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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[ predictably, in the true and well defined go fuck yourself energy of this place, this ends far less favorably than five had hoped for. it's an infuriating mark of miscalculation. but how would he know?

he lands on the other side, surefooted and on solid ground, even straightens, and runs a hand through his hair before a force hits in square in the chest - it would knock the breath out of him, and it does.

but not as much as being flung into the hard rocky face of the fissure, having been thrown back with so much force he clears the whole damn abyss.

his side cracks against the stone and he hears the snapping of bone before he really feels it. the side of his head scraped just harsh enough long the craggy face for him to feel the warm flow of blood run quickly down. adrenaline rushes loud in his ears and he scrambles for purchase, long thin fingers managing to grab onto enough of jutting rock to keep himself from falling down the pit. his legs kick out, knobby knees banging on the gagged edges as he fights to keep himself pressed into the wall and catch his breath. the latter task is sorely unsuccessful.

adrenaline numbs whatever agony is firing up in his side, in the fact that he is currently trying to pull his weight up with god knows how many fractured ribs.

its with one arm flopping over the edge that one might here a very loud, and very annoyed, breathless: ] Fucking shit! [ he's quickly running out of steam - and jumping to the top had stopped being an option as soon as he exhausted himself the first go around.

fuck, this is bad. ]

[ Coulson's not sure what brought him to the chasm's edge, aside from just plain curiosity and wanting to see what there was to see in this part of the town. It's just a crack in the earth, but there's not really anything to suggest what caused it. Neither is there anything noteworthy to see, so he turns as if to leave, but as he's doing so, he catches sight of something from out of the corner of his eye.

... Is that the person he met in the boardinghouse making those curious sandwiches? It certainly looks like him, and- wait. Is he jumping over the edge?

Coulson quickly turns back to stand just shy of the chasm's edge, not wanting to fall in by accident, but it's too late to call out or to do much of anything except stand there. It all seems to happen incredibly quickly, but he's sure it must not seem that way to the hapless individual who looks as though he made the jump, but suddenly and without warning, gets thrown right back to where he came from. Well, not quite. From Coulson's vantage point, it looks like he just got hurled rather violently against the cliff face, and he can only imagine how many bones must have gotten broken in the process.

Still, he can't see everything that's happening, but he's reasonably sure that getting hurled into a rocky wall can't be good. And while he's looking on, he spots thin fingers just barely appearing over the chasm's edge, and that's when he launches into action. ]

Hey! [ He's not about to just stand here and potentially let someone drop to their death. What he is going to do is try and grab hold of that arm that's flopping over the edge and pull Five back over. ]

Grab hold, I'm going to pull you back over.

[ Hopefully. ]

[ it's with a distant sort of relief that five hears coulson's voice. his grip was starting to weaken, breath caught in his throat. dad might have prepared them for all sorts of shit - and if it wasn't reginald, it was the apocalypse and the commission that shaped enough of five's toolkit that prevented him plummeting down right away.

he can't teleport, is caught between the fear of trying and the necessity of it and it would hurt. so coulson's timely appearance is a gift of coincidence and even five can't deny that he needs some fucking help.

phil is grabbing at his arm and five's fingers clasp at his sleeve. this is going to suck. ] Do it quick. [ through gritted teeth, blood stinging his eye. adrenaline still numbing most of the pain, bending his knees to push off the rock face. ]

[ Honestly, when Coulson looks back on all this, he'll really just wonder to himself about the self-preservation, or lack thereof, that the seemingly younger element in Mathias has. Still, he's not so old that he's forgotten what it's like to be young. Never mind that Five isn't a prime example of youth, technically speaking, but Coulson's not privy to that, although he does have some suspicions. ]

You got it. And when you're up for it, we're getting you to someone who can patch you up. Or I'll do it myself.

[ Inexpertly, because he's not a doctor, but he knows how to place bandages and that sort of thing. ]

Ready? [ He waits a second for an affirmative response, and then he tightens his grip on Five so he can pull him up and over the cliff's edge, hopefully getting him back to safety. He tries to do it gently, or at least gingerly, but with something like this, there's no easy way of getting him back up without potentially aggravating some sore spots.

He'll apologize once he's out of danger. ]

[ prepare for some disappointment, coulson - it isn;t just the younger element of mathias lacking in that department, as deceiving as looks may be. that may be a conversation for later, the croaking of old men.

he'll have enough to moan and groan about after this is through.

coulson is saying something and with the ringing in five's ears he catches some of that.

when he's asked ready, he almost tells coulson to shove it somewhere unpleasant with the ridiculousness of that question, weighed through the ever-bitter lens of one number five (hargreeves). instead, he grits his teeth and gives a curt nod, keeping his tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth to keep himself from chomping down on it by accident.

it's probably one of the few instances where five is actually glad of his shorter stature - he isn't heavy, not like an adult's body is,, so there's a chance this will be quicker.

he pushes off the rock face as soon as coulson starts tugging, and it hurts but its amazing what your mind can completely numb out in desperate times, all gangly limbs scrambling until he makes it over to solid ground. he ends on his hands and knees, tight little breaths, before giving coulson a glazed look. ] Shit, [ that sucked. ] Thanks.

[ and, importantly: ] Not getting to the - other side. Anytime soon.

[ When he learns what's really going on here, he'll be surprised. Maybe even the smallest bit shocked, but really, it would have to be something incredibly unexpected to truly shock him.

And if Five did tell him to shove it, well, he'd just chuckle, shrug, and actually apologize for this unpleasant situation.

At least it's over quickly enough, even if he can tell that it wasn't remotely fun, but part of him figures Five must have expected something like this when he got into this situation in the first place. Or maybe he didn't; it's hard to tell. ]

Sorry I couldn't have made that easier for you. [ He'll wait until Five looks like he's ready, but eventually he holds out a hand in case he needs assistance getting up. ]

What happened, if you don't mind me asking?

[ Five's expectations certainly were hard to read. But this definitely wasn't on the goddamn list.

He can't really catch his breath - an annoying detail as he coughs once, twice, a wince twisting across his face. His reply is shallow. ] Well, it was either that - or - finding out how deep - that cliff really is. [ Five may not be well versed in saying 'thank you' all the time, but the gratitude is still as clear as it can be given his temperament. ] I prefer this.

[ He tosses an uneasy glance over to the other side, searching for any indication of what could have tossed him across. ] I got to the other side. Something swiped me off.

Yeah, well, between you and me, I prefer this too. But let's get you somewhere safer than right here.

[ And honestly, he doesn't need another "thank you"; he's just doing what anyone would do. ]

I'm guessing the answer is no, but did you see what that something was?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

018-020 » what he hides

018. the chasm - follow up - reply to this comment for the last option, please :)

let me know if this needs adjusting!

its perf!

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sorry if this is too old; we can handwave if you prefer!