awashlogs | Event Thirteen.

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Event Thirteen.

To love a human face was to discover
The cracks of paint and varnish on the brow;
Soon to distrust all impulses of flesh
That strews its sawdust on the chamber floor,
While at the window peer two crones
Who once were Juliet and Jessica.

t's a regular morning here in the Town. The sun isn't shining at all, snow is falling like crazy, and...there may be the sounds of shouts coming from the well, thoroughly muffled.

Okay, so it's not a regular morning at all, but you'd better go help those people! The newcomers are here again. Of course, once you get to the well, you'll notice that there's actually no real help you can offer -- it's totally frozen over.

As for the newcomers, well... hopefully being suddenly dumped into freezing cold water in the middle of November in a dark, damp well is your idea of a good time, because that's your life now!

And that's not even taking into account the mirrors in everyone's homes that are about to wake up and start chattering...

Welcome to Awash's thirteenth event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. Please keep in mind that while this is a general event log, it is also an intro log; be sure to pay plenty of attention to our newcomers!

If there are any questions, please ask them here. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[sadly reim wouldn't go to church but i'm sure this will be as overdramatic as possible anyway......

or: reim, out and about, minding his own business with his own annoying little mirror just shoved into the inside of his fancy vest because he can't be bothered with it. he comes across sierra because of course he does, and naturally he's inclined to stop and look at her mirror, despite his better judgment— it feels invasive to look at other people's, he thinks after seeing his own, but the curiosity gets the better of him...

and, ah. indeed, it feels like this isn't something he should have seen. he glances from the face in the mirror to sierra, actual and whole in front of him, notably not weeping. hmm.]

...Well, yes.

[ well, yes, he says, like it’s obvious. sierra isn’t yet in full despair mode, but she does find herself a little bothered by the fact that reim can see something while she can only get the town around her. ]

Well, what is it? I can’t see anything.

[ a flash of irritation, mostly, with just a tinge of worry undercutting it all. she doesn’t like having her most vulnerable self on display for anyone. ]

[reim nearly gives her a look for her attitude— let him process his new task of having to relay this to her in the most sensitive way possible, first— but there's something else about this encounter all of a sudden that has nothing at all to do with the mirror.

or maybe he's imagining it, that undercut of worry when she makes her demand. anyone would be worried about these mirrors, he reasons, so... he'll keep wondering about it.]

You, I suppose, unless you have a younger sister you've never mentioned.

[ sierra frowns deeper at that, a wrinkle forming between her brows. someone who could be her younger sister, the sound of crying—she used to be quite a naive girl, much to her own chagrin, and so it’s not hard to put together the fact that this mirror must be showing someone much more human. ]

Tch. [ her usual anger, maybe. more complex than that. ] You’ll—

[ before she can finish her probably unreasonable demand, the mirror begins to speak, apparently responding to the fact that sierra is talking to someone, or just the presence of another person. ]

Don’t leave.

[ sierra bites the inside of her cheek. ]

You’ll forget everything about this, of course.

[it's another one of those things they're going to pretend never happened, is it? this is different from the last one, more than a lapse in judgment— a hell of a lot harder to forget everything about. reim frowns in turn when he notices something about her anger... something is happening here, and he can't put his finger on what exactly or why.

so that's going great. he sighs and studiously does not look at the younger sierra in the mirror again.]

You did ask me what I saw...

I didn’t think it was going to be that!

[ the mirror is cold to the touch, but sierra isn’t too bothered—she just wishes that she could generate her own body heat to keep the handle from stinging her palm. for now, she tucks it into her cape, or at least starts to. ]

I just don’t want you to think badly of me, Reim.

[ the fact that it uses his name makes her pause for only a moment, before she pushes it the rest of the way to hide it. ]

To be fair, it's a mirror, and this town is... [he waves a hand; there was always a possibility it would be something upsetting, he means, but he's not going to bother her about it. especially not when the mirror actually talks to him, which is a lot harder to politely ignore.

he coughs, and looks away for a moment.]

I will forget all about this later like you asked, [in theory,] but your past couldn't make me think ill of you.

It’s not my past I’m worried about.

[ sierra rubs her brow, still frowning. although she hasn’t physically changed much from the image in the mirror, the person standing before reim now seems unspeakably older in less tangible ways. it’s been centuries, of course. ]

The first many years of my life were boring. You might judge me for what an idiot I used to be, but there’s nothing painful there.

[ she delivers the statement as confidently as always, though she’s troubled and annoyed by her situation, but the reality is different in her chest. there’s an ache squeezing at her heart, a buried hurt that’s being roused by the person she used to be.

those stupid words—caring about someone, wanting them to stay, loneliness. crying about it. it’s awful. ]

[wow he just said he wouldn't judge her and that's what she says...]

If you showed me someone who insists they were the model of maturity when they were young, I will show you a liar.

[please. being dismissive of her past is one thing - ultimately, isn't everyone embarrassed of the way they acted when they were young? reim certainly has been more than once. but once again, that extra something—]

You know, wanting other people around isn't something to be ashamed of.

[ maybe that’s the problem. it wasn’t just when she was younger, it’s now, too. ]

Are you lecturing me?

[ it should be their usual playful banter, and it would be if it were based on her tone alone, but that extra something is going to betray her—she can’t help but feel a little jolt of shame and sadness anyway at being called out. it is something to be ashamed of, because it’s led to some stupid mistakes done in the name of love. ]

[well, now—]

Yes. Eventually, everyone experiences something like regret, or shame, but that isn't a sign to give up! People can't live without other people.

