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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[ The beach is nice, ta to that.

By the time Klaus has reached him? John has a good rock in his hand. He pulls his arm back, then releases the rock -- up, up it goes! It falls just short of its target. John sneers at the rock face as even his launch can't make a rock hit the lighthouse.

Oh, Mathias. How you love to torment him. ]

Just this one, and it's bloody beach. [ John turns his head to look at the man speaking to him. New voice, which meant either the bloke is new or one of the few he hadn't met yet.

A puff of smoke escapes him as he finishes his cigarette. He plucks the bud from his lips and launches it into the ocean. Take that! ]

I suppose you must be new in town, eh? Welcome to the most frustrating bloody cursed place on the face of the planet, mate.

What's wrong with the beach? Beaches are great. [A beat.] When it's not raining, anyway. [Shrug.

He watches him for another moment as he throws some sort of weird little fit at the world around him. Klaus blinks rapidly a few times and frowns.]

What'd the ocean ever do to you, buddy?

Most of us showed up either through being dumped in the ocean or washed up on the beach unconscious. That tends the ruin any honeymoon period I would of had with it.

[ He shoves his hands into the pockets of his trenchcoat. It's cold. Not as cold as it had been, but, enough to make him bristle a bit. ]

How'd you find your merry way to Mathias then? Wake up under a light? In the grass maybe?

Trying to baptize you on the way in, huh? [Okay. He could see where that might leave a guy pissed off at the ocean.]

I was at the edge of the forest. My brother found me pretty quick, at least. Gave me the cliffnotes of Reasons We Don't Go In The Woods.

[Sort of. Five was pretty cage about the why, really. But he made the getting lost and looped back around thing pretty convincing, so Klaus was fine with it, really.]

[ That makes John pause. He turns back to the man, eyebrows raised. He hadn't considered that angle before. Course, it would only really apply to the first wave of people. He raises a finger, waggling it slightly as he thinks. ]

If you needed to cleanse the people entering the town under your control... why only do it for the first bunch? Plenty of you sorry bastards are trickling in. Under lights, in the grass, now you in the forest. Doesn't make much sense not to drop the rest of you in the water?

[ he moves his jaw side to side. something to chew on - think about. ]

And what reasons did he say not to go into the woods?

Uh-- you know, the... baptism thing, that was a joke.

[He frowns, unsure why he latched onto that so hard. Of all the things he'd said... ] Or maybe they're doing it to make you ask all these questions.

[He shrugs a little.] Something about how easy it is to get turned around the further you go.

[That had been enough of a warning for Klaus, personally, at the time.]

Not in my line of work.

[ A casual shrug. ] Could be. Whatever It is that is behind this town? It certainly enjoys pressing my buttons. Suppose that means I need to find a way to press its buttons back.

[ Huh. Interesting. ] Mind if I ask you who your brother is?

Which is...? [Come on, you can't just drop that on a guy without any follow-up.

There's a nervous titter of a half-scoff, half-laugh.] You make it sound like you think there's some mysterious angry God controlling the place. [A pause, and then his face falls.] You don't think that's really what it is, do you?

Five. [He answers it instantly. No way for anyone to be confused about who he is. Not like many people went around boasting Numbers as Names, after all.]

Exorcisms, Demonology, and a bit of Dark Arts on the side. [ John gives a flick of his hand as if it's no big deal. ] Magic. You'll find a few people here that claim to do that.

Deity, not God. Oh, the Almighty is a right prick sometimes, but this isn't His way of doing things. [ He bends down and picks up another rock, looking it over. ] He'll usually send an angel or some other faith having bloke your way and try to get you to see the light.

[ The name gives him pause. Then he launches the rock at the ocean--it has some distance before plucking down below. ]

Short bloke then. [ John turns to look at him. ] Suppose that means you're Six?

Oh, you--! [He points wildly with one hand.] You're the guy! From the board in the town hall! [He grins wildly now that the puzzle has been solved.] Holy shit, that's amazing.

In my experience, He was a She, though I guess God could look like who-and-whatever She wanted... [He hums thoughtfully at the idea, then shrugs it off as unimportant either way.] She didn't like me very much.

[He grins at the easy recognition. But then-- it's... not hard when someone's using a number as a name, is it?] Uh- n... no. I- mm. [He takes a second to shove the feelings he doesn't want to look at, at that particular misnumbering and starts again.] I....used to be Number Four, but I don't go by that any more and... I....don't really like it. So.

[Five had never picked a name. Or refused to? Maybe Mom just didn't get a chance to give him one. The details are fuzzy, but he never had another name. He's the only one of the Hargreeves that didn't latch onto something else, took some kind of ownership over it. But Klaus couldn't separate it with the cold, harsh reality of a father who didn't even love them enough to give them names.]

Guessing that means you saw my business card. [ He chuckles, not sure if it's amazing. Though, he offers a hand anyways. Manners are a thing he does sometimes. ] John Constantine. Cheers.

[ A pause and a shrug. The Almighty might be a female in another reality. He's not one to judge or particularly care.

