entrancelogs | + FOURTH WALL EVENT: FOREST PARTY +

Entry tags:

+ FOURTH WALL EVENT: FOREST PARTY +

Who: E V E R Y O N E
Where: The Forest!
When: Sept 7th to Sept 10th
Rating: G to PG-13 (please label higher ratings, thank you!)
Summary: Could it be that you (GASP!) don't want to be here? Do you maybe want to make like a tree and... leaf? Then how about you do the next best thing, and come to the woods to party! And don't forget to have a look at the Fourth Wall Master Post for event rules, puzzle clues, and more places to mingle!
The Story:

Beginning on September 7th, colourful ribbons will hang from several trees by the forest. Whoever follows their path will be guided deeper, right to the scene of a forest party.

Wooden benches, swings in all shapes and sizes, tree trunks, and other arrangements give plenty of opportunities to sit together. Tree houses and tents provide shelter, and come nightfall the festivities will light up for you.

Campfires provide additional light and warmth and a great place for ghost stories. Camping coolers store more than smores, and all around you nature twists and turns to give you room to dance to the music, to wander in the quiet, and to simply have a good time!

(...Are you the curiously perceptive, or the perceptively curious sort? If so, then you might also notice the small bird sitting on a branch nearby.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ katherine doesn't know what she believes in anymore. she'd once believed in him, in damon, in her own ability to control her destiny. but she's since discovered she doesn't believe in destiny at all. shit happens, and the house of cards she's built always falls. ]

[ she stops with him, but doesn't step back. despite not feeling so obsessively wound up in stefan salvatore, katherine's tired of distance. she's tired of being far from him, and even from herself. if he won't wedge distance between them, she won't, either. ]

[ it takes her a moment to respond, and when she does, she looks him in the eye instead of ducking her head. katherine pierce never hides; she merely lingers somewhere where no one bothers to look. ]

I just want to be a girl who's dancing with a boy in Wonderland. [ she doesn't want to be katherine, and she doesn't want him to be stefan. but life is never that simple. ] Do you think that's something you can give me? [ her tone warms with amusement, since katherine doesn't quite like being vulnerable at all. ] Or do I have to go threaten someone else to dance with me?

[He blinks back surprise. Of all the things he had anticipated, that wasn't one of them. Even now, she manages to keep him on his toes (literally?) and - and he wouldn't have her any other way at this point.]

Of course I can. [His voice's equally warm, though far more gentle since they'd last talked. Wonderland's broken him more than he wants to admit, and even if he might regret this later - he wants this now.] If that's what you really want, then well...

[He resumes dancing with her, taking it a bit slower than he normally would. This time? He pulls out one of his favorite moves, twirling her under the twinkling forest lights.]

Who'm I to say no?

[ when she laughs, it sounds like bells — and very much the carefree, enjoyable laugh of katerina pierce. she easily falls into step, almost as though she remembers it from over a century ago. ]

[ she doesn't particularly want to think — on what she's said and his own answer — but katherine suspects she's found what she's looking for. it's an act of kindness she may have earned from him, having successfully leapt through his own tests to see him here. after all, stefan has been the one who has always fought her the most — even as a human, she found him to be a wonderful challenge that kept her feeling alive and on her toes when the world was falling at her feet by a mere blink of an eye and a weighted request. ]

[ it's a gentle reprimand: ] You should really warn a girl when you decide to do that, Stefan. [ she arches her brow, then her expression shifts into one she hasn't worn since the 1800s. it's slightly haughty, but it's flirty in his own challenge. ] Or at least follow it up with a dip.

[It really does feel like they've stepped back into time, lapsing back into the people they used to be. Stefan's never shied away from pretending, from re-narrating his story to suit his mood. He doesn't want to fight anymore. He's tired of fighting.

At her reprimand, he laughs:] Is that so?

[Her wish is his command; he doesn't even think twice about gently placing his hand on her upper back and gently lowering her, with usual Salvatore finesse. As he holds the move, careful to support her, his expression's bright and genuine and - crap, he feels human again. Is that Wonderland at work, or has this week just been that weird?]

You'd better remember this, [he teases as he brings her back up, trying not to let on how vulnerable he feels,] because I'm never doing it again.

