024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Western Mathias + ???
WHEN: Days 024-027
WHAT: The consequences of their actions.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here! The next log will be posted January 23rd.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Onryo" 怨霊

DAYS 024-025
CONSEQUENCES
“There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments —
there are consequences.”
— Robert G. Ingersoll
When the unwilling residents of Mathias Township wake on the morning of the 24th day, they will find themselves in yet another set of frustratingly unnerving circumstances. None of them are where they last remember being, and some of them have strange marks on the palms of their left hands. It's all incredibly unsettling, but truthfully they should be used to it by now. No one will remember traveling to their new location.

Residents can wake up anywhere within their new location and in any position. Curled up in a bed, sprawled on a couch, huddled beneath a coffee table, propped against a wall... Wherever they are, they will themselves to be in quite an unusual state. While they are wearing whatever clothing items they went to sleep in, plus their shoes and a coat. The newest arrivals to Mathias Township will perhaps stand out for being slightly more appropriately dressed than their new neighbors. They are all a bit damp, physically worn out, and half-frozen from their apparent walk through a blizzard.

Each of the four locations is inescapable — residents are trapped, with exterior doors and windows being shut tight and a blizzard raging outside. The locations are stocked with fresh food and water and a large pile of firewood for the fireplaces in each building. The circumstances residents will face, however, may vary wildly between locations as the forces at work in Mathias respond to the recent actions of certain individuals.


BOARDING HOUSE | GREY GULL
NEW HOUSE | MYSTERY MANSION

These residents will wake with a mark on their left hand palms, a spiraling black symbol similar to those some may have seen around town. All marks are identical and cannot be removed, but will have seemingly vanished from their skin on the morning of the 26th day.

Castiel, Daisy Johnson, Dean Winchester
Elena Gilbert, Elijah Mikaelson, Helen Magnus
Phil Coulson, Quentin Coldwater, Sherlock Holmes

DAYS 026-027
IN THE AFTERMATH
After their ordeals of the past two days, the unfortunate residents of Mathias Township will be grateful to find that they were back where they are supposed to be, a chill still clinging to their clothes in whatever place they went to sleep the night of the 23rd day. New arrivals will wake in the living room of the boarding house. None of the residents will wake with anything in their possession from the locations in which they were previously trapped, including any notes or documentation they may have made during their time there.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— SNOW continues to fall heavily on Days 024-025, resulting in white out conditions from the wind that blows in gusts of over 35 mph; the temperature also drops drastically, making conditions extremely dangerous for residents. The blizzard clears on Day 26 and residents are left with a cold, calm world covered in white.

— THE FOG remains blocking the paths in the forest, urging residents to stay huddled within the town proper, and it also now blocks the northern section of town, beginning just before where residents know the chasm in the earth to be. Venturing into the fog is... ill-advised.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue to plague the town. Kylo Ren and Thomas Richardson have vanished without a trace.

— NO NEW DEATHS have occurred in town, but there is a new "grave" in the small makeshift graveyard near the schoolhouse. Rey's corpse has been moved and covered with stones to wait for the ground to thaw enough for a proper burial.

— THE LANTERNS will be gone from the morning of Day 024. No trace of them remains.

---

OOC UPDATES

— A GIFT for everyone! As a thank you for being part of this spooky little game, every character in the game is being gifted 2 Activity Points. These may be banked over here — instead of linking to an AC post, you may put "New Year gift" in that field. Happy 2021, friends!

— NEW LAYOUTS have been installed for our communities! Huge thanks to our Eldritch Librarian Stars for putting in the time to get this place looking shiny. (You may have also noticed some new page layouts being installed — these are also our Librarian's handiwork!)

— 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.)

— 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

Malcolm Bright - Day 24/25 - OTA

[abrightboy]

Malcolm awakes with a start in one of the upstairs bedrooms, disoriented at first, because he's still in his pyjamas, but somehow has his coat and shoes on, but is in bed, but it's not his bed.

Swinging his legs over the side, he cautiously gets up, opening the door enough to poke his head out and look down the hall in each direction.

It's the Boarding House. Who brought him here? Where are Raylan and Doc? Where are Negan and Neal?

He moves out of the room and walks downstairs, making a beeline for the front door at this point without really taking note of who's around. But the knob won't turn and the door won't open. Only then, he turns and realizes there are others around, but not the people who were in the house he fell asleep in. Woke up in screaming. Must have fallen asleep again?

"Does anyone know how they got here?" he asks loudly enough for anyone in the living room or kitchen to hear.

Late night Day 25 - closed to Ellie

[abrightboy]

Malcolm hadn't slept since he'd woken up in a room upstairs. He'd been reading a book he found in one of the rooms, until the power went out. In the dark, he was a little sleepy and he couldn't risk that here, with no restraints. He'd put everyone else in danger. Or himself.

