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

[moderatelymaladjusted]

Did something happen—-Eliot?

[This is fine, Eliot is.. being friendly, and standing way inside Quentin’s personal space and it’s all so very normal even if it carries a lot more weird feelings these days. It’s still fine.]

Yeah. Yeah, something happened and why are we even still here when- when- what? [He tugs a strand of said hair behind his ear and blinks up at Eliot.] Nothing? I mean, I don’t think anything happened to my hair specifically, things kind of happen to all of me.

[It might be some kind of blindness, how you never really look at your friends. Because now that Eliot mentioned it, there was something different. But it’s Eliot—- his hair is longer, curling at the nape of his neck and-] do you have a beard?

[endlessflask]

Yeah. I know.

[ It's not like he shaved it off before Quentin mysteriously vanished. But now Eliot is starting to worry that this isn't just a case of Quentin wandering off and coming back. He's different - he's still Quentin, but he's not exactly the Quentin that was here a few days ago. He's a lot more like the Quentin that Eliot had last seen in the halls of Castle Blackspire.

His hand slips down to grab Quentin's hand, and Eliot gives it a tug. ]

Come on. Let's go home - The house I have here. We'll ... Figure this out there.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

You have a house?

[Quentin follows, because-- why the hell not. Eliot might be a dick at times, but he's still... he's still a trusted friend and this whole place is too weird for words. Somewhere else would be just fine.]

Okay. Yeah, okay, let's go and maybe something will make sense. Or, maybe you have your-- oh, hey El, do you have your phone? Because I think I've lost mine, Penny isn't answering shit and I'm kind of under-dressed for a hike in the snow.

[endlessflask]

Yeah. It's not mine. I mean, it is, but - I don't know who lived there before, I just moved in.

[ Eliot's not sure what's happening. It's unlikely that Quentin's playing games with him, because Quentin isn't that cruel, but Eliot's feeling unsettled all the same. What happened to Quentin? Why doesn't he remember anything? Is it happening to other people? ]

I didn't have a phone on me when I got here. We'll ... Talk about it when we get inside. There's a coat there for you already.

[moderatelymaladjusted]

You’re squatting in a house? Here? Why?

[Quentin's face makes some kind of face at that, and Eliot is still holding on to his hand and now it’s getting weird that he hasn’t said anything about it. But Eliot’s hand is warm and it’s been... a day? More? Since Quentin felt even a little bit warm, anywhere. The snow got in to his shoes, under his shirt and it generally made his life harder just by the sheer virtue of being wet and cold.

He’s just going to ignore the handholding and the kiss, and everything really, because Eliot might have a plan and... yeah, Quentin can’t lie for shit. Not even to himself.]

... I found a library.

[endlessflask]

Where else are we going to stay?

[ Mostly, Eliot's still holding Quentin's hand because he's afraid that if he lets go, Quentin will disappear back into the snow and Eliot will never see him again. Also, it's just easier and more comforting to drag him down the street until they round the corner on Stoker Park. ]

Yeah. There's a secret passage or some shit in there. You told me the first time you were here.

[ Because Eliot's basically convinced now that Quentin's been reset somehow. ]

[moderatelymaladjusted]

[When Eliot lets go, Quentin rubs his hands together, looking down the empty street. The snow piled high and the dark houses.

Wait a minute...

he grabs Eliot’s wrist.]

What timeline is this? And please don’t say 23 or 18.