villagelogs | 024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

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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plotting comment. | you can reach me @

boofhead for further plotting.

Edited 2021-01-05 09:05 (UTC)

1. TIC TAC TOE.
[ one response max. please. ]

[ after elena wakes up, dressed in what she'd gone to bed in (an over-sized dark flannel shirt) with the addition of shoes (converse shoes) and a coat (thick and long), she ensures to keep a glass of water—filled, half-filled, almost empty—in her hand. sometimes, when she wakes up dizzy, usually from getting up way too fast, elena finds drinking some water and resting her head steadies her. but not today.

in the bar, she only rests her head for a minute before someone appears. she sits at a table, head in her hand, eyes closing as her head lolls to the side, and the moment she hears someone with her human hearing, her head's up and she smiles a little sleepily despite telling herself she's not tired at all.

laid out before her on the table is a collection of utensils—knives, spoons, forks—and she's tried to create a puzzle of squares out of them to cover the entire table. it's nothing fancy, but it keeps her mind busy trying to create some sort of square patchwork of silver.

a little embarrassed to be found, she sighs. ] I tried looking for a pack of cards, but all I have are utensils.

[ one might notice on the right side of her neck a bandage, slightly pink from where she keeps ripping open her wound. ]

2. BE OUR GUEST.
[ two responses max. please. ]

[ there's only so much sitting one elena gilbert can do.

still with a glass in her hand (she's still not feeling great), she ventures into the gull, interested in seeking out answers. surely there'll be business cards around. voices succeed in pulling her out of her seat, and although she suspects that she's merely hearing things (it wouldn't be the first time), she gives in. what else is a girl supposed to do?

well, a girl could eat.

resting her elbows against the kitchen counter with food piled up on a plate, elena doesn't stand up straight nor stop leaning against the surface. her glass of water is almost empty, and she's pushing her food around on her plate despite not meaning to. she's lost in her own little world, but she's also not there, either. it's hard to concentrate, hard to daydream…

she jumps when she hears a sound—perhaps your approach? ]

Oh my god, you scared me.

[ she laughs nervously. ]

[ Sherlock is finishing his first round of wandering the Gull. It's a place he hasn't yet had a chance to explore, and, as it appears he's trapped inside, it seems as good a time as any to get to know the building.

She must be trying to defend herself from feeling embarrassed, which is why Sherlock stops when she immediately starts to speak to him. Apparently that's the curse of having some sort of familiarity with a person - they just start talking to you.

He glances at her makeshift game board. ]

Have you found anything a bit sturdier than utensils?

[ sherlock's understandable pain: people talking to him. as she is the harbinger of pain, he won't be getting off easy.

unlike her new bestie sherlock, elena's grateful to see a familiar face. he may not be a friend, but she knows from their little spontaneous meet-up in the school that he's like a bloodhound. if anyone's going to figure out how to open a door, perhaps it'll be him.

she shakes her head. ] No. [ she feels disappointed by that. she wishes she could offer him some answers like she had been able to gift him the reports. ] There's some things in the office, but the sturdiest thing in there would be pens and a menu board.

[ He hums a bit, wondering if maybe they can splinter off something from the menu board. ]

I noticed part of the floor upstairs ripped up. I'd been hoping to find something to help take up more of it. Even despite the age, the nails might have a bit too much hold for a pair of hands to be entirely useful.

[ a destroyed floor? her mind goes to john and how ruined floors seem to be a beacon for him. ]

There'd be knives in the kitchen. [ she scrunches up her face. ] Maybe one of those would help?

[ elena gilbert's gonna cut off her hand at this rate. ]

I wonder if there's some sort of cleaver back there.

[ That or a proper butcher's knife might have enough sturdiness to help pry up board. A simple steak knife would be useless, but with enough patience, that or a butter knife might be able to work the screws loose.

He makes a move to go see, but then pauses, looking back at Elena. ]

Actually - I've a question for you, if you don't mind.

[ Eating is something Daisy knows she needs to do, but it's not exactly something she wants to do. The constant shaking and shrieking is exhausting, the pain lancing through her bones enough to put her off food entirely, but she can hear Simmons lecturing her now to keep her energy up and reminding her that she's still recovering from the barn.

So into the kitchen she goes, stopping inside the door when she notices the girl already there. A teenager, probably, looking as lost as Daisy herself feels. Stepping a little closer, she's about to speak when suddenly— Well. ]

Sorry about that. [ Frowning slightly, she gives the girl a once-over in concern. ] You okay?

[ rubbing her hand against her chest, her heart beats loud and hard. one would think being in such a small space that she'd have heightened hearing much like the vampires of her world.

she nods, smiling small. ] I'm fine. [ a nice practiced two-word answer she's perfected over the course of two years. she's fine, even though she wants to be in her bed in mystic falls or the boarding house. ]

Have you been in here before? I'm trying to figure out if the food's… okay.

