villagelogs | 018-020 » what he hides

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018-020 » what he hides

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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[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.

Edited 2020-12-06 21:09 (UTC)

Malcolm walked alongside John wondering just how he had managed to snag this invitation and also why John was so quiet. Was he stewing? Malcolm would bet money he was stewing.

"I expect decomposition is starting so it's probably a good thing you didn't wait any longer," he said conversationally. "I expect you'll still be able to see the signs of cyanosis that indicated asphyxia as the cause of death. Do you think something contributed to that besides the chemical composition of the fog?"

Well, Malcolm old son, it was because you're scientifically minded. He figured that skill of his would lend to the more investigation side of it all. Also, someone who was a bit less 'No John, this is a terrible idea' was welcomed at the moment.

"Oh, I'm sure it was the chemicals in the fog, mate." John said around the cigarette as he forced the broken door open again. "What I'm not sure of is what could make that concoction. If I were to be a bit sciencey- about it."

“It doesn’t have to be complicated. A lot of substances could produce that effect. The simplest and most common is carbon monoxide. I would think it would be child’s play to pump gas into the fog for someone capable of bringing us here from different times and places and bringing you back from the dead while also..... not,” Malcolm mused.

"Why bother injecting it into the fog?" John asked, walking his way to the dinning room.

Yes, dinning room. What else had a big enough table for an autopsy? It wasn't as if anyone was alive in the bloody house to complain.

The body had the sheet over it that Doc and their group had put over it. The trenchcoat and scarf had already been removed, so, there had been no need to worry about that. He walked over to the body, hands in his pockets, head tilted.

"Now, I'm going to presume you can't do a proper autopsy. None of the tools you'd need. Then again, you're not a medical examiner. Unless that's another talent of yours I don't know."

“I’m not a medical examiner,” Malcolm confirmed. “I’ve just studied causes of death extensively.”

He took nitrile gloves out of his jacket and pulled them on, then took out his pen light and pulled back the sheet.

“See the blue tint?” he said to John, shining the light on dead!John’s skin. “That happens when the blood is deprived of oxygen.” He shone the light around the corpse’s mouth, eyes, throat. “No signs of manual smothering or strangulation. Points to a chemical asphyxiant.”

His findings at the time, relayed for someone who hadn’t been in a position to hear them.

"We all need a hobby." John gestured to the corpse with the sheet. "Be me guest, mate."

One day he'd learn this bastard's name. Eh. Not important.

It was eerie staring down at yourself. The last time he had done it? Fucifer had taken his form in an attempt to make him think he would become a demon. Fat chance there was to that. No, this was just ... him. Dead. Surreal didn't begin to cover it. John slipped his hands into his pockets and let the man take a gander.

"Don't suppose there's anything else you're noticing other than that."

“Decomposition isn’t as advanced as I was expecting, but the cold can account for that.” He looked at John. “We didn’t check the rest of your body for injuries. Didn’t seem a point in going as far as undressing you. What do you remember before dying? Phil said he heard knocking.”

"Phone rang, then knocking on the doors and windows after that." John recanted easily, as if the last few days had been nothing but him walking through life. "Went to the back door and opened it. I was pretty sure I fell over at one point too."

Maybe that was just him dying. Oh, of course, he left out the bits about what he saw. That wasn't needed for examining a dead body.

"You opened the door? Was that before or after the windows blew in?" Malcolm asked.

He shrugged. "Details are a bit fuzzy, mate. Pretty sure it was after though."

Did it matter? He died either way. Of course it mattered. The man was a detective of sorts. Any detail in any way mattered as to the big how and why. Though, John didn't much care for the how. The why was what mattered to John. He wanted to know what the bastard behind Mathias was thinking.

How he did it would only be relevant if they could use it to their advantage.

Malcolm found the 'how' was almost always the key to the 'why'.

"So the fog was coming in for you, whether you opened the door or not," Malcolm pointed out. He gestured to the body. "What can you find out about it?"