He wrapped a blanket around his shoulders from the nearest bed and headed downstairs, noticing a light from the entrance hall. He went there.

"Ellie. I'm glad it's you and not.... I don't know. One of those lantern-holding shadow people. How are you holding up?"

[enduresurvive]

Ellie is sitting on the couch with her knees pulled up to her chest. She's not really doing anything. She has her coat and shoes on for warmth, and of course there's the candle nearby, but otherwise she's just kind of...sitting there.

It's been a long two days, really.

She hears Malcolm and looks up at him, though it takes half a second for her to actually register him there. She's been pretty lost in her own thoughts.

"Oh. Malcolm, hey. God, don't remind me of those shadow things. I'm, you know, stuck in this stupid house in a stupid blizzard. You do the math."

[abrightboy]

He sits down next to her.

"I'd say 'at least there are no monsters outside', but I guess we don't know that." He looks up at the ceiling. "And something lives upstairs. ....And downstairs." He looks at her. "I'm willing to share this blanket."

[enduresurvive]

"Have you actually seen monsters here?" she asks. She's not sure what's out there. Five hadn't been able to tell her what exactly it was in the fog that had killed people. If it was chemical, it hadn't gotten into houses, maybe? John would probably say it was magic. So monsters? Sure, why the fuck not.

"Something lives upstairs?" she repeats, a little sceptical. Well, that's something that someone will probably get themselves killed trying to figure out. It won't be her without a weapon, though, that's for damn sure.

She considers for a moment. She doesn't physically get close to anyone these days most of the time, but...it's pretty cold.

"Okay. Blanket. That does sound good, honestly."

[abrightboy]

"I haven't seen monsters here," he concedes. "And all we know about upstairs is that there are noises that come from the attic. That being said, it could be something benign as well."

He holds one half of the blanket out, so she can take it if they sit shoulder to shoulder and wrap her side around her far shoulder.

[enduresurvive]

"Come on, Malcolm. Nothing in this town is benign. There's probably some freaky shit up there. And in the basement." She hadn't known about it before, but now she definitely wants to not stay here long-term. Her house is sad and empty now with Rey dead, but she hasn't found a better option just yet.

She comes and sits next to him and pulls the blanket around. She's glad she sleeps in her clothes; it means she's fully dressed here. There may be pjs somewhere that fit her, but she hasn't bothered to look into that. She hadn't planned to be in this place for so long, nearly a month now. Probably none of them had. And it didn't seem like anyone got out. You kept going or you died.

"You think this blizzard will let up anytime soon?"

Late night Day 24 - Closed to Negan; will probably be HEARD by everyone.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm didn't realize he'd dozed off. Or maybe he was fully awake. Either way, he saw the shadowy figure moving towards the livingroom and he crept along behind it. The others had stayed largely in the main parts of the boarding house and it was going where it could cause them harm.

As he passed the fireplace, he pulled a poker from the rack of tools, hefting it as the being moved towards the kitchen.

It must have sensed him there, because as it reached the kitchen, it turned on him, suddenly seeming twice as big, looming over him.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Did you bring us here?"

It didn't answer him. It reached for him. Its fingers were like ice as they closed around his throat. He started swinging the poker at it, dishes smashing in its path or being swept onto the floor to shatter. It flung him against one of the cabinets, jarring it, causing dishes to cascade out of it onto the floor, any survivors hit by a swing of the poker as he fought back against the Shadow.

Anyone walking into the room would see Malcolm fighting... nothing. There was nothing there. But that didn't stop him shouting at it or swinging the poker madly.

[vampirebats]

Negan had settled in the living room, ready to just buckle down and try to keep warm, keep an eye on everybody with all the weird shit happening around them. Then Malcolm decided to grab a poker and take his happy ass to the kitchen.

He followed... and good fucking thing he did. "Whoa, there! Shit, you got a nice swing there--"

The 'fight' startles him as much as Malcolm demanding answers out of shadows. Glass shatters as he swings, glasses falling to the ground and scattering in a million different pieces. He curses under his breath as he moves forward, as quickly and cautiously as he can.

He grabs at the arm holding on to the poker first, tries to get the other around the man and get him to stop struggling. "There's nothing there-- Malcolm, look!"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm didn't realize it was Negan right away, struggling against... whatever had grabbed him. But Negan had leverage on him, so pulling away didn't work.

So he threw all his weight at Negan instead, attempting to take them both to the ground.

[vampirebats]

Jesus fuck--

Malcolm, now that he's sure he's not some fucking ninja from back home, isn't someone Negan would ever assume could win over him. He didn't bank on him throwing his weight back like that though. All he can do is fall to the ground, keeping an arm tight around the guy to try to keep him from struggling away.

"It's me! Negan, c'mon-- you let me stay at your fucking house..."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm struggled a moment longer then he still blinking as he looked around for his assailant and all he saw was Negan. Half underneath him.

