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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You can tell a lot about a man by going through his stuff, but Doc doesn't have much stuff to go through. Everything he has is borrowed, or acquired here, but not really his to call his own. Some clothes with a preference for more fitting trousers, a curated selection of library books about various topics spanning across the history of modern medicine, illustrated guides around boat construction, and hidden towards the bottom a few texts on post traumatic stress and parenting tips. Closer to the bed there are a couple of shirts in a heap probably designated as laundry, more empty bottles than anyone without a drinking problem should rightfully have, and a folded pillowcase draped over a bedside table lamp.

"I was across the road," he explains as he plucks the note from Malcolm's grasp and stuffs it into his back pocket. "I will put one there later. Let's take a look at your hand."

Doc gestures to the bed where Malcolm can sit on the edge, unzipping the duffel bag he'd salvaged from one of the Phillips Drive houses on his first few days here and retrieving the first aid kit.

"I was not hiding anything," he points out once they are both seated on the bed, though he doesn't quite make eye contact as he sets his hat aside and flips the lid on the first aid kit open.

"It-- occurred to me to leave a note. Should I not return one day." They had all just been whisked away for two days. The possibility of an indefinite trip next time is there, hanging unsaid in the tense air between them.

Malcolm sits where he's told, watching Doc carefully. Trying to figure out if he's mad at him for poking his nose in his business. He watches him retrieve the bag and the kit from the bag.

The cut into the meat and halfway around the side of his right index finger, just above the palm, isn't deep enough to consider stitches, but it's bled significantly enough to have saturated the wad of paper towel Malcolm has been holding in place with his thumb.

Gingerly, he pulls off the paper towel with his opposite hand and a hint of a wince.

"I got distracted when I was picking up the pieces."

He's about to ask if he missed some glass on the kitchen floor - Doc said he'd noticed - but then Doc speaks.

"You don't have to be hiding something for it not to be my business," he responded quietly. "You hadn't exactly pinned it on the bulletin board, either."

He watches the other man for a moment.

"I don't like the idea that you won't return one day," he confessed bluntly. "Unless it's because we're all going home. But. Even then. What if we could keep in touch?"

Well, it's an ugly cut, and one that may scar, but at least it's from a glass and not some rusted old piece of metal.

"I think you should leave the pieces on the floor, next time," Doc suggests gently with a frown, tilting that hand left and right to inspect the damage done. "We need to stop the bleeding first."

Tissues tend to leave little bits of torn paper behind so he opts for a clean handkerchief, wrapping it around Malcolm's hand and gripping it firmly.

"It was meant for Raylan." Which is not to say that he would consider Malcolm to be a set of prying eyes. Had Doc vanished and there were still four men living in this house, any one of them could have stumbled upon it.

"We could write each other, if we do return." But obviously Doc had written the note on the assumption that something untoward has happened to himself and Raylan and Malcolm were still here.

"There was no guarantee that I would have survived the museum. We have not yet had the opportunity to visit the willow trees together. I would have rather left some words than none at all."

Malcolm suddenly realizes that the museum visit rattled Doc more than he'd understood it to have, his gaze snapping back to his face.

And his thought in all of that, in the notion that what they found there might have killed him, was that Raylan be able to retrieve willow bark for Malcolm.

And saying good-bye.

"When I was trapped with Ellie in the boarding house the other day.... I told her I agreed with you. That whatever was in the museum was too dangerous to pursue. That any scrap of cryptic knowledge it might contain wasn't worth the lives of the people trapped here. She seemed... relieved to hear that."

After a moment he added "There are going to be people that try it. People who don't take other people's experiences seriously or... don't value their own lives or those of other people. But all we can do is protect everyone else, right?"

"It would bother me less if one man's recklessness led to his own demise. But if there is something in there or anywhere else that would be let out, that is a different matter which concerns us all." Doc is getting better at letting people reap what they sow, at letting go when people refuse to heed well-meant advice. It is not his business. It would not be his fault. But as much as he would strive to protect what they have, they cannot exist in a bubble inside this house or invite the whole town to stay with them. If something sweeps through the town they would be swept together along with it.

