villagelogs | 012-014 » even the air itself was grey

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012-014 » even the air itself was grey

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central Mathias.
WHEN: Days 012-014
WHAT: The weather is behaving strangely. Again.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Michael Andrews "Liquid Spear Waltz"

DAYS 012-014
“The overcast skies had the colour of deadened stones, and seemed closer than usual, as though they were phlegmatically observing my every movement with their apathetic emptily blue-less eyes.”
—Simona Panova, “Nightmarish Sacrifice”

Rain has returned to Mathias. While those who remember the storms from nearly two weeks ago may fear reprisal of such tumultuous weather, this rain is far tamer. The cloudy grey skies let loose a steady drizzle that remains constant from start to finish, which is in itself, perhaps, a bit unusual. The patter of droplets against windows, small streams forming in the roads and on grass as the ground becomes saturated, all of it may seem normal to some, but a little too normal to others.

What is without question abnormal, however, is the sun. Though it cannot be seen distinctly behind the thick grey clouds, its light remains as constant as the rain throughout these three days. Hour after hour, regardless of the time of day, there is light in the sky. Unchanging, an inescapable reminder that Mathias is not home, and none who are brought here have any control over what will occur in this place.

NEW ARRIVALS
Once again, more unfortunate souls have been brought to Mathias by unknown means, deposited at the edge of the forest near the empty houses that tell of those who once lived in this strange little town. They may find themselves wandering through the trees until they encounter the strange fog that envelops the town, or stumbling upon the rotting remains of houses that have felt the passage of time more than others.

LOCATIONS
LIGHTHOUSE Residents will notice the lighthouse to the north of Mathias, situated on a cliff that is above the town level. Even the most observant individuals will not have noticed it before now, which might be quite unsettling to some. There is no path available to reach the lighthouse at this time, though residents are welcome to try — they will be blocked by fog in the forest and a sense of unease that becomes debilitating if they walk too far along the beach.

NO NEW LOCATIONS are available for exploration at this time. Residents are welcome to further explore available locations, including utilizing AP rewards at locations they may have previously explored.

CONDITIONS UPDATES

— CLOCKS continue to be unreliable. Some may keep irregular time at different rates, while others have ceased to work at all, each having stopped at a different time.

— VOICES are not openly haunting our residents, though they may still be occasionally encountered in the more heavily decayed buildings where some rooms seem to almost swallow whatever light tries to enter them.

— WEATHER conditions are both typical and atypical for late fall. Temperatures consist of chilly "sweater weather" days and nights that can dip below freezing — you don't want to be outside without a coat when the sun goes down. A constant light rain continues for all three days, only stopping on the night of the third day. And for all three days, there is constant cloudy grey sunlight, with the sun unable to be seen and tracked from behind the cloud cover. Darkness will return to Mathias on the third night when the rain stops.

— FOG continues to block the way of those wishing to travel further than the Town Hall, and all who venture into the forest will be met by its impenetrable wall after a few hundred yards. The fog will allow none to pass; those who try will find themselves overcome by fear and panic so intense, they can physically do nothing but flee back the way they came.

OOC UPDATES

— HOUSING LISTINGS now have a permanent home! A few of these may have been missed or information might have changed, so please do submit updates as needed, including if your character moves into a new location or if there are rooms still available at said location.

— NEW PLAYERS are still arriving with each new log, so make sure to keep an eye on our ooc intro post. (An easy way to do this is to track the post — click the bell icon, select More Options, and track when someone makes a new top-level.)

— INFORMATION may publicly be shared between characters at the bulletin board in the town hall. This is meant to be a permanent place for pieces of the Mathias puzzle to be shared and archived to both help information be shared ICly and to allow new players to easily dive into the mystery.

— THE CALENDAR has been updated through the end of the year. With the approaching holiday season, we will continue a lighter log schedule, but as always, players are welcome to create their own logs, conduct intensive investigators, and make more terrible decisions. (The mod is always happy to enable these shenanigans, never hesitate to reach out with ideas.)

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LOG?

HOUSING DESIGN/EXPLORATION

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Five had a hangover.

