018-020 » what he hides

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Western Mathias.
WHEN: Days 018-020
WHAT: The fog recedes!
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Graham Plowman "Edge of Darkness"

DAYS 018-020
THE HIDDEN REVEALED
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
— Benjamin Franklin

As the sun rises in the distance above the sea, the fog slips away from the unsettling town, winding through streets and across buildings until it is nestled soundly in the forest. There it waits, ready to snare any who dare test its limits — residents would do well to remember what happened the last time they encountered the fog so intimately.

With the fog receded, the western portion of Mathias is now revealed and available for exploring. There are more businesses on the town square and even some on the street that runs off the square. The schoolhouse is nestled by the southern treeline, not from the little makeshift cemetery at the end of Jackson Boulevard that is courtesy of a few kind residents in town. To the far north of the square is a sprawling garden, now covered in snow, and a greenhouse that once supplied the botanical shop. And to the west, beyond the square, is another residential district of the same size as that to the east. What is different, however...

These buildings are all in some form of decay. From the beginnings of rot to completely collapsed and little more than a pile of proverbial bones, none of these homes are anything resembling livable. Well, as far as one can tell, at least. For between the streets of Hill Lane and Stine road there is a crack in the earth. A dozen feet across and fifty feet down, the crack extends from one side of the forest to the other, either end cut off by the fog. The view to the other side is clear but there is no way across.


THE NEW ARRIVALS
There are quite a few new faces in Mathias on this day. Awaking throughout Day 018, they will find themselves laying in the snow beside that unsettling crack in the earth, houses both quaint and decaying surrounding them as the snow begins to cover their bodies. Best get inside and warm up, dears.

SPECTRES IN THE NIGHT
The days are short now that winter seems to have set in unseasonably early. Though the clocks in Mathias fail to properly keep time or sometimes even work at all, the sun rises around 8:00am and sets at 5:00pm. There is far more darkness than light in these days, but in that darkness there is, in fact, light.

In the distance all across Mathias, there are lanterns lit against that darkness. Their lights dance across the snow, the warm flickering shining like tiny stars and offering an almost ethereal glow to the crisp white snow. It would be a beautiful sight to behold... if it weren't for the shadowy figures that held them. With partially raised arms, the figures hold the lanterns and walk the streets of Mathias, drifting in between buildings and disappearing into the forest. Still yet, there are some that simply stand in place, as if waiting for something or someone.

No matter where or when these figures are seen, they always seem to be facing away from our residents, and attempts at reaching them are all for naught. They will fade from view if one gets too close, and return to sight when that distance is regained. And in the morning, those lanterns may be found in the snow, their lights extinguished but their glass somehow still warm.

STRANGER IN THE SNOW
Those investigating the western part of Mathias and venturing near that inexplicable crack in the earth will have the most unsettling feeling of being watched. Most of the time, there is nothing there and no one to be seen, but then—

On the other side of that expanse, sitting on a porch, in the shadow of a home, or standing in the oddly moonlit street, there is a man. His features are shrouded in darkness and not much can be discerned about him, but instinct tells you he is dangerous. There is a sense deep in your bones that he is maliciously amused.

He makes no move to speak, nor will he respond to any attempts on your part. Instead, he sits, or he stands, and he watches. By the end of Day 020, all sign of him will be gone, along with the eerie feeling of being watched.

---

LOCATIONS

Unless otherwise noted, all new locations have working electricity and other utilities.

BENEDICT BOOKS Nestled quaintly on the square surrounding the Town Hall, a thick layer of dirt covering the front windows. A portrait hangs at the front of the store to illustrate the namesake of the little shop... that may, in fact, not be so little. Dust covers everything in sight and detritus litters the wooden floor, as if someone left the door open and allowed half the forest inside. (more info)

MATHESON ANTIQUES Also on the town square is an antique store that is a lesson in chaos more than culture. The items within are stacked haphazardly, creating narrow aisles running throughout the space. Furniture, light fixtures, old revolutionary and civil war memorabilia, all of it is jumbled together with no rhyme or reason. Indeed, one wrong move could create an avalanche of aged wood and peeling paint.

POE'S CLOTHES Located on the town square, this shop carries only the basics. Loose jeans in a few sizes, khakis, solid color dress shirts and blouses, flannel in various styles, socks and underwear.

SPIN RIGHT ROUND RECORDS On the square across from the beauty store, the music shop is as dusty as everything else in this town has been. Tables line the walls of the long shop, filled with rows and rows of vinyl records, while a few wall shelves display cassette tapes for sale. One side of the store is for New items, while the other holds the Used section with items for resale. Residents may recognize some of the artists but many are unfamiliar to them.

CLINIC Outside the decayed, crumbling building just north of the square is a still miraculously intact sign with the name of the clinic's doctor, Dr. Ken Suzuki. There is no way to treat patients in this location, but with care, some salvageable supplies may yet be found in the remains.