Gingerly unwrapping the handkerchief, when he notices the bleeding has stopped he gets to disinfecting the cut and ripping open some gauze packaging, getting it ready.

"This may sting." Although probably not much worse than how much the cut does.

"If I thought that there was truly something to be gained from a dangerous endeavour I would embark upon it myself. And I would ask neither you nor Raylan to take such similar risks. We must accept that anything can happen to any one of us at any time."

The sting of disinfectant doesn't bother him. It's sort of... refreshing, would maybe be the word for it. A sensation that wakes him up.

He hangs on Doc's words, though.

"Intellectually, I know you're right. On all counts. But... you have to know that we'd never let you take something like that on alone. We're all in this together. Something unexpected could happen to any of us, like the way we were kidnapped out of our beds the other night. We can't control that. But we can choose to be your friends when you need some. No lone wolves in the pack, Doc."

Throwing the used cotton pad away, Doc tapes the gauze over the cut, rubbing the tape down firmly onto the back of Malcolm's hand and palm.

"I do appreciate your kindness." He chooses to go at these things alone not because he does not think of them as friends or because he does not trust them, but because he cares for them and wants them to make it back to whence they had come from in one piece. He can only hope that they understand that rather than attribute it to an impulsive, careless, burning desire to die a stupid, needless death alone.

"I still believe it is better if a lone wolf dies than the whole pack going extinct. But I- will try to be better, at asking." For help, for company, for. Whatever it is he feels uncomfortable asking for.

Returning Malcolm's hand to his lap, Doc reaches into his pocket and pulls the note out again. It's started to get a little crumpled now.

"This is going back where you found it. Should I not return one day, know that I value our friendship. And that you can find this where you last found it."

"And give it to Raylan," he said solemnly, accepting the unspoken third part of the instructions. He gave Doc a little smile. "I value your friendship too," he said. "Thanks for..." He held up his hand and wriggled his finger.

"Or do not. It is up to you." He trusts Malcolm would know what is best to do in those circumstances, if the time comes.

"Did you want to get out of the house today? Two days cooped up indoors, you might want some fresh air and to stretch your legs." He is finished with what needed to be done next door.

"Perhaps we could go looking for those new houses we ended up in?" Doc suggests as he puts his hat back on and adjusts it. "Raylan's had whiskey..."

Raylan had taken Malcolm to town the previous afternoon, after his nap, to pick up some belts from the clothing store to improve his restraints after he broke one the night before they were taken. He’d spent the evening in his room, quietly working them into his system.

After the incident in the kitchen, he was eager to get outside the walls for a bit. Doc’s invitation brought an eager and pleased lift to his features.

“I’d like that,” he said, getting to his feet. “I’ll get my coat,” he told Doc, all but bounding out of the room.

It was a bit sad that he wasn’t comfortable going out there without a reliable escort, he knew. He was a grown man. But it was himself he was afraid of. He needed someone there that wouldn’t let anyone kill him if he broke a little. He wasn’t confident he could hide the cracks in him right now.

Doc had intended to go looking for those houses yesterday but he had gone to the museum first to make sure it was still sealed and bumped into Yennefer who was bleeding from an arrow wound, a most strange injury to have sustained from another time and place perhaps, and there had been no time for anything else after that.

Deciding that it would be better to bring the first aid kit with him, both in case something happens to himself or Malcolm or if he has another encounter with someone wounded like Yennefer, he borrows from the other kits to pad this one out before attaching it to his gun belt, along with his torch, knife and flathead screwdriver.

He'd only just come in from outside so he's more or less prepared to go, heading down and sidestepping the pendant light on his way to where he waits by the front door. Arranging the bottles of moonshine on the shelf can wait until after they're back.

Malcolm jumped off the stairs from three steps up, still pulling on the second sleeve of his coat, but shoes on his feet and sweater underneath it.

“Ready!” he called. “What part of town do you think we should try?” he asked as he drew up by Doc.