[ she feels like lady katherine pierce again, and, for once, she doesn't try to shy away from her. she's not a person katherine had strived to ever be, a character she'd adopted as a pitstop along the way to her destination. she still hasn't met where she's meant to wind up, but she's finding she doesn't quite mind returning back to a corset and high shoes when she feels like this. ]

[ truthfully, she feels like katerina petrova, and finds she isn't afraid, even though she skirts away from that particular ghost as quickly as she can. ]

[ instead of trying to control the dip, she simply falls into it, and looks up at him with a smile. ] I will. [ and she finds, despite saying so in light jest in response to him, she means it. katherine pierce doesn't have many happy memories, and the ones she does have are ones she pushes far, far away from her as they hold heartache in their hands. but this is one of the ones she knows she'd like to keep. ]

Is this why you were so afraid of dancing? You didn't want to enjoy it?

Mm, partially.

[Okay, it's the entire reason. Dances - and enjoying the company of his partners - was a right reserved for the human Stefan Salvatore, the kid who had a whole life in front of him. He was supposed to attend medical school (at Harvard no less!) and he would tend to the sick and the poor with a practiced ease. He and Damon would've inherited the estate and - and it's a life that no longer belongs to him.

Stefan doesn't mind anymore. If he had remained human, he wouldn't have met half the people or seen half the places, and he certainly wouldn't have wandered into the pages of a storybook. What fairy tale would Wonderland recite, if they were the protagonists?]

It's also because I've got a reputation to keep. I do this kind of thing once, and you'd come to expect it.

Me? [ she laughs heartily. she likes this stefan; it's a quiet thought she has, but it's one she keeps to herself for once. ]

[ it's what he would've said eons ago, to a girl who she thinks sometimes exists inside of her. lady katherine hadn't been lady katherine, but katerina petrova, a girl who believed in love and dancing and boys like stefan salvatore who loved to chase them. ]

[ with her brows raised, she informs him, ] I'll defy expectations and not expect it at all.

[ truthfully, she hadn't expected it now. born from her poking, she certainly would've known stefan would take her to the dance floor as he had at the lockwood masquerade party, but she hadn't predicted he would out of his own desire. ]

[ but she finds she isn't even counting the seconds of how long she smiles. ]

I wouldn't want to ruin your reputation.

That's awfully considerate of you.

[His entire expression's too warm and genuine for him to even think of feigning sarcasm. Y'Allah, he missed this so much. He missed being so close to the girl who had once opened up his whole world. There are ugly bits he's forgetting - he knows, because his memory can't sift through it fast enough - but for right now, it's enough.

Without really thinking, he'll even intertwine his fingers with hers. They're as soft and gentle as he remembered.]

And here I thought every woodland creature would know by the end of the night.

Oh, so you want me to tell them?

[ she presses her lips together, appearing as though that's within her skill set. anything is, when it comes to katherine pierce. she's outwitted even herself in the best of times, and often proven to herself she's quite the survivalist even during the worst. ]

[ this is one of those times where she feels herself battling between flight or fight. she can fly from stefan, uncertain of his kindness toward her within this moment, or she can fight it in the way she falls into the steps of flirting with him. she's been in both situations in various different shades of it — he'd been kind to her with a sincerity she's never doubted, and he's been gentle with her with the intention to try and destroy her. ]

[ a part of her wishes to unwrap it all and stow it away so she can prepare a better weapon to use against him, but katherine keeps herself close to him, moving with him, in a way she doesn't think she ever has before. ]

[ perhaps there is no fight or flight with stefan. there's simply existing. she hasn't done that in a long while. ]

[ with her brow arched, she informs him factually, ] I can't promise I'd make you sound truly as terrible as you are.

I didn't say that...

[He groans, but with absolutely none of his usual exasperation or irritation. Stefan's finding it impossible to even feign his usual mood with Katherine, and part of him wonders if it's weird. It's weird, right?

Except it feels so familiar and right, like the final gears are clicking into place. He should've probably pulled back by now. He doesn't, and he's not sure what that says about him.]

Not even a little terrible? I can't go all soft on Bambi and Thumper now.