Perhaps he should consider himself exceptionally lucky to have just scraped by with a bad headache and a worse mood, given the unpredictable tendency of moonshine. The rain was starting to come down, and he has his hands stuffed into a dark navy windbreaker he'd found in one of the several houses. Blessing and curse that so many of the missing residents seemed to have had children about the same size as he. He'd shrugged the shorts for slacks, too, with that blatant refusal of straying too far from his preferred, fastidious fashion choices.

The apocalypse of old didn't have so many options. This place did, at least.

Everything is still disorienting, head heavy on his shoulders as he rolls it off. Of course, the drinking hadn't helped ward off the memories of the snow covered graveyard, or the bruising, scraped knuckles that the incremental weather did little to sooth over. Seven grave heads, Umbrella Academy emblems as stark across them as his own tattoo etches into the skin of his arm. Even the worn ones were too distinct for him to not recognize.

And what the hell did the hatch marks mean?

He'd counted them all off in his head as he walked, closer and closer to the forest edge. It's ironic, deeply and viciously so, that he'd counted four umbrellas, 2 tallies when his eyes scrape by the tree line and catch a silhouette that's so viscerally familiar that Five stumbles. Blinks once. Twice. Owlish confusion.

His heartbeat drums against his chest, picks up loud in his ears as everything goes rigid and in the next moment, he's teleporting himself to Klaus faster than he can consider anything otherwise.

He ignores the wave of nausea the motion spurs, emboldened by hangover and power restriction both, lands on stubbornly steady feet to Klaus' right.

"Klaus?" It's hissed out more than asked, body in age-crooked disbelief. He doesn't trust this place not to pull something horrible.

He just...wasn't sure if he hoped to see his siblings here, or the opposite, and can't find it within himself to think on that too long. Was he relieved? He shouldn't be, but he is. "Shit. And you kept the hat."

That disruption of energy, static and ozone in the air, the snap of blue-white light and the familiar pop! does nothing to calm Klaus' nerves. He stops short, jumping in his skin as he's suddenly cut off in his path by his own brother. "Oh, hey, Five!" he trills in that nearly song-like tone he so favors when he greets people. "I almost didn't recognize you without the shorts." he smirks, unable to restrain himself from the gentle tease.

"Are the others here?" he asks, hopeful, expectant, already glancing around like he might catch sight of Allison or Diego hanging around somewhere in the fog. The remark about his hat earns a grin and he traces a finger over the rim of it. "'Course, why wouldn't I?"

For a moment, Five stares again.

It's so distinctly, unmistakably Klaus, from the singsong cadence to the long lanky limbs and the piss-poor timing of humour. That natural rhythm of barely missing a beat, despite being deposited hell knows where, separated and (almost) alone, again.

Christ, Five's glad he found him. Now he just has to make sure - to. make sure he doesn't lose track. Because if he finds a way out - or when - he does not want to spend three days trying to find him again.

There's another brief second where Five has to resist the urge to knock the hat from his brother's head but somehow decides that that would be too petty, even for him.

"No one else is here, Klaus. This isn't anywhere near where we're supposed to be. This isn't even 2019," he pinches the bridge of his nose, before he gives Klaus a once-over, irritation belying genuine concern. "You okay? What's the last thing you remember?"

"So far," he says it like it's a correction to his brother's declaration of them being alone. "We all found each other in the 60's, eventually. I'm sure we'll find the others sooner or later."

He seems to almost ignore the questions he's asked all together as he starts walking again, wanting to be anywhere but near the woods right now. "I guess you gotta work on keeping your calculations right when you're travelling with so many people, huh?" It's not really a fault thing, or a blame thing, just... well. This has happened twice now, hasn't it? Maybe it's just not within Five's powers capabilities to properly jump so many people at one time.

"Where-n-when're we even at, Five?"

He hates that Klaus is proving his own statement right. So far, he says, and stands before him as tangible proof and Five could fucking scream.

"It wasn't me this time," he can't keep his voice down, and finds his hackles rising when Klaus begins to, simply, walking away.

That gets under his skin, pushes to the surface something desperate that he's kept shoved down in place of professional pragmatism - or something as close to it as it could get in this place.

So when his brother turns and starts walking, Five blinks into his direct path.

"We had a briefcase. It was all. Set. Apocalypse gone. Ready to go home. And then I show up here, fourteen days ago."

