010 » something wicked this way comes

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: ???
WHEN: Day 010
WHAT: Spooks happen. Some sanity loss may occur. (More on that next week!)
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Thank you so much for your patience with this! My Friday was much busier
than expected, so I'm very sorry for the lateness on getting these out to you all.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Gyuki"

DAY 010
“We make up horrors to help
us cope with the real ones.”
—Stephen King
The day dawns but few wake to see it. Only one, who has been exempt from the strange happenings about to unfold. She will face a day like any other, a farce of normality in an utterly abnormal universe — but she will face it alone. For none who will experience these strange happenings are to be found in the town until the next morning dawns. Each has been taken, whisked away to another layer of the town, peeled back and exposed like a raw nerve.

Mathias screams and there are none who can hear it.


THE DETAILS
Each exploration, encounter, and revelation happen separately from one another. Though some may include the same locations, none will overlap in time or space. The circumstances laid out in each prompt are exclusive to that situation — do not assume the answers someone else received will also apply to you.

Players may ask questions as they normally do for logs, but these should be kept as part of the designated thread. You may create a subthread under your header for questions, or intersperse them with your "tags". Your responses may be formatted as IC tags or as a more OOC "telling" what your character does rather than showing.

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DAY 011
All characters involved in this event will wake on the morning of Day 011 in the exact location where they began to sleep on Day 009, but they will find themselves covered in a layer of dust just as thick as that which had covered much of Mathias. The dust does not extend to their surroundings.

The memories of what they encountered or saw remain clear in their minds, no matter how impossible they might seem. Sights, sounds, smells, all may be recalled with crystalline clarity, even if they wish it were otherwise.

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[villagemod]

There is no answer, only the whistle of the wind through the trees. He'll have a few more minutes with his thoughts and these mysterious gravestones, and then the next thing he knows, he'll be waking where he went to sleep, covered in a layer of dust and with his skin still smarting from the cold.

[villagemod]

Perhaps next time Eliot will choose the "boring" option.

He was smart to block the door from swinging shut, for it still stands cracked open and ready for him to pass through. As he does, he will jerk awake in the location where he last slept, covered in dust and with blood staining his hand. The mark will remain on his hand for all of day 011.

[volunteertomatoes]

Down to the bottom it is, then, with his lighter. He'll cast one look up at what little light he sees before heading down the tunnel.

[abrightboy]

He didn't see sunshine; it was still grey outside, but he did see Sunshine.

When Raylan stalked back to the stairs, Malcolm followed to the doorway of the living quarters, watching with some interest as Raylan processed the situation in his way.

"If they're manipulating the environment, then there's at least some degree to which it's contrived," Malcolm pointed out, almost jogging to keep up with Raylan's long-legged stride out onto the path.

[villagemod]

The stark difference continues as she moves up the stairs, only silence coming from the room as she enters it. There is one round window that lets a thin streak of sunlight in, offering enough illumination to tell these things about the space:

— the ceiling is low and pointed here
— there are stacks of luggage along the edges, suitcases and chests
— there is a pile of mostly burnt paper in the center of the room, a sooty circle spread out beneath the pile

[thering]

"I can keep up," he insists even though she might not have been implying otherwise. "Would much prefer if we ran for it, if I'm honest, but we might miss sommin' if we just high tail it that way." She seemed quite interested in investigating, and hell, maybe there's some merit to figuring out what all the little details add up to. It's just that-... it's been a little over a week of all the little details adding up to nothing so far, so his patience about what's happening to them in general might be starting to wear thin.

"Yes m- Jill." He manages to stop himself this time, reaching out to take her hand and lift it slightly, turning the backs of her fingers towards him instead of the traditional handshake he might reserve for other gentlemen.

"And I can take that if you like." Wouldn't be proper not to at least offer to carry the mirror. But she seems keen on turning it one way and the other. He would more likely end up being the glorified bag carrier husband standing cluelessly outside the store holding the big round shiny thing like a mannequin.

His anxiety is somewhat alleviated when they have decided on moving so he starts that way, towards the light, taking small steps backwards at first while facing her in case she does decide to unload the mirror onto him.

[villagemod]

His outburst has little effect and his hands are perfectly fine, save for perhaps a bit of stinging from slamming them so hard against the railing. The beacon continues to turn behind him, the wind continues to howl, and the town continues to mock his attempts at unraveling its mysteries.

[waywardsister]

[ Ever one to go for the most obvious thing in the room, Claire decides to investigate the mostly burnt paper. As tempting as it would be to snoop through the luggage, the burnt paper she hopes might yield more information. She wants to see if there's something still legible on the paper, if there's something other than paper in the pile, and if there's something she can tell about the circle of soot - does it look like normal scorch marks of a pile of paper set on fire? ]

[villagemod]

The tunnel goes on for quite some time. If Quentin follows it for as long as he can, he will eventually come across a large round mirror propped against the wall amidst a collection of smooth round stones. The mirror is old, signs of age marring the edges of its surface, and its placement seems oddly purposeful.

[villagemod]

The circle of soot seems too precise to be naturally occurring.

Much of the paper is too burnt to still be readable, but underneath a few layers, she will find legible pieces that threaten to crumble if handled too roughly. They are fragments of maps, one piece containing a legend and the words Mathias, established 1693. There is not much that can be discerned from the rest of the pieces she can read, though she will have one look at a stretch of forest and a large building nestled amidst them—

And then she will wake where she last slept, covered in dust, with the key in her hand and soot on her fingers.

