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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ it's called boredom, elijah. ]

Where would you buy the alcohol from? There's nothing h—

[ nothing out here in the customer-facing section of the bar. elena doesn't move, but her eyes do brighten just a little. she still feels a little ick, but having something to preoccupy herself with is bound to make her feel better. she's just bored, just as she's been since arriving here. ]

Bars have offices, right?

They have to get their food and other supplies from somewhere. Somehow, things are getting in here.

( so, there has to be an office somewhere. he nods and gestures her forward because there has to be some place where the owner would make orders, conduct business. )

There should be an office around here. There could be business records and such, if we're lucky.

( they probably wouldn't be that lucky. )

[ she highly doubts they will be lucky, but if they find an office, maybe she can see that it had been lived in and used and... maybe sit down. she doesn't want to be standing anymore. telling elijah that is a no go.

looking around, she keeps her arms wrapped around her and softly begins to make her way from the bar. a hint of alcohol would've woken her right up, but... maybe there'll be something in the office. ]

Maybe there will be a nameplate with an actual surname to prove that people here weren't just like Madonna.

[ she's a little mad the school reports she found lacked a surname for poor little simon. ]

Madonna? Is she still around?

( she's not really elijah's favorite thing so he barely keeps up with her. funny to hear that she's still around and still popular.

he sighs, moving slowly through the halls lest anyone sneak up on them. he keeps a hand on the wall, feeling for any irregularities or things that might indicate something hidden. )

Still with me?

( she's moving slowly but he's attributing that to just waking up in a strange place. )

[ does he live under a rock? then again, perhaps he does—it'd make sense given that klaus seems to enjoy piling a mountain of rocks around his siblings every now and again. does he also band them from watching television, from enjoying music?

she should ask, but... she lingers behind him and watches his back. she doesn't have to be alert when she brings up the rear—no one's looking at her to do so. ]

Mhm.

[ she lets out a sigh, unable to help herself. she doesn't feel any desire to give him a quip. ]

Not wearing any socks is uncomfortable.

[ that's not the only thing that is. the right side of her neck where klaus had drained her blood feels tight and uncomfortable. ]

I'm sure.

( elijah stops and turns bac to look at her, frowning. he thinks there's something else, something more and while he wants to ask, he doesn't want to push her.

he doesn't want her to completely shut down and close him out from whatever might be happening. )

Elena — ( he steps closer to her, still looking her over. ) What's the matter?

Nothing.

[ she shakes her head, brows furrowed tightly, and then she relaxes her face and gives him a small smile. ]

I'm fine.

[ her best practiced answer. sometimes elena thinks this is the one thing she was meant to get right—saying she's fine when she doesn't feel as much. ]

I'm just tired of waking up in strange locations. This time I'm missing pants.

( elijah's gaze goes down at that, unable to stop himself from looking at the lack of pants before he pulls his eyes back up. )

You and me both. Hopefully, this is just...a minor obstacle.

( a door finally reveals itself and elijah puts a hand on the knob, giving it a push. there's no respite from the noise but it is warm. )

Come on, let's see if this is the office.

[ with a deep breath in, elena follows him inside. it's definitely an office, although it seems more disorderly than the bar itself. maybe no one from the town has bothered to wander in here and clean it up.

with her hands in the pockets of her coat, she stands by the doorframe and looks around. now that there's no one who could potentially wander in and see her, she does let the coat fall open a bitt o show off her legs and the fact she's in a flannel button-up. ]

Can you smell anything?

Disuse.

( that's really all he can smell. it smells like no one's been in this room for quite some time. he can't smell dust or mildew but otherwise, he doesn't think anyone's been in here in awhile.

there's a desk in the center of the room that elijah steps towards, glancing over at elena as he does. )

There's a chair. You should sit.

( he doesn't know why but he thinks she might need that. )

I can stand.

[ she looks at him in amusement as she steps inside, ensuring to keep her spine straight and head tilted back despite feeling like sitting would be the best thing for her to do.

when she approaches the desk, she merely stands, brushing her fingers against the wood as she looks at the papers (useless) and pens.

she sighs, disappointed. ] This place is just a town of dead ends.

This isn't a dead end. Not yet.

( elijah moves to sit in the chair since elena won't and starts opening drawers and looking through the detritus on the desk. there's nothing really of note that can see but he wants to find something — anything.

there was little in the drawers but he does pull out what looks like another discarded bottle of alcohol. this one does have some dust on it. )

The owner liked imbibing of their own stash, I see.

