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

"Eh, time doesn't seem to mean much around here, but it was two days ago," he replied with a sympathetic little pull of his smile as he secured Malcolm onto the bed. "Past couple of days have been a lot for everyone. It's alright. You want me to sit in here with you while you go to sleep? Give you some company to drift off with?"

Malcolm was just settling in at the offer, which made him lift his head.

“Y-you’d stay?”

He let his head fall back on the pillow to look less eager.

“I’d like that,” he admitted. A pause and he looked over. “Did you at least get a couple good night’s rest without all my noise?” he joked weakly.

Raylan nodded as he stood up, smile still playing along his lips. "If you want me to. Wouldn'ta offered otherwise." At Malcolm's question, Raylan huffed as he stepped back to sit down on the floor, knees propped up to support the wrist he draped over them.

"Not really. Even with good whiskey, the scratches and bumps in the night were enough to keep anyone from peace. Not to mention the shit with the mirrors. I'd elaborate but.." He gestured at Malcolm and the bed he was on. He didn't know if it was best just before sleep, considering.

"I worried about you. You and everyone else. I'm worried about when it's gonna happen again." Because he knew, somehow, it would. "But we're back now. That's all that matters."

Malcolm rolled half onto his side, so he could see Raylan over the side of the bed, the bungees making a faint noise where they rubbed against each other as he moved.

He couldn’t stifle a yawn, though. Laying down here, in warmth and safety, was doing the trick.

“I hoped you guys weren’t gone,” he admitted. A pause. “Do... you think the dishes will just be magically fixed for the people who live in the boarding house? Maybe everything that happened... didn’t happen.”

The yawn was good, Raylan thought. Meant Malcolm was settling in.

He offered a soft smile over at him. "Maybe. But I don't know that I'd want what I did so easily wiped away. Slippery slope to things not meanin' anything. If they're mad about some dishes, they got bigger problems that don't have anything to do with you. It's alright."

Malcolm really considered that for a moment.

“I never thought about it like that,” he murmured sleepily. After a beat, a softer “It was a lot of dishes,” followed and then he was still.

It was almost three and a half hours before he started thrashing and hollering.

It was still okay. If anyone came to the house to start some shit over it, Raylan and Doc would handle that too.

Raylan waited til Malcolm was asleep before getting up to pad away long enough to grab a book and returning to lean against the side of the bed as he waited. He knew Malcolm might fall into a nightmare at any point, or wake himself up and Raylan didn't want him to be alone. That was the whole point of this nap anyway.

The first thrash had Raylan startling and he dropped his book carelessly as he pushed his ass up onto the bed, wincing internally at the pitch of terror that Malcolm always had. "Hey Malcolm, hey hey," he started, one hand slipping around Malcolm's neck as he used the leverage from his forearm to help half pin that shoulder as his off hand started fumbling the belt off. He remembered too sharply the panic that came with that too.

"Wake up," he continued, voice taking on a little more weighty steel of command as Malcolm strained up against him.

Malcolm pushed and then pulled, trying to fight against whatever force his brain thought was attacking.

"Why are you here?" he protested. "What do you want from us? What do you..." His body twitched and he screamed.

Suddenly something in him clicked as he stilled and his eyes snapped open, his gaze darting around until it landed on Raylan's face, so close by. His touch registered and Malcolm let out a shaky breath, scanning Raylan's face and then his shoulder and then his arm.

"Did I hurt you?"

He couldn't help but be curious as to who or what was haunting Malcolm's head so insistently but all those questions were held back until those too blue eyes were open and solidly on his.

"It's okay," Raylan started with a shake of his head, shifting the belt the rest of the way off Malcolm's wrist as he pulled back to a proper sitting position. "No injuries to report, sir," he gently teased with a faint pull of his lips. "You got a good three hours, I'm almost shocked."

Malcolm laughed, letting his head fall back again as Raylan sat up.

"Well. You know. After two whole days, a full night's sleep is on the agenda," he joked. Sort of. Because that pretty much was a full night's sleep for him.

He lifted his bungee'd wrist and began undoing it with his now free hand.

"I keep seeing... that Shadow Man. From across the chasm. I saw him in the kitchen at the boarding house. I saw him in my sleep just now, here in the house."

He let the bungee cords go once they were off his wrist and propped himself up on his elbows to look at Raylan properly. "Do you think the town is doing that to me or do you think my own imagination just... was creeped out by him and is running rampant?" A beat and a scoff of a laugh. "I'm trying to decide if I've traded up or down from my father."

"I imagine so. Longest I ever stayed up was four days and I wasn't worth my weight by the end of it." And he didn't have any spooky head shit messing with him, so he could really, only imagine.

Raylan propped one hand outurned on his knee, face pinching in concern before he glanced over the bed and towards the closet. No, no shadow man here, though Raylan half expected to see something scuttering out of the corner of his eye again, a large part of him still unsettled by quiet corners and mirrors. Over the next couple of days, he'd start covering any mirror he passed regularly, going so far as to tear a sheet a little at each corner to tuck it over the wall mounted sheet mirrors in the Master bathroom.

"My bet right now? After that shit of the last few days? Little from column A, little from column B," he admitted with a curl of his features in amusement for a moment before falling back into a more serious soft concern.

"You okay?"

He was clearly about to say he was fine, already starting a half-hearted nod, but he stopped a let out a shaky breath.

"I thought maybe you were gone," he said quietly.

Raylan shifted and gestured. "Scoot over," he said, turning to lay down onto his side to face Malcolm, head propped up on his hand. It was impulse, pure and simple, but it put him on Malcolm's level. Equally valuable, in its own way.

"The nightmare or while we were all gone?"