[if he seems particularly passionate about this, it's because of all the antisocial morons he has to keep in line at home... he's given this lecture before. but he still earnestly means it for her, not just the semi-automatic way he dispenses advice.]

And don't say something like "well I'm a vampire," because you know that isn't what I mean by "people."

[ telling her not to only makes her want to do it. ]

Well, I’m a vampire.

[ at least that particular comment is genuinely amused, if not subdued because of the general tone of the conversation. she crosses her arms, and turns her head to scout the area. the snow is still piling up. ]

But really, Reim. I am a monster. I kill and eat people because I must. And here I am, making friends with all you humans… [ ugh. ] Follow me.

[reim's best friend is a serial killer, but she has a point, eating people is still a big line to cross... now he definitely gives her a look for her sass. of course, he'll follow her anyway.]

You haven't killed me the handful of times you could have, so forgive me for not seeing the point.

[hmph!!]

[ it’s really not something she wants to talk about in the open, or at all. she knows she’s digging her own grave with making this into something when she told him to forget it, but what’s done is done. ]

Didn’t you hear? I want you to stick around.

[ where she brings him is for once not her home, since she runs the risk of kisa overhearing in that case. instead, they stand outside a dilapidated cottage, where definitely no one lives. ]

Hah… we might get snowed in here. Would you be willing to spend that time with me?

[ everything she says now has some hint of sadness, a distance that might be audible even without an emotional connection. ]

[hm, maybe despite the conversation, this is where he gets murdered... truth be told, sitting around in an abandoned cottage in a snowstorm isn't reim's idea of a fun time, but sierra and "being around people" are clearly having a complicated day. he can't help the sympathy pang in his chest, and alright, as if there were a chance he'd abruptly turn his back on her now.

and at least one of them still gets cold, so, sure.]

Well, I've come this far. [he'll even be a gentleman and get the door. let's go.]

[ frankly, it isn’t sierra’s idea of a fun time, either, but it’s private and it’s quiet, and no, it’s not going to be especially warm, but it’s better than standing out in the snow with no shelter.

once inside, sierra—takes out the mirror again, strangely enough. she still doesn’t see herself, but she can hear it. ]

Did you know? [ like she’s about to give him a fun-fact, while staring into the blank mirror. ] I spent centuries alone in a cottage just like this one. I didn’t even have furniture, because I didn’t know how to make it.

[ah. that makes him frown, for how casually she says it. it's not something that should be said casually, he thinks, even if she has been alive for centuries longer than those spent alone.]

Why didn't you leave?

[ she killed her family. there was nowhere for her to go, and reim will notice without her saying anything at all that his question triggers something much deeper, much more pained, than anything she would ever be willing to reveal under normal circumstances. ]

I got a little lost. [ a wry smile, at least until her mirror speaks up. ] I was so scared that no one would be able to accept me.

[ sierra tightens her grip on the handle. ]

…and that too, of course.

[these flashes of emotion are distracting, at best; reim doesn't know just how much he should reveal about the fact that it's happening at all. on the one hand, she could pull away from him, and on the other, isn't saying nothing dishonest of him? it seems like only he's experiencing it, too, which makes it harder to keep his reactions to her feelings from being too obvious.

what a dilemma. but the mirror gets his attention again, and this time he does look at it. ah-]

But you did go, in the end. [go on, tell him how that went.]

Everyone died because of me.

[ sierra clicks her tongue. ]

You’re getting ahead of yourself, fool. [ or maybe it’s still dwelling on the past—throwing a dart on sierra’s personal timeline is going to end up with loss no matter where it lands. ] A man eventually found me. And then more, and more, some women and children, and I turned them all into monsters like me until I had a village all my own.

[ she twirls the mirror thoughtfully in her hand, and when it comes glass-up again, it has more to say. ]

I loved them all, you know… I really loved them.

[hoo boy. reim is quiet for a moment, processing all of this. the mirror, what sierra says to it— there isn't a happy ending to this story, he guesses.

and this time, he isn't sure what to say. this doesn't feel like the time for platitudes about what does and doesn't make someone a monster— interrupting with something like that would sully the fact that she's telling him this at all, probably... hmm.]

Were they happy there?

[surely...]

[ not wanting her mirror to interrupt, she takes reim’s comment as a sign to place the object face-down again. there will be time for its commentary later. ]

Let’s see… [ she turns to him. ] Would you be? You were going to die, and then a lovely young maiden gave you an eternal life and a community of people like you.

[ she’s the lovely young maiden in question, thanks ]

[you know, he has almost died before, and becoming a vampire seems only a few steps away on the extreme reaction scale from what he actually did. never mind that.

he rubs at his neck where she has helped herself to his blood before, considering eternal life... honestly the thought kind of gives him a stomachache, but he's deathly afraid of running out of work to do.]

I could be, I suppose. Eventually.

[ eternal life sucks, actually, but a few hundred years of more time isn’t so bad. ]

They were happy. We all were happy, I think… as happy as a group of outcasts can be.

[ reim got to see sierra’s memory of being hated by the townspeople—by then, she’d taken it all in stride. there was a period of time long before that where she hid herself away, still cautious of her power, afraid of inviting judgment on herself. ]

[that makes him think of the baskervilles, and the gnarled mess that is his own understanding of them. outcasts, made villains by the other great houses and whispered about in the dark as monsters, when they're only people like anyone else. he isn't an outcast of any kind, himself, so he can only offer clumsy sympathy.

but at least he wouldn't have called her a hussy in the middle of town. there's that.]

Then it must have been worth it. [these words should ordinarily be accompanied by at least a smile, but uh, he isn't.]

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