[ she gives him a small smile, hovering near his right hand side. she taps her fingers against the table, inhaling deeply and as quietly as she can. turning to her side, she rests her hip against the corner of the desk. ]

Does that surprise you?

[ she doubts it. he'd have seen many bars and many bar owners drink from their own supply before. ]

I feel like that's the only thing we're going to find here.

Not at all. I went through a phase where I owned a bar and oftentimes dipped into my supply while working.

( elijah taps the bottle before he sighs, standing up and looking around the other items in the room. )

There's nothing here. I suppose we should try and find the front door now.

( they're finding nothing in here so time to look elsewhere. )

You owned a bar?

[ elena doesn't push herself off from the desk, resting her palm flat against it. she regards him with an amused arch to her brow and a small smile. picturing elijah as a bar owner or anything similar to coyote ugly is amusing to her. learing all these bits about him makes her envious and in awe of the fact he's lived such a long, long life. ]

Was it one where you had to wear suits or else you were denied entry?

It was a long time ago, I don't remember the dress code. It was a passing fancy while I was waiting for Niklaus to calm down from one of his tantrums.

( and yes, that sometimes takes years. decades, even. he's a very paranoid, tempermental individual. )

But, what's in the past is in the past. We need to focus on what we're doing here and now.

Hasn't this place shown you that the past is important, though?

[ she hesitates in lifting her hand from the desk and stepping away from it. she should've sat down, but her stubbornness refused to let her.

the past has played a very pivotal role in the reason why they're here, at least. thinking about it makes her head hurt. she can't recall when she'd put her glass of water somewhere, but it's not with her now. ]

We can't move forward here without looking back first.

This part of my past isn't important. A few years as a bar owner is not going to be the answer to any riddles about this place.

( he moves towards the door and opens it, waiting for her to step by him and out. he thinks that it will also give him a good look at elena to make sure she's telling him the truth when she says she's all right. )

And I'd rather not look bac at my past right now. There's very little that's good there.

[ thinking nothing of it, she walks through the door, more slowly than she usually does. she keeps her hands in the pockets of her coat and lets out a breath, her shoulders sagging beneath the heavy fabric. she doesn't feel as motivated or filled with energy as she has over the past few days since waking up here. all she wants to do is sit down, put her head in her hands and mope a little. ]

But this place has a past. You have to be open to exploring it, Elijah.

Elena.

( his voice is low and stern as she passes him and once she's out of the room, he shuts th door and steps closer, reaching out for her arm. )

Tell me what's wrong.

( though she might be trying very, very hard to maintain herself, he can see that something is off. she's moving slow, she looks tired, and she's brushing him off.

something isn't right. )

[ a little sigh escapes her. ] Nothing's wrong.

[ knowing she needs to turn around and face him, she does just that. lifts her arms up, lets them slap back down. she slides her hands into the pockets of her coat and curls them into tight fists. the last thing she wants is for elijah to join the party of people who worry about her and do stupid things that put themselves at risk for her. mathias is her second chance at doing things right, of doing things the proper way.

she licks her bottom lip and says breathily, ] Other than the fact that we've been put in this place without remembering it. Like I told you.

[ isn't that enough? ]

I think you're lying to me.

( he's almost certain of it, in fact. he doesn't want to push this but if elena is going to run herself ragged when she's not at one hundred percent, he's going to tell her that he notices.

he doesn't want to wake up one morning and find her unresponsive in her bed. she won't let him give her his blood so he has to rely on her telling him the truth.

and he doesn't think she is. )

Elena, please.

I think we should go find food.

[ she looks away and then back at him. she thinks they should find food; she'll feel better and he'll feel better. doesn't a shared meal always make someone feel better? (and having a plate to hide behind and food to stuff into her mouth will mean she can avoid being seen and heard.) ]

That might help us think and... open doors. [ with a small smile, she teases, ] You need sustenance for that, Elijah.

Very well.

( food. he supposes that's a good idea considering they don't know how long this is going to last and food in this town isn't plentiful.

he sighs, wishing this was easier. new orleans is sometimes an unpalatable place but elijah knows it and he's not always on his back foot.

here, he is. )

Did you see anything that looked like a kitchen when we were talking?

[ elena nods. ] Mhm.

[ with a sweep of her hand, she gestures for him to follow her. she doesn't know the way around town, let alone a building she's never been to, but she thinks that the big doorframe to the left hand side of the bar might lead into a kitchen. it's just a hunch after spending so much time at the grill.

walking by the bar, she feels better—if only because she has a purpose in mind. ]

I hope it's like the General Store. [ she peers over her shoulder at him. ] You can take things from there today and they're back there tomorrow.

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