BARKER BOTANICALS Not quite a flower shop and not entirely an apothecary, the botanical store to the far north of the square is something of an amalgamation of both. With a few broken windows to let in the rain, parts of the shop have been overtaken by nature, the house plants growing beyond their pots and rotted flower petals littering the floor to tell of seasons past. The still unclaimed walls are filled with decaying plants and jars of dried herbs and other vegetation, along with a few essences and tinctures.

GREENHOUSE A few dozen yards from the botanicals shop is a sprawling garden, now covered in snow, and a greenhouse that once supplied the botanical shop. The glass is still miraculously intact, though covered in grime so thick that one cannot see inside.

GALLERY The gallery is essentially a large empty space with framed and matted black and white photographs of the town lining the walls. There is a small selected of prints available for sale near the front entrance, and a few rooms at the back of the building — a dark room for developing photos, a small office, and a locked room.

MOVIE THEATER This single-screen theater is quite small, having only 40 seats, but there is a large collection of movies in its storage room. These are all old film reels however, so hopefully someone knows how to thread a film projector.

HISTORY MUSEUM Across the street from the Historical Society, this once esteemed wooden building has seen better days. Windows and doors are boarded up and there is visible rot and decay on the exterior walls. Part of the roof has fallen in and the accumulating snow threatens to collapse the rest of it as well. It is not wise to venture within.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY This brick building has also seen better days, though in a different sort of way. Where once had been carefully cataloged collections and cozy reading rooms for aficionados of local history, there are now stacks of bankers boxes and weathered tomes in every nook and cranny. There is no organization to any of it, everything seeming to have been stashed in a hurry and then left forgotten. Anyone who dares to dive into this archive will need to devote quite some time in order to find anything worthwhile. They will also want to bring their own light source — the electricity does not work here and the windows are quite dark from the accumulated dust and grime.

SCHOOLHOUSE A much smaller school than most of our residents might be used to, there are only a half-dozen rooms in the building, with a few comprising classrooms, meeting areas, and workspaces. All ages were taught here, and one might almost imagine the sound of children's whispered voices and distant laughter while within the empty building.

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— SNOW continues to fall in Mathias. Days 18-19 see light snowfall that very slowly accumulates, but the snowfall turns moderately heavy on Day 20 and sees significant accumulation. The temperature hovers just below freezing and dips lower when the sun goes down.

— 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.

— THE FOG has receded from the town proper and much of the eastern and northern beach. The path through the northern forest to the lighthouse is now also clear.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue to plague the town. While Daisy Johnson has returned, Zed Martin, Rey, and Quentin Coldwater have now vanished without a trace.

OOC UPDATES

— MADNESS has now been unlocked. Congratulations to Inky for Claire earning the first Madness! Who will be next? (Please be sure to keep your sanity updated regularly; Stars has created an amazing tracker for anyone to use if they'd like.)

— HELPERS are officially in residence! Kelly is our Registrar and Stars is our Librarian — both of these delightful members of our community are helping behind the scenes to keep things organized and updated (and doing wonders for the mod's own sanity levels), so please give them some thanks for their hard work!

— REPORTING updates is still a thing that your mod and helpers beg you to do. Changes to locations, plot notes that affect the community, and discoveries should be reported over here so these can all be noted in their appropriate places. (For clarification, reported Discoveries are not public knowledge unless a character has ICly shared this information.)

— A MAP of Mathias now exists, thanks to our wonderful Librarian! Please note that it is not to scale and there may be a few minor errors due to your frazzled mod. Expect updates in the future as more secrets are revealed.

— BULLETIN BOARD — don't forget about it. That's all.

CLAIMING AP REWARDS

Normally, only one AP reward can be claimed per log, but due to the plethora of new and old locations to explore, this restriction is being relaxed. Instead, for this log only:

— Players may spend AP on up to three rewards, though only Spot Hidden may be repeated.
— If a player is spending multiple Spot Hiddens, they must be with different characters and in different locations.

If two characters are investigating the same location together, they may each spend a Spot Hidden on that location. Players should record their spent AP after the AP request has been approved. Sometimes there is nothing to Spot with your Hidden and the points will be "refunded" to use elsewhere.

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Comments

QUESTIONS?

[villagemodama]

Use this space to ask general questions about this log and the circumstances or locations presented within. Please direct more broad game questions to the FAQ.

[cholesterol]

🔪 A couple of questions. If one were wanting to stock up on flannel and not New England WASP best, could one grab five or six options and still leave enough for the town should they want it? And are they, say, fitted, or all sizes?
🔪 How old are the movies in the movie theater?
🔪 Tape/Record-wise, are we talking Stones, Zeppelin, some Classic and hard rock? Or all sorts? Older? newer?

[descendent]

Is there also anything left in the school like used notebooks, textbooks, etc.?

What would happen if someone was to pick up a lantern that was left in the snow? Would it stay with them until night? Would the owner come looking for it? Or would it just... disappear?

Asking for a friend. 😇

[enduresurvive]

What would be most notable in the museum? What exhibits are accessible? (Is there anything about outer space?)

I'm sure I'll get something more concrete with my AP spend but what things would be easily grabbed in the clinic?

Me, literally on every log Q&A:

[bestfuneralever]

Does the clinic restock the same way the general store seems to whenever things are taken?

