015-017 » enter the fog!

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central Mathias.
WHEN: Days 015-017
WHAT: The fog murders a third of the town. This is Fine.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here! Thank you so much to everyone for your patience!!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Kevin Penkin "Core-collapse"

DAY 015
ENTER THE FOG
“If you want to see what the fog hides in itself,
don't wait for the fog to disperse! Enter the fog!”
— Mehmet Murat ildan

In the early hours of the morning, when darkness finally descends upon Mathias once again, so too does the fog. It moves slowly, filling every inch of the forest before spilling into the streets like water, a wave of thick white vapor surrounding every building and structure in the town until it reaches the rocky beach. And at this early hour, before the sun has risen in the sky, the residents of Mathias will learn the true power of the fog that has surrounded their prison.

In every building in town, in every room that has one, the phone rings. The sound is shrill in the quiet of the town, the cacophony of ringing echoing into the night. Again, and again, and again, the ringing is incessant, continuing if unimpeded for minutes that feel like hours.


If the phone is answered:

— There’s a strange clicking sound, like an old tape player that’s reached the end of the reel, click click click, and then a crackling whisper comes through across the line: “Don’t go outside.”

— If your character still chooses to open a door or window, the fog will remain in place, a wall of white just beyond their entry. It will not enter that room and they will feel no ill effects.

— If they choose to ignore all warnings and step into the fog, they will immediately begin to suffer mild side effects from the exposure (headaches, nausea, and weakness) that will be gone in a few hours if they retreat to safety but will increase in strength if they continue forward. More than two minutes in the fog will bring on a sharp pain in their head and nausea that forces them to the ground. They will be unable to breathe and unless they are somehow brought to safety, they will die in three minutes.

If the phone is not answered within a few minutes, there is a knock at the nearest exterior door or window. Polite, at first, and then pounding, a deep sound that echoes through the room, louder and faster, seeming to come from every wall all at once.

— If your character opens that door or window, there’s nothing there except the fog, which immediately begins to seep into the room through the open door. Those who shut the opening again will suffer mild side effects from exposure to the fog (headaches, nausea, and weakness) but will recover in a few hours.
— If they don’t open the door or window, the pounding stops suddenly, complete silence pressing in. And then— every window in the room implodes inward, shattered glass raining down everywhere as the fog rushes in. They are overcome by a sharp pain in their head and nausea that forces them to their knees. Breath is stolen from their lungs, leaving them gasping, and unless they are somehow brought to safety, they will die in three minutes.

The fog withdraws after one hour, just as the sun begins to rise.

Only those who answer the phone are truly safe from the fog. If any player wishes to opt-out of this event, their phone will not ring and they will sleep soundly through the hour. All those who perish in this event will leave behind corpses where they died and they will resurrect in separate bodies on the beach later that day as the sun sets, in the exact state they were in before the fog appeared. There are exceptions to these conditions...



A WAYWARD ARRIVAL
There is one new face in Mathias on this strangest of days. While so many are suffering and struggling to come to grips with the new facets of their strange reality, the latest resident to arrive in town will wake on the beach in the afternoon, when the sun has begun to dip on the horizon but the sky hasn't yet started to change color.

DAY 016
IN MEMORIAM
The sun rises and the sun sets, the day passing like any other. There is nothing eventful worth noting on this completely normal day beyond the return of even more of our weary residents. By sundown, all have returned who fell to the fog — except for those who don't. One has perished for good and the other remains lost.

New notices have been added to the bulletin board, including notes of memorial and missing persons. There are also a few graves that have popped up near the treeline, thanks to those who have taken it upon themselves to take care of the corpses left behind.

DAY 017
DECEPTIVE BEAUTY
Residents wake to a winter wonderland. Under the cover of night, snow has moved into Mathias, dusting the town with a coating of white that gives an almost picturesque quality to the eerie ghost town. It's a beautiful sight, concealing the deadly secrets that they've discovered existing beneath the surface here.

The snow brings with it an extra chill in the air. Breaths come in white puffs of air and frostbite and hypothermia are dangers to be mindful of. Stay inside, stay warm. Repair those broken windows and doors. Hope that another storm isn't on the horizon...

---

THE FOG'S AFTERMATH

THE PERMANENTLY DEAD
— Jill Valentine's dead body will be found in the street outside the Boarding House. She will not return to Mathias.

THE TEMPORARILY LOST
— Daisy Johnson will be missing from the town following the fog's departure.

