villagelogs | 021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

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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( it's the lantern that catches his eye. the day is just starting to turn into night and elijah's been out since earlier, since he'd done what he'd done, since he'd headed towards the fog and come back.

he's still out and he has no plans to return to the boarding house for awhile but, though he should stay away from people all together, he doesn't.

the lantern brings him closer to the door of the house until he's knocking and waiting, back straight and hands tucked into the pockets of his secondhand coat.

he's not sure what he's doing here but he is here and what happens next is up in the air. )

[ john rolls his eyes and pulls himself up from the couch. slowly, but, what can you really do? he walks himself to the door and opens it, a bit surprised to see the man from the other night.

right, they never did exchange names. did they? ]

Oh, well, the night neighbor. Don't suppose this is a social visit.

( night neighbor is better than some of the things he's been called over the years. it's at least truthful. his kind does tend to favor the night. )

Why wouldn't it be a social visit?

( he sounds pleasant despite the tumult and turmoil swirling within him. )

Do I not strike you as the type to pay social visits to those I've become acquainted with?

I don't usually get social visits. People only really come knocking if they need my help. Not that they want it.

[ still, he opens the door and lets the man in. no point in standing on the bloody porch yapping away as if there isn't a snow storm going on outside. ]

Not used to the new social norms of Mathias is all, mate. Do you always take everything personally like that?

Stating my intentions is taking it personally? You seem to read quite a lot into the things I say. Does that mean I'm just special?

( he can pay social visits, john, and you were one of the few people he knew. why can't he check on you? )

I don't need anything for you, rest assured. Anything I need, I can get myself. Unless you happen to be hiding wine. That might be nice.

( he even smiles, smooth and easy like he's been doing it for a thousand years. )

Or I'm just a nosy prick.

[ he gives a grin and closes the door. then, it's back to the seat at the couch. ]

Wine isn't much my taste of poison. But, if I had some, I'd hand it over. Especially if you've got some whiskey you're hiding.

No whiskey. I knew a pair of brothers who had a penchant for bourbon but otherwise, I've mostly been white and vodka.

( but now, he supposes he has to adapt and drink whatever's present here. )

You're not the first nosy prick I've known. You're definitely not the first prick I've ever known either. They're quite prevalent.

Ah, of course not. Why would Bleeding Mathias care to make our lives a bit easier, eh?

[ a casual shrug. a flick of his hand tells elijah to take a seat. make yourself comfortable. ]

Especially in this town. So, tell me. You learn anything so far in your few days here?

( elijah surveys his surroundings and after a moment, folds himself into a seat, shifting until he's comfortable enough and then settles his gaze on john. )

A few things though I'm sure they're already known factors to most. I'm still catching up.

( and that's a feeling he hates. )

Aside from the murderous fog, I've been trying to figure out what happened to the people that were here before us. It doesn't seem as if they were all killed but if not, where they went and why. That's what I've been looking into. No real answers as of yet.

[ he grabs the bottle of moonshine, pausing only to really listen to what the man says. there's a nod as he eases back into the couch then. ]

Did a spell in the first house I holed up in. Last moments I could find within the house showed that the family was living a normal morning. If anything catastrophic happened? They had no idea it was coming.

Seems like most the names have been scratched out on official documents. Though, some of them might still have notes rolling around of who they met. Though, not sure how much of those are laying around either.

Where have you looked so far?

The library, town hall, a few houses. I completely admit that I haven't been doing a lot of exploring for reasons that are my own.

( those reasons being elena and making sure that she recovere from her wound. it was his own brother that caused so he felt responsible and he knows that elena isn't going to look after herself. she'll want to find something and go at it head on. )

Do you have any recommendations as to where I should go? I want to check more of the houses in town that look abandoned.

Town Hall didn't have much in it either. [ he clicks his tongue in disappointment. ] That means you saw the handiwork from Elena and I! She must be proud of herself over it.

[ given the phone call the night before? he really doubts it. though, john is going to presume mr. stuffy is already informed on what is troubling half-dead elena. ]

Houses are always a good place to start. If we can figure out more social circles? Gives us a good place to judge how things operated.

Mmm, I did.

( he nods. elena had made mention of it and on one of his trips to town hall, he'd checked it out. it was impressive and she was proud of herself and she deserved to be. )

The good thing is that not everything seems to be wiped away. If whomever was here before wanted to be very thorough, they would have eliminated everything that pointed at the past. They haven't.

( perhaps they wanted to be found out or perhaps that whatever had sent them away had not given them time to pack up and leave cleanly. )

[ well, good thing they're all in talking order. communication isn't something john's particularly good at - so at least a pair of people have got that down in town. ]

Bunch of artists lived here. Photographers, bit of painting here and there.