[ abandoned town and all. paranoia and smart thinking is beginning to sink in. ]

[ Ah, an answer Daisy knows all too well. In her experience, I'm fine tends to translate to I'm actually not fine but no way am I admitting it — at least, that's what it means when she says it herself. ]

Yeah, I spent a few days here when I first arrived. [ Arrived. It's a nicer way of saying woke up after being kidnapped by who knows what to who knows where. ] The food's fine. And honestly, you look like you need it.

[ She's probably not much better herself, with her expression clouded by discomfort, but she definitely doesn't look like she's about to fall over. The same can't be said for her fellow trapped soul here. ]

[ you know what fills her like food? knowledge. her brows lift and any desire to tuck into the food is gone. ]

You were one of the first people who arrived here?

[ that means she would've been with john, wouldn't it? he has a "i have been here so long and don't know how to shower" vibe. at least her kitchen acquaintance looks like she showers.

with a twist of her body, she gestures with a point of her hand towards the kitchen's guts. ]

Do you know how this food got here?

[ she doubts the answer is a "no", but she's hopeful. ]

[ Daisy nods at the first question, then shrugs at the second. Do any of them really know anything about this place? Every time they seem to learn something, there's something else that comes along to contradict that knowledge. Forming theories about any of it seems a wasted effort at this point. ]

Nope, but I know someone who should be eating it.

[ There's a pointed look with that one, that instinct to look after others rising up to the surface. The girl looks like she might half of Daisy's age — just let her big sister at you, kid. ]

[ elena sees you, daisy. it's a good thing she's a little practiced in sidestepping out of doing the responsible thing. mystic falls had a lot more going on inside of its little bubble than mathias does, so her usual plan of trying to throw rocks at the window and seeing which one smashes it open won't do the trick.

she inhales deeply and lets it out, her only acknowledgement that she knows she's right. then she smiles. ]

I don't like eating alone. I'm Elena.

Daisy.

[ Internally sighing, the older but possibly not wiser woman finds a plate and adds her own helping of food to it. It's a smaller portion than she'd normally eat, but splitting headaches don't make for a hearty appetite. ]

So what happened that you're completely 'fine' after? Anything to do with that bandage on your neck?

[ Scooping up a forkful of food, she stuffs it in her mouth. Chews, swallows, then gives Elena another very pointed look. Your turn. ]

[ her neck wound would definitely be a big part of it.

continuing to push her food around on her plate, elena thinks over her answer—quickly, but still noticeable that she's had to mull it over. ]

Partly. [ so, not exactly a lie. she looks up at her and brushes her fallen hair behind her ear. she sighs deeply. ] This whole town is just… It's hard to figure out. Who locked us in here? Why are we in here? It's not like we all slept walked to the same place.

[ Partly. Yeah, okay. She's got a pretty good guess at what the ratio of that part is. But they can get back to that in a minute. ]

We don't know that we didn't. Drugs, tech, there are plenty of methods that could have been used to get us to this building without our remembering. The who is still pretty up in the air, but the why... Pretty sure this is some sort of torture. [ She shrugs and takes another bite of her food.

It occurs to her that maybe Elena is too young to hear this sort of thing, but a second later, she squashes that idea. It might be true on the outside, but here in this town, no one can be sheltered from the truth. They're trapped here and there's no softening that blow. ]

(no subject)

descendent - 2021-02-20 11:05 (UTC) - Expand

1. THE OFFICE.
[ one response max. please. ]

[ she'd wanted to venture into the small office yesterday, but elena thought perhaps getting some sleep would improve her mood and motivation.

she was wrong.

feeling more tired than usual, she pushes through it like always. she's in the small office at the back of the building, going through the drawers and items on the desk with interest. there's nothing to be found of note, but that's find; ambition, persistence, patience… it's all key.

she keeps eyeing the menu board, but she takes a seat—drops into it, really—and rests her head against the table. she left her glass of water on the bar. elena's been telling herself it's been making her feel a lot better, but, really, it hasn't. ]

2. STATUS UPDATE: I'M TIRED.
[ cw: self-inflicted wound, blood. ]

[ she's tired.

no matter how hard she tries to sleep, something keeps waking her up. she rests her head against the bar, against the table, against the wall, and no matter how many times she presses her hands to her ears, she still jolts awake. the paleness of her skin is more obvious now. elena's not well, and she hasn't been for a while. being drained of one's blood can do that to a girl.

she's taken off the long coat she'd been wearing to hide her state of undress, leaving her dressed in her over-sized dark flannel shirt. her hair isn't as sleek as it has been previously, mussed up and starting to become knotty from her running her hands violently through it.

