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

[hellblaze]

Local phone book. Not a bad idea.

[ He means it too. ]

Nothing of much value yet. But, I haven't ripped apart every office just yet.

[cholesterol]

Someone needs to be gotten ahold of, especially if it stays dangerous at night.

( He's not mass producing it. )

What's stopping you?

[hellblaze]

There's a few of them in the first lot of houses down from the Grey Gull. Didn't recall seeing any addresses that line up with the ones further down the way.

[ He sits himself on the reception desk, half turning to look at Dean. Then he lets out a low grunt as pain spikes from his sides. ]

I figure I might need some of my ribs in working order. Unless you like the idea of finding my corpse from internal bleeding.

[cholesterol]

Anybody not a demon like the idea of internal bleeding? What happened?

( He stops what he's doing, mid number, looking up and then over at Constantine. Why are his ribs - bruised, maybe, judging by the ragged breaths. )

[hellblaze]

Threw a punch at our potential gracious host. Magic punch, of course. [ John flares his hands on either side as if to say ta-fucking-dah. ] Found out he either has his own magic or could bounce mine back at me. Either way? He's powerful.

[cholesterol]

Who.

( He thinks back. All he's ever seen are people like them (and not like them). Dean is not like Constantine. Not in any ways he admits to himself. But, he does remember the house over the crevasse. And -- the imposing figure he forgot about as soon as he locked eyes with Cas. )

Porch guy?

[hellblaze]

Porch Guy? Is that what we're calling the sorry bastard? [ A pause. ] Sounds alright by me. Bloody Porch Bastard.

[ Oh no, now he'll keep going... ]

What run in did you have with him?

[cholesterol]

( He just calls it like he sees it. And the guy was standing on his porch on the other side of the big crevasse. Thus, porch guy was born. )

I didn't. I looked once, had second thoughts on looking at all, and then reunited with my best angel. Making sure he didn't freeze to death took priority. And yeah, I said angel.

[hellblaze]

[ He is officially Porch Guy. Or, Porch Wanker. If we're feeling daring.

John pauses and smirks. ] So, you know Feathers. Means you know Claire as well.

[ What a small bloody world. ]

[cholesterol]

I do. Claire lives with me. And Cas is my best friend. You've met.

( What does he think of him, he wonders. )

[hellblaze]

Met him outside the schoolhouse a few days back. Well, whatever follows the idea of days in this bloody town. Met Claire early on, one of the first few days we were here.

[ Will he go into the details of the background Claire shared? No. He figures Dean knows it already, and really, he isn't in the business of sharing secrets. Knowing those secrets for his own good? Yeah. He'll definitely be nosy. ]

Feathers at least dresses better than the bloody angel I know. Friendlier chap, too. Bit more willing to be a boots-on-the-ground.

[cholesterol]

Yeah, Cas gets his hands dirty, alright. You know other angels?

( ... More in common. )

[hellblaze]

Knew a few. One was already both wings out the door of Heaven and waiting for some poor bastard to grab her wings in hopes it'd bring her to Earth. Which, it did.

Other one is a bit of a personal angel. Or, like I like to call him? Personal Feathered Bastard.

[ Feathers is much nicer. ]

[cholesterol]

... What's a personal angel?

( Weird way of saying someone's your friend, bro. )

[hellblaze]

Guardian angel, mate.

[ John would definitely not call Manny his friend. At all. By any means. No, Feathered Bastard has far too many suspicious things about him lately. Things he plans to get to the bottom of when he gets home. ]

Here I thought Feathers might be yours and Clarie's.

[cholesterol]

He's not. He's his own angel. And he's my best friend.

( And Dean is not ashamed of this fact, John Boy. )

[hellblaze]

He's his own guardian angel? I'm not certain that's how it works.

[ Even if he isn't their official one? He's pretty sure Feathers guards over Dean and Claire. Especially Clarie, from what he knows if their history. ]

[cholesterol]

He's his own. He's his own property. Nobody owns him. He's not stuck with one soul. He has a family.

( Dean is his family, for the record. )

[hellblaze]

Difference between property and a charge, mate. Come off it. You know that.

[ Angels are still angels. They may be his family, but, Castiel is still what he is. ]

[cholesterol]

I don't. Angels aren't assigned. Not where I come from, not where he comes from.

( It hits home, Castiel choosing Dean, choosing to rebel. Forget everything else, Castiel is free will. John can't know that. He doesn't know Dean, or Castiel. Dean still doesn't appreciate the assumption. )

[hellblaze]

Touchy. But, noted.

[ John raises his hands as if to show he surrendered the point. Interesting that Heaven liked to play by different rules in different realities. Of course the Almighty played favorites. ]

[cholesterol]

Look, my angels, they're warriors. Soldiers. Not twinkly, bright Captain America shields.

( If you were wondering. )

Not - my angels.

[hellblaze]

That's how most angels are. Foot soldiers for peace keeping and intervening when the Almighty feels like lifting a finger that bloody day.

Doesn't mean that Feathers hasn't taken to guarding and looking over you on his own, mate. I'd think that's a good thing to have an angel in the back pocket.

[cholesterol]

What's that supposed to mean?

( Sorry, John. It's been a week. Angel in his back pocket? Are you implying something? )