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

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked at Negan for a moment, then pushed to his feet, surveying the swath he'd cut through the kitchen for the first time.

".........Oh."

He looked at Negan again. "I'll take care of it. You... you're really doing more than you have to already."

What with vowing to ensure he doesn't hurt anyone or... himself.

The least Malcolm could do was sweep up his carnage.

[vampirebats]

He waves that off, shaking his head. "You sure? It'll go faster with the two of us working."

Not like he minds having something to do, really. He's going insane trapped in this place, not knowing what's coming, not doing anything.

"Don't worry about that. You can pay it back by having my back if I ever need it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm watched him for a second.

"I would do that anyway," he said quietly. "But thank you," he added. He cast around until he found a cupboard that seemed promising and found a broom and a dustpan. He held them out. "Sweep or pick up?"

[vampirebats]

"No problem." There's a short grin that he throws Malcolm's way before he goes for the broom.

"I'll sweep, you pick up." And then they can go back into the main area and pretend nothing strange happened at all. No one has to be the wiser... unless somebody really needs a plate anyway.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm followed him around the kitchen, sweeping up broken ceramic and glass and dumping it into the garbage bin under the sink.

Once they were done, he took the broom back from Negan and tucked it back into the closet before turning to the other man.

"Thank you," he said. "For your help."

He wasn't talking about the sweeping.

[vampirebats]

Negan pauses at that thanks and shakes his head. "Hey, like I said, don't worry about it. People who don't stick together, who aren't willing to work together usually end up dead in my experience."

And because it's getting too damn serious, he gives a wide grin as he shrugs his shoulders. "Be a shame if I let you wreck a perfectly good kitchen after all, or that pretty face of yours. Glass was fucking flying, man. Bet you'd be great with a bat. Were you a sports guy back home?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nodded at Negan’s first comment; he was concerned that could be their experience too, if the group’s tentative unity fractured.

His next observation surprised Malcolm and he laughed.

“Not baseball, no. But... squash, fencing... a little competitive axe throwing,” he explained in all seriousness. He also took ballet as a kid, but he did not volunteer that to large, very tough men.

[vampirebats]

"Competitive axe throwing? Now how the fuck do you get into that?" Yeah, alright, ballet would probably earn some additional ball busting. But all the rest? Nah, axe throwing sounds kinda bad ass.

[abrightboy]

"Well, initially? It's a sport that you can do without people wanting you on a team," he admitted. "But it's good exercise and a lot of fun. And I collect antique weapons, so I have my own axes to practice with. At the club where I was learning and practicing it, they put up flyers for a competition and... I love a little friendly competition, so I entered it."

[vampirebats]

"Jeez. Not one the guys picked, huh?" From the sounds of it, at least. Probably an odd kid. He was an odd adult, for damn sure. Not that Negan minded odd, generally.

"That sounds cool as shit, the weapons collection." Would have been helpful where he came from. Guns weren't always practical, or available.

[abrightboy]

A weird loner with trust issues was what he was. The kid whose dad was a famous serial killer, who people only talked to out of morbid curiosity.

"It's great; I have a seventeenth century Japanese katana, a matching pair of scimitars, sixteenth century flintlock dueling pistols, a thirteenth century morning star and a set of ninth century Norse broad-bladed axes, among other things. The craftsmanship on antique weaponry is impressive. No mass production; everything carefully made by hand," he enthused.

[vampirebats]

"That is cool as shit." No joking, no teasing. Negan is one hundred percent impressed with that sort of collection.

"Do you know how to use that shit or are they for show while you throw around axes?" Probably too expensive to play with most of it though, in retrospect.

[abrightboy]

"Oh, I know how to use them. I was on the fencing team in college. Other types of swords aren't hard to figure out from there. Scimitars, for example, are front-heavy. The balance is weird. It takes some practice to learn how to compensate for that when you're wielding," Malcolm explained.

[vampirebats]

"Man, you could've been so useful back where I come from. Ammos running out for the guns and they draw the dead in too quick anyway. Shit that's quiet is what works the best." Not that he thinks Malcolm belongs in his world. He wouldn't want to subject anyone to that shit.

"Hell, you could be useful around here too, if we ever find proper goddamn weapons. If we ever need to fight..."

[abrightboy]

"I hope it doesn't come to fighting, but if it does, I'll help. We don't know what's on the other side of the fog," Malcolm pointed out. "For all we know, it will come to that."

[vampirebats]

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves on that one, alright?" Mostly because if they've got to fight, then that means some of them won't make it out. It's just the way wars work and he doesn't want to think about the lives lost if they're not prepared enough.

"We'll kick its ass if it does come to that."

[abrightboy]

"That's probably a wise way to look at it," Malcolm conceded.

Nobody wanted more death on top of what had happened already.

"If we do ever find some axes or hatchets, though, I'd be happy to show you how to throw them."

[vampirebats]

"Oh, I am holding you to that." Because that sounds fucking delightful.

"Show me some of those cool as shit skills."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughed.

"It's a good workout, too. Maybe we'll get enough people together to start the Mathias Axe Throwing Club," he said.

[vampirebats]

"Hey, it'd give folks something to do." He lets out a laugh. "You big on exercise? Should I be keeping an eye out for any Malcolm Bright yoga classes?"

[abrightboy]

"You're welcome to join me any morning," Malcolm told him lightly. "I find it really helps to... focus the mind."

[vampirebats]

Yeah, he's not sure he needs help focusing his mind, generally speaking, but-- "You know what, I'll take you up on that. Even if you make me do downward dog or whatever the fuck it is you do."

... And he'll probably make it the least peaceful morning routine Malcolm's ever had with his inability to be quiet for five minutes, but hey. He gave the invite.

[abrightboy]

"We will definitely be doing downward dog."

Maybe it wouldn't be peaceful, but maybe it would be fun.

"And a bunch of other poses. We'll do a whole sun salute," Malcolm told him with a grin. "Say hello to the new day."

[vampirebats]

"You're lucky I might kinda like you, Malcolm, because I gotta say, I don't go downward dog for just anybody. Especially not without a few drinks in me."

It'll be a lot of fun, if Malcolm can deal with him cracking jokes and maybe falling on his ass. He's not in that bad of shape, but he can't say he's a yoga master.

"Man, that sounds like some premium hippie shit."

[abrightboy]

"No, I guess the apocalypse isn't a safe space to stick your ass in the air," Malcolm admitted with a smirk. "But it is definitely some hippie shit," he allowed. "So come see me in the livingroom whenever you want to give it a try."