He could almost hear John Constantine mocking him now. Next you'll be curlin' his hair and paintin' your nails. He pushed that sound from his head, best he could, focusing instead on Malcolm's answer instead of the churn in his chest.

Edited 2021-01-15 02:38 (UTC)

He scooted as requested, making room for Raylan alongside him, watching his face until he suddenly felt like he was staring and looked down at his elbow instead.

"While we were all gone. Why was I in the boarding house? It... felt like... we were the only ones left, maybe. They put us in one central place because we were the only ones left."

In this case, it was okay if Malcolm started. They were face to face on a bed after all. Nevermind how painfully aware Raylan was of how far apart they were.

"Maybe it was givin' you a break from the hell. Even if that's.. not really a break for you, I get that. Who knows how aware whatever is behind this is. Could as be that you'd be pushed into bein' an agent of chaos in a place not.. I don't know. Suited to withstand it. My question is, why displace all of us, in that case? Then again, as little as we know, maybe it put you there to bother you more. Starve you from your resources, your coping mechanisms, your comforts, however few they are here."

Malcolm's eyes lifted back to his face.

"It has occurred to me.... they bring people here from different... dimensions or whatever you want to call it. Even different planets. They refill the food 'magically'. They refill the cigarettes magically. It's well within their means to provide my medication. They just don't. Not even in the medical clinic. Also... when I was there with Doc, I took some rubber gloves. They weren't refilled when I went back." When he got trapped. "The stuff in the clinic doesn't come back." Not that it was super useful or anything. "They pick and choose." He took a breath and pressed his lips together. "And then they put me in a house with other people and no restraints. Maybe they want me to hurt someone. We got everything... under control without me hurting anyone after I got here and then they... put me in that situation again. What if they want me to hurt someone?" He leaned forward slightly with frightened wide eyes. "I almost hurt Negan," he whispered urgently.

"Hey," Raylan said, reaching over to grab Malcolm's shoulder gently. "You mighta almost hurt him, but you didn't, did ya?" This time.

God, all he wanted to do was pull Malcolm in and wrap him up. For now, he resisted. Laying down had been a mistake, but he was here now and leaving would only cause questions and harm.

"Maybe they do. I can't say that's not a valid theory," he admitted quietly. "Might be somethin' to keep in mind when things are gettin' bad. Take the measures you gotta take.. But if you do, if that happens-" He couldn't lie and say it might not, not at this rate. "-We're not gonna let anything happen to you, you know that, right?"

Malcolm chewed his lip, nodding.

"But they made sure you weren't there," he pointed out. "I'm not... I've met the Deans and Johns of this town. If I lose it on the wrong person, they're going to kill me." For all that he considered just... falling off the lighthouse stairs, he was mostly sure - most of the time - that he didn't want to die. "I have to... I have to keep it under control."

Raylan clucked under his breath and relented to himself and the situation, shifting his head propping arm out as he pulled Malcolm in. He couldn't do anything about the Deans or the Johns of the town except kill them first and that was NOT on the sanest person's agenda.

No, nothing he could about that but what he could do was deal with the now.

"Then you'll come back. And we'll all know you did your very best to not lose it, and welcome you back in." Unless Malcolm didn't come back at all. That would be markedly worse.

Malcolm squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his face into Raylan’s shoulder as he pulled him into an embrace. Some tension eased out of him and he let out a shaky breath, gripping the back of that same shoulder for dear life.

“Not all the dead come back,” he murmured numbly. “We don’t know what happens when someone gets murdered by another one of... us. I don’t want to be part of finding out.” Neither as the killer nor the victim, no matter how unintentional.

"I don't either," he promised. "But for what it's worth, John and Dean ain't gonna kill you. They might get a little rough with you, gettin' you under control, but they're reasonable." He could smell the faint traces of the last time Malcolm showered in the hair tucked into his shoulder and he squeezed Malcolm gently before pulling back a fraction to look in his face.

"John I understand. But Dean? What'd he do?"

“He didn’t... do anyth... I mean, he was a bit... aggressive when I pulled him out of the snow so he wouldn’t freeze, but. It’s more that he... kills monsters. And if I’m out of my mind and violent... what does that make me?” he pointed out quietly.

"It makes you a man out of your mind and violent. Not a monster." Raylan wasn't going to run around or feed Malcolm any bullshit. He could be a real threat if he was too far gone. Staring at those too captivating blue eyes, he was surrounded by them, another urge rose; this one to cup Malcolm's face and wipe away some of the fearful concern on it. He knew it would work.

He knew he shouldn't. It was taking advantage and he'd already bent far enough for one day, laying here almost intimately with the smaller man. He also knew he shouldn't think about it too much, otherwise, he'd cave and leave in a quiet self doubt and loathing.

"And they both know that's not really you. I can't say it for fact, but I think Dean's much more likely to knock you out and tie you up than kill you.... You're not a problem to be solved." Nevermind how Raylan would react to it, that was. Something different all together.

It did work. Of course it worked. His eyes fluttered a moment at the touch, his grip on Raylan’s shoulder tightened unconsciously a fraction.

Could Raylan hear his heartbeat? It felt like it was thundering in his throat all of a sudden.

But after a moment of soothing voice and grounding touch, everything smoothed out through a shaky breath.

“...Negan said I have an impressive swing,” he admitted with a breath of a laugh. “He wasn’t even mad.”

He could feel it jackhammering under the edges of his last two fingers, echoing a similar jump in his own heartbeat. What was he doing, enjoying the way Malcolm's eyes fluttered under his touch? He had to stop.

"See?" Raylan smiled crookedly and withdrew his hand back to settle over the thickest part of Malcolm's forearm. "I think he's seen some shit too. How'd he get you to calm down and see straight?"

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