I'm leaning towards the fact these people didn't know what was coming. At least, not all of them.

So, the question becomes, of course, what...came?

( was it a natural occurrence? perhaps a weather event? elijah dismisses that fairly quickly because he thinks this place would have recovered more than it has already. if it were weather, there would be traces of it, records, that sort of thing.

but no, there was nothing like that. which makes elijah think this is something supernatural, something powerful. )

And that is a question of which there isn't an answer, correct? So, there are answers to other questions that perhaps will create the bigger answer.

[ there's a nod of john's head then and a whimsical gesture of his hand. ]

And, now, you're all caught up to where I am, mate.

[ meaning he has no idea - yet. bad at his job. phft. sometimes the answers took work. especially when he had no tools, his magic worked half the time at best, and mathias has a lovely habit of hiding her valuables.

which is just rude. ]

And what answers might you think those would be? Better yet, their questions.

Who was here before us? Why were they here? Why did they leave? What made them leave?

( just to start, of course. )

Why has no one come back? Where are the bodies if there was an event that caused casualties? Where are the historical records?

( he could keep going, john, but he won't. he thinks you get the point. )

The same questions I've got - minus a few and add a few more. Given the state of decay most houses seem to be in? I'd say we missed the party by a few decades. But, time's broken, so who the bloody hell knows?

Then again, there's always the option of just dropping it. We could all just get cozy! Sit back. Make some good lives for ourselves here. Restart the town, the businesses. Ignore the spooky bits and just pretend it's all fine and dandy.

[ it's a test more than anything. he wants to see how dedicated elijah is to getting his answers. how far is he willing to go? it seems that there are varying degrees in the whole town... and, honestly, john just wants to know if elijah is someone he should be calling up if opportunities arise. if not? no h arm done!

they'll just be the night neighbors. ]

I would rather not do that. I've things to attend to back home and while I'm more than willing to wait in certain instances, this is not one of them.

( if time is broken then who's to say that he isn't missing something important back home. he dislikes being away from his family especially when things are so chaotic back in new orleans.

mathias is an interesting place with a mystery that's enticing but it is not for him. )

If that's what others would like to do, so be it. But it's not what I'm going to be doing.

[ a slow grin crosses his face then. perfect. that's the sort of answer he wants to hear from people in this town. ]

Good. Then, we can get down to some business once the snow lets up.

[ meaning... he's unofficially going to be giving elijah a ring now. once he figures out where the bloody hell elijah lives. ]

I like a man who is willing to do something.

You act as if that is...uncommon here? Do some people really want to just live their lives here without doing something to get back to where they were?

( he dosn't see how any life lived here would be fulfilling. you were apart from everything you knew, dealing with a town that quite possibly would kill you.

elijah shakes his head. )

But yes, I am willing to do something. Whatever it takes, actually.

Most people aren't willing to go to extreme lengths for answers. Most people sleepwalk through life without knowing what monsters really lurk in the shadows. Some will look through paperwork, think there's not much there, and not think to put a bloody hole in the library floor.

[ he has a point to make, which is, most people don't dig enough. they don't go far enough. they can't fight evil at its core--and that's fine. that's why people like him exist. they're the ones that kick the demons in the bollocks so everyone else can sleepwalk through life. ]

I got a mate, name's Coulson. We've been putting together a way for information to start flowin' between everyone in the town. I'll drop your name to him. That way if we find somethin' that looks like it might need a new set of eyes... we can rope you in.

There could be a myriad of reasons for that, I suppose. Some might not possess the skill to go to those lengths, some might be scared of it, some might be...

( he pauses and shrugs one shoulder slowly. )

The reasons don't matter, though. People will do what they feel they can do. And I can do this. So please, drop my name and I'll do what I can to assist.

Most can't handle the life I - and presumably you - live. The truth of reality would snap their minds. Those sorts of people are here in this town. Normal people, living nine-to-five jobs. The sorts that don't know what really walks in the dark.

The ones that inevitably get feasted on and people like me need to go in and kick their sorry asses back to Hell or whatever bloody dimension they came from.

[ just as a way to explain some details about who he is. what he does. the business card is one thing, but, always good to know more. ]

I will. The more people we've got looking into things deeper? The more we might figure out where the hell the people in this town went... and how to get back to our realities.

Edited 2021-01-04 10:51 (UTC)

I'm still getting my bearings so it might take me some time to get up to speed but —

( elijah trails off and then nods. he wants to be out of here and if that means offering his services and using his skills, he will. )

I don't intend to be stuck here for long so anything I can do.

( it's the most altruistic he's going to be. )

021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

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