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

a true pal lmfaooo

[fika]

[ doc's withholding any other pertinent information about this little favour he's doing isn't going to be met with any resistance. five could go the rest of his life without hearing the preferred insights into anyone's personal life. he gets enough insight from klaus. ]

Yeah. [ to both points, really. both of these two in a room together would only result in a building headache for this little gremlin but that said, he looks to doc again with yet another serious expression.

he has a lot more of those than lighthearted ones, anyways. ] Right, good to know.

Actually, about that. [ he isn't comfortable asking this. isn't comfortable in offering up any favours, because the last time he did, it was just more blood on his hands. still, this is for his family. for klaus. ]

Look, I know I have no business asking you this, but I have to. I can't be everywhere at once. But I have to keep looking for a way to get us out of here. All of us. And I might be getting close to something. [ his back is straighter, even as his fingers drum against a wooden toy train car absently. he pushes out a sigh, leveling doc with a heavy stare. ] Keep an eye on him, will you?

I'm not asking for free. I'll do whatever it is you need me to. No questions asked. [ there's a definite moment of uncertainty when he looks back around the toy shop again, considering the previous topic. ] Within some reason.

[ his throat is tighter than he'd care to admit. the handler's laugh is a memory somewhere in the back of his mind and he just has to take a leap of faith that doc is a better person to make any sort of deal with. equally, he hopes the gravity of his offer doesn't come across as miniscule. and, for what its worth, he doesn't trust this place more than he doesn't trust klaus to stay out trouble, though its a near tie.]

[thering]

[Five's manner of bringing the topic up is curious. He has always been direct with Doc from the moment they met. Putting down the teddy bear, forcibly keeping at bay any persistent thoughts from home, he turns to face Five properly, to give the man his full attention. It is not easy to see the distinguished gentleman inside the suit of his past, a suit he wears like armour so he does not need to acknowledge that it is armour he does not always require. But Doc is used to seeing past deceptive exteriors. He respects Five enough not to inquire as to what it is he has found. Whether it is important or not, it is up to Five to share when he feels the time is right.]

I will. [He, too, cannot be everywhere at once, but he will try. It is important enough for Five to offer payment, favours for something that Doc would have done freely, but he does not accept charity and if Five is the same, then they can come to an agreement.]

You might need to introduce us first. [He doesn't know what Coachella is so Coachella Jesus isn't going to help much by way of descriptors.] And also if there are any... special considerations I ought to keep in mind. [He means, like Malcolm. Night terrors, PTSD, something... anxious... something stress?]

[fika]

I'll...do that. [ that was...easier than he was expecting it to be, though that probably says something more unfortunate about the experiences that shaped those expectations to begin with.

five gives a nod, a single show of gratitude across restrained relief. nothing blatantly open, but there if you squint, beneath that distance he tries so hard to cling to for no discernible reason other than habit.

that doc asked about considerations is a good, but surprising thing. how'd he guess? ] Klaus can speak to the dead, [ he says without missing a beat. ] But I don't know what effect this place will have on that.

He — used to get high, a lot. Now I'm not as sure. [ it's as honest as he can be without airing too much of klaus' shit out, as he drifts a little further into the toy store. ]

[thering]

Come again? [No, Doc is pretty sure he heard it right the first time. Speak with the dead. How does that work? Does he have a cursed telephone or does he mean that there are... spirits walking amongst them or something?

Either way:] Speak with the dead? A most terrible affliction. [Doc has killed more people than he would admit to. Imagine them sticking around giving him hell. He carries an unhealthy amount of guilt around with him as it is - that would just drive him insane.]

There is nothing to get high on in this place. He should be alright. [He is starting to think that it might not be a good idea to stay in a house away from everyone else, but he can't stay far from the house they are making moonshine in. They need to know and be able to get in there at the first sign of something going wrong or the whole place might explode.]

Are all your siblings... [What is the word here? Different? Unfortunate? Strange? Able to perform unusual feats?] ...special?

[fika]

Yeah, can't say he won the lottery on that one. [ but could they say any of them have? they're poster children for insanity.

five had similar reservations - you don't get infamy within the ranks of the commission without spilling blood, and boy did he. where klaus dealt with ghosts, it was death that surrounded five in too many ways. he wasn't sure he'd be able to be confronted with it either. ]

Good. [ simple. no drugs, no problem. its more so - who the fuck knows what type of shit this place would have had lying around otherwise, you know?

doc's question gets a humorless chuckle. ] Yeah. All seven of us. [ counting the deceased. ] Lucky us.

[thering]

[Seven. And this is Number Five. Doc automatically assumes he must be the fifth youngest amongst the siblings.]

Your parents did not name you? [Or is being part of this family more important to Five than a name like Klaus? He could always pick something for himself to go by. Nobody calls Doc 'John'. Though he did not pick 'Doc' for himself either.]

Suppose when you get to a certain age, you care not for what name decides to stick. [Doc picks up a little purple teddy bear. It squeaks when he squeezes its tummy and he sets it down again.]