I don't think you ever were.

[ it means, to katherine, that stefan's capable of forgiveness — or forgetting. she leans more heavily on the latter than the former (there's nothing to forgive when it comes to katherine pierce, of course). ]

[ it's comfortable, the way things are. katherine hasn't quite remembered where she is, what time she happens to be dancing in, or the person whom stefan has become with his sharp edges and need to push her away. he's keeping her close, and later katherine won't quite understand why, either. ]

[ she amends after a moment: ] Soft. [ she may smile, but her words feel weighted with genuineness. ] You definitely had your weaknesses — I'll be sure to let Bambi and Thumper know they've lost you as their personal guard — but you're not soft, Stefan. Not by any means.

I don't know, I sure feel soft.

[Maybe it's all the tea he's had this week, or maybe it's the betrayal of Damon & Elena on the dance floor, or maybe it's the hell that has been Wonderland, but Stefan... doesn't feel like withholding anything anymore.]

I used to think that Damon and I were stronger than any girl who dared to get between us, but after you and Elena... [He sighs, squeezing her hand tightly. He shouldn't be confessing this to the one who started this whole sorry mess. He shouldn't even be here. And yet, he's going for the truth:] I'm a lot less certain of that.

[ that's surprising. ]

[ katherine doesn't pretend his confession is anything but that. a part of her knows if she reacts as naturally as possible, he may feel more comfortable to talk some more. the other part of her doesn't wish to hear it — she doesn't want to hear him moan of damon and elena, of how he's heartbroken, feeling left out, blah, blah, blah. pennsylvania had given her enough distance to acknowledge she wasn't interested in such politics, even if it was oftentimes fun to test and see if the salvatores really did love their beloved elena enough to tell her and katherine apart. (according to the tests, they didn't.) ]

[ her brows furrow together slightly, and she looks at him with slight concern, an expression that fits more on elena's face than her own. but it had originated on hers long before elena had ever looked upon someone with slight worry. it's an old mask that fits almost as snug as it once had, if only a little out of shape. ]

It's the Petrova fire. [ her accent is thick then. it's an easy answer, and it's supposed to be its own explanation. she lifts a shoulder to emphasise that. it stems from her mother, and that's all katherine wishes to think or say of it. ]

[ she looks up at him, and leaves her expression slightly open. ] Do you want to know something, Stefan? [ she thinks to give him a chance to reply, but she knows there's a good chance he'll stop her. katherine doesn't wish to be stopped. ] I loved you both, for different reasons. And I was selfish, and I got caught up in the power of being wanted for being who I was for once. But I never wanted you to be as alone as I felt.

[ katherine doesn't realise she's stopped moving. ]

[He freezes mid-step, mirroring that concern back at her.

Her explanation is all he needs to hear, because in the distant corners of his mind, he'd known that had always been the answer. Tatia had played games with two of the Mikaelsons; Katherine had played games with him and Damon; and now Elena was continuing it, with the exact same steps and rhythm as the Petrova before her.

Stefan's heart aches at the realization. He's not as old and wise as he likes to think, if he's revisiting these same steps and patterns. He should've listened to Alesci, but what did Alesci know? His heartbreaks were on the smaller end of the scale.]

"Alone's" putting it nicely. [He can't rely on Damon, he can't rely on Elena, and he sure as hell can't rely on Katherine or Rebekah. This is worse than the Fleet: it's every nightmare smashed up into a blender and unleashed into the waking world.] All I know is, I'm tired of feeling like I am.

[Salvatore's urging him to just make a move already, but - but faith. He has more faith (and more importantly, more willpower) to hold on and not succumb to his urges. He takes a breath, forcing himself to stay still.]

If Wonderland's supposed to be a dream, I sure hope we'll wake up soon.

Edited 2016-10-25 06:02 (UTC)

[ katherine tilts her head, studying him with slightly narrowed eyes. stefan's a different person to whom she had known as a young man and as an angry and volatile vampire, but he's still himself deep down. she thinks she can see it. ]

[ he still doesn't know who he is. once, she would've tried to show him. ]

[ her gaze isn't unkind. she's trying to figure him out, what's missing, what's new. his trip in space has changed him, made him slightly calmer, if more tired and resigned. she misses the fire that had resided within him. hate come to burn behind his eyes, but it hadn't been there all the time. ] And where will you wake up? In a better place? Or a nightmare?