with a large knife in hand, elena stands by the front door of the bar, eyeing it. she's tugged at the doorknob several times since being here, rammed her shoulder into it hard enough to bruise her arms, and kicked it so hard she's sure her feet are bruised, but she thinks that maybe this is going to be the thing that breaks it. this is going to be the thing that gets them out of here.

she eyes the door, her eyes stinging. frustration feels too tangible beneath her skin and she grips the knife too tightly in her hand. except, elena doesn't hold the handle. her fingers are around the blade of the knife.

her blood is what everyone wants, isn't it? so maybe that's what she should give this town. ]

3. LIGHTS OUT.
[ cw: elena's going to pass out from her canonical blood loss and pushing herself too hard. one response max. please. ]

[ back in the kitchen, elena doesn't go anywhere near the knives since slicing her palm wide open. she stands there by the counter, eating slowly and in small bites. eating will keep her awake. eating will make her feel better. it's a stupid mantra she tells herself over and over.

she's been feeling lightheaded for days, but it'd been easier to push through. it's almost like the bar has a lack of air, a lack of anything for her to put her mind to. the dizziness makes her head spin and her stomach somersault, so she tries to eat and drink. lifting her glass to her hand, elena closes her eyes for a moment, her hand going slack.

losing her balance and momentarily her breath, she collapses on the floor. ]

Yes, that's entirely the look of someone who is completely and utterly fine.

( elijah hasn't been following her but he has been keeping an eye on her and when she hadn't returned from her exploration, he'd gone looking.

they'd made it into the office once before but found nothing. still, it had been dark and they'd both been tired and confused. he's not surprised that she might try and seaerch again.

he's standing in the door, eyeing her. there's amusement there but concern is more prevalent. something is wrong. )

[ keeping her head bowed is a statement, elijah. her hands remain splayed flat against the table and she doesn't even move. she's not asleep, eyes open and a soft sigh escaping from her. she honestly looks like cousin it who's had a bad day at the office. ]

I am completely and utterly fine.

[ she is not completely and utterly fine, but she can say the words and that means she is. her head is dizzy and she feels more tired than she did before. turns out, being in a small space with no ability to move about and dig her teeth into anything can make the things she's running from catch up to her body. it would've been easier to avoid it if she had someone to talk to who wasn't eagle eyed elijah. ]

I'm just resting my head. [ then a little playfully and angrily, ] Maybe all the information from this place will seep into my brain this way.

So, is there a reason you're still lying? I understand that you might lie to others so they don't see you vulnerable but you and I know each other. Why are you lying to me?

( they are...something close to friends, he thinks. they've been through quite a lot together already and while he doesn't want to make her feel like an invalid, he wants her to feel like she can talk to him. )

I'm not going to tell anyone else but if you need something, Elena, we need to figure out what you need.

[ opening her eyes and seeing darkness from her hair enveloping her head, she lets out a small breath and shakes her head. he doesn't get it; none of them do. she's exhausted her fill of having people worry about her. doesn't he see he should be worrying about himself instead? ]

Because if you worry then you're going to go out of your way to protect me and you'll get hurt because of it.

[ lifting her head, she rests her chin in her hands and slouches. ]

I'm tired of people taking on all my problems. It's not fair.

So, you're going to let yourself suffer instead of allowing people to help?

( that doesn't sound very smart to him. if she's injured, if she needs help and she's refusing it, she's going to become a liability. )

You cannot let yourself do this, Elena. You are going to become more of a hindrance than a help if you keep doing this.

I've already become a hindrance, Elijah.

[ she doesn't bow her head, even though she wants to. regarding him with a slightly tired look, elena sighs and keeps her hands beneath her chin, fingers spanning beneath her skin. she wants to rip herself wide open, find what's wrong, and destroy it. but no matter how many times she tries, someone stops her.

it's hard to not be a martyr when no one lets her stop. doesn't he see that? she's trying to break the cycle. ]

Everyone who helps me winds up dead. I want that to stop.

Everyone? Really? Is Stefan Salvatore dead? Last time I checked, he couldn't die. What about his idiotic brother? I think he's helped you and he's not dead.

( she's being fatalistic and he can't let her fall too deeply into that. )

I can't make you ask for help, Elena, but I wish you would. Tell me what's wrong.

[ her hands move from beneath her chin to cover her face. she slides her fingers sharply through her hair, hating that she's allowed him to corner her because she's tired. she's so tired. being the doppelgänger is tiring; everyone dies around her, and if she isn't the one dying, then they die for her.

as far as she knows, stefan could be dead. he might as well be. ]

I have nowhere to go if we find a way out of here.

elena gilbert

DAY 24 | OPEN.

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b. super late and no sbux, sorry!

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DAY 25 | OPEN.

( 1. THE OFFICE. )

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