001 ][ i see a ghost out on the water, i swear it has my face

[copingskills]

WHO: Elena Gilbert
WHERE: Fountain > Inn > Around the Village
WHEN: Nov 18 - 20th
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: References to death and drowning

---

FOUNTAIN - Nov 18th

This had all happened before, this feeling. She was floating, waiting for the darkness to swallow her, only this time she was alone. That made it better, somehow. More peaceful. She didn't have the burden of watching her parents drown with her because of her mistakes, her selfishness.

Her lungs still burned as they screamed for air, and it was the shock of a sudden temperature difference that brought her back briefly from her oxygen-deprived haze. The water had been cold in the river below Wickery Bridge, but not this cold. Not by a long-shot. It felt like a thousand daggers were suddenly stabbing into her skin through the fabric of her drenched clothes as it sucked every last bit of warmth out of her insides.

It was hard to tell which way was up, the depth of the water disorienting, but she felt a gentle push as if she were being guided, and she managed to find the strength for a few weak kicks toward the surface.

Hopefully, someone would be nearby to give her a hand when hers managed to break the surface of the water, despite the storm. At least her bright red scrubs make her easier to see that she might be otherwise.

INN - Nov 19th

With the ice storm still going strong outside, Elena opts to stay inside where it's warm, at least for today. She's got the gist of what's going on, though she's still not convinced that she isn't dead and this is some weird sort of limbo or...whatever.

That said, everything feels very real and there are people to meet and talk to, so she forces herself to stay on the ground floor, trying to eat and drink what she can to get her strength back up and talk to as many people as she can.

They're all in this together, after all.

OUT AND ABOUT - Nov 20th

After the storm clears, Elena takes it upon herself to do a bit of exploring. It's starting to sink in that this is all very real, that she may never make it home, and that nearly everyone she's ever cared about would have very likely all passed by now. If she's being honest with herself, it would have happened sometime in the interim of her fitful sleep after her arrival, but the sheer amount of loss is just too mind-numbing to process all at once.

This is something in her face that she can focus on, at least. Getting a lay of the land and comfortable with her surroundings was important. She couldn't know what might be coming but she could try to be prepared.

She walks along the river, taking in the sights with her hands tucked into the pockets of her peacoat, making sure not to steer too far away or lose sight of the town itself. There would be time for that later, and getting lost in the cold didn't sound like a very good idea.

Comments

[copingskills]

Elena would give anything to find a way home, and yet she still isn't sure such a thing is possible for her. She's not entirely convinced that this isn't some sort of strange limbo she's found herself stuck in, that she died in that accident this time, and that going back was simply not something physically possible.

That said, she wasn't going to just give up. That wasn't in her nature, after all.

"Oh, sorry. I wasn't really expecting to run into anyone out here." He looked nice, at least. "I'm new, so I was just taking a look around now that the weather wasn't so horrible. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

[enterprisingheart]

As far as Picard has been able to guess it isn't limbo. At least, not necessarily in the sense that people have had to die to turn up in the fountain. Especially since there's relatively little that could have killed him, where he'd last been. That said, he's also not in the least bit aware that's where Elena's thoughts happen to be turning. And in absence of that, he turns instead to the comment that is at hand.

"No, not at all. I'm afraid I can't say any of this-" there's a gesture that encompasses the river and its immediate surrounding "-is anything to look at just at the moment, but you're certainly not interrupting anything."

And while he doesn't directly offer, he's more than willing to answer any questions she might still have, should any be particularly relevant - or particularly pressing.

[copingskills]

"I've been stuck inside since I arrived in the middle of that storm, so anything except the inside of the inn is a welcome sight right now."

Elena didn't like to not understand what was going on, and something about not even being able to go outside had unsettled her more than she liked to admit. She was solving that little problem now, at least, though likely only to discover that they were very trapped.

On that note, though, she feels the urge to have to ask.

"I just...everyone says there's no way to leave the canyon. Is that true?"

[enterprisingheart]

There's a nod at the comment. Arriving in the middle of an ice storm isn't anything he would consider to be particularly enjoyable, especially when it would have meant being both wet and cold - and without much by way of changes of clothes besides. And being cooped up inside has never been anything that he's tolerated well. Not in absence of anything to do anyway; by certain ways of thinking living in a spaceship is nothing but being cooped up. Even if the Enterprise is fairly spacious, as starships go.

"Not what I would call the best of times to arrive. And I'm sorry your first days here weren't more comfortable."

Not that there's a lot of comfort to be found in either of the villages, even when the weather is less inclement. But he figures that's not exactly the best of things to open with, especially in light of Elena's question.

"There is another village - a mirror image of this one - but I'm afraid no one's found a way out of the canyon yet."

[copingskills]

"It's no one's fault. No one I've met, anyway. It's in the past."

She's had plenty of people trying to take care of her since, in they're own way. She appreciates it more than words can express. If she couldn't find comfort in her surroundings, at least the other people living there made up for it so far.

Hopefully, it lasted.

"Really? And there are people living over there, too?"

[enterprisingheart]

"That's certainly one way to think about it."

And it's true, too. For all that the weather has been distinctly inclement of late, it's hardly anything that anyone in the village has caused. Or would have been able to stop, besides. True, Picard is aware of things that can affect the weather. But all of them require a fairly significant amount more technology than he's seen in the village to date. And even then, it would likely take more than a few people to set up properly.

Still, it's a nice thought, even it's not likely to ever be something the Observers allow.

"Not very many, as I recall. But a few, yes."

[copingskills]

Weather control is a little out of Elena's technological experience, but she knows better than to not believe things can exist. Even if they could somehow gain control over it, which they never would, it would feel strange. Changes in the weather felt normal, and Elena can only lose so much more normal before she's sure she'll go crazy.

She hasn't found her limit yet, though.

"I would think people would want to stay close together."

[enterprisingheart]

"In weather like this, I'd be inclined to think the same, personally. I certainly can't blame anyone for preferring their privacy, but even so, there's no denying that it's entirely possible that the passage between the two villages could become impassible under the current conditions."

And that's not even considering the possibility of cave-ins or avalanches. Still, if someone should happen to think that the comparative solitude makes up for the possibility of being quite literally shut off from most of the rest of the people currently present, he figures that he can hardly stop them. He might not entirely approve, but neither is he any sort of position to suggest that it might be more beneficial to not be in a position that could be easily cut off from the most of community. And especially not when there have been times that he's preferred to have some measure of solitude besides.

Or at least, as much of one as one can get on a starship like the Enterprise.