[hellblaze]

Allo, tis I. The neighborhood question box. I'll either edit this or give links in comments of answers when I have slept and get the posts up.

re: houses
- A follow up question/request. More details on the former occupants of 1387? Any details of their lives other than their art and photographs everywhere? Who they knew? (Benet is listed on the Housing P age so family name is done) hot tubs now?
- IS THE FROZEN CHICKEN STILL OKAY... you know... for future things...
- Any details to be given on a house on King Lane where John will be stashing his former corpse? House number, state of the building, any important details such as former occupants that can be found there?

re: corpse
- John wants to perform magic on his former corpse to see if he can unveil any sort of unnatural magical ties that their bodies might have to Mathias. Meaning, basically, he wants to see if anything is connected to them - or if they are connected to anything.
- He wants to see if the bodies are possessed by anything (or can be possessed). Willing to drop AP for these inquires!
- If he were to set fire to the corpse to get rid of it, would anything odd happen? Smoke? GREEN FIRE? Or just regular cremation?

re: ghosts/night/locations
- Can anything be done magic wise to make a trail to see what the ghosts are looking at/where they are? If it doesn't, and a dummy British dude does it anyways, any certain repercussions?
- Does staying out in the night have any repercussions as it did in the earlier game opening logs? Or, is it just regular "it's the WINTER TIME" cold?
- Can the Stranger be harmed by offensive magic like y'know a fire ball?

HOUSES

[villagemodama]

Use this space to claim a residential house for layout designing or exploration. Players are welcome to "claim" a house and then add/edit comments to provide details later. Because there are just too many numbers to list, simply specify a street and the general state of the house you'd like to claim/explore and the mod will provide your house number.

If you need to update your housing location, that should be done over here!

REWARDS

[villagemodama]

Use this space to ping the mod if you'd like to use one of your AP rewards, like Spot Hidden or Spooky Encounter.

[cholesterol]

Could I spend 2 AP points for a Spot Hidden in the Movie Theater, please. Specifically, Dean would try to be checking any reels or negatives for footage of something Mathias related, that might give them any answers.

DISCOVERIES

[villagemod]

While normally we request that information and items discovered be reported here, for this log we will use this spot instead for easier tracking. If your character finds something, reply here and report what they have found and what they do with it. (Is a note added to the bulletin board? Do they take the item with them or move it to a different place in its location? Etc.)

TRACKING

[villagemod]

A list of all discoveries, please do not reply to this comment, only the top-level.

daisy johnson | agents of shield (mcu)

[chuju]

( plotting post )

» day 18, closed to constantine

[chuju]

is it only when you feel a part is empty, that it's gnawing at the corners of your mind

[ She's cold. It's the first thing she notices as she takes a step forward, her boots crunching on the snow. When did it snow? How had she missed it? And when had she left the boarding house? She'd gotten up early that morning to do some taichi, try to tap into that meditative calm May had taught her so many years ago, but then—

The fog. It had come suddenly out of nowhere while she'd been on the porch. And... then what? Why can't she remember walking across town? And when did it start snowing? Just a few minutes ago, she'd been surrounding by fall colors and suddenly it looked like some sort of deranged winter wonderland outside. The weather didn't change that quickly, not unless there was another set of rogue science students with a weather machine on the loose. Despite this place never providing any sort of explanation for its circumstances, she still finds herself searching for one as she walks, her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her borrowed brown coat.

She doesn't feel any different aside from the cold seeping into her bones, but that could be the weather as well. (She really wishes she had some gloves.) Then again, she hadn't felt any differently when she'd arrived in their weird town either. So if something did happen... It's all frustrating to think about and enough to stir the beginnings of a headache. ]

Malcolm Bright | Prodigal Son

[abrightboy]

Plotting Post

Day 18 - OTA

[abrightboy]

[Let me know where in Subject Line]

On Day 18, apart from when he is doing a little crime scene investigation with John Constantine, Malcolm will be exploring the new areas of town, looking to see if it matches the pictures he took from the lighthouse on his phone.

He might also try the trail to the lighthouse.

He's looking less like withdrawal now and more manic, anxious and jittery. You may find him talking to.... himself? Someone you can't see, anyway. Withdrawal has given way to the symptoms of anxiety, depression and psychosis stemming from severe CPTSD. But trying to unravel the puzzle of the town helps him focus his mind.

Dean Winchester | Supernatural

[cholesterol]

Day 19 | Elena | All I sees turns to brown as the sun burns the ground

[cholesterol]

( He and Claire are no longer alone in this. With a spring in his step, Dean wakes up on the morning of the 19th ready to explore, explore, explore. After a cursory walk around, he brings a cardboard box with him, the same one that he'd taken to gather supplies from The Grey Gull. It's a joke now considering his own refrigerator replenishes, but he knows that now.

He has his priorities. And while the mysteries of this town need to be solved. People need to stop dying. The creepy needs to be dialed back. He still needs his essentials.

The fog's receded, Dean is old hat at gathering supplies.

