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

Day 27 - later in the afternoon

[abrightboy]

Malcolm made his way to Town Hall, inspecting the bulletin board briefly and then poking around. Spotting John sitting in an office, he stepped into the room, glancing about.

"Heard you had a meeting yesterday. We were still... recovering. Anything interesting come up?"

He had a theory that they were all penned up for a couple of days so the being behind this place could change things or work on the town in some way. He'd been keeping his own eyes open; he just needed to know if anyone had observed any changes or anything that was odd. He was sorry he missed the chance to hear accounts first hand, but John seemed to be organizing the efforts. Maybe he'd remember something interesting.

[hellblaze]

Harvard Boy.

John glanced up long enough to confirm the voice to the mental nickname. Then, his attention went back to the knife and rock in his hand. It was a few more moments before he forced himself to say something in return. Just in case people started to get worried or what not.

"Having people write their oh so humbling experiences down in that ledger there. Take a look if you're going to lull about on your own time."

[abrightboy]

"So... nothing that really stood out for you, in particular?" Malcolm noted, turning the ledger towards him and perusing the page, then flipping to the previous one.

[hellblaze]

He raised his eyes up to Malcolm. There was a reason he exaggerated the fact that Malcolm asked thousands of questions. That, and honestly? John wasn't in the mood much to talk. There were rumbling emotions inside him from his encounter the night before. Ones that, if he acted like he normally would and just sulked with alcohol? He got called out on it. Instead, he'd just sit and stew over it and work on something.

His hands stilled. The slowly more pointed knife raised, pointing out the office and towards the bulletin board.

"Go take a gander at the wall for a bit. Tell me if that's something that stands out."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm watched him a moment, assessing.

“Is something wrong? You’re usually interested in the hashing out part of this.”

[hellblaze]

"Tired of this infuriating town and it pulling more new faces in."

A half-truth. It wasn't really a lie. He did feel like that. He was beyond tired and frustrated of Mathias and the situation of the town. Killing him? Oh, sure. He could take the hit. Going after Zed? That was low even for John Constantine's standards.

He wagged the knife in the still pointed direction.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm considered that.

“Do you feel like you’re responsible for them?” he asked, ignoring the waggling knife for the moment.

[hellblaze]

"What sort of bloody question is that? Really, mate." John rolled his eyes dramatically. "I see you're up to your usual round of five hundred questions. Guessing the last few days didn't miff with you much then."

At least that was a bit more of a normal reaction for John. Maybe it'd bring the other man some comfort and he'd stop trying to pry into things that John didn't particularly feel like sharing. Only one other person had seen his... loss of control. He'd rather keep it that way.

"Show up when people are telling us what's going on and you might have a few less questions on that list." John turned his attention back to the knife and began to sharpen it again.

[abrightboy]

“The last few days ‘miffed’ with me plenty, or I would have made it to the meeting,” Malcolm pointed out. “I just think it’s interesting that you pinpointed your distress in the arrival of new people as opposed to anything else that’s been going on. Unless that’s deflection,” he allowed. “You were in the mansion, right? With the keys and maps?”

[hellblaze]

There was a 'huh' at that. Well, to each their own, right? John just in a far more sour mood than normal. He didn't want to talk about it either. It was bad enough that Elena had to see the whole bloody thing.

"New faces keep bloody filtering in with no rhyme or reason. Don't you find that odd? Every few days, a few pockets of people. Makes you wonder if It ever has enough." John continued on. It was definitely a deflection in a way, but a worth while talking point. One he could breeze with as he worked. "Sounds about right. Your mate Raylan was there too."

[abrightboy]

"I... know he was there. That's how I know you were there," Malcolm explained with a slightly odd look. Raylan had told him, obviously.

He thought about John's remarks.

"They're ending up here the same way we did. Were you expecting them to hit a limit? Or to... have some sort of crisis of conscience that constrained them eventually?" he asked curiously.