His eyes widened slightly and he pushed himself up onto his knees, off of the other man, letting go of the poker.

"....Negan?" He looked around again as a realization settled in the pit of his stomach. The thing he was fighting had never been there. Had it been Negan all along or had he just shown up? He had no way to know.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked, a note of despair in his voice.

[vampirebats]

There's some relief that floods in when Malcolm seems to come back to himself, the poker dropping to the ground. He lets out a breath as he lets himself go lax on the floor for a second. arms dropping.

"Yeah." The next question has him giving a shake of his head. "Me? Nah, takes a lot more than that to hurt old Negan here. What the hell was happening? You okay?"

... No more raging at phantoms?

lmk if this is okay! c:

[liliowy]

"Fuck," is the first, eloquent word that tumbles out of her lips, tasting blood.

Yen is a study on ruin right now, soot covered and blood stained, but standing stubbornly on her feet and looking much too foreign in the room. Her head snaps to the voice just beyond, and she steels the sway in her step to some degree before finding her way quickly to the source. "Not a damned clue," what is he...wearing?

Though perhaps she's the outlier here. "I don't even know where here is."

YAS

[abrightboy]

His attention snaps to her when she speaks.

And he doesn't recognize her.

"Um. It's possible this is going to sound like a silly question but... where were you yesterday?" he asked. And then, almost immediately "And are you all right?"

excellent :D

[liliowy]

It sounds less silly than she'd like. Portals can take you to plenty of places, though this one was a first. Especially when she wasn't the one who put herself here. A loss of control that she hated.

"I wasn't," she tries not to snap out. "I just awoke here, without any memory as to how."

She wants to ignore that last question, and raises a hand to wipe away at a bloodied lip. "Better than the rest, I'd wager." There's something glacial in her answer. "I'll live." (unclear if simply out of spite, but we're low on trust here and now)

"You're from here?"

[abrightboy]

"Um, no. I got here the same way you did. Just. ...Earlier." He gestured around them. "We can usually leave the buildings, though." He made a gesture towards her face. "Who... who are 'the rest'?"

[liliowy]

"Earlier," she deadpans. "And how long is earlier?" Her mind is still reeling, caught between a need to start collecting facts, and the instinctual disorientation all of this inspires.

The storm does howl outside, and her frown deepens as she approaches a window, a pointless confirmation. It would be stupid to go outside now.

When he asks, she chances a look back his way, back stacked straight. "Nilfgaardian soldiers. Whatever's left of either side." A beat, another moment's consideration - from his clothes to his accent. "Does that mean anything to you?"

[abrightboy]

His makeshift pyjamas are almost embarrassingly far from his usual style, but he's busy considering her. Her body language and bearing.

"Nothing," he freely admits, "but people are brought here from all kinds of different... places. I've been here for... almost three weeks, I think."

[chicartista]

After making sure Melanie was alright Zed had decided to explore the rest of the house. Maybe she could find some sort of clue or hint as to how they had all ended up trapped here. But so far she hadn't been able to find much of anything other than frustration which seemed to be a reoccurring theme of everything that happened here.

If only she and John had managed to get her powers working properly then maybe she would have a better answer. So far it seemed that everyone was in a similar situation to her, they woke up here with no idea how they had gotten here. She had already tried to open the door, even a window and hadn't had any luck there either.

She was still exploring the house when she spotted Malcolm and made her way over to him. "Malcolm, hi. Did you just wake up here too?"

[abrightboy]

“Zed!” He was pleased to see a familiar face. Raylan had informed him that she’d returned. “Yes.” He looked down at his ill-fitting makeshift pyjamas. “And rather unexpectedly, at that. How are you?”

[chicartista]

"That would make two of us," she smiled slightly - slightly relieved it wasn't just her. She was also in makeshift pyjamas, a pair of baggy sweatpants that had the drawstrings tied as far as she could and a ratty t-shirt.

"And I'm getting the feeling we're not the only ones."

[abrightboy]

"No. I wonder who else is here."

He was trying to keep his tone casual, but he was really, really hoping that Raylan and/or Doc was around. He already felt on the precipice of a slippery slope, mentally, and he didn't know if he could manage not to fall.

"We should take a look around." He gestured towards her as he fell into step with her. "How have you been?"

[chicartista]

"Good idea," Zed nodded. "I think we're in the boarding house." She hadn't visited the place herself but from the little she had heard about it, it made the most sense. But when had this place made any sense.

"Uh... okay I think," she made a slight face as they walked. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact she had been missing. Maybe it would be easier if there had been more gaps in her memory or she had some idea of where she was and what happened - but she didn't. "I was missing for a few days and I have no memory of it. Which is... disturbing."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nodded knowingly. "Losing time is... devastating in a way that most people don't understand," he agreed. "It's a sort of... violation."