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

[fika]

[ its his staple! if he isn't crotchety, you should be worried!

but, it's a curious thing. it is a long list that strike the cord of irritation in five, to be sure. that isn't a surprise. but one of them? its giving up.

he knows a little something about being stuck without a way out. he know what it feels like to be holding on to hope instead of fact, and let it be the only thing that keeps you going in your darkest hours, when even your sanity starts to show hairline fractures.

he made it, though. made a couple of deals, got his hands stained blood-red while doing it, but he made it. a high-stakes game of chess.

here? he had equally enough to fight for, between the all-out war on the powers that be in Mathias, to helicopter-momming klaus, to making sure that this place didn't decide to fuck with the rest them (especially the handful of faces that make up his inner circle). he's one determined son of a bitch, and john's answer, no matter where it stems from, inspires a frown. ] And what happened to summoning the great big bad whatever speech you gave at the very beginning?

[ his arms thrown out by his sides. ] Yeah. Exactly. Names, photographs, documents. Someone is running this shitshow, and all I know is that if we keep making enough noise, they're going to hear it, and make a mistake.

[hellblaze]

[ just like if john ever starts being quiet and sullen? people should worry. they understand each other's normal habits!

he hasn't quite given up. john just knows when to take the down and get a bit of r&r. the fact john henry also placed a good jab into the one thing he takes pride on? well, that's doing a bit of a dance on his confidence. on top of the fact zed and daisy had been missing, he had been dead and returned. it all was a bit much on his mind and he just... needed a day or two to get it all sorted. ]

Well, Mathias isn't in much of a rush to give us her secrets. Why should I rush her?

[ the comment sounds as if it's cynical and jabbing, but his tone is much different. it's searching, almost as if asking if there's someone else that is not only fed up as he is, but still wants to figure out what happened in this town. just a bit of a nudge. ]

Town Hall hasn't got a lick of information about the people here before us. Maps? [ john gestures to the keys on the wall. ] My guess is they won't be much of anything that is newer to the town. Keys? Well, there's plenty of locked doors in this place and a few of them to try.

Did you consider, mate, that they want the noise being made? [ it's an honest question. he's far from annoyed or angry. ] Suppose It gets off on all this. What do we do next?

[fika]

Why should you rush — [ five scoffs, face scrunched as he looks at john like he grew three heads. ] Jesus Christ, are you serious? Because, John, complacency is the worst thing you can do with a place that already has everyone by their goddamn throats!

[ five is fed up, of course he is. and maybe that manifests itself in ways different from constantine. he's all bottled nerves, chaos and pent up anger and try as he might to say he's done with killing, it's a far cry to say that he's done with fighting. he's fed up that for every step forwards you're thrown - figuratively and literally - ten paces back. he's fucking tired of it too. and you know that five is heated when he takes a step forward, and pops in in front of john, in a blur of space time. all five foot something menace that he is. ] I was alone, in the goddamn end of the world, for forty-five years before I could even find any way back and stop it! [ a fact he never elected to share until now, really. his jaw clenches, and he shakes his head. ]

All I know if sitting on our asses isn't going to get us anywhere. So I'm not going to. [ there's a pointed finger wag, before he steps away, to pace across the room. ] And if this invisible It gets off on this? I don't care. Good! I hope it chokes on all the excitement!

It can't predict everything. And people are, by nature, unpredictable. We mess things up. All the time. [ speaking from experience as both a hargreeves, and a time assassin sent to kill anyone who got in the way of the time continuum. because he had to. because his family was on the line, and he would do it again every. single. time. ] We push, and push, until whatever it is makes. A fucking. Mistake.

[ there's a huff of breath, and he snatches the nearest bottle of alcohol in his reach to take a sip before wiping the sting off with his sleeve. ] You can do whatever it is that you want. But don't you dare tell me you're getting complacent.