[hellblaze]

With more annoyance than anything, John gives a final statement to the dark cold ocean blow. One big loud middle finger before he stuffs his hands into his coat pockets and heads back inside.

Down, down, down he goes to the base of the lighthouse and to the living area once more.

He scrounges around until he finds some paper and pen. The first sheet is a rough sketch of what he's seen. Stick with a light on it, squiggly lines for the ocean, some trees for the forest, and a house for the town. Pleased with his elementary level drawing, he folds it and puts it in his coat. Then, he grabs another piece of paper. Part of this is a bit of a test, and the other part is just because he's annoyed at the situation.

This town is a bunch of bollocks.

Then he draws a bit of a love letter at the bottom of the note and then slams it down on the middle of the table in the living area. He makes sure that it is secured down by a wait. Just a little bit of John Constantine for Mathias to keep.

Then, he makes his way to the entrance. He turns back, looking over the room one more time to see if anything might seem out of place. Something he may have not noticed before.

[villagemod]

The outside is indeed outside this mysteriously appearing door. There is the cliff they were able to see from the top of the lighthouse, the ocean below, the treeline of the forest. There is no clear path to follow.

[villagemod]

It will only take around thirty seconds of good sprinting for them to suddenly emerge into a large clearing in the midst of the forest, grass stretching out in front of them for some distance before reaching the ruins of a stone building at the opposite treeline. Most of what remains are the foundational stones, the rest having been worn away by time.

[tinstar]

There wasn't a clear path to be seen but that didn't change Raylan's stride or the surity of it as he made his way towards the forest.

"What other way is there where that kinda shit happens," Raylan said over his shoulder, one finger gesturing uselessly towards the ground. He did not like games one bit. "But there's no way that's just some trap door we sprung while we were upstairs. There was no handle, no hinge to hide." It made no sense and that only pissed him off more.

"We got a lotta walkin' to do, so we might wanna save our breath. Looks to be about a mile, maybe two, depending on how big this out cropin' really is."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked at him sidelong. "Are you suggesting I'm asthmatic or do you just want me to shut up?" he asked, keeping an eye on Raylan's expression. "I'm not the former and I can't usually do the latter." He paused, gesturing like he wasn't sure it was that was or the other way around and then nodded. "Yeah, that's right." He waved his hand. "I always get those mixed up," he remarked.

[tinstar]

"I was kinda hopin' the latter," he replied honestly. "I wanna get as much ground under and behind us as possible. Just in case this place decides to make us spend three days wandering in the goddamned trees like fools."

[abrightboy]

"Has that sort of thing happened here?" Malcolm asked curiously. "We could see the town from the lighthouse. We should be able to go there."

[tinstar]

"Like I shoulda been able to get through rain, or there shoulda been a door in that damn wall," he retorted. "I don't trust this place, not a single inch of it."

For all his anger, Raylan's voice didn't rise much, just darkened in its stern intensity, eyes a little wider and wilder than normal, jaw tense as he strode towards and into the treeline.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm managed to keep up with his stride, one arm across his abdomen where the pain tended to ebb and flow but never went away. Like his head. Both were throbbing in the exertion. Maybe suggesting he could keep up this pace was ambitious, but he didn't want to lose the lanky cowboy, so he kept moving at the hurried gait he needed to to stay at his side as they entered the trees.

[villagemod]

As they enter the treeline, there is a sound behind them, something eerie and indescribable, that will cause both men to turn back toward the lighthouse. Strangely, the beacon is now turned on, rotating in the slowly dimming light, and as it turns toward them, a dark figure is illuminated from behind. They have this view for only a brief moment before suddenly a wave of fog engulfs them from behind.

The men will wake in their respective last sleeping places, covered in a layer of dust.

[volunteertomatoes]

He feels his limbs involuntarily stiffen the moment he rounds the corner. His breath hitches, too, and he doesn't realize the amount of dread that's creeped up until now. It hits him full force, sudden and impactful, causing his jaw to tighten and his gaze to harden.

This is a dream, he tells himself. This might just be all his subconscious. Before he fully approaches the mirror, though, wary and with his guard up, he wants to make sure. It's an old trick they're taught at Brakebills--he puts his palm out and tries to poke his finger through, lighter flickering as it moves. If it's a lucid dream he can control, time will stop--if it's not, this mirror and this place is something else, and Quentin's going to have to inspect it.

He's not surprised when it doesn't work. It sets him even more on edge, and he puts one hand behind his back as he approaches it, fingers curled and ready to cast.

[warfares]

( kylo's attention cuts to rey, lingers there a moment as if to say "well, shit" and then he's moving forward, moving past her, heading toward the ruin. )

[reydacted]

[ it's enough to make rey forget the chase as well, leaving it and the full implications of what she's admitted-- that it's just her holding herself back now --behind as the ruins provide a thankful distraction.

she slows as she approaches, remarking: ]

Is this even the same architecture as the town?

[warfares]

I'm not sure.

( calling it architecture feels generous. once close enough, he drops into a crouch, palms skimming across the stones as if they might be persuaded to give up its secrets.

sadly, he hasn't that particular skill. )

[reydacted]

[ something like this shouldn't throw them back into a tentative truce so easily, but it seems they've reached yet another moratorium on their fighting.

rey circles around the perimeter with a scavenger's eye. ]

Only the houses on the edge of town were decayed. This is far beyond that.

[ that troubles her for some reason. like it's indicative that they're much farther than she would have really guessed. ]