[ it's the latter for katherine. it's taken her a long time to acknowledge the life she's tried to shape for herself with little to no attention is a nightmare more than it is any sort of daydream she used to preoccupy herself with as a young girl. she's alone — friendless, with no family, with nothing but her ambitions and the skeletons littered in her wake. it isn't the life katerina petrova had hoped for. ]

We're already in one.

[His laugh is bitter, more resigned. It doesn't suit Stefan, either - but when Wonderland's pulled him from people he genuinely loved (and who genuinely loved him back), he can't help poking at the ashes that had remained.

He had once wondered who he was in relation to his brother, to Elena, to Katherine. Now that he knows, he's not sure that he should've asked that question to begin with.

But weirdly enough, the truth's also setting him free, and Stefan's finding it easier to breathe with each syllable. He feels alone (even if he isn't), and right now? It's equally easier to focus on pulling Katherine out of hers too.]

But if I had to pick, do you... remember that old Disney movie? About the sleeping princess? [His cheeks turn a faint red.] I'd like to be back there.

Sleeping Beauty, Stefan. [ she sounds amused when she names it. ] Or Snow White? Many of the princesses fall asleep. Must be because their princes are such a bore.

[ and it's always fun to let men play up to the roles the patriarchal society they live in has defined for them. they're the hero, while the women are the damsels; katherine's gone to hell and back to ensure she's her own prince. ]

[ despite her own need to make a quip — or let the conversation lighten a little in the tension that seems to have woven itself into it — she has to wonder for his reasoning. stefan has always thought himself to be a hero, just as damon had back when she had known them best, but she wonders if he understands he can save himself. ]

[ if there's any lesson he should learn from her, it's that. ]

[ she looks at him with an expression that's more kind. ] Why there? It's not the most exciting of fairytales.

[What? How is Sleeping Beauty a boring fairy tale?

Maybe it's because Stefan's seen the movie more than a dozen times (thanks to his baby sister), or maybe it's because he feels like Prince Phillip, dancing alongside Briar Rose once upon a dream - but he looks almost offended.]

You're kidding me, right? You've got fairies, a giant fire-breathing dragon, and a prince who'll shrug it all off for the woman he loves.

[Because in fairy tales, nothing - absolutely nothing - beats true love's kiss.

Olette had compared him to Phillip one too many times, except now, he's starting to wonder if she'd been right. Phillip would've gone to the ends of the Earth for Elena - just as he had, both for Katherine and Elena. His expression softens as he looks back at her.]

What story would you wanna be in, then?

[ she almost reminds him the princess is asleep for a good portion of the adventure — and requires a man to save her. katerina would've loved such a tale, but katerina had loved love wholeheartedly, and had believed in it for all of its purity. katherine's learned that love is quite possibly the ugliest thing of all. ]

[ she opts to not engage in much of an argument with him. he sees it in a different way, inviting her into a perspective she thinks she's always known him to have, but has wondered over the last few decades if that adventurous spirit of his has puttered out. becoming boring and almost predictable in his life, stefan still yearns for adventure, and she's quietly glad to see it woven within his answer. ]

[ katherine thinks she gave it to him once, but she suspects he'd believe her to be the equivalent to the fire-breathing dragon than the fun companion who'd joined him on such a journey. ]

[ giving it a moment's thought, katherine looks up at him with her neck arched, and seems quite content with her own answer. ] Mulan.

Ah, so you wanna be the Great Dragon.

[He seems almost pleased by the answer, leaning in and resting his forehead by hers. Stefan's a total sucker for a good fairy tale. Even if it's a little less orthodox than what he'd been thinking.

She would be hailed by Bulgaria as a hero; she would save her family and her country from the enemy; and she - she would find someone that told her she fought good. Stefan can't even try to hide his amusement. He only hopes he's more eloquent than the captain.]

I've seen you fight, I think you could take on a whole army if you wanted to.

