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

"...I would say wandering off into danger isn't my specialty, but I would be lying. A little bit."

Only a little bit, though. Though Peter would argue point. Neal clears his throat. "It's not intentional, anyway."

Neal. Please. You'll make an old man worry like this.

"Sometimes this place brings the danger to you. You just need to stay on your toes." He could be more specific but he doesn't feel the need to be.

"And not be afraid to ask for help, should you need it." They would come running, these self-proclaimed cowards. Them and a few others, no doubt.

"That I'm used to. Staying on my toes. It's just usually in circumstances less..." Weird. Traumatizing. "Unique."

He leans back in his chair, still unsure what to do with all of these open offers of assistance. "You too. Not sure how much help I'll actually be, but."

Neal shrugs.

"Oh come now. Do not sell yourself short. We actually would have liked to have an artist around, to depict things we do not have cameras for." For though he has lived most of his life without something so portable and handy, he did find his phone useful for its camera before he arrived on the beach here and the water got into it. Not to mention Miss Siri did have her charm. Even though she hollered at him and recalculated a lot.

"Anyone who knows when to walk away from a poker table would fair much better here than those who do not. Any skill can be learnt. It only takes wit and some amount of openness and flexibility to survive."

"Well, in spite of what my friend Peter would assume, I am good at walking away from a poker table when the odds aren't in my favor."

And when he can't change those odds to be in his favor, but details. "What kinds of things have popped up that an artist would help with? I could try drawing from descriptions."

"Well when people go missing, it would be good to have a portrait of them." Hopefully not when they turn up dead. "But Raylan and Malcolm had wound up in the lighthouse at one point and was able to get a view of how far out this township extends from the top. It would have been good to have had a sketch then."

He is sure there are other reasons they would need someone with Neal's wide range of expertise. This is a place where jacks of all trades would thrive more so than a collection of specialists.

"I am not certain if the lighthouse is still accessible. But I am sure it would look quite splendid."

"...I should find out." It's something to try. Something to actually do, a project to take on. Better than sitting idle and losing his mind. "How do you get to the lighthouse from here?"

"I'm afraid I do not know. Last time I tried to get to it through the forest, it seemed to be inaccessible." Things are never as simple in this town as walking in a straight line towards your goal and expecting to end up there.

"If you have not yet met Raylan and Mister Bright, allow me to introduce you. They may know the way back."

"Inaccessible how?" Neal frowns. It's not that he doesn't believe Doc--quite the contrary--but there's inaccessible and there's inaccessible.

"I have m..." Neal closes his eyes a moment, making a little ironic sound. "Cowboys. You're Malcolm's other cowboy. I didn't think he was speaking literally."

Edited 2021-01-25 07:32 (UTC)

"Well it might be different now but at the time, the forest was disorienting and I was not too keen on running into some fog." For obvious reasons. He might be bold in some aspects but he's not stupid.

"I..." am not Malcolm's anything, but sure, he'll roll with it. He has been missing his hat for a couple of days now but usually he is not seen outside the house without it. A hat does not a cowboy make but it does make him easy to spot. "...see you are acquainted. When you do come for a visit, we may discuss the lighthouse."

"I'll try to make it sooner than later."

He frowns, taking another drink of coffee. "I'd like to do something useful."

021-023 » the ghosts of fallen leaves

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when u write a tag and then lose the tab forever

nooooo :<

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sneaks in a tag b4 bed

to bed!

tie this one off?