Inside Poe's Clothes, Dean first stocks up on socks and underwear. Yeah, he abides by a two day right side out/inside out rule, but if he doesn't have to, he'll be civilized. Same with simple white and black socks. A few t-shirts, too, for hanging around/sleeping, and then he finds several racks of what he's been looking for.

Today, he wears what was probably daddy Sanderson's sweater, but you can bet he's digging through the flannel he finds, removing what he likes and setting it on a separate rack by his box. It's like freakin Christmas morning. )

Raylan Givens | Justified

[tinstar]

Day 18

[tinstar]

Day 18 - Closed to Doc
Mornings had largely settled into a routine when the world wasn't trying to kill them, a small comfort in such a place despite the fact that the routine included either Doc or Raylan waking Malcolm up from night terrors that the Marshal was sure echoed to all the houses nearby. But a few hours or so later, there was always coffee and someone was up. It was a soothing comfort that Raylan didn't realize he'd missed until he had gotten used to such a noisy awakening, and he didn't even mind the soft, passing chatter that they'd exchange as they all they moved through it.

This morning however, the conversation revolved around more harvesting of boards and nails to continue helping board up houses around town. As much as Raylan had tried a few days before, it was a heavy task for only one set of hands to get all the used windows covered and the concern about the deepening cold was a real one. Terrible things could happen if people didn't keep warm enough. Twenty minutes later, he and Doc were dressed and plodding down the street, his collar popped against the near freezing cold and wishing he had more hearty layers to put on.

"Tell me why we decided to do this in this weather again? We're gonna need some hot coffee to make sure our pipes don't freeze, shit," he swore at the day. No one else better die - they would be hard pressed to dig a suitable grave in frozen earth.

Later that day - Open

Back at the house and feeling decidedly less like a popsicle then he had while he was outside, Raylan decided to investigate 1306 Phillips Drive. He couldn't sit still long enough to read anything and he was trying his best to not dip into the moonshine so early in the day. Even if he'd already worked plenty to earn it.

Claire had lived here before they moved over and while Raylan was sure she did a fine job of a sweep, not everyone had Raylan's particular set of skills in sussing out false walls and empty floorboards. Someone had to have a secret here; he refused to believe that these people were puritans. So he started in the garage, door left open despite the cold, knocking on the walls with his knuckles and shuffling through the crap to see what was on the back of the shelves, knocking some of it carelessly out of the way as he muttered to himself.

"Come on, these people had to have had somethin'." If one didn't know better, it might look like the good marshal was tossing the place for money or valuables.

number five | the umbrella academy

[fika]

⇢ plotting comment

day 18 ⇢ open and closed

[fika]

⇢ [ 018. exploration, OPEN ] tomorrow is another day, and you won't have to hide away,

[ five is listless. as the days roll by, as the events that took place all but a few nights ago seem to be intent on not leaving him alone at night, five cannot keep himself still.

there’s an itch somewhere beneath his skin. he wouldn’t waste an opportunity to go looking through the new revelations within the town on a good day either, but this felt different in the mind of someone whose psyche was made of hairline fractures right now. a need for a thrill, maybe.

he just had to keep moving, because the idea of stopping meant the potential of something catching up. he had to push at the boundaries of this place, he had to keep looking and keep searching.

new places meant the possibility of answers. it meant another chance to change the pace of monotony and, no doubt, get a hundred more questions to anything he finds.

five can be found wandering around a few places - all around town, really, from checking the tree line for new faces, to ducking into houses and the derelict buildings. anyone can run into him, or catch up to him as he does this! he looks like a man on a mission, but even he doesn’t know what he’s looking for. ]

⇢ [ 018. antique store, closed to dean winchester ] no, you can’t go back to constantinople,

[ one of the places five tracks down towards is the old antique store, at the start of his excursion and it would be the crack of dawn, if five was keeping track of something as important as sleep. the sign boldly proclaims its name in fanciful font, while a peak inside, through the distorted windows, seems to suggest at the chaos held inside.

antique stores were a great place to go looking for a few tucked away mysteries. most of the shit looked useless at first glance, and likely was but …it was worth a shot. by the time five approaches the shopfront, someone else is standing there already - he hasn’t seen the man here before. must be a new arrival - there’s been more of those lately. how cozy. ] Seems like you had the same idea.

⇢ [ 018. the chasm, closed to one response ] in hell, you’ll be in good company,

[ five pushes onward, through the newly revealed streets. he looks at the carcasses of the houses, tracks along the main road towards what he notes as hill lane. there’s a slice of darkness up ahead and when he pushes forward, chin tucked against the collar of his jacket, it begins to look more and more like a yawning chasm. night has already fallen - early, if it even mattered in a town convinced of not having a relevant timeframe other than the understanding that time passed. he’d left klaus to his own devices after they’d finished their conversation with john, and chosen to take another perfunctory look around. he’s searching for something, all messy energy and age-old nerves shoved crudely into a boy’s body.

the specters with the lanterns are unsettling at best, but seeing as you couldn’t fight one, or prod one with a stick, it left five on edge, weaving past the sparse lantern light and keeping the shadows in his periphery until he finds the road ends.

