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

I'd say lots of room to grow in but.. Rich, anyway, [He comments back just as casually. He knew Vanderbilt University, knew the story of the family and money that had built it and could only assume that Five was talking about the same people.

Raylan liked his kneecaps and he'd hate to have to make jokes about Five chewing them off.]

Outta the five I got? 1951 is the oldest, 1990 the lastest. Place that's been around this long normally got more to show for it then.. what, the Town hall? That's the oldest building in town currently, right? All this has gotta predate that...

Sure, [ same vein of people, anyway, though five can't claim to know the people who built vanderbilt. just that reginald hargreeves had too much similar sensibilities of taste. ] I left it pretty young, but I'm sure the rest of my wayward siblings can attest to it being still a bit too small. Between us, and Dad's ego. [ listen, maybe out of the rest of his siblings, he understood some things about reginald that the others didn't. maybe he missed out growing up with him and hating him for the next twenty off years before reggie murked himself the first time. but he also knew reginald to be too proud of a man. it was never about fatherhood.

what is this conversation.

he turns his attention back to raylan, more engaged now, as soon as the topic of dates is broached. an unhealthy relationship indeed, narrowed gaze cast to the maps again. ] And 1702 is the earliest here. So we can assume it was actually founded sometime in the late 17th century. [ since maps aren't drawn in a day. ]

[ was the town hall the oldest? he didn't actually know, or maybe didn't focus enough on the architecture to consider it until now. ] It would make sense - settlements usually like to get their government buildings up quick. Government, libraries and - [ a thought strikes him. wasn't someone else asking about churches, earlier on? ] - religion? One thing we're missing from the classic mix of cliches.

House that large, musta been a m-i-ghty big ego, [He said, drawing out the word mighty into more syllables than it needed as he looked over, studying the small sharp angles of Five's face. Did this kid ever really have baby fat? Raylan was sure that he had but..

Hellva jawline for a 13 year old.]

By at least a hundred years, considerin'. [Considering how long it took to build a full town to the point of needing such municipal amenities. Especially back then. He assumed Five was smart enough to catch up on all that, with the thoughtful list he'd just laid out.]

We need to look for flagstones. Keystones too. Builders leave their marks there.. The government they built seems to be pretty crap if you ask me, [Raylan continued, face tilting down a fraction and growing darkly thoughtful with it.] since we've yet to find the suggestion of a jail. [He inhaled and looked over, one finger gesturing from a relaxed wrist at nothing in particular as he rambled.] What if they didn't need one? What if.. they dealt with those that didn't.. fall in line a certain way? Like hill folk.

[ he shrugs to that, seemingly in agreement. and five really is all sharp angles, exacerbated by the habits of an old man shoved into the crooked, growing frame of a thirteen year old. ]

Yeah, I'd say that's not unreasonable. [ he agrees, maneuvering himself around the room to try and find a larger piece of paper. When he does, it's from a stack of black letter paper, tucked conveniently to the side. he sets to writing the dates out again, in order. The very first one he writes above the rest is 1610, approx. After that, all the buildings that were rattled off. ] Yeah - once the storm passes, we have to make sure to try and find that. It couldn't have been earlier than 1600s - New England wasn't settled earlier than that.

[ a curious glance up at Raylan's glowering thought. didn't doc mention he was a 'lawman'. he shrugs. ] What, like throwing them into the ocean? Exile? [ this wasn't an episode of survivor, five. ]

With the way things have been going, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they did something like sacrifices. [ because why not! ]

[Raylan watched Five move sidelong, still very curious about his whole entire gig. Sharp mind, sharp enough to be drawing equations all over his wall. Klaus had said it was Five's story to tell - Raylan wondered if he would.]

You know when New England was settled? [Impressive.

Raylan shrugged at the question and the following suggestion.] Cult was my first guess when I got here and I'm stickin' with that. Least til I'm given somethin' better to work with.

[He ambled lazily into the middle of the room.] Threw 'em down a mine maybe, bloodlet them out in the woods or somethin' which really.. just brings me back to cult. Ocean is too free, too.. busy. Exile comes back to haunt a place. Oh maybe they kicked out a soul or two, important ones that didn't insult enough to call for such kinds of measures but..

Things get weird in small towns. Somethin' went wrong here, just a matter of us figurin' out what.

Yeah. I've read history books. [ between dad, filling the time reading in the apocalypse, and the commission, you learn quite a lot about dates. even if he won't explain the equations unless prompted.

besides his chicken-scratch notes, he writes cult?. ] Honestly, seems pretty likely, looking at it that way. I thought differently, when we all just go there, but the more we find, the more cultish all of this feels.

