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

It slips out before he even knows what he's really going to say, but he has to use his voice again sometime. "Thanks." The words come out hoarse and rough, because, well, he almost asphyxiated again, but thanks to her, he's still here.

He doesn't hesitate, offering her his injured hand so she can inspect it. "You're a doctor?" He missed when she said as much earlier, but there's just something about her manner that reminds him of one.

Helen nods as she looks over his hand. "I am. Medical doctor, trained and studied at Oxford University. I own a private practice back home," she glances up with a bit of a smile. "You have some deep lacerations thanks to that show of yours. They may need stitches."

A frown. "It could be rather difficult in this light... although if you have some superglue we could use that."

That, more than anything else, gets Coulson's attention and causes him to try and be more attentive. "I have a friend here who could use your help." Yes, he's completely forgotten about his hand, because here's someone who might be able to help Daisy with her broken bones. It's not up to him to divulge her powers without her permission, so he leaves that part out.

"I know she's not here right now, but whenever we do get out- She has fractures in her arms, and I'm not sure how well they're healing." He has to stop to catch his breath and clear his throat, because all this talking is not as easy as it would be normally.

Belatedly, he realizes she made a comment about his hand. "Oh, about that last part, you just do whatever you have to, and I'll try to not punch any more mirrors from now on. And unfortunately, I don't have superglue with me." He even manages a small smile, and he adds: "I don't mind stitches as long as you don't leave a big scar behind."

It's meant to be a joke, because, well, he already has one of those. What's the harm in getting another?

She pauses, raising her head and tilting her head with the expression of an annoyed mother. "First, we have to get your hand situated. Then, we need to find a way out of this house. Once we have achieved that? I'll look into your friend. Can you stand?"

Helen laughs lightly at his comment. She stands slowly, one hand helping him, the other reaching down to grab her candle. "You may need to sport quite the battle scar. I'll do my utmost to keep people from knowing how the altercation with the mirror turned out."

That's a familiar expression; he's seen a version of it from a few people before, usually because he's not taking care of himself the way he should. But in his defense, there's always been a good reason for that. There's not so much of one now, however, so he figures he better not protest too much.

"I'm fine now, thanks to you. She lives in the boardinghouse, so once we do get out, I can take you there, if you're still up for it." He can't help but feel that the sooner she checks on Daisy, the better, but it's not up to him either.

"Well, it won't be the first time, and at least it gives me another story to tell," he replies as he awkwardly gets to his feet with her help. "I suppose you've patched up quite a few people in your time."

The boarding house. Helen hasn't seen that building yet. It must have been one of the several that had been hard to see through the snow. Still, she nods. They can perhaps arrange something once they've freed themselves from the house.

"Certainly. I'll give you the number to the home I'm staying at." Helen glances around them as they walk back to the kitchen. She moved all the medical supplies she found there. Better to centralize it in one room. "More than you could ever begin to count."

Once inside the kitchen she motions for him to sit at the breakfast bar. She places the candle on the counter beside his hand and goes to fetch the first aid kit. Also, a small sewing kit she had also located in one of the hallway closets. She sets them both side by side...

BANG.

Helen straightens and jumps slightly, looking at the doorway they had just come from.

The door is shut now.

"I always thought that to be a doctor, you had to be a special sort of person. It doesn't seem to be the kind of job that just anyone could do," he says as they make their way to the kitchen. Once there, he sits where she directed him to, and he waits while she gets things ready.

Suddenly, there's a loud bang, and he jumps and immediately regrets it. His already jangled nerves are still very much on fire, as if the broken glass had sliced more than just his hand, and the sudden movement lit them all up again.

"All right, that was unexpected." And that's putting it mildly. "Don't tell me we have ghosts here. Or did something actually come out of the mirror when I broke it?" That's an unsettling thought, and one that he really should have thought about before now.

"I would say you need an infinite amount of patience and the ability to communicate."

Helen puts her hand on his wrist to help settle him as well as keep it from moving more. There's a pause as she keeps her eyes on the door. Finally, she sighs and pulls over the paper towels. She sets it under his hand before moving the candle over.

"Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me? There seems to be shadows moving every now and again." She gently moves his fingers, checking to see where the glass may have shattered. "You have some rather large pieces and some smaller ones... well, you certainly were thorough. Now, do you mind telling me why you're incredibly brilliant idea was to punch the mirror?"

"And doesn't that come easier to some than to others?" He imagines it does, anyway. Speaking for himself, he tries to be calm and patient, but sometimes he just runs out of calmness and patience and throws caution straight into the wind.

"Sorry, I'm not very good at being a good patient," he admits finally, because if he had any choice at all, he'd just see to his own injuries rather than bother anyone else. Still, stitching the cuts on his hand closed on his own is probably too tall an order for him to manage with any sort of skill.

"Well, between you and me, I hope those shadows just stay shadows and don't do anything else." He's not sure what they'd do, exactly, but he doesn't really want to find out either. "It's embarrassing, but I spent most of the day trying to figure out what was making the mirror covers drop and get replaced, not to mention finding out exactly what's in the mirrors themselves, but like everything else around here, this place doesn't want to reveal its secrets."

He shrugs, forgetting his resolution not to move more than is necessary, and winces. "I got frustrated by the lack of results and lashed out at the mirror, and you saw what happened after that." Unfortunately. Not his finest hour by any stretch of the imagination.

"It does, which is probably why you find quite a few of us in these fields." Her head tilts to the other side as she continues to gauge the damage done. "I've had far worse."

Helen reaches over for the first aid kit and pulls out a pair of tweezers. There's a sad apologetic smile on her face before she starts to pluck the smaller pieces out. The big ones they'll worry about when she gets the needle and thread ready. It's not the most sanitary thread in the world, but, they have what they have.

"In my line of work? It is generally the things that are beyond the norm that cause things such as this. Surely, you've seen them too?" Helen nods to the edges of the room. "The shadows that have been moving -- I wonder if they were the ones in the mirror."

It sounded absurd, but...

" A mirror caused asphyxiation?"

"Quite a few of you with patience, good communication, and a steady hand?" He asks mostly for confirmation, because while he doesn't know her very well yet, he's watching as she picks up the tweezers and sets to work and can see for himself that at the very least, she has a steady hand.

If the removal of the pieces in his hand bothers him, he doesn't really let it show. They're just small pieces, after all; it'll be the larger ones that won't be so easily taken out.

"Of course. I saw them moving around right before I broke the mirror. Or, well, if not them, then definite shapes that could have become them." Either way, it's a pretty distinct possibility.

"Breaking the mirror must have let them loose, and they're the ones that did this." He'd move his hand to prove his point, but it seems like that would be a bad idea, considering she's digging into it with those tweezers.

"The other question is, where did they go? Did they find another mirror to go into?"

"You just need to find the right ones." Helen grins up at him and gives a quick wink. "Ghosts and phantasms are usually explained, in my world, by acts of things we have yet to explore. I would like to think that perhaps we could make contact with them, possibly learn something... but then someone broke the mirror."

Helen perked her eyebrows up with a knowing look at him. At least she was remaining playful.

"Or, they are no longer constrained by any mirror."

"It's the same where I'm from, more or less. We're making some headway in understanding it, but of course we haven't figured out everything." He chuckled at her last statement, though, recognizing the humor in it, and the playful sort of admonition. "I know, what was I thinking, right? But there's other mirrors. They could have just gone into those."

His expression turned thoughtful as he pondered that last statement of hers, however. "If that's the case, wouldn't we see more activity around here? Or at least, the effects of it? We don't really know what their intentions are."

"I very much hope we never truly learn everything. Otherwise, what left is there in the world?" She offered to his statement. "It's possible. However, without an escape route? I can't say it is a brilliant idea to go about smashing every mirror in the house."

Though, she was wondering how much it might benefit them if they could attempt contact. It would be egotistical to presume they could speak English or communicate the way humans did. Though, it might be worth a chance to simply start there.

"Perhaps they need to be more powerful in order to do more." She offered an explanation. "Or, possibly, we have been placed into their territory or domain without their consent."

She tilted her head to inspect if his hand had any smaller shards. With a tight smile, she gave a nod to her head to say she would be pulling the larger pieces out. Sadly she has nothing more than average over-the-counter pain killers to aid with it.

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