it ends in a steep, startling descent down, and with the low light there’s no telling how far down it goes.

but what five does see is the other side, a clean sweep across, through to the other street. it’s an easy jump. he knows this, even with the limitations placed upon him here. still, he decided to pace across the chasm, trying to find any curve in the expanse that takes him just a little closer to the other side. he squints - doesn’t see anything too noteworthy on the opposite end except for that dip of possibility. of chance and discovery and danger and its that ringing thrill again, running along his spine and settling at the base of his neck as he rolls his shoulders, and takes a habitual, near comfortable step through spacetime to close that distance.

it works with far less surety than his expectations had set. ]

elena gilbert | the vampire diaries

[descendent]

[ plotting comment. ]

DAY 18 | ARRIVAL + DISORIENTED EXPLORING + SPECTRES.

[descendent]

ARRIVAL.
( cw: death, blood/ blood loss, gruesome wound. | narrative. )

---

[ go to hell.

elena doesn't expect to wake up.

her neck stings as she comes to, skin feeling chilled and her muscles stiffening. she feels stickier than she does drenched and cold.

still dressed in her leather jacket and jeans, she's soaked through with melting snow and warm, sticky blood that continues to slip from the right side of her neck. instinctively, she reaches up to brush her fingers against it and winces at her sensitive torn skin.

it doesn't matter. she withdraws her bloodied hand and presses it into the snow, staining it red as her fingers become chilled and wet. she looks around, unable to push herself up, still feeling disoriented from waking up abruptly. nothing seems familiar, no matter how tightly she squeezes her eyes together to try and make herself focus. the dry and damp earth of the woods has been replaced with a thick blanket of snow, and now matter how many times she presses her unstained hand into it, she can't find the earth hidden beneath.

she focuses on what she can feel rather than what she can remember. jenna's stricken face. jenna on the ground, boneless and unmoving. stefan on the ground, pinned in place, unable to move. neither of them lie on the ground nearby. she thinks to call out for them, but elena's mouth is sewed shut as she breathes hard and fights an onslaught of dizziness.

standing, she happens to look to her left and spy a deep crack splitting the earth. as much as she wants to kneel back down and have a look, simply peering at it has her feeling a little off-kilter and dizzy. resting her hand roughly against her open wound, elena decides quietly that she'll come back to the crack in the earth later. she refuses to realise that she has a later.

keeping her hand on her neck, she sweeps her loose, long hair over her right shoulder to try and cover it. her hair's instantly sticky with blood and mats, but elena doesn't care. she presses her hand deep against her neck as if that's enough to stop it from pulling at her energy, and she begins to walk, away from the crack to the nearest building.

the direction she happens to be going in is the town square. ]

MAKING MY WAY AROUND TOWN, STUMBLING FAST.
( cw: death, blood/ blood loss, gruesome wound. )

---

[ unsure of how long it takes her to walk from the crack in the snow to a road that seems far too long and thin, elena's hand remains at her neck, her other arm wrapped around her middle. blood sticks to her skin beneath her clothes, and stains in drops across her light purple top. she tucks her jacket around herself and inhales deeply as if that's enough to deter the paleness from resting itself across her skin.

she wonders, briefly, if this is purgatory. it's so cold, so lifeless, with an emptiness to the town that feels unusual for a girl who had grown up in a bustling town where too many people stood on the back of her heels. only time will tell.

when she spots someone, no matter how many times she stumbles across a silhouette of another person, she will always furrow her brows and say the same thing. ] Are you real?

STALKING A SPECTRE #1.
( cw: stupidity. )

---

[ elena can't help but wonder if those tiny specks of light in the distance are a beacons trying to guide her back home. it's a silly thought, and one that she knows doesn't make a lick of sense given that she's in a town that seems to be smack-dab in the middle of nowhere and contains nothing that makes her link it to virginia.

with her arms wrapped tightly around her, she ventures out into the snow in her leather jacket and jeans, still stained with her blood from earlier. her neck's still throbbing, but with a bandage slapped haphazardly over it and her hair once again swept around to cover the right side of her neck and her shoulder, she can pretend that she hadn't had her neck split wide open and drunk from. ]

Hey! [ running over towards the spectre, she calls out once more, ] Hey! [ coming to an easy walk, she frowns as she approaches the lantern holder and only sees what is clearly its broad back. she reaches out to touch it and finds it disappears.

elena frowns, looking around. no matter how many times the lantern holders disappear upon her approach, she's going to approach them. one will surely stay, right? ]

🔥 john constantine | open & closed prompts | will match format

[hellblaze]

( want to plot? drop a line at ze OOC plot comment, hit me on discord, or find me on plurk whisperstars )

➝ day 18 [locked]

[hellblaze]

[LOCKED TO MALCOLM] i've bargained my bit with fate and all, with no preconceptions of immortality.

Well, this was just peachy-bloody-keen, wasn't it? Standing outside one of the buildings that had seen better days on King Lane. He leaned against the stairs, cigarette in his mouth, eying the snow covered street. Just a bit of time to collect his nerves and center himself before he really got to work. It'd been a few days since he had returned (two, exactly) and he was ready to take another stab at what Mathias had to offer.

There were plenty of worries that John had when it came to his former body in particular. There were plenty of wards to keep things out of his body, but, he'd done the possession dance. He imagined that an unoccupied magical body would seem like a delightful home to anything that could be roaming around. He needed to see if Mathias had dug some invisible claws into them. Maybe it even left spiritual traces of what got him in the Fog.

It wasn't going to be pretty. His magical attempts so far had failed miraculously. This was getting into territories of what he always told people. The real magic. The old stuff. Dangerous.

But, he was tired of playing nice. He was tired of not getting answers. Now it was time to actually get something bloody well done. So, what if it took a piece of his lung from him? Or worse?

He was already damned to Hell.

elijah mikaelson — tvd/to

[prevenance]

( plotting comment )

➤ day 018 ( open )

[prevenance]

01 AWAKE

( he's not in a coffin.

that's the first thought that rings through elijah's mind when he wakes up. the fact that there isn't a dagger sticking out of his chest and the top of a coffin above him seems to indicate that whatever's happened isn't niklaus' doing.

that, he thinks, is a good thing. he is getting quite tired of his brother's temper tantrums. but then, elijah realizes that he's cold and that the reason that he's cold is that he's lying in the snow.

soon enough, he's on his feet, turning in a circle to try and figure out where he is. there's nothing recognizable, nothing familiar as far as the eye can see.

beside him, a crack looms large, a gaping black maw in the otherwise pristinely white landscape. he steps closer, peering down to see if that will yield any answers.

it doesn't. )

Hello?

( elijah doesn't expect an answer nor does he get one. with a heavy sigh, he straightens his jacket and, after choosing one direction, starts walking. the snow crunches under his shoes and he finds himself straightening his tie like he's going to run into someone important.

instead, it's just snow, snow and more snow. it might be nice if he weren't so utterly confused. )

02 TOWN HALL

( eventually, elijah finds his way to what he takes as a town hall meeting center. he hasn't seen one of these in quite some time but he remembers visiting many of them while he and his family travelled through smaller towns.

now, here he is, dusted with snow and trying to figure out what's happened to him. during the walk in, he'd seen lanterns and he'd thought he'd heard voices but every single time he'd tried to find the source, he'd failed.

there was something very, very off about this place. the feeling churns low in his stomach but elijah refuses to let it show on his face.

the bulletin board draws his attention and he finds himself looking over it very slowly, trying to find anything important, anything that might tell him what happened but, once again, there is nothing. )

Well, that's just perfect. ( he mutters the statement to himself before sighing and rubbing his brow. he thinks he'd prefer the coffin about now. at least he'd know what it was.

but no, he was stuck in a snowy, nearly empty town and he was finding no answers that satisfied him.

he was starting to get irritated. )

[waywardsister]

[ Plotting Comment | Feel free to contact me via inkcharm for plotting, too! ]

Day 018: The Hidden Revealed -> Historical Society [closed to Five]

[waywardsister]

CW for Thread: Mentions of Death, mentions of suffocation, mentions of suicidal ideation, potential panic attacks.

[ Claire finds herself restless, and as such delighted to discover that the fog has... well, not quite lifted. But at the very least, retreated. It's why she packs her assortment of improvised weapons, tosses a quick 'don't wait up' to Dean, and makes herself into Mathias.

Just keep moving. Don't stop, whatever you do. The less time to think the better.

Her heart and mind still feel like open, sore wounds. She died, and so did too many of the people she values here. Not everyone came back. At home, sometime in the future, Castiel... dies. Dean is... here.

None of it sits well with her. She wants to go back to her own corpse and set it ablaze, ruin it all over again. At night, she woke up in the darkness, and for a moment she thought she was the one buried in the cold, hard ground. For a moment, she couldn't breathe.

Hence... moving.

So she does. So she is.

And finally, gloriously, she finds what she and Five were looking for - the Historical Society. It looms ominously, but Claire pays that no mind. This is a win, this might be the breakthrough they need. She's so eager she rushes inside without a second thought.

An hour later, she knocks on Five's door at the boarding house, looking harrowed and haunted.

It's dark inside the building. Claire isn't sure, but she thinks she passed out hyperventilating there, in the dark. Where she couldn't breathe. Where she was suffocating all over again, just waiting for the sound of bursting windows.

So that finds her here. ]

Hey old man, you decent?

[ Just play over it. Just pretend you're not afraid. Just pretend you're tough. Just pretend you can keep it together.

Fake it till you make it. ]

Phil Coulson | AoS/MCU

[40seconds]

[ Plotting comment! ]

Day 18 | Open & Closed

[40seconds]

I. Someday our bones here they will lie | Open

[ Some would say that it's a little morbid to walk around a cemetery, but for Coulson, this is no idle romp. He'd heard from Raylan that this is where the ones who died were buried, and while he doesn't expect to learn anything from some fresh graves, it just feels like something he has to do.