[hellblaze]

[ john stays silent as he listens to the old man go off - and oh, does it sound like an old man. his experiences with his father were never good when the fights started. that's what you deserve, killer. you think you get it easy, killer?! every night or damn near it. so, part of him reflexively braces himself once the tone rises.

getting the hoorah go go speech isn't quite what he expected to get. he's used to people beating him down, berating him, making sure he feels like the lowest piece of shit on the face of the earth. which he'll never disagree with. he is. he lies, he cheats, he manipulates, he sacrifices things of people and sometimes the people if it's needed. oh, he never likes it. he never wants to - but he has to be the one to make the choices others won't. so, this hoorah go go speech? it hits in a way he isn't entirely expecting it to be uplifting in a way.

he waits until the pipsqueek old man is done. then, he raises his eyes and his eyebrows. he pushes himself to stand up and crosses the way to five. he holds the bottle of whiskey he had out -- a bit of a peace offering. ]

Maybe the mistake It made was bringing all of us here, yeah?

[fika]

[ five huffs out again, short of breath and aching, and has to brace a hand over his side to steady the rising, dull sort of pain. truly, an old man with broken ribs. another thing they have in common, it would seem.

five is a shit motivational speaker. probably, you would never want him to hype you up because the delivery will be harsh and quick, much like this one. and as for people beating you down? tell them to fuck off and move on.

john isn't the only one who has done terrible things for the sake of the end. the end always justifies the means. who better to know that than five?

but what's surprising is the resigned walk john takes towards him, and the bottle of whiskey offered out like a handshake. he snorts, and takes it. raises it in a short toast. ] You think?

[hellblaze]

[ oh, now there is a point. all his bruising on his ribs is open for everyone to see. some areas are yellow and black, others blue. a few places are red with the fact he keeps bloody moving and doing things he shouldn't be.

well, shit motivational speaking seems to have done some of the trick. for now anyways.

there's a nod to his toast. ]

End of the world, eh?

[fika]

[ yeah, john's ribcage is all out on display and he can't honestly say they look much worse or better than his.

maybe a little bit worse, which is surprising, given how hard he got flung into the cliffside. maybe he just stopped looking, because then he'd be a walking reminder, like john is.

it gets little comment otherwise, though. he isn't going to lecture someone who's very capable of making bad decisions all on his own. ] Yeah. A whole big, fat end.

[hellblaze]

[ at least five has the decency to sleep in some proper clothes to hide the wounds. zed already knows what they look like, so there's no shame in going to sleep with them on display. then again, he'd sleep in just his briefs anyways. ]

What was it like? Deserts for miles? Nuclear winter? Dystopians run amuck?

[fika]

[ five also has the poor habit of falling asleep in clothes that aren't his pj's. guess it's just about balance, between the two of them.

five doesn't answer right away, as though considering just how many choices there were in having to explain it. ] The first time? My sister destroyed the moon, which then hit the earth. [ is what he says in the end, conversational as he turns on his heel to slowly pace around the room, bottle handed off, and hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks. ] No one left, then.

The second time, it would have been a nuclear winter. We stopped both. As far as I'm aware. [ they were on their way back to check when he got dropped into this particular adventure. ]

[hellblaze]

Bloody hell.

[ that would definitely cause the end of the world. both times. well, lucky five. didn't have to worry about a two headed baby seal. hopefully. nuclear winter dreams were always a fun thing.

well, that deserves a story, doesn't it? one that's just as important. ]

Back home, I was blackmailed into helping Heavenly forces fight what they call the Rising Darkness. An old thing, predating when God turned the lights on. Had just gotten my feet out of the asylum to help a dear departed friend and then the feathered bastard swooped in. Dangled the idea of saving my damned soul of Hell if I helped him.

[fika]

[ lucky is relative. he wasn't looking for happy, and old worries were still replaced with new.

what john tells him is a little beyond him. god and heavenly forces and damnation and maybe that's him guarding himself from what he's done. maybe it's the distance of knowing constantine's realities were not his. they each had their shit pile to sift through.

still, its an interesting story. disquieting, but what else is new. ] And did you?

[hellblaze]

Of course I did. There's someone in Hell I owe - someone I need to save.

[ he frowns then and takes a drink of that luxurious amber. then a sigh as he looks down at the floor. he presses his lips together. ]

Haven't finished the fight either before I found myself in this bloody town.