[... yeah, he's legitimately going for that analogy. Sorry, Katherine: this Stefan's a bonafide #nerd.]

[ one way to unsettle katherine is to have stefan behave so warm and kind toward her. she knows she'd asked for it — for them to almost be anonymous, to simply be a boy and a girl, and not a man and a woman with so much history behind them it sometimes appears as soft as feathers when oftentimes it's as sharp and heavy as shackles around their wrists and ankles. ]

[ it only takes her out of the moment for a second before she settles. katherine is allowed to enjoy this one evening. it's what she tells herself. wonderland will take it from her shortly, as life often feels compelled to do. stefan's giving her what she wants, and she would be an idiot not to take it when he offers it freely to her for once. ]

You think so? [ she lets herself smile, much like the young girl she was around him in 1864. sometimes she forgets how stefan can make her feel as though she can float on air and take on great dragons of lore. keeping her forehead resting against his, she lets her arms wrap properly around his neck. it's more comfortable, not purposefully keeping distance between them. ] Did you know Mushu is a big fan of Sleeping Beauty? It seems almost like it was written in the stars.

[This feels easy, comfortable - maybe even a little too comfortable.

But he had meant every word: for just one night, they would be a boy and a girl dancing under the stars. They would have a blank slate, and that blank slate was begging to be filled with stories. They weren't reinventing a story, just revising one.]

Then maybe we should listen to those stars more often.

[He lets out a small noise of contentment as he closes his eyes. Not a bad way to end a dance, if he says so himself.]

Between you and me, they also said that what happens here stays here.

[ that sounds like the beginning of a love story, stefan. ]

[ once upon a time she would've allowed herself to indulge completely in a moment like this. having stefan here, forgetting everything that's ever happened — the horrible actions that have kept them apart that will always keep them apart — should be easy to fall into, but katherine's never allowed herself to relax that much. there's always someone to run from. ]

[ there currently is someone to run from. ]

[ but she lets herself enjoy this, even if she doesn't let herself dive headfirst into it. she'd done that once, and it'd ended tragically for the both of them. ]

[ rather than close her eyes, she keeps them open. if she won't let herself fold into this, she's allowing herself to at least be able to remember it as vividly as she's capable much later. she smiles, and laughs lightly, her voice warm, ] That's Las Vegas, Stefan. Not Wonderland. You've been in space for too long if you don't remember at least that cliched line.

[ it may sound like the beginning of a love story, but katherine knows this has to be the end of one. ]

[It can't end here.

He lazily opens one eye at her, with an expression of amused judgment (if that's even possible).] I don't know, Wonderland feels pretty Vegas-y.

[He's teasing, of course, but he doesn't want to let go or act as they always had. There's been more than enough misery in his stars, and for once, he can't control how they align.

Maybe this is punishment for a life he had left behind, or maybe it's a reminder that he can't escape his past. Whatever it is, he's tired, and he wants just one night to end on a better note. So he decides to just go for it and kiss her on the cheek. It lacks his usual passion, but there's warmth and affection where there shouldn't be any.

Worst part is, he doesn't even have the decency to look embarrassed.]

Tomorrow, we can go back to what we used to be, but I figured... we're a boy and a girl under the stars, and you deserved this much.

Edited 2016-11-08 07:36 (UTC)

[ where stefan fails to look embarrassed, katherine appears taken aback. they don't fit the roles they've carved for themselves — stefan perpetually angry at her, and katherine always smug. she's finally the cat that caught the canary, but she knew long before she set out on this venture into the woods and this particular party that she was going to let him go. ]

I deserved this much. [ she repeats, more quietly than she otherwise would. he makes her feel as though she's katerina again — taken aback when the boy she fantasises marrying actually wants to court her, despite all odds being against them — and she forgets that she's ever been katherine. ]

Don't lie, Stefan. You did this for yourself, too.

[ she doesn't know what stefan deserves, but she supposes it's something nice. katherine's capable of love — perhaps this is the only way he'll ever let himself actually acknowledge it: in a world that's unknown to their own, where he can be nameless and she can finally shed herself of all her walls and all that combined baggage they lug around. ]

+ FOURTH WALL EVENT: FOREST PARTY +

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