It's partly born out of a need for closure, even though logically, he knows he died and is somehow back now, but the mind works in mysterious ways. The other graves are not really his business, but he passes them by on his way to finding his own, and he at least pauses to give them a cursory look.

Once he's in front of his own grave, that's when he stops. Again, he's not sure what he hopes to accomplish here, but he's just going to stand in front of the gravesite for a little while, lost in his thoughts and musings about this place and what to do going forward.

He'll leave eventually when he gets too cold and when he runs out of things to think about. ]

II. Spectres in the night | Open

[ That there are mysteries contained in this town is not new information. It seems to Coulson that every day uncovers some new mystery, and with that comes a number of questions that don't really have answers. It's frustrating to him, but what can any of them do about it?

Today, there's another mystery, something else that doesn't make sense. It's nearing dusk, so he knows he can't be out too long, but with the setting sun comes the appearance of strange lanterns. He can't remember seeing these before, so he's just doing what anyone would do (maybe): follow the lantern light to see what the source is.

But it seems that whenever he gets close to one, the individual holding the lantern just melts away into thin air. The first time it happens, he just chalks it off to something bizarre, but he has to try it again. He walks away from the spot where he knows someone was standing, and once he reaches a respectable distance, the lantern-holding figure reappears. ]

How does that work? [ He asks himself. Knowing this is going to certainly look odd to anyone passing by, he decides to test this out a few more times. For the next five or ten minutes or so, Coulson can be found doing an odd sort of circuit: walking away from the lantern holders, turning around, and walking back. And each time, the result is the same.

Finally, he just stops the repetitive motions and just stands a few feet away, watching the figure with its lantern for a few minutes. When nothing else noteworthy happens, he decides he's had enough of standing around in the freezing air and heads back for the boardinghouse. ]

III. Blind your silence white, we reach when it's reachless | Closed to Daisy

[ It's late now, and the boardinghouse is mostly quiet, but Coulson's still awake in his room. It's been a long day, and he's seen a lot happen: people jumping over the chasm and getting slammed backwards, Daisy coming back from wherever she was, and there's an image that's burned in his mind of her yelling at him because he died while she was gone.

He usually can manage to sleep as well as the next person, but tonight, drifting off to sleep is proving more elusive.

So, what's he doing? He's sitting on top of his bed, with a notebook and a pen in hand, and he's writing down his observations from the day. It's something he started doing late at night, and it helps organize his thoughts.

Maybe if he's lucky, it'll help him sleep, but he's not holding his breath. ]

Castiel | Supernatural

[aprofoundbond]

[Plotting comment!]

Day 18 | Closed to Dean Winchester

[aprofoundbond]

[CW: Allusions to death, mentions of the afterlife, religion, blasphemy, etc.]


[One moment, Castiel is flying; he is in his true form, free from the Empty, free from Earth, and, in his own way, he has truly achieved peace. He is bound to no one but the sky around him, nothing but his desire to help Jack redesign Heaven into the Paradise it should have always been, and he feels truly at his own ease, even as much as he misses Dean and he misses Earth, and the life he built for himself there.

And so, when, out of nowhere, seemingly, Castiel finds himself laying on his back, covered in snow, suddenly grounded, he feels a slow sense of dread creeping in through the cracks in his thoughts once filled by the Empty. He turns his head, and finds a distinct fracture through the ground not far from where he lays; he turns his head in the opposite direction, and he finds several buildings, all of them seemingly rotted or in the process of a slow decay in one form or another.

Cold, he realizes. He’s cold, and his body…aches? That’s strange, he thinks, as his eyes widen, blinking away the snow that doesn’t seem to stop falling. He finally sits up, and the snow falls away like dust; if one comes across him from a distance, the snow seems to slide away in the opposite direction in which the Empty came for him.

Castiel picks himself up, and he pats himself down, finding that he’s back in his vessel, trench coat and all, and he doesn’t even have a single angel blade on him.]

What is this?

[He tilts his head back, asks to the sky. Perhaps Jack can hear him; perhaps Jack will know what to make of this.

A moment later, and Castiel sneezes. Actually sneezes.]

"Henry"/"Doc" Holliday | Wynonna Earp

[thering]

(Plotting post here - let me know if I forgot a toplevel)

Day 18 @ Daisy

[thering]

It is what he would normally consider late in the afternoon when Doc receives word that Daisy Johnson has returned. In hindsight it is perhaps not the best idea to have left the house phone number on the bulletin board, because he is hardly ever sitting around in it beyond the last few hours before bed and the first couple of hours after waking.

He would never admit that he dropped everything and hurried over but really, there is hardly anything else pressing to do in this town. He had missed the ground shaking but he sees her silhouette outside the Boarding House and closes the distance between them in long, snow-crunching strides.

"Miss Daisy," he greets without raising his voice when he's within earshot. "Oh, you're alright." Doc huffs a quiet sigh of relief, breath visible in the early evening chill. Well, she looks alright on the outside at least...

Klaus Hargreeves | The Umbrella Academy

[bestfuneralever]

Plotting comment. Wildcards welcome. Prose by default, but will match.

