villagelogs | 021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Western Mathias.
WHEN: Days 021-023
WHAT: A cold storm approaches.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Emily Kinney & Lauren Cohan "The Parting Glass"

DAYS 021-023
THE WORLD TURNS WHITE
“Are ye the ghosts of fallen leaves, O flakes of snow,
For which, through naked trees, the winds A-mourning go?”
— John Banister Tabb
The howling wind is what wakes the residents of Mathias each day now as the world turns slowly into a bleak stretch of white. Snow continues to fall in thick curtains of flakes that accumulate on trees and rooftops, swirling sideways in the gusts of wind that bow trees and whistle through any crack they can find. The drifts of snow grow taller against the buildings and the wind makes the already freezing temperatures feel bitterly cold.

By day 022, the far ends of streets begin to resemble the hazardous fog with how little becomes visible as the winds pick up. Buildings can still be discerned as dark shapes but the weather's warning becomes clear — a storm is coming. And by day 023, the storm arrives properly, the wind still screaming through the streets like a winter banshee announcing so many deaths to come. These conditions are far from hospitable and only the truly mad would be foolish enough to venture outside in weather such as this.

THE NEWLY ARRIVED
With an embrace of wintery white, Mathias offers a chilly welcome to its newest residents. They awake along the southern treeline bordering Mathias, near the small makeshift cemetery containing a handful of wooden markers erected without names or signifiers of those buried within. And not far from them is the schoolhouse, where in a snowdrift they will the frozen corpse of a young woman named Rey.

LIGHTS IN THE DARKNESS
“A lantern can give you light only when you light it”
— Munia Khan
When residents wake on the morning of day 021, they will find outside in the snow the abandoned lanterns of those shadowy spectres who have moved so silently through Mathias. Each nestled in a patch of frozen white outside their door, the lanterns are now cold to the touch, the half-burned candle within each one seeming to have been lit so very long ago. Inside the glass encasement is a small rolled piece of paper, upon which is written:

keep it lit
There is nothing more, and the prior owners of these lanterns will not return within these days.

There is one lantern waiting outside the building for each resident wherever they are sleeping — the exception for this is those who may have already claimed a lantern as their own. Removing a lantern from its resting place results in no apparent reaction, nor does lighting or not lighting it. However, whatever residents ultimately choose to do with these lanterns should be reported.

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— SNOW continues to fall, resulting over the three days in upwards of a foot of accumulation. The winds blow in gusts over 35 mph.

— 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 still receded from the town proper and much of the eastern and northern beach, with the path through the northern forest to the lighthouse still clear on day 021. On day 022, however, as the storm worsens, the fog returns to the paths in the forest, urging residents to stay huddled within the town proper or else.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue to plague the town. While Zed Martin has returned, Rey's corpse will be found in a snowdrift near the Schoolhouse; she disappeared on day 018.

— THE STRANGER is gone.

— THE SPECTRES are gone.

OOC UPDATES

— DISCOVERIES have been collected and collated for your review. Please note that this is OOC information only, put together for the purpose of helping you as players see connections and possibilities for CR and your own character's potential avenues of exploration and investigation. (If we are missing something, please report it so we can add it to the list.)

— AP REWARDS have a new option now — Ideas may be requested if you find yourself stuck. You may now claim up to 2 rewards per log: (1) idea and (1) other reward.

— SANITY may be regained in two ways: self-medication and treatment. In Mathias, this means such coping mechanisms as drinking or drugging oneself into a stupor that allows them to face their fears and issues, or talking to someone about those fears and issues. Since both of these will take some time, best get started. (A form will be added to the Sanity page.)

— REMINDERS — Don't forget about the bulletin board. Please continue reporting your updates to locations, plots, and discoveries. The map of Mathias has been added to the locations page for ease of reference. Make sure your character's sanity level is kept updated. Prospective players are still joining the TDM, so it's recommended to track new top-levels so you don't miss them.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I. Open

Day 21 sees Coulson leaving the boardinghouse, dressed appropriately for the weather (courtesy of the clothing store) and carrying his newly lit lantern. Today, his plan is to see how many locations he can visit with the lantern and see if bringing it inside or even just next to a building or house or any standing structure elicits a reaction of some kind.

Is it a fool's errand? Perhaps. But he won't know until he tries, and honestly, he might not even make it to all the buildings in town, but he probably doesn't have to. If the result is the same with, say, the first dozen buildings, it's reasonable to conclude that it'll be the same for all of them.

But he has a ways to go before he can make that conclusion, so he heads for the building closest to the boardinghouse.

II. Closed to Elena

It's later in the day now, and Coulson's retreated inside for the time being. He's in the kitchen area, armed with a cup of coffee, and he's taking a second's break from his efforts with the lantern. Said lantern is resting on a chair beside him, still lit, and as he makes his way through his coffee, he gives it a glance every so often.

"Keep it lit" were the instructions, so he means to do just that. Eventually, if it's still light out, he'll resume his little test, but he needs to thaw out a bit first. Thank goodness for coffee.

Edited 2020-12-21 07:00 (UTC)

The first thing Elena spots is the lantern. It sits precariously in a chair, still lit. She feels something inside of her blossom with relief at seeing that familiar warm glow rest beside him. It's the best feeling she's had since waking up; she's felt her skin crawl like it was itching to break free from a grave when she'd woken wrapped tight within her sheets.

Walking into the kitchen area in an oversized flannel shirt, she makes her way over to the sink to wash her hands. It's a force of habit for when she's cold. Warm up her hands with some water and the towel she uses to inevitably dr them, and then she's ready for anything.

Over her shoulder, she offers a kind smile and an even kinder "Hey. Is the coffee good today?"

As far as Coulson knows, the lantern is just a lantern, but somehow, it just feels important to keep it lit at all costs. He's absorbing all the warmth from the coffee as he sips it, letting it warm him up from the inside, when Elena makes her approach.

"Hey. Of course, it's the boardinghouse special. Hard to go wrong with that, right?" He doesn't think he recognizes her, so that must mean she's the latest new arrival to their pleasant little town. "I don't think I've seen you around. I'm Phil. Let me get you a cup, okay?" He assumes from her comment that she doesn't mind coffee, but if she stops him, he'll refrain. He might even make her tea, if that turns out to be more her thing, because he's pretty good at playing host when the mood takes him.

021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

Day 21 | Open + Closed to Elena

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