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

[thering]

As he makes his way next door and goes through the motions of taking what they need for this particular mission, his mind starts to wander over their immediate concerns. They may need to climb up onto the roof as well, to see the size of the hole, try and seal that up somehow. Maybe with some tarp if they can find any or... just stand up there in despair, try not to fall in. They will deal with it when they get there.

And then they need to deal with what she's going to do next, whether she is staying or leaving. If it was at all possible Doc would invite everyone over to their place, but Malcolm's night terrors make it impossible for anyone to get any decent kind of rest over there, and he recognises that Malcolm is already at a point where he feels like he is being a burden. Having people start to stay over on a long-term basis will only drive him further into guilt and self-resentment.

Maybe they should not rush to making any decisions today. He will come visit again tomorrow, and the day after, until they are both in a better headspace. As long as she knows that Doc, Malcolm and Raylan's door is open to her anytime, they can leave it up to her to come knocking.

Doc returns to hers with a couple minutes to spare, a stack of wooden boards wedged between his arm and side, a couple of hammers and a flathead screwdriver, more for prying things open than assembling shelves, hanging in his gun belt where he used to keep ammunition.

"Are you ready to go?" he asks when he's back on her porch, managing a smile that comes slightly easier to him. They can talk along the way, or while they're busy working away at the museum. Sometimes it's easier to talk when you're busy.

[enduresurvive]

Ellie puts on her coat and shoes. She puts the dish Henry brought into the fridge. She still hasn't actually eaten any of it, but she'll try it. Later. She makes a promise to try to eat it, at least, but hopefully out of sight out of mind when he gets back.

She grabs her bag and tucks her weird knife in her pocket, then double-checks the mirrors just to be on the safe side. She has a hammer that she found in the garage, but no other real tools.

He does come back, as promised. Of course she can't really keep track, since clocks don't really work here. But she has a decent idea of what it should feel like, and he's not late.

She meets him on the porch and offers the hammer. "This isn't much, but...it's something?"

[thering]

"It will do us just fine," he says with a smile, taking the hammer from her and sliding it into his gun belt. She can always grab it from him if need be, but it's shaping up to be a fairly uneventful excursion and he's quietly appreciative of that.

The museum is only a short trek away, just like everywhere else in this small town. He slows down once they're a considerable distance away, still a little unconsciously anxious about getting close to that place. Truth be told he's more worried about Ellie, even though she's more likely to be able to survive whatever is floating around in there than he is.

"Here," he offers to her along with a sturdy old plank and a few rusted old nails. They don't have to look too closely to find the worn corner of the main door that's left a sliver of a gap, not quite flush against the doorframe. The harder it is to get inside, the better. "You may do the honours."