[ five nods along in agreement, watching the other man pace around the room, listing all the possible ways to get rid of the bodies. ] You seen a trace of mines here?

Bloodletting in the woods does sound like the most efficient one, out of all of them. [ he almost mentions the graveyard he found but - but that was a personal taunt, and one he doesn't feel like explaining for now. maybe at a later point. like talking about it would make it more real. ]

...and if they were a cult, what the hell were they worshipping? [ he waves a hand, as though to emphasize the room. ] And following that logic, that just makes this place feel like a club, or a headquarters.

[ which brings him to an interesting point: .] Might want to start checking the shelves for hidden compartments. [ he's 100% serious. ]

New England is a pretty specific kind of readin' unless you're lookin' at the forming of the country, [Raylan back over the walls.]

Nothing else 'sides religion, cults and secret societies use the kinda symbols we've seen around this place. It's laid into the buildin's themselves. Like.. Blessings maybe.. Or curses.

[ Now Raylan started looking at the ceiling, grateful for once that he didn't have his hat - Looking straight up was a problem sometimes.] Back to flag and keystones. How big would they be at the big bad clubhouse?

[ Hazel eyes drop back down and narrow at Five at his last comment, amusement playing at the edges of his lips.] How's someone like you know about somethin' like that?

[Serious? Oh Raylan was there with him on that - he'd been learning about this kinda stuff since he was younger than Five.]

Well, I had a lot of time on my hands. [ he shrugs. what, it's not that weird! ] But, it's basic US history, isn't it?

[ he makes a face, at that. blessings or curses aren't exactly something he believed in, for all the insanity that was too common place in his life. superpowers, time assassins, klaus conjuring the dead? sure, fine.

he usually drew the line on superstition, if only because he had enough real bullshit to concern himself with. but confronted with this now, secret societies did tend to have their fair share of superstitious symbolism. every cult had a symbol, ~~right klaus~~. ] Great. Cursed houses. Just what we needed. We're not going to be expected to make any sacrifices to the mirrors or something, will we. [ he doesn't think this is a serious question, but now that he says it...]

Well, flagstones would either be on the exterior brick, or foundation stones. We could see if there's a basement?

[ he laughs, a humourless, dimples chortle. ] Good old Dad had a knack for paranoia.

I don't think your definition of 'basic US history' and Kentucky's are the same. [He couldn't help but scoff a laugh at the suggestion, the IDEA that caring about how New England was founded or anything else much more desperately important. All shade to Kentucky.]

And I wouldn't say that out loud either. Don't want to be givin' this place ideas. Glad to know I'm not the only one seein' shit in 'em. I spent about ten minutes losing my mind before I found the whiskey. [Whiskey does make everything better.]

Basement.. Wine cellar.. Doors into tunnels under the house maybe. I'd expect some dramatic shit like that, place lookin' like it is. [He glanced around.] Maybe you better lead the way on that one, I don't even know what you need two studies for.

It was probably more like it was Dad's definition. [ he wouldn't call himself a history buff, aside from the necessity of time and year awareness. the shade to kentucky is noted, though, raylan. ]

I think we've jinxed it all to high heaven as it is. [ still, he doesn't allude to any more sacrifices, as per request. ]

I wouldn't be surprised by a hidden door either, but right now, I'm more interested in what we can find inside. [ he happily veers himself out into the hall, a quasi-laugh in his throat. ] Oh, you don't? One for the secret cult plotting and one for the business meetings, obviously. [ he's mostly joking. ]

Homeschooled then, huh? I'd say tough breaks but I doubt that's the same either, considerin' you're spouting New England history. [The long and short of it was that he was impressed and felt no pity for whatever for the circumstances that put Five there.

Not that he really knew them anyway.

Scoffing a breathy almost laugh, Raylan followed along side Five, pace almost meandering no matter how Five was walking. Three miles of legs did that to a gait.]

Nah, we held our cult meetin's out in the fields, or the local bar. Course, that's the cult of Christianity in rural America, but you get too far outta town, they get a little old worldly.

Under a house counts as inside so long as it's connected. Speakin' of, the few doors I tried on the way by seem to be locked. Without tearin down and hauling around the skeleton keys, we better hope for a hidden door. Least that shouldn't have a lock to get through. Suppose we could pick it, if we had a bobby pin or two.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

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i had to remember new england history for this thread ahahah

WORK. THAT. BRAIN.

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