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 are no signs of life to be seen along the way, just stone that is both jagged and worn smooth in various places. The light that guides them is still low, moving them further and further through this cavelike tunnel, and slowly it begins to brighten ever so slightly. It might be the soft grey of daylight often seen in stormy coastal towns, but there is no indication that they are nearing any entrance.

But then, propped against the wall amidst a cluster of smooth stones and a shallow pool of water, they will find a large round mirror, worn and marked by time with spots dotting a meaningless pattern around the edges. The light is brighter here, and if they investigate, they will find that the mirror is reflecting light from further down the tunnel. Turning the mirror too much in any direction will break that beam of light and send the way they've come into darkness.

[tinstar]

"Ghostbusters?" He glanced around the room, finally looking away from the view from the windows. "Not call. Take a picture. Nevermind. I'm going to go out, see if there's any sense of where the root of this place is. We're too high for a door or a road down and somehow I doubt there's a rope ladder."

Setting one hand on his hat, Raylan tried to push the door open a little more for a broader step, cussing with a 'shit' as he slams his shoulder into it, too confident in it moving. Sliding himself out instead, he stepped out into sharp wind, free hand curling around his chest as he eyed the horizon. He was still damp from laying on the floor and the wind felt like a million needles on his back and any bare skin he had showing.

[villagemod]

There are twelve stones in the clearing, an even dozen markers crouching ominously amongst the clean white snow. Five does not find a name as he uncovers the rest of this particular marker, but below that worn umbrella is a set of hash marks crudely carved into the stone, showing six marks.

[abrightboy]

"Wait..." Malcolm said, already reaching into his pocket, but the wind was howling and Raylan was wedged in the doorway and Malcolm's voice was lost with Raylan slipping outside. He frowned faintly and took a picture down the spiral staircase and a few of the 360 degrees of rusty windows around him and of the ceiling. Then he also shimmied through the door, glancing around as he got outside. He only had the thin fabric of his suit jacket for warmth, but the pinpricks of icy drizzly rain or sea spray - he couldn't tell which - and wind on his face felt good against the flush heat of his body's own reaction to its new chemical imbalance. He closed his eyes a moment and just breathed it in. It was like putting ice on a bruise, but everywhere.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, squinting against the icy rush of wind, and took some more pictures. Sea. Rocks. The town sprawled below. The forest where he woke up a scant few days ago with no idea the trouble he was in.

He didn't try to speak to Raylan and he didn't scrutinize the view from the lighthouse. They were seeing what someone wanted them to see: that there was nowhere to go. Instead he lingered quietly by the wall and watched the set of Raylan's back as he looked out.

[villagemod]

The spell succeeds, though perhaps with far less strength than he'd intended. The light that fills the room is dim, like that seen on a stormy grey day, and as it hits the stone walls out of the corner of his eye, Eliot might believe there is an almost red sheen to those stones, one that cannot be seen while looking directly at them.

[waywardsister]

Not in Kansas anymore, huh.

[ This is fine.

Doors give her a bad feeling immediately.

Claire will go to the first one and see if it's locked - if it's *not* locked, she won't open it yet but leave it closed, and instead move on to the next one. If it's locked, she moves on to the next one, trying to find out if all the doors are locked or unlocked, or if it's a mix - in case of a mix, she'll try to memorize which are open and which are locked.

She'll also take a closer look at each door as she tries its handle, to see if the wood is plain or if there's anything unusual about it. ]

[villagemod]

The magic does work, though it reveals nothing of interest. By all appearances, this is just a book. A normal, everyday book that fell from its shelf for no discernable reason.

[volunteertomatoes]

Magic on: good. Mysterious book: still closed. After shaking his hands out, he's going to finally open the sucker. An idle flip through to see if anything jumps out, and if it doesn't, then straight to the table of contents like a good book nerd.

[endlessflask]

Eliot’s just going to assume the difference in colour is an effect of the dim light and tired eyes. Thankfully he’s not the sort to automatically assume it’s something sinister. Besides, he has one priority now and that’s opening this wooden chest.

He crouches down and sets the candle beside him, then checks to see if the box is locked or latched before lifting the lid.

Please, he thinks, let it be a stash of well aged wines.

[reydacted]

[ his offer makes her bristle. she resents the implication that she has anything but the very best of reasons to want to stay away with him. not to mention she hasn't forgotten the last time he offered to teach her something.

thankfully, the path forces her to focus on a different decision.

neither seems more correct than the other. glancing between the two she decides to at least keep track of where they've been in case they have to double back. before the split, she digs her heel into the ground, trying to sweep all the leaves and debris out of the way. she grabs a stick and carves an aurek into the path. left receives one tick mark and right gets two. she underlines them having apparently decided that they'll take the right path. ]

So we can double back if we need to.

[villagemod]

Each of the dozen doors along the corridor is unlocked and unremarkable, appearing to be nothing more than normal wooden doors with normal metal handles. Everything is absolutely, unsuspiciously normal here.

[villagemod]

No such luck, El. The box is unlocked and the lid lifts with a quiet creaking, the dim light glinting off the contents within: a polished black stone bowl and a small knife with the same stone for its handle. There is an engraving on the blade that cannot be made out in the shadows of the box from this distance.

