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.

navigation | faq | setting | mod contact

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Elena is fine.

( he doesn't say anything else about her. elena can speak for herself and he knows she will if she feels like it. )

I'm not surprised that your friends want to speak with me. What happened should not have happened and I apologize for that.

( he has to say the words even if an apology does little at this juncture in time. )

I wasn't really myself when I found you.

( he shakes his head and sighs. )

Once you heal, you'll be fine. You're not going to be turned and I'll have whatever conversations are meant to come my way.

[ Hearing Elijah say that he's not going to turn unknots something in Neal's chest that he didn't know was still a worry. ]

What do you mean? That you weren't yourself?

[ After a moment: ]

How are you going to keep yourself fed, here?

My control is usually much, much better than that. But, something happened to me and I've been...slipping.

( his control has been lacking despite the lengths he's gone to to try and keep himself in check. he sighs raggedly and shakes his head. )

Someone is helping me. A volunteer. I don't tend to do that to people without their consent.

( that wasn't...all the way true but here, it is. )

Your control? [ That's disconcerting, for a number of reasons. ] You mean you can't help it? Wanting to...?

[ He gestures at his own neck. It makes sense, really. If humans become willing to eat their own when starved, why wouldn't something higher up on the food chain resist predation? Though isn't that a discomforting thought. ]

How often do you need to do it?

No, I cannot help it. It's what I am and it's what I need to sustain myself.

( elijah doesn't go as far as to say he's a vampire just yet but he doesn't think his words are going to leave many gueses left as to what he is. )

Usually once every few days. I'm able to go for long periods of time without it but it isn't safe. So, one or twice every few days tends to be my limit.

( he sighs, looking down. )

But again, I have someone who volunteers to help me.

Using the same person every few days is going to take it out of them.

[ He shifts, uncomfortable. It's the truth, but he doesn't like what his mentioning it implies. ]

I'm not volunteering. But other people might.

I'm not asking you to volunteer. But you also don't need to worry about me and what I need.

( elijah looks down, sighing and shaking his head. )

What happened between you and I, it was an anomaly. I don't usually get like that but between some things that happened prior to me being here and...this place, I've been a little more ragged than usual.

[ Neal makes a soft sound, not quite amused. ]

I guess I can't blame you there. This place is enough to make anyone ragged.

[ As if on cute, the building starts to rumble. Neal grabs the back of the nearest chair for balance. ]

Is it just vampires? Where you're from? Or are there other... magic things?

There are...others. If there's anyone like that here, I don't know and that's the truth. As far as I'm aware, there's only me.

( whe then building rumbles and the sound pitches higher, he groans, holding his head like it's going to come apart. )

The exact specifics what I am would take quite a while to explain but to be simple, I'm old. Very old. And I've had a long time to learn control. So, when I lose it, it's because of something...happening to me.

[After seeing the way the shaking affects Daisy, Neal almost steps forward to put a hand on Elijah's shoulder. Almost. ]

...What happened?

Mm.

( elijah isn't sure that he wants to share this but after what happened, he thinks he might have to. he sighs, rubbing at his temple and shaking his head, not to ignore the question but to try and dispel the pain in his head. )

Just prior to my arrival here, I was...tortured for several days by my mother. Mentally and physically. It was exhausting to say the least. And I'd rather not get into the specifics of it but I haven't been at my best.

By your...

[ Neal trails off, horrified. He's definitely not planning on asking for specifics. Any lingering anger he had over the attack gets ground out.

No, he's not planning on letting his guard down around Elijah, but that's just practicality. Once bitten, and all that. ]

Is there anything else that helps?

Being locked up but I don't really know if there's any place for that to happen here.

( and while it helps, he doesn't particularly like it. )

You needn't worry about what might help me, though. Someone who knows me from home is here with me and they'll be able to keep an eye on me should something happen again.

( which he hopes it doesn't. )

She knows how to stop me.

[ Neal is silent for a moment. ]

Should she be the only one who does?

Ordinarily, I would be able to find other means but this city is a bit...difficult and different.

( he couldn't find blood banks or, as a last resort, find animals. he had to take what he had. )

But I'll be fine. And if I'm not, she knows what to do in case something like this does start to happen again.

Those are two words for it.

[ There didn't seem to be a point in pressing Elijah about the possible dangers of his... condition? Situation? Species? Not when he was adamant that things would be all right.

Neal wasn't sure he believed it, but he could tell when a play for information wasn't going to pan out. ]

Were you... born a vampire?

No.

( the word is said slowly, quietly. he shakes his head. )

My mother...made us this way, myself and my siblings. She said it was for our protection but honestly, I'm not sure that was all it was. It's hard to get a straight answer out of him.

[ He studies Elijah in silence for a moment. ]

How old are you?

Old.

( don't worry, he plans on being more specific. he just couldn't resist. )

Over a thousand.

( he uses great moisturizer. )

[ Neal blinks.

Stares for a moment.

His brain may have just shorted out around the idea that this man has seen over 1000 years of history play out in front of him. ]

So you're telling me you saw the beginning of the last millennium.

That is what I'm telling you, yes.

( he's seen many, many things over the course of his life. sometimes, he finds them fascinating, sometimes, they're boring. but, he's seen them. )

I was born in 978AD, to be more exact. So yes, I am very old.

Where were you born? Where were you when the millennium changed? What's your favorite decade?

[ Sorry Elijah, he's off down this rabbit hole now. ]

I was born in Virginia. ( and yes, he knows he doesn't sound like he was born in virginia. it's a thing. you travel as much as he does and live as long as he has, you pick up accents along the way. )

When the millennium changed? ( elijah has to actually pause to think about that. had he been daggered in a coffin? ) France, actually. The Eiffel Tower. It was quite beautiful.

( he's definitely been to the eiffel tower at the change of the year but he doesn't think it had happened when the millennium changed. )

And I don't think I could choose my favorite decade. They were all interesting in their own way. If you're trying to get me to admit if I wore bellbottoms or something similar, that's not going to happen.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

when you think you hit send on a tag but it's just living in a tab forever

lmao happens all the time to me

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject