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

[cholesterol]

It's a song. It's a band I like, and it's here. I'm not giving off a theme, I'm just taking a load off. Do you shrink everything and everyone or just people you meet once?

( He knows the answer, but he pushes that button anyway. )

[abrightboy]

Everyone. Everything. [He leaned in conspiratorially.] People don't like it.

[But at least he looked decidedly less agitated than the last time they met.

He straightened up, taking a sip of the moonshine and shrugged.]

I just can't help it.

[cholesterol]

Really.

( You don't say. )

It's in your nature? Doesn't that make you the scorpion?

[abrightboy]

The scorpion was malevolent. I'm just curious. Do you think it's the same thing?

[Asked curiously, with a curious cant of his head.]

[cholesterol]

You think the scorpion was malevolent. And not just being a scorpion. Isn't the whole point of that fable that the scorpion can't help but sting? Think that says more about you then it does about me.

( He's no scholar, but he still has opinions. )

[abrightboy]

A serial killer is just being a serial killer when he takes a life. Murder is still a malevolent act. Asking questions, getting to know someone... it’s not. Not in and of itself. So we all have to be what we are, I guess. That doesn’t mean all versions of it are harmless. Or that all versions aren’t.

[cholesterol]

What's your point?

( Aren't you proving his? He doesn't have PHD or whatever a shrink gets, but he's pretty sure you just said someone could and couldn't be malevolent. Harmless. Or not. )

[abrightboy]

My point is, I'm not the scorpion. Both of us are what we are, but I'm harmless and the scorpion is malevolent. [He smiled.] Unless you think a few curious questions that you're free not to answer are somehow dangerous?

[cholesterol]

I could be dangerous.

( Despite Castiel's big declaration. Dean has done more killing in his career than Malcolm's father. Probably. Granted, Dean did it because that was how he raised, and the killings were always monsters, or monsters in his eyes. But, Dean knows how lethal he is.

Dean Winchester is not harmless. )

[abrightboy]

You could be. That’s always a possibility when one meets someone new. Do you think you are? Should I be concerned?

[cholesterol]

Are you a vampire? Witch? Demon? If not, you want me on your side.

( Then maybe they might have a problem. )

[abrightboy]

I want everyone here on my side. We won’t get anywhere fighting amongst ourselves.

[cholesterol]

Only a matter of time before we're fighting something else.

( And maybe each other. Something about this place, everything about it, he doesn't trust. )

[abrightboy]

Aren't we already? This place? Whoever brought us here?

[cholesterol]

That's not fighting. Here, we spin our wheels. I'm talking real fighting. Maybe what's trapped us, maybe what could come. Maybe what's behind the fog.

( Whatever it is, they need to know, it won't end with just keeping safe an staying away from the fog. )

[abrightboy]

What this place is doing is psychological warfare. Might be a different kind of fight than you're used to. Might be a harder one, when it consistently makes you doubt what you see and hear and believe.

[cholesterol]

I've been there, too. Is that what you think? This is in our minds?

( Or, making them see things? Are any of them actually here? )

[abrightboy]

No. But I think our minds are what they're attacking.

[cholesterol]

Do you have proof?

( Say more. )

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm steps forward, taking a sip of the moonshine, grimacing slightly as it goes down.]

A few nights ago, the phone rang at, like, six in the morning. It was a warning not to go outside, where a thick fog had suddenly rolled in. From what we've been able to gather, the fog then attacked anyone who didn't answer the phone and anyone who stepped outside for more than a few minutes. Then it was gone, leaving bodies all over town with indications of death by asphyxia. Then a day or two later, most of the dead people? Came back. There's also the weird feeling of dread some places in town inspire for no real reason. The way the books in town are... just a little bit wrong. Basically, the town is designed to make us question what's real.

[cholesterol]

( He'd start with a few nights ago and then the six in the morning comment, but it's all information he knows, and heard firsthand from someone who asphyxiated. )

The dream, the wrong books, sure. The fog is full-on murder. Not psychological murder. Murder.

[abrightboy]

Murder as the penalty in a game. It wasn't random. It targeted people who didn't answer the phone.

[cholesterol]

The game still ends in murder, Malcolm.

( No need to downplay murder. )

[abrightboy]

But it's the game part that makes it psychological warfare. Murder is rarely just murder, in my experience. When people are killed, there's a reason, whether that reason is material gain or preserving a secret or just plain old getting off on it. This place killed those people strategically, to screw with our heads.

[cholesterol]

...What are you?

( You sound like Bones. )