villagelogs | 015-017 » enter the fog!

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015-017 » enter the fog!

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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[ a chemical attack is too easy of an explanation. it implies someone put it there, first of all. and while that would be a great direction and someone to fight (to tear to pieces, at this rate), five's paranoia is making him think this just cannot be that simple. what was the point of that? if they just came back?

he stops, blinks, before his nose wrinkles ] The hun — Jesus, Henry, I haven't eaten since yesterday. I'm not turning into a zombie. [ that you know of. the homicidal tendencies were always there. ]

I'm animated because I'm alive. I have a pulse. [ you can even test him! he won't threaten your kneecaps on this one, doc. ] And - I made a bad call. A mistake. I jumped outside, because the fog started rolling inside. Broke in all the windows. So I assumed the further I'd get, the safer I'd be. By the time I got there, I was all out of juice. And out of time. [ it's all a difficult thing to admit, and he makes a point of not looking over to moonshine sugar daddy. ] Three minutes. It's all it took. [ you get good at counting seconds, and its funny what details your mind remembers, as five turns around, arms crossed, and leans back on the counter now. ] No turning time back on that one.

[ even so, his expression turns somber as the list of names just keeps going.] Shit.

[ but the thing he settles on is: klaus did find his body. it's the cruel irony of this family, isn't it? a call back to the apocalypse and the rubble and the dust settling on corpses and for all their differences there's too many similarities spanning four and five. now more than ever. five shakes his head. ] No symptoms. Not yet, in any case. [ just cookie cutter trauma :) ]

That- was not implied. [It was merely a throwaway observation about the veracity with which Five is going through the pantry. He is welcome to anything there, but a couple of shelves are dedicated to housing some of the ingredients and spare components used for making moonshine so there's an usual amount of bagged sugar and corn that has been turned into cornmeal.

The windows blowing in sounded like what happened with John Constantine. His discussions with Raylan and Malcolm roll around in his mind.]

Did your phone ring that morning? Did you answer it? [It was one of Raylan's theories - that the voice telling them not to go outside was some kind of test.]

[ five shrugs. best to give a fair warning about things like that, he figures. ]

Was that morning? [ an idle thought, irrelevant. ] I was in the Town Hall. I let it ring so, no. [ he's watching doc with a tired sort of curiosity now. ]

Wonder who the hell was on the other end of the line. Would be nice to have a little chat. [ well, knowing five's temperament, its unlikely it would have been just a talk. some threats, perhaps. a smattering of violence. gentle persuasion, as some would call it. ]

[It is morning when Malcolm screams bloody murder and gets one cowboy fussing over him trying not to wake the other. It is night when he steps out onto the porch and Raylan is there with half a bottle of moonshine and an empty glass waiting for him. Whether the sun is up, down or sideways, in the absence of cicadas and coyotes, this is their ritual.

It was morning for Doc Holliday when he held their bodies in his arms, pretending that people die with dignity when they shovelled dirt over their faces. So, yes. Without a doubt. It was morning.]

They had said not to go outside. [Doc purses his lips and shakes his head briefly.] Seemed as if they were not keen to stick around for conversation. [He did not answer the phone personally - was the last one down the stairs after it had been answered - but the fog passed over this house like the blood of the lamb had been painted on the door.]

Can I make you something to eat? [Because if he's going to eat peanut butter out of the jar like he's seven months pregnant then Doc would rather get busy making a proper sandwich.]

[ rituals are everything. certainly in a place where the telling of time was elusive at best. its muscle memory, a pavlovian instinct that tells you when its time for what.

five's rituals here have been far less well defined, steeped in an odd sort of frenzy. he wouldn't know what end or start of the day it was when the fog hit and pulled at least a third of the unwilling residents out into its reach. an instinctual part of him thinks it should matter - a development of a pattern. a what if for whenever this decides to happen again.

but, there's no dignity in death, for all the pretending.]

No, guess not. [ a sigh. ] That's the same as what I heard from Klaus.

[ there's - something oddly embarrassing to five in doc's offer. like accepting would be admitting some sort of defeat, even if that's not what that's about. he's literally careened himself into what doc has decided to claim as a home and started rummaging in the kitchen. this is fair and with a somewhat mild sting to his pride, five relents. a little sheepishly, for the first time in probably years. ] Ah. Yeah. I can't find the bread.

[The offer came naturally from Doc - there was no other intention, however Five might feel about it. He is hungry. Doc knows his way around this kitchen. That is all there is to it.

He moves over to the sink to wash his hands before he busies himself throwing together a sandwich. He makes them fancier than he would have a hundred and a fifty years ago, given how well stocked their fridge is, with cold cuts and crisp lettuce.]