[hellblaze]

Ah, the oh so familiar fog. John swears under his breath, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. The lighter snaps shut. His eyes go down of the cliff. Beach -- he wonders if that's the same beach he woke up on. Would make sense, he supposes. It was too dark and the storm hid anything that could of been seen on the beach.

He gives a dramatic sigh and heads back to the lighthouse, looking for the front door.

[waywardsister]

[ Fantastic, a locked door would have likely led to a meltdown.

Going back to the beginning of the corridor, Claire will investigate what's behind Door Number 1 ]

[torsion]

In a few hours, Jill is hoping to be warm and dry, like a bone picked apart by vultures in a desert. Ideally, in front of a fireplace and rethinking escape by boat -- none so far, anyway. It makes her rethink the possibility of building one, though.

She looks to her companion and somehow, the rise of her eyebrows can be heard in her voice if he can't see it on her face in the darkness. "Well, sounds familiar, at least. Midwest; settled in Canada, but was in Africa for work."

She'd have to get the story she was telling people straight, otherwise she might break trust. She's not ready to be clear-cut on it, with or without the more harrowing details. "Prisoner of war" might have to do for the moment, even if it will come with its own questions.

Jill touches the wall with fingertips as she goes, using it as another guiding post beyond the light ahead of them. Is this cave(?) on decline? It's awfully low, so she can't imagine it's a lighthouse... but it's bright enough to reach them without an end in sight. It had to be strong in that case. She means to chirp a little joke when he inquires about seeing anything, but something does catch her eyes. First, the glow of reflection on still water, then the outline of the mirror. Her eyes adjust to the dark better than most and even then, it's... conveniently better lit. Closer to an exit even if they couldn't find one? She doesn't know.

Jill, rather than say something, gently pulls at her companion's arm and gestures both with the lift of her head and the elbow of her other arm at the set-up.

"Looks like a ritual or something might have happened here. Either that or some hermit cares more about their appearance than anything else." No sign of bedding, food, or any other keepsakes. 'Ritual' feels crude, but it's the only thing she can describe what she's seeing as.

She parts from him to crouch and squat (no kneeling, it's easier to pop up and run for her like this) beside the scattered rocks, fingers trickling over them looking for any indentation or writing. They're smooth. Like seaglass.

[villagemod]

The room is nearly identical to the one she found herself in before from the placement of the furniture to the mirrors on the wall. If it were not for the perfectly made bed, it might be the same room.

[waywardsister]

[ Wonderful. Claire is going to do a sweep like in the first room - check for anything out of the ordinary, check for differences to the first room, check the drawers, check the mirror for that flash.

If it's all identical, she'll rinse and repeat with the other rooms until she either finds something different or has checked all rooms. ]

[villagemod]

Once the cover has been opened, it becomes immediately clear that this book is anything but normal. The pages are filled with symbols, calculations, illustrations of strange scenes, and script in a language that Quentin cannot begin to recognize.

There is no table of contents. :(

[villagemod]

The front door stands slightly ajar and leads into what appears to be a simply furnished living area for whoever kept the place running. There is little to indicate the identity of this person, and no sign that they have been here recently or might soon return. There is, however, a noticeable lack of dust and grime — everything in sight is lived-in but clean and tidy.

A door at the back of the living area leads to the lighthouse proper.

[villagemod]

In the fifth room that Claire investigates, she will find one single difference between the rooms: a skeleton key in the topmost drawer. There is nothing to be found in the other rooms, should she search them.

[waywardsister]

[ A KEY - Claire could weep, honestly. She's searched so hard for useful keyes in the boarding house. She suspects the key leads elsewhere, but for once she wants to be thorough over fast.

One has to wonder if the key fits elsewhere, or anywhere. So she'll try, stnading in the corridor, to insert the key into a room door, and if possible, lock, unlock, then open.

Should the key not fit or nothing change about the room, Claire will nove on further down the corridor to see where it leads. ]

[hellblaze]

Odd enough that the door is already open. He looks behind him with a raised eyebrow. Just like the rest of the town. No sign of a living resident. John slips inside and shuts the door behind him to take a look at the surroundings.

No dust.

He starts to look for anything that might give him information. A calendar for the date, a sign for how long the lighthouse has been operational. Maybe even papers suggesting what sort of ships may have been documented as being seen by the keeper.

[warfares]

( surprise gives way to something more pleasant. amused, he shakes his head, and wonders what anyone might make of the symbols rey scratches into the earth. )

Clever. ( although it doesn't answer the more immediate question: which path to choose. he casts his senses outward, seeking, but the force remains frustratingly silent.

he folds his arms across his chest, head tilting. )

Have you noticed how quiet it is?

[enduresurvive]

Ellie tries to push down her panic about this. There's nothing really happening. No Infected. No other people so far. No noises that indicate other people. Just...apparently spiders, or what were once spiders, leaving cobwebs around. Fine, okay.

"You're fucking kidding me with this," she says, still talking out loud. She developed that habit when she was younger and often alone; it's carried on throughout her life. She barely notices she's doing it.

"Well, I'm here now, I guess." She steels herself and goes to see if the chest will open.

[endlessflask]

Eliot’s starting to get serious Blood Magick vibes. Well. He could just leave it, go to another room, but curiosity is getting the better of him. He takes both the bowl and the knife out, then closes the chest so he can rest them on the lid.

Retrieving the candle, Eliot picks up the knife again so he can examine it under the light of the flame.