villagelogs | 021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

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

She doesn't even seem to pay an ounce of attention to his snark. She's used to it, and has traded worse with Jon. If anything, she seems to just cut straight to the part that feels important, at least from her perspective.

"Which Domain is this, hm? I've come across too many people for The Lonely. Perhaps this is the Vast. Don't s'pose you've heard of a bloke going by the name Simon Fairchild, have you?" The world Changed, but that didn't meant the Avatars did.

"Nothing quite as fancy as any of those names, luv. You're in Mathias Township. Enjoy your bloody stay with the rest of us."

Simon Fairchild. That seems like a name to keep an eye out for.

He stands to the side, hands in his pockets. He doesn't intend on reaching out and helping her unless she's about to go face forward into the ground.

"Mathias Township?" She echoes, but it feels foreign on her tongue. "Where is that? Doesn't sound like anything near London." None that she'd heard about, at any rate, and in recent history, she'd been a bit of everywhere, hadn't she?

"We're thinking it's somewhere in the northeast of America. Yanks can't get anything right, can they?" He offered a bit of humor in return. "You'll find more of their lot in this town than us Englishmen."

"Not generally," at least on that note, they can agree. She hums, a sound that's largely undecided yet if it's disapproving or just considering. "So, what's the deal, then? We land here and then what?"

She knows there must be more to it, somehow. Even if they haven't sorted out the "then what" bit, it's there. Hidden under layers of double-meanings, twisted words, and unseen webs.

"Live out the lives and figure out what happened to the town. At least, that's what we've universally decided. Try to find ourselves a way out of this mess."

If there is a way out. Not that he'll share that bit. No point in scaring the oh-so-nice blind lady out of her mind.

"Now, what did you go and do to yourself to end up needing a helper stick?"

Right, no class.

"A way out..." She hums thoughtfully. "Whatever it is, it won't be pretty, that I can guarantee. She may have only just arrived, but Melanie has some experience with not being able to leave a place. She found a way, eventually. But that's why her eyes are so gruesomely damaged.

A smirk spreads across her face. "Oh, that. I had to. Magic-bound contracts are so messy to get out of, after all." Her tone is light, airy, as if making a joke, though there is enough of a heavy seriousness to note it isn't one.

"When dealing with magic and forces at this level? It never is, luv."

John takes a bit of a step to the side to get out of her way. Not that he really is in her way, but, he doesn't want to get smacked by that walking stick of hers. His hands slide into his pockets.

"Good to see someone else in this town understand the price of big magic." John tilts his head slightly to look her over. "Now, do you really still have your eyeballs with a chance of healing? Or are they, ah, permanently gone?"

“Speaking from experience. Hm. That’s good.” Comforting in its own right, even if it automatically means that he’s been through untold amounts of shit. She’s not here to feel sorry for someone’s sob story, and he doesn’t seem the type to blather on about one. What a pair.

She hears the slight scuff of his shoes against the snow-covered ground and decides they must be moving now. She shifts the cane to her other side as she moves carefully forward. She tries to keep the sound of him close, and follow it. “I suppose most people don’t know about.l it existing at all. I didn’t, before The Institute.”

A smirk tugs upwards on one corner of her mouth. Straight and to the point, no chaser. “Well, I drove an awl into each of them, so I’m not sure how I’d ever get my sight back.” Casual. Light. Like she didn’t just deliver something ripped straight from a horror film.

"An occult detective better know these things. Otherwise, he's a piss poor one at that."

He hovers close, but, enough to give her space. One because he doesn't want to end up on the side of that stick. The other? She doesn't seem to be the friendly physical sort. Fine by him. He isn't one either.

The Institute? That sounded like a story.

John turns his gaze back to her with his eyes wide. Alright, he wasn't expecting that. Definitely no coming back from the eyeball healing with that.

"Christ."

"An occult detective..." she echoes, amused by the title more than anything. "Interesting title, mate."

The Magnus Institute was a whole host of horror stories, ask her about it and she might even give one or two for free, John.

She can't see the look on his face, but she can feel that distinct shift in the air between them. All it does is earn him another sharp smirk. "It was the only way, and I wanted out."

"Exorcist, demonologist, and Petty Dabbler of the Dark Arts if you want the full load. I'd share a business card, but, ah, left them at home."

And she is blind.

"Anyone take care of those eyeballs of yours? Healed them at least?" John doesn't often show concern or worry. Usually because he doesn't like getting involved in people's lives. Mathias, however, is determined to make him do the opposite.

"That is quite the collection," she chuckles lightly. "S'pose it isn't in braille anyway." She smirks.

"Oh, I had my boss call an ambulance. Went to A&E right after." She shrugs. "Initial recovery was brutal, but... worth it, honestly." Sometimes the pain balances out in the end. In her case, getting away from that hellhole of a "job"? It absolutely was.

"No. Usually didn't have a client that was blind." John notes softly. He wonders how the hell she's going to hold up here in Mathias. Resourceful, certainly, but there will need to be some special circumstances and handling when it came to her ... well, situation.

"Bet the doctors thought you were a proper mess." He comments along, making sure to keep a pace she can keep up with. "Let me guess, your boss put you back to work as soon as possible."

Her face shifts into something of a shrug. "Fair enough."

She shakes hear head at the assumption. "No. That was my exit with the company. Only thing keeping any of us there at that point was the impossibility of leaving. No one else wanted out bad enough to sever their connection to The Eye." She shrugs. "After that, I...tried to move on with my life, honestly. Girlfriend, therapy, whatever."

She gives another shrug. "Didn't last, of course... things Changed. The whole world Changed and suddenly...I was one of the only people in the world that knew what the fuck was going on." She scoffs, and it's a bitter sound, shaking her head. "Georgie-- that's the girlfriend-- and I were helping innocent people caught in the fray. Not sure what was next, but I know it can't be good."

"It's rare to find a way out of a world like this. Good on you, luv. You managed the one thing many of us can't." John figures though she's not really out of the madness of that world. Maybe away from the company and her bosses, but, things like this? It marks you. Even if your eyes are intact.

He nods. "Most things like this aren't going to end up good. Looks like the time table got pushed back, considering you're here and not back home with Georgie."

"It was nice while it lasted," She shrugs a little. Seems these sort of things are just intent on dragging her back in, in some form or another.

She nods, "Apparently so..." She sighs softly. "I just need somewhere to get my bearings, I guess..." She has no idea what that might look like, at this point, but she's pretty good at winging things as she goes along.

"It always is." John gives a nod. "What somewhere would that be? Given, ah, you're lack of seeing... not many signs are in tact here for you to run the fingers over. Town Hall's got something of it left, but, not much."

"Anywhere halfway decent, I s'pose. I'm blind, not helpless, mate." She has half-a-mind to be offended at the idea, but at this point, it feels like more effort than it's worth to expend the energy. "Give me a week or so, I'll figure it out."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

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feel free to disregard/drop if it's too old <3

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cw: eye horror

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