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

[fika]

[ there could be worse people to be talking to, sure. There could probably be better ones, too.

a snort. ] Yeah, that's one way of putting it. We've found plenty of traces of people being here before, obviously - [ a vague wave around them. ] - but no one left to ask.

[ although, there was, of course, the stranger from the other day, though five omits that bit of information for now. now like they could knock at the door of that bastard. ]

[cluing]

I'd noticed.

[ That is to say, the abandoned houses with everything left behind, along with the businesses. ]

Curious that the state of the buildings vary so drastically. How is that some are barely standing on their foundations and others seem as if they were build within the last decade.

[ It's not really a question. Sherlock can't expect this young stranger to have an answer, but he can certainly muse out loud. ]

[fika]

[ you know, as far as quick assessments go, five is quickly deciding that there's something about sherlock that he can distinctly respect.

his expression turns a touch more curious, a spark of interest where he was otherwise passive. ] Exactly — it doesn't make any linear sense.

Never mind the fact that it's as if this place is removed from time itself. If there was a pattern that would be one thing, sure. But there isn't. It's as if that's the whole point. [ he thinks of the photographs he found in a house earlier. of the stopped clocks and the wristwatch that was just a useless ornament at this point. ]

[cluing]

[ Who would have thought that the most sense in this town would come from a fifteen year old? Fortunately, Sherlock's not ageist.

He tuts his tongue. ]

There's always a pattern. We just haven't looked in the proper place, yet.

[fika]

[ he's full of surprised, sherlock. down to the old mana habits stuffed messy into a youth's frame. ]

Then where'd you start? [ if it sounds challenging, its unintentional. it's mostly curiosity, because what a good thing that was to say. always a pattern. five's interested in seeing what this stranger has in mind, or maybe where there's gaps in information he can fill by virtue of being here longer. ]

[cluing]

The school. It seemed most reasonable, as I came to by it. Beyond coming to the absolute conclusion we're likely somewhere in New England, it was the opposite of enlightening.

[ It was, in fact, infuriating. Sherlock isn't used to not finding clues or useful information. Whoever is behind this is very clever. ]

So I thought it best to make the rounds and see what I can't turn up.

[fika]

This place dumped you out by the school? [ that's interesting. so, even in there, there's no predictability. don't mind him...jotting that down as another list of places to start checking. ] So much for a forming pattern.

[ he snorts. ] Yeah. New England in the vague nineties. Maybe. Whoever was here before us made really sure that finding dates will be a royal pain in the ass.

So, your lists of unknowns might be a long one. I know mine is.

[ infuriating is a definite word for it, a fact he doesn't even try to hide. ]

[cluing]

[ Sherlock scoffs a bit. In the vague nineties, as if time travel is a feasible thing. No, Sherlock is certain that this town was simply either abandoned nearly three decades ago or, again, someone's paying alarming attention to detail. ]

I'd say at this point, it's almost entirely unknowns. Someone's taking great care to keep us in the dark.