Is Mister Klaus alright? [The young man had howled and sobbed with a kind of raw, visceral intensity that Doc was not used to witnessing. It cuts, even thinking about it now. But he does not wish to speak of it. It was a private moment that will stay private between them.]

He was... upset. [Doc has rarely made a bigger understatement. But who amongst them could claim to grieve with grace?]

[ five, almost diligently, moves aside as soon as doc starts full heartedly in the kitchen. maybe he can quietly appreciate that, but it also gives him very little to do, arms crossed and leaning into one of the walls as he watches the old cowboy work. ] Hmm.

He's going to have to be. [ it isn't said unkindly, or coldly. his voice is low and quiet and someone might even catch an edge of uncertainty. it's painful, and sometimes you're just too fucking tired to hide it.

he stares into space for a brief moment. he knows what its like to find the corpses of the people you love and have nothing but the hollow, sharp pain of loss echo in your chest. and where five's heart was his family, klaus had been, in a lot of way, one of its beating hearts. felt too strongly, too kindly for too long.

five hates that klaus found him. hates it so much and will never live that down as anything but a hard failure. he can only imagine it wasn't pretty. ] Remember I said I found something in the forest?

It was graves, Henry. I think something worse is ahead of all of us still.

I spent a few hours with him, after we buried you all. Did not have the heart to remove him from your room. [Doc waves the blunt knife in his hand around absently while he talks.] Suppose it made it easier to keep an eye on him, knowing where he was. [He did not have the luxury of spending every waking minute with Klaus, but he did try to spend as much time as he could with the man whilst giving him the space he needed to come to terms with the loss. Whatever that means now, with those gone having returned.]

He did not seem to... understand 'death', as we know it. He must have assumed he would be able to speak with you, still. [Plating up the sandwich, Doc turns and serves it to Five. It's not really magazine front cover worthy but there is a noticeable bulge in the middle of the sandwich where he's put extra fillings, seeing as Five seems to be ravenous.]

Graves? [He folds his arms on the table and bends over it a bit, keeping his gaze slightly off to the side so Five doesn't feel awkward about him watching him eat.]

Of the people who were here before? Were there names, like those next to the phone numbers?

[ five is quiet for a long time, as doc recounts.

when it's all said and done, and he holds the plate in his hands, he remains at a momentary loss for words. not at the sandwich itself, work of art as it is, and busies himself with sliding into a chair. ] I owe you. [ it's not a flippant statement - he means it wholeheartedly. ] Thank you. [ foreign words from this mouth! ] And no, he doesn't. But I'm alive, and I think I finally convinced him of that, too. [ okay, it wasn't him doing the convincing as much as a hapless passerby dragged into the argument between brothers, but those are details. ]

[ it's easier to focus on recounting gravesite as he takes a bite. ] No names, and definitely not of those from before, I don't think. [ he's reaching into the inner pocket of his blazer, worn beneath his coat, and pulls out a small notebook, before flipping it to a page.

its an efficient list of twelve lines. 1 through 7 are marked with umbrellas, each having a different amount of tallies next to it. the remaining list included other symbols:

a set of short vertical lines both thick and thin — 5 hash marks
a flower shape with long thin petals — 12 hash marks (scrawled next to it - daisy?)
a five-pointed star inside a circle — 3 hash marks
a small bird — 4 hash marks
a cross shape with even length arms and three prongs at the end of each — 10 hash marks. (scrawled next to it - john? ) (back from the forest)

he taps the page. ] I think its about us. The umbrellas could be a scare tactic - for my family. Maybe it's just someone trying to fuck with me. [ he shrugs. its not out of the question. ] It's too pointed to be coincidence is all. Do any of these symbols stick out to you?

You do not. [Doc's not keeping score. What time he had spent with Klaus, he had willingly and freely given. If he was to go abruptly he would have not wanted for his found family to be alone either, ~~assuming they would be at all torn up about his passing~~ even though he is fortunate that none of them are here.

He would happily testify to Five's state of existence, if he had been asked, but it did not occur to him that perhaps Klaus would just assume that he's talking to the dead again, that he would try to convince Five that he truly is dead. After all, he had said his abilities did not work properly here.]

Hm. [Doc tilts his head to try and get a better look at what was in Five's notebook. It sounds a bit extreme, actually carving symbols and shapes into gravestones just to mess with someone's head. But, clearly, stranger things have happened in this town. He can't put it past anyone, at this stage.]