In the grand scheme of things, Klaus' leap of logic makes perfect sense. So perfect that even Five thought the same at first, except for the glaring factor that this wasn't some messed up calculation he could fix himself. It didn't mean he stopped trying, but...he takes a breath. "This is Mathias Township. And it doesn't have a date."

He huffs a breath out, in the annoyed way that only a brother can manage, as Five pops in front of him again, causing his steps to come up short again. "None of us really missed that, you know." He rolls his eyes and shifts his hands to rest on his hips.

"Right. But--" He waves one hand dismissively between them, letting it slide back down to its spot at his hip again a second later. "I mean, something got messed up, somehow." Briefcase. Five. Did it matter which? For all that he can tell, the briefcases somehow work on the same principle that Five powers do, anyway.

His hand floats up again as he points, nodding, "Yeah, yeah-- that's where I was too. The kumbaya, go-home circle! And then--" a sweeping motion at the landscape before them.

Something catches his attention though. Both eyebrows arch upward, "You've been here for two weeks?" The answers to his questions don't really help make anything make sense, either. "How does it not have a date? Everywhere has a date. There- there's gotta be a newspaper or a magazine or something. It's a town, right? So..." His words get distant and trail off because something about the look on Five's face tells him he's already looked, and there's absolutely nothing that's given him a clue to when they are. "But- Well, what about The Commission? They'll come yelling about us fucking up the timeline, won't they?" Who ever would have thought he'd want those guys to show up?

Five doesn't miss a beat, ignoring Klaus' remarks, and choosing the push on ahead, mouth curling into a defined scowl. He doesn't back up per se, but the thoughts are falling into a habitual - albeit slugging - whirl.

So their time frames were the same. Which meant, at least, there wasn't any missing gaps there, but that only solved one potential issue. It still left all the rest of the residents here, unwilling and displaced as they both were now.

Five hesitates, then - how much should Klaus know? How much was even relevant, where the rest Five could handle on his own? The truth was, there were so many unknowns, and for all the bickering and the differences (and the similarities) that spanned the years between them, Five should remember to try and rely on the presence of his brother more.

But old habits die hard. And in that moment, the instinct here is yet still to do the opposite. It's to say he'll handle it (he will), and to just sit tight. Their time reunited had only just started. There was plenty of time for that left.

Still, he finds himself shaking his head. "I know. There was a date, but it's gone now. And - it's not the Commission. If it was, they would have already found me," he steps backwards, before motioning Klaus after him, despite just taking the very opposite action of stopping him. "Us, now. There's...other people here, Klaus. From outside of our timeline. And universe."

"This is bigger than us, this time."

"Come on," It will only take a few steps of wherever Klaus goes for Five to be falling in step at his side, self-prescribed sentinel. "And - don't go into the forest. Or the fog. " Especially the forest, he thinks.

Klaus barely registers the scowl on his brother's face and certainly doesn’t seem to mind or care if it’s toward him specifically. The hesitation doesn’t go unnoticed, though, and it has Klaus squinting slightly as he waits for an answer.

He takes the suggestion and starts walking as Five explains further. “So we’re adding multiple universes to the list of weird shit that just happens in our lives?” Time travel, talking to the dead, reality warping, crazed scientists and murderbots, sure. Why not one more thing, right?

He frowns curiously at the warning. “What’s in the forest?”

It's quiet relief at Klaus, at his following him without a word of opposition.

In that, at least.

"Yeah. Didn't think it could get that much weirder," he shakes his head, not unlike an old man reminiscing about times past.

Five doesn't chance to spare a look at Klaus when the other asks that. "Just — don't, okay?"

"There's no real way of getting through, and it just turns you around the further you walk in." It isn't an absolute lie, but it wasn't the reason why he warns him. It does do that, after a certain point of no return. The fear constricts your lungs, a sense of trespassing, of venturing too far until your legs force you to run no matter what you may have wanted upon first entering here. It forces you back and the path Five walked before? He couldn't find.

It didn't mean it wasn't there. And that meant Five couldn't risk a chance of Klaus seeing them. Klaus, who spoke to the dead, communed and conjured them and suffered for it all. Five was poor at sentiment, but he wasn't stupid. "This place has a tendency to really mess with people."

He pauses, and tosses his brother a look. "And powers."

"Please, you're the one of us that's probably had the weirdest shit happen to him." Getting himself stuck in the future and working for a timeline assassins' group? Yeah. Fuckin' weird, Five.

