021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

[villagemod]

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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Comments

[abrightboy]

"I think... after I got fired from the FBI, I sort of... lost direction. There wasn't ever anything else I wanted to do, besides catch killers. I told myself and my family that it was fine... that I was fine... But I really didn't know how to move forward, so... I guess I went backwards."

He considered Raylan in the dim light.

"Why did you go back?"

[tinstar]

"Home ain't necessarily backwards." But that made sense. If Malcolm had sunk himself into the job with everything, having it suddenly ripped away was a hard spot to be in. Raylan isn't sure quite how he'd handle the first few weeks of not being a Marshal. Likely by getting arrested for trying to Marshal anyway.

"Reassignment. Marshal's Service is lookin' to capture one Boyd Crowder for generally robbin' people and blowin' shit up. But Harlan is secular. Half the roads and paths ain't even mapped, and they couldn't get anywhere with the investigation. Harlan'll talk to its own though. So I was useful."

[abrightboy]

"So you were the only man for the job," Malcolm noted. "Is that why you agreed to it?"

[tinstar]

He smiled crookedly. He was the only man for the job. "We don't get those kinda choices. The jobs the job, no matter where are."

He let a beat of silence pass before continuing. "You okay now? Settled from.. before?" Raylan felt like the right time to offer a hug had passed and he was starting to slip into a self-awkwardness that he didn't quite know what to do with, not with the idea of inviting Malcolm to curl against him floating around in the back of his head.

He missed the solid heat of a body next to him.

[abrightboy]

"...Okay from... oh." The nightmare. He sat up and made a gesture towards the headboard. "That. Yeah. Well." He laughed self-consciously. "While I wasn't thinking about it," he admitted. "I'm fine," he assured almost convincingly. "I'm used to it. This is... normal. That's a normal night. You know."

He wrung his hands in his lap.

[tinstar]

Raylan pushed himself up onto his elbows in response, paying attention to the little glances and the wringing of his hands before he pushed all the way up to a sitting position.

"Hey," he offered gently, one arm extending out towards him in a silent offer for a hug. Well, maybe not as gone an opportunity as he thought. "Think about the fact that we're all here and safe instead, huh?"

Raylan wasn't normally a hugger but shit. He was only 45% ashamed to admit to himself that he needed on.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm took one look at that arm and leaned into it, wrapping his arms around Raylan's neck and holding on tight, tension easing out of him slightly, though not as much as it might have if he wasn't suddenly hyperaware of how good the Marshal smelled.

Here and safe.

After a moment, he let go almost awkwardly. Had that been too enthusiastic? Too desperate? Had he given himself away? He watched Raylan's face as he sat up again. "Good idea. Focus on what is, not what could have happened, right? That's... one way to try and stop a mental spiral, you know," he rambled.

[tinstar]

There was no helping the smile that broke on his face as Malcolm lunged at him and Raylan wrapped his arm around him with a rub up and down Malcolm's shoulder, murmuring a soft "It's okay," in his ear before Malcolm pulled away.

"Good. Keep focus on it. And if you need reminders, both Doc and I are here, huh?" Raylan patted Malcolm's knee as he shifted to stand. "I'm gonna.. go stretch out for a while in a bed I can get comfortable in. Kick me if you need anything, okay? I'll be down in an hour or two for coffee and to see how far along the snow is."

[abrightboy]

“I’ll be okay now,” Malcolm assured him. “Get your sleep; I’m not going back to bed. I’ll have that coffee ready.”

His eyes followed Raylan as he got to his feet.

“If we go to look for more bungee cords, I want to try to find some with metal hooks. These are plastic. One of them snapped; not the cord.”

[tinstar]

Raylan shook his head as he opened the door. "I'd rather replace some cord than have you cut your wrists open on metal. Maybe we can look at somethin' to cuff you with to attach them to. More points of failure, but if we get those knots tight enough, they should hold. Still lets you unhook yourself from the bunjee without havin' to stress the hook end itself."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm considered that, nodding.

"That's sort of what I have at home. A leather cuff with a release I can undo myself. If we can find a couple of leather belts in that clothing store, I might be able to make a cuff that we can hook the bungees through."

But he was keeping Raylan up for nothing urgent. He waved it off. "Anyway. Um. Sleep well. Thanks. Again. For..." He gestured at the floor where he'd woken up. He was starting to feel a few bruises from the fall, but he'd never mention it.

[tinstar]

Raylan almost prayed a Sex Shop would never show up in town, despite the problem for Malcolm it might solve. He could almost hear the jokes now.

"We'll look then. Leather's better than rope or metal, in my book." He glanced at the floor and nodded again, giving Malcolm a small pull of smile. "I'll be doin' it every other night til we're all outta here. Don't worry about it."

Raylan gave him another nod and slipped out, padding back to his room. It was early but it was cold and before Raylan went down, he was going to take advantage of his en suite bathroom and shower.