[fika]

[ maybe five will one day take the time to explain the chronology (or lack of thereof) of their respective ages.

five's laugh is dry. ] No. Our robot mom did. Didn't get one that stuck before I left. [ left, like on a fucking school trip. ] Dad called us by the numbers. Order of power strength, [ he says this so casually, like discussing the weather. maybe something about toy trucks and shitty illustrations not unlike those hung in their halls really did inspire nostalgia. he quirks a brow at the squeak of a teddy bear. ] Which was all bullshit. [ considering seven ended the world. ]

[ you know, normal family dynamic. ] You from a large family? [ mildly, but as amicably as it comes to five. he didn't read the history book much, you know? ]

[thering]

[Robot... mom? Doc has So Many Questions, but he doesn't interrupt, and he maybe needs some time to process this, come up with a list even. How does the numbering even work? Talking to the dead and moving through place and time is comparing apples to broccolis.]

Not really, no. [Perhaps a little uncharacteristic of his time.] My mother died from tuberculosis. It killed my brother and it was to kill me, too. [He says these things as a matter of facts; objective, distant - it has been so far back now, the time and distance makes it easy for them to be presented neutrally. A great many people have died from tuberculosis. Only recently has there been a cure.

And he has a newfound family now, before he came here. It was not the one he was born with, not necessarily one he even actively decided he wanted to be part of overnight, but he is happy to have them nonetheless.]

[fika]

[ wait until you hear about pogo next! five may be accepting an faq at the end of this excursion.

the numbering doesn't work, is the thing, and sometimes five thinks he's the only crazy one of their bunch to have actually realized that when he did. ]

[ he listens to doc, to the little hints of the other's life, with a small nod and polite silence. they each talk about their respective lots in life as if they recount factual information - distant and precise. like talking in such a way removes you from the equation of experience.

five doesn't miss the fact that however, tuberculosis has a cure. now. it hadn't always, and that's a curious little detail that points more and more to doc's own interesting connection to the flow of time. he's a mix of modernity and an old west sort of charm (or whatever passed for it in five's approximation, sorry doc) and it sticks out. five's met plenty of people like that in the Commission - within and out of time.

in another lifetime, the handler may have even recruited someone like doc.

he doesn't ask any more, because his personality doesn't always lend to interrogation of the personal nature - getting to know anyone is a foreign little stint. Instead, there's an acknowledging little: ] A shit memory to have.

[ but, one thing he is curious about: ] Out of curiosity - how old are you now? [ might sound rude out of context but! time traveler!! ]

[thering]

[Doc has borne witness to some crazy shit in life - being accosted by a bunch of suits carrying oddly uniform briefcases likely wouldn't faze him as much as it probably should - but if he were to ever have to draw a line somewhere, talking chimpanzee butler would be where that line would be.]

It is- was - 2017. That would make me a hundred and sixty six. [Not that he's been keeping count. He still feels like a man in his prime.]

You know that does give me enough years on you to still call you 'son'. [Just. Pointing that out. Hell he can call anyone son; he hasn't yet met anyone here who has been around longer than he has.]

[fika]

[ huh. he was starting to suspect something, sure, but that confirmation still manages to get a twitch of an eyebrow, and he sets down another toy he was examining and blinks.

you know. even someone as stubborn as five needs to know when to admit defeat. ] Alright.

Touche. [ he doesn't have to like it to voice it though!!! he grimaces. ] You're - not actually going to call me that, right? [ five, your daddy issues are showing. ]

[thering]

[He might still be learning his way around, but he is not Doc Holliday straight out of the 1880s, no. He hasn't told everyone the story yet, much as he has been getting better at keeping things short and simple. While he won't be too coy if he's asked, he's not running around advertising anything either. And he is pleasantly surprised Five doesn't launch into a dozen questions instantaneously. It is a welcome relief not to be bombarded from the get-go.]

Occasionally there may be a slip of the tongue. [Doc turns towards Five and shrugs it off.] I do try, seeing as you despise it so. [He can't imagine why though. Hardly anyone else bats an eyelid when he alternates between polite addressing and terms of endearment.]

[fika]

[ maybe he'll ask him later, several shots of moonshine in. he is definitely curious, but given that Doc hadn't displayed any familiarity with time travel powers - at least in the context of five - his only guess is that it's something else.

and, given that in this place, something else can mean all sorts of things (like magic), he's going to leave this discussion alone. he has enough clues now to piece something together (and likely be wrong). mostly, there's newfound, begrudging sort of respect. ]

[ dryly: ] Appreciated. [ terms of endearment were after all a long shot away. ]

[thering]

[Doc is grabbing a teddy bear before he leaves. Seems a waste of coming here if they are to return empty-handed. He tucks it under his arm, against his side and adjusts his hat.]

There does not seem to be anything of import here. [Or sex toys, unfortunately. Malcolm will have to go another day disappointed.] Did you want to introduce me to your brother then? [They should go while it is still light outside. The weather here has been temperamental at best.]