as if he's grown a second head, or told them he was going to go enjoy a nice salad and a rosé while watching the sunset.

He can't explain it, not now. It won't help anything. He's gone too far for today. He did cross a line. (Granted, this line was ill-defined, and he tip-toed across it, but across stays the operative word. ]

No. But, for once I can't blame you, can I?

[ Not completely.

Not at all.

He sidesteps his brother and Katherine, whom he's still embracing, and leaves them there. In time, he could come to apologize. To this Katherine. If he could stomach seeing her again. The hair would help. Instead, he has blood to transport.

Possibly a bottle to fall into. ]

[immoderation]

[ After Damon leaves, Stefan abruptly lets go of Katherine although he doesn't yet step away from her. She might not believe so but in Stefan's estimation that went quite well as far as a temperamental Damon was concerned. ]

Give him some time. [ He finally advises, to break the silence that's fallen in the wake of his brother's departure. It's possible, probable even, that Damon's reception of her won't improve with all the time in the world. Under other circumstances, Stefan might be right there alongside him. But in a town like this, he recognizes that they can probably use all the allies they can get. It's one of a few reasons he's still willing to take his chances with her even after everything she's done.

In roughly two weeks her memories will return and her behavior at that time will either make or break this shaky alliance. But it's easy to offer a hollow comfort now when she doesn't know any better than to review the very long list of her crimes against them and why she shouldn't hold her breath for such an outcome. ]

[abetment]

[ Watching Damon go leaves her distraught: a feeling she'd swear is sincere. She doesn't know what to expect anymore, not that she had any grand grasp on that at all after waking up. Stefan parts somewhat and says that. Her eyes meet his again. She can't help but be dejected. ]

Does he always do that? Walk away when things get hard. [ Obviously, she's incapable of making real digs at either of them. She barely knows anything about either brother, much to her dismay. Still, she realizes the question is fairly moot. She'll learn about what each of them are really like as time goes on, and hopefully her memories will surface sooner than later. ] I didn't mean to hurt him, or you, Stefan. Really. [ Here stands the brother who is the reason doubt was cast on her being Elena, and still...a want for him to not be displeased with her trickles in. ] Do you believe me? [ A sincere question. No artifice, no heavy tone, no elevation implying that she's piling on the want for sympathy. She just needs to know what he's thinking. ]