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

[conning]

When I woke up here, one of the people I met was a doctor. Showed up at the same time as me. We can track her down once we get out of this, see if there's anything she can do to help.

[ He quirks a smile at her. ]

If all else fails, I have some friends with a stock of really terrible booze to take the edge off.

[chuju]

[ A doctor. She doesn't have the heart to tell him that it was tech that made it so she could use her powers safely; let him hold onto this bit of hope for a little while. They could all use some of that now and then. But she shakes her head and smiles in return at the latter. ]

No way am I desperate enough for moonshine. [ Yet. Her smile falters as she feels the rumbling begin beneath them, traveling up from the first floor and shaking the room around them. As the tremors arc through her, she clenches her jaw and holds onto the bed with both hands. She would really like off this nightmare ride please. ]

[conning]

[ Neal hates this. He hates watching her tense up, watching the pain on her face and knowing there's nothing he can do. ]

Would it help or hurt if I braced you?

[chuju]

I don't know. This is a first for me too.

[ She hates being seen like this. She's supposed to be the strong one, the fighter, the agent who goes in first and comes out last after making sure everyone else is alright. But here she is, weak and useless, and she doesn't even know if it's because of this town or because of— ]

[conning]

[ He scoots closer to her on the bed, putting his arm very carefully around her shoulders, his other hand resting on her leg. Holding her snug, but not tight. ]

While I would get it if you punched me, a 'let go' will work just as well. For the record.

[chuju]

[ She's not sure if it helps, but at least it doesn't add to the hurt. If anything, it helps emotionally to feel him there beside her and to know she isn't alone in this. She even manages half a smile for him when he makes what she thinks might be an attempt at a joke. ]

Duly noted. [ One of her hands reaches up to grasp his forearm, holding his hand in place on her leg. She needs to anchor herself and ride this out like the storm it is, but she needs— A memory of the barn surfaces, and she doesn't hesitate to ask. ] Tell me something about yourself?

[conning]

[ Something about himself. He grins. ] Well. I’m an internationally-renowned art thief.

[chuju]

[ Even though she's in an absurd amount of discomfort at that exact moment, he manages to make her laugh. It's brief and a bit rough, but it's real. ]

Cool. I'm a hacker. It's how I got my job with SHIELD.

[conning]

What a coincidence. It's how I got my job with the FBI.

[ He pauses, considering what to say next. It's easy to brag. But she's vulnerable and hurting, and they're trapped in the middle of a nightmare. ]

Getting caught was the best thing that ever happened to me. [ It's something he's never said aloud, not even to Peter. Mozzie wouldn't understand it. June would. ] Granted, I have some complaints about the whole prison stay thing and the fact that I can't leave New York, but it's brought me more than I've lost.

[chuju]

[ Daisy doesn't need to know him to understand that Neal is sharing something with her that he wouldn't normally. But they're living in abnormal circumstances, and he's trusting her with something she considers precious. Other people might not understand just what this sort of life can mean to someone, but she does. ]

SHIELD gave me everything. A home, a purpose... a family. I wouldn't be the same person if they hadn't arrested me that day. [ He gets another tight smile then. ] No prison time, though. Just risking my life to save the world every week.

[conning]

[ It's Neal's turn to marvel at the fact that chance threw them into the same room. At the 'risking my life' part he shakes his head. ]

Yeah, I'll stick to 'conning the bad guys from a safe distance.'

[ Which is most definitely not always what happens, but details. He huffs out a soft laugh. ] Funny the way family can tackle you from behind.

[chuju]

[ Ah, so he's one of those. Daisy's never really been a 'safe distance' kind of girl. Even back during her first missions with the team before she'd had any real training, she hadn't hesitated to jump into the thick of things. That's just who she is. ]

Yeah... [ Family. That's one thing about her that he can't possibly understand: how much her family means to her. ] I actually joined SHIELD because I was searching for my family.

[ The tremors rumbling through the building stop as quickly as they started, fading so quickly into silence that they might never have existed at all. Daisy slumps slightly in relief but doesn't move away from Neal. Not yet. ]

[conning]

[ Family. What is it with this place, these people, and family? He remembers, so vividly, his hunt for Kate. Mozzie asking “Do you really want to go down that road again?” when Neal told Peter about his father. Very quietly: ] I can relate.

