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

[thering]

With John coming to a stop, Doc passes him this time, trudging through the snow in even paces. They'll wear themselves out wandering aimlessly in the snow, but it makes sense to at least walk to the end of the street and look around before they expand their search to include the trees and the rocks along the beach.

He comes to a slow stop when he realises he's starting to leave John behind, unaware of why he's stopped. He doesn't see Zed behind or anywhere near the building Constantine is staring at.

"Come along now son. Don't want to be losing you too." Why he's talking to John like he's addressing the twelve year old on the inside, he can't say for certain. Only that there seems to be quite a few impulsive folk around here.

[hellblaze]

Son.

John gives him an annoyed sneer at that. Cheers.

Still, he pulls the new coat over his shoulders more and stuffs his bandaged hand in the pockets. His eyes go back up to the building with the eyebrows drawn together. Then, he nods to it.

"What the hell is this?"

He swears, if Doc says a building, he's going to turn around and start going back the way he came.

[thering]

Doc has inadvertently, unwittingly taken a few of these troublesome fellows under his wing. The terms of endearment will only trickle to a stop when his own mostly still intact sanity is starting to slip away from him.

"That would be the florist." Not to be confused with Barker Botanical Landscaping Services. It is an easy mistake to make.

"Or what is left of it, anyway." They are coming up towards the end of the road now. "We could take a look inside, if you think she might have wandered in there." It is fairly extensively overgrown though.

[hellblaze]

John isn't going to entertain the idea - at the moment - how much older Doc is than him. That the man could practically be his ancestor. No, John rather just think he's another bloke in this thirties that is open to flirt with when he needs it.

"Florist." John says as if it's the oddest thing he's seen in the town. Yes, the flower shop, not the fact there is a burned out section of a library or blood scribbled on notes at Town Hall. "A bloody florist shop."

Where the hell were the flowers to even sell in this place?

"You would know if she was in there, mate."

[thering]

"The florist shop, yes," he repeats, trying to significantly dial back the drawl. John is not hard of hearing so perhaps it is the difference in accents coupled with trying to talk to each other whilst standing a few feet away.

"Are you alright, Mister Constantine?" Why the confusion? Is he deathly allergic to commercialised gardens? Doc backtracks to stand next to him. Maybe there is something different about the florist from this angle or something.

[hellblaze]

John shoots him an annoyed look. He heard what the man said, but, the idea that there's a florist shop somehow seems so ... mundane. Nothing in this town is mundane. He half expects some flower infested monster to pop up and scream. There's a shake of his head before he walks back to the entrance to the shop and pokes his head in.

"Hadn't expected to see one here." John admits, a small frown on his face. Just another bloody reminder at how normal this town should of been. Before whatever it was happened... happened. He sighs and looks at Doc. "I'm going to take a stab at it and presume you haven't gone poking around in here just yet."

[thering]

Well. The library and the town hall and the boarding house had all seemed fairly ordinary. Their few respective quirks aside.

"It looks overgrown. I did not think to seek answers there." It's only mildly foreboding and even if Zed wasn't inside, it might be worth going in there simply to tick the box and confirm there's nothing interesting to find.

"Did you need someone to hold your hand?" he teases.

[hellblaze]

John holds his hand up to show his lighter. "Really. Overgrown."

Then, a snort. "Ha, right. Hold my bloody hand. Would you like the one that's been stabbed and kiss it better?"

[thering]

"I would if you promise I won't be needing to kiss anywhere else better." He wouldn't put it past John to stick his little friend somewhere stupid so he would have to kiss that better too. Or stick anything else anywhere stupid. Unless he's got a clever, reasonable explanation for what happened to his hand.

"Let's go have a look, shall we?" He's going in front since he has two hands and is less likely to slap a pair of safety scissors.

[hellblaze]

A coy grin takes his face. "Oh, best not to tempt me."

Except he isn't in much of a sparing mood. There's a nod and a grand gesture for Doc to move ahead of him. Though maybe now he'll just find a pair of safety scissors to make another point. He's in one of those moods after his row with Raylan.

[thering]

Doc isn't aware of their little lover's tiff. He might have different words to say. As is, he is cautiously approaching the old florist, glancing around and studying the doorframe, the external structure before thinking of entering.

He's got a heavy duty torch in one of his gun holsters, salvaged from one of the Phillips Drive houses shortly after he had first arrived. He'd rather only have to use it as a light source but he's keeping his grip on it fairly loose, just in case.

"Mind your head," he cautions as he ducks inside, stepping over a dark pile on the floor. The place has got an earthy, woody smell, but musty also. There is evidence of other people having been inside recently, but clearly no one has been here before them in a while now.

"I do not think your woman is here," he observes, his beam of light sweeping across the store.

[hellblaze]

Huh. Well, it'll be fun to explain the wound on his hand then.