THE RESURRECTED ONES
— John Constantine's body will be found inside 1308 Phillips Drive by Doc Holliday, who will bury him. He will resurrect on the beach the afternoon of Day 16. (x)
— Number Five's body will be found between the beach and the Grey Gull by his brother, Klaus. He will resurrect on the beach the morning of Day 16. (x)
— Phil Coulson's body will be found outside the Boarding House by Doc, Raylan, and Malcolm. He will resurrect on the beach the evening of Day 15. (x)
— Claire Novak's body will be found inside her room at the Boarding House. She will resurrect on the beach the evening of Day 15. (x)

LOCATIONS

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

— WEATHER conditions for days 15-16 are typical for late fall, with temperatures consisting 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. The temperature falls overnight into day 17, bringing with it a light snowfall that continues throughout the day.

— 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

— SANITY levels are now available as part of the game. Your characters have settled in and seen some things, so it's time to figure out just how crazy they're starting to go.

— REPORTING updates to locations around town may now be done over here. Did your character dig a moat around their house? Have they burned down part of the town hall? Are they growing magic carrots on the beach? These are important things to note for the rest of the class, so let us know about them and the updates will be added to the locations page!

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Comments

[tinstar]

"I disagree. Some wouldn't bother to get outta their own head to get things done. That takes a strength." There was no way for Malcolm to get out of this. "But I can't help but worry that we will have more days like this."

Raylan watched him outta the corner of his eyes. "You did better than most. that's to be commended." Malcom had a place here, a useful role, even if it was just to these emotionally stunted men.

[abrightboy]

“I’ve been to a lot of crime scenes,” Malcolm told him. “Some of them... pretty messed up. There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of murderers anywhere in the multiverse, huh? But we’re all stuck here together. The...way I tried to live? Was because I didn’t think anyone would see what’s wrong with me and still see...anything else. I’m used to trying to hide it. I...don’t want anyone else to feel that way,” he confessed.

[tinstar]

"You're not your mental health issues," he assured. While he and Doc weren't in the same kind of way, Malcolm wasn't like Arlo. He wasn't cruel. He wasn't crazy when he was awake.

"But these people aren't.. randoms. The grotesqueness is.. mild compared to some I've seen." It was the personally knowing them that bothered Raylan. Was it going to happen to all of them? Were they going to have to bury him one day?

"This isn't how any of 'em were supposed to go.."

[abrightboy]

"It might be how we all go, in the end."

There were a lot of ways they were powerless in this place.

"But thank you. For. What you said. A lot of people don't see it that way. I was fired from the FBI for... mental instability, I believe they called it on the official termination documents."

[tinstar]

Raylan said nothing, staring into his glass a little and holding himself back from emptying it again. It wasn't a pleasant thought but one he couldn't avoid. No matter what they tried, it might be how they all go.

"I got no intentions on goin' out like that." Even if he couldn't control it, he couldn't give up.

He looked over as Malcolm continued. "Trust me, you're better off. No one likes the FBI, not even the FBI. They're mostly uptight assholes. How'd you end up with the NYPD afterwards?"

[abrightboy]

“I did get that from... everyone in every law enforcement office I went into wearing an FBI badge,” he admitted with a laugh. “But I got about the same level of hostility from my colleagues so I guess I just thought that was what working was like,” he said with a faint huff of a laugh.

At the question, he looked over. “I worked out of the FBI’s DC office. After I was fired, I moved back to New York. The lieutenant in Major Crimes was sort of my mentor growing up. He started bringing me in on some cases.”

[tinstar]

"Well, when you work at the FBI.." That was how life tended to be, as far as he could tell. They looked like miserable people doing miserable work. Malcolm Bright was.. too Bright for that.

"That's a good foot back into the door. How long you been workin' with him?" It was easier to learn a little more about Malcolm than linger in their possible deaths.

[abrightboy]

“About.... eight months now? Not counting when he’d take me on stake-outs as a kid. Just this go-around,” he clarified.

[tinstar]

"Stake-outs when you were a kid huh?" Nice lieutenant. "Guess that set you up pretty well for what you ended up doin'. You enjoy sittin' in cars late at night for hours on end?"

[abrightboy]

“Well, I don’t enjoy sleeping,” he pointed out. “Sitting with him and talking about cases was a lot more fun. And if I’d get antsy, he’d look at me and say ‘Malcolm, police work is patience’.”

[tinstar]

"Not gruesome ones, I hope." He squinted a little. "Were you this excited and astute about them then, at that age?"

[abrightboy]

“Gruesome? God, no. Not after what they found in my father’s office. He kept me well away from that as much as he could. But... I was still seeing my father. Gil couldn’t protect me from everything.”