[chuju]

[ If he's as normal as he seems, then he really can't, but whatever he's been through probably seems that way to him. It's that thought that keeps her from just dropping that pile of baggage at his feet — he's a normal guy, he doesn't deserve some stranger's emotional trauma dumped on him when they're being tormented in some nightmare town they're all trapped in. He might have taken in stride her revelation about being part-alien with superpowers, but everything else? Doubtful.

Giving him one last smile, she squeezes his arm gently before easing away, slowly standing to make sure she doesn't sway this time. She succeeds, thankfully. ]

Well, you know why I look like shit, so time to fess up why you do.

[conning]

[ Neal knows when a subject's been closed. He lets go of Daisy as soon as she starts to ease away, deciding to stay sat. He hasn't fallen over yet, but he doesn't want to push his luck. Just scooting out from under the bed and hanging on to Daisy is more movement than he was capable of pretty much the entirety of yesterday. He puts his hand to the bandage on his neck. ]

I auditioned for the part of breakfast smoothie in Lestat. [ A pause. ] There was a vampire.

[chuju]

[ She hadn't noticed the bandage before. Shit. How completely out of it is she that she hadn't noticed? But also... What. Staring at him in disbelief is all she can manage for a few moments because how the hell is he so calm about it? ]

For a guy whose definition of weird is good coffee at the office, you seem to be taking the whole vampires existing thing awfully well. [ Looking around, her hands in the air as if grasping for words that won't come, she feels like she can barely form a coherent sentence. ] I was fighting alien robots before I was brought here and I'm having trouble processing this.

[conning]

[ Another small, huffed laugh. ] I can either accept that this is happening or break down pretending it's not. I prefer the option that leaves me functional.

[ Neal shrugs. ] Also, I'm probably in shock.

[chuju]

[ Okay, mild freakout over. This really isn't the weirdest thing she's ever encountered, so get it together, Johnson. Focus on the much more important matter at hand — which means both hands end up on her hips while she stares him down with a concerned frown. ]

How long ago did it happen?

[conning]

Yesterday. Again, provided we haven't lost more time than assumed.

[ He gestures vaguely at the air. ] Given the whole world goes faintly gray at the edges when I stand up, I'm thinking we probably haven't lost that much.

[chuju]

Yester— [ Daisy glares at him for a moment, clearly not okay with any of the above. 1000% not okay with it. But what's done is done and they're stuck here thanks to the storm, which means he's stuck with her. ]

Okay. You need to rest. Stay hydrated. Eat something. [ She points a finger at him the same way a mother would scold a child. ] And no arguing. I was in your position when I got here, so I know how bad major blood loss is.

[conning]

[ Neal holds his hands up in surrender. ] No arguing.

[ He's more tired than he wants to admit. The shock of being somewhere new is wearing off. The need to take care of someone else isn't distracting him, at the moment. He's not sure if the ringing in his ears is left over from that screaming or if it's come on since then.

Neal braces his hands on the edge of the bed, glancing toward the room's exit. ] We should see if there's anyone else here, though.

[chuju]

Well, luckily this place isn't that big and everything is on the way to the kitchen. Come on, let's get you downstairs. [ She steps closer, stopping beside him and leaning down slightly. ] My shoulder's fine, so you can use me for leverage.

[ It's less a suggestion and more a command. She's used to being in charge these days. ]

[conning]

Yes ma'am. [ He knows better than to argue, particularly after he just said he wouldn't. She reminds him of Diana in a lot of ways.

Neal braces himself, puts a hand up on her shoulder, and hoists himself upright.

Yeah, the world definitely goes gray for a second there. He hangs on, fighting queasiness, until color washes back in. ]

Is it ma'am? Agent? Do you have a rank I should be using? [ He's teasing, but also genuinely curious. ]

[chuju]

[ Oh yeah, she remembers that. Though she'd probably had it a bit better than him thanks to those hours in the healing chamber. Without them... Well, she'd never have made it up the beach that day. ]

Don't call me ma'am, it makes me feel old. [ There's a lightness to the words; she appreciates his teasing and that he's able to do it at all in his condition. She loops her arm around his back, offering him further support because she's having doubts he'll make it down the stairs in one piece without it. ] It's Agent. Agent Daisy Johnson.

[conning]

Agent Johnson. [ Neal lets himself lean on her, though he tries not to too much. As shaky as he is, he still doesn't want to put more pressure on her fractures. ] It's Caffrey, by the way. Not agent or anything. Just Neal Caffrey.

[ He contemplates the stairs and takes a deep breath. ] Shall we?