"Well, I know whatever is in the Fog isn't the chattiest of spooky things. Almost rude too." John figured there was no point in going into details about that.

He slipped off his coat and tossed it over the skeleton of what was left of a nearby chair. His started to roll up the sleeves of the deep maroon shirt he wore with his typical tie.

"I'm not so much interested in how it killed me. I want to make sure there's nothing lingering... or worse."

Malcolm looked at him.

"What do you mean by 'lingering'?" he asked, making the air quotes. "What could possibly 'linger'?"

"That's what I want to know. We've got ties to everything around us: people, things. I want to make sure that nothing in Mathias has magical ties to us." John shrugged. "Not to mention I want to make sure nothing has decided to take up a home in my former body."

If he was more of an alchemist he'd break the damn thing down. But, well, he was a jack of all trades and master of none.

"Could get a bit hairy."

Malcolm put a practiced two fingers to dead!John’s carotid artery.

It was one dead body.

He looked at it and then looked at John.

“Something can live in there that makes it hairy?” he asked dubiously. “I don’t actually know what it looked like before,” he pointed out. They never undressed the corpse, John, remember?

John rolled his eyes at the honest question. Bloody hell. Magic to the unanointed could be so frustrating.

Still, he clapped his hands together loudly and rubbed them together. It's nothing magical. He just wanted them warmed up. Then he turned to the coat he brought and pulls out a bit of chalk. He motioned for Malcolm to move and set about drawing a oval outline around the body. Unfortunately, it showed off his bandaged hand.

"Meant the situation might get hairy, not the bloody body." John clarified. "Demons or angels that inhabit bodies don't tend to bring them to life. Just reanimate them."

Malcolm looked at the body.

“If there were a demon or angel in there.... are you sure it would be this.... quiet?” he asked.

"Depends on if they want to spring on you, but," he looked back up at Malcolm and shook his head. "No. Angels prefer the living hosts... demons? Well, they get what they can. But, I've been convinced ever since we showed up that whatever is here in Mathias isn't demonic. Not their style."

He finished with the circle. Not really needed, but, he wanted to make sure of what he could. If it was just him? Well, he could handle magical bounce back. When someone else was present? It was best to take precautions here in Mathias.

"Now. First I'm going to detect if there's any light left in the body. I'm sure you've heard of the Spark of Life. Well, it's real. Even a dead body is going to show traces of the divinity... so, if something's corrupted our bodies, it'll show up." John paused, raising his hands slightly. "You may want to cover your eyes, mate. Unless you want your corneas bleeding."

Malcolm frowned faintly, turning around.

"Why does it make your corneas bleed?"

He had a feeling it had to do with more than lumens.

"Well, you'll see a bit."

John raised his hands over the corpse and closed his eyes. Another language left his lips. Then, his hands raised. A flashing burning white light filled the room. The light lessened, but still persisted through the room. His hands lowered and waited for Malcolm to turn around.

"Good news, mate. Nothing spooky inhabiting the body. Must be the nicotine filled lungs."

He gestured to the light in the room, then the light emanating from the body.

Malcolm turned when John spoke.

"That's.... a relief?" He paused. "What would it look like if there were something in it?"

"I've seen it completely void of light. Imagine looking into a black hole. No light, nothing to illuminate anything." He nodded down to the body underneath him. "Still got the spark in my old body. So, something truly evil hasn't moved in. Yet."

There was always a "yet." Things never stayed the same.

"If there's a 'spark' in the body, does that mean part of you is still in it?" Malcolm asked.

"The Spark of Life, mate. Tell me you didn't pass Sunday School as a kid." John shook his head. With a wave of his hand, the light dissipated. "God put a bit of His own light in each of us to breathe life into us. Unless something happens? A bit of that spark - that divinity - is going to remain. Looks like whatever is haunting Mathias hasn't diminished that touch to the divine spiritual natures that be.

"Yet."

➝ day 18 [locked]

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