villagelogs | 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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ you know, with the coming storm - in more ways that one - it was important to stock up.

mainly, on coffee and fudgenutters.

it's how she might see him first - a fastidious kid staring at the shelves of the general store, staring bleary-eyed at the subpar selection of instant coffees, before glancing up and seeing a new face. he looks more tired than surprised, and the smile he offers is quick - one that may as well not have been there at all. ] Wouldn't get my hopes up on anything actually good.

[ helen returns the tired smile. although hers comes far more from her obvious injuries more than anything. she pulls the makeshift hood down to let loose a set of brunette curls that fall over her shoulder.

he's the first child she's seen in town. ]

"Good" is a highly relative term. What doesn't quite meet your standards?

[ ~~if you try and mom him, he swears to god....~~

she looks like she's been through some sort of wringer before even showing up here.

unless, of course, she too tried to enter some place Mathias didn't want her to, which, in that case, join the club.

but, her question gets a twist of dry, dimpled humour out of him.] Well, gee, I don't know. Should I go for coffee tin A, or for coffee tin B?

[ listen, he is starting to lose hope on ever having a decent cup of coffee ever again. he lifts one of the tins up, and it lacks enthusiasm. ] At least this shit can last a decade.

[ ~~she might and not because you look 13~~

she laughs at his statement. rare, honestly. she hasn't really laughed since she arrived in mathias. then again, having been trapped in a time dilation bubble and fighting for her life before hand could have something to do with her outlook at the moment. ]

I'd say neither. Tea is always preferable to that dribble. [ and could possibly be why she's at the general store. minus looking to see what medicine is available.

she moves behind the register counter to find a paper bag. good lord. being stuck in something that seems to be the 1990s is certainly a blast from the past - isn't it? she takes the bag under her arm and moves over to join him at the unenthusiastic coffee choices. ]

Which makes you wonder what they put inside of it to make it last so long. [ her head tilts. he certainly doesn't talk like someone for his apparent age. which... well, appearances can be deceiving. especially in her line of work. ] I can't say I've found any good tea so far. It seems as if we're in the same position.

[ take the small victories where you can, helen. good humour might be the only thing that can get you by, here.

and even then, mathias has a curious way of testing it.

the look he gives her has about the same amount of enthusiasm as a cat has to water. ] I'll have to agree to disagree.

[ he's curious in watching her, in trying to get a read on her. he wouldn't say something was off, exactly, but he spent a long time around people displaced out of time, in the commission.

like calls to like, perhaps. ] Yeah. Lipton or Folgers. Tough choices, all around.

[ he picks one of the cans almost at random. they all vaguely taste the same. it's no dark roast. ] Did you just wake up here?

[ hopefully it remains her humor and not the need for her medical skills.

he's certainly sour, isn't he? ] It's usually a disagreement I have with Americans.

[ still, there's no maliciousness in her voice. it may even sound like teasing. after all, practically most of the sanctuary drinks coffee before tea. the more for her in the end. ]

Lipton.

[ disgust.

she looks over at him. ] Yesterday, actually. I arrived in your makeshift graveyard. Along with a man named Neal.

[ hold on to that optimism, helen, it isn't going to last long with the gaggle of idiots this town's collected. ]

Ah well, [ his pleasantries are the practiced sort. he makes no indication he recognizes the name neal either. ] welcome to the shitshow. [ a standard form of greeting now. he'd tip a cup of coffee her way if he could. one could imagine it in his tone, though. ] Get ready for a whole lot of weird.

[ try her, five. she's ready for the challenge. ]

Other than the decaying buildings and apparent killer fog, it's that bad here? [ her way of confirming if things she has heard is true. ] Thankfully, I rather live "weird" back home. I've heard it described as a B Move often enough by my protege.

021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

general store!! lmk if this works c: happy to change anything!

perfection lets roll, you know i'm easy

🖤

aggressively adopts

aggressively disassociates

not allowed, you must accept mom

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