[hellblaze]

"Hm."

John probably should of presumed that Raylan would of talked about the mansion. Honestly? He wasn't doing much detective work or thinking at the moment. Obvious things didn't stand out as important or relevant.

"You're so good at reading the room, Harvard. You tell me what I'm expecting It to act like."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm shrugged a shoulder.

"You're grumpier than usual, but I don't know enough about your activities to guess why that might be. Zed isn't missing again, right? She was in the boarding house with me the other day. You're favouring one side with the way you're sitting. Did you injure yourself?"

[hellblaze]

Well, he wondered how well Malcolm and Zed got a long. He couldn't imagine there was any bad blood or discomfort. Zed might not have been the most social bird in the house, but, she did know her way around conversations if she found herself in them. He knew she preferred to not throw herself into social situations unless she felt there was a need.

"Here I thought my cracked ribs weren't a secret." He offered his inquiry with a quip. He twirled the knife in his hand before sharpening the other side.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm snorted. "Yeah, it's weird I wouldn't know that, considering how close we are," he noted dryly. "Did you crack them the same way Five did?"

[hellblaze]

"No idea how Five did it, the knob-head that he can be." His head tilted as he continued to move the knife along the rock. The tone was fond. He cared about Five - the old man after his own heart! "Had a tussle with our shadowed Stranger when he was in town. Fair to say I lost that exchange."

[abrightboy]

"Five did it trying to cross the chasm," Malcolm told him. "Did you actually make contact with the Shadow Man?" he asked with great interest. "Or did they hit you trying to cross?"

[hellblaze]

"That bloody fucking knob-head."

The statement sounded hoarse and crude, but, it came from a place of concern. Five and Klaus were good men. Some of the ones he trusted the most in the town. He sighed and leaned back in his chair and shook his head. Well, that might explain why Five had a bit of fire under his arse back at the mansion.

"My magic did. I didn't."

[abrightboy]

“Yeah; he stayed on our couch that night, until Klaus came to collect him.”

He considered John, like he could figure out the answer by examining him, but in the end he asked.

“How did your magic touch him? Like some kind of super long magic finger?”

[hellblaze]

"You've seen a fireball on those tv shows or comic books. Something like that." John shrugged as if it had been the easiest thing in the world (it really wasn't). "Next was trying to compel the ground to move under him. That was when he sent me a few feet back."

It was more than a few feet and it had knocked him out cold and hard.

[abrightboy]

“He didn’t want to talk, huh? We built a bridge that could reach, but we talked Raylan out of crossing it after what happened to Five. It didn’t seem reasonably safe,” Malcolm told him.

[hellblaze]

"I don't think he would of talked to us at all, mate." John held the knife up to inspect his work. "Suppose our good Marshal has just gotten to the point where he's ready to do things he shouldn't get to get answers. Dangerous place to be."

[abrightboy]

"Well, Raylan wanted to try a different approach. Something... friendlier. But he didn't try it. He stepped back after we said we thought it wasn't safe. It was maybe more out of a concern for us than himself, but. It stopped him."

And he didn't get buried at the bottom of the chasm, under the bridge, by a flick of the Shadow Man's hand like in his subsequent nightmares.

"Rey was found dead in the snow. Did you know her? No signs of external trauma. She might have died of exposure but... there were buildings she could have gone into for shelter nearby."

[hellblaze]

There was a shrug then. He supposed that meant deep down that Raylan wanted to, but thought better of it when it came down to those around him. Decisions being made when maybe they should of been made otherwise. Pushing the boundaries. Those were things that John did, but, he didn't expect anyone else to do it.

"Met her once." John glanced down but continued to work at the knife. "Assuming she wanted to take shelter. People do stupid things when they're caught in a rat trap. Or, maybe... she just got caught up in something else and they dumped her in the snow."

[abrightboy]

“Like who? The shadow people?” His eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re not suggesting one of the other people stuck here with us is a killer?”