Klaus frowns further at that non-answer to his question. Of course, the cagey snap only gives further rise to his curiosity. "Don't 'just don't' me, Five. I'm not eight and you're not Dad."

The answer he does finally get feels a little anticlimactic to his brother's heavy insistence, so it actually just gets a deflated little, "Oh." in response. He shrugs, "Okay, fine. Whatever."

"What do you mean? You blinked in front of me twice already, it doesn't seem like it's done much to yours." Klaus has really come into his own with his powers over those three years in the 60's, and even though he hadn't been okay with them in so long... it's kind of weird to think something might happen to them here.

"It's not about keeping track," Five answers cooly. He's not having this conversation right now, and is very intent on making it clear. None of this was a goddamn competition.

Klaus gets a glowering look his way at that remark. It's scathing, the way he glares, but more than that - if you know where to look, there's hurt. Flying way below the surface-tied irritation, there's something terribly disquieting about the idea of him wanting to be like dad. It's...complicated, but it still stings, for some undefinable reason.

"It's fine short distances," he tires out so much faster, now. The effects of overexertion are worse than they've ever been. He's lucky he hasn't thrown up, or passed out yet and it hadn't stopped him from pushing himself but..."Just — keep that in mind."

"We're going to the boarding house," it sure is a solid statement.

A scoff escapes him. "Since when? You were the worst about keeping score of everything." True, time and experience may have changed him, but... let's be honest, even in more recent history together, Five has definitely still had the I'm better than you chip on his shoulder.

The glare doesn't phase him. He just gives a full-body-and-facial shrug in response at him because, honestly, if Five didn't see it, Klaus wasn't going to give him a powerpoint explaining the ways he was kind of like Dad. He knows it isn't something any of them want to hear, though, so he doesn't press on it any further, either. They've all got a piece of him tied up inside of them somewhere, none of them were left unmarked by him.

"Sure," he nods a bit. His powers were a lot less physical most of the time, though he has gotten significantly better at manifesting spirits in the last few years.

Both eyebrows arch at that declaration. "Oh-ka-ay...? What's there?" Because it feels significant, somehow, but he's not sure why.

See, Klaus, when you know you're better than everyone else, it really stops being a competition. He's better than them at a lot of things, but he's also never held the illusion that he was ever the better person. He's an efficient killer, made to be the monster in the room; he's willing to do things most people aren't for the sake of one outcome. He's smart, and he knows that, too. But he's not better than them, not when he thinks he barely clings to humanity. Not when sometimes he really wishes he didn't care because then shit wouldn't catch up, but the truth is then he'd be no better than Dad, than the man that haunted their every steps, alive or dead. A thorn in their side, no matter where they went. "Jesus Christ, Klaus, not in terms of this shit! Neither should it be a surprise that weird shit keeps happening to us."

It's familiar and familial, this frustration. Klaus' brand of flippancy, superficial or otherwise. The barbing between siblings. It's heartachingly familiar.

A snort. "I'm staying there," the implication hangs, for a bit. "Easiest place from where to keep track of everything else."

"Nah, I'm pretty numb to weird shit in my life," he says, nonchalant as they wind their way through paved streets, finally. "I mean, we've been weird since we were born."

He blinks at that way too normal answer. Just a place to crash. Well, then. The surprises just keep coming today, don't they? "Aww, you just want me where you can keep an eye on me. That's kinda cute." He says it in a teasing, gushing kind of tone, but the truth is, he doesn't hate it. The idea of staying close. Sticking together was the best plan of action, no doubt.

"Hard to argue with that," he concedes.

He groans at Klaus for that though. "Don't make me regret it," is a grumble, with way less heat than you'd expect. "I'll fill you in on everything I know when we get there and out of this damn shit weather."

"Get used to that too, by the way."

Klaus can't help the way he preens at that really, surprisingly easy agreement he just earned. Five never agrees with anyone about anything, it's kind of an accomplishment, okay!

"No promises," he quips back, without skipping a beat, smirk still firmly planted on his face. But he gets a little more serious at the rest, nodding a little. "Sounds like a plan." And wasn't Five always the one with the best of those?

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012-014 » even the air itself was grey

arrival ! gdi klaus

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