It's the rest that makes him raise an eyebrow. Used to be. Huh. So, there's a bit of trouble in the home life. Not that it's a big jump of the imagination. The kids being named numbers might have something to do with that. ]

Right. Artist Formally Known As The Number Four, then? Or, do you want me to keep guessing?

Oh! Hi-- [He chuckles and takes his hand in a shake, nodding a little.

He laughs again at the joke. Oh, he's cute and funny. Time to find out what's wrong with him. He raises his Hello hand in a wave.] Klaus. Although it'd be funny to hear what you might have guessed.

Klaus. [ He nods, looking at the hand. ] Interesting tattoo you've got there, mate. Guessing that's not got much to do with the timetravel bit the pintsized brother has.

Good assumption. [He lifts both hands with a bit of a flourish to show both greetings side-by-side.] Less Stephen Hawking, more John Edward. [A beat and he laughs at his own joke.] Except in my case, it's real.

Oh, a psychic.

[ The tone suggests it's far from surprising. Should it be? They're a rare bunch, but, he's met more than a few of them in his time. Zed has just been the latest one -- the one that got the closest.

He puts his hands in his pockets. A psychic means a magic of his own. Well, that makes conversation easier. ]

Now why did you go and do a bloody stupid thing like tattooing your hands?

[He snorts.] I was eighteen, fresh out of the house, and I wanted one that was my own. [He pushes his jacket sleeve out of the way to show the umbrella tattoo on his left wrist.] Dad branded us, pretty much, when we were... I dunno, eleven? Twelve? And my name under the Umbrella Academy was The Séance.

[He shrugs and drops his hand back to his side.] It was funny. And it's just ink anyway, doesn't actually do anything.

Bit on the nose, that. The Séance. Your old man sounds like a hoot.

[ Growing disdain for someone he'll never meet? Yep. He shakes his head at that. Bloody hell. So much for ever retiring from the lifestyle of a psychic if he ever wanted to. ]

As long as it gives you the kicks you're looking for, mate. I wouldn't go branding myself what I am. But, hey, do as thou will.

[ He pauses, debating the question in his head. ] How does your magic work? Need to touch something, or is it more the connecting to the dead type?

They all were, and he was a lot of things, but he was not a hoot. [That's a loaded conversation, and he really doesn't want to go down that particular path right now, so he'll just leave it at that.]

We were already in the press, it was a whole thing. [He shrugs it off, but the truth is being Dad's shiny soldier trophies was really not fun, even though they all lapped up the attention like the attention-starved children they were.

The question isn't a surprising one. The word he uses for it is, though. He frowns thoughtfully about it.] Maybe it is magic... huh. I never thought about it like that. [He shakes his head.] Anyway, yeah. Ghosts really dig me. Wasn't fun at four years old to see all the moment-of-death gore.

[ There's a bit of a laugh and John waves away the topic. Right. Shite dads isn't really a topic he'd like to have either. Better to just leave the (potentially) dead bastards where they are. In the ground. ]

Famous too. Huh. Fancy that. Most people with magic or special abilities don't end up famous or well liked where I'm from.

[ Most the time magic isn't even seen as real. ]

A psychic doorway to the dead. Can't say I've run into many of your type. Usually it's coupled with another psychic ability. [ He'll definitely need to bring this guy up to Zed. ] That young too? Christ, mate.

We were all born with these different powers and... I dunno, Dad decided that meant we were destined to save the world. But I guess he figured, why not make some money out of the deal at the same time, huh? [He snorts derisively at the thought. Was that exactly Reginald's line of thought? Probably not, but goddamn if Klaus would ever presume to understand how that man thought about anything.]

I guess you know a lot of weird people, given your line of work. [Considering the card on the board in town hall. He nods a bit, and his tone takes a harsh twist into something sharply sarcastic.] Oh, yeah. It was real fun when Dad decided to start locking me in mausoleums in grade school, too.

[ John huffs at that, a sardonic laugh coming from him. Of course. Why not make a bit of luxury come from a gifted child - children. He can't say the exploitation is surprising or even unheard of for him. His old man didn't even care enough TO exploit him.

Not that the old bastard would of believed in magic anyways. ]

Depends on what you mean by "weird", mate. It's normal for me. [ He cranks his head back to look at the lighthouse again with a scowl. Then, he glances back at Klaus. ] Bet you rattled more than a few bones, eh?

All a matter of perspective, I guess. [He can appreciate that. What's weird to him is baseline normal for some, and vice versa; it's always been that way. He scoffs a little at that remark.] Yeah, I guess you could say that.

[He follows the line of John's glance and stares up at the lighthouse.] You got somethin' against lighthouses, too?

My perspective is that most people ignore reality for what makes them comfortable and helps them sleep at night. They really shouldn't.

[ He scoffs again and turns away from the lighthouse finally. ]

The easiest way to say it is that I hate this bloody town, this bloody beach, and whatever it is that is keeping us here.

[A laugh titters out of him, more of a giggle than a true laugh.] I like you already.

Hmm. Fair. It's never fun when someone else is pulling all the strings-- even less when you don't know who-or-what's doing it in the first place. [Because you can't fight an invisible enemy.]

Well, you'll regret that.

[ It's fine. Most people do. ]

None of this is ever really fun. Unless you like risking your bollocks on a thrill ride.

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