He looked at Raylan. “I was at least as excited, but nowhere near as astute.”

[tinstar]

Thank god. Raylan wasn't sure he'd have been surprised to hear otherwise, but it was good to know.

"Suppose having a cop in your ear helps build that up. Honestly, the fact that you're not in an institution next to your father is a miracle, s'what it sounds like. FBI for ten years? You might be crazy, but you gotta be crazy that works to slide up in there."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm scoffed a laugh. "As much as he'd love me in the cell next door. I'm sure he'd devise games we could play in morse code by knocking on the wall."

The next thing Raylan said made him smile and he glanced over. "Well enough, until my immediately superiors found out my... provenance. Then they were looking for a reason to get rid of me and I gave it to them," Malcolm admitted.

[tinstar]

"Thankfully, I doubt much of anyone cares about what he would like." Not that he was allowed to have much of an opinion about it, but Malcolm had painted a pretty clear picture and Raylan had one anyway. Having Arlo as his father didn't help him any.

"Yeah, you mentioned the official reason on paper but why'd they really fire you?"

[abrightboy]

"They thought I must have some kind of latent psychopathy and would develop my father's... tendencies, over time. If I hadn't already." He looked at Raylan, his hands wrapping a little more tightly around his cup. "They fired me for being his son and... for mental health issues that are always up for a little deliberate misinterpretation. You know. He's crazy, I'm crazy.... it's the same to them."

[tinstar]

His eyes narrowed. "Sounds like discrimination but I suppose if you got an army of medical paperwork behind you, it's hard to argue against. The field tends to require people who.. aren't standin' on so much sand."

It was an odd way to go about saying Malcolm had some instabilities and while Raylan knew and saw what the drugs did for him, they were only tethers from the solid ground. Prone to possibly breaking or failing under the right kind of stress.

"You said you've been back in New York for what, 8 months? I know that ain't ten years but.. It's a good start to another decade of work." Be happy he had work, was the fine print. That kind of thing could be hard to get out from under.

[abrightboy]

That kind of thing was impossible to get out from under and Malcolm knew full well that, if Gil didn't give him work, it was likely nobody would.

"As long as he keeps calling me," Malcolm murmured, looking down into his cup. He took a sip. "If he doesn't..." He shrugged faintly. "I guess I'm done."

Standing on sand. Nobody had ever phrased it that way, but it was absolutely how it felt.

[tinstar]

"Nah, just poke around somewhere else. You'll find someone who needs ya.. There are other agencies." The sand would still be there, but he'd find a bit of solid place before it shifted again, Raylan was sure.

"If not.. Didn't you say you had a psychology degree? Lean into head shrinkin', open a practice." His point was, Malcolm still had options.

[abrightboy]

He laughed softly.

"I don't know if I'm capable of helping people in that way. My area of specialty is pretty specifically murder," he noted. "But. It's something to think about. I'd probably end up sitting in my loft watching cold case file shows on TV and trying to solve them," he admitted with a self-deprecating look.

[tinstar]

"Still somethin' useful," Raylan pointed out with a gesture of his finger towards Malcolm before he took another drink from his bottle.

"I don't know what I'd do if they ever kicked me outta the Marshal's. I used to be an instructor at Glynco, might have an option there but I'm not good for much outside of my job. Shit carpenter, shit plumber... Not much else you can do with a criminal law degree outside of the job."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm huffed a light laugh.

"Yeah, I feel like you'd just be trouble as a mall security guard," he teased. "Making shoplifting teenagers pee their pants in terror. Though I guess you'd be setting some youth on the straight and narrow...."

[tinstar]

"Jesus, a rent-a-cop?" He scoffed a laugh. "I'd rather eat it on the job than do that and I know how bad that sounds." Suicidal he was not but a job like that would be akin to death.

"Nah, I'm pretty secure in my job. A privilege I know isn't a widely held thing. So long as that job lets me put Boyd Crowder away, it'll be fine."

[abrightboy]

"Who's Boyd Crowder?" Malcolm asked curiously. He was pretty familiar with the country's Most Wanted lists and he didn't know the name.

[tinstar]

"An outlaw from Harlan. His daddy and mine worked together when they were runnin' the county. He's why I got reassigned from Miami back to Lexington in the first place. And I intend to put him behind bars for good. Stop him from robbin' people and blowin' shit up." Raylan smirked.

"Rest of the Marshal Service couldn't get anythin' outta the people of Harlan. They all buttoned up tighter than a Nun's habit. Makes it hard to solve cases when no one is talkin'."