[ When Elena wakes with a gasp, a book dropping from her hand, she forgets that she's in public and shouldn't let her enhanced abilities be seen. She doesn't remember no one can know she's a vampire, no one should observe how fast she can be — all that matters is what she's lost. Who she's lost.

Racing across the dome in a blur of vampire speed, she remembers at the entrance to the library, but it's so hard to reason why it's more important to be slow than to find them. The person she's lost. The people. The ones she's connected to forever. The sense of urgency wraps around her heart like a fist, squeezing tighter with every second and pushing her forward. Through the agricultural dome, the personal domes, back through the library again. She searches, growing closer to sheer panic with every second, but still she goes on.

She can't stop searching, not until she finds them, even if it means revealing herself for what she truly is. ]

[ The benefit of vampire strength? Elena's been working at the harvest for hours, picking apples and gathering corn, and she isn't the least bit tired. The downside of vampire strength? Having to hide it from everyone else.

It takes more effort than she'd like to keep her movements slow, to pretend that she feels the weight of the baskets overflowing with heavy apples. She makes the occasional exaggerated show of struggling to lift the basket or straining against the weight of a particularly full one, because as tedious as it may be, it's the only way to guarantee her own safety, and the safety of any other vampires who may be brought here.

There's even once when she stumbles purposefully near one of the other volunteers, sending a few ears of corn rolling toward the other person. Help a girl out with her elaborate charade? ]

[ The network is... strange. It's like being connected to the Nest, but without the emotions and thoughts attached. Flat and empty instead of deep and nuanced. But even with those differences, Elena takes to it easily, adapting quickly to the new method of communication. ]

Has anyone here heard of Mystic Falls, Virginia?