Day 018 {New secrets unveiled

[bestfuneralever]

I. Greeting new arrivals Open to the boarding house, residents & guests.

{We all wander, and we all wonder

Not every new arrival takes up residence in the boarding house but when they do, Klaus is usually easily found downstairs in the more social areas of the house. He isn’t as anti-social as his brother, and he rather likes having the easy opportunity to be around people, have and take up company with the others in the house.

Right now is one of those such moments. He’s perched on a chair in the common room and when someone wanders in, he greets them with an easy smile and a wave. His greeting is is, “Hey, you must be new, I’m Klaus.” if it’s someone he hasn’t seen before, or something more casual and tailored if it happens to be one of his more familiar housemates or usual droppers-by.

II. Investigating new locations Open to everyone

{New spaces and new places, discoveries untold

Rumor has it, they've magically unlocked new grounds around the town. How had they done that? Who fucking knows, but upon hearing there are both clothing and record stores, he has to investigate. The clothes are just as plain and drab as he's come to expect from his raiding of closets of unclaimed homes around the place, but... he got some new jeans out of the deal, so he'll take it. The records are much more promising, and he wonders idly if there's a record player back at the boarding house. (Records remind him of Luther, and it hits a snag somewhere in his chest.) Just in case, he snags a few records in hopes of being able to play them later.

III. Wildcard

Negan | The Walking Dead

[vampirebats]

[Plotting comment here! I'm game for any sort of wildcards as well. Usually do prose, but I'll match styles!]

Day 18

[vampirebats]

"Shit, I hate the snow," Negan grumbles as he adjusts the scarf around his neck, hugs himself a little tighter to try to get some warmth to his hands. It's not enough to deter him or run him back inside right off. He knows the saying about curiosity and the cat, but the lanterns draw him out as much as the phantoms haunting his vision.

"This is some grade A nutso shit." Every time he rushes to try and catch the figures, they fade away. It gets to the point where Negan starts to wonder whether or not he's just crazy.

He hates feeling like this. He hates feeling like prey, like he's got zero control over anything around him. Investigating the western part of Mathias makes his skin crawl, makes him on edge. He tries to ignore the asshole he swears he sees sometimes and instead, he focuses on checking out the clinic to rummage for some supplies, Poe's Clothes for some jeans or some shirts to layer up for the cold.

He can just be seen wandering around, trying to sate the urge to move, to get shit done. It's all Negan knows to do.

That doesn't mean when all is said and done that Negan doesn't end up near that ominous fucking cracked earth later, glaring down across the way. "Hey, asshole!"

He knows he sees something. Something passing by a window in an old home, staring back at him, probably having a fucking chuckle or two. "Come on, you fucker! Why don't you come out, huh? Tell me what you find so goddamn amusing about this shit... is that what tickles your fucking nuts, man? Seeing us over here, trapped and unable to do a damn thing?"

He hates people like that. He hates this whole set up. People are rare enough where he's from. They're fucking precious, you don't play with them for no fucking reason. You don't kill them unless they deserve it. You make sure you're putting them to good fucking use, give them safety.

He gets the feeling that whatever's behind all this? It doesn't want that.

Eliot Waugh ➼ The Magicians

[endlessflask]

(( plotting comment ))

day 018 [closed - klaus & ellie]

[endlessflask]

It's not ideal, going out when it's snowing now, but Eliot doubts there's ever going to be an idea time. This is just as good a time as any, and it's easy enough to coordinate between himself and the other two.

Not like anyone really has any pressing engagements around here, anyway.

In the late morning, Eliot finds himself waiting at the pre-determined area, just on the edge of the forest. He's found some gloves in his home, which do little to keep his fingers warm, and he's got a bag slung over his shoulder. It's empty save for a couple things he thought might be helpful in digging things up - gotta save space for the goods, right? If there even are any. Upon seeing the others approach, Eliot raises a hand in greeting.

"Great. Do we all know each other?"

Eliot's actually surprised they even showed up.

Ellie | The Last Of Us

[enduresurvive]

[ plot comment ]

day 18 - for Doc

[enduresurvive]

Ellie notices that Rey isn't there today. That might not be weird, except she hadn't come back the night before. So many people had died or disappeared that it sets Ellie on edge. She doesn't know Rey very well, but she definitely considers her a friend. And her disappearing is unsettling, to say the least.

She can't deal with it. She leaves, just so she won't have to stay in the house. The fog seems to have dissipated, which might be a relief if this place weren't so fucking weird all the time. But maybe there's something to find.

This part of Mathias looks more familiar to Ellie, the crumbling buildings, the signs of decay. There's still nothing that screams infection to her. But this makes more sense to her brain and past experience than everything being fully stocked. She finds the clinic and reads the sign.

"Dr. Ken Suzuki, huh?" she reads aloud. "Well, hope you left us some antiseptic or something."

She looks up and sees a familiar face. At least Henry isn't someone she minds being around. It occurs to her, though, that he might have heard her talking to herself. It's an old habit. She's only a little embarrassed, though.

"Oh. Uh. Hey. You thinkin' there might be some medical stuff in there?"