"I have checked the centre of town but did not make it far enough north yesterday," he muses as he pulls the door open, letting Malcolm out before he follows him out. If they haven't yet gotten sick of the snow they likely soon will, but this is picturesque and calm compared to the recent storm and blizzard. This is manageable.

"Wouldn't take us too long to do a walk around the perimeter of the place."

"So, I have a question," Malcolm said, zipping up his coat as they walked. "When you were in town, did you notice if anything was... different? Because I have a theory as to why they... crated us all up the other day."

"Different how? The buildings I had passed were the same, covered in more snow perhaps." The blizzard might have done some damage but he hadn't seen any drastic changes in the landscape.

"You know I would have thought that between the five of us at least one would have woken up if someone broke in and took us in the middle of the night."

“I don’t think it was as straight forward as physically coming in and taking us. I think I was awake. I woke up... pretty much the way I usually do. Except I’d fallen off the bed. I broke one of my restraints. Raylan stayed with me a little bit. Talked. I... wouldn’t have let myself go back to sleep with only one restraint,” Malcolm told him, glancing over. “They put us out somehow.”

"That would be convenient," Doc comments dryly. Something to put them under so easily. Take them from this house without even disturbing the rug. Put their coat and shoes on, even. That's perhaps the strangest violation of all - someone dressed them up like dolls and put them in little dollhouses away from each other, proceeded to do unsettling things to make them feel vulnerable, have them doubt their senses.

"So why do you think we were taken?"

Malcolm leaned towards him slightly, like he was telling secrets.

“What if they needed to do some kind of work on the town? To fix something or add something or change something. Work they couldn’t do remotely, the way they handle the food refills and... manipulating us. So they put us in crates for a couple days, like unruly puppies.”

"Right." Doc narrows his eyes slightly, averting his gaze, trying to think if he might have missed something. He has only surveyed the outside of some buildings, he hadn't gone inside to check if everything is still the same as it was before they had been taken from town. It would be impossible to track these changes unless they surveyed every single building they have access to thoroughly, make detailed notes or take too many photographs. There must be some easier way of tracking this - some way they could devise so that they would know if something had been disturbed somewhere.

"We would have to ask everyone, if they have noticed if anything has changed where they have been holed up at."

"Apparently, John hosted some sort of a meeting yesterday. I'll go check in with him later, see if anything interesting came out of it. And then maybe we can put something on the bulletin board asking people to inform us if they find any... irregularities like that," Malcolm suggested.

"I can't see why that would be a bad idea, but... Perhaps leave my name out of it, if you are to get any information out of Mister Constantine." They have not yet reconciled and he expects that John might not be as cooperative once the cowboy's name comes up in conversation, even if it is for the greater good of the town.

"I wasn't going to mention anyone else... but... why is that? Did something happen?" Malcolm asked, looking over curiously.

Malcolm's piercing blue eyes meet a softer, deeper shade of blue in Doc's and for a moment he contemplates shrugging it off and changing the subject before deciding that he would at least explain and still shrug it off, but let Malcolm ask any questions he might want to.

"We had an argument, before the weather worsened. He uninvited me from his residence. I do not wish to involve you or anyone else in our disagreement. Suffice to say, I assume he would tell you nothing if he thought I had any involvement in your inquiry."

"Ah," Malcolm said in understanding. "Well, he still might tell me nothing; he doesn't like me either. He says I ask too many questions."

He slid his hands into his pockets.

"There were weird noises in the attic and the basement at the boarding house. Do you think the people who live there are in danger? I've never heard things like that at our house."

"Men of our ilk," which is the only time Doc will admit to having anything in common with the Briton, "we do not much like personal questions." Asking too many questions is not necessarily a bad thing, especially for a lawman and investigator, but someone who accuses another of doing it is often taking those questions personally.

"I think you keep whatever might attack us at bay every night," Doc jokes glibly. "Wherever we were, we all heard strange noises on those nights we were taken. The one night I did spend at the boarding house three weeks ago, there were some distant voices and nonsensical chattering. Nothing untoward had happened then. Besides, nowhere is truly safe. I trust those staying there can protect themselves."

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