John ducks inside then spins around to continue following Doc. His trenchcoat is buttoned and bundled from the cold, scarf sticking out from the collar. He taps on the walls lightly, t hen the counters.

"She's not my woman," John groans and gives the man a look. "Well, while we're here, might as well have a look and see what Mathias has for us today. Come on now, cowboy."

[thering]

"Your housemate then." He's not sure how else to address them. The beam of light crawls over some knocked over pots, old roots that slither and coil around various parts of broken flooring. Leaves that have recently been stepped on or avoided altogether scattered across the floor.

When he is certain there is no one else here after doing a cursory look around the place, the vials draw his interest. He moves closer to the shelf, studying what they might contain.

[hellblaze]

A shrug at the term 'housemate.' It'd do anyways. Colleague, friend. All those sorts of words other than anything close to 'lover' or 'significant other.'

He meanders a bit. Looks more like an odd sort of alchemy and natural herbs shop then a bloody flower place. He should of known. Nothing in Mathias is easy or natural. Why would the flowers be?

His eyes caught Doc looking at something. Within a few steps he walked over to the man, head tilted.

"Vials?"

[thering]

"Mmh." He turns to glance at Constantine from over his shoulder before he turns back to look at the array again. Jars of old, withered, rotting green and brown bits, the contents of which he cannot really ascertain, but also little vials.

"If you see any lavender I would like to take some with me. Is there anything in particular you might be looking for?" It may not be possible to identify what's in all the unlabelled bottles, but some of this stuff doesn't have a use by date.

[hellblaze]

John reaches around Doc to pick one up and look it over. One eyebrow lifts. Lavender. "Want something to smell nice, mate?"

There's probably more to it given the kind of man Doc is. John pulls the bottle up to look it. He shakes the vial.

"What do you think would happen if we drank it?"

[thering]

"What normally happens when you put strange things in your mouth," he retorts dryly. Explosive diarrhoea for three days. A general malaise. Why does he want to eat everything?

"Do I not smell nice already?" He probably smells faintly like cigarettes but there is a distinct lack of eau de moonshine and he's been using those sandalwood, cedar and peppermint soaps and shampoos Malcolm had brought back from Zelda's.

"Lavender is a natural relaxant; helps with sleep."

[hellblaze]

John just cracks a grin at Doc before pocketing the vial. Why not? He'll look into it later. Right now his ribs are killing him with those little bursts of energy. His face scrunches up in pain, shifting slightly only to jerk oddly. Bollocks.

"I said something, not you." He raises his eyebrows at him. "I'm guessing you're not the one that needs the help sleeping."

[thering]

"We all need help sleeping, from time to time." He's not going to say anything about his housemates. Rather, he doesn't feel like it is for him to say. There were jokes that could have been made, innuendos about getting help sleeping, but they were foregone in the twist on Constantine's face.

"What happened to you?" Even in the dim light with the torch pointed in the other direction, Constantine's flinching didn't go unnoticed.

[hellblaze]

John makes a slow hum in the back of his throat and leaves it at that. Right. He doesn't really want to know anyways. That would mean he's getting involved -- and he's involved too much as it is with people here. He turns to walk away.

"I'm fine, mate. Just a bit of sore ribs."

[thering]

"Wait." Doc reaches out and rests a heavy hand on Constantine's shoulder. 'Just a bit of sore ribs' doesn't explain 'what happened', it's merely a consequence of what happened.

"You can't actually tell if it is fine. Let me have a look." Doc levels John with a concerned, stern look.

[hellblaze]

The cowboys really don't understand the idea of back off, do they? His head tilts back with a long annoyed sigh coming from him. His head rolls to give Doc a pessimistic expression.

"Fairly sure they're not broken. Means they're fine."

[thering]

"Are you always this irritable when someone tries to get your shirt off?" he quips. This is no laughing matter but he doesn't understand why Constantine - and Five, for that matter - are so allergic to people being concerned about them. Doc isn't snapping rubber gloves on or lunging at them with a scalpel.

"If they're not 'fine' I'm going to have to cut you open with a butter knife and sew you back together with a rusty old needle - while you are still conscious, because I have nothing to put you under. Tell me what happened, and let me take a look."

[hellblaze]

"Oh, I'm bloody irritable all the time, mate. You're just not paying attention." He snips back. He rolls his eyes. "You don't need to cut me open alright? I got sent flying, crashed some of my ribs and now I'm here thinking about drinking fiscal materials. So, what of it, huh?"

He brushed Doc's hand away. "'m fine, alright."

[thering]

Now where has he heard this before? Oh right, just yesterday, with Five getting dragged through his door with similar injuries after a monumentally stupid attempt at getting to the other side of that crevice.

"Do not tell me you attempted to cross that crack in the ground." Damn them both.