012-014 » even the air itself was grey

[villagemod]

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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Comments

[thering]

Yeah. Dedicated. That's one way of putting it.

The chair isn't too heavy, but it is bulky, so he's taking it slow when he's picked it up. Probably wouldn't bother him too much if he left the Hiranos with a souvenir scratch on the door or doorframe, but he wouldn't like to put the chair through an unnecessary beating. The moonshine brewing operation will be doing worse things to the place.

He would say he's not too fussy, but he will move things around a room so it doesn't feel too cramped, and he likes having some light pouring in even if he would never admit to pitch black darkness unsettling him.

"We already have the lay of the land here," Doc agrees. "No sense in venturing too far." And that has the added bonus of not having to lug the chair too far either.

"I did always like the sound of a garage, though we have nothing to put or do in it," he admits quietly with a small smile. There's a light rain once they've stepped off the porch so he doesn't linger too long, moving briskly towards 1306.

"Is it too late in the morning to be trying to get some shut eye in?" he laments while hovering outside the front door.

[tinstar]

Waiting until Doc was clear of the doorway, Raylan led the short way across to the neighbouring house, long legs making short work of the distance.

"Give us time enough and I think we'll come up with something. If the still says anything about idle hands," he retorted with a faint lift of his eyebrows towards Doc as he opened the front door and stepped in to keep it that way for the incoming cargo.

"The shine'll hold. Food too. Malcolm's not goin' back to sleep either so go find a bed and collapse in it, huh? Hard starts are hard on a body dealt with what we did last night." Don't think he didn't see the hangover pains and the stiff upper lip that they were both putting on to cover it. He pushed his hat back on his head a fraction with a rub of his thumb up the center of his forehead. "Might join ya in the idea in a few hours myself."

[thering]

"I just figured we'd be here a while," he points out, cracking a small smile. Also, he's been dry a hundred and thirty years. That's a lot of drunk nights to be making up for.

Stepping inside, Doc sets the chair down near the entrance since the place looks to be very well furnished, modern in a way that Doc has never seen with hanging lights and dropped ceilings. He looks a little bewildered, brows furrowed as he studies the recessed lights. Like stars hanging in plasterboard.

He almost takes the hanging light in the entranceway out with his hat and he steps back, sidestepping the lampshade as grabs his bag from Raylan's chair seat and takes a couple of steps inside.

"In that case. Your place or mine?" he flirt-jokes as he flashes Raylan a lopsided smirk over his shoulder before heading towards the stairs. There'll be time enough later to explore the quirks of the house. He's just going to leave his bag in the first unoccupied bedroom he comes across and... figure the rest out from there.

[tinstar]

"Nothin' to say we ain't, at this point," he conceded.

Doc's reaction to the more modern home was interesting and one Raylan watched quietly as he listened to Malcolm rustling around upstairs. The joke makes him smirk, however tired an expression it is. "How cheap you think I am? You ain't even bought me dinner yet."

He came over and leaned on the edge of the stairs as Doc made his way up, content to wait down here to hear where Doc landed. Raylan figured he could go make a second trip, close the door on his way back and maybe find a place here to take a short nap.

[thering]

Normally he's fine being dropped out of place and out of time, like this house. He has accepted that eternal longevity comes with an inevitable amount of learning new things and having to be open to new experiences. Better to be adapting to a cushy new place than nothing ever changing.

"Well I don't think I could afford you, but. I'd be happy to make something simple sometime. No strings attached." Because while he would just go with the flow if one thing happened to lead to another, he's not actually serious about taking the Marshal or anyone else to bed, even if the shameless flirting comes second nature to him. And also simply because he would hate to make dinner an awkward affair.

As he gets to the second floor, he stops by where Malcolm has set up shop, just checking in on him briefly. He doesn't expect the troubled man to be bleeding out of six new holes in the last fifteen minutes or so they've been apart but Doc has shaken his head at John, Daisy, Claire, even Five - there's a disproportionately high number of injury-prone folks in this town.

[tinstar]

Raylan had to assume Doc was still joking, still going with the shoot the shit flow that they'd easily fallen into but some part of him wondered if there wasn't a fraction of serious offer in there. Not that he'd take it, Raylan wasn't gay, hadn't ever been intimate with a man, but between the John's, more than a good number of hints had been made.

He wasn't going to think about it.

Pushing off the edge of the wall, Raylan ambled back out toward 1307 again, content to leave Doc and Malcolm alone long enough for him to get some of this second trip out of the way.

For Doc - Upstairs

[abrightboy]

Malcolm had been riffling through the closet and there was a clean pair of pants strewn across the bed next to him, but he was perched on its edge, staring at the empty chair in the corner.

[thering]

Yeah, he's seen that look vaguely resembling a thousand yard stare before. Whatever case Raylan was making for Malcolm's state of mind, it's not looking good.

Taking a couple of silent steps backwards before Malcolm notices him, Doc knocks on the open door, just his hand and the bottom half of one leg visible from the edge of the doorframe.

"Are you decent? Raylan's brought your suit, downstairs and uh. Suppose I'll be moving in next door."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm startled slightly at the sound of Doc's voice, jumping up from the bed.

"I'm...." He glanced down at himself. "Still covered in blood, but it's mine so... come on in."

[thering]

"I have not had a proper wander around, but. I am sure there will be a quaint little bathroom, should you wish to take a shower." Covered in blood is one thing but they will be needing to change more than just trousers and deal with their laundry soon.

"Not going to try and get some more rest?" Doc is worried but he's probably too tired to show it.

[abrightboy]

"I must have got about four hours," Malcolm guessed. "I never get more than that. If my body didn't feel like it was collapsing in on itself, I'd probably feel pretty good."

[thering]

"Okay. I am sure you need a lot of things, but is there anything we can do for you in the meantime?" He's just asking while he's still awake because there's a high chance he won't be once he rounds the corner into an unoccupied room. So far he's managed not to yawn yet but the fatigue is coming. He can feel it.

[abrightboy]

“Oh.” He waved his hand. “I’m fine,” he assured Doc. “But thanks for asking. I’m going to look for something to make restraints with.”

[thering]

"Alright. Let's convene a little later." When they're all settled in, a little more awake, and have a better idea of what they want to accomplish for the rest of the day.

Hopefully he won't come back to another blank stare at an imaginary friend.

He gives Malcolm some time and space to himself and drags his bag into the adjacent room without bothering to even step into the other one or have a look around the rest of the house. There's a bed and a window. That's enough to draw him in and sit down, scrub his face tiredly in his hands and shuffle back far enough to sit against the headboard.

Well. Raylan did say something about idle hands. Better to be in this together and have troubles to look forward to than nothing at all.