I'm afraid not, but, if you don't mind, I can copy this and ask around. [His eyes scan over the page again, just to be sure, pupils flickering left and right as he tries to decipher what it might mean. Are the symbols supposed to represent different words? Or different people, and the hashes might conceal some names? Hard to say.]

You think these umbrellas correspond to your family? Who else have you shown this to?

[ he does, though he doesn't voice the disagreement vocally. it's a tally in his own head, even if doc dismisses the gravity five puts on it.

that day had been an exhausting one. coming back. convincing his own brother of his unlikely return. in five's mind, a loophole was opened. and he hated to admit that he was saved by constraints he didn't understand. that his stupid error could have been permanent, and then his only hope of fixing anything was hoping beyond anything reasonable that klaus could, in fact, conjure him back.

as it were, he's glad he's back. but the boundaries of this place will need to be pushed with far more fervor now. it's a gauntlet thrown. ]

Go ahead, [ he shrugs. ] You're the first one I've shown. I couldn't figure out if it was just a shitty nightmare, but with what happened — [ a scowl, chomping down on another bite. ] — maybe it's an omen.

I know I was at the graves. [ then, he glances up at the mention of umbrella correspondence, set his sandwich down, and rolls up his left sleeve to show the academy's tattoo. it's nearly identical to the one he's drawn, though that can be chalked up to penmanship. ] I know they do. We were The Umbrella Academy. And there were as many umbrellas as there were us. What I don't know is the what the tallies stand for.

Look, I'll be happy to know this was just a bout of weirdass paranoia. But my gut says it isn't.

[ another beat as he returns to the meal at hand. he really was famished. ] ...This is good.

[There is some pen and paper they had retrieved from near the bulletin board and brought back with them, from back when they had put up all the handwritten signs on 1307 telling people to stay out of the moonshine brewery for their own safety. Doc retrieves the top sheet from the pile and glances back and forth between the sheet and Five's notebook, copying the symbols and making sure he's got the correct number of hashes.

He's had some luck with the bulletin board, come to think of it. Perhaps he will put up just the symbols without the hash count and request for some information there.]

That is rather uncanny... [His gaze flickers from Five's tattoo to the umbrella in his notebook and then the umbrella he had drawn. Maybe gamblers tend to be a little more superstitious than the average population, but yes, he too thinks it must mean something. He does not wish to say that aloud for now though. Not until he can find out more information about the symbols.]

You are welcome to stay for dinner. Get some rest here. [All the rooms are taken but he can have Doc's. And he can trust that the gunslinger will holler if anything strange starts happening. He has spent entire generations in solitude, so he understands going at it alone. But Five does not need to do so, here, amongst friends.]

[ maybe with combined efforts - more of doc than of five, in this case - they could get closer to figuring this out.

if there was anything to figure out. it still feels like a taunt. too much like one, like something the handler would do to spite him and she's dead. but yet again, he's thought so once before and that proved him wrong.

but no - all of this? mathias, the fog, everyone here. all of this way beyond her damn reach. or the commission's capabilities.

maybe he is getting paranoid. he smoothes out his sleeve, and tucks the notebook away with a nod.

doc's offer is more tempting than five would care to admit. but: ] I'm — I should get back to Klaus. [ a small thinning of his lips. a tired sigh. ] Thanks though. [ for feeding him, and for not throwing anything at him this time around. ]

I understand. [If he is not around for Malcolm, at least Raylan will be. Five does not have that luxury.]

Bring him over sometime. [There is enough in the fridge to make more food, host a few folks. It will be something a little different than hearing the same old voices trying to rehash the same old conversations and not getting too far because White Hat and Black Hat aren't too chatty.]

For supper of course. And not because he - or you - have sliced your hand open. [He has yet to come across anything sharp enough to do that but he's not putting anything past them.]

[ bring him over sometime and why is that a funny little idea to entertain?

hargreeves didn't do dinner parties. their family dinners never really counted for much other than more lessons or rough silence.

this held a potential to change up the monotony. besides, it would be good for klaus. it isn't that his brother wasn't good at meeting others - he was too good, really, with the sort of social fluency five would never attain (nor did he want to). but it would be a good distraction from whatever the hell five had just put klaus through.

maybe it's just tempting because he isn't thinking clearly, and he'll be back to his old self of keeping everyone at arm's length. that must be it. ]

No promises. [ whether it is on the sliced hand or dinner, isn't very clear. but given the way most of five's encounters have gone, it would be a safe guess to say which was just a bit more likely to occur.

he does make a little point of finishing his sandwich, though, leaving a crumb-filled plate behind before taking it to the sink. ] But I'll pitch it.

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015-017 » enter the fog!

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